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Performing Arts

By Elisabeth Gick

Lama2 

What makes the Compassion Festival a festival rather than a conference or symposium? The short answer is that a festival is more fun than a conference. There is art, there is food, there are things to look at, touch, hear, smell and taste.

The Compassion Festival, to be hosted this coming weekend by the Telluride Institute, may not have all those tempting ingredients, but a good number of them.

05 July, 2011 /

By David Feela

For decades, when summer melons rolled into the produce aisle, my mouth would water and I’d buy the biggest one. Unfortunately, not every watermelon is endowed with inalienable perfection, and I have carted home quite a few duds. Until I met Margaret in the produce aisle.

If this sounds like a soap opera, it’s because I had humongous twin melons strapped in the child seat of my cart. That’s when I saw Margaret. We slowed our carts, paused, and exchanged warm greetings. She had a single watermelon about the size of a soccer ball, a dark and glossy green one that reminded me of unripe fruit.

“Are you going to buy both of those?” Margaret asked me.

03 July, 2011 /
[click "Play" to listen to Darrell Scott's conversation with Susan]

 

Sunset Concert series continues with Darrell Scott & Brothers in performance

Darrell Scott, TBF,6-19-2011 Guess you could call it his encore, a well deserved tribute to a man whose knock-out performances on the Main Stage bookended Sunday, June 19, at the recent 38th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival. The day started with Darrell's Father's Day Gospel Hour, during which he was the main performer, supported by the likes of Buddy Miller, Patty Griffin and Abigail Washburn. It ended with a bang with Robert's Plant's Band of Joy, including Darrell on guitar and vocals.

If you were not one of the lucky ones with a Sunday ticket to Telluride Bluegrass, now you are in luck. Darrell Scott, a songwriter's songwriter and musician's musician, returns, this time with his brothers, to the Telluride region and the spotlight to headline the 12th annual Sunset Concert Series in Mountain Village, Wednesday, July 6, starting at 6 p.m.

03 July, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Josh Aronson and Adam Neiman]

 

Playinfg for Real poster Now in its 9th season, the Telluride Musicfest adds two new events to its 2011 lineup, a wine and dessert concert for all subscribers and sponsors to thank everyone for helping to ensure the Musicfest tradition of chamber music concerts in a private home continues – and a movie night.

Movie night takes place Wednesday, June 29, 6:00 at the five-star Wilkinson Public Library. The event features a screening of producer/director Josh Aronson's inspiring one-hour documentary, "Playing for Real," (2000), an intimate look at building careers in big-time classical music. The film showcases the extraordinary talents of 14-year-old Japanese violin prodigy Mayuko Kamio and 2011 Musicfest guest pianist Adam Neiman – when he was 22 and already one of the finest pianists in the world.

26 June, 2011 /

By Jon Lovekin

A Tom Boy Ride
A Tom Boy Ride

Preparing for a festival as grand as the Telluride Bluegrass Festival takes time. For many Festivarians, the week to 10 day experience is their one vacation of the year. The excitement in the weeks before the Summer Solstice reaches a fever pitch the weekend before the music starts. In the early years, an entire festival was spent flopped in a tent in Town Park listening to the music from there, too sick from altitude, sun, and fun to be able to move.

As the festival caught on, pitching a tent in an empty lot or sleeping in a car late in the week ceased being possible. Prior planning became necessary and arrival in the campground early in the week morphed to getting there the weekend before. Town passes on the Landcruiser faded to no longer trying to leave town at all. We started working at the ticket booths, renting bikes, and moving in for the week.

23 June, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Maria Bachmann speak with Susan about the Musicfest program]

 

Maria There's no judging this book by its cover. Although its cover is a thing of beauty. Tall and elegant, violinist Maria Bachmann has the look of cool patrician refinement but just beneath the surface, a red hot gypsy soul. In performance the combination intensifies the present moment. And those moments are upon us.

Maria Bachmann is the artistic director of Telluride Musicfest, an event that occurs annually in Telluride in June to celebrate chamber music in its intended form: first class musicians performing in an intimate home environment. (See related post for details.)

21 June, 2011 /

By David Feela

ed. note: The Summer Solstice occurs on June 21, 2011, at 11:16 am, MDT. David Feela gives us a bittersweet memory of that moment in time we begin to contemplate that at first imperceptible slide toward the shortest day of the year. Enjoy.

David Feela On the longest day of the year when sunlight puddles at the horizon, it’s officially summer.  Every year from such a precipice we call the solstice, the long ascent and the long decline are equally visible.  Maybe that’s why there’s so much light, and so much extra time to see.

Give me a beautiful sunset and a warm evening to conjure my red 1965 Mustang convertible. Just the thought of it makes me close my eyes. Like light from a burned-out star, all that flashy chrome still shines from somewhere inside me. All those layers of wax I buffed clean through the hood still make the sweat on my forehead bead up. The top folded back, the radio blaring, a full summer moon rolling like a hubcap across the sky.

20 June, 2011 /

Maria, Jon, Josh Year after year, they hit it out of the ballpark. We are talking about key players of the Telluride Musicfest, now entering its 9th season, June 22 – July 3.

Musicfest's artistic director Maria Bachmann and her Trio Solisti colleague, Jon Klibonoff received raves from a Fanfare critic for their premiere performance of Philip Glass's "First Violin Sonata," on their latest CD, Glass Heart.

20 June, 2011 /

By Rosemerry Wahtola Trommmer (ed. note: I love it when Rosemerry sends us some of her writing. Fathers' Day was the excuse for these two poems. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.) Inheriting PatienceHear how the galaxy’s engine runs...

18 June, 2011 /

Prudence

By Tracy Shaffer

Sunday afternoons at the Mercury Café are always an eclectic mix with swing dance, poetry slams and tarot readings on the calendar. But last week the place levitated to a place even the Tibetan meditation class would envy. The occasion was a concert by the brilliant jazz band, Zuri, featuring the angelic voice of Prudence Mabhena, to benefit the Cunningham Foundation.

Hosted by Zuri cellist James Bailey, the event opened with some “world-inspired, improvisational, high-energy jazz”, as vibes playing percussionist Greg Tanner Harris describes the Zuri sound (I’d have gone with “jaw-dropping, eye-popping” myself), while artist Laurie Maves painted the scene on canvas for auction. Soon Prudence rolled in gracefully; the most grounded human being I’ve ever seen, with a soul that emanates from her brown/black eyes. She is pure spirit and a set of pipes that will make you believe in God.

17 June, 2011 /