By Mary Solomon
Post and Courier Reviewer

For an hour and a half of unsurpassed chamber music, the Circular Congregational Church was the place to be Wednesday night.

Part of the Spotlight Concert Series, Ensemble Argos played the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gabriel Faure, and Robert Schumann.

Members of the Greenville-based piano quartet are Mellasenah Edwards, violin; Christina Placilla, viola; Kenneth Law, cello; and Stephen Buck, piano. The ensemble was formed in 2007 but perform as if it has been together longer. Individually, they came with impeccable credentials and have played both solo and chamber music around the world.

For an opener, they chose to play one movement, the Allegro, from Mozart’s ‘G minor Piano Quartet.’ Their playing exhibited the liquid, fluid smoothness of Mozart.

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Tags: 2009, andante cantabile, argos, c minor, Charleston, circular congregational church, courier reviewer, ensemble sound, festival, fluid smoothness, g minor, gabriel faure, impeccable credentials, mary solomon, member ensemble, music around the world, piano quartet, plaintive melody, playful mood, post and courier, robert schumann, Spoleto, well deserved break, wolfgang amadeus mozart

By Loretta Haskell
Post and Courier Reviewer

The life of Jackson Pollock, as well as his contribution to twentieth century abstract expressionist art, is rich in material for anyone interested into delving into the creative mind and lifestyle. The Contemporary Theatre Lab premiered Richard Rashke’s ‘Season to Season’ last night at the Footlight Players Theatre and offered us yet another perspective of the famous painter’s life and work.

Actors Kristen Kos as Lee Krasner, JC Conway as Jackson Pollock, Linda Eisen as Peggy Guggenheim, David Abrams as Harold and Jacqualine Helmer as Stella Pollock, performed ‘Season to Season’ in a strong opening performance.

Making art is never easy and ‘Season to Season’ addresses the various personalities and interpersonal dynamics that are a part of the process. Condensing the lives of five very complicated people is not an easy task and Rashke has taken a very strong point of view in his writing of this play. The responsibility for the ensemble to do it justice in the two-hour running time is an even greater responsibility.

The Contemporary Theatre Lab is a new local company and just beginning to experiment locally as an ensemble with repertoire. With more time working together, a dedicated rehearsal and performance space, and the opportunity to workshop different repertoire, it promises to be a relevant new theatre lab in Charleston.

‘Season to Season’ will be performed again today at 9 p.m., on Friday at 5 p.m., and on Saturday at 6 p.m. Note that this performance contains adult language.

Tags: abstract expressionist, adult language, Charleston, contemporary theatre, courier reviewer, creative mind, david abrams, expressionist art, famous painter, festival, footlight players, helmer, interpersonal dynamics, jackson pollock, jacqualine, lee krasner, local company, loretta haskell, peggy guggenheim, performance space, post and courier, Spoleto, strong point

BY ROBERT BEHRE

The Post and Courier

John Kennedy, director of the Spoleto Festival’s Music in Time series aims to give audiences a taste of the full breadth of full sense of modern music, so it’s shouldn’t be all that surprising that today’s concert features cows.

The bovines won’t be on stage, but a taped recording of them — and excerpts from the speech of their Utah owner —features prominently in Phillip Bimstein’s work, ‘Garland Hirsch’s Cows.’

It’s perhaps the most easily enjoyable and accessible pieces in the series, which highlights music composed mostly within the past few decades.

‘It’s an oral history piece sort of turned into music,’ Kennedy explains. The musicians on stage play over a recorded tract of both the cows and Hirsch’s speech. Kennedy will don headphones that have a click tract to ensure everyone remains at the right tempo.

The piece was the breakthrough work of Bimstein, a composer who has made headlines not only for his music but for serving two terms as mayor of Springdale, Utah.

Bimstein’s work has never been performed at Spoleto before, and Kennedy is glad for a chance to change that. His aim is to offer as much diversity within the new music while working within the practical confines of musicians’ availability, rehearsal schedules, and the other works in the series.

This year’s first three Music in Time concerts featured the post-minimalism movement, altered intonation, and the fusion of classical musical cultures.

Today’s final one — 5 p.m. at the College of Charleston’s Simons Center Recital Hall — highlights new technologies, or what Kennedy calls ‘laptop music.’

In addition to the cows, the first Bimstein juxtaposes the meows of his household cats with the sounds of the kitchen, such as the sound of opening a can of cat food. The second work, ‘Half Moon at Checkerboard Mesa,’ explores the sounds of Western critters at night.

‘These three pieces in particular, I think, are among Phillip’s most gregarious,’ Kennedy says, ‘and they’re all different. It’s a nice representation of the breadth of his work.’

The concert begins with a work by Scandinavian composer Per Norgard, whose work also hasn’t been performed here before. ‘I Ching’ is a solo percussion piece performed by Eric Shin. ‘He’s a phenomenal musician,’ Kennedy says of Shin. ‘It’s a huge investment of energy on his part because it’s an extremely complex and difficult piece… sort of an exploration of cause and effect.’

Kennedy’s chamber offerings in Music in Time are more modern and experimental than the Chamber Music, but he sees a kinship with how they go about their work.

‘Charles was a pioneer, even though he was working with the vast, traditional repertoire,’ Kennedy says, ‘I’ve always cast myself as a bit of a crusader — I don’t know if that’s the word —as an advocate. It’s not enough to just put on the concert in contemporary music. One has to advocate for it in ways that are communicative for the audience. So Charles being the great communicator, there’s much to learn from him.’

Tags: behre, bovines, breakthrough work, center recital hall, checkerboard mesa, College of Charleston, concert features, half moon, household cats, laptop music, meows, musical cultures, phillip bimstein, post and courier, rehearsal schedules, right tempo, simons center, spoleto festival, springdale utah, stage play

By Mary Solomon
Post and Courier Reviewer
Adda Kridler and her violin took our breath away at yesterday’s Early Music Series concert at First (Scots) Presbyterian Church.
Bach’s Partitas for solo violin are not everyone’s cup of tea, but Kridler attracted a sizable and appreciative audience for her performance as she played some of the greatest works written for solo violin.
Unlike sonatas, which usually have three movements: fast, slow and fast, the partitas, more often than not, have five or even more movements.
Partita 2 opened her concert and was made up of five sections: “Allemanda,” “Corrente,” “Sarabanda,” “Giga” and “Chaconne.” The “Chaconne” was the most famous of these. It’s a long (15 minute) theme and variation movement which she played very well indeed.
The music of Partita 3 is much more familiar and opened with a well-known “Preludio.” It’s a fast, whirlwind of a piece which she handled with a maturity not evidenced by her age. The second part is a slower, tuneful “Loure”.
“Gavotte”, “Menuet 1”, “Menuet 2” and “Bouree” were followed by the closing “Gigue”. They were all bright, crisp and cleanly played, but it was the “Gigue” that left her audience gasping for breath.
Kridler is a young violinist of remarkable talent. She plays with an outstanding technique, obviously enjoys what she does, and has excellent stage presence. Her performance brought heavy and insistent applause, a standing ovation, yells from supporters for more, and a bouquet of flowers. We will probably hear a lot more from  this young soloist who made her debut at Piccolo yesterday.

Tags: review

Let’s all thank our lucky stars that the record industry suits who somehow, dumfoundingly, became the gatekeepers of musical taste, are being brought low by streaming audio and mp3. Now Let the Monsters Be Unleashed! with Jake Shimabukuro in front, whose little ukelele would have the suits relegate him to the bargain-bin with Tiny Tim.

Holed up in his room with his tiny axe and all the vinyl an omnivore can consume, behold, Shimabukuro has reinvented the sweet, humble little Hawai’ian oddity and made it flirt and rage, burn and sob, yearn and laugh its way from flamenco to koto to Zeppelin. We wouldn’t know of him except for You Tube.

As he charmingly confides, he’s never anxious as a performer because when people hear ‘ukelele,’ their expectations will be low. As humble and beguiling as his instrument, Shimabukuro did just enough explaining to shape his musical adventure for us-from-whom-music-still-keeps-its-secrets. He says he doesn’t dance, but maybe just not-with-anyone-but-his-ukelele, for which he will bend, throb, and sway like any rock-star in his passion for the sound.

Go, fall over the edge with Jake Shimabukuro and be uplifted.

Tags: Jake Shimabukuro, Music, ukelele, yo-yo ma, youtube

Rodney Lee Rogers performs The Gentleman Pirate at the Powder Magazine.

Tags: photos, Piccolo Spoleto 2009, Powder Magazine, PURE Theatre, Rodney Lee Rogers, The Gentleman Pirate, theater

Bluesman Jeff Norwood playing his Delta Blues and Hill Country Stomp from his latest CD entitled “Awendaw” at the Mad River Bar & Grille.

Tags: Early Bird Blues, Jeff Norwood, Music, Piccolo Spoleto 2009

Tired of seeing the same old gestures at the mic? The pumping hand, the closed eyes, the back-and-forth-with-the-head thing? Do the routine cadence, super-fast delivery, overemphasis on rhyme take you out of the pleasures of verse and into boredom? Has the uniformed tyranny of slam-approved themes become tedious? Take heart, spoken-word lovers, there is another way!

Kurt Lamkin showed us how last night at EBay, invigorating the medium with imagination, personal verve, and humanity. His recital was a progression of themes interwoven with songs, stories, and–fascinatingly–poems-within-poems. He began with the obligatory sex poem, transformed into a captivating call-and-response, that became a metaphor for the audience courted by the poet and invited to transcend.

There followed a thrilling meditation on the power of language as the infant acquires it, a celebration of the generative feminine principle , and a rare performance of the splendid ‘Fox’s Manifesto,’ based on a first-hand account of the Soweto uprising.

And all this, without the usual masterful cora-performance, showing us that Lamkin is just as good unplugged, and maybe even more intense. When he was finished, we were electrified, transformed from brow-beaten wage-slaves into the miraculous phenomena we are.

Slam poets, there is light, at the cafe’s rear exit! Follow the light!

Tags: poetry performance lamkin "mondy night blues"

“Louise” opera dress rehearsal

I sat in the darkened Gaillard Auditorium, watching Conductor Emmanuel Villaume warming up his orchestra. His rapid arm movements seemed to flow naturally, and I was impressed by how the orchestra could follow them. As I have no musical talent, other than playing a few melodies on a keyboard, I sat stunned at the coordination and experience it took to command such a large group of musicians.
Last night, I attended the dress rehearsal for Gustave Charpentier’s “Louise” at the Gaillard Auditorium. When the curtain rose, I was expecting to be sitting through three hours of “boring” opera, reading subtitles. I had never been to an opera before, other than hearing a few examples of it in my 16 years of life, and expected my ears to be bleeding by the end of the night. What I saw and heard, was completely the opposite of horrible. Read the rest of this entry »

THIS JUST IN:

Cellist Louise Dubin performs TWO RECITALS June 2 and June 3 in this year’s Piccolo Spoleto festival.

June 2:  RECITAL, Tuesday, 7 pm, First Baptist Sanctuary, 48 Meeting Street, Downtown.  (843) 722-3896 x10.  Featuring spiritually uplifting organ-cello works performed by cellist Louise Dubin and organist Stephen Distad as part of Spoleto’s Festival of Churches. Program includes works by Saint-Saens, Faure, Bruch, Bach, and others, also features Andrew Armstrong and Regina Helcher-Yost.  Free parking, suggested donation $10.

June 3:  RECITAL, Wednesday, 5 pm, Bishop-Gadsden Chapel. 1 Bishop Gadsden Way, James Is, Charleston, (843) 406-6300.  CSO Principal Cellist Louise Dubin and concert pianist Andrew Armstrong will play a recital of masterworks including Brahms F Major Sonata, Chopin Introduction and Polonaise, and others.  Free admission & parking.

Tags: Add new tag, cellist, Dubin, Louise