They are performing, writing books, directing plays, competing in music competitions and getting involved in a myriad of other creative activities. Read on to find out who’s doing what these days from York’s Faculty of Fine Arts…
- Today, Claudia Moore, artistic director, Moonhorse Dance Theatre, performs two new solos choreographed with York dance Professor Carol Anderson (BA ’73, MA ’06) and Tedd Robinson (BFA ’79) in the Canadian Opera Company‘s free midday series at the Richard Bradshaw Auditorium in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts at noon. On the same program, Robinson has created a duet to be danced by Moore and National Ballet of Canada soloist Rebekah Rimsay.
- Today through Saturday, Necessary Velocity, a new work choreographed by Michelle Silagy, features dancer Andrea Nann (BFA ’88) and York PhD student and instructor Megan Andrews (BFA ’93, MA ’01) at Toronto’s Winchester Street Theatre at 8pm.
- Guitarist Mike Cadó and vocalist Sherie Marshall, both faculty in York’s Department of Music, are playing gigs with various ensembles over the next few weeks. Friday from 8:30 to 11:30pm, they’ll be performing jazz and Latin standards at the Homesmith Bar in the Toronto’s Old Mill Inn. Thursday, June 28, they’re appearing with a quintet playing disco and retro rock music from 9:30pm to 1am at BRIX Napa Valley Wine Bar in Richmond Hill.
- Saturday, Balfour Books in Toronto launches Titles, an exhibition of artists’ book works from 2 to 5pm. On display will be books by York visual arts Professors Yam Lau, Barbara Balfour, David Scott Armstrong and Yvonne Singer; alumni Craig Rodmore (MFA ’05), Sunny Kerr (MFA ’06) and Mary Porter (MFA ’07); and current graduate students Carla Garnet, Stephanie Chabot and Paulette Phillips. The exhibition runs to Sept. 8 and will tour to London, Ont. and Montreal.
- To Saturday, 18 Illuminations – Contemporary Artists and Light, a touring exhibition co-curated by art history graduate student Carla Garnet and Corinna Ghaznavi, will be displayed at the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie and will be shown at seven other public art galleries across Canada.
- Sunday, music Professor Karen Burke, co-founder and principal conductor of the Juno Award-winning Toronto Mass Choir, will lead the TMC at the Kingfest Music Festival in King City. Last weekend, the choir performed at the Ottawa Bluesfest.
- Two productions designed by York Department of Theatre Chair Shawn Kerwin are running in Toronto: the George Walker play, Better Living, at Factory Theatre to July 5; and Soulpepper Theatre‘s remount of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town to Aug. 9 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District. Kerwin also designed sets and costumes for the remounted production of George Walker’s play, Escape from Happiness, which ran at Factory Theatre May 31-June 17. (See the June 4, 2007 issue of YFile.)
- York’s Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture Caitlin Fisher was one of eight leading authors featured in a fundraising event Wednesday in support of York University’s Canadian Writers in Person Program.
- Music alumna Brenda Earle (BFA ’98) was a finalist in the prestigious Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Piano Competition held last month at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
- Film alumnus James Gillespie‘s (MFA ’86) short experimental film, Shadow Tracing, was screened at the Worldwide Short Film Festival last weekend as part of a showcase of shorts selected from films made for the 25th anniversary project, Film is Dead, Long Live Film, for the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT).
- Chair of York’s Department of Design Wendy Wong has been appointed a vice-president of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario.
- Visual arts alumna Liz Wylie (BA ’77), former curator of the University of Toronto Art Centre, has taken up a new position as curator of the Kelowna Art Gallery.