Miller Theatre features new digital initiatives
By Nelson A. King
Miller Theatre at Columbia
University has announced
new digital initiatives for the
2020-21 season.
The theatre said it has
“thoughtfully reframed its
programming with a focus on
giving much-needed creative
performance opportunities to
musicians and ensembles, and
to providing opportunities for
the restorative effects of music
during a time of great anxiety
and hardship.”
Co-presented with Columbia
University School of the
Arts, Miller Theatre, from
Nov. 17 to Feb. 16, 2021, continues
its popular and free
“Pop-Up Concerts” series,
offering audiences a virtual
front-row seat to four performances
filmed live in the
Lantern—a stunning venue,
part of Columbia University’s
Manhattanville campus.
The performances will feature
Simone Dinnerstein,
piano; Jack Quartet and Mariel
Roberts, cello; Brandee
Younger, harp; and Dezron
Douglas, double bass.
Concerts in the “Live from
Columbia” series are filmed
live and premiered throughout
the 2020-21 season at 7:00
pm,
with on-demand streaming
available immediately after:
millertheatre.com/live-fromcolumbia.
Kes the Band GUYANESE ARTIST EXCELS
Caribbean L 26 ife, October 23-29, 2020
“Morningside Lights,” a
video celebration of community
art-making, starts on
Oct. 26.
The beloved tradition that
connects community through
art began in September with
free distribution of “makeyour
own” lantern kits.
With amazing participation,
including 100 percent
kits distributed and 1,000-
plus content submissions,
Miller Theatre concludes
this year’s “Morningside
Lights” with a video celebration
featuring user-generated
content of the public’s
handmade lanterns. Tune in
at morningside-lights.com.
“While in-person music programming
may be on pause,
Miller Theatre’s mission is
not,” said Melissa Smey, executive
director, Arts Initiative
and Miller Theatre. “When
thinking about how we could
successfully and purposefully
pivot to the digital stage,
I wanted to explore ways to
get artists working again, to
facilitate the creation of new
work, and to foster community
around it.
“I also missed being on
campus at Columbia University
every day; and, from these
fragments, the idea of ‘Live
from Columbia’ began,” she
added. “I am thrilled to partner
with the School of the
Arts to bring Columbia to you,
and to share the power of live
music with a worldwide audience.”
Live from Columbia, clockwise from top - Brandee Younger, Simone Dinnerstein, Mariel
Roberts, JACK Quartet, Dezron Douglas. Miller Theatre
not released an album in five
years.
In a statement prior to the
release, the band said: “We
Home was created to fill a void
for soca music at a time when
COVID-19 had put the communal
Carnival celebrations and
fetes that are the genre’s raison
d’etre on pause for the foreseeable
future.
“The album came about
because we wanted to do something
live that we could broadcast,
but we realized that we
have never recorded the band
live, with respect to capturing
our live arrangements,” the
band added. “We felt that it was
a great time to explore that.
“We had the time, and we
had the resource of people to
really bring forward something
special,” Kes the Band continued.
“So, we decided to go on
that journey of recording a live
collectors’ album for a snapshot
of Kes The Band in 2020, and of
soca and calypso in 2020.”
The band told socanews
that the new album “really just
reflects a time.
“The fact that we are all
home, have been grounded for
some time; and, what happens
when you’re home is something
special,” it said. “You have time
at home, time for rest, time for
relaxation, but also time for
refocusing.
“’We Home’ just really represents
the entire project,
and represents us at this time
and what came out of that,” it
added.
According to Wikipedia, the
online encyclopedia, Kes, commonly
known as Kes the Band
or KTB, was formed in 2005 and
known for its unique blend of
soulful vocals, calypso-inspired
melodies, rock riffs and island
beats, with hints of reggae.
The band consists of founding
members, brothers Kees
Dieffenthaller (lead vocals),
Hans Dieffenthaller (drums),
and Jon Dieffenthaller (guitar),
along with long-time friend
Riad Boochoon (bass guitar).
“Kes’ style has elevated
them to mainstream popularity,
allowing Kes to become
a household name in their
country (Trinidad and Tobago)
and throughout the Caribbean
circuit,” Wikipedia said. “The
band constantly captivates and
wins over their audiences, with
their electric and high-energy
performances.”
thing new every time. I have
an insatiable determination
to experiment with colour,
form and process, to create
new and original artworks
that push the boundaries
of the medium, while being
intellectually grounded in
post-war abstraction.”
Sue Hubbard wrote in
ArtLyst, a United Kingdom
art information website,
providing multi-media
art news, that an ongoing
Bowling exhibition at Tate
Britain art museum is a
“rare show, reminding us of
what painting can do.”
“From the moment you
walk into the Tate show,
you know you are in the
presence of a significant
painter.”
She noted that though
born in the inland up-river
settlement of Bartica,
“Frank Bowling grew up in
coastal New Amsterdam
where his mother ran a successful
store. At the age of
19, he moved to London to
become a poet.”
According to Hubbard,
Bowling’s poetry ambitions
changed slightly to an illustrative
art form owing to
a period in the Royal Air
Force as a serviceman.
“It was there he met the
artist Keith Critchlow who
introduced him to the London
art scene,” she wrote,
and added, “after studying
at Regent Street Polytechnic
and Chelsea School of Art,
he was awarded a scholarship
to the Royal College
where he studied alongside
David Hockney, Patrick
Caufield and Pauline Boty.”
Hubbard stated that it
was not all smooth sailing
for Sir Frank because he
was initially rejected as he
did not have a background
in life drawing.
Some luck did however
come the way of this newly
knighted artist as, “he was
rescued and funded by the
head of painting at the
College, Carel Weight. But
where Bowling’s contemporaries
turned to Pop art,
he embraced the poetry of
abstract expressionism.”
“A move to New York in
1966 was seminal. His influences
became Rothko and
Barnet Newman, his concerns
history and the exploration
of space and time,
rather than the iconography
and irony of the everyday.”
Pelham Communications
stated, “the artist is also
known for his writing on
art, particularly in debates
around formalism and
‘Black Art’ as he has always
vigorously rejected being
defined by restrictive labels
that sought to pigeonhole
him. In 2005 he became the
first Black artist to be elected
a Royal Academician.”
Writing about the artist
in the Trinidad and Tobago
Guardian last year, columnist
Mark Wilson had
observed that Sir Frank’s
work links strongly to
Guyana, with early pieces
showing his mother’s New
Amsterdam shop, while map
paintings were built around
outlines of Guyana and
South America.
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