July is a busy month for pianist Inesa Sinkevych. She will appear on Saturday, July 13 in a Music for Autism concert at the 92nd Street Y (New York, NY) together with trumpeter Ryan Gardner. On Thursday, July 18 she will teach a Summer Camp Master class at Manhattan School of Music (New York, NY). And on Monday, July 29-30 she will play a solo recital and offer a master class at “Lyra Music” Summer Workshop (Randolph, VT). She will perform music by Scarlatti, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Brahms, Lieberman, Debussy, and Prokofiev. Also, Vermont public radio, WCVT, 101.7 FM, will feature an interview with Sinkevych and will play her Schubert recordings, plus Haydn, Prokofiev, and Ichiyanagi works. Inesa Sinkevych is a Ukrainian-born Israeli concert pianist, currently living in New York. Her recent CD Schubert Piano Works was released in 2012.

EVENT DETAILS: 

Music for Autism Concert
Saturday, July 13 at 3:00 pm
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Ave New York, NY
(212) 415-5500

Master Class at Manhattan School of Music
Thursday, July 18, time TBA
132 Claremont Ave New York, NY
(212) 749-2802

Master Class and Solo Reciatal at “Lyra” Music Summer Workshop
Monday, July 29 at 7:30 pm
71-73 Main Street
Randolph, VT
802-728-6464

Inesa Sinkevych is a Ukrainian born Israeli concert pianist, currently living in New York. Her recent CD, Schubert Piano Works was released in 2012. She has performed as a soloist with the Israeli Philharmonic, Minnesota Symphony, Gulbenkian Symphony, Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as solo recitals in such venues as the Purcell Room at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, and Merkin Hall in New York. She was awarded top and special prizes at the Arthur Rubinstein International Master Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, Piano-e-Competition in Minneapolis, Vianna da Motta International Piano Competition in Portugal, among others. She received her DMA from the Manhattan School of Music.

Pianist Inna Faliks will make her Newport Music Festival debut on Wednesday, July 17, 2013, at the Breakers mansion, 8 p.m. Presenting works by Shchedrin, Beethoven, Schoenberg, and Schumann, Faliks will be one of 88 artists performing from July 10-28 in the Gilded Age “summer cottages” of Newport, Rhode Island.

Faliks will play a second concert at the festival, performing the “Heavenly Music of Franz Schubert,” which features an international quintet of performers from Germany, Russia, Canada, and the United States. Faliks, a Ukranian-American, will be joined by a cellist from Russia and an American violinist to provide Schubert’s Piano Trio in B-flat Major.  The concert begins at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 18.

The Breakers mansion (location of her solo recital on 7/17) is at 44 Ochre Point Ave, Newport, RI. Tickets are $42. The Casino Theatre (location of the Schubert quintet on 7/18) is at 9 Freebody Street, Newport, RI. Tickets are $32 for orchestra seating, $27 balcony seating.

For tickets, please call 401-849-0700 or visit newportmusic.secure.force.com/ticket. For further information on these concerts, please call 401-846-1133 or write to [email protected].

SOLO RECITAL PROGRAM INCLUDES:

Shchedrin Prelude for Piano
Beethoven Polonaise in C Major and Piano Sonata No. 23, “Appasionata”
Schoenberg Three Piano Pieces
Schumann Davidsbündlerstänze

“SCHUBERTIAD” PROGRAM INCLUDES:

Schubert Trio in B-flat Major
performed by Inna Faliks (piano), Corinne Chapelle (violin), and Sergey Antonov (cello)

This Sunday, June 9 in Los Angeles, pianist Inna Faliks will perform Schumann’s romantic masterpiece The Davidsblünder. These eighteen short pieces offer a valuable insight into Schumann’s aesthetic vision, as well as an interesting analog to the persisting debate about contemporary music. In brief, the composer places the two sides of his personality in a musical conversation about his personal vision versus his public persona. 

The concert will also include the Shchedrin’s Basso Ostinato and Beethoven’s Polonaise in C. It will take place at 6:00 pm at Bing Hall, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd  Los Angeles, CA. Admission is free.

(You can also stream the concert from the link on this page: www.lacma.org/event/inna-faliks-0)

COMPLETE PROGRAM: 

Robert Schumann, Davidsbündler, op. 6

Rodion Shchedrin, Basso Ostinato

Beethoven, Polonaise in C, op. 89

Blair Thomas’ popular show The Selfish Giant, based on the Oscar Wilde fairy tale, will play at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks, Michigan, Saturday, July 6, at 1:00 pm. The performance appears as part of the Three Oaks Theater Festival. TimeOut Chicago had this to say about The Selfish Giant:

“Blair’s magnificent puppetry breathes some fresh air into the well-known tale of a giant whose refusal to allow children to play in his garden results in an eternal winter. His craftsmanship and ability to manipulate his creations allow the large-scale giant to convey emotion. Even the smaller marionette children, birds and bees appear full of life when the children sneak back into the garden and bring spring along with them. And Smith’s ability to render the entire play in song adds a folksy, fun sensibility to the story that is appreciated as much—perhaps even more—by the grown-ups in the audience.”

Time: 1:00pm.
Admission: $15.00 (children under 4 are free).
Age restrictions: All Ages.
Box office: 269-756-3879.
Address: 107 Generations Dr., Three Oaks, MI
Venue phone: 269-756-3879.

Around the world, across the centuries, puppets have transcended cultures as one of the most expressive, adaptable art forms—its origins can be traced back to Egypt, about 4000 years ago. From Saturday, June 22–Tuesday, August 17, 2013, the campus-wide festival Puppets Take Strathmore (North Bethesda, Maryland) observes contemporary puppet culture through performance, workshops and an art exhibition, proving that puppets don’t only serve as children’s entertainment, but also as powerful tools for storytelling and for communicating ideas to people of all ages. From award-winning Broadway shows like War Horse and Disney’s The Lion King to astonishing new stagings of opera and dance, puppets have transformed the arts in America. Puppets Take Strathmore invites artists and experts such as Cashore Marionettes, Blue Sky Puppet Theatre, Nana Projects and the preeminent Blair Thomas & Company to share the stage with their creations and explore this amazing medium. For additional information and tickets, call (301) 581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

In Hard Headed Heart (D.C. Premiere), a trio of interconnected solo vignettes, Chicago-based puppet artist Blair Thomas creates new art where puppetry and performance art collide. The performance, featuring music performed live by Chelsey Green and The Green Project, is based on the words of Federico García Lorca, Wallace Stevens, and the blues classic “St. James Infirmary.” Thomas is “a controlled maelstrom, at once scene-shifter, shape-shifter, storyteller, and one-man band…” (ChicagoMag.com). A sellout in Chicago, this is Hard Headed Heart’s D.C. premiere. Best for ages 14 and up; this show is intended for adults. Sunday, August 4, 2013, 1 & 4 p.m. City Dance Studio 405 Theater at Strathmore (Music Center at Strathmore), Tickets $15

In Blair’s workshop, The Puppet Tells the Story, participants create their very own puppet show, complete with handmade rod puppets and scripted skit. Best for ages 8-12. Kids dive in with paper, cardboard, sticks, ink markers and lots of hot glue to create their two dimensional performance masterpieces. Saturday, August 3, 2013, 10 a.m. –noon, Mansion at Strathmore, Tickets $25.

Strathmore patrons can extend their experience by visiting the Puppets Take Strathmore microsite, featuring a history of puppets around the world as well as education and performance guides.

The festival kicks off with No Strings Attached, a fine art exhibition featuring an eye–popping collection of photography, representative sculpture, masks and multi-dimensional puppets of every size, color, culture and description. No Strings Attached examines the role of fine arts in the creation of puppets, and the reverse, puppetry’s influence on visual art. The exhibition highlights puppets large and small to showcase the genre’s depth, from Don Becker’s palm-sized marionettes to the larger-than-life, interactive mutant puppet-creatures of international touring group, Big Nazo. Heather Henson’s IBEX entertainment company is providing the puppet short Yamasong with puppets from the film, as well as shorts from the film Handmade Puppet Dreams, Volume IV. Other highlights of the exhibition include the stop-motion short film Cicada Queen; 14 vintage puppets from the Ballard Museum of Puppetry including Punch and Judy puppets from the early 1900s and marionette replicas of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers from the 1930s; puppets caught  in action through the photography of Richard Termine and the still life dioramas of Elyse Harrison, vignettes that combine to form a full narrative; and Philip Huber-designed (Being John Malkovich, Oz the Great and Powerful) puppets from the Broadway production, Busker Alley. Fourteen artists and organizations are represented in the exhibition.

Performances from Cashore Marionettes, Blue Sky Puppet Theatre, Nana Projects and Blair Thomas & Company illustrate the dynamism and sophistication of puppetry as an art form. Emma Jaster, Katherine Fahey, Pointless Theatre Co., Sarah Olmsted Thomas and Alex Vernon, Colette Searls and many more artists will be featured in the Puppet Slam and outdoor concert puppet performances. A trio of rich education experiences will see participants creating their own puppet shows, learning about puppets as a storytelling tool and the representation of puppetry in contemporary American theater. The festival culminates with an academic panel discussion and puppet slam featuring some of the best local artists performing short, new works, and the Washington premiere of Blair Thomas & Company’s critically acclaimed Hard Headed Heart.

For additional information or to purchase tickets, visit www.strathmore.org or call (301) 581-5100.