Mar 3, 2024 | Music, News, Regional Arts Events
New Work Documents the Struggle of Generations to
Establish and Protect the Constitution’s 19th Amendment
The Susquehanna Valley Chorale (SVC) will present a brand-new choral work for their spring performance, Amendment: Righting Our Wrongs, on Saturday, March 16 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, March 17 at 3 pm at Stretansky Hall on the campus of Susquehanna University.
This new choral work celebrates women’s suffrage through underrepresented voices and brings to the forefront those who still fight for the right to vote today.
William Payn serves as Conductor and Music Director of the 60-member ensemble and David Cover serves as Accompanist.
The first part of the performance features pieces which promote awareness and advocacy for voices that have gone unheard. It will include songs such as: Light of a Clear Blue Morning with words and music by Dolly Parton and soloist Kathi Beiter and Everybody Says Don’t with words and music by Stephen Sondheim and featuring Dick Adams on guitar, Jack Lawton on drums, bass guitarist Chris Wheeland and David Cover on synthesizer.
The second part of the performance will feature the new choral work, Amendment: Righting Our Wrongs which was composed by Melissa Dunphy and features cellist, Jonathan Dexter. The work includes six movements: The Quest, All Men Are Created Equal, We Hold These Truths, Identity Politics, Pledging Allegiance, and Amendment.
The SVC is proud to be part of the consortium that commissioned this important work.
Melissa Dunphy specializes in composing vocal, political, and theatrical music. She first came to national attention when her large-scale work The Gonzales Cantata was featured in The Wall Street Journal and on The Rachel Maddow Show. Dunphy is the recipient of an Opera America Discovery Grant for Alice Tierney, commissioned by Oberlin Conservatory. Other recent commissions include works for Experiments in Opera, the BBC Singers, VOCES8, and Cantus. Dunphy is also a Barrymore Award-nominated theater composer and Director of Music Composition for the O’Neill National Puppetry Conference. Dunphy has a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.M. from West Chester University and teaches at Rutgers University. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Matt; the Dunphys are co-hosts of the popular podcast The Boghouse about their adventures in Philadelphia colonial archaeology.
Several local organizations will offer resources at the performances including the League of Women Voters of Northumberland County and Transitions of PA. The League of Women Voters of Lewisburg will serve as ushers.
Sponsors for the performance are Elsbeth Steffensen and Walter Bruce in Memory of Richard Steffensen, Co-sponsors are Lois and Tom Clark and Leta Jo and Fred Maue, and Underwriters are Ruth Anderson and William Payn, Harmonious Endeavors, Barb Walzer, and Diane and Ted Meixell.
Tickets for the performance are $25 for adults and $10 for students.
Tickets are available online at SVCMusic.org, by calling 570-547-0455 or at the door.
For more information about this performance and future performances, visit SVCMusic.org.
Feb 25, 2024 | Music, News, Regional Arts Events
The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome tenThing on Friday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center.
Formed in 2007 by Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth as a fun and exciting collaboration between musical friends, the ten-piece, all-female brass ensemble tenThing have firmly established themselves on the international scene to great acclaim.
tenThing are celebrated for their commitment to outreach and access to music through a diverse repertoire that spans from Mozart to Weill, Grieg to Bernstein, and Lully to Bartok. The group work closely with Norwegian guitarist and arranger Jarle Storløkken in the arrangement of scores for the ensemble, enabling them to play pieces of differing instrumentations.
tenThing first came into prominence thanks to performances all over their native Norway, eventually delighting a huge national audience by opening the 2011 Norwegian Grammy Awards. Soon after, the group drew international attention after their highly successful appearance at the BBC Proms at London’s Cadogan Hall. Elsewhere in Europe, they have performed at a wide range of prestigious festivals and concert halls, including the Schleswig-Holstein, Beethoven Bonn, Gstaad, MDR Musiksommer, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rheingau, Bodensee, Engadin, Merano, Thüringer Bachwochen, and Bremen festivals in Central Europe, the Merano and Sienna festivals in Italy, the NCPA Beijing May Festival, and Moscow’s House of Music.
In Spring 2017, the ensemble embarked on their American debut tour, which included concerts in New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and at the renowned Wolf Trap Festival. Since then, they have returned to the USA on two occasions including with a Holiday-themed program in December 2022. Their next visit to the USA sees the ensemble celebrate Women’s History Month in March 2024.
TICKETS
Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors 62+ and subscribers, $15 for youth 18 and under, $15 for Bucknell employees and retirees (limit 2), free for Bucknell students (limit 1) and $15 for non-Bucknell students (limit 2).
Tickets can be reserved by calling 570-577-1000 or online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice.
Tickets are also available in person from several locations including the Weis Center lobby (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and the CAP Center Box Office, located on the ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).
For more information about this event, contact Lisa Leighton, marketing and outreach director, at 570-577-3727 or by e-mail at [email protected].
For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
Feb 25, 2024 | Music, News, Regional Arts Events
The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome folk/blues/gospel ensemble Martha Redbone Roots Project on Tuesday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center.
The performance is sponsored, in part, by the News-Item.
Martha Redbone is a Native American and African American vocalist/songwriter/ composer/educator.
She is known for her unique gumbo of folk, blues and gospel from her childhood in Harlan County, Kentucky, that is infused with the eclectic grit of pre-gentrified Brooklyn.
Inheriting the powerful vocal range of her gospel-singing African American father and the resilient spirit of her mother’s Southeastern Cherokee/Choctaw culture, Redbone broadens the boundaries of American roots music.
With songs and storytelling that share her life experience as a Native and Black woman and mother in the new millennium, she gives voice to issues of social justice, bridging traditions from past to present, connecting cultures and celebrating the human spirit.
Her album The Garden of Love- Songs of William Blake, produced by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder/Grammy Winner John McEuen is an unexpected twist – “a brilliant collision of cultures” (The New Yorker) – features Redbone’s magnificent voice, Blake’s immortal words and a masterful cornucopia of roots music (blues, gospel, bluegrass, soul and traditional Southeastern Woodlands). Featured on NPR’s All Things Considered the album released on her own indie label imprint rose to the Top Ten on Amazon Folk Charts for several weeks and has become the bedrock of her live shows bringing audiences to their feet with her fiery old-time mountain gospel singing and foot-stomping energy.
Redbone and her long-term collaborator/husband, composer/pianist/producer Aaron Whitby are called “the little engine that could [by their] band of NYC’s finest blues and jazz musicians” (Larry Blumenthal/Wall Street Journal). From grassroots beginnings at powwows across Indian Country and in the underground clubs of NYC Redbone has built a passionate fan base with her mesmerizing presence and explosive live shows. Her debut Home of the Brave – “Stunning album, the kind of woman who sets trends” (Billboard) – garnered extremely positive critical attention while her sophomore album Skintalk – described as the soulful sound of “Earth, Wind and Fire on the Rez” (J Poet/Native Peoples Magazine) – took her music to Europe and the Far East. Albums Skintalk and The Garden of Love: Songs of William Blake are included in the Library Collection and “Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture” exhibits in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC.
Redbone is Composer for the Public Theater’s 2019 production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuff, a revival/reimagining of the 1976 classic choreopoem by the late Ntozake Shange. Redbone joined the all-women-of-color Creative Team to celebrate the author’s historical work and legacy, and enjoyed a 4-week extended run through December that received rave reviews with notable mentions for their team’s original compositions and score — “supreme music…brilliant” (NY Daily News).
Redbone and Whitby’s recent work is Bone Hill – The Concert, an interdisciplinary musical theater work inspired by the lives of Redbone’s family in the hills of coal-mining Appalachia. A multi-racial Cherokee and African American family, they are permanently bonded to their culture, identity and the mountain despite its violent past and the ever-changing laws of the land that threaten to extinguish them. Commissioned by Joe’s Pub/NEA and Lincoln Center for the Arts, Bone Hill – The Concert is touring extensively nationwide and is a recipient of the NEFA National Theater Project Creation and Touring Grant and National Performance Network Creation Fund. Other theatrical commissions include compositions for the Goethe Institute / New York Theater Workshop collaboration, Plurality of Privacy; Primer for a Failed Superpower directed by Rachel Chavkin; a Chinese-American musical collaboration Flood in the Valley which premiered in Beijing in 2018; New Musical work, Black Mountain Women, currently in development at the Public Theater.
Over the years Martha has performed and recorded with many great artists including; Bonnie Raitt, George Clinton, Judy Collins, Joan Osborne, Steven Van Zandt, Me’Shell Ndegeocello, Nona Hendryx, Lisa Fischer, Steve Martin, David Amram, Randy Brecker, Tony Trischka, John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John Carter Cash, Ben Sollee and Tom Chapin amongst many others.
Martha guest lectures on subjects ranging from Indigenous rights to the role of the arts in politics and Native American Identity at many institutions including New York University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, to name a few. Redbone includes workshops and motivational talks with grade school children as part of her touring schedule on numerous reservations including Red Lake, Minn., Cherokee, N.C., Yuma, Ariz., and Menominee, Wisc., among others.
An exemplary ambassador for both Native and African-American Youth for the National HIV/Aids Partnership, she was awarded the Red Ribbon Award for Outstanding Leadership presented on World AIDS Day at the United Nations in 2005. Currently Martha advocates for Why Hunger’s Artists Against Hunger and Poverty program which raises and awareness of poverty and hunger in the United States and abroad. Redbone is an Advisory Board member of the ManUp Campaign, the global youth movement to eradicate violence against women and girls for whom she served as the indigenous affairs consultant and creative advisor. She is particularly proud of her accomplishment in working with founder Jimmie Briggs and the Campaign’s Board of Directors to include an Indigenous North American contingent (independent of the USA) to the roll call of 50 countries taking part in their Youth Leadership Summit held at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Redbone serves as an Advisory Board member of The Carlisle Indian School Project, Association on American Indian Affairs, Voices- A Peoples’ History of the United States/Howard Zinn, a 2016 Fellow of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation and is the 2018 MAPfund and 2018 Creative Capital awardee.
Redbone and Whitby are the 2020 Drama Desk Award recipients for Outstanding Music in a Play and the 2020 Audelco Award recipient for Outstanding Composer of Original Music and Score for Public Theater revival For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuff by Ntozake Shange. Redbone is an Awardee of Creative Capital, NEFA, NPN, NACF, MAPFund and NYC Womens Fund for Music.
PRESS REVIEWS
New York Times (John Pareles)
“Martha Redbone’s voice held both the taut determination of mountain music and the bite of American Indian singing.”
Huffington Post (Dusty Wright)
“An organic, gorgeous feast for ears and minds.”
The New Yorker
“A brilliant collision of cultures.”
Anastasia Tsioulcas covering globalFEST for NPR:
“Redbone combines folk, Appalachian, soul and Native tradition in a group of settings of poetry by William Blake — a startling idea, perhaps, but one that brims with potency and freshness.”
Village Voice
“Poised to be Americana’s next superstar.”
TICKETS
Tickets are $20 for adults, $16 for seniors 62+ and subscribers, $10 for youth 18 and under, $10 for Bucknell employees and retirees (limit 2), free for Bucknell students (limit 1) and $10 for non-Bucknell students (limit 2).
Tickets can be reserved by calling 570-577-1000 or online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice.
Tickets are also available in person from several locations including the Weis Center lobby (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and the CAP Center Box Office, located on the ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).
For more information about this event, contact Lisa Leighton, marketing and outreach director, at 570-577-3727 or by e-mail at [email protected].
For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
Feb 4, 2024 | Music, News, Regional Arts Events
The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome blues artists Jontavious Willis and Jayy Hop on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center.
The performance is sponsored, in part, by PPL Electric Utilities.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Every generation or so, a young bluesman bursts onto the scene and sends a jolt through the blues community. Jontavious Willis may just have that effect on people. Many fans of Willis regard him as an old soul. His style of playing and his voice touches the very roots of country blues, bringing back the true soul of the music. A newspaper headline once called him a “70-year-old Bluesman in a 20-year-old Body.” Hailing from Greenville, Ga., Willis grew up singing gospel music at the Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church with his grandfather. From an early age, he had the talent and passion for the music and the ability to sharpen his skills fast. At the age of 14, he came across a YouTube video of Muddy Waters playing “Hoochie Coochie Man” and was instantly hooked on the blues. He got his much-needed break from the living legend Taj Mahal in 2015, when Mahal asked Willis to play on stage with him. That appearance resulted in a roaring response from the audience and led Willis to bigger stages and broader opportunities, including an opening slot at select shows along the TajMo tour, featuring his musical mentors Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’.
Jayy Hop is part of the new generation of Black bluesman. From Georgia, he got his start in the Church, first playing drums in Gospel groups before being introduced to guitar by his cousin. The guitar led him on a musical journey backwards through time, unpacking the history of blues guitar from Jimi Hendrix through Albert Collins and Son Seals through the funky soul of the Ohio Players (founded by his Uncles Robert and Billy Ward). He went to school with Jontavious Willis, who then opened his ears to an even earlier generation of acoustic players. Jayy is on the path to becoming a powerful force in Country Blues working with Jontavious as well one of the elder living master of the country blues sound, Bentonia, Mississippi ‘s own, Jimmy “Duck “ Holmes. For this show, he will be sharing the stage with his longtime friend, Jontavious Willis, for an evening of old blues, masterfully performed by the next generation of young masters.
TICKETS
Tickets are $20 for adults, $16 for seniors 62+ and subscribers, $10 for youth 18 and under, $10 for Bucknell employees and retirees (limit 2), free for Bucknell students (limit 1) and $10 for non-Bucknell students (limit 2).
Tickets can be reserved by calling 570-577-1000 or online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice.
Tickets are also available in person from several locations including the Weis Center lobby (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and the CAP Center Box Office, located on the ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).
For more information about this event, contact Lisa Leighton, marketing and outreach director, at 570-577-3727 or by e-mail at [email protected].
For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
Feb 4, 2024 | Music, News, Regional Arts Events, Theater
The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome roots, rock, rhythm and blues, and folk singer Kyshona on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center.
There will be a pre-performance talk with the artist from 6:45-7:15 p.m. in the Weis Center Atrium.
The performance is sponsored, in part, by Karl Voss and Chanin Wendling and family.
Kyshona is an artist ignited by untold stories, and the capacity of those stories to thread connection in every community. With the background of a licensed music therapist, the curiosity of a writer, the resolve of an activist and the voice of a singer, Kyshona is unrelenting in her pursuit for the healing power of song.
She is both a sought-after collaborative vocalist working with artists like Margo Price whom she accompanied on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Adia Victoria who features Kyshona, Margo Price and Jason Isbell on her single “You Was Born to Die,” as well as being a burgeoning performer in her own right whose release, Listen, was voted Best Protest Album of 2020 by Nashville Scene.
Kyshona’s nonprofit organization, Your Song, offers songwriting programs for youth empowerment programs, detention, re-entry, recovery, mental health and veterans centers and organizations.
TICKETS
Tickets are $20 for adults, $16 for seniors 62+ and subscribers, $10 for youth 18 and under, $10 for Bucknell employees and retirees (limit 2), free for Bucknell students (limit 1) and $10 for non-Bucknell students (limit 2).
Mental health professionals and teachers are invited to purchase $10 tickets for this performance. Simply use code MUSICTHERAPY online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice after selecting seats.
Tickets can be reserved by calling 570-577-1000 or online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice.
Tickets are also available in person from several locations including the Weis Center lobby (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and the CAP Center Box Office, located on the ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).
For more information about this event, contact Lisa Leighton, marketing and outreach director, at 570-577-3727 or by e-mail at [email protected].
For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
Feb 4, 2024 | Music, News, Regional Arts Events, Theater
The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (NSOU) on Friday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center.
The performance is sponsored, in part, by Sam and Nancy Craig and the Press Enterprise.
Volodymyr Sirenko serves as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor and Volodymyr Vynnytsky will be featured on piano.
Formed by the Council of Ministers of Ukraine in November 1918, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine is considered to be one of the finest symphony orchestras in Eastern Europe. This is the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine’s 4th US tour.
At the Weis Center, they will perform:
Maksym Berezovsky: Symphony No. 1 in C major
Camille Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 (featuring Vynnytsky)
Antonin Dvořák: Symphony No. 8, Op. 88, B. 163 in G major
ABOUT THE NSOU
Formed by the Council of Ministers of Ukraine in November of 1918, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine is considered to be one of the finest symphony orchestras in Eastern Europe. Its first conductor was Oleksander Horilyj. Natan Rachlin was the Artistic Director of the Orchestra from 1937 until 1962. Stefan Turchak, Volodymyr Kozhuchar, Fedir Hlushchenko, Igor Blazhkov and Theodore Kuchar consequently conducted the Orchestra as its Principal Conductors. Other conductors who worked with the NSOU include Kostiantyn Simeonov, Leopold Stokowski, Igor Markevitch, Kurt Sanderling, Kiril Kondrashin, Kurt Masur, Hermann Abendroth, Willy Ferrero and others. Soloists who performed with the NSOU include Artur Rubinstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Gidon Kremer, Oleh Krysa, Monserrat Caballe, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli and Juan Diego Flores. The NSOU was entrusted with the premier performances of the works of the following composers: Boris Lyatoshynsky, Valentyn Sylvestrov, Myroslav Skoryk, and Evgen Stankovych.
The Orchestra has gained international recognition over a remarkably short period of time. Since 1993, the NSOU has released more than 100 sound recordings which include both Ukrainian and international repertoires. Most of these recordings have received the highest international acclaim. In 1994, the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) rated NSOU’s recording of Boris Lyatoshynsky’s Symphonies No. 2 and No. 3 as “The Best Recording of the Year”. The CD of Sylvestrov’s Requiem for Larissa was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005. The CD of Bloch and Lees’ Violin Concertos was nominated for a Grammy Award four years later. The NSOU has performed in successful concert tours throughout Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, England, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and the United States of America. Volodymyr Sirenko is the Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. Oleksandr Hornostai is Managing Director & Producer of the Orchestra.
ABOUT THE PIANIST
With playing described as “mystically powerful,” “rare,” and “simply superb,” possessing “incredible technique and deep musical understanding,” pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky has performed in recitals throughout the United States, France, England, Denmark, Sweden, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, among many others.
Internationally renowned pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky is a laureate of the Margueritte Long-Jacques Thibaud International Piano Competition in Paris. Vynnytsky has performed with leading orchestras and appeared in solo recitals in many prestigious concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Steinway Hall, the Phillips Gallery in Washington D.C., and many prestigious halls across Europe and Asia. A popular television and radio guest, he has also been featured on NHK-TV (Japan) and in the United States on WQXR-FM in New York, and nationally on NPR.
Recital and chamber music appearances have included guest invitations in numerous International Festivals in Ukraine (Kyiv Music Fest, “Virtuosi”, “Contrasts”, “Bridge of Alexandre III”), France (Masters de Pontlevoy, “Les MusiCimes”, “DSCH”), Brazil (“Virtuosi”), Curacao (Art in Avila), Canada (Niagara International Chamber Music Festival), Czech Republic (“American Spring” Festival) and USA (Artosphere Arts Festival, Chamber Players International, LWMF, Mohonk Festival of the Arts, Windham Chamber Music Festival, Southampton Festival of the Arts, Lake San Marcos Chamber Music Society, Music Mountain in Connecticut, Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston , Rachmaninoff International Festival in Los Angeles, “Music at the Institute” in New York and Art Center of Greene County.
Born in Lviv, Ukraine, Volodymyr Vynnytsky studied at the Lviv Music School for Gifted Children and later at the Moscow Conservatory. After earning his doctorate from the Moscow Conservatory under the direction of Yevgeny Malinin, he taught at the Kyiv Conservatory and concertized extensively throughout the world.
Volodymyr Vynnytsky has been a visiting member of the piano faculty in SUNY at Purchase, NY, and at the University of Connecticut. He served as a Chairman of the Jury of the Emil Gilels International Piano Competition in Odesa, Ukraine, and is an Honorary Professor of Lviv State Academy of Music, Odesa State Music Academy and Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv Conservatory). He is Director of Chamber Music at the College of Charleston, SC, and Music Director of the Music and Art Center of Greene County, New York.
TICKETS
Tickets are $35 for adults, $28 for seniors 62+ and subscribers, $25 for youth 18 and under, $25 for Bucknell employees and retirees (limit 2), free for Bucknell students (limit 1) and $25 for non-Bucknell students (limit 2).
Tickets can be reserved by calling 570-577-1000 or online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice.
Tickets are also available in person from several locations including the Weis Center lobby (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and the CAP Center Box Office, located on the ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).
For more information about this event, contact Lisa Leighton, marketing and outreach director, at 570-577-3727 or by e-mail at [email protected].
For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
