Curated by Robin Reisenfeld, former curator of works on paper at the Toledo Museum of Art, and faculty member in modern and contemporary art at Christie’s Education, New York.
Giving VOICE: Native American Printmaking showcases recent Native American prints from Crow's Shadow Institute of Art, located on the Umatilla Reservation in northeastern Oregon. With its roots in collaborative practice and community, Crow’s Shadow was established in 1992 by James Lavadour (Walla Walla) and Phillip Cash (Cayuse and Nez Perce) to foster economic and cultural development for Native American artists. Since its founding the Institute has grown into an internationally acclaimed printmaking atelier that is widely recognized for its role in sustaining contemporary indigenous visual art.
Featuring 40+ works created by many of today’s leading artists, Giving VOICE portrays a variety of experiences and themes found within contemporary indigenous art. Created through diverse styles and processes, works range from Marie Watt’s recent woodcut designs that symbolically allude to the war protests and anti-hate content of the 1960’s, to Raven Chacon’s lithographic series of musical notations dedicated to Indigenous women composers. Other artists such as James Lavadour, Kay Walking Stick and Emily Arthur make the natural environment and the connection to the land their focus. Alternatively, Wendy Red Star’s and Jim Denomie’s ironic depictions address communal history and identity to reclaim their indigenous heritage and counter misunderstandings about Native people. Though highly individual in approach and content, collectively these works display what Choctaw/Chickasaw art historian heather atone has termed “an active sense of presence,” and attest to how Crow’s Shadow’s artists innovatively utilize printmaking to powerfully convey indigenous cultural and social values and a communal sense of belonging.
Gallery Hours
Monday: CLOSED
Tuesday - Saturday: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Thursday: 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Sunday: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Closed University Holidays
Guest percussionist Michael Udow will give a masterclass to percussion students.
BIOGRAPHY
Fulbright-Hayes Fellow, Michael Udow, was the 2014-15 Composer-in-Residence with the Colorado Chamber Orchestra. Michael has composed operas, film scores, orchestral and wind ensemble works as well as numerous chamber music and solo compositions. His distinctive compositional voice eludes categorization. Quite often, his rhythmically engaging complex contrapuntal lines with dense timbres weave effortlessly with memorable melodic lines.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch review by Clarke Bustard of the premiere of The Shattered Mirror Suite performed by the Richmond Symphony states:
“It is a suite of symphonic dances, mixing old European modes with complementary non-Western sounds and styles. The suite is straightforwardly melodic and conventionally orchestrated. Udow injects plenty of syncopated rhythm and intricate counterpoint in his wind parts.” The symphony’s music director, George Manahan, for whom Udow has played in the Santa Fe Opera orchestra, gave “The Shattered Mirror” an energetic, well-articulated introduction last night at Virginia Commonwealth University. Alan Paterson made a convincing soliloquy of Udow’s long introduction for solo French horn, and cellist Neal Cary projected his folkish solo with a balladeer’s sensibility.”
Having retired after a distinguished career at The Santa Fe Opera (Principal Percussion 1968 — 2009) and the University of Michigan (1982 — 2011 Emeritus Professor), Michael devotes his full time energies towards composing. Michael continues to provide short term composition and percussion residencies at conservatories and universities around the world. In 2013 this included residencies in China, Japan and Korea. His inspiring composition teachers included Warren Benson, Herbert Brün, Edwin London, Thomas Fredrickson, Paul Steg, Wlodzimierz Kotoński and he credits Salvatore Martirano, Ben Johnston, Gordon Binkerd, Morgan Powell and Neely Bruce for their informative contributions. Michael’s exceptional percussion education began with Doc Meyer and continued with Bob Lee, F. Michael Combs, Jack McKenzie, Frederick Fairchild, Russell Hartenberger Michael Ranta, Alan Abel and his BM, MM & DMA professor, Thomas Siwe.
Born in 1949 in Detroit, Michigan, Udow began his musical studies at the piano. After several years, he gravitated towards percussion. At the age of eleven his family moved to Wichita, Kansas where he joined the Wichita Youth Symphony. In his first rehearsal with Roger Roller on the podium conducting George Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody, Udow recalls being overwhelmed with the of the sound world of the strings, winds, brass and percussion; this pivotal experience provided the pathway for his life, which continued with four summers at the National Music Camp at Interlochen where his percussion teacher, Jack McKenzie encouraged Michael to compose and later. Later, at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Michael began his formal composition studies with Warren Benson.
Arriving at the University of Illinois in the fall of 1967, John Cage’s monumental Music Circus “happened”. Michael performed Ben Johnston’s Knocking Piece with Jocy de Oliveira in synchronization to an animated film of the poly-rhythms. He also performed Morton Feldman’s King of Denmark with Merce Cunningham dancers improvising to the music. That was the beginning of Michael’s comprehensive college education interacting constantly with composers. During his undergraduate studies Michael received a BMI Student Composers Prize for his composition, Seven Textural Settings of Japanese Haiku. After joining the New Orleans Philharmonic and then on to the Fulbright to Poland, Michael returned to the United States to tour with the historic groundbreaking Blackearth Percussion Group. Ultimately returning to Illinois with a Creative Arts Fellowship, he continued his composition studies and matriculated with a MM and the first DMA degree in percussion performance from the University of Illinois in 1978.
After late nights during summer months at the opera and while teaching during the winters, Udow continued to compose, including two operas as well as numerous symphonic, chamber and solo works. Michael recently completed Stepping Stones, a marimba duet, for Eriko Daimo and Pius Cheung and is currently completing a new orchestral and a new wind ensemble work.
From Dramatic Publishing:
Based freely on the work and early life of surrealist artist René Magritte, this is an unorthodox adventure in theatrical form. It celebrates art and the imagination and the way in which these help us confront life’s mysteries. Here is the story of young René who wants to be an artist, a notion dismissed by his father as “a pipe dream.” Encouraged by his mother, before her untimely death, the boy begins his quest. He follows his vision into the delightfully absurd magic realism of his famous paintings. The boy and the audience discover something of the true power of dreams and the triumph of imagination.
McMaster Series guest Louise Toppin has coached voice students throughout the semester, and this is a performance by those students.
PROGRAM
AFRICAN AMERICAN ART SONGS
Louise Toppin, moderator
Kevin Bylsma, piano
Your lips are wine from Passionale.........Harry Burleigh (1866-1949)
Jonathan Kroeger, tenor
Young Love in Spring...............................Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)
Deja Jennings, soprano
What Lips my lips have kissed..............Margaret Bonds
Keri Lee Pierson, soprano
Dormi Jesu...........................................Jacqueline Hairston (b.1932)
Emma Clark, soprano
The faithless Shepherd.......Coleridge Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004)
Giovanni Castiglione, baritone
Lost Illusions...............................................Jeremiah Evans (b. 1978)
Arielle Smith, soprano
Prayer................................................................Carlos Simon (b. 1986)
Christopher Schock, bass
I want to Die while you love me...Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989)
Katherine Pracht Phares, mezzo-soprano
Amazing Grace...............................................Leslie Adams (b.1932)
Carolyn Anderson, soprano
Creole Girl from Nightsongs.........................Leslie Adams
Tajj Crowder, baritone
So we’ll go no more a’rovin........................Robert Owens (1925-2017)
Andrew Puschel, tenor
