DANCE - FINE ARTS - MUSIC - THEATER - WRITING

ARTBITS by Richard B. Harper


VOLUME 14 * * All Arts News On the Web * * February 4, 2010

STUFF YOU SHOULDN'T MISS

      ArtBits always features a calendar of the goings on of Franklin County artists. Check out these events around Franklin County. Each issue includes the entire text of our weekly newspaper column.


      Stop in for live music and more at the Fairfax Music Sessions at the Foothills Bakery in Fairfax most Saturday afternoons at 1 p.m., at various restaurants around Franklin County throughout the week, at the Bayside in St Albans Town most Sunday afternoons, and the Cambridge CoffeeHouses at 7 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of every month.
     These gatherings bring new opportunities, gossip, "show-and-tell" and occasional workshops. The booked performances and acoustic Open Mike Nights feature music, readings, and more from the best new artists in Vermont.

      Find links to these events and more in our Spotlight!

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LIVING AND LOVING FOR OTHERS

      Soprano Claire Hungerford with accompanist Annemieke Spoelstra will hold a benefit recital, Songs of Life and Love, at the Congregational Church in St. Albans Saturday evening at 7 p.m.
      "With this weather, it should be 'Songs of Love and Hope for Spring,' I guess," Ms. Hungerford said.
      The classical recital will include music of spring and love from Schubert plus a cycle about a woman's life by Schumann.
      "It will be a benefit for Haiti," Ms. Hungerford said. All proceeds will go to a children's fund through the American Red Cross.
      The program includes four songs from Liederkreis, a cycle of twelve of the poems of Joseph von Eichendorff that Robert Schumann set to music for voice and piano. Ms. Hungerford will sing In der Fremde (Where Am I), Waldedgesprach (Forest Talk), Mondnacht (Moonlight), and Frulingsnacht (Evening in Spring).
      Frauenliebe und Leben (Woman's Love and Life) is an 8 song cycle of poems by Adelbert von Chamisso that start with a young woman seeing her first love, continue through to the end of his life and how it affects her. The cycle ends with a postlude of the beginning music reflecting on all the good things in life and hope for the future. Ms. Hungerford will sing the setting by Schumann (opus 42).
      The program also includes songs by Franz Schubert: Ganymede, Der Jungling an der Quelle (The Young Man at the Brook), An Die Musik (to Music), Der Musensohn (Muses Son), Der Einsame (The Lonely One), Auf Der Bruck (From Bruck ... On Horseback I Look for the Meaning of Life).
      Ms. Hungerford will supply translations. "I will speak about them before I sing!" she said.
      Ms. Spoelstra will play the Schubert, Impromptus opus 90 in A flat major.
      "She's a beautiful person and a beautiful pianist," Ms. Hungerford said.
      Claire Hungerford of St. Albans is a member of the Counterpoint Chorus, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and Ah! Capella, the VSO Symphony Education program quartet. She has performed and recorded with the Austrian Radio Choir in Vienna and has been a soloist with VSO, with the Dartmouth College Symphony Orchestra, and with the East Hampton Community Choir.
      Annemieke Spoelstra of Burlington performs solo, teaches piano at St. Michael’s College, and coaches vocalists and instrumentalists. She is a founding member of the Heliand Trio and the VOX 440 ensemble with its Art Songs programs. She plays in the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble. As a soloist, her 2008-9 program Toccare features J.S. Bach and Schubert. She has performed concerts in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, and USA.
      Admission will be by donation with proceeds going to a children's fund. Give generously at the door. The program is presented with support from the All Arts Council.


SHOCKING VISIONS OF VERMONT

     Twelve Vermont counties were identified as hotbeds of revolutionary activity. Some of it has come to light in a (temporary) home in St. Albans.
      The Art of Action, Shaping Vermont's Future through Art, a statewide, 50 work, touring fine art exhibit, continues at the STAART Gallery with an opening reception tomorrow evening from 5 - 9 p.m.
      300 artists from 26 states and 3 foreign countries applied for the project. The Council commissioned Susan Abbott, Gail Boyajian, David Brewster, Annemie Curlin, Phil Godenschwager, Curtis Hale, Val Hird, Kathleen Kolb, Janet McKenzie, and John Miller a year ago; the ten artists delivered their work last August. The artists used research from the Council on the Future of Vermont to create the Art of Action to show a vision for Vermont's ideal social, cultural and political landscape. The Council hopes the exhibit, curated by mixed media artist Janet Van Fleet, inspires Vermonters. The multi-faceted project was funded by philanthropist Lyman Orton, owner of the Vermont Country Store, as a way to explore Vermont's future.
      The result is in many ways earnestly politically correct and very virtually real but pieces like Phillip Godenschwager's tractor merry-go-round can be light and playful.
      The St. Albans exhibit contains about half of the 105 pieces, called The Artists' Choice Tour, created for the Art of Action.
      St. Albans is one of only 23 Vermont communities to host this exhibit. Several hundred people in Manchester attended the opening night of the tour at Hand Motors last Fall. Other non-traditional locations have included a downtown Brattleboro atrium, the Burlington airport, and a closed drugstore in Randolph.
      The reception here is free and open to the public. The show continues through Saturday, February 13.
      Click here to see the complete Art of Action online gallery

     Senator Patrick Leahy will showcase selected works at the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda in Washington in April. The full collection will come together in Burlington after its 10-month tour for a final reception and gala auction event at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in July. Proceeds from the sale of works will be used to seed a new round of the project in 2011-12.


ART ON THE WALLS

BURLINGTON--The Fleming Museum at UVM presents Andy Warhol: Fashionistas and Celebrities in the Wilbur Room. The selection of rarely seen photographs the celebrities of the 1970s and '80s is a gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation.


BURLINGTON--The Artpath Gallery hosts Northern Vermont Artist Association president Robert Waldo Brunelle Jr. with the show, T-Buckets, The Little Deuce Coupe, the Hot Rod Series and other paintings.


ENOSBURG FALLS--The Artist In Residence Gallery features different artists each month. This month, the spotlight is on fiber artist Nancy Adriance; painters Ann Allen, Mary Reed, and Nancy Shaw; and photographer Clare Dunn. The A.I.R. gallery hosts a free meet-the-artists reception with refreshments and a nice time to visit with many members of the Gallery tonight from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. The exhibit continues through the end of February.
      The gallery, located at 349 Main Street, is open Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.


MONTGOMERY CENTER--The TART Gallery Buy Art at TART series features recent works by Bethany Farrell, Jason Guild, Heidi Lague, Pat Murphy, and Leah Van Rees in the new gallery space.


ST ALBANS--The Northwestern Medical Center Gallery hosts Vermont baby and child photographer and portrait artist Louisa Larson this month.
      The show continues through the end of February.


ON STAGE LIVE

ESSEX JUNCTION--The music is back! The Nobby Reed Project plays WCLX Blues Night at the Lincoln Inn tonight at 7 p.m. Call 802.878.3309 or click here for more info.


ST. ALBANS--The Park Café hosts St. Albans writer Leon Thompson with another reading from his three books on Saturday at 7 p.m.
      As Leon hisownself writes, "This Dork has some Good Junk to talk about. Heck, it might even be Not Too Awful Bad."


CLICK HERE: ART SITE OF THE WEEK

     Dave Blumenthal of Montpelier has a background in industrial design which he uses to create contemporary sculpture, public art works, and architectural installations including the cabinetry for the Think! Café at ECHO. His site includes news, his gallery, a list of services and products, and contact info.


FRANKLIN COUNTY BOOKSHELF

      ArtBits features a quick weekly peek at the bookshelf or night stand of the folks you know in and around Franklin County. That popular feature has a page of its own at the Franklin County Bookshelf here on the AAC site.


SUPPORT LIVE ARTS IN YOUR TOWN!


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      This article was originally published in the St Albans Messenger and other traditional print media. It is Copyright © 2010 by Richard B. Harper. All rights reserved. Archival material is provided as-is. Links are not necessarily maintained (if a link in this article fails, try Google.com or your favorite search engine).
      Thanks to recent misuse of copyright material on the Internet by individuals and archival firms alike, we emphasize that your rights to this article are limited to viewing it and printing it for personal use only. You must receive explicit permission from the All Arts Council and the author before reprinting or redistributing this article in any medium.