Performers from York’s Music Department are making a lot of music over the next two weeks, including the free Music at Midday series featuring student and faculty talent most weekdays, 12:30 to 1:30pm, in the McLaughlin Performance Hall, 050 McLaughlin College. These are just some of the events highlighting York’s Faculty of Fine Arts in October.
The concert lineup for the next two weeks includes today’s performance by David Lidov, professor of theory and composition performing some of his own original compositions. Lidov has composed many works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and voice. His scholarly research focuses on the semiotics of music and musical analysis, including computer-based research on music and expressive gesture.
Wednesday you can hear South Indian music featuring Trichy Sankaran, professor of ethnomusicology and performance at York, who is himself a master percussionist specializing in the South Indian drum, the mrdangam. The author of a textbook on South Indian classical drumming, he is credited with having raised the mrdangam and kanjira to the status of solo instruments.
Thursday, catch Sundar Viswanathan (right) and his Jazz Quartet. Viswanathan, a professor of jazz studies at York, is a saxophonist and jazz vocalist with extensive performance and teaching experience in the US and Canada. Along with leading the quartet, he has also played with and composed for other ensembles, including the NEC Big Band and Ensemble Uniqua, and with artists such as Joe Lovano, Clark Terry, Billy Hart, Jim McNeely, Jeanne Lee, Al Martino and Kenny Wheeler. His professional appearances include the Lincoln Center, the Count Basie Invitational Jazz Festival and leading New York jazz clubs such as the Blue Note, Village Gate and Birdland.
Viswanathan and his quartet will also perform this Friday and next (Oct. 28) at Dominion on Queen, 500 Queen St. E. at Sumach in Toronto.
Other Music at Midday events scheduled for next week include:
- Oct. 25: Lorne Lofsky, jazz guitar;
- Oct. 26: Roger Scannura: The Magic and Passion of Flamenco;
- Oct. 27: Mike Cado Jazz Duo;
- Oct. 28: Time Warp, York’s jazz quartet-in-residence, led by Barry Elmes;
Meanwhile, in town and on campus, several clubs and venues are featuring appearances by York faculty, work by students in the Faculty of Fine Arts, or guest lectures.
Until Saturday
Two members of York’s jazz faculty – vocalist Bonnie Brett and pianist Mark Eisenman – headline the playbill at the Montreal Bistro, 65 Sherbourne St. (at Adelaide) in Toronto, for a five-night run. Acclaimed as “jazz ensemble playing at its best”, the program features Brett with the Mark Eisenman Trio, Eisenman on piano, Steve Wallace on bass and John Sumner on drums. For more information click here.
Thursday, 12-1:30pm
The Visual Arts Department’s Artist Speaker Series features curator and researcher Helen Reckitt of the Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta and the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, speaking in 104 Accolade West.
Oct. 25, 7pm
Catch the next wave of Canadian film talent at CineSiege, the annual juried showcase of outstanding productions by York film students at the Bloor Cinema. This year’s program features seven productions — riveting dramas, cutting-edge experimental works and provocative documentaries — chosen by leading lights of the Canadian film and media scene. The jurors are: documentary filmmaker, author and screenwriter Kevin McMahon (The Falls, Intelligence, The Music Garden, Cod: The Fish that Changed the World); Emily Morgan, VP programming with Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting; Ingrid Randoja, deputy editor of Famous magazine and former film critic for NOW magazine and EYE weekly; new media and video artist, curator and educator Lisa Steele; and filmmaker Sudz Sutherland (Love, Sex & Eating the Bones). Jurors will be on hand to introduce the CineSiege picks and explain why they were selected.
The Bloor Cinema is located at 506 Bloor St. W. , Toronto. Admission is $5 at the door.
Oct. 27, 11:30am-1 pm
Internationally-renowned artist Edwina Sandys (left), gives an illustrated public talk on her work titled “Both Sides of the Coin: Creating Personal and Public Art”, in the Faculty Common Room, 214 Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts. Inspired by contemporary political and social issues as well as her personal experiences, much of Sandys’ work focuses on global themes such as freedom, war and peace, women, and the environment. Among her signature pieces are Christa, a female crucifixion; Breakthrough, a monumental sculpture constructed of sections of the Berlin Wall; The Marriage Bed in the Brooklyn Museum; and public art commissions for the UN in Geneva, Vienna, New York and Rio de Janeiro. For more information click here.
Oct. 27, 2:30 pm & 7 pm
The Film Department’s Independents series features seminal Quebecois filmmaker Michel Brault in two events commemorating the 35th anniversary of the October Crisis. In Room 004 Accolade West, at 2:30pm, there will be a panel discussion titled “The October Crisis: 35 Years Later” with Brault and York professors Gillian Helfield, of the Department of Film, and Marcel Martel, of the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, moderated by Seth Feldman, professor of film and director of event co-sponsor, the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies.
At 7:30pm, Brault presents his classic docu-fiction film, “Les Ordres” in the Nat Taylor Cinema, N102, Ross Bldg. This 1974 film deals with the October Crisis of 1970 when then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, imposing martial law on Montreal. The introduction to the film and a question and answer session following the screening will be moderated by Quebec cinema specialist David Clanfield of the University of Toronto.
For more information on Brault click here.
Oct. 28, 1:30-3pm
Award-winning dance historian, critic, curator and educator Lynn Garafola (right)gives an open lecture, in 205 Accolade West, on “Petipa and the Making of a ‘Classical’ Tradition”. Garafola is the author of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and Legacies of Twentieth-Century Dance and editor of the acclaimed book series Studies in Dance History; The Diaries of Marius Petipa; Of, By, and For the People: Dancing on the Left in the 1930s; and José Limón: An Unfinished Memoir.
Oct. 30-Nov. 5, 7:30pm; matinees Nov. 2 & 4, 1pm
Theatre @ York launches its season with Timberlake Wertenbaker’s scathing social comedy Three Birds Alighting on a Field, directed by York alumna Jeannette Lambermont (BFA ’78), in the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre. Previews are Oct. 30 & 31 and the play opens Nov. 1, running nightly at 7:30pm to Nov. 5.