Concentus on WXXI Live from Hochstein

I was a bit nervous about this Concentus concert. Not in terms of singing live on radio, because other than host Mona Seghatoleslami periodically making announcements into a microphone between songs, there was little evidence that we were performing anything but a lovely lunchtime concert. I was worried because we'd had kind of a rough dress rehearsal, at which we'd been honored with a visit by Philip Silvey, an Assistant Professor at Eastman and the composer of our opening song, “Bloom.” He applauded our spirit and our diction, but he agreed with our conductor, Gwen, that our rhythm (the piece is written mostly in 7/8) could use some work. He shared “the secret to unlocking the rhythm” and advised us to think, “daffodil daisy daisy.” It helped, but whether because of the pressure to perform for the composer, or because we were tired, or because were missing several singers, we didn't exactly rally. And there was another, less familiar song that had the potential to go off the rails. As it turned out, both pieces went fine – instead, I gave myself an “inadvertent solo” on something I normally could sing in my sleep...

WXXI Host Mona Seghatoleslami, Linda Boianova (our
awesome pianist), and conductor Gwen Gassler

Hochstein is such a lovely space for a performance, and Mona was great – she promoted our group at each break, informing listeners of our upcoming concert with the RPO, giving them our web address, and letting them know that any interested singers should consult the website about auditioning. Our in-house audience was very appreciative, and I felt confident that we performed well for them. I trust that the people who did the sound check made sure that our dynamic changes would be audible on the radio, as well. It was a fun concert, with a nice balance of the sacred and secular, English and foreign-language, upbeat and contemplative.

The program should be available on-line at http://interactive.wxxi.org/hochstein later this week. If you do listen to it, I really hope you don't hear me!

Nicholas Kristof at Monroe Community College

On Monday night, I joined my friends Elaine and Nancy for MCC's Annual Scholars' Day keynote address by Nicholas Kristof, one of my favorite (Pulitzer Prize-winning) columnists for The New York Times. The several hundred seat auditorium was almost filled to capacity, and I had a nice chat with the student next to me, who looked only in her early 20s, but revealed that she was the single mother of two kids, aged 9 and 10, and a survivor of domestic violence. I had to congratulate her for going back to get a degree, and working to better life for herself and her children.

Anne Kress, President of MCC, welcomed everyone and explained that 86 students participated in the Scholars' Day program, and a total of $20,000 was awarded in scholarships by the MCC Foundation. When Maureen Wolfe, a director of the Foundation, introduced Kristof, a premier human rights journalist, she informed us that it was his birthday! So of course when he took the stage, the entire audience sang “Happy Birthday” to him. 

Kristof was enormously engaging as a speaker, and he shared both heartwarming and heartbreaking stories. About the two Cambodian girls he bought from a brothel, to return them to their families. About the best fathers' day gift he ever got – a Gambian pouched rat bought in his name (he met the rat when he visited Angola, where it worked sniffing out land mines). About an education intervention in the developing countries that is more cost effective than school-building: deworming medicine, that kills the parasites that suck the nutrition from kids and hinder their concentration.

He shared startling statistics of poverty (nothing new to Rochester), and urged liberals to shift their focus from inequality to opportunity, since there is broader non-partisan agreement on the latter. He cited numerous initiatives that have proven outcomes, e.g., Nurse Family Partnership (which was started in Rochester, and supports first-time moms), Reach Out & Read (which promotes early literacy), and World Bicycle Relief (which provides bikes to the underprivileged to “improve access to education, health care, and economic opportunity”). He blamed the dearth of these initiatives on an “empathy gap” (the affluent, who are mostly insulated from the disadvantaged, tend to blame them for irresponsibility and poor choices, rather than acknowledge that a person's zip code is a good predictor of the range of available opportunities, as well as the probability that he will be incarcerated). He judged the lack of intervention, when we know something works, social irresponsibility. And he encouraged us to “have the painful conversations,” to chip away at our racial and gender biases. 

Kristof acknowledge that figuring out how to help, how to contribute, can be daunting, and that we may feel our effect is just a “drop in the bucket.” But not only do those drops add up, each drop has the potential to help an individual, whose life can be transformed. Even though he was preaching to the choir, we left feeling inspired, and encouraged that we can make a difference if we try.

A Weekend At The Concerts...

Eastman Presents - Bernadette Peters

Saturday evening was the final concert in the Eastman Presents series, and they definitely saved the best for last! Bernadette Peters appeared with a small ensemble, comprised of a couple of her own musicians and musical director, and several musicians from the Rochester community. The lack of a full orchestra backing up Ms. Peters made for an intimate performance in Kodak Hall, even though the theater was quite full (but not sold out, as I would have expected). I was ecstatic that her song list included an abundance of Sondheim numbers – both those she had sung in roles on Broadway, and a few she hadn't (including “Johanna” from Sweeney Todd – I'm sorry, but I always find it odd to hear a woman sing that song). There must have been others in the audience who had seen her recent appearance as Sally in Follies, because when the orchestra started “In Buddy's Eyes,” there was a ripple of recognition. She also sang “Send in the Clowns,” from her performance in A Little Night Music, which I missed (I suffered through Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree for the sake of seeing Angela Lansbury, but perhaps I should have waited for the Peters/Stritch replacement cast).

Ms. Peters was extremely engaging – she joked with the audience that she was trying to sell a house in Florida, and she came down into the first few rows of the audience a couple of times. For a woman of 67, she looks fantastic, is remarkably agile in very high heels, and her voice is still all there. Her final offering, “Kramer's Song,” a lovely lullaby she had written for her dog (she's very active in Broadway Barks, a charity she founded with Mary Tyler Moore), left the audience happy and wanting more. While we won't see her back in the series next year, Eastman Presents is bringing us another Broadway diva – Kristin Chenoweth. Can't wait! 

Sound ExChange + Tigue

Because I hadn't had my weekend fill of music between the Lyric Theatre Recital and Bernadette Peters, I joined my friend Lynn at Artisan Works Sunday afternoon for something completely different. We had been alerted to this concert by a mutual friend and violist in Sound ExChange, Alexander Peña (he is also the incredibly energetic and talented Director of RocMusic, an El Sistema-inspired after-school music education program). Artisan Works, with its eclectic and extensive collection of artworks, was the perfect venue for this performance of alternative music. There were at least 100 people in the audience, including kids from the RocMusic program and their families. My guess is that it was many people's first exposure to this unique space.

toy pianos

The music was very intriguing. Tigue's performance was mostly percussion, and Sound ExChange's mostly strings, but the unconventional portions were what made this performance riveting. At various times, musicians sighed into microphones, played toy pianos, and bowed the vibes, which i'd never seen before. The music seemed as abstract to me as some of the sculptures and paintings in the hall – there was no obvious structure to hold onto, and plenty of dissonance. But even though I don't pretend to understand modern music, it was still enjoyable, and I was delighted to see so many young people attending, and being attentive at, a live concert.

bowing the vibes

We certainly are blessed in Rochester with such a wide variety of performing arts from which to choose. The only problem is having to choose. 

Monroe County Pick Up The Parks

Bonnie's daughter picking up our first recyclable

Saturday morning was Monroe County's sixth annual Pick Up The Parks day, and luckily, it was a clear, but chilly day, following two days of snow showers... As part of Sunday Assembly's community outreach, a group of us – eight adults and a half dozen kids – volunteered to help out in Highland Park, and were assigned a lovely area by School No. 12. I was disappointed that there wasn't that much detritus, but we did still manage to fill a couple of large black bags with garbage (mostly bits of paper and wrappers and plastic bags, but my friend Bonnie and I also retrieved a soggy sleeping bag and pillow, from deep in the woods), and smaller white bags with recyclables (lots of plastic water bottles, shards of glass, and aluminum beer cans). The only thing I couldn't bring myself to pick up was a rubber glove stuck on a bush. It was pretty easy to spot the trash – pretty much anything shiny was man-made and didn't belong. But we were occasionally fooled by decaying leaves that resembled paper and bits of birch that looked like styrofoam.

Wegmans bag stamped
"Return to Sender"

Maybe because there wasn't that much to pick up, the kids mostly played, enjoying the sunshine and rolling down the hills. Bonnie and I couldn't help wondering why some people think that the great outdoors is just a big rubbish bin. And I couldn't help wondering when our state or supermarket chains will bow to the inevitable and ban or tax the single-use plastic bag. Wegmans got some press at the beginning of the month about an April program to give the local Nature Conservancy a donation based some complicated calculation of reduced single bag usage. However, after making three visits to three different Wegmans stores in the first two weeks of this month, it was clear to me that they weren't really committed to it. None of the checkout clerks I talked to had heard about it, so they were still doling out the carrier bags as if they were going out of style. And only the third manager I spoke with, mid-month, had some familiarity with it – he had some signage – in a back office...

It's shocking how much plastic ends up in our environment and is mistaken for food by animals (to learn more, check out the documentary Bag It). Reusing and recycling are fine, but the best approach is reducing – not creating so much plastic garbage in the first place. And it's disappointing how many people don't respect the environment, or understand the implications of littering. So I guess there's no chance we'll stop needing annual Pick Up The Park events anytime soon.

Lyric Theatre – Inaugural Performance

Tonight was the Inaugural Recital to benefit the new Lyric Theatre, featuring tenor Matthew Swensen. It was a reasonably good showing for a Friday evening – there were at least 200 people in the audience. Many seemed to be opera lovers, but some seemed just to be curious about this new theater. My pew-mate remarked that most were also members of the regular gray-haired crowd. Hopefully, that will change as the Lyric Theatre grows into a year-round space for a variety of performers.

Sue Cotroneo, Managing Director of the Rochester Lyric Opera, welcomed everyone and shared her excitement at the new home for the RLO. The acoustics were great, as you'd expect in a church of this caliber, so Sue didn't need a microphone for her introductory remarks. The only downside of the acoustics were that I could hear the couple two pews away whispering. The theater's rake isn't optimal for staged performances (it was probably fine for listening to a sermon), but the sightlines can easily be improved by raising the stage and/or staggering the new seats.

It was really pleasant to watch the diminishing light of the evening through the ten stained glass windows while enjoying Matthew's music (he seemed much more mature than his 22 years). Tonight's performance was a great demonstration of the newest addition to Rochester's performing arts community. 

Muse 2.0 at the Nan Miller Gallery

Rochester has several local artists who have fame beyond our city – Wendell Castle, Albert Paley, and Len Urso come to mind immediately. And the prices of their works reflect their renown. Luckily, there are other equally talented local artists who aren't yet widely “discovered,” and whose work is still relatively affordable. For now. Brian O'Neill, whose show Muse 2.0 just opened at the Nan Miller Gallery, is one of those. The show highlights his talents as both an abstract and a hyperrealist artist. Most of his works are one or the other, but occasionally he blends both, seamlessly (as in the painting in the photograph, below, between Nan Miller and Brian). In his address to the audience, Brian's answer to the unasked question of how he works in both styles is that he “decided not to limit his creative joy.” Lucky for us!

Nan Miller and Brian O'Neill

Charlie and I have gotten to know Brian since the first, and wildly successful, Muse exhibit at the Arts & Cultural Council gallery, and have visited his studio in the Hungerford Building. This second exhibit is even more stunning (not just because it's in a more welcoming space). He has again used the ballerinas of the Rochester City Ballet as his muses, and his models were in attendance at the opening, offering to pose with their likenesses for any purchasers. He asked one of them to expand on his working with them to develop a “character” for each piece. The dancer represented in the kimono paintings said that it was similar to having choreography set on her – she had to envision the gardens, settle into the weight of the garment, and tailor her movements to it and her surroundings. The dancers enjoyed the artistic freedom Brian allowed them, as he gave them ideas, but set them free to explore character and movement on their own. 

"Taken By The Wind"

My favorite painting was a comparatively small, realistic one: “Taken By The Wind.” The featured ballerina explained how she had wrapped herself in the red chiffon, and then waved it in the breeze as she walked through the field. I felt, looking at it, as if I were following her into the woods.

Paley's "Symbion" and Brian's
"The Weight of Beauty"

One of the most striking paintings is “The Weight of Beauty,” but not in and of itself (although it is beautiful in its detail). It was displayed directly above an Albert Paley sculpture, and the juxtaposition was striking. Brian swore that he hadn't seen the sculpture before he created the painting, and the similarity of composition and color palette is remarkable. Except for the price on the Paley, you'd be tempted to buy both!

The exhibit runs through May 16.

Horizons – An Investment, Not A Charity

I'd never heard of the Horizons program before Charlie and I got involved with the University of Rochester's Warner School of Education, which hosts an affiliate. In a nutshell, paraphrasing from their website, Horizons is a decentralized, high-quality, 6-week summer learning program on the campuses of independent schools, colleges or universities that supports low-income, at-risk, Pre-K-12 students, and provides them with the opportunity to experience success in a setting that becomes an inspirational and stable learning environment for students, families, and the greater community. Once we heard an impassioned speech by Warner Horizon's Executive Director Lynn Gatto, we climbed on board. Little did I know that it would be literally – Lynn invited us to join her founding board, and I somehow became chair!

So I was excited when Lynn invited me to join her at last week's National Horizons Conference in Norwalk, CT. There were well over 100 attendees, and the diversity was remarkable (or is it that the lack of diversity on so many other occasions is what should be remarkable?). The day I attended began with an inspiring panel of three teachers who had just been honored by Horizons. One emphasized the equity and opportunity aspects of Horizons, and the program's goal of helping low income kids over the summer to stay on track with their high income peers. Another told of watching the students' confidence grow week to week, and the confidence the program gave her to expand her teaching style and collaborate with other instructors.

Lynn Gatto sharing Warner School marketing strategies

The national program, which is celebrating its 20^th year, is currently in 45 host schools across 15 states, with 446 public school partners. At roughly 4000 students, the program is a “tiny drop in the bucket” compared to millions of kids who need help, according to Lorna Smith, CEO of Horizons National. Rochester alone has three host schools: U of R, Harley, and MCC (there are additional schools hosting Summer LEAP programs in Rochester, which have a similar goal).

Horizons is joining the giving-day bandwagon, but theirs, on May 20, will have an innovative twist: the ability to pledge beginning May 1, so people won't have to remember to give on the exact day. They are also working with Facebook on some targeted ads that seemed pretty cutting-edge to everyone in the audience! Lynn spoke on a panel that shared various marketing strategies for the event, and we got some great ideas from other schools for broadening our affiliate's reach.

The final eye-opening panel I attended was for affiliate board members. Their insights on governance, sustainability (read – fundraising...), and strategic planning impressed me not just in terms of their different approaches (boards ranging in size from 10 to 22, board 'give or get' ranging from zero to $50,000), but the willingness of the participants to share best practices, to learn from each other, and to help other programs succeed. Because at the end of the day, it's all about the kids, and helping them succeed. And in a city like Rochester, with high childhood poverty, failing schools, and dismal high school graduation rates, we need all the help we can get. As the third teacher honoree remarked, “Everyone has great ideas. The ones who are successful, prove it.” And Horizons is doing just that.

Rochester Lyric Theatre

photo courtesy of RLO

The Lyric Theatre - what's that, you ask? It's Rochester's newest performance space! Where, you ask? In the innocuous looking, 100-year old Christian Science Church at the corner of East Avenue and Prince Street. Yes, the dwindling congregation held its last service there for Easter, and on Tuesday, it was purchased by the Rochester Lyric Opera (RLO) for $1.2 million. The Jazz and Fringe Festivals, along with the RLO, will use the space in its current form, and a $6 million renovation project is planned for early 2016. 

drawing courtesy of RLO

drawing courtesy of RLO

The end result will be a much- needed mid-sized theater, with roughly 900 seats, a proscenium stage, an orchestra pit, a setting that inspired Eastman's Kodak Hall, and gorgeous acoustics. Behind that will be a cabaret/lounge space that can accommodate 150+ people.

The RLO held a press conference on Wednesday to unveil the building, which Maggie Brooks described as “a well kept secret” that “took (her) breath away.” In addition to the press, the RLO folks, and a representation from the departing congregation, there were the usual political suspects (minus the mayor), and a lot of people from the local performing arts community. The excitement was palpable – there seem to be a lot of groups champing at the bit to use the new venue.

 RLO Managing Director Sue Cotroneo promised the church members that they would be good stewards of the property for its next 100 years, saying, “if it wasn't going to be a church, it was surely meant to be a theater.” Her vision is to make the Lyric Theatre the home not just for the RLO, but for other homeless groups in the Rochester community. Equally important, it will become a more intimate venue for presentations of national and international performers and speakers that are not a good fit for the Auditorium Theatre's enormous capacity.

I look forward to this new destination for the arts in Rochester, and in working with Sue and her management team to make the presentation portion of the Lyric Theatre's season a reality. 

For more information on the theatre and the Rochester Lyric Opera, visit: rochesterlyricopera.org