Archive: Arts & Entertainment

CU Jazz Photo by Rachel Philipson
The Cornell Department of Music announces its spring semester lineup of concerts and events. Throughout the term, numerous festivals and symposia provide opportunities to delve into a variety of musical topics through the interaction of performance and scholarship, including a commemoration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday February 13-16 ; a celebration of Robert Moog and electronic music March 5-7; the return of A. D. White Professor-at-Large Wynton Marsalis for the premiere of his new work for Wind Symphony March 20; The Whale Listening Project marking the 50th anniversary of the multi-platinum recording Songs of the Humpback Whale April 16-18; plus a multitude of performances by guest artists, faculty, and students, ranging from music of the Renaissance to the sounds of tomorrow.

The semester begins with another such festival; Ithaca Sounding 2020 is a multi-day, multi-venue festival and symposium celebrating, exploring, and questioning the traditions of modernist and experimental concert music by Ithacans past and present. It features keyboard works by composers Julius Eastman, Sarah Hennies, Robert Palmer, Ann Silsbee, and David Borden. Connecting and mediating the themes of music in the academy, marginalized art, improvisational performance practice, and queer experimentalism, this interdisciplinary series of events probes the creative and personal histories of some of Ithaca’s most renowned musical personae with concerts, workshops, talks, presentations, and readings.

Featured presenters include musicologists Sara Haefeli (Ithaca College), Ellie Hisama (Columbia), and Matthew Mendez (Yale). Featured performers include the acclaimed New York City pianists Joseph Kubera, Adam Tendler, and Cornell alumnus David Friend, the Ithacan composer and percussionist Sarah Hennies, and festival coordinator and pianist Richard Valitutto, a DMA performance practice student in the Cornell Music Department. Events take place at Cornell, Ithaca College, and Buffalo Street Books from January 30-February 2.

Thursday, January 30
Concert 1: Midday Music: In Search of Robert Palmer, a solo piano lecture-recital by Adam Tendler
12:30pm
Lincoln Hall B20

Workshop: Decolonizing the Curriculum with Sara Haefeli
4:30pm
Lincoln Hall 124

Concert 2: Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract
Richard Valitutto plays Sarah Hennies’s hour-long work SOVT (2017) for solo prepared piano
7:00pm
Johnson Museum Lobby

Friday, January 31
Panel: Listening Locally: Intersectionality and Contemporary Music, a discussion on festival themes with Ellie Hisama, Matthew Mendez, Frederick Cruz Nowell, and Isaac Jean-François
10:00am-12:00pm
Lincoln Hall 124

Lecture: “A Persistent Obsession with Identity” with composer and percussionist Sarah Hennies, hosted by Sara Haefeli
5:00pm
Ithaca College, Whalen Center for Music, Iger Lecture Hall

Concert 3: Letters, Stories, and Journeys for 1 & 2 Pianos, solos and duos by Julius Eastman, Ann Silsbee, David Borden, and Robert Palmer
8:00pm
Barnes Hall

Saturday, February 1
Lecture: Julius Eastman’s Heterological Perspectives and Queer Practices, paper presentations by Ellie Hisama (Columbia) and Matthew Mendez (Yale)
10am-12pm
Lincoln Hall B21

Concert 4: “That Which is Fundamental”: Julius Eastman works for 4 pianos, performed by Joseph Kubera, Adam Tendler, David Friend, and Richard Valitutto
2:00pm
Lincoln Hall B20

Concert 5: Festival Finale | Julius Eastman: Joy Boy / Femenine — preconcert lecture at 6pm by Ellie Hisama
7:00pm
Ithaca College Hockett Hall

Sunday, February 2
Reading: Poems and Memoirs by Musicians (who also Write), poems by Ann Silsbee and memoirs of David Borden and Adam Tendler
12pm-2pm
Buffalo Street Books


Additional concerts from January 25-February 5 include:

Saturday, January 25
The Glee Club and Chorus return from their concert tour of the Pacific Northwest, performing a selection of repertoire for the Ithaca community.
3:00pm
First Presbyterian Church

Sunday, February 2
Fourth Annual Ithaca Big Band Summit, featuring performances by the Ithaca College Jazz Ensemble, Cornell Jazz Ensemble, and Ithaca High School Jazz Ensemble. Directors Mike Titlebaum, Paul Merrill, and Michael Treat.
2:00pm
Ford Hall

Wednesday, February 5
Midday Music for Organ: David Yearsley and Annette Richards: “Sounding Mean c. 1600,” music in meantone, including works by Sweelinck and Byrd on the Vicedomini organ.
12:30pm
Sage Chapel

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