Boston-based Tapestry vocal ensemble performs at The Dorsky Museum on April 14

NEW PALTZ – The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (The Dorsky) is pleased to present a program of vocal works that includes The White Rooster, a dramatic cantata for women’s voices, percussion and six Tibetan singing bowls performed by the vocal ensemble Tapestry, on Thursday, April 14 at 6 pm. A 5:30 pm conversation with composer Sheila Silver and librettist Stephen Kitsakos precedes the 6 pm performance. A public reception will follow. Tickets are available at the SUNY New Paltz box office at 845-257-3880 and on-line. Ticket prices are general public, $15; seniors, $10; students; $5.

Tapestry, a Boston-based ensemble of women’s voices, made its debut in 1995 with the performance of Steve Reich’s Tehillim at Jordan Hall in Boston, which The Boston Globe deemed “a knockout.” The trademark of the ensemble is combining medieval repertory and contemporary compositions in bold, conceptual programming. Critics hail their rich distinctive voices, their “technically spot-on singing” and their emotionally charged performances. The LA Times writes of their performance of Hildegard’s O Vos Angeli: “… as radiant and exciting as any singing I’ve heard all season” and The Cleveland Plain Dealer describes Tapestry as “an ensemble that plants haunting vibrations, old and new, in our ears."

Their program travels from west to east and past to present framed by two tales: a medieval Portuguese tale of the miracles of St. Isabel and The White Rooster, a tale of compassion set in modern day Tibet. Between the two tales, they weave together a mix of medieval and contemporary songs exploring universal ideas of spirituality.

The first half of the evening program includes three medieval works, including a composition by Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) plus excerpts from a contemporary song cycle—The Nine Orders of the Angels—by Patricia Van Ness. The second half of the program features The White Rooster, a dramatic cantata along the lines of a short opera created by composer Sheila Silver and librettist Stephen Kitsakos for Tapestry. Sheila Silver is Professor of Composition, Theory and Instrumentation at Stony Brook University. Stephen Kitsakos is a lecturer in Musical Theatre and Theatre Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz. The thirty-five minute work was commissioned by the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in conjunction with The Tibetan Shrine from the Alice S. Kandell Collection and Lama, Patron Artist: The Great Situ Panchen.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM

The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, located at SUNY New Paltz, is fast gaining wide recognition as the premier public showplace for exhibition, education, and cultural scholarship about the Hudson Valley region’s art and artists from yesterday and today. With more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space distributed over six galleries, the Dorsky Museum is one of the largest museums within the SUNY system.

This event is among a series of exhibitions and events celebrating the museum’s tenth anniversary year. The Dorsky was officially dedicated on Oct. 20, 2001. Since then it has presented over one hundred exhibitions, including commissions, collection-based projects, and in-depth studies of artists including Robert Morris, Alice Neel, Judy Pfaff, and Carolee Schneemann. Tenth Anniversary Year exhibitions will highlight The Dorsky’s focus on the art and artists of the Hudson Valley, a unique region that has served as a source of inspiration and nourished artistic creation and innovation since the time of the Hudson River School painters.

This event is sponsored by the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art and the Music, Theater and Asian Studies Departments at SUNY New Paltz with support from the SUNY New Paltz Office of Academic Affairs.

For more information about The Dorsky Museum and its programs, visit http://www.newpaltz.edu/museum, or call (845) 257-3844.