June 2017 Music Event in NYC: Jazz & CHIHULY at New York Botanical Garden

June 2017 Music Event in NYC: Jazz & CHIHULY at New York Botanical Garden

Catskill Jazz Factory presents The French Connection on Friday, June 16, 2017

June 2017 Music Event in NYC: Jazz & CHIHULY at New York Botanical Garden
Camille Bertault; photo by Arthur Wollenweber

Mixing dynamism of American jazz with melodic French chanson and European swing on the scenic Conservatory Lawn of  New York Botanical Garden will surely be a night to remember!  The concert brings together a world-class ensemble of musicians with Alphonso Horne on trumpet and Camille Bertault, vocals. 

Alphonso Horne is a two-time Grammy nominated trumpeter recognized as a rising star of the next generation of musicians. Camille Bertault is not only a sensational vocalist but is also known for composing and writing. The French Connection concert will include a range of music spanning over four decades of jazz from hot rhythms of Django Reinhardt to the playful popular songs.

The concert is presented by Catskilll Jazz Factory , an innovative educational and performance art community. Friday June 16, 2017 performance is part of the summer concert program Jazz & CHIHULY at the NYBG. The program takes place during CHIHULY installation at NYBG and allows for viewing the glass sculptures lit after sunset. You can book your tickets here.

 

Venue: New York Botanical Garden, NY                                               Time: Friday, June 16, 2017 at 6pm 

 

Beyond NYC: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival at Boscobel in Garrison, NY

Beyond NYC: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival at Boscobel in Garrison, NY

2017 Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival June 8 – Sept 4: Rehearsals begin

If you are a theater fan with a particular taste for shakespearian plays think about visiting Garrison, NY. There at Boscobel mansion, a historical landmark restored from the Federal-era house and the Beaux-Arts gardens and grounds 60 miles north from New York City, the Hudson Valley Festival theater company will perform starting from June 8, 2017.  The rehearsals have just began! Take a look at what is going on behind the scene here:

We’ve been hard at work putting a brand new system in place that will make your experience of buying HVSF tickets faster and easier. On Wednesday, March 15, you’ll get the chance to try it out when tickets go on sale to the public!

via It’s almost time for tickets! — Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival

Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival at Boscobel in Garrison, NY

Long before the Theater Tent is erected on the edge of the Hudson, our acting company gathers in New York City to begin the rehearsal process — memorizing lines, developing their characters, reviewing sets and costumes with designers, meeting staff and supporters, and more. Go behind the scenes with our 2017 company! Photos by Ashley Garrett.

via First Look: 2017 Rehearsals Begin — Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival

This year Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival program includes Twelfth Night and Love’s Labor’s Lost by W. Shakespeare, Pride and Prejudice adapted from Jane Austen, The Book of Will by Lauren Gunderson and The General from America by Richard Nelson.

Plan to arrive early to enjoy the gardens and the scenery of Hudson river and its Highlands.

Venue: Boscobel House and Gardens, Garrison, NY                2017 HVSF Dates: June 8 – September 4

Beyond NYC: Celebrating 100 Years of Jazz History with Catskill Jazz Factory at Fisher Center, Bard College, NY

Beyond NYC: Celebrating 100 Years of Jazz History with Catskill Jazz Factory at Fisher Center, Bard College, NY 

May 13, 2017, Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY 

Beyond NYC: Celebrating 100 Years of Jazz History with Catskill Jazz Factory at Fisher Center, Bard College, NY
Catskill Jazz Factory

An innovative educational and performance art community Catskilll Jazz Factory is celebrating 100 years of jazz history from it’s folk roots to american classics like Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. The program brings together bandleader Chris Washburn on trombone, Brazilian pianist Andre Mehnari , vocalist/composer Sarah Elizabeth Charles, clarinetist Evan Christopher and friends.

The event will take place at the picturesque town of Annandale-on-Hudson, NY at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Art which is located on the campus of a picturesque Bard College. Bard College is well known for its rigorous and diverse art education program and best in class roster of summer performances in upstate NY. Only two hours away from hustle and bustle of New York City, the campus is sufficiently insulated for full concentration and study, yet affords a convenience of being accessible via train connection to the city.

The Richard B. Fisher Center is an architectural jewel in itself being designed by Frank Gehry and hosting a multitude of adventurous programs at the world class facilities.

For tickets click here.

Venue: Richard B. Fisher Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY       Date&Time: Saturday, May 13, 2017 at 8pm 

Places to eat around Bard College.

Art Event in NYC: Seurat’s Circus Slideshow at the Met Museum

Art Event in NYC: Seurat’s Circus Slideshow at the Met Museum 

On view till May 29, 2017

Art Event: Seurat's Circus Slideshow at the Met Museum
From the exhibition: Circus Slideshow, G. Seurat, 1887-1888

Feel the energy of festive crowd, hear the noise of excitement, become part of Paris street fair at the end of 19th century! This is the experience of the exhibition at the Met Museum about the saltimbanques, street performers, who were a well known presence on the cities’ streets around Europe. The musicians, the acrobats, the clowns – they are all there with all their glory and misery.

The title painting in the show is a great masterpiece by Georges Seurat “Parade de Cirque” complemented by many more works on the subject of street shows and circus performances. Seurat’s oeuvre is represented by two paintings and 16 conte crayon drawings. Those are shown alongside the works of Seurat’s contemporaries such as Fernand Pelez, Louis Hayet, Honoré Daumier among others. The stunning and subtle “Parade de Cirque” is contrasted by the naturalistic depiction of saltimbangues in Perez’s “Grimaces and Misery—The Saltimbanques” from Petit Palais in Paris. Other works in this exhibition are the lithographs and posters of Corvi Cirque, street scenes, and even a drypoint by Rembrandt from 1655. The selection of material and the storyline of the show presents the viewer with multiple angles of street life mixing highs and lows of that time.

The New York Times review calls “Seurat’s Circus Slideshow” at the Met Museum “an enthralling exhibition”.

Venue: The Met Museum on Fifth Avenue        Time: till May 29, 2017

Beyond NY: Bill Viola at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC and Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy

Beyond NY: Bill Viola at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC and at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy

Bill Viola at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC “‘Bill Viola: The Moving Portrait’—the National Portrait Gallery’s first exhibition entirely devoted to media art—offers a new interpretation of the work of the pioneering video artist as a career-long experimentation with portraiture. Since the early 1970s, Viola has been recognized for his groundbreaking and masterful use of video technologies, creating poetic works that explore the spiritual and perceptual side of human experience and search for […]

via Bill Viola: The Moving Portrait at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, through May 7, 2017 — Arts Summary

Another installation of Bill Viola’s revolutionary work is going on now half a world away at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy.  This exhibition is centered on the comparison of Viola’s films and the classical works that served as the inspirations for them.  One of those comparisons is between newly restored work by Jacopo Pontormo‘s “Visitation” (1528-9) and Viola’s “The Greeting” (1995).

Florence has a particular place in Viola’s career as he first visited the city right after graduating from the Syracuse University, NY. He came there to connect with the vibrant contemporary art scene and joined the art/tapes/22 studio founded by the video producer Maria Gloria Bicocchi. For this year installation of Viola’s work the city of Florence is going out of its way with concurrent shows of his work at the Uffizi galleries, the Santa Maria Novella Church Museum, and in the freshly refurbished museum of the city’s famous Duomo Cathedral.

The FT points out that “Viola’s art, as it returns” to Florence, “close to the sources of its inspiration, seems to have acquired an extra layer of meaning.”

 

Venue: Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC                      Time: till May 7, 2017

Venue: Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy                                                                 Time: till July 23, 2017