Build your art collection and help an arts organization

Want to build an art collection but not sure where to start? Here are a couple of opportunities to obtain reasonably priced pieces from artists’ own collections. And, in both cases, your purchase will be helping a worthy Broome County Arts Council member:

Ballet music shows BPO musicians are really on their toes

Reviewed by Lee Shepherd

The memory is as vivid today as when I was 13. It was my first visit to New York City. I was impressed by the Empire State Building, awed by the Statue of Liberty, excited about the hustle and bustle of Times Square. But topping all that — we scored tickets to see Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn dance Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet.” As a budding violinist and beginning ballet student, I was enthralled.

As well I should have been. First by Diaghilev for his ballet company, and later by Sir Kenneth MacMillan of the Royal Opera House for Nureyev and Fonteyn and then by Nureyev himself, it must have been easy for the choreographers to create a ballet to Prokofiev’s music. It’s a bon-bon of a score, one of the most beautiful of the 20th century, and the Binghamton Philharmonic, as part of the opening concert of its 2010-11 season, absolutely aced it.

What did you do in the arts this past week?

I headed to Roberson for the inaugural Two Rivers arts festival, but there were so many things on my “to do” list that didn’t get done. Maybe you could tell me ( and the rest of BAMirror’s readers) what I missed. Please share what you did in the arts this past week.

‘BBC Murders’ neither ‘hot’ nor ‘cool’

Reviewed by Dave Schriber

“BBC Murders” is a collection of four Agatha Christie murder mysteries, each of which was broadcast as a radio play by the BBC between 1937 and 1954. The Cider Mill Playhouse production set the dramas in the context of a radio broadcast, actors lined up in front of vintage microphones with a sound effects bay behind. There was no scenery, no period costume, and, most disappointing, limited acting. It was more of a dramatic reading, with scripts in hand as would have been done in the original radio broadcast, than it was theater. The sound effects were neither visually interesting nor effective. The same heavy clomping of shoes accompanied both a small woman and a large man walking. I tried closing my eyes but still the sound effects didn’t blend well with the spoken word.

Roberson revives outdoor arts festival

What so far has been a stellar month for outdoor arts festivals will wind up this weekend when Binghamton’s Roberson Museum and Science Center revives an old favorite … with a new attitude and a new name.

‘Last Friday’ reception set at Cooperative Gallery 213

Cooperative Gallery 213 invites the public to a closing reception for it’s latest photography exhibit, featuring Geof Gould’s “Impressions of China” and Bill Gorman’s “Impressions of Clouds.” Both photographers are well-known regional artists and longtime exhibiting members of the gallery. “Although we had a very successful First Friday Art Walk opening, we decided to have a ‘Last Friday’ closing reception to give people another chance to see the work and to give those who might have been away for the Labor Day weekend a chance to see the work and enjoy a reception with wine,cheese and other refreshments,” Gorman said.

The reception will begin at 5 p.m. Friday (Sept 24), giving people a chance to stop in after work, and will run to 9 pm. The Cooperative Gallery 213 is located in the heart of Artist’s Row at 213 State St., Binghamton.

Impressions of Windsor’s Window on the Arts Festival

Binghamton artist Judy Salton

Windsor celebrated its third annual Window on the Arts Festival on Saturday (Sept. 18), and it was  perfect. Painters, potters, jewelry makers, fabric and glass artists, farmers and food vendors plied their wares on the village green. Musicians played (Kelly Birtch was playing classical guitar when I arrived) and sang for the people who wended their way from tent to tent, table to table. 

Roberson/BCC partnership seen as win-win arrangement

Administrators from Broome Community College and the Roberson Museum and Science Center say their newly expanded partnership is the ideal way to support both institutions’ missions to become more vitally involved in the community. Patti Evans, program coordinator of BCC’s Art and Design program, and Terry McDonald, Roberson’s executive director, are equally enthusiastic over a successful start to a fall semester in which an estimated 30 percent of BCC’s Art and Design classes are being taught at the museum in Binghamton.

What a weekend for the arts!

Don’t you just LOVE the start of the performance season? Don’t you just HATE IT that you can’t get to everything?

I opted for “Jekyll & Hyde” by S.R.O. Productions III on the grounds that even an unfamiliar score would appeal to a 15-year-old as long as it had a well-known plot and an intriguing onstage combo of stabbings and strumpettes.  Well, he was blown away, and so was I. I wish I could be telling you to go see this wonderful production, but it only ran this past weekend. For you who also don’t the show, with music by Frank Wildhorn and book and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse., my best comparision is “Sweeney Todd.”
Compliments all around to the cast members, particularly the strong female leads, Megan Germond and Jana Kurcera, and particularly to the amazing Jake Wentlent as Jekyll/Hyde. He was able to maintain two distinct characters, with different stances and different, equally impressive vocals, even when performing a “duet” with himself.  Kudos also to director Jan DeAngelo, choreography Anne Tribilcock and the whole technical crew. Kucera and Jan McMahon were credited for the sumptous costumes; Gene Czebiniak (set design) and Joel Pape (lighting design) for the combination of set pieces and evocative back-wall projections.

So that was my weekend in the arts; how about you? Did you go to “Jekyll,” too, or opening weekend at the Cider Mill, or Blues on the Bridge? Please share your news and views.

I felt art-full this past week; did you?

Had a wonderful time (as always) at Colorscape in Norwich, enjoying both the visual and performing arts. There aren’t many places where you can say you listened to Aztec Two-Step while watching a 96-year-old woman (!) making a pine needle basket. I had hoped to round out my Chenango County “tour de art” with one of the final performances of “The Marvelous Wonderettes,” but … hooray for them! boo hoo for me … Chenango River Theatre was sold out all weekend.
How about you? Were you art-filled this past week?

BU’s Bill T. Jones among 2010 Kennedy Center honorees

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today (Sept. 7) announced the selection of the individuals who will receive the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors, and one of them is Bill T. Jones, a Tony Award-winning dancer, choreographer and director who studied theater and dance at SUNY-Binghamton (now Binghamton University). Other recipients to be honored at the 33rd annual national celebration of the arts are: singer and songwriter Merle Haggard, composer and lyricist Jerry Herman, songwriter and musician Paul McCartney and producer, television host and actress Oprah Winfrey.

Were your week and weekend art-filled?

Charlie Daniels. West Fest. First Friday. And that was just the tip of the arts and entertainment iceberg this past week. Please tell us where you went, what or who you saw and whether you enjoyed yourself.

Profile: 2010 Heart of the Arts Award nominee René Neville

Solo or part of a troupe, onstage or behind the scenes, paid or volunteer, each of the five 2010 Heart of the Arts Award nominees gives 100 percent to the bright and varied world of arts and entertainment in Broome County. All this week BAMirror will be providing biographical background about the nominees. We’re also offering you an opportunity to congratulate the nominees and to share a story or two. Today we feature René Neville, artistic director of Dance Stories.

Profile: 2010 Heart of the Arts Award nominee Pam Ondrusek

Solo or part of a troupe, onstage or behind the scenes, paid or volunteer, each of the five 2010 Heart of the Arts Award nominees gives 100 percent to the bright and varied world of arts and entertainment in Broome County. All this week BAMirror will be providing biographical background about the nominees. We’re also offering you an opportunity to congratulate the nominees and to share a story or two. Today we feature Pam Ondrusek, president of the board of S.R.O. Productions III.

Profile: 2010 Heart of the Arts Award nominee William Carroll

Solo or part of a troupe, onstage or behind the scenes, paid or volunteer, each of the five 2010 Heart of the Arts Award nominees gives 100 percent to the bright and varied world of arts and entertainment in Broome County. All this week BAMirror will be providing biographical background about the nominees. We’re also offering you an opportunity to congratulate the nominees and to share a story or two. Today we feature veteran union stagehand William “Billy” Carroll.