-Sarah

Though the 2008 fair has a variety of shows and events, the word that by far dominates the scheduling program is “4-H.” The four H’s of this name are described in the pledge that guides this century-old youth organization which promotes hands-on learning to supplement public school education:

“I pledge my head to clearer thinking,
my heart to greater loyalty,
my hands to larger service,
and my health to better living,
for my club, my community, my country, and my world.”

With the prevalence of 4-H competitions focused on raising beef, swine, sheep, ducks and other animals, it is easy for those unacquainted with the organization to think this is all 4-H has to offer. But Evan Eakins, a 10-year member, explains that “there’s so much more to 4-H than the cows and plows.” There are competitions in a wide range of topics and disciplines, including scrapbooking, bottle rockets, conservation, and cooking. In addition to having a presence at county and state fairs, 4-H hosts summer camps and has clubs that kids can participate in year-round.

Evan has been competing in 4-H for ten years, since he was eight years old and acquired his first lamb. Raising lambs (or any 4-H animal, for that matter) isn’t like having a pet gerbil—it isn’t a small task for any young person. The kids who compete work hard every day to care for their animals and prepare them for competitions. “You get out of it what you put into it,” Evan says, and he puts in a lot of hard work—about three hours a day of feeding, cleaning, and handling his sheep, plus making sure they’re healthy and treating them when they’re sick.

Lambs are known to have weak immune systems, so dealing with illness in lambs is something with which Evan has had experience. This year he started with two lambs, but one of them died soon after when it was unable to pass a kidney stone. He bought two more, though, and now has three healthy lambs to bring to the Monroe County Fair.

Evan spends about an hour every day with each lamb in preparation for competition. They must be fit and used to being handled, and the handler must be knowledgeable about the animal he is working with in order to do well in fair competition.

An important part of preparation is the lambs’ fitness. The judges look for good muscle tone in sheep that are being shown, so Evan prepares his by walking them and setting them up on an angled walkway for seven minutes a day. He also practices standing them still in a “square” position as he will for the judges. When they start, the lambs are difficult to handle and not used to holding still. However, after a few months of being handled and cared for daily, they are cooperative and comfortable.

In shows, handlers are also required to be knowledgeable about their animals’ care, and answer questions during the judging process. This section of judging is called “showmanship,” and there is a separate class devoted to showmanship for lambs and other livestock. Evan has prepared for this by spending time educating himself about the lambs’ care, and also through the experience of caring for them each day.

It doesn’t just take time to raise three lambs for six months; it also costs money to feed, house, and otherwise care for these animals. Market lambs are born in January or February, and can be purchased for anywhere from $200-$3000. During a six-month period they are raised and prepared, and are auctioned off at the end of the fair competition. The money from auction can be spent to cover the previous year’s costs; for Evan, it goes into next year’s competition. “I use my money to buy more lambs for the next year,” he says.

The 4-H organization is supportive of students like Evan who want to raise livestock for competition. In Monroe County, there are numerous clubs for different areas and focuses. Evan was in the Unionville Hot Shots for five years, and has been in the Monroe County Sheep Club for the past ten years. Clubs meet monthly, and give kids a chance to help each other and learn about their topic of interest. One of the great things about the clubs, Evan explains, is how kids of different ages can share knowledge and experience: “It’s neat to have little kids ask older kids for help.”

Evan shows in open shows around southern Indiana in addition to participating in the county fair. Last year was his first time going on to participate in the Indiana State Fair, and he was fifth in his class. He plans to go on to the State Fair again this year. On competing, Evan says, “You just do it to have fun; if you win, it’s a plus…but if not, you shrug it off.”

This is Evan’s last year in 4-H; once he moves on to college, he won’t be eligible to compete any more. “I’ll miss it,” he says. “I’ve learned a lot of responsibilities and good qualities, life skills.” Evan is planning on attending Ivy Tech in the fall, and transferring to Purdue University from there.

Recipe:
To make the marinade for your chicken or tofu, combine equal parts white wine and OJ. To this mixture, add small amounts of olive oil, honey, salt, garlic, and ginger to taste. Stir up your marinade.

Slice chicken/tofu and vegetables into bite-sized pieces. If you decide to use tofu, make sure it is drained and patted dry. Marinate chicken, tofu, and vegetables for about two hours in the fridge.

Soak bamboo skewers in water for at least a half hour before assembling and grilling to keep them from burning.

Fire up your grill. It should be on high heat. Assemble kebobs, alternating vegetables with tofu or chicken, and place them on the grill. Your tofu kebobs will take about five minutes on each side to cook—allow extra time to be sure the chicken is done before eating.

For a video of your two Cultureweek editors Dawn and Sarah making these delicious kebobs, check back soon!

Hawaiian Burger—This sweet alternative requires a can of sliced pineapple rings, teriyaki sauce, and some onions. Just drain the juice from the can of pineapple and add it to the teriyaki sauce. Soak your pineapple rings and onion slices in the juice for half an hour, then throw the rings, onions, and burgers on the grill. Brush all three with the teriyaki mixture as they cook. Now just assemble your burger. For an added touch, try swiss cheese, lettuce, and bacon—or, to make it really Hawaiian, try a slice of Spam! Serve on an onion bun.

Aristotle Burger—Named for our favorite Greek, this burger gets its flavor from a blend of spices. Mix your ground beef (or lamb) with some finely chopped onion, minced garlic, oregano, lemon juice, olive oil, and fresh mint to taste. Shape into patties, and grill. Serve in pitas with thick-sliced tomato, red onion, black olives, and crumbled feta cheese for a delicious meal.

Breakfast Burger—This burger combines your favorite parts of breakfast and dinner into one. Form ground beef into patties, and while grilling, melt a thick slice of cheddar cheese over the top. Cook a fried egg separately, and serve the burger, egg, and cheese on a toasted English muffin.

Pizza in a Bun—This burger is inside-out! Form hollow burger patties and fill their centers with mozzarella cheese and diced tomatoes. Grill burgers with pepperoni slices on top, and serve on a thick bun. Pour on some warm pizza sauce for a final touch.

Okay, but what do I grill on?
Charcoal
For those who enjoy the traditional smoky grill flavor, charcoal is the way to go. With lower-end models available for as little as $20-30, this option can be very economical. You will, of course, have to buy charcoal when you use it, and adjusting the temperature of your fire can be a bit tricky.

Gas
A gas grill will require a higher initial investment than charcoal, at about $150, but they are a lot less messy and much easier to clean. You’re paying for convenience with that higher starting price, though, because gas also heats up faster than charcoal and the heat is easier to adjust. However, it’s not as fun as playing with a charcoal fire!

Electric
An indoor electric grill can allow you the fun of burger-making with less mess. For something comparable to an outdoor grill, the cost will be anywhere from $50-150. But when it gets cold in the winter, you’ll appreciate not having to stand outside shivering and trying to start a fire. An electric grill is a great idea for someone who doesn’t have the outdoor space, or just wants the extra convenience. Plus, the ongoing cost of electricity for this grill will be much lower than what you’d spend on gas or charcoal!

The IU Summer Music Festival is a musical celebration continuing from June 15 until August 9. With the over 40 performances being offered over the course of two months, it was impossible for Cultureweek to cover them all. We decided to give readers a glimpse of the diversity in the upcoming performances by highlighting some of each style, from classical to jazz, and each type, from large ensemble to chamber music to solo recital. This is, of course, just a sprinkling of the full spectrum of musical performances that can be seen all summer, so readers should go to the website for the Summer Music Festival at http://music.indiana.edu/summer/ to find out more.

Ticketed Events

The Jacobs School will be featuring ticketed and non-ticketed events through the festival this summer. The following are the writer’s picks of a few special performances that should be worth every cent. Tickets for the following events range from $6/each for students to $25/each for adults, depending on the performance and the seat location. Festival passes can be purchased for full access to every festival event for $150 for adults and $80 for students, and there are group discounts available. The festival website has details on purchasing tickets and passes.

Sweet Honey in the Rock

Sweet Honey in the Rock, Grammy award-winning African American female a cappella ensemble, will be the opening act on June 15 of the IU Summer Music Festival this year.

The group, founded by singer and activist Bernice Johnson Reagon in 1973, sings songs about freedom, justice, hope, belief, and the human condition. Their songs are rhythmic and powerful, and combine contemporary styles with the African American spiritual and Gospel tradition. Six women make up the group, including five singers and one American Sign Language translator who travels with them on concert tours.

The name Sweet Honey in the Rock comes from Psalm 81:16, which promises the miracle of people being fed by honey out of a broken rock. According to the group, this metaphor “captures completely these African American women whose repertoire is steeped in the sacred music of the Black church, the clarion calls of the civil rights movement, and songs of the struggle for justice everywhere.” (http://sweethoney.com/)

The members of the group feel that to perform is not enough. In addition to going on tours, members will hold workshops to help others find their voices. Ysaye Barnwell, who has been a member since 1979, heads these workshops, and explained in an interview with NPR, “I feel like everybody wants to sing.” She also comments on the African American musical tradition. “When you look at music and singing out of an African worldview, there isn’t anything extraordinary about singing. In the Western world, we sort of elevate everybody who is an artist up to a level that no one can aspire to reach.”

Beaux Arts Trio

The Beaux Arts Trio’s last performance in Bloomington on June 28 is one of the showcase events of the IU Summer Music Festival this year. The group, founded by Menahem Pressler in 1955, is currently completing their farewell tour. Pressler, the pianist of the group and a professor of piano at the Jacobs School of Music, is also the only original member in the group. The violinist and the cellist of the group have changed over its 53 years of existence, but the current members are violinst Daniel Hope and cellist Antonio Meneses. Pressler described playing in a trio “like being married” to the other members. “Like in any relationship, the heights you can reach because of the interplay are very special.”

Pressler elaborated on the pieces the group will be performing in their farewell concert. The first and last pieces on the program are classics, the Beethoven “Archduke” trio, and the Schubert Trio in Eb Major, which he explains, “if you had to choose two pieces to sustain you on a desert island, it would be these two.” The middle piece is a composition by György Kurtág, a living composer and friend of Pressler who, according to Pressler is a “special composer, one of the greatest composers of the day,” who “expresses something that makes you aware of something inside yourself when you listen.”

She Loves Me

IU Opera Theatre will present the musical comedy that tells the story of two anonymous romantic pen pals who don’t realize that they also happen to be clerks in the same store. It is a plot which has been repeated in many movies and musicals over the years, including in the recent “You’ve Got Mail” with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. “She Loves Me” is a touching, romantic story of how the conflict between Georg and Amalia, the two pen pals, is resolved in the staged production at the IU MAC.

¡Ùnicamente la Verdad!

Opera will grace the Summer Music Festival for a second time with the contemporary opera-film project “¡Ùnicamente la Verdad!” (”Only the Truth!”) This work is sponsored by a New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities grant and directed by Carmen Helena Téllez. A joint composition by Gabriela Ortiz and Rubèn Ortiz-Torres, “Only the Truth!” combines tabloid journalism, analytical documentary, popular Mexican music, contemporary music video, and opera. The plot tells of a woman from Texas called “la tejana,” whose story of drug trafficking and romance appeared in the Mexican tabload “La alarma!” This modern opera will appear at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre in early August.

Maureen McGovern

Called “the Stradivarius voice,” Maureen McGovern’s 35 years of vocal experience ranges from Broadway theatre to film to television to jazz. She will be accompanied this year by Jacobs School students in her solo performance. The first set features jazz tunes with a big band directed by Professor Steve Houghton, while the second half will focus on McGovern’s theatrical expertise accompanied by a studio orchestra.

Festival Orchestra

The festival highlights the talent of students and faculty at the Jacobs School in conjunction with three guest conductors on June 26, July 17, and July 31. On these dates, the Festival Orchestra will be lead by Lawrence Renes, Xian Zhang, and Robert Spano, conductors from around the world who will bring their experience to the MAC stage. The music to be performed by the orchestra includes a list of challenging and enjoyable compositions. Renes will bring Barber’s heart-wrenching “Adagio for Strings” and Copland’s demanding “Fanfare for the Common Man” to the stage in the first summer performance. Zhang’s visit to the campus is highlighted by Elgar’s “Enigma Variations,” a piece which explores the personalities of Elgar’s friends through the variance of a musical theme. In the final performance of this group, Spano will conduct the magical “Scheherazade” by Rimsky-Korsakov. These are only a chosen few of the wonderful works to be performed by the IU Festival Orchestra this summer.
Non-ticketed Events

The Summer Music Festival offers many free concerts alongside their featured ticketed events. The following are, again, a few “writer’s picks” of these upcoming performances. This short listing does not nearly represent the full range of free, non-ticketed performances in the festival this summer. We recommend readers check out the full listing of events at http://music.indiana.edu/summer/.

Gordon Stout, marimba

Legendary in the world of percussion, Gordon Stout is a performer, composer, and teacher in his field. He will perform marimba compositions of his own and others on the evening of July 15, including his “Wood

That Sings” and “Beads of Glass” and a Marcellino guitar transcription, “Three Choros.” Stout spoke to me about his inspiration for writing his own compositions: “All ideas for a composition begin by playing and improvising. I need to hear an actual sound to get an idea. Sounds are what interest me, and relationships between sounds inspire me to write music.” He also explained how the marimba was his “first love as a percussionist. I love the sound of the instrument.”

Also on July 15, from 10-noon, Stout will do a master class for the IU Summer Percussion Workshop, a three-day event for students in middle school, high school, college, and beyond to work with experienced percussionists. The class is open to the public, and Stout will listen to the students play and “provide helpful comments.”

Summer Concert Band series

The Summer Concert Band will hold concerts in July, beginning with the July 9 performance featuring soloist Susan Rider, Gunnery Sergeant in “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band. The band will be featured on July 16 and again on July 23, with new performances each Wednesday. These casual, fun performances are held outside in open air on the MAC lawn.

Sara Caswell, jazz violin, and friends

IU alumna Sara Caswell will join Zach Lapidus, Jeremy Allen, Dave Scalia, and special guest Rachel Caswell in a jazz performance at Auer Hall on June 24. Trained in classical and jazz violin, Sara Caswell will explore contemporary and standard jazz repertoire in this performance.

Symphony Orchestra

Cliff Colnot will lead two performances of the Symphony Orchestra, a very talented group of IU students, in performances on July 8 and August 5. For lovers of Brahms, the first performance featuring the “Academic Festival Overture” and “Symphony No. 2″ will be a treat. The second night includes the beautiful “‘Jupiter’ Symphony No. 41″ by Mozart, and the Largo from “Symphony No. 6″ by Shostakovich. Colnot directs the contemporary MusicNOW series of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as well as the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

It will be Carol Ponder’s first trip to Bloomington when she performs her native Appalachian ballads with Indiana University’s International Vocal Ensemble (IVE) this March. She seemed excited to come to IU when interviewed over the phone in late January.

“I’ve never been there,” Ponder explained, “but living in Nashville I’ve heard about the school. It’s close enough for stuff to filter down.”

Carol Ponder, a native of southern Appalachia, will be performing ballads and other Appalachian folk songs with the IVE of the Jacobs School of Music (JSOM) at IU. IVE is a choral ensemble directed by Dr. Katherine Domingo, intended “as a means of building bridges and understanding cultures through music.”

“Educating students to become global citizens is a primary mission,” says Domingo, who has been the director of the ensemble since 2007. The group is currently studying music of the Americas, including southern Appalachia (with Ponder), Native America, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, and music from the African-American tradition.

Though IVE will have their own performance featuring all of these songs of the Americas at the end of the spring semester, Carol Ponder is a guest artist with whom they will perform in association with ArtsWeek. ArtsWeek, featured in this issue of Cultureweek, is a Bloomington and IU-sponsored arts festival happening from February 20 until March 1, 2008.

Carol Ponder has already sent recordings of her songs for the group to learn, and will be coming the week before her performance to work with the ensemble and put together the final result.

Domingo explains that when learning music from other cultures, “the most effective way is to learn directly from an informant. The face-to-face interaction is ideal for sharing cultures and overcoming stereotypes.” However, since the ensemble won’t be able to work with Ponder until a week before the performance, they will initially learn songs by ear from the recordings she has sent, creating their own harmonies and accompaniments. When Ponder arrives, the group will have a chance to put what they have done together with Carol’s singing.

In addition to accompanying Carol Ponder’s songs, there are IVE students who “will be featured singing and playing a variety of instruments,” including fiddle, guitar, hand drum, and ‘cello. Most of the songs will be learned by ear; however, the group also has a composition student who will arrange one of Ponder’s songs for the group to sing.

Part of the group’s goal, which Domingo explains is “to recreate music from outside the Western tradition,” is learning it in the same way it is learned in its original culture. Though Western choral music is most commonly learned by reading sheet music on paper, this is often not the case in other cultural traditions. In the case of Carol Ponder’s songs, the group is learning them by ear, one of the ways people in southern Appalachia often would. The one song which will be arranged and learned from sheet music was approved by Ponder as another authentic way in which this music might be learned.

The style of music Ponder sings evolved in the Appalachians. “I’m not sure exactly how,” she says. “There are lots of theories that voices were trying to sound like bagpipes. But, for whatever reason, it ended up being a very strident sound.”

“The first thing I tried to do with my adaptation of that style is to make the a cappella music and the balladry significant and mean something in the 21st century. I am Appalachian, and this is my voice. It certainly has been influenced by all the music that I’ve heard. But I haven’t had voice lessons, and this is the instrument I was given. I’m just singing the songs the best way that I can, keeping in mind the kinds of ornamentation that the Appalachian ballad singers used.”

Ponder grew up in a house full of music. “The Appalachian habit I learned from my parents and my grandparents was the habit of singing. It wasn’t until I went away to college that I realized that not everybody sang all the time!”

The first time Carol Ponder performed on stage was in 1958, when she was only four years old. She sang and played the autoharp, which her grandmother taught her to play. “I knew that early that I could sing and it was something I loved, and so I did it.”

Ponder did not become a ballad singer until 1998. She explained that it was simply because she was “middle aged.” She had been working in theatre and education through the arts for the last twenty years, and had an impulse to return home, and “to try to figure out where I came from. This led me almost immediately to music and that was what I needed to be doing more of. It was my mid-life crisis, my red convertible,” she says, laughing.

Ponder’s experience in theatre, musical and otherwise, has helped her to create characterization when she performs her ballads. “Each song,” she says, “I treat like its own little world.”

Ponder also draws from her husband, who is a theatrical director, to work on the dramatic of her performance. He produces her recordings and directs her concert performances, and, she says, “he can give me exactly the right direction before I record a song that takes it up one more notch.”

She emphasizes that, in singing these traditional songs, she wants to “keep the music alive. That’s what’s important, it’s not the singer, it’s the song.”

❝I am Appalachian, and this is my voice.❞

Carol Ponder is what she calls a teaching artist, part of a growing profession of working artists who use their art as an aid to education. She does this in many different ways, for example, she said, “taking a principle, like freedom, and organizing activities around that to scaffold into a different understanding of the word or concept.” This is done through the arts, so that “learning happens in many different ways,” and it is a way that artists themselves are fighting to keep arts education in schools.

As a teaching artist, Carol Ponder’s mission is to educate people not only about southern Appalachian music and music in general, but also about their own voices. “In many Western countries, especially in the U.S., we let other people make our music for us. We have forgotten that [singing] is a birthright for each and every one of us. I try to get people to sing wherever I go!” Ponder encounters many people who thought they couldn’t sing who in fact “sing beautifully, time after time after time,” she says.

To those who are convinced that they could never be musical, Ponder might relate the following anecdote from her youth. She told a story about a man that she dated when she was in high school who wanted to play the banjo, but seemed to have no natural talent. “I would have sworn if anybody in the world were tone deaf, he was,” she says as she laughs. However, after two years of hard work and dedication, this man’s ear became so acute that at concerts, other players would pass him their instruments to tune. “He’s now an instrument repairer and maker. He did it!”

Ponder explained why teaching others to find their voice is so important to her. “The very act of singing creates community, and creates a sense of calm and centeredness for people like nothing else I’ve ever done.”

As a part of ArtsWeek, Carol Ponder’s performance will relate to the overarching theme of “Politics in the Arts” through the songs that she sings. She says, “I tend to choose songs that point toward either interpersonal or social issues very directly.” One song that she sings, for example, is a primary source document from the Civil War. This song, Hickman Boys, is about a soldier’s experience in the Battle of Fort Donelson. Though the song does not explicitly state any political views, Ponder says that she considers it to be an anti-war song. “It brings you to that personal place of that soldier’s experience.”

“Everything I do basically is focused on encouraging people to think about current social issues, but also about taking a three minute walk in someone else’s shoes through a song.”

Ponder also spoke about the importance of music, and all the arts, as a part of education. She believes that the arts are necessary because “they are what make us human. They are what give us the means to interpret our world. You can teach someone facts and figures until the cows come home, but if they don’t have any context for those facts and figures and can not relate to them personally, they don’t mean anything.” Ponder believes that for learning to happen, the arts must be taught side by side with math, science, English, and other indisputably important topics.

She told me she has a theory that “if you can experience someone else’s reality through the arts, it’s much harder to kill them. We really are talking about saving the world here.”

This exhibit, which will open at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures on February 22, walks museum-goers through black activism from the Civil Rights movement up to the black power and soul era. The exhibit is generally chronological, spanning about 20 years from the 1954, the year of Brown v. Board of Education, to 1972, when Memphis’s Stax Records sponsored “Wattstax,” a music festival that was considered a healing gesture held on the seventh anniversary of the Watts Riots.

The Mathers exhibit is a “prototype for a larger series of traveling exhibitions,” says Fass. Most of the information will be displayed on seven foot tall banner stands—each stand will cover a different topic relating to black music and activism. “The idea was that they would be durable and simple.” Because the exhibit is meant to travel and be displayed easily, the banners have a small footprint and are made to roll up smoothly.

This traveling series, which covers different topics in African American music, was funded by a grant from the Moveable Feast of the Arts. The banners are made so that they can work together or individually—they are made for “schools, libraries, historical societies, colleges, black culture centers…anyone that wants the exhibit,” Fass says.

The bulk of the items displayed on the banners will be reproductions of images from the IU AAAMC and the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis. However, Fass explains that the Mathers version of this exhibit will be expanded slightly from the banner stands with album covers and other original items from the archives. These items will not be available in the traveling exhibit, but are unique to kick off the Mathers Museum version.

Of course, education on the history of black music and politics in this era is the true focus of the exhibit. It is being publicized as a part of ArtsWeek, and it fits in well with the theme of “Politics in the Arts.” Fass says, “soul music took on black pride in its lyrics; it encouraged listeners to stand up for black goals and values.” The black pride movement went beyond integration, and the lyrics of soul music encouraged a sense of pride and the importance of “getting involved.”

Fass emphasizes that though the exhibit is being produced in the context of Black History Month, black history is something to learn about “not just in the month of February.” This is part of the essence of the traveling exhibit. The Mathers Museum will keep the banners until the end of April, when they will become available to be used elsewhere. In this way, people will be reminded of and educated about black history throughout the year.

The exhibit opening at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures begins at 5 PM. There will be a performance by AcaBella, an IU a cappella group who will “bring to life the music of the exhibit,” says Fass, by performing soul music and other music relating to the exhibit. AcaBella will begin their performance at 5:30 PM. Due to copyright issues, the exhibit will not have recordings of the music, so this opening is a perfect opportunity to hear live music, and at the same time learn about this fascinating era of black history and culture. Admission to the Mathers Museum is free.

Ooodoo is a vocal ensemble made up of Malcolm Dalgish, Moira Smiley, Joshua Kartes, and Naomi Dalglish. The songs on the new album balance what were originally mostly a capella pieces by Dalglish with the use of percussion, piano, and hammered dulcimer. Some of the songs are still a capella, others use voices and piano, and yet others use many different percussion instruments combined with voices. Dalglish’s vocal arrangements are innovative in themselves, and use percussive musical techniques to paint the text in the music. However, when the voices are combined with percussion instrumentation, his songs take on the feeling of folk music from many cultures around the world. Indeed, many of the percussion instruments come from a variety of cultures. Percussionist Scott Robinson uses a talking drum from Africa, a kanjira from India, and other instruments to give each song a unique sound. This emphasis on a percussive style resonates with the listener; we can feel the beat even in the album’s a cappella pieces.

Into the Sky is aptly named. Dalglish told me, “I felt that a lot of the pieces had to do with reflections on flight. I think that…one can say that we sing because we can’t fly.” The album’s title comes from the third track on the record, which has soaring lyrics based on a text by a Chinese writer from the 700’s. The theme of flight is found not only in the lyrics of many of Dalglish’s songs, but in the creative use of voices and instruments throughout the CD. The voices soar in range, and the instruments used span many different cultures.

Dalglish discovered the hammered dulcimer when he was in college, built his own instrument and taught himself to play shortly thereafter. This instrument, which is found in cultures throughout the world and is as old as the harp, is a trapezoidal box with strings which are struck with a hammer. It has versatility in that it can be used to accompany, as Dalglish does with his choral pieces, or be performed as a solo instrument.

The process is a vital part of Dalglish’s creative process, he says, and one that can change from piece to piece. Sometimes, he says, “I grab the microphone and improvise, or I improvise and play on the dulcimer, or I pull off the road on trips and write something in my journal.” It’s about “how you nurture an idea into a song,” and this idea can be inspired in many ways.

The tenth track on the album, a piece titled “Into and Among You,” is a piece that was inspired by the translation of an old Omaha Tribe recording. The song is a blessing given by the tribe when a new baby is born, and it calls out to nature to allow this new baby to pass the “four hills” of life, these being infancy, childhood, adulthood, and old age. Dalglish originally listened to a copy made from old wax recordings of the original Omaha Tribe song, and found translations of the words in the recordings. He used the original recording and the translations to inspire his own version, keeping the ideas of the original but putting them to his own music and phrasing the words in his own way. “I tried to manipulate the words and phrases so that the song still had a connection to the original images of the poetry.”

There is a CD release concert for Ooodoo’s Into the Sky on January 18 at 8PM. Malcolm Dalglish and Ooodoo will perform not only songs from the CD, but also ones by other composers in the group. The concert is at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 2120 N Fee Lane. The concert is free to all, and their new CD Into the Sky will be sold.

La bohème follows the lives of four artist friends, Rodolfo, Marcello, Colline, and Schaunard, as they struggle through poverty in the Latin Quarter of Paris, France around 1890. La bohème, French for “the Bohemian,” paints a picture of the lives of these friends. All are artists in some way - Rodolfo is a poet, Marcello, a painter, Colline, a philosopher, and Schaunard, a musician. As the story unfolds, Rodolfo and Marcello meet two young women—Mimi and Musetta—and both quickly fall in love. Puccini causes our focus to be centered on the relationship of Rodolfo and Mimi, and we soon learn that Mimi is very ill and Rodolfo cannot afford to care for her. They struggle with their love, and whether they should stay together in poverty or separate for their own individual good.

I spoke with set designer C. David Higgins about the process of designing the sets for this new production. The IU Opera Theatre doesn’t design new sets and costumes every time a production is put on. Instead, for each opera, sets are designed once and then used each time that opera is performed for many years. About 25-30 productions, including sets and costumes, are kept in storage at any given time. This new production of La bohème came about because the old sets were showing wear and tear, and the Opera Theatre decided that it was time to start with a whole new design.

The concept for this production was created by Capobianco and realized by Professor Higgins in his brand new set design. The opera is set in 1890, about sixty years after Puccini originally intended. This was done in order to make the design more accessible to the designers. For example, in the 1890s setting, electric lighting can be used realistically, while the opera is still in a historical context.
Professor Higgins describes the concept behind this version of La bohème to me as “cinemagraphic,” in that the set gives the audience a sense of moving through Paris along with the characters. This cinemagraphic style is accomplished using set pieces which rotate and move across the stage during scenes. What Higgins calls “kinetic” scenery helps to, as he says, “add interest and detail to the story for the audience.” The set is dynamic, acting as “one of the players telling the story,” says Higgins.

The rotating and moving sets are used in all four acts of the opera, which is set in three locations. The first and last acts are at the garret of Rodolfo and Marcello. The second act is in the Latin Quarter, on a busy street with a café where the friends dine, and the third act is at the city gates. Each scene lends itself to the rotating and moving sets in different ways. One example of how these sets are used is in the opening act of the show. We begin facing the outside of Rodolfo and Marcello’s garret, and one of the men is outside on the balcony. As he walks through the window into the garret, the set rotates to show the inside of the building. The three dimensional quality of the rotating set brings the audience into the scene, and enhances the cinemagraphic quality of the production as a whole.

The opera La bohème has been one of the most staged and most popular opera productions in the last hundred years. Written by Puccini in the 1890’s, this work has stood the test of time. It has been re-staged in many forms over the years, and though the places and times have sometimes been changed, the story of Bohemian friends and lovers transcends age and era.

I asked Professor Higgins why he thinks La bohème has continued to be so popular over the years. “When people are young they have grandiose ideas,” he says “they’re not worn down by the practicalities of life. When you get older, you’re less likely to take chances. So the opera is about youthful love, and this kind of youthful existence. That’s why it’s been such an endearing story for so long.”

I also spoke with David Effron, the conductor of La bohème, a seasoned instrumental director with extensive experience conducting opera. He is especially familiar with La bohème in particular, having conducted it more times than he can recall (he estimates conducting about eighty performances). We spoke about the special meaning this opera has to him, as it was the first opera he saw at the age of four. “I remember it very well,” he told me, “because I came home from the performance and the next day outside playing, I remember telling my friends, ‘Somebody died at the opera,’ because it was so realistic to me that I actually thought she actually died.” He’s known the opera for so long, he says, that “I can’t remember when I didn’t know it.”

I also asked Professor Effron how he prepares to conduct a large scale production such as this one. He described the importance of collaboration between the orchestra and the singers, and how much he enjoys working with Capobianco, a director who equally appreciates this “dual effort between the drama and the music.”

“I don’t know of any other stage director who is more involved with the clarity of characterization of each person. It’s not like seeing opera singers up there. It’s like seeing real people, with real foibles. To work with a guy who really brings every character to life like that is kind of a rarity, and he’s a genius at that.” Professor Effron told me that he feels this will really be an “ultra-spectacular production.”

Finally, Effron spoke on why he feels this opera is still so popular a century after it was written. “People can relate to the characters, it’s an unbelievable love story, and it has gorgeous music!”

La bohème opens Friday, November 9th at the Musical Arts Center, with three more performances on November 10th, 16th, and 17th. All performances begin at 8 PM. Tickets start at $15 for general admission, $10 for IU students with ID.