State of the Arts
May. 9th, 2012 05:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogGood but cautious signs today. I had business in Rochester last week that I moved to today, and it worked out perfectly for me to attend WXXI-FM's live lunchtime broadcast of Deanna Witkowski's mostly Chopin concert at the Hochstein Music Hall downtown. Its performance hall isn't as famed as the Kodak stage or the smaller Kilbourn at the Eastman, but it's beautiful, and intimate, with both acoustics and stained glass to die for.
Deanna performed her own arrangements of three Chopin nocturnes, finished with a kickass adaptation of his Prelude in E-flat minor (which, and I may be the only one to think this, may have contained a riff most famously heard in Johnny Carson's Tonight Show theme), and also included an Antonio Jobim piece, originally named "Amparo" when he composed it for a 1969 movie soundtrack, but eventually retitled to "Olha Maria" when Chico Buarque and Vinicius de Moraes gave it lyrics some years later. We didn't hear those words today, but did hear some awesomeness of piano and a truly inspired performer behind the keyboard.
If I had any concern about the performance, it was about the audience- or rather, the audience that wasn't there. I'd guess the average age was close to 70, most of them jitneyed in from all the upscale Senior Living Communities that surround the area. There were a few younger folks sprinkled around, but how many were connected with the broadcast, I couldn't say. They shooed us out pretty quickly, mainly to make room for all the walkers and canes needing to descend before the 1:00 servings of fruit cup back at Elderberry Woods, but I ducked back in after they'd been cleared and found Deanna by the table of CDs, and picked up the older of her two prior mainly-jazz albums; we'd been gifted the other for supporting her next CD project, and that collection of Chopin improvisations (which had been scheduled to be released in connection with this appearance but is now delayed until fall) will also be sent to us as a thank you.
And, since she's probably reading this, the only final thing to say is, No. Thank YOU.
----
Meanwhile, closer to home, this morning brought some nice news for the theatrical community: Buffalo's Studio Arena Theater facility, the oldest and only full-time professional and producing venue of theatre here, has been cleansed of several million in debt and is scheduled to begin productions again in the fall. It will be managed with Shea's, the local home of the bus-and-truck Broadway events that will hopefully help subsidize the more adventurous and thoughtful works of the likes of A.R. Gurney, who had several premieres of his works there.
Here, too, I suspect we will find a mostly older crowd coming by. And that's a shame, for both of these cities have downtowns in search of "critical mass" to make them be more than 8-hour-a-day cubicle pits, and young professionals are a big part of that target. Today's event in Rochester was wonderful, workday-appropriate brief, and free. Live theater should be made just as accessible to the next generation of arts lovers- and both should be constantly thinking of ways to immerse themselves in the media that this generation uses.
Yaknow, like blogs;)
Deanna performed her own arrangements of three Chopin nocturnes, finished with a kickass adaptation of his Prelude in E-flat minor (which, and I may be the only one to think this, may have contained a riff most famously heard in Johnny Carson's Tonight Show theme), and also included an Antonio Jobim piece, originally named "Amparo" when he composed it for a 1969 movie soundtrack, but eventually retitled to "Olha Maria" when Chico Buarque and Vinicius de Moraes gave it lyrics some years later. We didn't hear those words today, but did hear some awesomeness of piano and a truly inspired performer behind the keyboard.
If I had any concern about the performance, it was about the audience- or rather, the audience that wasn't there. I'd guess the average age was close to 70, most of them jitneyed in from all the upscale Senior Living Communities that surround the area. There were a few younger folks sprinkled around, but how many were connected with the broadcast, I couldn't say. They shooed us out pretty quickly, mainly to make room for all the walkers and canes needing to descend before the 1:00 servings of fruit cup back at Elderberry Woods, but I ducked back in after they'd been cleared and found Deanna by the table of CDs, and picked up the older of her two prior mainly-jazz albums; we'd been gifted the other for supporting her next CD project, and that collection of Chopin improvisations (which had been scheduled to be released in connection with this appearance but is now delayed until fall) will also be sent to us as a thank you.
And, since she's probably reading this, the only final thing to say is, No. Thank YOU.
----
Meanwhile, closer to home, this morning brought some nice news for the theatrical community: Buffalo's Studio Arena Theater facility, the oldest and only full-time professional and producing venue of theatre here, has been cleansed of several million in debt and is scheduled to begin productions again in the fall. It will be managed with Shea's, the local home of the bus-and-truck Broadway events that will hopefully help subsidize the more adventurous and thoughtful works of the likes of A.R. Gurney, who had several premieres of his works there.
Here, too, I suspect we will find a mostly older crowd coming by. And that's a shame, for both of these cities have downtowns in search of "critical mass" to make them be more than 8-hour-a-day cubicle pits, and young professionals are a big part of that target. Today's event in Rochester was wonderful, workday-appropriate brief, and free. Live theater should be made just as accessible to the next generation of arts lovers- and both should be constantly thinking of ways to immerse themselves in the media that this generation uses.
Yaknow, like blogs;)