The Orchestraat the Opera House (1870), by Edgar Degas.
The return of James Judd to area concert stages, which will occur in early December when the former Florida Philharmonic conductor leads three performances (one of them at Miami's Trinity Cathedral) of Handel's Messiahwith the Master Chorale of South Florida and the Boca Symphonia, revives the notion of whether this part of the country needs a full-time major orchestra.
I guess the answer to that depends on what it is you're looking for. If a good musical experience is what you want, this area now has many chamber-sized orchestras that do fine jobs -- the Boca Symphonia, Palm Beach Symphony, the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, the Atlantic Classical Orchestra up on the Treasure Coast, and the two orchestras that play for the Palm Beach and Florida Grand opera companies.
Then there are the larger groups such as the New World Symphony, and two college groups: the Frost Symphony at the University of Miami (which opens Festival Miami on Friday) and the Lynn Philharmonia at Boca Raton's Lynn University. And each year, a handful of major orchestras from outside, in particular the Cleveland Orchestra at the Knight Concert Hall, make brief local stops.
For those who missed it, the Hungarian-born NY-based artist Rita Ackermann gave a refreshingly inarticulate lecture at the MOCA last Saturday. Yes I know, English is not her first language, but I also believe that her body of work said all that needed to be said.
As she clicked on slide after slide, chronicling her body of work -- from her early renderings of pubescent nymphets to her later abstracted deconstructions of the same imagery – and offered up suprisingly simple explanations of intent and methodology, it was clear that this artist takes an emotional approach to her work as opposed to an intellectual. And hearing her at least try to articulate this intent offered valuable insight into that kind of artist’s mindset. Continue reading 'Rita Ackermann Lecture at MOCA'
Published on September 28, 2009 by Dylan Terry. Closed
More favorably than anticipated, county commissioners recently voted to cut only 30% of the funding for county arts grants, making the county’s contribution to the arts $8.6 million for the coming year. However, until October 6th arts grantees remain uncertain as to exactly who gets what of the remaining balance. Public funding that will be withheld from the arts will go towards filling the current $444 million deficit of the county. The original plan proposed by Mayor Carlos Alvarez was to reduce arts grants from $14.8 million to $4.4 million.
Mayor Carlos Alvarez, photo by Alexia Fodere/Miami Herald
Published on September 27, 2009 by Valerie Nahmad. Closed
University of Wynwood founder & director Scott Cunningham checks in with an update on the project...
"Welcome to the University of Wynwood. We’re not a real university, but we do a lot of things that universities do, like organize lectures and panels, host visiting speakers and poets, and publish local writers.
This summer, thanks to Knight Foundation funding, we expanded our programming and created a brand-new website: universityofwynwood.org, designed by local poet and programmer Christopher Louvet. The most fun part about the redesign was combining Christopher’s web savvy with the cartooning skills of Isaac Littlejohn Eddy (yes, that’s his real name), whom we hired to create our University seal. By night, Isaac is a performer in Manhattan's the Blue Man Group —drumming, catching marshmallows and banging on plastic tubes—but by day, he draws for the New York Times' Fort Greene Neighborhood blog, where he turns interviews with local residents into cartoons. He has also recently begun to attack more serious subjects with his playful and disarming style.
For our Seal, we directed Isaac to explore the wonderful contradictions that make Miami so unique, while simultaneously shying away from design choices that we felt have been overused in representing the city: clean lines, art deco, bright colors, and Don Johnson’s sport coat. If you look closely, you’ll notice a python and an alligator swallowing each other’s tails, a nod to the much-publicized news story from last year, but also our take on the Ouroboros, an ancient symbol of self-reinvention. We feel pretty strongly that Miami is what you make it, and our goal is to make it a place where literature thrives. If you have a second, visit our site, put our events in your calendar, and sign up for our Invitations. We promise we won’t give you a grade."
This exhibition is MOCA’s third in the series of seminal works from the museum’s permanent collection, each of which denote either pivotal shits in an artist’s career or in the contemporary art world at large. Continue reading 'Pivot Points 3'
Published on September 24, 2009 by Valerie Nahmad. Closed
Head to Lincoln Road tonight or Saturday night as the Miami Lyric Opera presents Carmen. Set in Seville around 1830, the three-act opera follows the Carmen, a beautiful Gypsy with a fiery temper, through the highs, lows and shocking consequences of love.
Carmen @ the Colony Theater: Sept 24 & 26 8-10:45pm; Tickets: $25-$30; 1040 Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach; 305-674-1040
Rumberos de la 8 record in Spam's North Miami living room
We take so many things for granted. Like the Spam Allstars. The local Latin funk jam outfit has been playing among us so often for so long, it's easy to forget how damn good the band is. And like Cuban music. It's everywhere, with more killer musicians arriving from the island seemingly everyday. So big deal, right?
Luckily Andrew Yeomanson, aka DJ Le Spam, doesn't think so. Over the years, as Cuban musicians have sat in on the informal rumbas in between sets at Spam shows, he realized how much wondrous talent in traditional Cuban music is just wandering about Miami -- or playing easy gigs in commercial dance bands. So he formed Rumberos de la 8 with monster resident rumberos like Sonia Feldman and former Clave y Guaguancó member Boris Monterecy and longtime Spammers like Tomas Díaz, Lázaro Alfonso, and Mercedes Abal. Continue reading 'Rumberos de la 8 Bring Real Miami Rumba'
Published on September 23, 2009 by Valerie Nahmad. Closed
2009 has seen the Miami City Ballet and the Cleveland Orchestra join forces in a rare artistic collaboration between a major orchestra and a major ballet company. Step backstage with Miami City Ballet Artistic Director Edward Villella, Cleveland Orchestra Concertmaster William Preucil and others to explore the collaboration, its influences and its implications.
The Miami City Ballet was awarded $250,000 as a 2008 Knight Arts Challenge Winner – enjoy the video below to see the dollars at work.
Young At Art Children’s Museum has received a prestigious one-year Museums for America "Engaging Communities"research grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to prototype exhibits for its new, 55,000 square-foot museum and children’s reading center.
The Orchestra at the Opera House (1870), by Edgar Degas.
The project, Prototyping A New Model: The Art Museum for Children, will explore the concepts and methodologies designed to