“Meadowlark”, a collaborative UConn School of Fine Arts presentation

For about a year I have been working on my third collaboration with visual artists, Deborah Dancy and Ted Efremoff.  "Meadowlark", as we titled it, is a lighthearted celebration of color, seasonal migration and the musical whistles of eastern songbirds.  For this project we added Bart Roccoberton's puppetry as a third artistic dimension.  Although he was involved in discussions and brainstorming at the onset, Bart's contribution was kept a mystery until the day of the presentation.

My music was recorded by my COW ensemble (the Creative Opportunity Workshop), which features Christopher Hoffman on cello, Kris Allen on saxophones, Rogerio Boccato on percussion and me at the piano.

A preview performance of “Meadowlark” was given on Tuesday April 23^rd, at 12:30 p.m. in the Nafe Katter Theater.  Colleagues, students, administrator, and members of the community attended.  

I ran a video camera from the back of the room to capture the presentation, complete with the (newly added) puppets.  I loved how the puppet troupe heightened the sense of  movement, buoyancy and vitality.  Here is the video:

It is marvelous (and fun!) to have such immensely talented colleagues from diverse disciplines with whom to join forces!

We plan to show all three of our collaborative pieces in the Fall, projected onto the outside wall of the UConn Art/Music building facing the new town center.  We also plan to release a DVD sometime in the near future.  We will keep you posted.