Crystal Bridges teams up with NWACC for musical, lecture events
by March 6, 2014 1:13 pm 130 views
NorthWest Arkansas Community College has joined forces with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to bring “Vivaldi’s Sounds of Spring” to life for local audiences on March 19 and 21.
The Vivaldi programs in Crystal Bridges’ Great Hall will begin at 7 p.m. each day. The programs are free, and tickets are available at online.
Miles Fish, music professor at NWACC, will be the guest lecturer. He has been researching and studying Antonio Vivaldi’s music since 2002, spending summers in Italy. Two of Fish’s books involving Vivaldi have been published by Apple’s iTunes, the college said.
Performing guest artists will include:
• Antonella Gozzoli, soprano visiting from Tuscany;
• Ben Harris, Fayetteville Jazz Collective;
• Tobiah Murphy, University of Missouri Conservatory of Music; and
• NWACC Chamber Singers.
The March 19 program will address “The Life and Times of Antonio Vivaldi.” The March 21 program will focus on the miraculous discovery and “re-premiere” performance of Vivaldi’s works at the outbreak of World War II.
The performing arts presentations coincide with the March 15 opening of “The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism” at Crystal Bridges.
Fish has noted that because of Vivaldi’s pioneering innovative contributions to “program music” (evoking images — painting pictures with musical sounds), his works remain especially relevant to those who love visual art.
The Vivaldi “Spring” was revolutionary at its conception and remains, centuries later, a textbook example of memorable sound painting, according to Fish.