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VOLUME 7 / NUMBER 1
Brandeis University
brandeis university / art for curious minds / fall 2010
The Art of
Making Art
Brandeis Theater Company’s
“Sunday in the Park with George”
WaterWays at the Rose
Jewish Music of the Italian Renaissance
Framing the Art World
ART FOR CURIOUS MINDS
Art Isn’t Easy
FALL 2010
Vol. 7, Number 1
Contents
By Scott Edmiston, Director, Office of the Arts
Bit by bit, putting it together
Piece by piece,
only way to make a work of art
Every moment makes a contribution
Every little detail plays a part
Having just a vision’s no solution
Everything depends on execution
Putting it together
That’s what counts
Has there ever been a more deliciously
succinct description of the creative process
than this Stephen Sondheim lyric from
“Sunday in the Park with George?” This
semester, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to direct this landmark musical in a
new production by the Brandeis Theater
Company. Sondheim and his collaborator,
James Lapine, made an extraordinary work
of art about, well, the art of making art. It is a
unique (dare I say harmonic?) convergence
of theater with visual art and music. To help
connect these interdisciplinary dots, I turned
to two friends on the Brandeis faculty. In our
cover story, art historian Nancy Scott and
musical theater composer Neal Hampton
consider why, in Sondheim’s words, “art isn’t
easy — any way you look at it.”
c
brandeis university | State of the Arts
“Sunday in the Park with George” dramatizes how the 19th-century painter Georges
Seurat developed his pointillist technique
and provides a multifaceted look at what it
means to be an artist. Artists are depicted
as misunderstood, selfish, obsessive — but
able to see a world that others cannot and
to bring a magnificent order to that world.
The play captures something enviably
romantic about the creative life — standing
at an easel with a palette on a sunlit Sunday
afternoon, capturing forever a shimmering
moment in time. “Work is what you do for
other people,” one character sings. “Art is
what you do for yourself.” But Sondheim and
Lapine also reveal the darker, more complex colors beneath the surface. Seurat’s
masterpiece does not emerge in a divine
stroke of inspiration, but from years of personal sacrifice, methodical experimentation
and sheer hard work.
The second act of the musical takes place
100 years later as Seurat’s great-grandson,
also an artist, tries to navigate through the
contemporary art world. We are shown that
an artist’s life today is no longer about the
pleasure of paint on canvas. It is a technology-driven process dominated by donors,
media, museum politics and the public’s
constant demand for something new. Trying
to reconcile the purity of creative expression
and the reality of survival is something that
I see artists, actors and musicians confront
every day. Was it easier to be an artist in
Seurat’s time, or do we simply view it now
through a more romantic frame?
One of the many things I admire about
“Sunday in the Park” is the way this twoact/two-century story creates connections
between the art of the past and the present.
In the Brandeis School of Creative Arts,
our students are continually doing just that
— seeking new interpretations of classics
through fresh eyes and making new artistic
discoveries inspired by the visionaries who
preceded them.
State of the Arts is
published twice a year
by the Office of the
Arts and the Office of
Communications.
For example, in this issue of State of the
Arts, you can read about three recent
Brandeis graduates who received degrees in
art history and are now exploring new paths
for visual art in the 21st century. Musicologist Seth Coluzzi offers insight into the fall
concert by Fretwork, a British ensemble that
unites music of the Renaissance with new
music, connecting themes across time. The
Rose Art Museum’s “WaterWays” exhibition
offers great works from its historic collection, and next door, in studio art classrooms,
artists of a new generation are learning
technique, shaping their vision and defining
their creative identity. Meanwhile, the actors,
designers and stage crew are over at the
Spingold Theater Center, putting it together.
The Office of the Arts
Director
Scott Edmiston
And that … is the state of the art.
Program Administrator
Ingrid Schorr
2 theater
8 music
Design
Zak Kubert
University Photographer
Mike Lovett
Publications Editor
Cathy Mallen Webber
13 visual arts
Production Manager
Tatiana Anacki ’98
Contributors
David Colfer
Seth Coluzzi
Roy Dawes
Judith Eissenberg
Stephanie Grimes
Neal Hampton
Leigh Hilderbrandt
Shawna Kelley
Michele L’Heureux
Kristin Parker
Nancy Scott
Joy Vlachos
Correspondence
Office of the Arts
MS 052
Brandeis University
PO Box 549110
Waltham, MA
02454-9110
19 the art of the matter
20 artifacts
21 calendar
brandeis.edu/arts
State of the arts | brandeis university
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theater
Two brilliant artists — one a painter and one a composer — from different centuries
and continents find communion in a work of theater about the art of making art.
“Sunday in the Park with George,” 1984. Photo by Martha Swope.
The second act leaps ahead 100 years to America,
creation of his masterpiece
where Seurat’s great-grandson, also an artist,
“A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of
unveils his latest laser sculpture. Consumed with the
La Grande Jatte” and the tumultuous
pressure of securing grants and impressing donors,
relationship of Seurat with his muse
curators and critics, he feels that he has lost his artisand mistress, Dot. In addition to
tic integrity. He travels to France to visit the Island of
exploring the creative process, it is
La Grande Jatte in an attempt to reclaim his ancestry
a love story about the personal
and his identity as an artist.
sacrifices that artists must make
sometimes in service to their gifts.
In the articles that follow, Nancy Scott, professor of art
Sondheim, a prolific and muchhistory in Brandeis’ Department of Fine Arts, and Neal
honored composer who made his
Hampton, an associate professor who teaches musical
Broadway debut as the lyricist for
theater composition in the Department of Music, share
“West Side Story” (1957), depicts the
their insights on Seurat, Sondheim and this theatrical
artist’s process as one of both pain
convergence of the visual and performing arts.
and glory, a blessing and a curse.
Georges Seurat, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte,” 1884, Art Institute of Chicago
Composition. Balance. Light. Harmony. This fall, theater, music and
fine arts at Brandeis share a common stage — and canvas — in the
Brandeis Theater Company’s production of “Sunday in the Park with
George.” Written by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and James
Lapine (book), the musical premiered on Broadway in 1984 and
astonished audiences with its innovative themes and form. Frank Rich,
of The New York Times, hailed it as “a musical theater breakthrough,”
saying, “Sondheim has transcended four decades of Broadway history
[to create] perhaps the first truly modernist work … an audacious,
haunting and, in its own personal way, touching work.” It received the
New York Drama Critics Award, eight Drama Desk awards, three
Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
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brandeis university | State of the Arts
Sondheim drew his
inspiration from the life
and work of painter
Georges Seurat
(1859–1891).
Little is
actually known
about Seurat, and
the musical
is largely a work
of fiction. The first
act depicts the
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By Nancy Scott
Professor of Art History
In 1886, the critic Felix
Fénéon called the
famous painting now
in the Art Institute
of Chicago “sublimated reality”
and declared
it to be “a
complete,
new paradigm” expressive of a great procession of modern life. This he saw as
a new major movement away from
traditional impressionism, a “harmony
of contrasts.” Georges Seurat himself
would comment, “Others see poetry in
my painting: I only paint my method.”
Since Fénéon, many artists and
scholars have debated the impact of
Georges Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon
on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” The
large painting (just over 10 feet wide
by seven feet high) was displayed for
the first time at the eighth (and last)
impressionist exhibition. The distant
and near views of the painting created
a disjunctive set of reactions: it was
both an eerily frieze-like arrangement
of figures in a park and an atomic
spray of pure color abstraction.
Seurat was clearing new ground for
perceptions of color and light.
Seurat’s contemporary, Claude Monet,
had an eye for color that could not be
taught, only imitated. While Seurat followed this academic practice, he also
brought to it a lifelong search for enhancing the sparkle and luminescence
of color. By studying the most innovative scientific theories of prismatic
color, he ultimately resolved to paint
the scene on the Grand Jatte with a
limited range of pure color. He divided
his palette into 13 pools of rainbow
tones, from deep purples to palest sky
blue, then further divided each tone
with an equal amount of white. He did
this in two portions: there were 39
colors in total on the palette.
4
Sondheim on the painting: “It’s the most magical of experiences. I can’t talk about it without
From
crying. When you get up close and see what that man did, it’s thrilling. Each one of those
these,
[dots] is a choice. Three million choices — however many dabs there are. This is the
Seurat
perfect painting for somebody like me to musicalize because it is all about design, and
constructit’s all about echo, and it’s all about the effect of this next to that, or apart from that.”
ed color
complementaries to convey the rhythm
and contour
in the parade of
modern life. We see
this immediately in
the pronounced bustle
of the woman strolling
with her gentleman and
in the pet monkey, its back
arched in parallel fashion.
The tether on a golden chain
indicates that the woman is
“kept.” James Lapine and
Stephen Sondheim called her
“Dot” and gave her glorious voice
as Seurat’s mistress — which she
decidedly was not. Madeleine
Knoblock, his real-life mistress,
appears in a later painting of her boudoir, titled “Young Woman Powdering
Herself” (“La Poudreuse”) and the
source for another song in the musical. At the time of Seurat’s sudden
death at age 31 none of his friends
knew of Madeleine’s existence, nor of
the child she would soon bear.
Stephen Sondheim and James
Lapine sought to re-imagine theme
and variations, rhythm and harmony
from Seurat’s masterpiece. Sondheim
reported that he first hoped to use only
as many instruments in the orchestra
as Seurat’s color tones. He ultimately
found that scheme too restrictive (by
his own account), yet he still contained
himself to the limited repetitive notes
we know so well from the mesmer­izing
musical score. Lapine had studied the
impressionist movement and even
visited the site — an overcrowded, very
urbanized Île de la Grande Jatte overloaded with modern high buildings.
Georges Seurat pushed himself to
understand a scientific method for
brandeis university | State of the Arts
achieving
something
utterly
new that
enchants us still.
Sondheim and
Lapine added another unforgettable
layer to our perceptions and imaginative
re-creation of that shimGeorges Seurat, “La Poudreuse,” (1890).
mering, unsettled society
that mixes high and low life Courtland Institute of Art.
in late 19th-century Paris
and then juxtaposed it to the
“art of making art” in our own
frantic, deal-making times.
Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters starred in the 1984 Broadway premiere of “Sunday in the Park with George.”
Photo by Martha Swope.
by Neal
Hampton
Associate
Professor
of Music
Sondheim on the music: “Seurat experimented with the color wheel the way one experiments with
a scale. He used complementary color exactly the way one uses dominant and tonic harmony. ...
Pointillism is in the instrumentation and accompaniment. It seemed effective to use rhythm to reflect
putting dots on the canvas.”
connection with his dead wife drives him to a revengeful rampage. Bobby, the perennial
bachelor in “Company,” can’t commit to a relationship. Georges Seurat’s fictional obsession with painting alienates his mistress; then three generations later, Seurat’s greatgrandson returns to Paris in an attempt to reconnect with lost artistic passion.
I’ll never forget the
first Sondheim musical I saw. It was the
first national tour of
In this musical, more than in any of his others, Sondheim seems to speak directly to
“Sweeney Todd,” starus. Georges sings mostly to the audience, rarely addressing other characters in
ring George Hearn and
song. The parallels between composer and his subject, of an artist pushing boundAngela Lansbury,
aries at the expense of public favor, seem especially clear. Like Seurat, Sondheim
and it came to
has his detractors — some have dismissed his music as too intellectual, lacking
Philadelphia when I was
warmth, not “hummable.” He addresses this in the song “No Life,” in which a
home on break from college. I’ve seen the show
couple languidly dismisses one of Seurat’s paintings: “All mind, no heart, no
several times since, and it remains one of my favorite
life in his art.”
works of musical theater. I love the sophistication of
Sondheim’s music and the ambiguity and wit of his lyrics.
But I find great life in Sondheim’s choices, both musical and dramatic. (In
There is an ironic — some might say postmodern — sensibilfact, many of his songs are about the act of choosing and the conseity to his work, which I find extremely interesting. Of course,
quences.) From my own ventures composing for the musical theater,
the craft is impeccable.
I know that the hardest choices to make are where to sing (has the
character earned the right?) and, then, what to sing about. If either
Sondheim has said he conscientiously tries not to do the same
of these is wrong, then whatever song you write probably won’t
thing twice (“If you are broken-field running, then it’s harder for
work in the show. Sondheim said that characters should sing
people to hit you with tomatoes”). “Sunday in the Park with George,”
when they become too anxious for their words to be contained
which some believe is his masterpiece, sounds unlike anything else
by speech.
Sondheim wrote. It draws inspiration from minimalist music, specifically the work of composer Steve Reich, who pioneered the genre. Listen
In “Sunday in the Park,” when the young artist fears that he
to how the musical accompaniment of “Finishing the Hat” captures the
has lost his way, Dot advises, “Stop worrying if your vision
spare pointillism of George’s brushstrokes, which are subsequently echoed
is new. Let others make that decision, they usually do. ...
in Dot’s powdering her face. George sings “more red,” Dot sings “more
Anything you do, let it come from you — then it will be
rouge” — two artists at their respective canvases. Brilliant. new.” Quintessential Stephen Sondheim, and great
advice for creative artists of any age.
Musical styles aside, “Sunday in the Park’s” struggle for emotional connection
is a theme that recurs throughout Sondheim’s canon. Sweeney Todd’s loss of
State of the arts | brandeis university
5
Brandeis Theater Company
Through its innovative productions, the Brandeis Department of Theater Arts sets the stage for the future of America theater. Productions are
held on two stages in the Spingold Theater Center. Tickets are $18/$20; $9/$10 for students. Enjoy the four-play season for $55/$65.
To purchase tickets, go to Brandeis Tickets in Shapiro Campus Center, call 781-736-3400 or visit go.brandeis.edu/BrandeisTickets.
Three Sisters
By Anton Chekhov
Adaptation by Tracy Letts
Directed by Adrianne Krstansky
Featuring guest artists Janet Morrison and Craig Mathers
Sept. 30–Oct. 10
East Coast premiere!
Theater Clubs
The Undergraduate Theater Collective presents student-produced plays and musicals in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater.
Tickets are $3–$5 and are available at Brandeis Tickets in the Shapiro Campus Center, at 781-736-3400 and online at
go.brandeis.edu/BrandeisTickets.
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” Tympanium Euphorium (2010)
Photo by Asher Krell
The enduring classic about a family’s dreams and the fragile ties that
hold them together. Tracy Letts, the Pulitzer Prize– and Tony Award–
winning author of “August: Osage County,” has created a compelling
new adaptation of Chekhov’s 1900 drama. Irina, Masha and Olga long
to find grace in the modern world and return to the happiness they
knew as children in their native Moscow. Through their journey of love
and loss, they come to realize the true meaning of home.
Sunday in the Park with George
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Lapine
Directed by Scott Edmiston
Musical direction by Todd Gordon
Nov. 18–21
Little Monsters
By Maria Alexandria Beech
Feb. 17–20, 2011
The Winter’s Tale
Hold Thy Peace
Nov. 11–14
Delight in Shakespeare’s bittersweet fable of marriage, betrayal,
redemption — and the
changing seasons of love.
black Comedy/White Lies
Hillel Theater Group
Nov. 18–21
Two one-acts by Peter Schaffer (“Equus”;
“Amadeus”): A party where mishaps abound
during an electrical blackout; and a fortuneteller
whose clients’ futures are stranger
than truth.
Join the international celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday. In this Pulitzer Prize–
winning musical, the life of Georges Seurat and his most famous painting, “A Sunday Afternoon
on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” come vividly to life. Through light, color and harmony, discover
surprising truths about making art, seeing art and how art connects our lives … dot by dot.
Please Don’t Attend This…
Boris’ Kitchen
Dec. 3–4
Professional and collegiate troupes perform
original sketch comedy in this annual festival of
irreverence, impertinence and utter disrespect.
Mature audiences.
A workshop production of a new play produced in cooperation with off-Broadway’s Primary
Stages. Possibly gifted poet Sara and her hypochondriac mother live in constant struggle,
motivating Sara to find a relationship and a way out. But in her pursuit of the perfect mate
through Internet dating, is she really looking for herself?
An irreverent, affectionate satire of teen angst and anomie. America’s
most-beloved comic strip kids are now in high school. CB’s dog is dead,
his best friend Van is a quasi-intellectual pothead and his once-sunny
sister is a brooding Goth outsider. Augh! Not so good grief all around.
Mature themes and language abound in this breakout hit from the 2004
New York International Fringe Festival.
The Wild Party
Tympanium Euphorium
Oct. 28–31
Bootleggers, flappers and other devotees
of booze and jazz invite you to indulge your
appetite for divine decadence in this musical set in the 1920s.
Performing Arts Clubs
Brandeis is home to more than 30 arts and culture
student clubs, including a cappella groups; improv
comedy teams; and ballet, folk, modern, hip hop and ballroom dance troupes. Through the Intercultural Center,
students of international backgrounds present performances that celebrate their diverse cultural traditions.
For more information, visit go.brandeis.edu/clubs.
Dog Sees God: Confessions
of a Teenage Blockhead
By Bert V. Royal
Directed by Summer L. Williams
April 28–May 1
The 2010–11 Brandeis Theater Company season is made possible through generous support from
the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Laurie Foundation, the Brandeis Arts Council, the
Poses Fund and the Robin, Barbara and Malcolm L. Sherman Endowment for the Performing Arts.
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music
Professional Concerts
The Brandeis Department of Music hosts an exceptional series of professional concerts each year featuring faculty and visiting artists. Professional
concerts begin at 8 p.m. in Slosberg Music Center. Tickets are $20 general, $10 for Brandeis community ($5 off when purchased in advance) and
$5 for students. Purchase tickets online at go.brandeis.edu/BrandeisTickets, or call Brandeis Tickets at 781-736-3400.
Joshua Gordon and Randall Hodgkinson
Passionately Modern: Music for Cello and
Piano After World War II
Sunday, Oct. 3, 3 p.m.
“Admirable chamber musicians who play with passion and
sensitivity.” —The New York Times
Revisit the great modernist era with Lydian String Quartet cellist
Joshua Gordon and pianist Randall Hodgkinson, who bring their
trademark balance, harmony and rhythmic precision to Benjamin
Britten’s Sonata in C major, op. 65 (1961), Gunther Schuller’s Duo
Concertante (1946) and Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata in C major,
op. 119 (1949).
Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble
New Friends/New Sounds
Saturday, Oct. 2, 8 p.m.
7 p.m. preconcert reception
Tickets for Dinosaur Annex are $20 (general) and $15 (students and seniors) and are available exclusively online at
www.dinosaurannex.org or at the door.
“Thoroughly entertaining … and altogether exceptional.” —The Boston Globe
Experience Boston’s premier contemporary music ensemble, passionately dedicated to presenting the finest music by living composers under the
artistic direction of Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin and Brandeis faculty member Yu-Hui Chang. The program includes “Wick” by Pulitzer Prize
winner Melinda Wagner; Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez’s “Trio-Variations,” inspired by Paul Klee’s “twittering machines”; the kaleidoscopic “Little Bits” by
Stacy Garrop; Keeril Makan’s explosive “2”; and Andrew Waggoner’s Hurricane Katrina-related “Soon, the Rosy-Fingered Dawn.”
Lydian String Quartet 30th
Anniversary Celebration
Gala Concert: Saturday, March 26, 2011
Celebrate the artistry of Brandeis’ exceptional resident quartet. For 30
years, the Lydians have received international acclaim for uniting the rich
European and American quartet tradition with their own interests in
contemporary and world music. Beginning in January 2011, Daniel
Stepner, Judith Eissenberg, Mary Ruth Ray and Joshua Gordon will
present an exquisite new series of concerts. For more information, visit
www.brandeis.edu/arts/concerts/lydian.
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brandeis university | State of the Arts
MusicUnitesUS
Music can widen the path to social justice and peaceful coexistence in the global community. This academic year, MusicUnitesUS presents two
residencies by world-renowned musicians. In October, Group Saloum brings Senegalese mbalax to the Afropop world stage, and, in March, Simon
Shaheen blends Arabic tradition with classical and jazz into a border-crossing hybrid. Join the exploration through concerts, workshops and open
classes on related topics. For a full residency schedule, visit go.brandeis.edu/MusicUnitesUS.
World Music concerts begin at 8 p.m. in Slosberg Music Center and are preceded by a free lecture at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 general,
$15 for Brandeis community ($5 off when purchased in advance) and $5 for students. Purchase tickets online at go.brandeis.edu/
BrandeisTickets, or call Brandeis Tickets at 781-736-3400.
Lamine Touré and Group Saloum
Residency: Oct. 13–16
Concert: Saturday, Oct. 16, 8 p.m.
“A hard-hitting dance mix that delivers both percussive fury
and joyful uplift. This is the African music of the future.”
—Afropop Worldwide
Traditional and popular African dance music ignite with elements of jazz,
funk and reggae. Lamine Touré is widely recognized as one of Senegal’s
leading percussionists, and his nine-piece ensemble crackles with the
sabar drums that form the backbone of the Senegalese sound, made
famous to U.S. audiences by Youssou N’Dour and Baaba Maal.
Born into a family of sabar drummers, Lamine Touré is a key figure in
the Senegalese music scene and has performed throughout Africa,
Europe and North America. This worldwide travel inspired him to introduce jazz, funk and reggae rhythms into the Senegalese mbalax genre.
Curating the residency is Patricia Tang, associate professor of music at
MIT, a specialist in West African music and founder and codirector of
Rambax, MIT’s Senegalese drum ensemble.
Simon Shaheen and Friends
Residency: March 10–12, 2011
Concert: Saturday, March 12, 8 p.m.
“Ecstasy best describes the exquisite performance given by [this]
virtuoso.” —Detroit Times
Nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, Palestinian oud and violin player
Simon Shaheen is one of the most significant Arab musicians of his generation. His music reflects his Arabic legacy while it forges new frontiers,
embracing Western jazz and classical styles.
The 2010–11 MusicUnitesUS residencies and world music
concerts are made possible in part by a grant from the Brandeis
Arts Council and by the CDQ Charitable Trust.
State of the arts | brandeis university
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Fretwork
Birds on Fire: Jewish
Music of the Italian
Renaissance
Saturday, Nov. 13, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $20 for general public,
$10 for Brandeis community ($5 off
when purchased in advance) and $5
for students. Purchase tickets online
at go.brandeis.edu/BrandeisTickets,
or call Brandeis Tickets at
781-736-3400.
The finest viol consort on
the planet.” —The London
Evening Standard
The acclaimed British viol consort
Fretwork performs music by
Salamone Rossi and other Jewish
composers of the Renaissance as
well as a new commission, “Birds
on Fire,” by the innovative contemporary composer Orlando Gough,
known around the world for his
work for ballet and theater.
Fretwork’s repertoire draws from
the Jewish composers expelled
from Spain in 1492, who
flourished in their new court and
theatrical venues and created
vigorous English dances, Dutch
fantasies and Baroque Italian
flourishes. Gough’s “Birds on Fire”
draws on Klezmer and Viennese
themes to evoke the interplay of
Jews and gentiles in Austria at a
time of impending tragedy.
Made possible by a grant from
the Brandeis Arts Council.
Rossi’s Renaissance
By Seth Coluzzi / Assistant Professor of Music
At the turn of the 17th century, musician Salamone Rossi had a unique
privilege among Jews in Mantua, a small dukedom in northern Italy: he
did not have to wear the yellow badge that signified Judaism.
Rossi (c1570–c1630) prospered as a composer and performer of
secular music for the ducal court of Mantua as well as the Jewish
theater, and he was seen in his own day as the herald of a renaissance in Jewish music. But with his 1623 publication “Hashirim Asher
Lish’lomo,” a collection of 33 choral settings of sacred Hebrew texts, he
drew harsh criticism from the Jewish community.
Music for the synagogue — improvised melodies based on ancient
chants — had remained essentially unchanged for centuries. Thus,
instrumental and choral music was banned from the synagogue both
as a sign of mourning for the destruction of the ancient temple Bet
HaMikdash and to preserve the traditional chants and modes from
gentile influences.
Rossi’s is the first publication of music with Hebrew texts (the texts are
written in reverse to accord with the left-to-right arrangement of the
music) and the first printed example of choral music for the synagogue
liturgy. The music proves a true synthesis of the two worlds in which
Rossi lived, essentially transplanting the prevailing styles of the Italian
madrigal and canzonetta into the synagogue. But even the passionate
defense of the Venetian Rabbi Leon Modena that prefaced the collection could not spare Rossi from censure — censure that deterred any
other composer from following in his path until the 19th century.
Rossi’s works form only part of the program featuring Jewish music for
viols by the renowned ensemble Fretwork (a repertory explored recently
by Brandeis’ own Early Music Ensemble). While perhaps not all so
entrenched in controversy, each work offers its own synthesis of
cultures and styles, from a family of Venetians composing for the
British royal court in 16th-century London (Joseph and Thomas Lupo)
to contemporary minimalist composer Orlando Gough.
Orlando Gough (b. 1953) is one of the United Kingdom’s most important composers for ballet, contemporary dance and
theatrical projects. Gough’s works include “Tall Stories,” a staged song-cycle for choir about immigration to New York in the
early 20th century; “The Singing River” for 12 choirs, 18 boats, two cranes and a locomotive; and “Open Port,” the closing
event of the Stavanger 2008 European Capital of Culture, for 750 singers, brass band and wooden trumpets.
Photo by Chris Dawes
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11
visual arts
Brandeis Student
Rose Art Museum
Ensemble Concerts
Brandeis’ outstanding student ensembles perform music ranging from classical to Renaissance to contemporary jazz. All student concerts
take place in Slosberg Music Center, unless otherwise noted, and are free and open to the public.
Brandeis Wind Ensemble
Sunday, Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
Ground control to Major Tom … blow your
mind with music from outer space.
Thomas Souza, director.
Brandeis–Wellesley Orchestra
Sunday, Nov. 21, 7 p.m.
Liszt’s “Hungarian Fantasy,” Hindemith’s “Der
Schwanendreher” and Sibelius’ Symphony
No. 1, featuring winners of the 2010
Concerto Competition: Hannah Saltman ’12,
viola, and Sang-Hee Min (Wellesley ’11), piano.
Neal Hampton, conductor.
Music Fest
Sunday, Oct. 17, 1 p.m.
A highlight of Fall Fest weekend! Experience
the Brandeis music ensembles in an afternoon
of harmonic convergence.
Brandeis University Chorus
Saturday, Oct. 23, 8 p.m.
Program includes Mozart’s rich, festive and
delicate Coronation Mass, K. 317.
James Olesen, director.
New Music Brandeis
Saturday, Oct. 30, 8 p.m.
World premieres of new music from Brandeis’
renowned graduate composition program.
Brandeis University
Chamber Choir
Sunday, Nov. 14, 4 p.m.
Music by the Renaissance composer William
Byrd, including “Mass for Four Voices.”
James Olesen, director.
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brandeis university | State of the Arts
Brandeis Early Music Ensemble
Saturday, Dec. 4, 8 p.m.
The Italian madrigal “La Mantovana,” which
made its way through history to become
Israel’s national anthem (“Hatikvah”) and other
works from the early Renaissance, on period
instruments. Sarah Mead, director.
improv Collective
Monday, Dec. 6, 7 p.m.
As Nina Simone said, “It ain’t been made up
yet.” Tom Hall, director.
Chamber Music Ensembles
Tuesday, Dec. 7, 7 p.m.
Classical music at its most intimate.
Judith Eissenberg, director.
Messiah Sing
Wednesday, Dec. 8, 4 p.m.
Shapiro Campus Center Atrium
Hallelujah! Join the Brandeis University chorus
and Brandeis–Wellesley orchestra, along with
a campus full of fellow music lovers, for our
annual celebration.
New Music Brandeis
Saturday, Dec. 11, 8 p.m.
World premieres of new music from Brandeis’
renowned graduate composition program.
“Source/Resource,” 2010, Michael Dowling
Brandeis Jazz
Ensemble
Sunday,
Dec. 5, 7 p.m.
Who’s afraid of the
big band Monk? The
coolest ensemble on
campus plays music
made famous by the
Thelonious Monk Big
Band of the early
1960s, arranged by
Oliver Nelson.
Bob Nieske, director.
The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis is home to
one of the most extraordinary art collections
of any academic institution. The collections
spans the past century in Western art, from
the early European and American modernists
up to the 21st century. When not on view, the
permanent collection is used as a teaching
resource and is available by appointment for
scholarly use. The Rose is free and open to
the public. Visit go.brandeis.edu/rose or call
781-736-3434.
Source/ReSource
Rose Lawn
Through Oct. 31
For the 2010 Festival of the Creative Arts,
Brandeis commissioned Source/ReSource, a
public artwork by Boston artist Michael
Dowling. The Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter
Artist-in-Residence, Dowling found his
inspiration in the continuing cycle of generations that come to Brandeis — the source —
and return to the world as a resource for
vision, justice, creativity and social change.
The festival opening ceremony at Source/
ReSource brought the Brandeis community
together for performances of theater, dance
and music; spiritual blessings; and a meaningful celebration of our shared values as
a community.
Art of New York:
The Rose at Brandeis House
Brandeis House
Opening Nov. 3
Brandeis House, the alumni meeting place
on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, is the site
of a special New York–themed exhibition
cosponsored by the Rose Art Museum and
the Alumni Association. The exhibition includes
works from the Rose collection that depict life
in the city, by artists including George Bellows,
Fletcher Martin and Max Weber, and
contemporary works by Noel Mahaffey and
Richard Estes. For more information, call
212-472-1501.
State of the arts | brandeis university
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Waterways
Regarding Painting
Rose Art Museum
Opening Oct. 7
This fall, a selection of major paintings are
on view in the Foster Gallery. “Painting”
refers to the act and the object, and the
exhibition examines both. Visitors are
encouraged to look closely — to revel in
the physical properties of the medium,
consider how the form of a painting
intersects with its content, gain access
to the artists’ processes and ideas, and
realize their own crucial role in finding a
painting’s meaning.
Rose Art Museum
Opening Oct. 7
The ancient Greeks understood the power
of transition that water holds. From liquid
to solid to vapor, water is the symbol for
metamorphosis. In Taoist tradition, water
is considered an aspect of wisdom, shaping
itself to what contains it and moving in the
path of least resistance. “WaterWays,” an
exhibition selected from the Rose’s permanent
collection, invites viewers to consider water as
subject, metaphor and muse.
On view are works by a range of artists
using a variety of techniques. Some painted
waterscapes in situ, poetically exploring the
relationship between ocean and land, water
and earth. Others used the fluidity of their
medium to express color and mood, throwing
paint (like the abstract expressionists) to
achieve “action painting” or pouring it onto
the canvas (like the color field painters),
allowing the paint to soak and pool onto
the surface.
We cannot go far from water. The recent
tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico is something that
affects us deeply, that registers in the water
table of our own bodies. In one way or another,
the artists in “WaterWays” have embraced
that aspect of themselves through their work.
Featured artists include William Kentridge,
Rona Conti, Fairfield and Eliot Porter,
Annette Lemieux and John Marin.
Forget It! Forget Me! 1962
Roy Lichtenstein
Gevirtz-Mnuchin Purchase Fund
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
“View of Barred Islands,” 1970,
Fairfield Porter (1907–1975).
Oil on canvas.
Herbert W. Plimpton Collection.
Courtesy of Hirschl &
Adler Galleries New York.
Roy Lichtenstein found his raw material in
the world of pulp comic books, elevating
the low-art genre into high art through a
process of selection and exaggeration.
By removing panels from their narrative
context and enlarging them into epic
proportions, he made them at once iconic
and fraught with mysterious meaning.
“Forget It! Forget Me!” is rendered in his
signature style. The ostensible subject
matter, the story of a relationship gone
sour, is immediately apparent, but without
the panels extending on their side, the
single moment remains inexplicable.
Lichtenstein pays tribute to the graphic
power of these mass-market productions
while simultaneously deflating the rhetoric
and pretensions of high art by replacing
them with obviously canned emotions
and stilted dialogue. Ironically, though
Lichtenstein borrowed his material from
the word of cheap, mass-produced
images, his signature distillations have
now become a shorthand signifier of “high
art” that can be used to impart instant
glamour to commercial products.
-—Miles Unger ’81 From “The Rose Art
Fairfield Porter was a painter and a noted art critic. His paintings reveal an understated extraordinariness
found within everyday moments. He was primarily self-taught, and his use of bold pools of color, merged
with a realist sensibility, serves to highlight the subtle moods of his subjects. Much of Porter’s body of work
is set within wooded areas of Maine and the Hamptons, and it largely captures portraits of friends and
family, homes and their interiors, and the surrounding landscapes. His approach to image making is plainly
revealed by his own words: “When I paint, I think that what would satisfy me is to express what [Pierre]
Bonnard said Renoir told him: Make everything more beautiful.”—Samara Minkin ’94
Museum at Brandeis.” New York: Abrams, 2009.
From “The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis.” New York: Abrams, 2009.
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women’s studies research center
Kniznick Gallery
The Kniznick Gallery at the Women’s Studies Research Center is where research, art and activism converge. Located in the Epstein Building at
515 South Street (across from the Brandeis/Roberts train station), the gallery is free and open to the public weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by
appointment. For more information, call 781-736-8102 or visit go.brandeis.edu/wsrc.
Meet three young alumni with three different answers to the question
“What do you do with an art history degree?” Reported by Ingrid Schorr,
office of the arts
Many notable critics, curators and writers have graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Brandeis, including Adam Weinberg ’77,
director of the Whitney Museum of Modern Art; Kim Rorschach ’78, director of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University; and author
Miles Unger ’81. The current generation is exploring art in unexpected places, through new technologies, and is definitely not letting the
economy get them down.
Sarah Brin ’08: Expanding Vision
I believe that in order to
make a life in the arts, you
have to combine thinking and
doing. So to get a bigger picture of a time period or region, I
would plan themes for my undergraduate semesters, like Russia,
or modernism. And to learn how to
solve real-life problems and manage
projects, I worked at the Rose Art
Museum and with the Festival of the
Creative Arts, which gave me responsibility as well as the space to experiment
and figure out what kinds of things I liked to do.
The emphasis at Brandeis on social justice and pluralism influenced
my desire to move toward art as social practice and away from the
mega-museum, gigantic biennial phenomenon. Now I’m in a graduate
program in art and curatorial practice at the University of Southern
California that focuses on challenging the traditional ideas of what a
museum can be, as well expanding art’s reach to historically
excluded publics.
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No Man’s Land: The Women of Mexico
Artist Talk and Video Screening
Through December 16
Artist’s Reception: Tuesday, Nov. 9, 5–7 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 11, 12:30 p.m.
This exhibition of color photographs by photojournalist Dana Romanoff
explores the changing role of women in rural Oaxaca, Mexico, who become sole breadwinners for their households when their husbands and
sons emigrate to the United States in search of work. The traditional
culture of machismo gives way to a new structure the women call “pura
mujer” — purely women. Romanoff’s work as a freelance photographer
and multimedia producer has appeared in numerous magazines, anthol­
ogies and newspapers and has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Dana Romanoff offers a historical context for immigration between
Mexico and the United States, illustrated by her photographs. She will
also screen her documentary “No Man’s Land: The Women of Mexico,”
which was short-listed for the 2010 Anthropographia Multimedia and
Human Rights Award and has been shown at film festivals around
the world.
brandeis university | State of the Arts
My research interest is in interactivity, especially in public spaces. So
maybe I already have my dream jobs! I cofounded and curate Artfronts,
which installs artworks in unoccupied retail space around Los Angeles,
and I’m helping design an alternative reality game at the Hammer
Museum that will send museum-goers in search of real-life information
in physical space. At school, I direct the Hillel Gallery, which means a lot
to me because of my family’s history of Jewish leadership and social
action in Los Angeles.
Eventually I’d like to get a Ph.D. in something like critical studies or
modern thought, because teaching is important to me. In a perfect
world, I could get paid to read the Internet and get people excited to
make things and to be nice to each other.
Adam Green ’07: Pop-Up Man
My roommate dragged
me to my first art history class, Jonathan
Unglaub’s Renaissance
course. It really appealed to me, and I
ended up majoring
in art history and
economics.
A career in art
did not occur
to me until
my senior
year, when I interned for Kimberly Dorazewski, the registrar at the
Rose. Handling and caring for the Rose’s superb permanent collection
was both inspiring and humbling. Then one day I came across a stack of
auction catalogs. I already loved and appreciated art aesthetically. Now I
was curious as to why artworks, like more traditional assets, had prices
that shifted due to economic factors as well as changes in artistic taste.
The art market, I decided, would be a fascinating field. The next step
was a master’s in art business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London, and now I work at Christie’s in New York and produce a podcast on
the art market for ArtTactic.
You might think that this is a terrible time to enter the business.
Actually, the economic downturn and the resulting plethora of vacant
retail spaces all over Manhattan inspired my business partner and me
to open a so-called pop-up gallery, taking a cue from the short-term
specialized retail stores around the city. After talking to nearly 100 real
estate firms, in March we found month-to-month space just south of the
Flatiron building and opened Volume Black. We’ve held three group
exhibitions so far of work by emerging artists from both within and
outside of New York.
Recently the art market has showed substantial signs of recovery, far
sooner than most within the industry had anticipated. It will be
interesting to watch over the next three or four months to see whether
this growth is sustainable or whether a double-dip is imminent.
State of the arts | brandeis university
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the art of the matter
Helene Lowenfels ’05: Seeker of the Obvious
and the Obscure
Growing up in New York City, I’ve always taken friends and family on art tours, and I figured if I’m
doing it anyway, I should start my own business conducting custom tours for the general public.
Brandeis University’s 2010 honorary
doctoral degree recipients included singer/
songwriter Paul Simon, who performed “The
Boxer” at the main commencement and
spoke at the School of Creative Arts commencement in Spingold Theater Center.
With NYC Art Tours, I lead people to both the obvious and the obscure. We’ll look at contemporary
art in the Chelsea galleries, then a walk to the new High Line greenway, where we discuss how its
architecture has changed the urban landscape. We visit the auction houses, which hold elaborate,
museum-quality exhibitions that you can take your time looking at (unlike at blockbuster museum
shows). Some of the best architecture in New York is in the Midtown office buildings, and you
don’t need to be an employee or a vendor, you can just walk in.
The Rose Art Museum welcomes Kristin
Parker and Dabney Hailey to the staff.
Parker, the collections manager and
registrar, previously worked at the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where
she was archivist, collections manager
and manager of the contemporary art and
public programs department. Hailey, the
director of academic programs, comes
Prospect I and II
March–April 2011
Experience the imaginations and technique
of the accomplished postbaccalaureate
studio artists. Two exceptional group
shows feature original work in painting,
sculpture, drawing and printmaking.
Brushes with Greatness
Dec. 1–Jan. 28
Reception: Dec. 1, 5–7 p.m.
Enjoy paintings, prints and drawings by gifted
undergraduate artists.
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brandeis university | State of the Arts
Dimensions 2 and 3
February 2011
Travel to new dimensions in painting, drawing,
sculpture, 3D design and photography.
The Boston Lyric Opera commissioned
Richard Beaudoin, Ph.D.’08, to compose
a chamber opera to be performed in
February 2011.
Debra Granik ’85 directed and cowrote
“Winter’s Bone,” which received the Grand
Jury Prize and the award for best screenplay at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
At Brandeis, I took advantage of every opportunity to bring people
and art together. I curated the Rose’s student loan collection, taught Waltham children at
the museum, and planned gallery trips for undergraduates. I still use all my books and
readings from my art history courses. I’ll never give up my “Janson’s History of Art!”
The Brandeis Department of Fine Arts invites students to experience art as both scholarship and a process of creation. It offers programs in studio
art and art history, and its postbaccalaureate program is recognized as one of the finest in the country. Student exhibitions are held in the Dreitzer
Gallery at the Spingold Theater Center and are free and open to the public. Visit go.brandeis.edu/finearts.
Shakespeare Company’s production of
“Othello,” directed by Steve Mahler (“Love’s
Labour’s Lost,” BTC 2010) with production
management by Brandeis’ Leslie Chiu.
Allan Keiler, professor of music, received
the 2010 Dean of Arts and Sciences
Mentoring award. Keiler also appeared in
a television documentary about the singer
Marian Anderson.
Whether my clients are young law associates or families or students, ultimately I want them to
have a better understanding of art historical themes and concepts. I do my research, but it’s
not just about me being scholarly. I also give them a chance to think aloud, ask questions and,
of course, have fun.
Brandeis student
Art Exhibitions
J. Bernard Calloway, M.F.A.’00, made his
Broadway debut in “Memphis,” winner of
the 2010 Tony Award. Also on Broadway
was Mary Faber ’01, featured in “Green
Day’s American Idiot” (nominated for Best
Musical Tony). Sheldon Best ’08 starred
off-Broadway in “Freed” as John Newton
Templeton, the first African-American to
attend a Midwestern college.
Michele L’Heureux is the new director
of visual arts at the Women’s Studies
Research Center and curator of exhibitions
in the center’s Kniznick Gallery. In June, she
curated “Out of Order” at the Narrows Gallery in Fall River, Mass.
Mitchell Bloom ’84 was named the assistant resident costume designer at the Metropolitan Opera. He has been designing for
Broadway for more than 20 years; recent
productions include “Mary Poppins,” “Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang” and “Movin’ Out.”
The Independent Music Awards honored
clarinetist Oran Etkin ’01 with “Best World
Beat CD” for his debut album “Kelenia,”
which fuses traditional Malian and Jewish music with modern jazz. Etkin’s recent
performance venues include Lincoln Center,
Joe’s Pub and the Knitting Factory.
Seeing the Future:
The Class of 2011
May 4–22, 2011
Celebrate the extraordinary talents of
the graduating artists in a group show
featuring their year’s work.
to Brandeis from the Davis Museum at
Wellesley College, where she was the Linda
Wyatt Gruber ’66 Curator of Painting,
Sculpture and Photography.
Hair
This summer, Fine Arts faculty members
exhibited around the world: Alfredo Gisholt
had solo painting exhibitions at Recinto
Project Room in Mexico City and the University of Maine Museum of Art; and Markus
Baenziger showed sculpture in a group
show at With Space Gallery in Beijing.
Office of the Arts Director Scott Edmiston
directed Leonard Bernstein’s one-act
opera “Trouble in Tahiti” for Boston Midsummer Opera, with Susan Davenny Wyner
conducting. Theater faculty member Chip
Schoonmaker designed the costumes;
Janie Howland, M.F.A.’93, designed the set.
“Trouble in Tahiti” premiered at the first
Brandeis Festival of the Creative Arts
in 1952.
At a September conference on theater and
peace-building held at New York’s La MaMa
ETC, Cynthia Cohen, executive director
of the Slifka Program in Intercommunal
Coexistence, premiered “Acting Together on
the World Stage,” a documentary film about
artists in conflict regions where theater and
ritual practices address injustices and help
imagine a new future.
Performance faculty member Adrianne
Krstansky and alumna Marianna Bassham,
M.F.A.’02, starred in the Commonwealth
State of the arts | brandeis university
19
artifacts
calendar highlights
Free Ticket Offers and Email Reminders
Join the Arts at Brandeis E-List for the inside scoop on plays, concerts
and fine arts at Brandeis, as well as free and discount tickets to arts
events in Greater Boston. See go.brandeis.edu/arts.
Visiting the Kniznick Gallery
Admission is free. The Kniznick Gallery at the Women’s Studies
Research Center is open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. For more
information, visit go.brandeis.edu/wsrc or call 781-736-8102.
Arts at Brandeis Calendar Online
A monthly online calendar with more information and additional
programming, including film, dance, lectures and related symposia, is
available at go.brandeis.edu/arts/calendar.
Supporting the Arts
To keep the arts at Brandeis accessible and affordable, we rely
on the contributions of our community. When you make a taxdeductible gift to the arts at Brandeis, you can direct it to support
the Rose Art Museum, the Brandeis Theater Company, the Brandeis
Concert Season or the larger arts community through the Office of
the Arts. Please show your support by making a donation online at
go.brandeis.edu/arts.
Purchasing Theater and Concert Tickets
To purchase tickets for events at the Spingold Theater Center,
Slosberg Music Center or Shapiro Theater, visit go.brandeis.edu/
BrandeisTickets, call 781-736-3400 or stop by the Brandeis
Tickets office in the Shapiro Campus Center, Mondays–Fridays,
noon–6 p.m.
Tickets are available for pickup or purchase in the lobbies of Spingold,
Slosberg and Shapiro one hour before curtain. Reservations are
recommended. Any person requiring special or wheelchair accommodations should call Brandeis Tickets at 781-736-3400.
Visiting the Rose Art Museum
Admission is free. The museum is open Tuesday–Sunday,
noon–5 p.m. For more information, visit go.brandeis.edu/rose
or call 781-736-3434.
Parking
All major Brandeis arts venues are located on Lower Campus within
easy walking distance of each other. Free parking is available directly
behind Spingold Theater in the Theater Parking Area (T Lot). There
are accessible parking spaces in front of Spingold, Slosberg and
the Rose.
Programs, artists and dates are subject to change.
For updates and additional arts events, visit www.brandeis.edu/arts.
For directions to Brandeis University, call 781-736-4660 or visit
www.brandeis.edu.
What do you think of State of the Arts? Take a short
survey online at www.brandeis.edu/arts and you’ll
be entered into a drawing for a free Rose Art
Museum catalog.
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brandeis university | State of the Arts
“Love’s Labour’s Lost,” Brandeis Theater Company (2010).
Photo by Chandler Fulton.
Opening Oct. 7
WaterWays
Rose Art Museum
Through Dec. 16
No Man’s Land Kniznick Gallery
Sept. 30–Oct. 10
Three Sisters
Spingold Theater Center
Oct. 2, 8 p.m.
Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble
Slosberg Music Center
Oct. 3, 3 p.m.
Joshua Gordon and Randall Hodginkson
Slosberg Music Center
Oct. 16, 8 p.m.
World Music Concert: Lamine Touré and Group Saloum
Slosberg Music Center
Oct. 17, 1 p.m.
Music Fest
Slosberg Music Center
Oct. 23, 8 p.m.
Brandeis University Chorus
Slosberg Music Center
Oct. 28–31
Wild Party
Shapiro Theater
Oct. 30, 8 p.m.
New Music Brandeis
Slosberg Music Center
Nov. 9, 5 p.m.
Artist Reception: No Man’s Land
Kniznick Gallery
Nov. 11, 12:30 p.m.
Dana Romanoff Gallery Talk
Kniznick Gallery
Nov. 13, 8 p.m.
Fretwork
Slosberg Music Center
Nov. 14, 4 p.m.
Brandeis University Chamber Choir
Slosberg Music Center
Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
Brandeis Wind Ensemble
Slosberg Music Center
Nov. 14–21
JustArts: Staff and Faculty Exhibition
Dreitzer Gallery
Nov. 18–21
Black Comedy/White Lies
Shapiro Theater
Nov. 18–21
Sunday in the Park with George
Spingold Theater Center
Nov. 21, 7 p.m.
Brandeis–Wellesley Orchestra
Slosberg Music Center
Dec. 1–Jan. 8
Student Art Exhibition
Dreitzer Gallery
Dec. 3–4
Boris’ Kitchen
Shapiro Theater
Dec. 4, 8 p.m.
Brandeis Early Music Ensemble
Slosberg Music Center
Dec. 4–19
José Mateo Ballet Theater’s Nutcracker
Spingold Theater Center
Dec. 5, 7 p.m.
Brandeis Jazz Ensemble
Slosberg Music Center
Dec. 6, 7 p.m.
Improv Collective
Slosberg Music Center
Dec. 8, 4 p.m.
Messiah Sing
Shapiro Campus Center
Dec. 11, 8 p.m.
New Music Brandeis
Slosberg Music Center
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