Clarisa López, daughter of Oscar López Rivera, will speak about the status of the humanitarian campaign to secure her father’s release from prison. With two months left to President Obama’s term, there is an effort to obtain a Presidential pardon. This presentation is part of a speaking tour with stops in New York, New York; Hartford, Conn.; and Holyoke, Mass.
Ms. López will also sign copies of Oscar’s recent book, Letters to Karina. The book is a collection of letters written from prison to his granddaughter, Karina.
About the Speaker Clarisa López Ramos is the only daughter of Oscar López Rivera, and family spokesperson for the Campaign to Free Oscar López Rivera. She is the mother of Karina Valentín López, the protagonist of “Cartas a Karina” by Oscar López Rivera.
She has spoken in many international forums, including the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United Nations (2014, 2015, 2016), participated in forums in Capetown City, South Africa, Nicaragua, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ecuador and Guatemala.
She attended the University of Puerto Rico, where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Global Management.
“El futuro es impredecible pero si se siembra siempre hay la posibilidad de que la semilla de frutos. Estamos sembrando y seguiremos pa’lante.” – Oscar López Rivera
Oscar López Rivera is the longest held political prisoner in the history of Puerto Rico – now 73 years old and serving a 70-year sentence in U.S. prison. He has been in prison for 35 years and has endured inhumane treatment through 12 years of solitary confinement. This moment is urgent that we continue to pressure President Obama before he leaves office on January 20, 2017, to grant an immediate Presidential pardon to Oscar.
Prepare for an evening of musical contrasts and creative surprises as eight Connecticut artists play songs by each other, rearranged in their own performance styles!
Each of the eight Rearrange Me artists will be secretly assigned one of the other artists. They will then choose a song and perform it as though it was their own. This means that a folk artist, if assigned a hip-hop artist, will rearrange and perform a song by the hip-hop artist in folk style… and so forth.
Each artist will only know their own Rearrange Me assignment, so the audience and the other performers will hear the pieces for the first time together.
What could a Hardanger fiddle player and a computer programmer possibly have in common? For Dan Trueman, an expert in both areas, it’s all just technology. And whether the eventual expression of his ideas requires old instruments or the invention of new ones, he is more concerned that the tools employed offer musicians the most engaging musical experience possible.
Real Art Ways presents the duo of Sō Percussion member Adam Sliwinski and Trueman in an exploration of some of humanity’s oldest and newest musical ideas.
Trueman, who is a programmer as well as a musician, has invented a fascinating new instrument, called the “bitKlavier,” which reinvigorates the piano for the digital age. His instrument sounds, looks, and is played like a piano, but runs through a laptop so that it can bend, multiply, and stretch the notes.
Trueman says, “Like the prepared piano, the prepared digital piano feels just like a piano under the hands and often sounds like one, but it is full of surprises; instead of bolts and screws stuck between the piano strings, virtual machines of various sorts adorn the virtual strings of the digital piano, transforming it into an instrument that pushes back, sometimes like a metronome, other times like a recording played backwards.”
Many of his compositional ideas come from an ancient instrument from Norway called the “Hardanger” fiddle. Dan will perform some traditional tunes on the fiddle, and Adam will perform Trueman’s set of etudes for the bitKlavier called “Nostalgic Synchronic.”
After the concert, Adam and Dan will be available to speak informally with audience members and answer questions.
This concert will appeal to fans of traditional folk music, cutting edge tech, and the classical piano tradition.
Find lots of interesting info about the duo, the bitKlavier, the etudes and more at their website.
Funding for this concert is provided by the Edward C. & Ann T. Roberts Foundation.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Dan Trueman Dan Trueman is a composer, fiddler, and electronic musician. He began studying violin at the age of 4, and decades later, after a chance encounter, fell in love with the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, an instrument and tradition that has deeply affected all of his work, whether as a fiddler, a composer, or musical explorer.
Dan’s current projects include: a double-quartet for So Percussion and the JACK Quartet, commissioned by the Barlow Foundation; Olagón — an evening length work in collaboration with singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, poet Paul Muldoon, and eighth blackbird; the Prepared Digital Piano project; a collaborative dance project with choreographer Rebecca Lazier and scientist Naomi Leonard; ongoing collaborations with Irish fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and guitarist Monica Mugan (Trollstilt). His recent albums with Adam Sliwinski (Nostalgic Synchronic), Ó Raghallaigh (Laghdú) and So Percussion (neither Anvil nor Pulley) have met with wide acclaim.
His explorations have ranged from the oldest to the newest technologies; Dan co-founded the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, the first ensemble of its size and kind that has led to the formation of similarly inspired ensembles across the world, from Oslo to Dublin, to Stanford and Bangkok. Dan’s compositional work reflects this complex and broad range of activities, exploring rhythmic connections between traditional dance music and machines, for instance, or engaging with the unusual phrasing, tuning and ornamentation of the traditional Norwegian music while trying to discover new music that is singularly inspired by, and only possible with, new digital instruments that he designs and constructs. His tools of the trade are the first-of-its-kind Hardanger d’Amore fiddle by Salve Hakedal (played with a beautiful baroque bow by Michel Jamonneau), and the ChucK music programming language by Ge Wang.
Dan’s work has been recognized by fellowships, grants, commissions, and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, the Fulbright Commission, the American Composers Forum, the American Council of Learned Societies, Meet the Composer, among others. He is Professor of Music and Director of the Princeton Sound Kitchen at Princeton University, where he teaches counterpoint, electronic music, and composition.
Adam Sliwinski Adam Sliwinski has built a dynamic career of creative collaboration as percussionist, pianist, conductor, teacher, and writer. He specializes in bringing composers, performers, and other artists together to create exciting new work. A member of the ensemble So Percussion (proclaimed as “brilliant” and “consistently impressive” by the New York Times) since 2002, Adam has performed at venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, The Bonnaroo Festival, Disney Concert Hall with the LA Philharmonic, and everything in between. So Percussion has also toured extensively around the world, including multiple featured performances at the Barbican Centre in London, and tours to France, Germany, The Netherlands, South America, Australia, and Russia.
Adam has been praised as a soloist by the New York Times for his “shapely, thoughtfully nuanced” playing. He has performed as a percussionist many times with the International Contemporary Ensemble, founded by classmates from Oberlin. Though he trained primarily as a percussionist, Adam’s first major solo album, released in 2015 on New Amsterdam, is a collection of etudes called Nostalgic Synchronic for the bitKlavier, an invention of Princeton colleague Dan Trueman. In recent years, Adam’s collaborations have also grown to include conducting. He has conducted over a dozen world premieres with the International Contemporary Ensemble, including residencies at Harvard, Columbia, and NYU. In 2014, ECM Records released the live recording of the premiere of Vijay Iyer’s Radhe Radhe with Adam conducting.
Adam writes about music on his blog. He has also contributed a series of articles to newmusicbox.org, and the Cambridge Companion to Percussion from Cambridge University Press features his chapter “Lost and Found: Percussion Chamber Music and the Modern Age.”
Adam is co-director of the So Percussion Summer Institute, an annual intensive course on the campus of Princeton University for college-aged percussionists. He is also co-director of the percussion program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and has taught percussion both in masterclass and privately at more than 80 conservatories and universities in the USA and internationally. Along with his colleagues in So Percussion, Adam is Edward T. Cone performer-in-residence at Princeton University. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts and his Masters degrees at Yale with marimba soloist Robert van Sice, and his Bachelors at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with Michael Rosen.
New York City-based new music chamber group loadbang is building a new kind of music for mixed ensemble of trumpet, trombone, bass clarinet, and baritone voice.
Since their founding in 2008, they have been praised as ‘cultivated’ by The New Yorker, ‘an extra-cool new music group’ and ‘exhilarating’ by the Baltimore Sun, ‘inventive’ by the New York Times and called a ‘formidable new-music force’ by TimeOutNY. Their unique lung-powered instrumentation has provoked diverse responses from composers, resulting in a repertoire comprising an inclusive picture of composition today.
Group members are William Lang on trombone, Carlos Cordeiro on bass clarinet, Jeffrey Gavett singing baritone and Andy Kozar on trumpet.
They will perform selections from their “Monodramas,” featuring dramatic works by composers Andy Akiho, Hannah Lash, and loadbang’s trumpeter, Andy Kozar.
-Andy Akiho’s rhythmically intense Six Haikus sets texts by the composer to rhythms inspired by his experience as a virtuoso steel pan player.
-Hannah Lash’s Stoned Prince follows the exploits, real and imagined, of Prince Harry in her romantic avant-garde style.
-Andy Kozar’s uniquely explosive Mass dramatizes the composer’s questioning of faith in a jump-cut sequence of leaps across musical registers and styles.
On Tuesday, Sept. 13, Whole Foods Markets at Bishops Corner in West Hartford is hosting a 5% Community Giving Day to benefit Real Art Ways! Save your weekly shopping till that day and help RAW while you fill your fridge.
Whole Foods Market, 340 North Main Street Bishop’s Corner, West Hartford, Connecticut Store hours are 8 AM – 9 PM.
RAW staff will be on site between 11 AM and 6 PM to thank shoppers and talk about the history, programs and impact of Real Art Ways.
Thanks to Whole Foods Market for this generous program!
THREE FREE CONCERTS TO CELEBRATE 40 YEARS OF MUSIC!
Funding for RAW Jazz is provided by The Evelyn W. Preston Memorial Trust Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; and Edward C. & Ann T. Roberts Foundation.
Steve Swell’s Kende Dreams Friday, September 16 | 7:30 PM *At Asylum Hill Congregational Church, 814 Asylum Ave, Hartford, Connecticut,www.ahcc.org The group will play compositions inspired by the music of Hungarian composer Bela Bartok. “Kende” refers to the spiritual leaders of tribes in a region that became modern-day Hungary. According to Steve Swell, “It is never too late for we humans to collectively overcome our more negative inclinations, as I believe we are wired to fulfill the destinies of our best selves. That is my Kende Dream.”
Steve Swell – Trombone; Rob Brown – Alto Saxophone; William Parker – Bass; Gerald Cleaver – Drums
“ …Swell and his cohorts have created a spry and individual take on the improvised language of human interaction, whether drawn from folk musics or rigorous study.”– Clifford Allen, Jazz Right Now
Mario Pavone, Street Songs/The Accordion Project Saturday, September 17 | 7:30 PM At Real Art Ways A suite of earthy tunes recalls music heard in the ethnically diverse neighborhoods of postwar Waterbury. Bassist/composer/bandleader Mario Pavone has a stellar reputation among fans of avant-garde jazz. His inspiration for these pieces was, “going to the drugstore for my aunts and my mother, hearing the various musics, Italian, Portuguese, Polish. I called it front-stoop music, and much of it was based on the accordion.”
Mario Pavone – Bass/Compositions; Dave Ballou – Trumpet/Arrangements; Tony Malaby – Tenor and Soprano Saxophones; Adam Matlock – Accordion; Peter McEachern – Trombone; Ben Stapp – Tuba; Leise Ballou – French Horn; Carl Testa – Bass; Mike Sarin – Drums
“ …Mr. Pavone’s sharp attack and forceful presence, was kinetic.” – Phillip Lutz, New York Times
Trio 3 Sunday, September 18 | 3 PM At Real Art Ways A group where music is the leader. The unconventional collaboration of internationally-recognized jazz masters, formed to centralize the members’ creative energies and promote a single governing principle: organic improvisation. Everyone is a distinct soloist but it’s definitely an unadulterated group-based effort. Deeply rooted in the tradition, these jazz veterans describe their sound as “futuristic music within the idiomatic continuum of jazz.” Like musical alchemists, Trio 3 boldly carries the music forward spinning 3-dimensional jazz, reconfiguring conventions of compositions, harmony, meter and melody.
Trio 3: Reggie Workman – Bass; Oliver Lake – Saxophone, Flute; Andrew Cyrille – Drums
“ …free jazz as rigorous discourse, and a direct response to nothing beyond its own brimming potential.”– Nate Chinen, New York Times
Join our informal music circle in the Loading Dock Lounge. Acoustic musicians of all levels are welcome to play along, sing your heart out or clap to the beat as we share our favorite traditional tunes.
Admission is free.
Snacks and drinks are available for purchase at the Cafe.
Music composed by the man himself, performed by musicians with whom Chapin spent his career playing.
DAVE BALLOU will conduct an hour-long concert, featuring Mario Pavone, Michael Sarin, Peter McEachern, Marty Ehrlich, Tony Malaby, Art Baron, Ben Stapp, and Nick Roseboro.
The concert will begin after the screening of the Thomas Chapin: Night Bird Song documentary and a short intermission, when The Whey Station food truck will be parked outside for a quick dinner.
Why should New Orleans have all the fun? Who cares if February in New England is a singularly bad time for outdoor parties? For the fourth year in a row, The Hartford Hot Several Brass Band are bringing honest-to-god carnival revelry to Hartford, with multiple stops in multiple places. There will be at least three brass bands, an army of dancers, a corps of drummers and steppers, giant puppets, delicious donuts, and more!
From 6 to 10 PM, the Hartford Hot Several Brass Band, the Boycott Brass Band (from Somverville, Mass.) and the Expandable Brass Band (from Northampton, Mass.) are bringing their brassy Mardi Gras funk to Real Art Ways for a final blowout that will leave your toes tapping all the way to May.
The Wadsworth Atheneum, Real Art Ways, and the Hartford Jazz Society co-present a performance by the incomparable blues/soul artist Shemekia Copeland at the Wadsworth Atheneum. With a voice that is alternately sultry, assertive and roaring, Shemekia’s wide-open vision of contemporary blues, roots and soul music showcases the evolution of a passionate artist with a modern musical and lyrical approach.
Copeland’s music follows in the tradition of Koko Taylor and Etta James, yet brings its own range of subtle emotion and soul inflection. Daughter of legendary Texas blues guitarist Johnny Copeland, she has worked with notable artists like Dr. John, Ruth Brown, and Steve Cropper.
A local blogger once called our Creative Cocktail Hour a “rite of passage for anyone who wants to call herself a Hartford resident.”
Held on the third Thursday of every month, CCH represents the best of everything Real Art Ways has to give: innovative art, invigorating music, and hundreds of the most interesting and open-minded people to share the experience.
December’s Creative Cocktail Hour will feature the return of our Winter’s Eve Holiday Market, with beautiful gifts and goods from some amazing local vendors, including:
You’re invited to the Governor’s mansion for a reception marking the beginning of Real Art Ways’ 40th year. We’ll be raising a glass with friends old and new, and raising funds for our educational programs.
The drinking, the chatting, the networking — but in an arts space, it’s sophisticated!
On Friday, March 4 from 6 to 9 PM, join us for our FINAL OUT in 860 cocktail hour: an evening filled with intriguing people, cocktails and culture. Light refreshments are provided.
