Artistic engagement amidst a pandemic
Although the COVID pandemic forced PS21 to cancel its Spring 2020 season, our unique open-air Pavilion Theater and 100 acres of rolling hills and meadows permitted us to reopen in mid-July for an abridged summer season in mid-July of live and live-streamed performances for socially distanced audience.
In addition to the New York State premiere of John Luther Adams’s Ten Thousand Birds, the summer’s programs included Modern Music Fest, performances by musicians who also enjoyed short-term artistic residencies to help compensate for the loss of income and exposure to audiences necessitated by pandemic restrictions.
Each Modern Music Fest program comprised a pair of short, stand-alone concerts, featuring works from rich, adventurous repertoires, which bookended the artists’ residencies on our campus. We also succeeded in hosting additional artists’ residencies that were already part of our planned season, including Edisa Weeks and her company, DELIRIOUS Dances, who developed 3 Rites, an interactive theatrical exploration of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in America and how these rights are manifested in the body.
Safe programming for children and families included Follow Me Into the Field, adapted from Ten Thousand Birds by director Ashley Tata and performed by Alarm Will Sound’s musicians along PS21’s trails and fields and in adjoining Crellin Park. We were also able to address the isolation of the elderly during this period, by continuing the “Sharing Stories” program for the residents of the Whittier Assisted Living facility in Ghent.
July 17, 2020. Sandbox Percussion (Modern Music Fest) Leading proponents of contemporary percussion chamber music, with works by Andy Akiho, Amy Beth Kirsten, Nick DiBerardino, Julia Wolfe, Julius Eastman, and Steve Reich. Live for a limited audience and live streamed
July 24, 2020. Calidore String Quartet. The winners of the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition celebrated their 10th anniversary and the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth with concerts of the Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130; Grosse Fugue, Op. 133; String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135; & Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No.5. Live for a limited audience and live streamed
August 6, 2020. Follow Me Into the Field. Alarm Will Sound’s musicians, directed by Ashley Tata, led a free, socially distanced environmental adaptation of Ten Thousand Birds across PS21/Crellin Park 100-acres landscape. As in Ten Thousands Birds, instrumental music was transmuted into natural sounds, birdsong into music, and fields and meadows into artistic space. Live for a limited audience. Part of PS PATHWAYS. Free.
August 7, 2020. Alarm Will Sound, the New York State premiere of John Luther Adams’s Ten Thousand Birds. Live for a limited audience and live streamed
August 21, 2020. Timo Andres (PS21 Modern Music Fest) – Three musical responses to violence and exploitation: Aaron Copland’s Piano Sonata; Frederic Rzewski’s Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, and his own Old Ground. Live for a limited audience and live streamed
August 22, 2020. Adam Tendler (PS21 Modern Music Fest): a program of works by John Cage, Christopher Cerrone, Meredith Monk, Nico Muhly, John Glover, Darian Donovan Thomas, Frederic Rzewski, and Philip Glass. Live for a limited audience and live streamed
August 28, 2020. Miranda Cuckson (PS21 Modern Music Fest) J. S. Bach: Sonata No. 2 in A minor, Elliott Carter: Statement – Remembering Aaron,Mario Davidovsky: Synchronisms No. 9 for violin and electronic sounds, and Pierre Boulez: Anthèmes. Live for a limited audience and live streamed
August 29, 2020. Conor Hanick (PS21 Modern Music Fest) Galina Ustvolskaya’s Six Piano Sonatas. Live for a limited audience and live streamed
August 30, 2020. A conversation with artists of the Modern Music Fest, violinist Miranda Cuckson, and pianist Conor Hanick, moderated by composer, musician and visual artist Jeffrey Lependorf, Director, Art Omi: Music, and Director, The Flow Chart Foundation. Live for a limited audience and live streamed
September 4, 2020. Conrad Tao (Modern Music Fest) Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, a thirty-six variations on the Chilean workers’ anthem ¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!, written by Sergio Ortega during the presidency of Salvador Allende. Live for a limited audience and live streamed
September 9, 2020. David Michalek’s Portraits in Dramatic Time (2011), screening in the Pavilion Theater
September 10, 2020. The Neave Trio in a special concert, performing Rebecca Clark’s Piano Trio from their album Her Voice (2019) and Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires Essential Cinema: Two Film Series: Firefighters Select and Artists’ Choice:
July 16–August 27, 2020. Firefighters Select in recognition of the contributions and sacrifices of first responders, PS21 invited members of local fire companies and other first responders to select films. The films included Catnip Nation (2019), selected by Chatham Rescue, Ladder 49 (2004), selected by TriVillage Fire Company, World Trade Center (2006), selected by Philmont Fire Company; Wages of Fear (1953), selected by Chatham Fire Department; The Wizard of Oz, selected by East Chatham Fire Company; Deepwater Horizon (2016), selected by West Lebanon Fire Department; and The Firemen’s Ball (1967), selected by PS21.
August 17–September 28, 2020. Artists’ Choice films are works that illustrate how films have inspired the arts. They included I Knew Her Well (1965), selected by Joan Juliet Buck; Diabolique (1955, selected by )Francine Prose; Tokyo Story (1953), selected by Ian Buruma; A Hard Day’s Night (1964), selected by Winsome Brown; The Philadelphia Story (1940), selected by Brian Cox; and Do The Right Thing (1989), selected by Nicole Ansari.
Summer/Fall 2020 ONGOING: Alison McNulty’s Hudson Valley Ghost Column 7 The site-specific art installation, a cylindrical tower of vintage bricks and unprocessed wool, is PS21’s first public art commission. Part of PS21 PATHWAYS.
Throughout the pandemic PS21 has continued our program “Sharing Stories” that actor/director Nancy Rothman ran remotely with elder residents of the Ghent Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.
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