Saturday's program by the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra will include a world premiere by a prominent contemporary composer who wrote the work after he made his first trip to Alaska in 2011.
Eric Ewazen, professor of composition at Juilliard, came to Anchorage when the ASO performed his "Down a River of Time" for oboe and orchestra. While here, he writes, "I flew up the coast on a dazzlingly beautiful day and the snowy mountain peaks on the way into Anchorage were both awesome and exhilarating... It was in Alaska that I saw skiers up close for the very first time (not on TV!) at the gorgeous Alyeska ski resort. The excitement of the skiers and snow-boarders whisking by up close is portrayed in the third movement with the solo parts representing gold medal skiers sometimes negotiating precarious twists and turns as the music flies and cascades with energy and excitement bringing the Concerto to a heroic finale."
Commissioned by Musica Nova, an ASO-connected club that sponsors the creation and performance of new music, Ewazen's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello will have its world premiere with soloists Kathryn Hoffer and Linda Hart Ottum at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30, in Atwood Concert Hall.
The program will include the Alaska premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon's 12-minute evocation of grief and celebration, "Blue Cathedral," among the most performed symphonic works by a living American. It will also feature the ASO's first performance of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony.
Tickets are available at centertix.net.
Going going to St. Petersburg
Homer artist Jo Going tells us that she'll be heading to St. Petersburg, Russia, next month for a solo show. Noting that the city and her hometown are at the same geographic parallel, she's calling the exhibit "Latitude."
Her intention is "to bridge the distance in place and in spirit, creating a resonance in concept and fundamental human understanding, the latitude we give to others in the space between our differences."
Going has an international reputation, with work in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.
Sealaska art show expands categories
Sealaska Heritage Institute has revamped and expanded the divisions and categories of art to be judged in its eighth biennial Juried Art Show and Competition. The new divisions include: carving and sculpture; sewing; weaving; and two-dimensional and relief carving. Also new are a competition for young artists and an "endangered art" category, focusing on art forms with a dwindling number of practitioners.
Previously, art was judged as either "traditional" or contemporary. In the last competition in 2014, the divisions were titled "Northwest Coast Customary Art," "Northwest Coast Customary-Inspired Art" and "Formline Art."
"Jurors have struggled to judge between two fundamentally different art forms, such as a spruce root basket and a paddle," SHI stated in a press release. Several Native artists commented on the problem and organizers took those comments to heart. "With the new structure, jurors will be able to judge similar pieces and choose objects that show the highest level of artistry and technique," the press release said.
Each division will have several categories. Weaving, for instance, will include Chilkat, Ravenstail and basketry categories. Winners of the categories will then compete for Best of Division prize and division winners will compete for Best of Show. A separate award will be given for the best formline design selected from all submissions.
The work by young artists will open on June 3 at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. The main show will be displayed for the first time in the new Walter Soboleff Building, opening on June 8 in conjunction with the biennial cultural festival known as Celebration. It will remain on view for two months.
The deadline to submit work is Feb. 17. The deadline for the youth competition is April 15. The application form can be found online at sealaskaheritage.org.
Writing contest deadline looms
Speaking of deadlines, the last day to submit an entry for the 34th annual Statewide Creative Writing Contest will be Feb. 12. Nothing will be accepted after 5:30 p.m. that day. There are several categories with cash prizes for the winners. Get information and submit your work at adn.com/creativewritingcontest.
The thing is not the play
A well-read correspondent has contested the assertion, made by the esteemed producer of Cyrano's current staging of "Happy Birthday, Wanda June" and repeated in our review of the show, that it was Kurt Vonnegut's only play. Here's our response.
Ceci n'est pas une play
A philosophical drama in 75 seconds
Scene: An Anchorage coffee shop. DUNHAM is drowning his sorrows in large Americano with cream. Enter LOYAL READER with a spicy chai latte.
READER: Hey, critic dude! What's this about "Happy Birthday, Wanda June" being Kurt Vonnegut's only play?
DUNHAM: Yeah. I can agree with Cyrano's on that.
READER: What about "Fortitude?" I read that piece in Playboy.
DUNHAM: Good grief! (Slaps his head.) Now that you mention it, I remember reading in the Playboy, too. Back in the '60s. Don't tell my mom.
READER: That's by Vonnegut and it's a play, right? It was on television.
DUNHAM: Well, a TV show or a skit isn't always a play. "Fortitude" is what I'd call a play-form essay, a literary genre presented in the format of a theatrical script.
READER: That's a genre?
DUNHAM: Vonnegut used the form more than once. He had something called "The Very First Christmas Morning" in Better Homes and Garden, of all places. And others. "Make Up Your Mind," "Miss Temptation"…
READER: And a bunch of his fiction got recast for television and movies. But he always claimed to be in the back seat on those.
DUNHAM: Kurt didn't play well with others, I hear. The novelist in him didn't like collaborating, being told, "We gotta cut that," "I'm not reading that line," "What's my motivation." Prose fiction writers don't have to put up with that.
READER: So what makes "Wanda" a play?
DUNHAM: Two things. One: It had a successful run on Broadway, which his other play-like writings never did. And two: For us purists theatrical plays need flesh and blood bodies in front of a flesh and blood paying audience.
READER: Seems like an arguable and dubious distinction. I mean, "Fortitude" could in theory be staged live, right?
DUNHAM: Hmm. Good point. You could call it a local premiere. But essays in play form aren't really intended to be practical stage shows. They're usually just a goofy, gimmicky way to for an author to tart up his less-than-inspired nonfiction writing.
READER: Like this column?
(They click paper cups and sip the drinks.)
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