Salsa Mania

Trumpeter, professor of music, and director of the Little Big Band jazz ensemble,  Mike Davison, previews Salsa Mania -- a night of music and dance beginning on March 30, 2013 at Richmond CenterStage. Salsa Mania will include a lecture at 6pm, dance lessons at 6:30pm, and a performance by Chris Washburn and S.Y.O.T.O.S. with special guests the UR Jazz Ensemble at 7:30pm. Tickets are available here.

University of Richmond Jazz Ensemble

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S.Y.O.T.O.S., With Chris Washburne, trombone

I remember the first time I heard the word salsa.  It was the 70s, and I was asked to play a gig in New York.  Since salsa was Spanish for “sauce,” I thought that the gig would include a meal!  Little did I know that salsa is a music and dance style that began in New York City. The music is a result of the blending of American jazz with a few styles of Cuban music including son, son montuno, guaracha, cha cha cha, mambo, and bolero.  New York City Latin music promoter Izzy Sanabria claims to have used the salsa label first in his English publication, Latin New York magazine, in 1973.  In spite of salsa’s sketchy etymological history, the music is a lot like the food – it is muy caliente (very hot!).  Instead of mixing tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers, you take Cuban rhythms, sprinkle in elements of American jazz – improvisation, harmony, horn voicings, and phrasing – mix it together and presto chango, you get salsa – the music! American jazz blended with the Cuban music called son in the 20s. Son is considered the perfect blend of the Spanish guitar and the African drum, and was mixed (here goes the food metaphor, again!) and received its sabor in Cuba. Son has been ‘updated’ or repackaged through the years, and turned into new styles of dance music in the United States and the world: Mambo and Latin jazz in the 50s, Salsa in the 60s, and Timba in the 70s.

As Gloria Estefan sings, “The Rhythm is Gonna Get You”… Salsa Mania is designed to get you on your feet! Saturday's concert will feature the University of Richmond Jazz Ensemble, led by Dr. Mike Davison, and New York’s hottest salsa group See You On The Other Side (S.Y.O.T.O.S) led by trombonist and Columbia University professor, Chris Washburne.

While completing my doctorate at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, I performed in the top jazz ensemble.  Chris, who was an undergraduate at that time, also performed in the group. After getting to know Chris’s outstanding playing, we did not see each other for years, until we both realized that we shared a similar interest:  Salsa!  Chris now leads the Louis Armstrong school of Jazz and the ethnomusicology area at Columbia University in New York City.  Since our reacquaintance, Chris has been our guest artist at the University of Richmond and also appears in my documentary Cuba: Rhythm in Motion.  Chris has performed with Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, Mark Anthony, Justin Timberlake, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, and the Duke Ellington Orchestra.  We are very excited to have Chris and his group perform on the Modlin Arts Series. Their blend of salsa is exciting, danceable, and fun!

The March 30th Salsa Mania event will include a lecture - a discussion by Chris and yours truly about salsa; a salsa dance class taught by Edwin Roa, and the concert.  The music is specifically designed to make you get up and dance.

In America, we say that when a baby finally stands up, she is walking.  In Cuba, they say that she is dancing!  We hope you will join us for Salsa Mania!  You might not eat, but you will certainly dance!

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Distinguished trumpeter Dr. Michael Davison is a University of Richmond Music Professor and Director of Jazz Ensmble. Davison is a legendary performer, respected professor, published composer, and ethnomusicologist. Davison’s love of music has shaped his life and career. He is in demand across the country as a classical and jazz performer and educator. As a performer, he has given jazz and classical recitals all over the United States as well as in parts of France, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, China and Cuba. Davison has recorded four jazz CDs as both a leader and sideman. His classical CD, Fenster, received rave reviews from the International Trumpet Guild Journal. Widely considered an expert in Cuban music, he performs and teaches Cuban music at the University of Richmond and worldwide. As a jazz musician, Davison has performed with the late tenor saxophonist and 11-time Grammy winner, Michael Brecker, popular jazz trombonist, Curtis Fuller and legendary Latin jazz saxophonist and composer, Justo Almario. He has also performed alongside some of Motown’s most iconic singers and groups, including Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations and The Four Tops. As a classical musician, Davison has performed with Rhythm and Brass, a group that plays everything from Bach to Pink Floyd. He has performed with the Wisconsin and Whitewater Brass Quintets, the Rochester Philharmonic, Wisconsin Symphony, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and the Richmond Symphony. Davison has performed for Pope John II and George Leonard Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury.

His influence as an educator goes beyond the University of Richmond campus. Davison also serves as trumpet instructor and head of the brass area at the world-renowned Interlochen International Arts Camp in Interlochen, Michigan. He hosted the International Trumpet Guild Conference in 1999 and is an Edwards Instrument Performing Artist. Davison, along with producer Ed Tillett, completed Cuba: Rhythm in Motion, a documentary tracing the musical genealogy between Cuban rhythms and American jazz. The film premiered on the campus of the University of Richmond in 2007 and has been shown around the world, including Spain, Australia and Mexico. Dr. Davison is presently writing a book on Cuban folk music. 

eighth blackbird and Nico Muhly

Tim Munro of eighth blackbird introduces Nico Muhly, who will be playing with the ensemble at the Modlin Center on March 20th. Tickets are available here.

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"I just whip in like a tornado...."

Composer Nico Muhly thinks fast, talks fast, writes fast, cooks fast. Sitting still is simply not for him. One week he's writing a ballet for the Paris Opera Ballet, the next touring Australia as keyboardist/composer with Sufjan Stevens and Bryce Dessner, the next working on a hollywood film score.

A conversation with Nico is a dizzying but thrilling intellectual roller coaster ride through myriad musical, pop-cultural, culinary, philosophical, cultural worlds. Loves: international phonetic alphabet, William Byrd, Benjamin Britten, Roland Barthes and A.M. Holmes. Hates: Whole Foods and "jib-jab music" (his term for the terminally avant-garde). His compositions reflect his omnivorousness. Philip Glass, Steve Reich and John Adams may be Nico's compositional grandparents, but his music fluently speaks so many languages (indie rock, 16th- and 17th-century English choral music) that it's better to just say that Nico's music sounds like...well, like Nico.

In rehearsal, Nico is a mood-enhancing drug. He almost never says "play softer" or "it should be faster," but will riff on a wild and LSD-trip-like conjunction of musical, poetic, literary or pop-cultural images (Rihanna or Chinese cooking or Mozart or Stravinsky) to make his point.

eighth blackbird's Modlin concert is a celebration of this fascinating young star's wildly fertile imagination. It features a clutch of four diverse pieces written by Nico over the past ten years (including two works commissioned by eighth blackbird), as well as music by Glass and Reich, huge figures in Nico's musical landscape. And Nico himself will appear with eighth blackbird (on organ and toy piano!) for two pieces.

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About Tim Munro
Born in Brisbane, Australia, Tim studied flute at Oberlin College, Queensland Conservatorium (Australia) and Australian National Academy of Music. His teachers included Michel Debost, Margaret Crawford and Patrick Nolan.

Tim has played with professional orchestras, chamber groups and new music ensembles around Australia. Highlights include concerto performances with the Queensland Orchestra, solo performances at the Melbourne Arts Festival and Bangalow Festival, and recordings for Australian radio and commercial CD release. He also participated in the Carnegie Hall Training Workshops and the Pacific Music Festival.
Composers he has worked with include Elliott Carter, Oliver Knussen, Aaron Jay Kernis, Joseph Schwantner, Tania Leon, Peter Sculthorpe and Brett Dean.

A classical music tragic, Tim likes to write and speak about music, and in an earlier life was Publications Coordinator of the Tasmanian Symphony.

Russian National Ballet's "The Sleeping Beauty"

UR Department of Theatre and Dance's assistant director of dance, Anne Van Gelder offers some context for the Russian National Ballet's adaptation of The Sleeping Beauty running March 14-15 at 7:30pm.  Tickets are available here.

As far back as I can remember, The Sleeping Beauty was a favorite fairy tale of mine.  The lure of a beautiful princess, a handsome prince, magical fairies and of course, the evil, vengeful witch made for plenty of opportunities for my sister and me to act out the story and to take on all of the roles.  It’s a fascinating fairy tale that has been re-told in myriad genres including Marius Petipa’s iconic ballet that premiered at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890.  

The ballet is one of Petipa’s masterpieces because it marries czarist spectacle though the virtuosic choreography with the outstanding musical score by Tchaikovsky. As was his custom, Petipa wrote the scenario for the ballet; the collaborative process involved his giving Tchaikovsky specific choreographic action to go with the musical phrases.  He even went as far as specifying which instruments were to be used for a particular musical passage. 

The rapidly evolving ballet technique of the late 19^th century lent itself to spectacle and proved to be the perfect vehicle for paying homage to the Romanov dynasty.  As Petipa was in service to the reigning czar, his version of The Sleeping Beauty or La Belle au Bois Dormant, is reminiscent of the court of Louis XIV, which served to flatter the Romanovs and the St. Petersburg elite.  By doing this, Petipa reinforced the notion that the Romanov dynasty was a constant and that nothing had changed nor needed to change since the reign of Louis XIV two centuries earlier.  

Petipa’s choreography utilized the corps de ballet in grand spatial patterns that seemed to echo those of 17^th and 18^th century French court ballets.  His proclivity for composing virtuosic divertissements for the ballerina was a means of revisiting the ornate ballet `a entrées so popular during the Baroque period. 

So while we may enjoy the fairy tale from our childhood, Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty is much more.  The historic style he evokes through authentic period processionals and dances entertained, instructed and emotionally moved the audience while serving to flatter and reinforce the authority of the monarchy much as the 17^th and early 18^th century court dances did for Louis XIV.  It is worth noting, then, that the Russian National Ballet adaptation originates from the Petipa version of 1890 with its grandeur, magic, opulence and spectacle.  The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet that is not to be missed!  

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ANNE NORMAN VAN GELDER Assistant Director of Dance holds degrees from Virginia Intermont College (B.A.) and the University of Utah (M.F.A.) in Choreography and Pedagogy.  Her career as performer, educator and choreographer has enabled her to work with Conrad Ludlow, Willam Christensen, Alun Jones, Li-Chou Cheng, Ford Evans, Richard Munro, and Tom Pazik among others and she has served as ballet mistress/régisseur for several companies.   She taught beginner to advanced levels of ballet technique at the University of Utah, Virginia Intermont College and the Willam F. Christensen Center for Dance. She regularly gives master classes at the American College Dance Festival and recently gave a workshop at VCU’s School of Fine Arts.  While in Utah, she created choreography for members of the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team and she has also created choreography for Theatre Bristol, Park City Shakespeare Festival, the Ogden Symphony and the Roanoke Symphony.  She continues to study dance regularly, including Baroque dance workshops in NYC with noted historic dance experts, Thomas Baird and Paige Whitley Bauguess. Ms. Van Gelder’s choreography has been seen throughout Virginia and Utah and recently, she worked with artists of the Saratov Academic Youth Theatre on their US premiere production of The Humpbacked Horse, featuring dances she re-set.  She created choreography for these URP&D productions:  Wings, The Tempest, Fiddler on the Roof, The Chairs and The Bald Soprano directed by Italian director and filmmaker, Paolo Landi. Most recently, Ms. Van Gelder served as period movement stylist for the URP&D production of Moliere’s The Learned Ladies.  She appeared as Hedy in UR’s production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Ms. Van Gelder is a recipient of the Vera Volkova Award for choreography, is a member of the dramatic fraternity, Alpha Psi Omega and considers her study of dance ongoing.

Black Grace Dance Company

The Executive Director at the Modlin Center for the Arts, Deborah Sommers, expounds upon the New Zealand-based dance company, Black Grace, and its visionary founder, Neil Ieremia. The company is coming to the Modlin Center March 7-8. Tickets are available here. 

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I first saw Black Grace Dance Company in 2004, then an all-male dance troupe, and was quite moved by the company’s work – a fusion of dance and cultural styles with electrifying rhythms. The dancers were of exceptional athletic ability.  Today, Black Grace is not only known as New Zealand’s leading contemporary dance company, but as an internationally acclaimed group still performing powerful and expressive work that continues to inspire.

Since its inception in 1995, Black Grace has been in motion. Neil Ieremia, the Artistic Director and founder of Black Grace, was raised by Samoan parents in New Zealand. 

Growing up within this context, he became interested in dance as a way to express the stories, emotions, and concerns of the contemporary Pacific Islander.  To that end, the term ‘black’ in Black Grace refers to the courage in the New Zealand Māori-Pacific Islander argot of the 1980s.

Since 2005, Ieremia’s vision has extended beyond the original incarnation of the company. He describes the company’s evolution as transformative, and this has influenced both the span and vocabulary of his work, and the configuration of the dancers involved in each project. The dance troupe today consists of Pacific Islander, Samoan, and Maori male and female performers. 

Through a blend of styles, Ieremia’s distinctive, rhythmically-charged, and pattern-oriented choreography addresses ideas about human nature, cultural disparities, and fosters dialogue about a world and country still separated by the cultural differences of its population.  In his soul-searching exploration of identity, reflecting both his own inner search, and what it means to be the company called Black Grace, Ieremia introduces a new dance vocabulary by mixing Pacific Island traditional and contemporary dance styles.   

Ieremia has also choreographed for the Royal New Zealand Ballet, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Opera New Zealand.  In 2003 he was nominated for the prestigious international Rolex Mentor Programme, and in 2005 received the Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award. He has created programs for inner city youth, and he is a 2009 recipient of the Paul D. Fleck Fellowship in the Arts from The Banff Centre, Canada.

The Modlin Center’s program includes the following work, which encompasses some of the following styles.

Pati Pati, which uses body percussion influenced by traditional Samoan Sasa (seated dance) and Fa’ataupati (slap dance).  

Amata Act 3 – an excerpt from a full-length work entitled “Amata” that explores the theme of change. The piece uses compositional structure and floor patterns based on Samoan fine mats known as “ie toga.” The mat’s linear nature and weave pattern can also be found in the movement vocabulary, which is composed of various versions of a basic language phrase derived from letters, spoken conversations, arguments, and apologies. 

The evening concludes with Vaka. This piece uses a raft as a metaphor for hope and is based on travelling and displacement.  The experience of leaving home behind, saying goodbye to loved ones, and finding yourself in a new place and culture as so many immigrants have done across time is encapsulated in this piece.  It was inspired by the controversial portrayal of Maori explorers in the infamous painting “The Arrival of the Maoris in New Zealand” by Louis J. Steele and Charles F. Goldie 1898.  

As Ieremia explains, “The journey of every vaka (canoe) faces challenges and danger as it navigates towards an often unknown future.  We are constantly asked to evolve and adapt in order to survive.  How much of ourselves do we allow to change?” Ieremia has certainly addressed this question over many years.  It is a relevant question –one that many people may consider both individually and as a society in general. 

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As Executive Director of the Modlin Center for the Arts, Deborah Sommers is responsible for the 45-event Great Performances Series, four main stage productions by the University's theatre and dance department and the University Players and Dancers, 30 musical performances in the Department of Music's Free Concert Series, plus community events and performances throughout the year. Sommers also directs and teaches Richmond's arts management program and works with faculty across the disciplines to design academic components that coordinate with the Modlin Center's artistic programming.

Prior to joining the Modlin Center, Sommers was director of programming at Fairfield University's Quick Center for the Arts. Since 1992 Sommers has produced an 80-event season of national and international artists that attracts patrons from across the New York area. She also lead a K–12 outreach program touching 14,000 students with long- and short-term artist residencies in public schools, supervised an internship program for university students, and oversaw a children's theatre summer camp and adult summer festival chorus.

Before joining the Quick Center, Sommers was company administrator of the Performing Arts Center at the State University of New York at Purchase, coordinating the professional season programming, artists, and residencies. She also worked for the PepsiCo Summerfare Festival. A graduate of Hunter College with a bachelor's degree in music and education, Sommers subsequently earned both an M.B.A. and doctor of jurisprudence from Pace University. She is admitted to the New York and Connecticut bars and has sat on several boards and committees, including the United Nations Development Fund for Women USA-Connecticut Chapter, Fairfield Arts Council, and Connecticut Dance Alliance.