SUNY New Paltz Presidential Inauguration Provides Festive Spotlight for Arts
NEW PALTZ — Stars of Broadway’s AIDA Celebrate SUNY New Paltz
Jazz Legend Roswell Rudd MALIcool “a bold musical statement” -Elliot Simon, All About Jazz
Acclaimed Dance Company PerksDanceMusicTheatre “Wildly connected darkly imaginative.” – Jennifer Dunning, NY Times Dance Critic
Art Auction Fundraiser featuring Antiques Roadshow Appraiser
Images and additional information is available on the Web at http://www.newpaltz.edu/inauguration
To complement the ceremonies honoring the inauguration of Steven G. Poskanzer as Seventh President of State University of New York at New Paltz, the School of Fine & Performing Arts has created Inauguration Arts Week, April 13-17, 2004. Performances by Broadway stars, an international jazz legend, and an acclaimed dance company are just three of more than 20 events open to campus and community members alike.
Stars of the Broadway cast of Aida make a special trip to the college to perform selections from the Tony Award winning smash-hit musical featuring music and lyrics by Sir Elton John and Tim Rice. Recognized as some of the hottest talent on Broadway, these performers are sure to captivate. Thursday, April 15th, at 2:00 p.m. Julien J. Studley Theatre. Free. Ticket required, call 257-3880.
Studley Theatre will be suffused with a rhythmic synthesis of West African music and American blues performed by jazz legend Roswell Rudd and Mamadou Diabate. Trombonist Roswell Rudd and Malian kora musician Mamadou Diabate collaborated on the compact disc MALIcool which garnered tremendously positive reviews in the jazz world. The group recently performed to sold out houses at St. Ann’s Warehouse in New York City’s trendy new Brooklyn neighborhood DUMBO (down under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). Rudd’s dexterous trombone and Diabate’s versatile kora are a fresh combination of unusual beauty and poignant tenderness…a real fusion and not just a superficial merger. Roswell Rudd MALIcool is presented Friday, April 16, 2004, at 6:30 p.m. Julien J. Studley Theatre. Free. Ticket required, call 257-3880.
Known throughout the country for the unpredictable and beautiful way the dancers and musicians flawlessly and often humorously interact in performance, the Rebecca Stenn/PerksDanceMusicTheatre performs in McKenna Theatre on Wednesday, April 14 at 8pm.
With inventive props, mysterious lighting and kinetic dance, the company received accolades for their recent tour that included performances at The Joyce Theatre in New York. Deborah Jowitt, dance critic for the Village Voice called them “Gorgeous and poetic.” Jennifer Dunning, dance critic for the New York Times says “Wildly connected yet free to fly ingenious darkly imaginative.”
Three original works by members of the Department of Theatre Arts, SUNY New Paltz are on the same program. PerksDanceMusicTheatre is Wednesday, April 14 at 8pm in McKenna Theatre. Tickets are $12 general, $10 student, seniors. Call 845-257-3880 for ticket information.
The Student Art Alliance and the School of Fine & Performing Arts are sponsoring a Student Art Alliance Auction with proceeds benefiting art students through a new scholarship fund in the visual arts. The event has three components:
The Silent Auction begins a night of revelry on April 17th, at 5:00 p.m. in the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art. Guests will bid on a selection of juried works created by students. Place your bids on paintings, prints and photographs, ceramics, sculpture, metals and more which are on display in the Samuel Dorsky Museum on April 15, 16 and 17 during regular museum hours.
Following the Silent Auction, guests gather in Parker Theatre lobby at 7:00 p.m. for a reception. Delightful nibbles, funded in part by Major Connections will be served.
The evening will conclude with a Live Auction of works donated by renowned professional artists with ties to the College and to the Hudson Valley. Guest auctioneer and host of the auction is Greg Kuharic, former vice president of 20th Century Decorative Arts at Sotheby’s, and Antiques Roadshow appraiser. The live auction is in Parker Theatre beginning at 7:30pm on Saturday, April 17. It is free and open to all.
Other Inauguration Arts Week Events
The Art History Symposium, on Tuesday, April 13, will feature Jeffrey A. Wolin, the photographer who created the touching exhibition Written in Memory: Portraits of the Holocaust, on view at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, as its keynote speaker. Other participants include Mary Frank, Matthew Baigell, and Joe Kubert. The symposium will address the use of the Holocaust as a theme in the works of various artists. Prior to the symposium, join Wolin for a gallery walk through his exhibition at the SDMA at 6:00 p.m. The symposium begins at 7:00 p.m. in Lecture Center 102.
On Tuesday, April 13, an outdoor concert of free and structured improvisations will be performed by Combo Electro-acoustica. This quartet of veteran musicians combines acoustic and electric instruments with the world of electronica. The concert features New Paltz Jazz Studies faculty members Mark Dziuba, acoustic and electric guitar with acoustic and electronic effects; David CasTiglione, saxophones and electronica; Robert Kopek, acoustic and electric basses; and, Dean Sharp, drums, percussion and electronica. The concert will be performed in the Courtyard located at the main entrance of the Sojourner Truth Library at 8:30 p.m. Audiences are welcome to explore the outdoor space and enjoy this unique soundscape experience. The concert is free and open to all. In the case of rain, the performance will be held at the Julien Studley Theatre.
Art History on Display: Why Do Universities Have Museums, a lecture by Kimerly Rorschach, Dana Feitler Director of the Smart Art Museum at the University of Chicago will be held on Thursday, April 15 at 7:00 p.m. in Lecture Center 102. This lecture, sponsored by the Art History Department, will focus on the relationship of art history departments and university museums.
Inauguration Arts Week continues with many more exciting events including a lecture by renowned metalsmith and SUNY New Paltz alumna Lisa Gralnick, a presentation by the Art History Department faculty Art History Short Takes.
Images and additional information is available on the Web at http://www.newpaltz.edu/inauguration
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