Archive: Arts & Entertainment

For the first time in more than 60 years, the music of J. S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion will fill Cornell's Bailey Hall. The masterwork performance will utilize the combined talents of the Cornell University Glee Club and Chorus, orchestral musicians from NYS Baroque, and six internationally-renowned vocal soloists, including tenor Rufus Müller, who is regarded in the press as one of the world's finest interpreters of the Evangelist role. Additional soloists are Melissa Attebury, mezzo-soprano; Lucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano; Dann Coakwell, tenor; Marc Webster, bass; and Matt Boehler, bass. The concert takes place Saturday, May 5 at 7:30pm.

Ithaca's Kitchen Theatre Company is partnering with NYC's Daughters of Troy to produce a reading of Natural Shocks, a new play by Lauren Gunderson on April 21st at 4 pm. The show, based on Hamlet's "To be or not to be," follows a woman waiting out an imminent tornado in her basement, and grappling with the reality of gun violence. The reading at the Kitchen, directed by Aubrey Saverino and featuring Brooke M. Haney, is one of over 50 that are happening all over the country that weekend, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine attack. Tickets are a suggested donation and all proceeds will be donated to The Advocacy Center in Tompkins County.

Lauren M. Gunderson, the most produced playwright in America of 2017, has created this campaign of theater activism against gun violence. "I was a junior in high school when Columbine happened in 1999 and it spurred me into activism instantly," Gunderson said. "Use this play to start conversations, to build networks of support, to gather people and give them some place to go to congregate and say enough. We are the undeniable force of nature that will light up this darkness and change it forever."

In the not-so-distant future, survivors of a global nuclear disaster band together in grassroots theatrical troupes. For the characters of "Mr. Burns, a post-electric play" by Anne Washburn, it's not entertainment at stake, but survival: theirs is a reality in which remembered dialogue from "The Simpsons" is traded as currency, and where pop songs and commercial parodies provide the only emotional connections to a world that no longer exists.

"'Mr. Burns' is dark, witty, and powerful. It is the type of show that lingers," says Kilburn.

The Cornell Chorale performs on Friday, April 27 at 8:00pm in Sage Chapel. The concert highlight will be Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, planned to coincide with the celebration of his 100th birthday. Director Stephen Spinelli selected the work, one of Bernstein's largest and most beloved choral pieces, to honor his impact on conducting, composition, and overall music-making. Organist Anna Steppler and the Cornell Percussion Ensemble join forces with the Chorale on the Bernstein, with Steppler also opening the concert with Ralph Vaughan Williams' Suite of English Folk Songs and the Percussion Ensemble performing a work inspired by the painter Paul Klee. Spinelli will showcase the ensemble's diversity by featuring a trio of folk songs taught and conducted by students in the Chorale, with each piece coming from the native country of the representative student conductor.

Civic Ensemble's ReEntry Theatre Program presents its third production with 'Streets Like This', a full-length play written collaboratively by Thom Dunn and AC Sidle with members of ReEntry Theatre Program. Material comes from the real lives and imaginations of participants of the program. The play was created in weekly sessions over the past year and in rehearsals this spring. Sarah K. Chalmers, who facilitates the entire program and leads the sessions, directs this production, supported by assistant director Gabriella Carr, who is also producing this show.

'Streets Like This' introduces audiences to sit with Deon and Dennis, two local men getting up there in age. Deon is black, Dennis is white; both are worn out from past convictions, dysfunctional institutions, and the preventable deaths of loved ones. From their stoop, watch Crystal, Abby, and Brian struggle with their diverse obstacles and mistakes while stuck in the United States' broken criminal justice system. Deon and Dennis narrate the stories of these three and other characters navigating the perils of real life and their own demons while dealing with the consequences of probation, incarceration, parole, and court-ordered rehabilitation. 'Streets Like This', based on true stories, travels from the Meadow Street Mobil to Social Services offices and the curb outside Day Reporting to their own workplaces and homes. The play offers no single solution but rather brings you into their worlds. As Deon says, "But maybe next time, you'll do more than turn your heads away as you toss some spare change in their cups."

The Cherry Arts is partnering with Ithaca College Jewish Studies and Ithaca College Department of Theatre Arts to present a staged reading of Something That Belongs To You by Roald Hoffmann, directed by Beth F. Milles. The piece will be performed twice: on Sunday, April 15 at 6:00pm at Ithaca College (Clark Lounge, Campus Center), and on Tuesday, April 17 at 7:00pm at The Cherry Artspace (102 Cherry Street) on Ithaca's West End. The readings are free and open to the public; no reservations are required. Doors will open 30 minutes prior to the performance. A post-show talkback with the playwright will be held on both evenings.

Hoffmann is Cornell University's Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Emeritus, and he received the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is also a published poet and playwright. Something That Belongs To You is an autobiographical play based on his experiences as a Holocaust survivor in a part of Poland that is now Ukraine.

There was nothing small about Queen.  The band's and all it's music was assertive, bombastic, larger than life.  And there is nothing large or bombastic about a ukulele.

Or so you would think.  The audacity of Jake Shimabukuro when he not only played Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen's hugest signature song, on the uke, but make it an audience singalong... well you would think it was a classic case of the little musical instrument with a Napoleon complex.  But that is not what happened Wednesday during the famed ukulele artist's encore.  Like everything else he plays, it was entrancing, fun, larger than life, and exciting.  And, I must say, the audience in the center section rocked it, too.

The Hangar Theatre was Wednesday's stop on a tour that takes Shimabukuro across the United States to about 25 venues.  If you have heard him on NPR, or downloaded his albums, you already know that he does with only four strings what it often takes an entire orchestra to do.  That is not hyperbole.  His hands moved so fast over the ukulele Wednesday that all you could see was a blur, and the sound was heavenly.

Kitchen Theatre Company continues its 2017-2018 Season with the world premiere of Brawler by Walt McGough, a play about pro sports and what it means to be a hero, produced in collaboration with Boston Playwrights' Theatre. Performances of Brawler begin at the Kitchen Theatre Company in The Percy Browning Performance Space on April 8 and run through April 22.

Brawler centers on Adam, once the scariest man in the NHL. Now he's down in the minors and high on pills, and he just trashed the Dunkin' Donuts Center locker room. His friends need to talk him down before he gets into trouble, but he's got his own agenda and is spoiling for one last fight. Brawler is a modern-day riff on Sophocles' Ajax, seen through the lens of the last true gladiator sport.

Ithaca Reggae Fest, dedicated to the protection of Cayuga Lake through a vibrant celebration of Ithaca's legendary reggae community and its history, announced its return to Ithaca June 22 through 24, 2018.

Following the success of last year's inaugural event, the festival will expand to a weekend long celebration with official events throughout the city, including The Haunt and Ithaca Beer Co., with the main event on Saturday returning to beautiful Stewart Park. The second annual festival is pleased to showcase international legends Clinton Fearon & Boogie Brown Band, Sister Carol and The Meditations alongside regional reggae stalwarts Double Tiger, Mosaic Foundation, Big Mean Dub Machine, Kevin Kinsella, Thousands of One, Root Shock, Crucial Reggae Social Club, Fall Creek Brass Band, DJ Kamau Preston and more.

Award-winning artist Brian Keeler exhibits a selection of his landscapes celebrating the return of Spring to this beloved region of the Northeast at the The North Star Art Gallery. The show begins with the Open Studio Reception on April 7th from 11am to 4pm, with regular gallery hours Friday-Sunday.

The delight that comes from a visit to this exhibition is the heightened sensitivity to viewing our beautiful countryside after seeing it through the artist's eye. The rural landscapes glow in the varied sunlight on houses, streets and landscape elements.

The Fine Arts Booster Group, an affiliate of the Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI), announced summer music scholarships awarded through the Rella and Barney Cohn Music Scholarship Fund. Established by Abby Cohn in memory of her parents and in honor of the excellent music education available in the Ithaca City School District (ICSD), the fund will provide more than five music scholarships for summer study through the Ithaca Youth Bureau (IYB) Summer Band and Orchestra Program. The Rella and Barney Cohn Music Scholarship Fund is administered by IPEI with assistance from the Fine Arts Booster Group (FABG) and the IYB.

Michael W. Allen, Director of the IYB Summer Music Program, noted, "The scholarships are a gift from their daughter to the youth in our community.  I am very thankful for these scholarships that allow students who might not otherwise be able to participate in the Summer Bands and Orchestra at Cornell University's Lincoln Hall. It's a great opportunity to be part of this special program."

This fall, platinum selling rock band X Ambassadors will return to their hometown of Ithaca, NY, hosting two nights of outdoor concerts as part of a city wide weeklong festival. Cayuga Sound Festival is set to take place September 21-22 at historic Stewart Park, and other local venues, in Ithaca, NY.

Presented by X Ambassadors, This Fiction and DSP Shows, the second annual Cayuga Sound Festival will include performances by X Ambassadors, Young the Giant, Matt & Kim, Sofi Tukker, Talib Kweli, Buddy, Morgxn and several more acts to be announced soon. The festival will also feature some of the top local and regional artists including KNEW, No Comply and Lady D & the Shadow Spirits and more to come. A portion of the proceeds will benefit local non-profits TBA. Last year these donations totaled nearly $50,000.00.