The exciting finale program at the State Theater was divided into two parts. The first part began with almost a dozen musicians on stage (flutes, clarinets, strings, piano) imitating the natural birdcalls that formed the background sounds to their performance.
After this introduction to the intersection of animal sounds and music, two Cornell science professors took [...]
Monthly Archive for January, 2007
The Tiger’s Ear: Modern Art and Music
Posted in General on Jan 28th, 2007
This afternoon’s session started out with a slide show of paintings and an introduction by Buzz Spector (chair of the Cornell Art Department) on the six modern artists who were to be the subjects of the event. His brief explanations of the artists, their lives, and their work brought those of us who were non-experts [...]
Alive Beneath a Blanket of Zamboni Shavings
Posted in General on Jan 28th, 2007
Thanks to Raylene Ludgate and everyone at the Plantations for their support and enthusiasm!
Plantations ‘Light in Winter’ event a cold success!
Cornell Plantations motivates 120+ people outdoors to appreciate the beauty
of winter and to learn about Alive Beneath a Blanket of Snow at Ithaca?
Yesterday’s photos
Posted in General on Jan 28th, 2007
I’ve added photos by Rob to my entries about several of yesterday’s performances, so make sure to scroll down the page and check them out!
Saturday night: Musical Explorations
Posted in General on Jan 27th, 2007
I just got home from the Saturday night performance at the State Theater, featuring the sextet of musicians known as the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Czech singer-violinist Iva Bittova, and I’m not quite sure what to think.
First of all, in the words of all of my family members who attended (myself included): [...]
Wine and the Mind
Posted in General on Jan 27th, 2007
Going into Cornell Professor Terry Acree’s talk on Wine and the Mind, I expected to hear a lot of pretentious wine descriptions like “fruity bouquet” and “a hint of oak.” But instead, I was very pleased to hear an informative and fun talk on the chemistry and history of wine.
To start, Prof. Acree traced the [...]
Lisa Randall and “Warped Passages”
Posted in General on Jan 27th, 2007
The program started off with some modern music written by Stephen Taylor and performed by Wendy Mehne (flute) and Pablo Cohen (guitar). Taylor said that the piece was inspired by a visit to Fermi Lab in Chicago, discovering that it was necessary to build a “very, very big structure” in order to detect “very, very [...]
The North Pole Was Here
Posted in General on Jan 27th, 2007
New York Times journalist Andrew Revkin gave a fun and insightful talk on the issue of global warming and the lives of the scientists and journalists who deal with it. He seemed to strike just the right balance between scientific information, hilarious personal anecdote, and journalistic observation.
He started the talk off by recounting his personal [...]
Pilobolus … amazing!
Posted in General on Jan 26th, 2007
Wow!! The Pilobolus performance tonight at the State Theater was truly amazing; definitely one of the most creative and engaging dance performances I have ever seen.
The dancers — four men and two women — seemed to defy the laws of physics with their intense yet incredibly light movements. Their dancing was acrobatic and athletic, but [...]
Let the festivities begin!
Posted in General on Jan 26th, 2007
So far, so good! I just got back from the first Light in Winter event, Dr. George Damp’s presentation on “The King of Instruments” — the organ. The audience filled the First Presbyterian Church to capacity, and the performance proved well worthwhile.
Dr. Damp performed a number of organ pieces by Bach and Messiaen, among others. [...]