News @ the Peck School of the Arts

UWM Symphony Orchestra performs at New York's Carnegie Hall

The UWM Symphony Orchestra performed an electrifying concert on Wednesday, March 21 at Carnegie Hall. They received an instant standing ovation from an enthusiastic audience. The program consisted of Shostakovich's Festive Overture, Kevin Puts' "this noble company," a movement from the Marcello Oboe Concerto featuring UWM faculty member Margaret Butler, and selections from Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4.

The orchestra attended a New York Philharmonic concert at Lincoln Center and had an outstanding clinic with New York Philharmonic staff conductor Michael Adelson. In addition, they met and worked with composer Kevin Puts.

The entire group enjoyed a dinner cruise around Manhattan and also took in a variety of sights including the 911 Memorial, Rockefeller Center, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, Central Park, the Metropolitan Art Museum, the Frick Collection, and the Museum of Modern Art.

Said Margery Deutsch, Peck School Director of Orchestral Activities," I could not be prouder. The students embraced the opportunity and played magnificently. They were wonderful, thoughtful travelers, and I'm happy to say everyone returned home safe and sound. This is a memory we will treasure for a lifetime."

Calling all acoustic guitar fans

By Damien Jaques
OnMilwaukee.com
March 23, 2012

Acoustic guitar royalty will be in town next week. California-based Alex de Grassi will be in residence at the UWM Peck School of the Arts, which has one of the top finger-style guitar programs in the country.

Three events are open to the public. The musician will play live his score to the Japanese silent film "A Story of Floating Weeds" at 7 p.m. Thursday, appear at a forum on his finger-style guitar method at 10 a.m. next Friday, and perform a variety of music in concert at 7:30 p.m. next Friday...

Visit OnMilwaukee.com to read the full article.

Cellist Robert Cohen, of the Fine Arts Quartet

By Tom Strini
ThirdCoast Digest
March 23, 2012

Cellist Robert Cohen was leading the same hectic, international concert life he’d led since he was 19 when he got a call from first violinist Ralph Evans, of the Fine Arts Quartet in January of 2011. Wolfgang Laufer was ailing; could Cohen make room in his schedule for a quartet tour in February and March?

“I had played with them six years before, in Finland,” Cohen said, in an interview Thursday at the UWM Zelazo Center. Cohen, now a full-fledged member, will perform with the FAQ Sunday (March 25) afternoon at Zelazo...

Visit ThirdCoast Digest to read the full article.

Present Music's Buffalo Nation to feature talent of Music alums and faculty

Recently, Present Music commissioned a new musical work from Peck School Music alum Jerome Kitzke titled Buffalo Nation (Bison bison). The work will be premiered on April 14 at the Indian Community School in Franklin as part of Present Music's Buffalo Nation concert. The performance will also include Kurt Ollmann, voice lecturer at the Peck School and Norman Moses, who received his BFA and MFA from the Music Department.

Visit Present Music online for more information about the concert.

The Nature of Mutation at UWM

88Nine RadioMilwaukee
March 13, 2012

Bill Watson knows a good script when he reads one, and he has brought a compelling story to the UWM Peck School of the Arts: The Nature of Mutation. This play brings together various conflicts: Creationism vs. Evolution, science vs. faith, technology vs. nature, old vs. new, parents vs. youth---you know, all the things that make for a pithy news story. But the difference here is that a cast of young actors, a veteran director, and a fascinating play come together to create something beyond a headline.

I met with Bill Watson at my other "office", and then bounced down to UWM to watch and record a bit of the tech rehearsal, and talk to a couple of the young actors involved in this very topical production...

Visit 88Nine RadioMilwaukee to listen to the podcast.

FILM ALUM -- Disney/ABC TV Writing Program Gives 8 Diverse Participants the 'Golden Ticket' (Exclusive)

By Jethro Nededog
Hollywood Reporter
March 12, 2012

The writers are Erinne Dobson (Orleans, Mass.), Cindy Fang (Fremont, Calif.), Shannon Fopeano (Orleans, Mass.), Jason George (Memphis), Eric Haywood (Milwaukee, Peck School Film alum), Ryan Maldonado (Miami), Raamla Mohamed (Los Angeles) and Aaron Serna (McAllen, Texas).

“We’re looking for people who are first and foremost passionate about writing for television,” Disney/ABC Television Group’s vp talent development and diversity Tim McNeal tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And individuals who bring something new to the table, a unique perspective on storytelling.”

Chosen from more than 1,000 submissions, the writers will have the opportunity to work as staff on a Disney/ABC project, as well as take advantage of other resources provided to them through the program...

Visit the Hollywood Reporter to read the full article.

Film alum Bill Thelen and Team Lump at Green Gallery West

As part of the Riverwest Satellite Gallery Day & Night, Green Gallery curator Nicholas Frank is pleased to bring one neighborhood gallery to another. The Green Gallery West will host Team Lump, of the Lump Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina. Lump is run by Bill Thelen, a former Milwaukeean and UW-Milwaukee Film Department Alum ('93). Team Lump will show a large-scale collage made in homage to Ray Johnson's time at North Carolina's Black Mountain College in the years just after WWII, in addition to a selection of recent work by Thelen. 

This exhibition finds Lump members ruminating on the wonders of suicide, madness and mass death. A collage by current Team Lump members Megan Sullivan, Rich McIssac, Tory Wright and Thelen celebrates Ray Johnson’s tenure at North Carolina’s Black Mountain College in the late 1940s. Also, a selection of recent work by Thelen takes a look at mass suicide cults (Heaven’s Gate), personal tragedies (Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell) and mania (Robert Crumb’s brother Charles).

Learn more at the Green Gallery web site.

 

Percussionist Patti Cudd opens Unruly Music

By Tom Strini
ThirdCoast Digest
March 9, 2012

Patti Cudd sat at a table, barely moved some little gizmo I couldn’t quite make out in her left hand, and thus produced an incredible range of sounds. She was playing — if that’s the right word –  Chris Mercer’s Spring Box, one of six pieces on her Unruly Music festival program.

I don’t know if Mercer synthesized and specified the sounds, or if he just invented the little instrument and Cudd winged it. Either way, the wild noises alluded to real-world sounds without actually reproducing them. Feedback, a hum of pure pitch, the sound of a prankster’s joy buzzer, buzzes of motors of various heft, dog whistles drifting in and out of human audibility, Tuvan throat singing, a siren, a power saw biting through lumber, white noise and more. The big noise and big range impressed, and they contrasted almost comically with the barely detectable motion of Cudd’s left hand. Mercer’s (and/or Cudd’s) subtle way of blending and transforming his vast noise inventory gave the piece a point of interest beyond its parade of vaguely familiar sounds...

Read the full article at ThirdCoast Digest.

Artists to send tweets into deep space

By Mary Louise Schumacher
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
March 9, 2012

It's official, Twitter is headed for the stars. Or, more specifically GJ667Cc -- the closest Earth-like planet, 20 light years away.

Two artists, including one from Milwaukee, plan to dispatch a multitude of voices from the Twitterverse into the actual universe later this year using a large laser beam...

The artists are Nathaniel Stern, an interactive artist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Scott Kildall, a San Francisco-based, cross-disciplinary artist. Stern and Kildall were also the initiators of the Wikipedia Art project, a public artwork initially composed on Wikipedia...

Visit the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online to read the full article.

Art & Design faculty Kim Cosier publishes book "Transforming City Schools Through Art"

Cowritten with Karen Hutzel and Flavia M.C. Bastos, the anthology "provides a fresh perspective on urban education by describing a positive, asset-based community development model designed to tap into the teaching/learning potential already available in urban cities. Rather than focusing on a lack of resources, this innovative approach shows teachers how to use the cultural resources at hand. The text highlights successful models of visual art education for the K-12 classroom, including unit plans and online resources."

Click here to learn more about the book.