Music

Saxophonist and composer Matana Roberts will be discussing her work, the practice of improvisation, and also offering "survival tips" for those interested in an art career in New York and elsewhere. Please bring your questions and get some answers from an exceptional artist who has paid her dues.

Prologue: Exploratory Soundwork for Alto Saxophone and Moving Image

Matana Roberts is an internationally documented, Chicago-born, sound experimentalist whose main instrument is the alto saxophone.

Working in various mediums of performance inquiry, she has created alongside visionary experimentalists of this time period in various areas of improvisation, dance, poetry, visual art, and theater. As a saxophonist, she has recorded as collaborator, side woman, and leader.

Recent work focused on the place/problem of memory/tradition as recognized, deciphered, deconstructed, interrogated through radical modes of sound communication, alternative styles of musical notation, and multi genres of improvisation.

Based in New York City, she holds two advanced degrees in music performance.

Photo by Brett Walker.

FACULTY SEMINAR SERIES

Michael Birenbaum Quintero, Assistant Professor of Music is the featured speaker. His talk is titled Community-building and Ethnomusicological Practice in the Afro-Colombian Hinterlands.

Open to faculty and staff.
Buffet lunch $3, or bring your own lunch.

Manhattan Transfer meets Monty Python...Robin Williams meets Bobby McFerrin...J.S. Bach meets Jimi Hendrix: Grammy-nominated vocal acrobats (and certifiable nutjobs), that's THE BOBS.

This original "band without instruments" has been skewering the classics, breaking all the rules and clear-cutting their own unique path in the world of vocal music for over 25 years, playing everywhere from Lincoln Center to Berlin's Passionkirche.

Tickets: $10.00 general public; free for Bowdoin ID holders at the David Saul Smith Union information desk (725-3375), and for members of the Association of Bowdoin Friends at the McLellan Building.

Sponsored by the Donald M. Zuckert Visiting Professorship Fund.

The concert will showcase composers of the Second Viennese School including Brahms and Schubert, and will feature Richard Strauss’s sumptuous Last Four Songs and works for clarinet, voice and piano, with Bowdoin physics professor Mark Battle.

Led by Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, the visionary behind the Buena Vista Social Club, the Afro-Cuban All Stars features the best of the next generation of hot Cuban musicians. The ensemble captures the exuberant spirit of Cuban music with a potent combination of driving percussion, a powerhouse horn section, piano, bass, tres, guitar and incomparable vocals.

Tickets on sale beginning February 11 at the Smith Union Information Desk, $25 public,$10 Association of Bowdoin Friends, FREE for Bowdoin students, faculty, and staff (limit 2 tickets per ID). Please call 207-725-3433 or email events@bowdoin.edu for more information.

Fortepianist David Hyun-su Kim will perform works by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven on a late 18th-century Walter copy built by Maine resident Rodney Regier.

The ensemble, which includes Tim Kantor ’07 on violin, will perform three string quartets:  Beethoven’s Op. 18 No. 5, the fantastic and under-appreciated quartet by Samuel Barber, the slow movement of which is the famous Adagio for strings, and Mendelssohn's stormy Op.80 in F minor.

Lev Polyakin, assistant concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra and Martha Aarons, formerly flutist in the Cleveland Orchestra and principal flutist of the San Diego Symphony, will perform great works from the literature including Ravel’s Tzigane.

The Band, under the direction of John P. Morneau, will continue the celebration of its 25th anniversary.

Tuesday evening, April 23rd at 7:30 pm, Molly is performing in Studzinski Recital Hall. All the songs she and the band are playing are her own jazz compositions and arrangements. Molly will be accompanied by Steve Grover on drums, Tom Bucci on upright bass, and Jason St. Pierre on alto saxophone.

The Bowdoin Middle Eastern Ensemble presents classical and contemporary music from the Arabic and Ottoman Turkish traditions.  The ensemble performs on traditional Middle Eastern musical instruments like the oud (Middle Eastern lute) and qanun (72-stringed Middle Eastern zither) as well vocals and Western instruments along with Middle Eastern percussion.

Pianists Allen Wong Yu '14 and Sarah Liu '13 will present an evening of solo and duo piano music by four master composers of the Romantic era. The program opens with Johannes Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn for two pianos & four hands and closes with a selection of Anton�n Dvo?�k's Slavonic Dances for four hands. In between, both Sarah and Allen will play a set of solo piano works by Fr�d�ric Chopin and Robert Schumann.

Under the director of Michael Birenbaum Quintero, Bowdoin’s Afro-Latin Music Ensemble will present a concert highlighting the scintillating rhythms and cultural richness of the descendants of Africans in Latin America, including music from Colombia, Cuba, and Peru.

Bowdoin Chorus and Mozart Mentors Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Antolini, will present the world premiere performance of Delmar Dustin Small's "As It Began to Dawn..." an oratorio about the awe and mystery of the morning of the Resurrection and Jesus's subsequent appearances to his disciples. 

The concert will feature student and community vocal soloists from the Chorus in the roles of Life & Death, Hope & Faith, Mary & the Other Mary, and the Angel, as well as guest tenor David Myers, Jr. in the role of Jesus.

Two performances: Thursday (May 2) and Friday (May 3), both 7:30-9:00 PM.

Open to the public; admission free of charge; no tickets or reservations; seating is limited.

Bowdoin Chorus and Mozart Mentors Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Antolini, present the world premiere performance of Delmar Dustin Small's "As It Began to Dawn..." an oratorio about the awe and mystery of the morning of the Resurrection and Jesus's subsequent appearances to his disciples.

The concert features student and community vocal soloists from the Chorus in the roles of Life & Death, Hope & Faith, Mary & the Other Mary, and the Angel, as well as guest tenor David Myers, Jr. in the role of Jesus. 

Open to the public; admission free of charge; no tickets or reservations; seating is limited.

The Bowdoin College Chamber Choir, directed by Robert K. Greenlee, will feature the premiere of a work entitled DARWIN'S DREAM III,  created jointly by composer Elliott Schwartz and visual artist Dorothy Schwartz.  The visual images are drawn from Dorothy Schwartz's 2009 exhibition at the June Fitzpatrick Gallery in Portland (in celebration of Darwin's bicentennial year). An electronic collage by Elliott Schwartz, designed originally to be played at the gallery showing, has become the underpinning of a work for choir, piano, vocal soloists and narrator. The texts are taken from Darwin's own writings.

The Chamber Choir concert will take place in the Bowdoin Chapel on campus, Saturday and Sunday May 4th and 5th, 3:00 pm on both dates. The entire program is devoted to American music, and will also include works by Eric Whitacre, Alicia Keys and folksong transcriptions. 

The Bowdoin College Chamber Choir, directed by Robert K. Greenlee, will feature the premiere of a work entitled DARWIN'S DREAM III, created jointly by composer Elliott Schwartz and visual artist Dorothy Schwartz. The visual images are drawn from Dorothy Schwartz's 2009 exhibition at the June Fitzpatrick Gallery in Portland (in celebration of Darwin's bicentennial year). An electronic collage by Elliott Schwartz, designed originally to be played at the gallery showing, has become the underpinning of a work for choir, piano, vocal soloists and narrator. The texts are taken from Darwin's own writings.

The Chamber Choir concert will take place in the Bowdoin Chapel on campus, Saturday and Sunday May 4th and 5th, 3:00 pm on both dates. The entire program is devoted to American music, and will also include works by Eric Whitacre, Alicia Keys and folksong transcriptions.

Please join us for a lovely recital featuring the piano students of George Lopez performing works by Liszt, Chopin, Messiaen, & Rachmaninoff. This one is sure to please!

Grab your lunch and head on over to Gibson Hall to hear some fabulously talented student musicians perform on piano, viola, guitar, voice, oboe and trombone.

Will Beethoven and Vivaldi be able to Handel it? Please join us to hear works by these composers at this chamber recital featuring fabulous student musicians.

What do Debussy and Brahms have in common? Talented student chamber groups will perform works by both composers in Studzinski Recital Hall!

And the beat goes on: Our second recital of the day showcases student musicians performing on violin, cello, voice and flute. You won?t want to miss this one!

Flutist Rachel Lopkin '13 presents a night of solo and chamber music, performing works by Bach, Mozart, Debussy, Barber, Bozza and Poulenc. Featuring Allen Wong '14 on piano, Vy Nguyen '15 on oboe, Timothy Locke '14 on clarinet, Christina Jang '13 on bassoon, Jasmine Terry-Shindelman '15 on violin and Daniel Lesser '14 on cello, the performance is free and open to the public.

Soprano Katarina Holmgren '13, together with pianist George Lopez, presents a recital of dramatic music from the beginning of the 20th century. The program includes selections from opera, operetta, and musical theater. The recital is part of Katarina's honors project on vocal performance practice.

**ADVANCE TICKETS ARE SOLD OUT!** However there is still a chance to see the show! The Pickard Theater Box Office will open at 6:30 p.m. on the night of the show. A wait list will be available at the Box Office and open seats will be released. Any returned tickets will be available first come first served. Tickets are cash or check only: $25 public, $10 for the Association of Bowdoin Friends, and FREE for Bowdoin students, faculty, and staff (limit 2 tickets per ID). For more information contact 207-725-3433 or events@bowdoin.edu

Bela Fleck H'11 and Marcus Roberts return to Bowdoin College, this time together, to perform their special joint collaboration "Across the Imaginary Divide". Bela is often considered the premier banjo player in the world, with fourteen Grammy. The Marcus Roberts Trio, led by Roberts on piano, Jason Marsalis on drums, and Rodney Jordan on bass, are keen torch-holders of the classic jazz tradition.

Aaron Larget-Caplan is the featured soloist in Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s “Romancero gitano” (Seven Poems by Federico Garcia Lorca) and the world premiere of “Pravasa: Travels of the Guitar” by Bowdoin composer Vineet Shende, commissioned by Oratorio Chorale.

There was a preview event of April 13 as part of the Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival, Portland Conservatory of Music, and there will be a second performance at 3:00 PM on May 19 at Falmouth Congregational Church.  Co-sponsored by the Bowdoin Department of Music.

Advance tickets: $20 adults, $10 students, free for children under 12 (see www.oratoriochorale.org).  Tickets at the door (if space available): $25 adults, $12.50 students, children free.  Discounted tickets will be available for members of the Association of Bowdoin Friends beginning May 1 at Bowdoin Friends Office, McLellan Building.  Free admission with Bowdoin ID; tickets limited and must be picked up in advance at the Smith Union Information Desk.

For more information and the full schedule of Commencement weekend events, please visit bowdoin.edu/commencement or contact events@bowdoin.edu or call 207-725-3433.