Pipa Master Wei Yang

The Chinese Fine Arts Society (CFAS ) will present two free Chicago events in May 2013 in honor of Asian American Heritage Month:

The first, a free concert, on Sunday May 19, 2013 from 3-4pm will be our 24th Annual  All Chinese Music Concert held in Preston Bradley Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 East Washington Street, Chicago. www.ChicagoCulturalCenter.org.

Featuring some of Chicago’s finest Chinese musicians including Silk Road Project members Wei Yang (who plays pipa) and Betti Xiang (erhu player), CSO violinist Qing Hou and award-winning pianist XiaoMin Liang, the program will include the world premiere of “A Mothers’ Love” a new pipa work by Liu DeHai, paired with “The Ancient Battlefield” a traditional tour de force for pipa; Chen Gang and He Zhanhao‘s “Butterfly Lovers Concerto”, an iconic 20th century traditional Chinese work, arranged for erhu; Chen Yi‘s violin/piano duo “Fisherman’s Song”; Victoria Bond‘s “Jing Zhong Bao Guo” for pipa/violin duo inspired by the life of legendary soldier and patriot Yueh Fei. Bond’s work, written in 2000, was the Director’s Choice winner of CFAS’ Yueh Fei International Composition Competition in 1999-2000. This concert, dedicated to the memory of the late founder of CFAS, Barbara Tiao, also provides a preview to their 2014 Main stage programming: the Five Elements Concert series. It will feature exemplary traditional Chinese works paired with contemporary works inspired by them, mirroring the approach that informed much of Ms. Tiao’s work with the Chinese Fine Arts Society.

The second event, a free festival of Chinese folk arts including music and dance will take place at noon on Tuesday, May 21 at Daley Plaza, Chicago. Performers include Jin Qiu Yue Dance Studio, Sheng Quan, martial arts, and the Eight Tones Ensemble of traditional Chinese instrumentalists. Richard J. Daley Center – 118 North Clark Street, Chicago – www.explorechicago.org.

Since 1984, the Chinese Fine Arts Society, a small, fully-independent arts organization has brought together people from diverse backgrounds over a common goal: to celebrate the beauty and majesty of traditional and contemporary Chinese music and art. CFAS is dedicated to promoting the appreciation of Chinese culture, enhancing cultural exchange and pursuing excellence in Chinese music, dance and visual arts. For further information about the Chinese Fine Arts Society contact 312-369-3197 or info@chinesefinearts.org and visit ChineseFineArts.org.

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Tiny Tempest Farm hosts its annual organic vegetable and herb plant sale for two days this May. In addition, this year will feature two public performances of the family oriented puppet show The Selfish Giant by Blair Thomas & Co.

Owners Sheri Doyel and Blair Thomas, along with their twin sons, moved to Mohawk Road three years ago intending to share Sheri’s home-grown organic goods and Blair’s nationally regarded unique theater and puppetry with the community around Geneva Lake. This May, folks who garden and grow their own food will get a kick-start with the seedlings, and young and old can see the show in the family’s rustic dairy barn, transformed into a performance
space for the two-day event.

Suggested donation for The Selfish Giant is $5.00 for adults and children. Limited seating. Reservations recommended. Email info@blairthomas.org, or call 262-374-4903.

Recently presented at the Milwaukee Art Museum, The Selfish Giant was created by two theater icons— puppeteer Blair Thomas and singer-songwriter Michael Smith. Running time: 35 minutes.

Based on the tale by Oscar Wilde, the original puppets and music tell the story of a grumpy old giant who forbids the children in his village from playing in his beautiful garden. After the children are locked out, the trees and flowers refuse to grow and the garden plunges into an eternal winter. Then one morning, the children sneak back into the garden, bringing with them the joyous rebirth of spring.

This production was originally commissioned by the Chicago Children’s Theater and the world premiere was presented by the Chicago Children’s Theater in January 2008.

The Tiny Tempest Farm is located at W4355 Mohawk Road, Lake Geneva, WI 53147.

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Chicago is very lucky to host the Bodies of Work Festival, May 15-25. As Chicago Sun-Times contributor Dr. Kristi Kirschner said in a 2006 op-ed, “There’s nothing like a good story or a powerful image to challenge old prejudices and open up possibilities.” The article was entitled “Experiences of disability guide new art,” a sentiment which the Bodies of Work Festival epitomizes. This year, the Festival will bring together artists from locales as varied as Australia, the United Kingdom, and Oak Park, Illinois, to relish the new art that disability engenders, offering their audiences new experiences in the process.

For fans of interdisciplinary arts, the Festival offers an interesting mix. Beginning on May 15, festival-goers will have a chance to see: contemporary artworks by 38 disability-focused artists on display at the Woman-Made Gallery; a new theatrical adaptation of Still Alice, the New York Times-bestselling novel, presented by Chicago’s own Lookingglass Theatre;  three one-person shows presented respectively at the Greenhouse Theater and Victory Gardens; a series of experimental short films and recent documentaries at the Museum of Contemporary Art; poetry readings at the Poetry Foundation; and at least two appearances by Chicago playwright Susan Nussbaum, author of the new novel Good Kings, Bad Kings.

The complete schedule is below. Note that it ends on May 25. That gives you ten days to get as much new art as you possibly can.

Festival hashtag for Twitter, Instagram: #BOWFestival2013

COMPLETE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:

Woman Made Gallery
Opening Reception: Humans Being II
May 10, 6-9pm
Exhibition Dates: May 10 – June 20, 2013
Gallery Hours: Wed., Thurs., Fri. noon to 7pm; Sat. & Sun. noon to 4pm.
Humans Being II is an exhibit that focuses on the experience of disability as explored through contemporary art. Juried by Riva Lehrer this group show includes artworks in all media by 38 artists. Woman Made Gallery, 685. N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago www.womanmade.org 312.738.0400. Free Admission.

Lookingglass Theatre
Still Alice
May 16-19, various times
Based on the New York Times bestselling novel, Still Alice, Professor Alice Howland is at the peak of her career studying the human brain when her own mind begins to falter. Fiercely independent, she battles to preserve her way of life, even as confusion clouds her thinking and her memory begins to fail. This world premiere adaptation is at the same time heartbreaking and hopeful. May 16, 7:30 PM is an open captioned performance that is followed by a panel discussion on “Living and Performing – The Disability and Arts Culture Movement.” May 19 features a 2:00 pm pre-show touch tour for patrons with visual impairments and a 3:00 pm audio described performance, followed by a panel discussion on “Living and Identity – Making connections between aging, dementia, and disability.” Lookingglass Theatre, 821 N. Michigan Ave, Chicago. Ticket prices vary. For tickets and schedule, call 312.337.0665 or visit www.lookingglasstheatre.org.

Museum of Contemporary Art
Back to Back Theatre: Ganesh Versus the Third Reich
May 16-19, various times
Australia’s leading independent theatre is a unique ensemble of actors with disabilities who give voice to the social and political issues that speak to all people. MCA Stage presents this cleverly interwoven tale-within-a-tale that begins with the elephant-headed god Ganesh traveling through Nazi Germany to reclaim the Swastika, the sacred Hindu symbol of higher being. The story becomes a second transformative quest as the group of struggling actors rise to take power from an overbearing director, giving rise to issues of cultural appropriation, the responsibilities of those who speak for others, and what constitutes myth, reality or even normalcy. Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago. Ticket prices vary. For tickets and schedule, call 312.397.4010 or visit www.mcachicago.org.

**UPDATED INFORMATION**
Access Living
Counter Balance IV
May 17-18, 6-7:30 pm
Counter Balance IV integrates dance, poetry and spoken word that explores the intersection of disability, diversity and art. The evening will include performers with and without disabilities: Oak Park’s MOMENTA dance company; Oakland, California, performer and interdisciplinary artist Lisa Bufano, who uses stilts and props in her pieces; New York-based Alice Sheppard, who dances with both wheelchair and crutches, and whose work challenges the assumption that assistive devices are compensatory; inter-disciplinary Chicago performance artist Baraka de Soleil, who explores the formless within form; and Chicago poet and visual artist Pennie Brinson, who reads poetry that explores dance and movement. A workshop in creative movement is held on Saturday, May 18, 1-3 pm. Access Living, 115 W. Chicago Ave, Chicago. Free admission. Seating is limited. Reservations taken at jcharlton@accessliving.org

**NEW LOCATION**
Access Living
Good Kings, Bad Kings
Saturday, May 18, 2- 4 pm
The Chicago playwright Susan Nussbaum reads from her first novel Good Kings, Bad Kings, for which she received the 2012 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, and will sign copies of her book. The story follows the lives of residents at the ILLC, an institution for juveniles with disabilities, where friendships are forged, trust is built, and love affairs begin, in an atmosphere of neglect and abuse. In this alliance the residents of ILLC ultimately find the strength to resist their mistreatment and fight back. A lifelong Chicago resident, Nussbaum’s plays have been produced at many theaters. In 2008 she was cited by the Utne Reader as one of “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World” for her work with girls with disabilities. Woman Made Gallery, 685. N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago.  Free admission. To learn more, visit www.womanmade.org.

Poetry Foundation
Poetry off the Shelf: Jim Ferris, Leroy F. Moore & Barry Silesky
Saturday, May 18, 6-7 pm
The Poetry Foundation presents a reading by Jim Ferris, Leroy F. Moore, and Barry Silesky.  Ferris is the author of Hospital Poems, which received the 2004 Main Street Rag book award. Moore is the award-winning founder of Krip-Hop Nation and the performance group, Sins Invalid. Silesky, acclaimed biographer of poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and American writer John Gardner, is the author of three books of poetry, most recently, This Disease. Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street, Chicago. Free admission. To learn more, visit www.poetryfoundation.org.

Hyde Park Art Center
Film Screening & Discussion: Beneath the Blindfold
Sunday, May 19, 2-4:30 pm
A nursing home aide from Africa. An actor from Colombia. A U.S. Navy veteran from Chicago. A physician from Guatemala. While different at first glance, they have a horrific experience in common: they all have been tortured. Co-directed by Chicago filmmakers Kathy Berger and Ines Sommer, Beneath the Blindfold (55 min., 2012) follows four survivors through the daunting steps of building new lives, careers, and relationships after the debilitating consequences of torture. The screening is followed by a discussion with the filmmakers and Maria Venegas, a torture survivor and human rights activist from Chile, will be present for the Q and A after the screening. Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 South Cornell Ave, Chicago. Free Admission. To learn more, visit www.hydeparkart.org.

Raven Theatre
The Birdfeeder Doesn’t Know
May 19-22, 7:30 pm
Chicago playwright Todd Bauer’s production of The Birdfeeder Doesn’t Know follows the life of Herman, Ingrid and their disabled son. They have always encouraged their son to seek assistance in order to attain independence but now, due to the natural flow of life, Herman and Ingrid’s independence is threatened. When actions once perceived as easy and obvious when directed to their son are now perceived as insults when directed to themselves, the family unit becomes both echo chamber and torture chamber. Each performance is followed by a moderated post show discussion with the playwright, director and cast. Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark, Chicago. Tickets $10. For tickets call 773.338.2177 or purchase online at www.raventheatre.com. Free Admission.

Victory Gardens Theater
A Little Bit of Not Normal (formerly called All Kinds of Crazy)
Sunday, May 19, 7:30-8:50 pm
In this workshop reading written and performed by Arlene Malinowski, a family secret is uncovered when she attends her sister’s wedding. With her trademark humor, Malinowski confronts her own state of mind when depression slips in through her window, lights a cigarette and makes himself at home. Her autobiographical journey through the snake pit of mental illness is self-aware without being self-centered. Malinowski portrays a variety of characters including herself, her deaf parents, her husband, and the parade of physicians who attempt to treat her. Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 North Lincoln Ave, Chicago. Free admission. Reservation required. For tickets call 773.871.3000 or visit www.victorygardens.org.

 **JUST ADDED TO FESTIVAL**
Greenhouse Theater Center
Reinventing Story: Tekki Lomnicki, The Miracle, and New Disability Storytelling
Tuesday, May 21, 7-9 pm
This program will present two storytelling forms, Thanksgiving, a solo performance by Tekki Lomnicki, Artistic Director of Tellin’ Tales Theatre and The Miracle, Jeffrey Jon Smith’s award-winning film reinterpretation of the piece.  Both stories, even with such inspirational titles, may surprise and engage you to think differently about disability storytelling. The evening will include a discussion moderated by Terri Thrower to explore how these artists use storytelling elements to reframe and reinterpret familiar, and often tired, narratives about disability. Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. Tickets $10. Call 312.540.1330 to reserve or purchase online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/380023. More about The Miracle is at http://www.themiraclemovie.com/

**JUST ADDED TO FESTIVAL**
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
Intersection / Intervention: Disability in Museums
A Professional Development Workshop
Thursday May 23, 9am-12pm
How do museums function as unique spaces to reframe and expand conversations about disability? Likewise, how can Disability Studies and the disability rights movement offer insight for reimagining, improving and expanding the core functions of museums? The Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and the Museum and Exhibition Studies program at the University of Illinois at Chicago invite you to attend Intersection / Intervention and examine museums through a lens of disability. Confirmed Think Tank Panelists include: Carrie Sandahl, PhD Theatre and Performance Studies, Associate Professor in the Department of Disability and Human Development at UIC, Chun-Shan (Sandie) Yi, MFA, Artist, PhD Student in Disability Studies at UIC; and Christine Sun Kim*, Performance artist, 2013 TED Fellow. There is a $20 workshop fee (Students $5). Reservations are required. This event is ADA accessible. If you need additional accommodations, please call 312.413.5353 or email ljunkin@uic.edu

Museum of Contemporary Art
Film Screening: Four Films by Stephen Dwoskin
Thursday, May 23, 12-6 pm and Saturday, May 25, 2013, 2-8:30 pm
Stephen Dwoskin was a prominent member of the avant-garde in New York in the 60’s and later in London.  He made films that scrutinize the body and its discontents, rooted partly in his long struggle with polio. Emotionally intense, often with little or no dialogue, his films chart the narrow borders between pleasure and pain. The MCA Stage presents four films that reflect the breadth of his career, including the last film before his July 2012 death:
· Age Is… (2012), a subjective meditation on the experience and cultural concepts of aging: May 23, 1:30pm, and May 25, 3:30pm.
· Pain Is… (1997, 80 min), series of people living with constant pain, whether from illness, injury, or sadomasochism: May 23, 12pm, and May 25, 2pm
· Ballet Black (1986, 86 min), documentary about Les Ballets Nègres, Europe’s first black ballet company: May 23, 4:30pm, and May 25, 7pm.
· Behindert (1974, 96 min), autobiographical drama starring Dwoskin, about a love affair complicated by his disability: May 23, 3pm, and May 25, 5pm.
Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E Chicago Ave., Chicago. Free Admission. www.mcachicago.org.

Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago
Film Screening: NoBody’s Perfect (90 min., 2008, directed by Niko von Glasow)
Wednesday, May 22, 6-7:30 pm
Winner of the 2009 German Film Award for Best Documentary, NoBody’s Perfect (2008, 90 minutes) follows Director Niko von Glasow as he looks for eleven people who, like him, were born disabled due to the side-effects of Thalidomide, and who are prepared to pose nude for a book of photos. The documentary explores the specific problems these twelve extraordinary people faced during their lives, and their candid reactions towards the photography project. The final results of the photo shoot give the models entirely new perspectives on themselves. The screening is followed by a panel discussion about disability and sexuality. Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago. Free Admission. To learn more, visit http://arts.uchicago.edu/content/bodies-work-festival-nobodys-perfect-film-screening-discussion

Northwestern University’s Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program
Realities and Representation: A Roundtable Discussion of Good Kings, Bad Kings
Thursday, May 23, 5-6:30pm
In this roundtable sponsored by Northwestern University’s Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program, Professors Martha Stoddard Holmes of California State University, Rebecca Garden of SUNY Upstate Medical Center and writer and disability activist Mike Ervin of Chicago will react to and discuss concepts of good and bad, right and wrong and empowerment and powerlessness in Susan Nussbaum’s novel “Good Kings, Bad Kings.” The author will respond to the roundtable and discuss the process and decisions that she made in writing the book. The roundtable will be moderated by Catherine Belling of Northwestern University and plenty of time will be left for audience reaction and discussion. Feinberg School of Medicine Lurie Building, Hughes Auditorium, 303 E Superior St., Chicago. Free Admission.

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
Christine Sun Kim: Pardon me, where is the kitchen?
Friday, May 24, 6-7:30 pm
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum presents the innovative sonic work of 2013 TED Fellow Christine Sun Kim a deaf Korean-American performance artist who actively investigates the physicality of sound. She has an MFA from Bard College and the School of Visual Arts in New York. Recent performances include Upcoming: Gesture Sign Art, Berlin Kunstraum Kreuzberg. Hidden Treasures with Egloff, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY; Doing Becoming Being, TCB Gallery, Melbourne, Australia; and We Convert Our Mind to Creativity, Sound + Art Festival, Trier, Germany. Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, 800 S. Halsted St., Chicago. Free Admission. To learn more, visit www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull. Space is very limited, must reserve seating at http://cskbodiesofwork.eventbrite.com/

Victory Gardens Theater
BALL and Other Funny Stories About Cancer
Friday, May 24, 7:30-9:00 pm
Written and performed by Brian Lobel, BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer brings together Lobel’s trilogy of work about his experiences with cancer (written between 2001 and 2011). His work infuses the “cancer story” with an urgency and humor that is sometimes inappropriate, often salacious, and always honest. Starting from the moment of diagnosis, BALL …goes beyond stories of medical treatment to explore sexuality, gender and politics. In pulling the trilogy together as one, Lobel attempts to show that surviving cancer is only half the battle. Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 North Lincoln Ave, Chicago. Tickets $10. For tickets call 773.871.3000 or visit www.victorygardens.org.

Museum of Contemporary Art
Film Screening: Eleanore & the Timekeeper
Saturday, May 25, 12 pm
The complexities of a mother’s sacrifice are discovered when Eleanore, at age 91, moves her developmentally disabled son Ronnie into a group home after 64 years of devoted companionship and daily ritual in their modest Pennsylvania farmhouse. Shot on 16mm, the film is a quiet love story between a mother and son, which celebrates life’s natural cycles of monotony and impermanence. Eleanore & the Timekeeper (76 min., 2010) is the first feature-length film by the award-winning experimental filmmaker Danièle Wilmouth, who is in introducing the film on Saturday.  Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E Chicago Ave. Chicago. Free Admission. To learn more, visit www.mcachicago.org.

xxx

Generous support for the 2013 Bodies of Work Festival is provided in part by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of People with Disabilities, Disability Resource Center and the Department of Disability and Human Development; 3Arts; MobilityWorks; City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events; Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities; Illinois Humanities Council; and Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. Thanks to individual donors supporting the Festival, including Steven Lee, Beth Prevor, and Toby Tate.

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On Thursday, May 9, Jenny Q Chai will perform an altered version of her program Acqua Alta at Baltimore’s premiere classical/experimental music venue An Die Musik. The program will include Annie Gosfield’s dynamic work Brooklyn, October 5, 2941,  which memorializes Mickey Owens’s famous blunder that granted the Yankees victory in the 1941 World Series (and blemished his own epic career from that moment on). Written into the piece is a portion where the pianist plays her instrument with a baseball mitt and glove.

The recital begins at 8:00 pm  on May 9, located at An Die Musik, 409 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD. Tickets are $12 for the general public, $10 for full-time students. Contact 410-385-2638 for for more information.

The complete program is as follows:

• Milica Paranosic Bubble World Premiere
• Kurtag Hommage à Scarlatti
• Scarlatti, Sonatas
• Gibbons, The Italian Ground (1613)
• Marco Stroppa, Ninnananna from Miniature Estrose
• Liszt, La lugubre gondola
• Debussy, Prelude La cathédrale engloutie
• Ravel, Une Barque Sur L’océan  from Miroirs
• Nils Vigeland, I Turisti World Premiere
• Michael Vincent Waller Acqua Santa World Premiere
• Annie Gosfield Brooklyn, October 5, 1941

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On April 26 and 27, pianist Inna Faliks will perform Felix Mendelssohn’s “Concerto No. 1 in g minor, op. 25″  with the Minnesota Sinfonia. This concerto (Mendelssohn’s fourth chronologically) is notable for the relatively early entrance of the piano soloist and the spaces left open for the composer’s improvisations.

The program also includes a world-premiere commission by Theodore Unseth and Ralph Vaughn Williams’s “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.” The first of two concerts begins at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 26, at Founders Hall at Metropolitan State University, 700 East 7th Street in St. Paul. The second concert begins at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 27 at Basilica of St. Mary at 88 17th St. N. in Minneapolis. Admission is free and children are welcome to attend. Audience members should arrive early—all concerts are first-come, first-seated.

COMPLETE PROGRAM:

T. Unseth Concertino (World Premiere)
R. V. Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
F. Mendelssohn Concerto No. 1, op. 25

Called “adventurous” and “passionate” by The New Yorker and “poetic” by Time Out New York, Ukrainian-born, New York City based pianist Inna Faliks has established herself as one of the most passionately committed, exciting and poetic artists of her generation. After her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 15, acclaimed by the Chicago Tribune, she has performed on many of the world’s great stages, with numerous orchestras, in solo appearances, and with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin and Keith Lockhart.

Critics praise her “courage to take risks, expressive intensity and technical perfection” (General Anzeiger, Bonn), “Infusing every note with brilliance and personality,” (Hilton Head Competition Review), “poetry and panoramic vision” (Washington Post) , “riveting passion, playfulness” (Baltimore Sun) and her “virtuosity, humor, lyricism and a way to make every note an important part of the texture of the music.”(Free Times, South Carolina). Her CD on MSR Classics, Sound of Verse, was released in 2009, featuring music of Boris Pasternak, Rachmaninoff and Ravel, receiving excellent reviews from Gramophone, American Record Guide, and other music publications.

Additional Minnesota Sinfonia concert information is available at 612-871-1701 or www.mnsinfonia.org.

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Australian percussion ensemble Speak Percussion will collaborate with four American ensembles on a U.S. tour with the Vanishing Languages project. Kevin James’s new work is the result of a nine-month sojourn across three continents, researching the remaining speakers of dead languages.

Speak Percussion will be at New York City’s Roulette (509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY) joined by the ETHEL String Quartet and the [kaj] Ensemble on March 28 and 29 at 8:00 pm.

Then they will be at San Francisco’s ODC Dance Commons (351 Shotwell Street, San Francisco) joined by the Del Sol String Quartet and Nonsemble 6 on April 5 and 6 at 8:00 pm. For further information about Speak Percussion and their up-coming performances, please contact Zilla & Brook Publicity at contact@zillaandbrook.com.au.

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Pianist Inna Faliks appears on April 8th and 15th as part of National Poetry Month on 98.7 WFMT-FM Chicago. Inna Faliks’ Music/Words series is an interdisciplinary live performance series founded by NYC-based pianist Inna Faliks, exploring connections between poetry and music by presenting collaborations between exciting solo musicians and acclaimed contemporary poets in the form of a live recital/reading.

Inna Faliks created the series in order to foster a chance for poets and musicians to work together and inspire each other, as well as to allow different audiences to come together for these musical-literary events. New published and unpublished works are read alongside performances of music old and new and connected by content, intuition, and inspiration.

April 8 will feature a broadcast of October 2012′s concert with Chicago’s Poetry Foundation. Faliks was joined by Valzhyna Mort, winner of Poetry magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize and the author of Factory of Tears and Collected Body, as well as Vera Pavlova, whose first poetry collection in English, If There Is Something to Desire, was a bestselling title in 2010. Works by Gubaidulina, Tchaikovsky, Lera Auerbach, Shchedrin, and Schumann were performed by Faliks.

April 15 will feature Faliks with a poet to be announced.

Called “adventurous” and “passionate” by The New Yorker, Ukrainian-born, New York City based pianist Inna Faliks (www.innafaliks.com) has established herself as one of the most passionately committed, exciting and poetic artists of her generation. After acclaimed her teenage debuts at the Gilmore Festival and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, she has performed on many of the world’s great stages, with numerous orchestras, in solo appearances, and with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin and Keith Lockhart. She recently appeared alongside British actress Lesley Nicol (“Mrs. Patmore” from Downton Abbey) in Nigel Hess’s production of Admission: One Shilling.

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Shanghai/New York based pianist Jenny Q Chai (www.JennyChai.com) will perform a concert entitled Acqua Alta (High Water), at New York City’s Spectrum on Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 8pm. Spectrum is located at 121 Ludlow St., New York City. Admission is $15 general / $10 students & seniors.

Acqua Alta (High Water) will be the anchor of a month-long programming focus on global warming at Spectrum, with installations based on data curated by Ian Fenty, whose doctoral dissertation at MIT addressed global warming and its effects on our oceans.

“I wanted to create a program that is multifaceted like the surface of a sparkling stream in Venice,” says pianist Chai. “The music on this program features the piano’s range of expression, from exquisite nuance to bold gesture.”

John Cage’s athletic Water Walk is the centerpiece of the program. Written in 1959, John Cage’s Water Walk is scored for a number of objects, including bathtub, rubber duck, prepared piano and five radios. It was originally premiered on the Italian TV show Lascia O Raddoppia. Ninnananna from Marco Stroppa’s Miniature Estrose—a lullaby in which its out of worldly tremors creates a gentle watery shimmer and explores the two relations between two states of mind, with initiated knowledge one might trace hidden lullabies by Brahms, Schubert, Stravinsky and an Italian lullaby Stroppa’s mother used to sing to him. Scarlatti and Gibbons provides the sensation of traveling back in time in Italy, while Debussy and Ravel adds their watery imagery. Three world premieres by Nils Vigeland, Milica Paranosic and Michael Vincent Waller reflect contemporary composers’ take on global warming.

Acqua Alta (High Water) Concert Program:

• Milica Paranosic Bubble World Premiere
• Kurtag Hommage à Scarlatti
• Scarlatti, Sonatas
• Gibbons, Allemande (1613)
• Marco Stroppa, Ninnananna from Miniature Estrose
• Liszt, La lugubre gondola
• Debussy, Prelude La cathédrale engloutie
• Ravel, Une Barque Sur L’océan  from Miroirs
• Nils Vigeland, I Turisti World Premiere
• Michael Vincent Waller Acqua Santa World Premiere
• John Cage, Water Walk

Recently having made her Carnegie Hall debut at Zankel Hall, pianist Jenny Q Chai was praised by the New York Times’ Anthony Tommasini for her “resourceful technique and sensitivity” as well as playing that is “admirable for its refinement and directness.” Of her performance at the Keys to the Future Festival, Zachary Woolfe wrote, also in the New York Times: “Jenny Q Chai opened the concert playing two of Ligeti’s Études with rich tone and rhythmic clarity; especially strong was her “Cordes à vide.” In addition to Carnegie Hall, Jenny has played at New York venues such as Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, Symphony Space, the Stone and recently made her Chicago debut playing Schumann’s Kreisleriana at the Dame Myra Hess Series.

An adventurous and prodigiously talented young player, Jenny Q Chai cultivates a mercurial and engrossing stage presence and seeks to create “fairy tales for grown-ups” in her themed and multimedia concert performances. Ms. Chai’s unique programs include standard classical repertoire such as Schumann and Debussy to 20th and 21st century piano works, often by living composers, such as Marco Stroppa, with whom she has a close affiliation.

Recipient of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust’s 2011 Pianist/Composer Commissioning Project, first prize winner of the Keys to the Future Contemporary Solo Piano Festival, and recipient of the DAAD Arts and Performance award in 2010, Chai has premiered, most notably, Life Sketches and Five Pieces (for Jenny Q Chai) by Nils Vigeland, Intimate Rejection by Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, Messiaen’s Canteyodjaya (China premiere) and Marco Stroppa’s Innige Cavatina (US premiere). Chai has also premiered “Marriage (Mile 58) Section F” from The Road by Frederick Rzewski in Ghent, Belgium, where she was given the Logos Award for the best performance of 2008. Chai played the first contemporary solo piano concert in China this June at the National Performing Arts Center in Beijing; and she recently had the privilege of introducing the concept of prepared piano to a Chinese audience, with the world premiere of Mallet Dance by John Slover, in Shanghai Concert Hall.

Ms. Chai is currently working on a CD of the works of composer Nils Vigeland for Naxos Records.

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The Victory Project, coming to Brooklyn’s Roulette on March 22,  is an interactive duet installation between composer/electronic musician, Ryan Ingebritsen and performance/dance artist, Erica Mott. Victory Project presents a series of trans-disciplinary performances that incorporate interactive image, sound, text, movement and sculptural objects to dismantle allegories that confuse and conflate patriotism and perversity. Beginning with the inquiry into whether or not the concept of ‘victory’ is a gendered notion, the performances examine the female body as tool, symbol, bounty, and weapon during and post conflict.

The Victory Project takes place Friday, March 22nd at 8pm at Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NYC (On the corner of Atlantic & 3rd Aves)
. Tickets are $15/$10 Students/Seniors/Members. For more information visit roulette.org or purchase tickets online.

Structurally, the performance cultivates interdependency between movement and sound, allowing the body to become musical instrument both dictating musical composition and moving in ways to serve the sonic score. The touring version of the Victory Project features choreography, object design and performance by Mott, sound composition and performance by Ingebritsen, interactive video design by John Boesche, light design by Todd Clark, and dramaturgy by Ginger Farley.

Erica Mott is a performance/dance artist engaged and enlivened by the conversation between movement, sound, video and object. She has been called “ingenious” by the Chicago Reader’s Laura Molzahn, and “a vibrant performance-maker, object designer and choreographer engaged with distinctive creative research and methodology, effectively complimented by articulate and generous teaching skills, mentoring, community and audience building, and public discussion about her work” by CJ Mitchell, Deputy Director, Live Arts Development Agency, UK Erica’s recent performances were featured at Audio Art Festival (Krakow, Poland), Free Fall Festival (Toronto, Canada), Ingenuity Fest (Cleveland), NES (Skagastrond, Iceland), Museo del Ferrocarril and CASA (Oaxaca, Mexico), CAD Special Exhibitions Space/Artopolis (Chicago). Erica has collaborated nationally with Tim Miller, Eighth Blackbird, Sharon Bridgforth, Coman Poon/re[public] in/decency, and Guillermo Gomez-Pena. She works with Gomez-Pena’s collective, La Pocha Nostra, as a core troupe member. Erica is a recipient of several awards including Amnesty International’s Patrick Stewart Human Rights Fellowship (to teach performing arts South Africa), The Santa Fe Art Institute Residency, Ragdale Foundation Residency, NES Artist, the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Fellowship, MetLife New Stages for Dance, the City of Chicago CAAP program and the Neighborhood Arts Program (NAP).
http://www.ericamott.com/

Composer, sound designer, and electronic performer Ryan Ingebritsen‘s music and sound art focus on the multi-dimensional aspects of sound while attaining a degree of clarity and lyricism to permeate and reveal the musical structures he creates. His music challenges performers to extend beyond themselves into the realm of interaction with visual, electronic, and natural experience providing audiences a window to observe our multi-dimensional universe through the interplay and interaction of sound. A graduate of St. Olaf College and the University of Cincinnati, he won a Fulbright scholarship to Poland where he studied under Zbigniew Bujarski and Marek Choloniewski. He has collaborated with and been commissioned by artists such as Todd Reynolds (bang on a can), International Contemporary Ensemble, Third Coast Percussion, Beta Collide, Firewire, Till by Turring, Gold Sparkle and Stars Like Fleas. As a sound designer and engineer, he has worked with groups such as Grammy award winning ensemble eighth blackbird, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and has premiered works by Steve Reich, David Lang, Julia Wolf, Michael Gordon, and Steve Mackey. He has designed sound for the Tune In festival at the Park Avenue Armory including the New York premier of John Luther Adams’ Iniksuit as well as for the 2011 Reich 75th birthday celebration in Millennium Park.
http://wcawm.com/site/

Composer/Choreographer Series is part of Dance Roulette. Dance Roulette is made possible by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

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