Music and Art, Poetry and Dance, Opera, Light Show and Storytelling: Time for Caz Counterpoint
The invitational art exhibit of regional artists is up ready for viewing throughout Cazenovia, as well as four large sculptures by Arlene Abend at Stone Quarry Hill Art Park. DeWitt resident Abend, is a featured artist this year, with “Stretching Boundaries,” a video about her life and work. That video will be shown during the 5-7 reception July 7 at SQHAP, along with “Art on the Hill,” a video featuring SQHAP founder Dorothy Riester. Those videos were produced by Syracuse videographers Courtney Rile/Mike Barletta and Susie Cody.
Rising Stars kicks off the musical segment of the festival July 11 with violinist Charlie Loh (Manlius), soprano Adina Martin (Marcellus) and pianist Dominic Fiacco (Poland – outside Utica). They will premiere new works written for them by Mario Pietra (Fayetteville), Alexandria Kemp (Ithaca), and Emmanuel Sikora (Cortland), alongside the classics.
Their counterparts on July 18 are pianist Bradley Zell (Westhill), violist/composer Sachin Shukla (Manlius) and organist Dominic Fiacco (Poland), premiering works by Gregg Welcher (Baldwinsville), Shukla and Emmanuel Sikora (Cortland).
ESP jazz quartet, winner of no fewer than three SAMMYs, entertains at Lakeland Park Thursday July 12 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.. Watch the sun set over the lake as you listen to this high-energy modern jazz group that features original music with blends of bebop, groove and world music.
“Creation! A Celebration” is a unique program designed for Friday the 13th — a mix of poetry, music, dance, video, and light show. That 7:30 p.m. show is at 1st Methodist on Lincklaen St, across from the Post Office. The poetry and concept are David Hitchcock’s (Fayetteville), while the videos are by Sam Pellman (Clinton), and David Harper (Pompey) and Lorne Covington (Skaneateles). Covington’s recent interactive light installation in D.C. won a rave review in the New York Times in June.
July 14 is packed with events, starting at 10:30 a.m. with Storytelling at Caz Library, mixed with chalk art and music. Renowned storyteller Francis Parks will enthrall with her stories old and new, while composer/ performer Paul Leary will demonstrate his musical bicycle wheels installation. All invited to play with the bicycle and make their very own music, while others create chalk art on the sidewalk in front of the library.
Also at 10:30 July 14, artists are invited to Gypsy Bay Park (end of Caz Lake across from Lorenzo) to sketch during the Driving Competition. This is to honor the 225 years since John Lincklaen arrived in Cazenovia. Caz artist Toloa Perry will be there to lead this “Plein Air” event. By way of expanding the audience for art and all things Cazenovia, completed sketches will be uploaded to the Caz Chamber of Commerce website, with the artists’ permission, as well as to the Society for New Music website.
Concluding the July 14 events are a 3 p.m. Syracuse University Veteran’s Writers Group reading at St. Peter’s Episcopal Hall. That Writers Corner spills over into the Art Exhibit Reception from 4-6 p.m., an opportunity to meet the authors and artists and walk the village to view the art – from Common Ground and Caz Artisans to Cazenovia Library and points in between. The food and drink will be at St. Peter’s, along with walls lined with art.
4 p.m. Sunday July 15 has 1st Presbyterian opening its doors for a Ben Lake Memorial concert of “Chorales: A Premiere Event” featuring the world premiere of “Chorales” by Cornell composer Kevin Ernste, alongside “Chorale Preludes” by the late Howard Boatwright, celebrating the centennial of his birth. Also on that program are works by Guggenheim winner Tonia Ko, a Cornell PhD, as well as recently appointed Chicago Symphony composer in residence Missy Mazzoli. The Society All-Stars bring this music to life, joined by guest organist Oliver Brett, winner of the 2017 Canadian Organ Prize.
Week 2 begins with the Young Composers Corner June 16 – 20, morning sessions from 9:30-1 and afternoon sessions from 1:30 – 5. Syracuse native Nikolas Allen Jeleniauskas is the mentor for this special program for middle and high school students interested in trying their hand at creating music (composition). It’s free.
Writers Corner continues 7:30 p.m. Tues. July 17 with Antoinette Brim at St. Peter’s Episcopal hall. A Cave Canem Foundation fellow, her acclaimed “These Women You Gave Me,” 2017, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
On July 20th audience members are invited to savor some of the suffragettes’ favorite foods at a prix fixe dinner at the Lincklaen ($30 all inclusive), then head next door to Cazenovia Theater for “Pushed Aside: Reclaiming Gage”. This opera tells the story of Fayetteville’s Matilda Joslyn Gage, one of the founding triumvirate of the women’s suffrage movement, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony, who was pushed aside and right out of the history books after 40 years of tireless work for the movement. Why? Because she thought it was a mistake to join forces with the Temperance movement just to increase the numbers, and history proved her right. The opera brings to life the relationships between these brave women, along with Frederick Douglass, Native American doctors, L. Frank Baum, Maud Gage, and chorus. The cast is drawn from Central New York’s finest singers.
(The opera will be repeated the next evening, July 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Seneca Falls during their Celebratory Conference weekend.)
Family Arts Day is like a festival in itself, with a Poetry Round-Robin at 1 p.m., Writers Corner at 2 p.m., performance of works completed during the Young Composers Corner at 3 p.m., and “Sound Wandering III” at 4 p.m. with music at 4 sculptural sites at the world famous Art Park with a view. The featured writers are Newhouse faculty Cheryl Reed (“Poison Girls,” soon to be made into a movie), and Stephanie Storey, whose 2016 “Oil & Marble”(about Leonardo & Michelangelo) became a Los Angeles Times bestseller. Family Arts Day ends on the Hilltop with ice cream and lemonade at 5:30 p.m.
For tickets for July 13 or 20 (prix fixe dinner &/or opera), or more information, call 315-251-1151, or purchase tickets via PayPal, www.societyfornewmusic.org. All other events are free.