Evento

Norman Rockwell and Alice Parker: Visions of America in Art and Song

The Lakeville, CT-based, national award-winning music organization Crescendo in collaboration with the Norman Rockwell Museum presents: Norman Rockwell and Alice Parker: Visions of America in Art and Song, a multimedia concert presentation.

As part of this program, Crescendo, in collaboration with the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Berkshire Childrens Chorus and the Berkshire-based composer John Myers, will perform the world premiere of his Paintings in SongVisions of Norman Rockwell, a multimedia work with choruses, instrumentalists, and graphic animation. Myers work celebrates Norman Rockwells timeless images in a musical setting and highlights the continued relevance of the cultural values represented in Rockwells paintings.
Myers has based his composition on the iconic Four Freedoms and five other paintings by Rockwell. His music reflects the subject of each painting as well as the music style of the time period in which it was created. The texts of the choral pieces use the titles, images and embedded texts of the paintings, supplemented by original lyrics written by Myers.
Myers music will be accompanied by simultaneous large-screen projected animations based on each of the paintings created by graphic artists Alice Myers and Anna Sabatini. Using digital technology, they will portray the paintings as dynamic visual elements, while retaining much of their original character. The Norman Rockwell Museum will provide critical conceptual and interpretive support in the realization of the animations and performance.
It is believed that this is the first extended work for chorus inspired by the paintings of Norman Rockwell. Since the concept of community, and especially multi-generational community, is so important to Rockwells work, the Childrens Chorus plays a key role in expressing Rockwells portrayals of childhood, families, and life in the Berkshires.
The full concert includes selections of traditional American folk songs arranged by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw. Ms. Parker, a distinguished composer, choral arranger and conductor, suggested a repertoire that would complement the themes evoked in the Rockwell paintings.
Representing three eras of American musical history, the program will also include a cappella works of other American composers such as Chester, by the early American composer William Billings, I dream of a world by jazz legend Dave Brubeck and a new work (July 2016) by young composer Jonny Priano: Away in the woods.
The concerts, performed by the Crescendo Chorus, the Crescendo Vocal Ensemble, the Berkshire Children's Chorus, and an ensemble of professional instrumentalists, will be conducted by Crescendos Founder and Artistic Director Christine Gevert. Following the premiere performances, the work will be presented in schools and museums around the region, and will reach a wider audience through film and CD recording. A documentary video is being created, which will be a tool for future educational and community outreach events.
John Myers landmark work features a composer, visual artists and performers from the Berkshires, embodying the regions history and culture, yet with universal meaning.

This concert will also be performed the same day (April 1) at 3 PM in the same venue/location, and the next day, April 2 at 4 pm at the Mattison Hall of the Kent School in Kent, CT.
This Concert is a Take Part Culture Card Event of the Northwest CT Arts Council.

A free Pre-Concert Talks will be presented by the composer Dr. John Myers and Artistic Director Christine Gevert on March 6 at 4:00 PM at Bard College at Simons Rock in Great Barrington, MA.