Mitch Traphagen’s photos from Artists Without Walls’ November 2015 Showcase at The Cell Theater in Manhattan. Performers and presenters included Tara OGrady, Stella Pulo, Tue Hoe, Faye Franzini, Richard Deane, Martina Fiserova and Alejandro Colon-Rabinowitz. Produced by AWOW’s artistic directors Charles Hale and Niamh Hyland. www.artistwithoutwalls.com.
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Tue Ho and Faye Fazini
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Justin Colon-Rabinowitz and Connie Roberts
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Justin Poindexter and Tara O’Grady
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Martina Fiserova
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Justin Colon-Rabinowitz
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Tue Ho and Faye Franzini
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Richard Deane
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Stella Pulo and Alison Armstrong
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Tara O’Grady
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Charles R. Hale
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Gary Ryan, Sam Adelman, Pandora Maclean-Hoover, John Moran, Lynnell Herzer, Eric Hoover, Charles R. Hale and Annette Homann
“They (Artists Without Walls) create the space—literally and figuratively—for artists of all stripes to be their best selves, to push boundaries, to experiment, to collaborate in a safe, nurturing environment. They are also the glorious pied pipers who keeps bringing us back again and again to these marvelous events.” Connie Roberts author of Little Witness.
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Walter Parks
Over the past three decades, Walter Parks has forged a distinctive international career as the lead guitarist for Woodstock legend Richie Havens, half of the folk-duo The Nudes, and guitarist and leader of the swamp/blues-outfit Swamp Cabbage. His original music is inspired by the swampy gospel blues that wails from storefront churches and roadhouses in and around the southeast Georgia low country. We’re looking forward to Walter’s first appearance at an AWoW Showcase.
Melissa Ritz
Actor/dancer/singer/writer Melissa Ritz will perform an excerpt from her award-winning one-woman show Journey of a Bombshell: The Ina Ray Hutton Story, which is now appearing at the Soho Theatre in New York City. Based on true events, 1930’s famed Big-Band leader Ina Ray Hutton found success and heartache on the stages of Broadway and beyond, with a secret she couldn’t afford to reveal at that time.
Mary Deady
Mary Deady, a member of the National Folk Theatre of Ireland for many years, will also be appearing at her first Showcase this Tuesday. Mary has performed extensively throughout Ireland, Europe, the United States and Canada. A resident of New York City, Mary has appeared in a wide variety of venues and, most recently, with Jeff Cubeta on piano, at the Laurie Beechman Theatre/West Bank Café, where she musically traced her journey from Ireland to America through the richness of the American songbook.
Jack O’Connell
Veteran stage, film and television actor Jack O’Connell, an AWoW charter member and frequent performer, will soon be starring in “Stoopdreamers,” which will be directed by Kira Simring and will be running through the month of September at The Cell Theatre. Jack will be performing a short scene from “Stoopdreamers” during Tuesday’s Showcase. Jack has appeared in many popular TV programs including The Sopranos, Law and Order, Blue Bloods, and Boardwalk Empire and films such as Doubt with Meryl Streep and Men In Black 3.
Mary Tierney
Mary Tierney, Ron Ryan and Larry Fleischman will be performing in a short play, The Perfect Cup of Coffee, written by award winning playwright David Loughlin at Tuesday’s Showcase at The Cell Theatre. Gus and Shorty, two cowboys from Wyoming, set-off across America in search of the perfect cup of coffee. After more than a hundred disappointments, they end-up in Sally’s Place, a diner in Vermont, wondering if they’re searching for something that doesn’t exist—the perfect cup of coffee. Playwright: David Loughlin is a member of the HB Studio Playwright’s Unit, The Dramatist Guild, and The Pulse Ensemble Theater’s Playwright’s Lab. His award-winning plays have been produced from New York to Brooklyn, Florida, California, and beyond.
Charles R. Hale
Charles R. Hale’s show “The Musical History of the Lower East Side” was performed by AWoW members at Rockwood Music Hall in the Spring. Charles has created a companion piece film, which he will debuting at AWoW’s Showcase. Charles is a co-founder and artistic director of Artists Without Walls.
Join us on Tuesday, August 25th for an evening of great fun and conviviality at The Cell Theatre, 338 W23rd St., NYC. The doors and bar open at 6:45. We hope to see you there.
LIV MAMMONE’S “ARTISTS WITHOUT WALLS SHOWCASE at THE CELL” WRAP-UP
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Niamh Hyland, Sasha Papernik, Annette Homann and Noel Lawlor
This month’s Artists Without Walls’ Showcase at The Cell Theatre really exemplified our organization’s core values of both diversity and community, bringing a set of fresh, new, young artists amidst seasoned veterans of the AWoW stage. The whole evening was filled with the warmth and the welcoming atmosphere we have come to expect from these gatherings. The Cell itself feels as though it’s growing smaller and more intimate with each passing month, as this family of faces come together to support, sustain, and shine. But the circuit never closes, always making room for more.
Richard Stillman
First up, Richard Stillman gave us all a laugh with two musically accompanied story recitations. One, a comical rhyme about a young highland lad named Angus with a prominent honker he puts to use in a bagpipe band; the other, a Peruvian pied piper tale about a young man who uses the forgotten tradition of pan flute playing to rid his mountain town of a scourge of slimy frogs and finds his place among them. Richard, too, has embraced an art form not seen often these days with his oral storytelling and showed us why it is still vivid and necessary. (How on Earth did he make that bubble sound?)
Ed Romanoff and I.S. Jones
I.S. Jones shimmered with grace and grit reciting three spoken word poems; a gripping piece about racist language; the sensual “Kingdom of Touching”; and a gloriously uplifting ode to those forces in her life which have tried and tested her. I.S. had worried that her work would be “a little risky” for the audience, but we were jolted and moved by the elegant truth in her work. Her calmness and refined manner acts as a prism through which torrents of feeling are focused. Her risk was rewarded and we would welcome her future work.
Noah Hoffeld
Cellist, pianist, and songwriter Noah Hoffeld demonstrated his incredible range, favoring us with a melodic ballad, a rocking ode to the music that shaped his youth, and an utterly heartrending classically inspired solo to return us to his Juilliard roots. His vocals are reminiscent of Matthew Good, at once tender and rough-edged. It was a roller coaster of feeling to be witness to just a fraction of what he is capable.
Eithne Nic An Riogh
In a happy accident, we were then joined by Eithne Nic An Riogh, just this week transplanted from Ireland. She had reached out to fellow University College Dublin alum Niamh Hyland looking for a cello and we were most fortunate that, instead, she wound up with a slot. Borrowing Noah’s, Eithne treated us to a million dollar smile and two beautiful pieces, a cello standard as well as a deeply moving Irish song about a woman who cannot be buried on the island of her choice. It was heartwarming to see how these fellow performers came together on a spur of the moment to share her talent with us.
Nicholas Garr
Have you ever wondered what would happen if the Sopranos’ Chris Moltisanti was given the psychic powers of John Edwards? Character actor Nicholas Garr has finally given us the answer and it is as hilarious as you would expect. Watching how Nick has altered his body language especially is truly evidence of his gift. He left us in stitches. A pilot should be sent to HBO now that its gangster show niche has a void.
Alex Shapiro
The second poet of the night, Alex Shapiro, was brand new to the AWoW stage, and brought a bouquet of lively, thought provoking, philosophical musings. These poems as quick and sharp as shots of whiskey. Alex inhabited his whole body for his reading, giving off an air of approachability and an enviable talent for memorization. We are lucky to have caught him before he heads out to the Midwest to continue his writer’s journey.
Niamh Hyland and Allison Sylvia
Ed Romanoff is never less than awe inspiring and was a perfect closer for our evening. Ed has performed a great deal with AWoW and is an integral part of its nature, but those who were in the audience last night hearing him for the first time are to be envied. He demonstrated his prowess as a lyricist and his signature sound–steady as a train and sharp like a razor–in three tracks. The first was new, the story of a boxer and his shiftless women. His second choice was a deeply personal gesture for fellow member Connie Roberts, a song called “Orphan King.” Niamh and Noah then joined Ed for his song “Two Yellow Roses,” giving an already breathtaking number a level of depth we as audience members were held in thrall by. It is always an indescribable pleasure when showcase performers come together in impromptu collaborations. This is part of the magic of the space and there is nothing else like it.
We hope that you could be present and that you’ll join us for the next Showcase on August 25th, at The Cell Theatre.
Recently, a friend asked how I developed an interest in classical music. My mother gets the credit for that one. When I was a young boy in Glen Oaks, Queens, the local supermarket had classical albums for sale at the check out counter. Every so often my mother would buy one and thus, at any early age, I was introduced to classical music, including the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Bach and others. By the time I reached my teens, however, I rarely listened to classical music and, like most teens, I soaked up the music of the era, The Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, the Shirelles and many others.
During my senior year in college, for reasons I can’t recall, I bought a ticket to a New York Philharmonic concert at Lincoln Center. The only thing I remember about the program was that it included Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. I was hooked. Soon I was attending concert after concert at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the 92nd Street Y. My interest in this musical genre has remained keen ever since.
Occasionally, a friend might say, “I’d like to begin building a classical music library. Can you send me a list of your favorite classical music recordings?” There are too many to include in a list of favorites, but typically I’ll start with a few that are not only great works but have an interesting history, which also interests me. Here’s a sampling: Four great works, out of hundreds in the classical repertory, including some great recordings of each.
Anton Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, Op. 104: Dvorak began work on this concerto in his East 17th St. apartment in NYC in 1884 and finished it in Prague the following year. On March 28, 1937, George Szell, conducting the Czech Philharmonic, along with cellist Pablo Casals, who was at the peak of his powers, his playing ennobling and lyrical, unleashed a stunning performance of the concerto. The recording is a tour de force, from the rapier life thrust of the cello in the opening movement, all the way to the concluding sinuous duet between cello and orchestra, and ending in a blaze of glory. I’ve often wondered what impact the political stirrings of the day had on this recording: Ethnic tensions were running high in Czechoslovakia and the scent of war was in the air; the Wermacht was planning an invasion of Czechoslovakia, and a year later the Munich agreement was signed ceding the Sudetenland to Germany.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92. In 1936 Arturo Toscanini announced that he was leaving his post as the musical director of the New York Philharmonic after an eight-year stay. On April 9, shortly before his farewell performance at Carnegie Hall, Toscanini conducted a recording of Beethoven’s Seventh, which captures the clarity and propulsion that stamped his music and became known as the “Toscanini sound.” It’s also interesting to note the connection with Nazi Germany, since many feel that Toscanini’s performances and recordings of Beethoven’s symphonies were a public and musical repudiation of Nazi tyranny. The second movement marked “Allegretto,” was used to great effect in the recent film “The King’s Speech.” Here’s Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, November 10, 1951.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K466. Mozart composed fifteen piano concertos between the years 1782 and 1786, including the D Minor, premiered by Mozart himself, in February 1875. During this stretch, which may have been the peak of Mozart’s creative powers, he often performed one new work each week. The second movement marked, “Romanze” is brilliant. The movement begins with a simple theme and then (at the 4:05 mark in the recording I’ve provided) there is an outburst in the piano and orchestra with gorgeous exchanges between the piano and the oboes, flutes and bassoons, which is followed (at 6:43 in the recording) by the return of the original theme. This is a sublime work and may be my favorite two and one-half-minutes of music of any kind. The recording I’ve enjoyed most through the years is Daniel Barenboim’s with the English Chamber Orchestra, which isn’t available on youtube. The performance I’ve selected features pianist Friedrich Gulda with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op.82. Sibelius’s early works were often nationalistic in nature, in fact, his most popular work, Finlandia, was banned by the Russian czar during times of unrest. Sibelius began work on his Fifth Symphony during the early years of WWI and premiered it in December of 1915. He was not satisfied with the work and rewrote it at least twice, the final version being completed in 1918. As with much of Sibelius’s work there is strong feel of nature and the North country. I find the last movement, which begins with the whirrings of the string section and ending magisterially, particularly moving. Many consider Serge Koussevitzky’s recording with the Boston Symphony Orchestra the preeminent recording of this work. The recording here, led by Esa Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is a very fine recording of Sibelius’s work.
There were so many wonderful comments about Friday night’s premier of Artists Without Walls’ Gallery Series, featuring Kathleen Bennett Bastis’ solo exhibition “Permutations,” that we are presenting a number of the comments here, which will be followed by others over the next few days. As you’ll, read and as you’ll see in the photos, it was an incredible night.
Annette Homann
“In speaking about the materials that go into her artistic constructs that are on stunning display in her solo exhibition, “Permutations” (at the First Street Gallery in Chelsea), Kathleen Bennett Bastis has said: “Their unique shape, texture and hue guide my creative process.” The same might be said of the collaborative evening Artist Without Walls created at that gallery last night.
In bringing together a trio of performers, guitarist/vocalist Martina Fiserova, violinist Annette Homann and poet/spoken word artist Allison Sylvia— whose talents are perfectly in synch with Kathleen’s vision— it made for an event the likes of which you will rarely, if ever, experience. A melding of artists within the walls adorned by Kathleen’s masterful works… it was a memorable night. Yes, it was that good.” Ron Vazzano
Niamh Hyland and Martina Fiserova
“Visual and performing arts converged at First Street Gallery in Chelsea for a fabulously entertaining evening. The gallery walls were lined with Kathleen Bennett Bastis’ artistic sculptures. Sallie Benton aptly described Kathleen’s work on Facebook: ‘Bastis works primarily in metal; but there are stone & tile pieces, glass and mirrored pieces, cardboard, wire, string, etc. The pieces are quite varied but all have one very strong, exceptional and true artist’s voice.’
Martina Fiserova began the performances with an experimental number, displaying her unique talent on the guitar. Allison Sylvia followed with a ten minute thoughtful and humorous soliloquy on life, a well-written monologue with each word carefully chosen and placed. The inimitable violinist Annette Homan finished the night with pieces ranging from classical to pop. The joy exuded from Annette, particularly during one number when she provocatively engaged the audience with her violin music and playful dance. ” Tom Myles
Annette Homann, Kathleen Bennett Bastis, Martina Fiserova and Allison Sylvia
“Lovely and talented! Brilliant across the board; Martina, Allison, Kathleen, and Annette. Happy I was able to attend; super sounds, sights and words – magical evening it was!” Michael Muller
Charles R. Hale
“An extraordinary evening. Unequivocally original. Martina ended her set with a song that was amazing and daring. Equally daring was Allison’s poetry; her words seem to come from the deepest parts of her energetic psyche. And violinist Annette Homann’s performance of “Skyfall” brought the audience to their feet. In a perfect world Annette would team up with Niamh Hyland to do the title track for the next Bond movie.” Sam Adelman
Ron Vazzano, Kathleen Bennett Bastis and Jenai Huff
“Thank you for a night that brought back memories of New York City “Happenings” of bygone days.” Joanna Migdal
“Blown away tonight by the most talented collection of musicians! Artists Without Walls hosted a terrific musical evening at Rockwood Music Hall. What a line up of super talented vocalists. One after another boom, boom, boom! All equally stunning performances! Niamh Hyland, Maritri Garrett, Honor Finnegan, Basya Schechter, Ashley Bell and with equally beautiful instrumentals from Noah Hoffield and Deni Bonet. Curated and M.C’d by the one and only, Charles R. Hale. A slice of New York History. Take it on the road guys! Hopefully this will be done again…. not to be missed.” Actress/Director Aedin Moloney
The Irish, leaving behind famine and poverty, began streaming into the country in the 1840’s. The emigrés wrote a large number of emigrant ballads, which were usually sad laments, steeped in nostalgia and self-pity, and despite the troubles they’d left, singing the praises of their native soil. But they also brought Celtic music with them. One tune “Red Haired Boy,” a melody common to fiddlers throughout Scotland and Ireland was transferred nearly intact to the American fiddle tradition where it has been a favorite of bluegrass fiddlers in recent times. Fiddler Deni Bonet opened the evening with a rendition of the tune.
Niamh Hyland
Stephen Foster known as “the father of American music” was an American songwriter known for his parlor and minstrel music. The minstrel show was an American form of entertainment developed in the 19th century, consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface. Popularized in the 1830 and 40s, in New York City alone, when minstrelsy was at its height in the 1850s and 60s, there were ten theaters in New York City devoted almost solely to minstrel entertainment. Bonet strung together a medley of Foster’s tunes, illustrative of the minstrel style: “The Old Folks at Home,” “Camptown Races,” and “Oh Susanna.”
Noah Hoffeld
Singer Niamh Hyland, cellist Noah Hoffeld joined Deni to perform two of Foster’s parlor songs, “Hard Times Come Again No More,” written in 1854 and “Slumber My Darling,” written in 1862, two years after Foster moved to New York.
Many ethnic groups or cultures tend to claim sections of New York City as historically their own. The Lower East Side is especially remembered as a place of Jewish beginnings in America. Between 1880 and the start of World War I in 1914, about two million Yiddish-speaking Jews left Eastern Europe and
Basya Schechter
Russia where repeated pogroms made life unbearable for many. The immigrants brought a great deal of their European music with them and the music became an integral part of the immigrant’s life. Two of these songs “Oyfn Pripetchik” and “Shnirele perele” were performed by guitarist/singer Basya Schecter and cellist Hoffeld .
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Ashley Bell
The first Italian opera, Rossini’s Barber of Seville, was performed in the United States in NYC in 1825, but it wasn’t until a steady stream of Italian immigrants began arriving in America in the late 19th and early 20th century—four million—that the popularity of Italian opera picked up steam. The Metropolitan Opera debuted a number of Italian operas, including Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi in 1918. The most popular aria from that opera remains “O Mio Babbino Caro,” which was performed by soprano Ashley Bell who accompanied herself on piano.
Canzone Napoletana, sometimes referred to as Neapolitan song, is a term for a traditional form of music sung in the Neapolitan language. Many of the Neapolitan songs became world-famous after they were taken abroad by emigrants from Naples and southern Italy. The music was popularized in New York City by performers such as Enrico Caruso, who took to singing the popular music of his native city as encores at the Metropolitan Opera. Bell sang one of the most popular Neapolitan songs, “No ti Scordar di me.”
Maritri Garrett
If many are unfamiliar with the names Israel Baline, Samuel Cohen, Isidore Hochberg, and Jacob and Israel Gershowitz, it’s because they were better known as Irving Berlin, Sammy Cahn, Yip Harburg and George and Ira Gershwin, composers who were either born or raised on the Lower East Side. George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me,” was sung by Maritri Garrett, who played the guitar, with additional accompaniment from fiddler Bonet.
Yip Harburg wrote a number of popular tunes including “Brother Can You Spare a Dime,” and “April in Paris,” but he’s probably best known for the Wizard of Oz’s “Over The Rainbow,” which he wrote with Harold Arlen, and for which they won an Academy Award. The versatile Garrett moved to the piano and performed “If I Had A Brain,” also from the “Wizard.”
Honor Finnegan
The East Village was once considered the Lower East Side’s northwest corner; however, in the 1960s, the demographics of the area above Houston Street began to change, as hipsters, musicians, and artists moved in. And from 1968 to 1971 the Fillmore East, located in a Second Avenue building that was originally a Yiddish theatre, was the rock palace of the world. The performers are legendary: The Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and many others performed there. The brilliant singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell appeared at the Fillmore on April 26, 1969. Honor Finnegan, accompanied by Carl Money on guitar performed two of Mitchell’s songs, “All I Want” and “Both Sides Now.”
Charles R. Hale
Some American music critics began using the term “punk” in the early 1970s to describe garage bands and their devotees. By late 1976 Patti Smith, Television and the Ramones in New York City were recognized as the vanguard of a new musical movement performing in such places as the famed CBGB at 315 Bowery. To close out the evening Hyland, Bonet, Hoffeld and Garrett performed a song from that era, a rousing rendtion of Blondie’s “Call Me.”
Charles R. Hale will be presenting “Breathing from an Ancestor’s Space and Time,” a series of short films that combine family stories and historical events, including his latest film, which tells the story of his family’s sixteen year old neighbor who was sentenced to die in the electric chair. Lehman College, The Studio Theater, 250 Bedford Blvd, West. Bronx, NY. Thursday, 11/6, 12:30-2.
Serena Jost
Serena Jost will be performing at Rockwood Music Hall, 185 Orchard Street, on Nov 6th at 8 pm. Get your tickets asap, just $10 (less than your lunch) and help her pack the joint. For ticket info click here
Niamh Hyland and “Lily Sparks”
Niamh Hyland’s band Lily Sparks will be doing a very special live show for the New York, International Pop Overthrow festival at Bar Matchless (557 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn), thisThursday Nov 6th, 9:15pm. Have a listen to some tunes www.lilysparks.com
Deni Bonet
You’re invited into Deni Bonet neighbor’s living room in Uptown NYC for her second International online streaming concert, coming to you LIVE over the Internet via Concert Window. Deni had such a great response last month that she’s doing it again THIS THURSDAY at 9:30 PM! Tune in to to hear brand new tunes from her upcoming instrumental CD, as well as a few old favorites. She might even take requests. Robin Pahlman will be joining her on guitar & it’s just like you’re there in the room with them! Sign up now and get an online reminder when it’s close to showtime. PAY WHAT YOU WANT. You can even wear your pajamas! For details click here.
Irish Arts Center “PoetryFest”
And beginning next weekend, November 7-9 there’s this special event: In association with Glucksman Ireland House Nyu – and Poetry Ireland, the Irish Arts Center’s sixth annual PoetryFest, which celebrates Ireland and America’s great literary connection by showcasing an unparalleled array of much-published and award-winning poets. The event takes place next weekend, November 7-9th. The only New York festival of its kind, PoetryFest immerses participants in an intimate and creative atmosphere filled with readings, storytelling, book signings, conversations, and more.
Jenai Huff and Eugene Ruffolo
Jenai Huff and Eugene Ruffolo in concert, Friday, November 7 at 7:30pm. Doors open at 6:30pm. It is in Jersey City and only 5 minutes walk away from the PATH train. It is located in the prestigious Paulus Hook area of Jersey City. (Contact Jenai Huff at jenaihuff@hotmail.com or spiralsoundconcert@gmail.com for information or reservations. ) Eugene and Jenai will be performing two sets and introducing new songs there. There will be plenty of delicious treats and wine to accompany the harmonies, the stories and the laughter. Eugene is a highly acclaimed singer/songwriter and session singer from NYC and Jenai who hails from CA, but is now a NYC resident, is an AWOW favorite. There is a lot of information on the Facebook event about the each of them or on the host’s website
And in the following week, AWoW is happy to announce its first evening at Rockwood Music Hall, Wed, 11/12, 7pm. We’ve assembled a great array of talent: Deni Bonet, Warren Malone, Aisha Badru, Jack O’Connell, Tara O’Grady and Sasha Papernik. Please come out and support these terrific artists. Our goal is to sell out the room and recognize our very talented members. Tickets are $20 but $15 for AWoW members using the code…awwmember. Click here for tickets
