Winter 2011
CenterStage
Alfred University Division of Performing Arts
February Dance Concert to feature
work by internationally renowned artist
Yoshiko Chuma
Internationally renowned artist Yoshiko Chuma will come to Alfred University for two weeks to create an original dance work with seventeen Alfred University students. The piece will be performed at the AU Dance Theater Concert on February 17, 18 and 19. Chuma, who is artistic director and choreographer of The School of Hard Knocks, USA and of Daghdha Dance Company, Ireland, was born in Osaka, Japan and has lived in the United States since 1978.
Chuma has created more than 45 full-length company works, commissions and site-specific events for venues across the world, constantly challenging the notion of performing for both audience and participant. Her work has been pre- sented in New York in venues ranging from the Joyce Theater to the legendary annual Halloween Parade, and abroad in such locations as the former National Theater of Sarajevo, the perimeter of the Hong Kong harbor and at an ancient ruin in Macedonia.
Chuma is the recipient of several fellowships and awards, including those from the Guggenheim Foundation, Na- tional Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Japan Foundation, Meet the Composer Choreog- rapher/Composer Commission and Philip Morris New Works. She received a New York Dance & Performance Award ("Bessie") in 1984 and has led workshops and master classes throughout Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Russia and the U.S.
Chuma will give an artist talk open to the Alfred commu- nity on February 4 at 1:00 p.m. in Miller 300 (dance stu- dio, 3rd floor). She also will guest-teach nine classes dur- ing her stay. The residency is generously supported by the Marlin and Ginger Miller Dance Residency Program.
Along with the premiere of the work Chuma creates on AU students, the AU Dance Theater Concert will also feature new dances by faculty members D. Chase Angier and Robert Bingham and by AU dance students Katie Barlow, Claire Pitts, Laura Smith, and Emily Smith.
Among these dances will be small ensemble pieces and large group works, set choreography and structured im- provisation, text, singing, sculptures created by Diane Cox and Marketa Fantova, and dynamic performances by students and faculty members, including Laurel Jay Carpenter. Marketa Fantova will design the lights for the show as well as some of the sets and costumes.
Performances are February 17, 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. in the new Miller Theater. Tickets can be obtained by emailing [email protected] or calling 607-871-2828. Cost is $5 for the general public, $1 for AU students.
Chuma performs in A-C-E ONE, her multidisciplinary site-specific spectacle in LentSpace in NYC.
Photo by Ayumi Sakamoto.
Guest Artist Series
Felix Piano Quartet
On Friday, February 25, the Felix Piano Quartet will perform on stage in the new Miller Theater. The pro- gram will include Cavatina from Miniatures for Violin, Viola and Cello in B-flat major by Dvorak, Serenade for Violin, Viola and Cello in C major by Dohnanyi and the Piano Quartet in G minor by Brahms. The group is made up of violinist Shieh-Jian Tsai, violist Janz Castelo, cellist Rintaro Wada and pianist Ritsuko Wada.
The performance will start at 7 p.m.
Violinist Shieh-Jian Tsai was born in Taipei, Taiwan. In 1991 he immigrated to the US with his family. Shieh- Jian received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory in Boston, MA. Shieh-Jian had been a participant of Musi- corda, Tanglewood, and Sarasota Music Festivals, where he learned from great musicians such as Ronald Copes, Pamela Frank, Emanual Ax, and Arnold Steinhardt. As a member of the Nuance Chamber Ensemble, he per- formed regularly in concert halls in Taiwan and at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has also been a soloist with the Taiwan Strings Orchestra after winning their 5th violin concerto competition in 2004. More re- cently, he was invited on a European and South Ameri-
can tour with the Verbier Festival Orchestra. Shieh-Jian performs frequently with the Buffalo Chamber Players, Sant Antonio Camerata and Ars Nova. He is currently a member of the second violin section of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, violist Janz Castelo is the son of Cuban parents. He received his Bachelor of Music in viola performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Janz continued his studies with Boston Symphony vio- list Edward Gazouleas. In Boston, Janz held teaching positions at The Cambridge School of Weston and The Dana Hall School of Music and was Assistant Principal Violist of the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Portland, Maine.
He has appeared in music festivals in the United States and abroad, including the National Orchestral Institute in Maryland, the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival in Vermont, the New Hampshire Music Festival, and the Ku- hmo Chamber Music Festival in Kuhmo, Finland. Janz joined the viola section of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orches- tra in the fall of 2001. In the fall of 2007 he formed the Buffalo Chamber Players, a mixed chamber ensemble.
Cellist Rintaro Wada is the Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Olean. He has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra member in Japan, Italy, and the US. He earned a Master of Music in cello perform- ance and literature from Eastman School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree and post-graduate diploma in cello performance from Showa College of Music in Japan. He has studied chamber music with members of the Ama- deus Quartet, Bartok Quartet, Mendelssohn Quartet, Ying Quartet, and Fine Arts String Quartet. Mr. Wada is a cel- list in the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, the orchestra director at the Olean City School District, and an adjunct faculty member at Houghton College’s Greatbatch School of Music and at St. Bonaventure University.
Mrs. Ritsuko Wada, a native of Japan, holds a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from Showa Collage of Music where she was a merit scholarship student studying with Takahiro Sonoda, one of Japan’s leading pianists.
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Theatre Faculty and Students Attend College Theatre Festival
In early January, seventeen AU students and two AU faculty attended the regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival held this year at Towson University in Towson, MD. Alfred University joined more than seventy- five other college theatre programs and over 1,200 theatre students from the region (consisting of NY, PA, NJ, DE, OH, Washington, DC, and parts of VA and WV) to perform, exhibit, see, discuss, and write so much theatre and so much about theatre.
This year the Alfred University Theatre Department had a fine profile. The AU student production of The Hamlet- machine was a significant event in the “Fringe” festival for the region. Directed by Ramona Kingsley, the perplexing Heiner Muller piece took audiences into the depths of mental miasma as a reflection of the dark side of contemporary culture. Eleven students performed in the piece. Both Betty’s Summer Vacation and Six Characters performed invited scenes for appreciative audiences. In addition, eight students participated in the Irene Ryan Acting Auditions and three participated in the Directing Institute. While at the festival, AU faculty member Becky Prophet directed the per- formance of an invited scene, worked many hours with ten students in the Directing Institute, and responded to scenes for directing in a national competition. She also directed a staged reading of a new ten minute play, working with a new up-and-coming playwright. She was awarded by the festival the “Road Warrior” certificate for responding to a high number of productions for the festival.
With more than one-hundred workshops to choose from, as well as nine productions, eleven new plays to audition for, design exhibits, Tech Olympics and a keynote address from Avery Brooks, there was plenty to do. The experi- ence of so much high quality theatre in such a short amount of time provided many lessons and images for students to draw from for many years.
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Mrs. Wada’s extensive piano study includes attendance at the Respighi Summer Music Academy in Italy and the Cahl Slue Piano Education Association and the first prize of Showa Collage concerto competition. Mrs. Wada began her teaching career in 1991 at the Yamaha Music School. She has performed a number of recitals as a soloist, cham- ber musician and accompanist in universities and churches. She has been the pianist for the Allegany Piano Trio, Felix Piano Trio, Felix Piano Quartet, Greifen Piano Trio, and W Piano Quartet. Mrs. Wada is a member of the Music Performance Practice Association of Japan. She currently teaches in her private studio and at Jamestown Community College in Olean.
Thanks to the generous funding of the David and Elizabeth Miller Performing Arts Fund, the recital is free and open to the public.
Save the Date Saturday, March 26
An Elizabethan Evening
With the AU Chamber Singers
Details in next issue.
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