There are a lot of exciting events as part of Voices of Hope. I strongly encourage you to check out Carnegie Hall’s website to pick what most interests you. There is a mix of films, documentaries, more performances than could be included here and multiple opportunities to learn.

One of the wonderful things about this festival is that you have until May 31st to catch all of the programming presented by Carnegie Hall. You’ll be able to find their events on their Facebook page and also their YouTube channel.

It is worth noting that several of my picks here are not presented by Carnegie Hall, but by other venues. Those events have more limited viewing opportunities.

In an effort to navigate the entire list, I’ve selected my top picks to be found within the festival and have, with one exception, chosen only performances.

Here are my selections of the best of Voices of Hope.

CABARET:

Ute Lemper – Songs of Eternity – Beginning April 18th at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Songs and poetry by composers held in concentration camps or trapped in ghettos are featured in this performance by Ute Lemper. The material will be performed in German and Yiddish as reflects the theme.

Lemper has long been a passionate advocate for this music and that passion comes through brilliantly in her deeply emotional performance of these songs.

This performance will be available on Carnegie Hall’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Ute Lemper – Rendezvous with Marlene – April 25th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Lemper practically bookends the Voices of Hope festival with the inclusion of her enormously well-received tribute to Marlene Dietrich which was inspired by her time spent with the legend while Lemper was appearing in the musical Cabaret in Paris.

This performance will be available on Carnegie Hall’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

CLASSICAL MUSIC:

Dmitri Shostakovich: A Man of Many Faces – April 16th – 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT

This documentary by Reiner Moritz will look at one of classical music’s most fascinating composers. He faced incredible scrutiny from the Russian government during this career. In spite of intense pressure from the Communist government he was able to create some of the most incredible music of the 20th century.

The late actor John Hurt serves as narrator and the film includes multiple interviews including archival footage of the composer himself.

Emanuele Arciuli: American Voices – April 16th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

It would be a shame to think that a list of American classical composers begins with just the popular Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Samuel Barber and continues onto Leonard Bernstein and John Adams without recognition of so many others.

The history of this music is far deeper than most of us know.

And it includes more Black and Native American composers than any of us realize. Well, any of us except Italian pianist Emanuele Arciuli who will perform a recital of this music in this concert.

Amongst the composers being represented here are Dawn Avery, Louis Ballard, Michael Begay, Margaret Bonds, Conor Chee, Arthur Cunningham, Brent Michael Davids and Talib Rasul Hakim. I’ll be honest, I’m not familiar with all four of these composers. That’s precisely why I intend to watch this recital.

I am, however, familiar with Arciuli. His recordings, particularly Round Midnight from 2011, are beautifully performed.

You need to register in advance for this recital. There is no indication that there will be opportunities to stream this after this initial showing.

Boston Symphony Orchestra – Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 – April 16th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in this performance of one of Shostakovich’s most important works. From the opening moments this symphony grabs hold of you and doesn’t easily let go.

The pressure I mentioned above was so intense that the composer hid this symphony from the world until 1961.

Shostakovich completed the work in 1936 – twenty five years before anyone heard this incredible symphony. And it is incredible.

This performance will be available on Carnegie Hall’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Quartet for the End of Time – April 20th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Written in 1940 by composer Olivier Messiaen while interned at a camp by the Nazis in World War II, this chamber music work was written for cello, clarinet, piano and violin. Quartet for the End of Time will be performed by Carter Brey, Anthony McGill (both of the New York Philharmonic), Inon Barnatan and Alan Gilbert (former Music Director of the NY Phil).

There are eight movements in Messiaen’s composition which the composer indicated was inspired by a passage in the Book of Revelation.

This performance took place at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Temple of Dendur in 2016.

Kronos Quartet – April 24th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Two-time Grammy Award winning ensemble (and 11-time nominees) Kronos Quartet perform a concert which finds Armenian Genocide, Terry Riley and Martin Luther King, Jr. sharing space.

Mary Kouyoumdjian’s Silent Cranes is an expression for the voiceless who perished in the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Selections of compositions by Terry Riley are included as are excerpts from Peace Be Till.

Zachary James Watkins composed this work and was inspired by a piece of history surround King’s I Have a Dream Speech. David Harrington, founder and violinist of Kronos Quartet, found out that the August 1963 speech where King gave the world those rousing words, wasn’t planned to include that section. In fact, that wasn’t written – it was improvised after gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouted out to him, “Tell ’em about the dream, Martin” during his speech. The rest, as they say, is history.

This performance will be available on Carnegie Hall’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

National Symphony Orchestra – Casella Symphony No. 2 – Begins April 26th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Alfredo Casella is not a household name. This symphony was composed in the first decade of the 20th century, making this a pre-World War I work. It’s big, it’s aggressive, it’s rich and runs 50 minutes. It should make for great viewing in addition to great listening.

Gianandrea Noseda leads the performance.

This performance will be available on Carnegie Hall’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

DANCE:

Third Coast Percussion / Movement Art Is – Metamorphosis – April 20th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Chicago-based ensemble Third Coast Percussion is a Grammy Award-winning ensemble that celebrates new music, diversity and inclusion.

Jon Boogz and Lil Buck lead Movement Art Is, a dance company that wants to express themes of social change while achieving a high level of artistry with their movement.

The two groups team up for Metamorphosis in which they explore the life experiences of young Black men in America today. It will be expressed through the combination of a couple different styles of street dancing.

The performance features music by Jlin and Tyondai Braxton and also Philip Glass’ Aguas da Amazonia in an arrangement by Third Coast Percussion (which can be found on their Paddle to the Sea album from 2018).

This performance will be available on Carnegie Hall’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Jeremy McQueen’s Black Iris Project – A Mother’s Rite – April 26th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Combine Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring with a dance depicting one mother’s life after her son was killed by the police. That’s what choreographer Jeremy McQueen has done in creating A Mother’s Rite.

Courtney Celeste Spears of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs this solo work. McQueen received a 2020 New York Local Emmy Award nomination for this film.

A Mother’s Rite perfectly represents his goal of creating work with social impact at its core.

This performance will be available on Carnegie Hall’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

JAZZ:

Somi: in the absence of things – April 21st – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

In 2020, Somi, a jazz vocalist from East Africa, released a live album called Holy Room: Live at Alte Oper with Frankfurt Radio Big Band. Music from that dynamic album serves as the soundtrack for this experimental short film in which she explores the price artists have paid during the pandemic.

The film also addresses the need to increase Black storytelling in cultural institutions.

Immediately following the screening of the film, Somi will appear in selections from a recently filmed concert she gave in Senegal.

This performance will be available on Carnegie Hall’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Jason Moran: James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hellfighters – The Absence of Ruin – April 22nd – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

1918 started with an auspicious event. New York’s 93rd Division’s 369th Infantry Regiment landed in France. Amongst the members of this regiment, nicknamed The Harlem Hellfighters, was James Reese Europe. He and his military ensemble of musicians introduced the French to a particular style of jazz written and performed by Black musicians.

He returned one year later to America and was hailed for his accomplishments. He went out on a tour with this celebrated music, but one of his band members, feeling he’d been cheated by Europe, stabbed him and he succumbed to his injuries.

As only pianist/composer/historian/artist Jason Moran can, he will celebrate James Reese Europe in this show which is one of the main highlights of this entire festival. Since Moran is not only insanely talented, but one of jazz music’s best thinkers, this will be a terrific show.

This performance will be available on Carnegie Hall’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

OPERA:

Dutch National Opera – Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk – April 19th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Conducted by Mariss Jansons; starring Eva-Marie Westbroek, Katerina Ismailova, Christopher Ventris, Ludovit Ludha and Anatoly Kotcherga. This 2006 production (for the composer’s centennial) was directed by Martin Kušej.

The Soviet government’s response to this opera is what lead Shostakovich to keep his fourth symphony in hiding for so long.

If you’ve watched the documentary listed above and also the performance of that symphony, this is a third piece in that puzzle.

Based on the novel of the same name, this opera is filled with infidelities, tangled affairs and murders. In other words, everything opera fans hold near and dear to their hearts.

Katerina makes a vow of fidelity to her husband Zinovi she knows she can’t possibly keep. Once he’s away on business the problems start. One lover after another is discovered and each ends up mysteriously dead. Who survives and who is coupled is only revealed at the end when more tragedy will come into play.

This performance will be available on Carnegie Hall’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

OTHER:

This is a section where programming that doesn’t neatly fit into just one genre can be highlighted.

Davóne Tines / Jennifer Koh – April 23rd – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Bass-baritone Davóne Tines and violinist Jennifer Koh team up for this film having its premiere during the festival. Their work dissects Asian American oppression and its long history in America. They also look at the close ties between the Asian American and Black communities.

In collaboration with arranger Ken Ueno, they are seen performing one of the most powerful songs about racist acts against Blacks, Strange Fruit. Accompanying their performance (which should be shattering given how talented they each are) will be images of violence against the Asian American community.

This performance will be available on Carnegie Hall’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Samora Pinderhughes – Grief – April 27th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Samora Pinderhughes was described on PBS NewsHour as an artist and composer who “wants to make music that makes listeners live differently.” You will certainly by influenced by this project, Grief.

Systemic racism in all its forms is in the crosshairs for this work that was commissioned by Chamber Music America and New Music USA. Not only do his songs call out what many of us have witnessed, but also help create a possible way forward for, if nothing else, resistance.

Grief was filmed for the Voices of Hope festival and its imagery was inspired by one of my favorite photographers, Roy DeCarava. The film is directed by Christian Padron.

Joining Pinderhughes in this film are: Boom Bishop on electric bass; Marcus Gilmore on drums; Jehbreal Jackson on vocals; Clovis Nicolas on double bass; Niya Norwood on vocals; Elena Pinderhughes on flute; Lucas Pino on tenor saxophone; Immanuel Wilkins on alto saxophone, Brad Allen Williams on guitar and the Argus Quartet / Metropolis Ensemble also participate.

This performance will be available on Carnegie Hall’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

RADIO PLAY:

The Dead Man – April 25th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

This World War I play by Sholem Asch is being heard in its first English-language translation. Caraid O’Brien took the original Yiddish text by Asch to create this radio play. The Dead Man tells the story of citizens in Poland trying to put their lives back together after the war. It is set in the rubble of a synagogue that has been destroyed. All the lingering effects of war have left their mark on the people in the community, but their persistent hope in a better future guides them through.

If you’ve seen Paula Vogel’s Indecent, it told the story of the Broadway performances of Asch’s play God of Vengeance.

This is a Zoom event and advance registration is required. It appears there will be only this one live performance of The Dead Man.

Those are my top picks. Again, I urge you to explore for yourself the complete line-up of Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Hope festival.

Happy exploring and let me know what you think of these picks and what you like most about the festival and its offerings.

Photo: Davóne Tines (Courtesy his Facebook page)

The post Carnegie Hall’s “Voices of Hope” – My Top Picks appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Currently the best way to see Groener is by going to see Paula Vogel’s play Indecent at the Ahmanson Theatre. Indecent, which was Tony nominated for Best Play, tells the story of Sholem Asch and how he created the play God of Vengeance in 1906. The play was performed regularly, but when it made its way to New York in 1923, it was deemed obscene and shut down.

Groener, who was not part of the cast in New York, plays multiple characters in Indecent. He’s also a founding member of the Antaeus Theatre Company* in Glendale. He was a regular on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and has appeared on Broadway in such shows as Cats, Sunday in the Park with George and Crazy For You.

All this means we had a lot to talk about when we spoke by phone last week on his day off from Indecent.

Before getting cast in Indecent, how familiar where you with God of Vengeance?

Not at all. It’s only subsequently that I realized I have friends who actually did a production of God of Vengeance at ACT in Seattle. I think Williamstown did God of Vengeance when Michael Ritchie was there. We read it during the rehearsal. I didn’t know anything about the story. [Michael Ritchie is the Artistic Director of Center Theatre Group]

How did you respond to that play?

It’s an amazing piece written in 1906 and he writes about the love between two women. He’s way ahead of his time. That’s what works for me is that he’s brave enough to put that on stage. And they were brave enough, as a company, to put it on stage. And how accepted it was by many audiences until it got to New York, he re-wrote it and they closed it down.

What made God of Vengeance controversial in 1923 seems not too far removed from what might be deemed controversial today. What does Indecent say about how far, or not, we’ve come as a nation.

I think it reminds us that we haven’t come as far as we should. There are so many themes in it:  antisemitism, censorship; you realize we’re going backwards in many ways. I think this production reminds you are of the work that still needs to be done. We can’t let the progress be destroyed by people who want to take away the progress we’ve achieved. There’s still a lot of work to do.

Being part of the cast of Indecent allows you to, more than most plays, truly be part of an ensemble. What makes this experience unique for you?

Not only do you get to tell this great story, but you’re playing all these different roles and you’re fit into this wonderful mosaic of staging and blocking. It’s just heaven. Yes you get to play all these roles, but it’s the result of it; the result that we can feel from the audience that is gratifying. You’re part of this storytelling to make the audience feel the way they do at the end of the piece. My short experience has been consistent. It has been silence at the end of the play. Then they are standing and yelling. To know you’ve helped to make that happen is very gratifying.

I first saw you as Mandy Patinkin’s replacement in Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. What do you remember most about doing that show?

First of all, I never thought I’d get to do a Sondheim musical. When I went up for it it was to audition for Steve and James. This is an opera – this is never going to happen. I got the call, I’m just out of the shower completely naked and they said “you got it.” Now I had to do it.

Because it was that show and it was a Sondheim musical and a dream come true for me, I wasn’t scared at all. I was in a beautiful fantasy and dream. It was the best feeling. You are on the stage and you hear those notes and you almost burst into tears. It was four months I got to do it and they brought Mandy back to goose the audience. 

One afternoon I had a session with Steve and he came to the theatre. I asked if he’d mind if I recorded it. He said sure, so I have that on a cassette. It was a whole afternoon with him working on the score and him giving notes. He said the best thing to me. “Look, I know that you are concerned about the singing and doing it right and making it sound well. Yes, I’d like the score to be sung as written. But, if you ever feel you aren’t going to hit the note or it won’t be right, just act it.” That gave me so much freedom. I can’t tell you how appreciative I was.

From Sondheim to Buffy to Indecent, you’ve done a wide range of work. What perspective do you have on your career?

I’m very happy with the way the career is going. I’m doing exactly what the goal has been. My life has been to do everything – as much as I can. I love doing it all. Both my wife [Dawn Didawick] and I feel very grateful we can do what we love. How lucky are we? That’s the measure of success – whether people know your name or not – that you’re working in the business and don’t have to take a job outside that. I’m really aware and grateful and honored that in my career I’ve been able to do just that.

Main Photo:  Harry Groener in “Indecent” (Photo by Craig Schwartz/Courtesy of Center Theatre Group)

Cats and Sunday in the Park with George photos by Martha Swope/Courtesy of the NYPL Archives

For tickets to Indecent go here.

*Antaeus Theatre Company’s next production is Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle. For information go here.

The post Harry Groener – The Epitome of An Actor’s Actor appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

With most of its Broadway cast intact, Indecent is now playing at the Ahmanson Theatre through July 7th. The play tells the story of the creation and multitude of productions of Sholem Asch’s The God of Vengeance. Written in 1906, it depicted the lives of a family who lived upstairs from a brothel. The patriarch hoped to marry his daughter off to a proper boy, but she falls in love with a woman in the brothel. This was very progressive material in 1906.

Vogel follows the characters in and out of the play as it goes from what we would now call a table reading through to it ending up on stage in New York in 1923 where its run was truncated when authorities shut the production down for obscenity.

This is certainly a drama, but there is humor and there is also music in the production. The Los Angeles cast features Elizabeth A. Davis, Joby Earle, Harry Groener, Mimi Lieber, Steven Rattazzi, Richard Topol and Adina Verson.

Rebecca Taichman, who directed the Broadway production, returns to direct here. She won the Tony Award for Best Direction a Play for Indecent. The show also won a Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Play. Though it was also nominated for Best Play, it did not win.

As often happens, the lack of the Tony for Best Play did not immediately boost sales and the production announced a closing date of June 25th. But that didn’t happen. Word of mouth spread about the production and that closing was postponed until August 6th. To say that’s unique for a Broadway production is an understatement. But it speaks to the power of Vogel’s writing, the joy of the performances and the way in which this story still resonates today.

For tickets go here.

Check back soon for our interview with Harry Groener about Indecent and his long career on stage in both Los Angeles and New York.

Main image:  L-R: Richard Topol, Mimi Lieber, Adina Verson, Harry Groener, Elizabeth A. Davis, Steven Rattazzi and Joby Earle in “Indecent” (Photo by Charles T. Erickson)

All production photos by Charles T. Erickson/Courtesy of Center Theatre Group

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