“Not many people know about ‘ikebana,’” said Megumi Schacher as I enter her home studio in the verdant Brier neighborhood. One of her two cats languishes in a chair near an arrangement of tall irises and other foliage in a shallow container. A large collection of vessels lines the multiple shelves along one wall. “When [...]
Little Italy. Chinatown. Japantown. These ethnic enclaves — communities within larger American cities — were the centers of immigrant life for many newcomers. Seattle’s International District included what was known as Nihonmachi or “Japantown”, located east of 4th Ave. between Jackson and Yesler, and along Main to 7th. Vestiges of this once thriving community are [...]
“The Elements Within” exhibit at Mithun — running until June 21 — features a collaborative show of artisanal slab furniture and calligraphic wall hangings. Calligrapher and choreographer Yoko Murao was invited to include her works alongside Gudrun Onkels and Eric Holder, makers of fine furniture and woodcrafts at SlabArt. The exhibit’s title alludes to the [...]
The Pacific Northwest ensemble, Gamelan Pacifica will feature music of Central Java in its concert on April 9 in PONCHO Theatre, Cornish College of the Arts. Guest performers include Javanese musicians Ki Midiyanto, currently a Lecturer in Gamelan at the University of California, Berkeley, and Heri Purwanto. While Indonesian gamelan music is widely known as a rich percussion orchestra, the program centers on Gamelan Gadhon, a genre more resembling chamber music and utilizing fewer instruments. “Soft-style” instruments known as panerusan—rebab (bowed fiddle), suling (bamboo flute), gender (metallophones), gambang (wooden-keyed xylophone), siter (plucked-string zither), gong, and drums—comprise the Gadhon instrumentation in addition to vocal soloists (psindhen) and chorus (gerong). Jarrad Powell, a composer and founder of the ensemble, describes the program’s pieces as “represent[ing] a variety of styles in a variety of different modes and moods. Gadhon style is not usually used for wayang or dance. It is generally chamber music and is most frequently heard alone.”
When we think back on the people who influenced our lives, we often remember our teachers. These individuals, perhaps in the school classroom or even outside in the “classroom” of daily living, endure as indelible impressions that shaped who we are today. Scholar Joseph Campbell in the PBS film “Mythos I: The Shaping of Our [...]
Kensuke Yamada’s Art Patti Warashina’s Art Relatively new to the figurative sculpture scene, Kensuke Yamada’s 20-piece collection at Catherine Person Gallery (running through June 26 in the Pioneer District) features several wall mounted heads resembling masks and sculpture capturing human interaction and movement. Whether it be a girl astride her companion’s back in “Piggyback Ride” [...]
Something old is new again…This adage could aptly describe “This Old Piano,” a project spearheaded by pianist Tiffany Lin that involves repurposing old pianos to create newly designed instruments. Along the similar vein of the prepared piano (which involves placing objects such as tape woven into the piano strings, thus altering its timbre and percussive [...]
Today’s film music traces its roots to the silent film era, when live musical accompaniment was the norm for this medium. The Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovitch (1906-1075) earned his living as a pianist for silent films before writing music for the stage and for films. Old vaudeville venues like the Paramount Theatre in Seattle still [...]
Aptly named, the charismatic pianist Lang Lang—whose first name is derived from the Chinese character meaning ”brightness and sunshine” and surname, “educated gentleman”— joins the Seattle Symphony on November 1 to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat Major, Op. 19. But before his rise to stardom lays a sweeping tale of drama [...]
“She smells of soil, of moss and snails under a canopy/dripping with mist. Her teeth in front are black/like cinder, her fingers/are fat as cigar stubs. With one hand she unfurls/concentric circles in the air.” Thus begins “Mme.”, a sorcery-laden poem by Kim-An Lieberman who says she strove to “capture a particular image and mood, [...]
