Zankel Fall 2023 Brochure

FALL 2023

ZANKEL

ARTHUR ZANKEL MUSIC CENTER

FALL 2023

OCTOBER 4, NOVEMBER 2, & NOVEMBER 28 | 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

LADD LISTENING LOUNGE Zankel Main Lobby Casual and collaborative performances

by Skidmore students, building community through music. All are invited to attend.

Light refreshments served.

SEP

On Collaboration and Coordination: Lisa Leonard, Sheila Browne, & Skidmore Faculty SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 | 4 PM

Tuvergen Band SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 | 7:30 PM

The Unhealed Wound FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 | 7:30 PM

OCT

William Kanengiser THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5 | 7:30 PM

Tenzin Choegyal with Attacca Quartet SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14 | 7:30 PM

Filene Scholarship Winners Celebration FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20 | 7 PM

Schenectady-Saratoga Symphony Orchestra “American Legends” SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 | 7 PM

Ensemble Connect FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 | 7:30 PM

NOV

Sterne Virtuoso Series: Wei-Yi Yang FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3 | 7:30 PM

Celebrating 30 Years of Kanatsiohareke SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4 | 2 PM

Tank and the Bangas FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10 | 8 PM

Skidmania ’73 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17 | 8 PM SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18 | 8 PM

ARTHUR ZANKEL MUSIC CENTER Zankel Music Center opened in 2010 as a hub of musical activity for the Skidmore College campus and surrounding communities, providing students, educators, and artists with 54,000 sq. feet of space to teach, practice, perform, and support music and the performing arts.

A gift in honor of Helen Filene Ladd, class of 1922, the center’s 600-seat, acoustically tuned Concert Hall showcases the talents of Skidmore’s Music students and faculty on its world-class stage and draws sold out crowds for performances by internationally renowned artists and scholars like Jon Batiste, Branford Marsalis, Emanuel Ax, Dave Brubeck, Ani Difranco, Caroline Rose, Havana Lyceum Orchestra, Indigo Girls, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Paul Simon, and Gloria Steinem. The 86-seat Elisabeth Luce Moore Hall bustles daily with lectures, rehearsals, and intimate recitals.

Zankel’s Fall 2023 events are supported in part by the Pia Scala-Zankel '92 and Jimmy Zankel '92 Residency in Performing Arts; the Sterne Virtuoso Series; the Elisabeth Luce Moore Chamber Music Residency; and the Sterne Fund, and are presented in partnership with the Departments of Music, Black Studies, Asian Studies, Religious Studies, English, and Theater; the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum; the Arts Administration Program and Entrepreneurial Artist Initiative; the Racial Justice Initiative; the Office of Special Programs; and the Office of the President at Skidmore College.

TUESDAY - FRIDAY 1 PM - 5 PM

BOX OFFICE Phone: 518-580-5321 Email: zankel@skidmore.edu Tickets available online at www.skidmore.edu/zankel Our events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

815 N. Broadway Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 @ZankelMusicCenter

SKIDMORE IN CONCERT This series showcases the vibrance of our shared creative community.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18 | 5:30 PM

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3 | 4 PM

BRASS & WIND CHAMBER ENSEMBLES

STRING ENSEMBLES

Coached by Patrice Malatestinic and Yvonne Hansbrough

Elisabeth Luce Moore Hall

Coached by Michael Emery, Jameson Platte, and Laura Sahin

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4 | 7 PM

BIG BAND THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30 | 7 PM

Coached by Russell Haight

CHORUS Directed by Andrew Burger

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5 | 7 PM

GUITAR ENSEMBLE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1 | 7 PM

ORCHESTRA

Coached by Joel Brown and Brett Grigsby

Directed by Glen Cortese WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6 | 7 PM SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2 | 7 PM

SMALL JAZZ ENSEMBLES Coached by Russell Haight

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3 | 1 PM

CONCERT BAND Coached by Milton Lee

GLOBAL MUSIC SHOWCASE Coached by Koblavi Dogah, Jorge Gomez, Veena Chandra, Charlotte D'Evelyn, and Trish Miller

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 | 4 PM

ON COLLABORATION AND COORDINATION: LISA LEONARD, SHEILA BROWNE, & SKIDMORE FACULTY Lisa Leonard has been hailed as a pianist who “communicates deep artistic understanding through a powerful and virtuosic technique”.

At Lynn University, she leads the highly selective Graduate Instrumental Collaborative Piano Program, designed for collaborative-minded pianists.

Her colleague, violist Sheila Browne, is a dynamic performer with a unique viola voice and a dedicated teacher. While at Julliard, Browne was the teaching assistant of famed pedagogue Karen Tuttle, who developed the concept called Coordination – a set of physical solutions to keep the body relaxed and mobile while playing despite the potential for strain – and now directs international workshops on the Tuttle Method. Joined by Skidmore Music students and faculty Michael Emery (violin), Jameson Platte (cello), and Laura Sahin (viola), Leonard and Browne will showcase their teaching methods through solo and collaborative performances.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 | 7:30 PM

TUVERGEN BAND An emerging act at world music festivals across the U.S., Tuvergen Band (galloping in Mongolian) is a Chicago-based folk-fusion trio founded by Tamir Hargana, Naizal Hargana, and Brent Roman.

Tuvergen Band uses a rich instrumental palette including khoomii throat singing, the cello-like horsehead fiddle (morin khuur), various folk lutes (the Tuvan doshpuluur and West Mongolian tovshuur), with a myriad of global percussion instruments and didgeridoo, to create what they call “modern Nomadic music.”

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 | 7:30 PM

THE UNHEALED WOUND As the 2023 McCormack Endowed Visiting Artist-Scholar residents, Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove and Grammy Award-winning composer Richard Danielpour will premiere The Unhealed Wound, a Skidmore-commissioned song cycle composed by Danielpour, inspired by Dove’s latest volume of poems, Playlist for the Apocalypse. The performance will feature Eric Owens (bass-baritone), Amanda Lynn Bottoms (mezzo-soprano), and a chorus of Skidmore students, faculty, and guest singers.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5 | 7:30 PM

WILLIAM KANENGISER A founding member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and America’s outstanding narrative guitarist, William Kanengiser has forged a career that expands the possibilities of the classical guitar. Kanengiser's program will explore music inspired by a wide variety of folk music traditions, finding the unique features of each while weaving a thread of continuity among them. It is especially dedicated to those peoples and cultures who left their ancestral homelands to settle in unfamiliar places. The focus on these tales of migration, ancient and contemporary, led to Kanengiser’s The Diaspora Project commissioning of new works, several of which will be featured in this concert.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14 | 7:30 PM

TENZIN CHOEGYAL WITH ATTACCA QUARTET Tenzin Choegyal is a Tibetan artist, composer, activist, musical director, and cultural ambassador, and one of the world’s finest musicians in the Tibetan tradition. As a son of Tibetan nomads, he feels a particular connection to the music of the high Himalayan plateau. Forced into exile in India as his family fled the repression in Tibet, he now resides in Australia.

As a child, Tenzin would listen to his mother singing in the nomadic lineage, often noting her as an early influence of his passion for singing.

He plays lingbu (bamboo flute) and dranyen (3-stringed Tibetan lute) though he is best known for his extraordinary vocal ability and performance of droklu, the nomadic music of his parents.

Tenzin Choegyal will perform his original compositions with two-time Grammy Award winners Attacca Quartet in a rare fusion of Western Classical music and the sounds of Tibet.

This concert is part of a series of events connected to the faculty-curated exhibition Forms of Awakening: Selections from the Jack Shear Collection of Himalayan Art, on view at the Tang Teaching Museum & Art Gallery through December 10.

Join us at the Tang Teaching Museum & Art Gallery on Friday, October 13 at 3 pm for a solo acoustic performance

by Tenzin Choegyal in the exhibit with an artist talk to follow.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20 | 7 PM

FILENE SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS CELEBRATION The 2023 Filene Scholar Celebration Concert features the winners of the 42nd Annual Filene Scholarship Competition as well as our current Filene Scholars and faculty artists. We celebrate the vibrant musical community nurtured by this scholarship, which thrives thanks to the generosity of the Filene Ladd families.

Livestream available at https://vimeo.com/event/3608251

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 | 7 PM

SCHENECTADY-SARATOGA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – “AMERICAN LEGENDS” The SSSO launches their ’23-’24 season at Zankel with American Legends, featuring guest trumpeter Robert Sullivan in Barber’s Essay No. 2, Glen Cortese’s Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra (Gabriel’s Signal), music from John Williams’ Lincoln and the Suite from Copland’s Billy the Kid. Presented in partnership with the Proctor’s Collaborative.

For tickets, go to www.sssony.org

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 | 7:30 PM

ENSEMBLE CONNECT Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect has been called “the new face of classical music for New York” by The New York Times.

In the season’s first performance, they perform Franz Schubert’s lively “Trout” quintet, a remarkable piece showcasing the composer’s gift for melody while highlighting the uniquely beautiful possibilities unlocked by its unusual instrumentation.

Also featured is Samuel Barber’s Summer Music—an enduring favorite, and the composer’s sole chamber work for wind instruments—and Missy Mazzoli’s Still Life with Avalanche, which she describes as “a piece about finding beauty in chaos, and vice versa.”

Made possible by the generous support of Beverly Sanders Payne ’59 and David B. Payne.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3 | 7:30 PM

STERNE VIRTUOSO SERIES: WEI-YI YANG Pianist Wei-Yi Yang has garnered global acclaim for his captivating performances and innovative repertoire. Winner of the gold medal at the San Antonio International Piano Competition, he has performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and major venues across America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. Notably, his recent triumph at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium, wherein he mesmerized as the soloist in Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie, earned effusive praise from The New York Times.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4 | 2 PM

CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF KANATSIOHAREKE Kanatsiohareke is in the heart of the traditional homeland of the Kanienkeha:ka (People of the Flint) in New York’s Mohawk Valley.

This community was re-established in 1993 and remains a place for the Haudenosaunee to revitalize and strengthen their language, traditions, and culture. We come together in friendship to celebrate these efforts through film screenings, discussions, and performances by Mohawk artists, with all proceeds to Kanatsiohareke.

For event schedule and tickets, go to www.skidmore.edu/zankel

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10 | 8 PM

TANK AND THE BANGAS Coming from New Orleans, two-time Grammy Award nominees Tank and the Bangas are surrounded by plenty of grand musical traditions.

The five-piece group has a rare knack for combining various musical styles—fiery soul, deft hip-hop, deep-groove R&B and subtle jazz—into one dazzling, cohesive whole. “It’s music that can’t really be put in a box,” says frontwoman and poet Tarriona “Tank” Ball.

It's her vivid charisma and lyrical depth that helped Tank and the Bangas win NPR’s 2017 Tiny Desk Concert by unanimous acclaim, standing out among 6,000 entrants.

Ball came up in the strong local slam poetry scene before meeting her bandmates, Josh (drums) and Norman (bass) at a NOLA open mic night in 2011. They eventually met Albert (sax/ flute) and became a family of musical lifers, heralded as the best live band in the U.S. and for good reason.

Their chemistry with each other and the audience is unmatched, and their energy and dexterity as musicians creates a thrilling, unpredictable, and sonically diverse experience where jazz meets hip-hop, soul meets rock, and funk is the beating heart of everything they do. Their latest album, Red Balloon, is a celebration of Black life and a reckoning with America’s ills.

Tickets: $25 advance/ $30 day of general public $15 Skidmore students, faculty, staff, and alumni

Join us at the Tang Teaching Museum & Art Gallery on Thursday, November 9 at 6 pm for a reading by Tarriona "Tank" Ball from her book of poetry Vulnerable AF, with a discussion to follow.

Free and open to the public.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17 | 8 PM SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18 | 8 PM

SKIDMANIA ’73 Skidmania is back! Celebrating the music of 50 years ago and fueled by the talent and imagination of Skidmore student musicians, Skidmania ’73 will offer an exciting and inclusive bill of music and musicians, with all proceeds to charity.

Tickets: $20 general public $10 Skidmore faculty, staff, alumni $5 students

To learn more, visit:

www.skidmore.edu/zankel