Kathleen Supové

Photo courtesy of Miriam Hendel

Kathleen Supové, a fabulous pianist (aka The Exploding Piano) and colorful fixture of the New York new music scene had a few mintues to chat with The Glass about several things she’s done of interest, and along with a really cool music-installation project, I was so amazed that she is also part of a prog-rock band called Dr. Nerve, thanks to a Facebook photo that just popped up (When I assumed she was “sitting in” with the band, Kathy reassured me she’s IN this band).

By the way, if you are in the NY area, Kathy is performing along with many other artists such as Phyllis Chen, Miguel Frasconi, Stephen Gosling, Patrick Grant, and Shoko Nagai among others at The Stone for the Cage100 Festival on Thursday, September 5th at 8 PM and 10 PM.

Kathy spoke to me via her husband composer Randy Woolf‘s skype account.

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Mrs. President Goes To New York (A Review of The Preview)

Valerie Bernhardt as Victoria Woodhull–Mrs. President (Photo courtesy of Sophia Negron)

Anchorage Opera
presents
Mrs. President, composed by Victoria Bond
A special preview concert
Libretto by Hilary Bell
Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space, NY
Monday, July 9th, 2012

This preview of Mrs. President, Victoria Bond‘s opera about women’s equality pioneer Victoria Woodhull that is set to have its official premiere in Anchorage, AK this October, was presented as simply a “Mrs. President in Concert”, with the principal singers performing in concert wardrobe instead of the costumes you’d expect to see for the fully-staged opera, and the music was performed not by an orchestra, but with piano accompaniment by Richard Gordon.
And there was also no chorus. The concert reveals Mrs. President to be sort of a work-in-progress.
Having said this, I’m happy to say that this preview of Mrs. President was far from disappointing. Even the trappings of a non-staged preview of an operatic work don’t necessarily stop the work from revealing its true beauty, and potential vibrancy.

Victoria Bond ~ On The New York Preview of Mrs. President and Other Victoria-Related Things

Composer-conductor Victoria Bond had some time to talk to me via Skype about, among other great things in her music history as both a composer and performer, the New York preview of her opera Mrs. President. The official premiere of this piece about the once-controversial historical figure Victoria Woodhull is going to be in Anchorage, Alaska this coming October, but if you are in the New York area next week on Monday, July 9th, at 7:30 PM at Symphony Space, you’ll be able to see this opera first-hand at a special preview performance.

CM: So, the main character of Mrs. President is a real, not a fictional, person?

VB: She is! If you Google Victoria Woodhull, you’ll find she was a very controversial person! She was not one of these lilly-white sufferages, she had very fascinating baggage attached to her name. She ran on the equal rights party ticket in 1872 against Ulysses S. Grant in his second term, and her running mate was Frederick Douglass. A little bit ahead of their time I would say!

Dialogue Between the Traditional and The Modern–Chinese Hua Xia Chamber Ensemble at Alice Tully Hall (A Review)

Dialogue between the Traditional and the Modern
Chinese Hua Xia Chamber Ensemble
Tsung Yeh, conductor
Zhang Weiliang, Artistic Director and xiao soloist
Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, NY
May 7th. 2012

The biggest thing I can say about the Hua Xia Chamber Ensemble‘s program at Alice Tully is this: For the first 5 minutes or so when they came out and played the first piece Lang Tao Sha, which was a traditional piece, I couldn’t write a thing. It was an incredible rush that made me more fully appreciate not only the music of China, but music at its best, for its organic healing abilities, and for sounds that force you to take the time to consider them.