Articles tagged with: miwsfpa

  • Student performances to wrap Music@Noon season

    Monday, March 11, 2019 | By

    Voice student Marcus Tranquilli (right) performed last semester with professional accompanist Gary Forbes as part of the RBC Foundation Music@Noon Recital Series in the Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.

    (From The Brock News, March 8, 2019)

    It’s time once again for Brock University Music students to take over the stage as part of the Music@Noon Recital Series.

    For the next five weeks, guests will hear performances by voice, guitar, piano and instrumental students.

    The next performance of the series, which features piano students, will take place Tuesday, March 12 in the Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, and will be followed by additional student performances on consecutive Tuesdays.

    Instrumental students will perform March 19, followed by voice, guitar and piano students March 26, and piano students April 2.

    Brock’s instrumental students will close out the season on April 9. This performance was rescheduled from Feb. 12 due to inclement weather.

    Thanks to the generous donation of the RBC Foundation, Music@Noon is a free one-hour concert that occurs most Tuesdays at noon during the academic year. All are invited to join the Department of Music in the Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines.

    For more information on upcoming concerts, please visit the Department of Music Website.

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, News

  • MIWSFPA host to roughly 60 high school arts teachers

    Wednesday, March 06, 2019 | By

    Visual Arts teachers were led through an Indigenous art workshop led by Brian Kon.

    On Feb. 15, the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts hosted more than 60 Dramatic Arts, Music and Visual Arts teachers from the District School Board of Niagara (DSBN).

    Organized by Recruitment and Liaison Officer, Madison Roca, and NCDSB Arts Consultant, Teri Cristelli, the teachers were led through various workshops as part of their professional development day.

    “Many of the teachers had said it was the best professional development day they’d ever had,” said Cristelli.

    Among the different workshops were two visual arts workshops, the first on Indigenous art led by guest Brian Kon, followed by a session led by Visual Arts Assistant Professor Amy Friend on cyanotypes.

    There was also a Dramatic Arts workshop led by Dramatic Arts Chair Joe Norris and music workshop led by guest Kevin Hamlin from Yamaha Canada, held in the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.

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    Categories: Events, News

  • Brock alumna returns to speak with VISA students

    Wednesday, March 06, 2019 | By

    Brock alumna, Natalie Hunter, spent the afternoon with VISA 4F06 students as they discussed their upcoming exhibitions. Back row from left: Teresa Badgley, Amber Williams, Shawn Serfas, Sarah Martin
     Front row from left: Gianna Aceto, Emma Hutchison-Hounsell, Cynthia Richards, Natalie Hunter

    On Feb. 7, Brock Visual Arts students in the VISA 4F06 Honours course were visited by Brock alumna Natalie Hunter (BA ’11) to discuss their upcoming exhibitions that begin in March. Hunter and the students discussed the pieces they are working on and how to move forward in order to create a cohesive exhibition. During each student’s session, they received a small piece of translucent film that Hunter used in her exhibition, Staring into the Sun, which is currently on view at Rodman Hall Art Centre.

    During her time at Brock, Hunter was part of the VISA 4F06 Honours course, where students work all year to put together an exhibition in Rodman Hall. Staring into the Sun features photo-based sculptures and installations that explore the relationship between memory and physical space. The exhibition runs until April 28.

    At the Bottom of Everything, the first of two Visual Arts Honours exhibitions, runs from March 23 to April 7, with the opening reception on Friday, March 22 at 7 p.m. at Rodman Hall.

    The second exhibition runs from April 13 to 28, with the opening reception on Friday, April 12 at 7 p.m. at Rodman Hall. More details to come.

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    Categories: Alumni, Current Students, Events, News

  • String quartet returning to the Music@Noon stage

    Friday, March 01, 2019 | By

    The Walker String Quartet performed last season as part of the RBC Foundation Music@Noon Recital Series and will return to the stage March 5.

    (From The Brock News, March 1, 2019)

    The final faculty and guest recital of the Music@Noon season will feature the Walker String Quartet.

    The group will take to the Recital Hall stage in the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines on Tuesday, March 5.

    The Department of Music’s quartet in residence works with local students in high school string programs to share their love for music while promoting Brock’s Music program.

    The quartet will play Brahms’s String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2, one of the milestones of the romantic string quartet repertoire.

    Formed in 2016, the Walker String Quartet is now comprised of violinists Vera Alekseeva and Anna Hughes, violist Faith Lau and cellist Gordon Cleland.

    Music@Noon is a free one-hour recital series that occurs most Tuesdays at noon during the academic year. The Department of Music invites all staff, faculty, students and those from the community to attend.

    For more information on upcoming performances, visit the Department of Music’s website.

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    Categories: Department/Centre News, Events, News

  • Community discussion to focus on King Ubu’s relevance to today

    Thursday, February 28, 2019 | By

    Brock’s Department of Dramatic Arts is excited to bring King Ubu to the mainstage this weekend at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre in downtown St. Catharines. The show runs from Friday, March 1 to Saturday, March 9. Cast member Emma McCormick (centre) was interviewed during last week’s media call.

    (From The Brock News, February 28, 2019 | By: Sarah Ackles)

    St. Catharines city councillor Karrie Porter will join a group of Brock Dramatic Arts (DART) students and Brock faculty members next week in a roundtable discussion on the relevance of King Ubu to today’s political climate.

    The free, public event, “Folly, feces and fake news: King Ubu, then and now,” will be held in the Scotiabank Atrium in the Cairns Family Health and Bioscience Research Complex on Wednesday, March 6 from 10 to 11 a.m.

    “We’re really happy to have Karrie’s participation,” said Director and DART Associate Professor David Fancy. “She has a rich background in social justice, community engagement and lived experience of being a woman in politics in the age of social media.”

    Students in Brock’s Department of Dramatic Arts are excited to bring King Ubu to the mainstage this weekend at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre in downtown St. Catharines. The show runs from Friday, March 1 to Saturday, March 9.

    The plot follows Pa Ubu (a patriarchal, racist, megalomaniac who constantly talks about poop, loves himself a lot and kills everybody around him) and his wife, Ma Ubu (who pushes her husband to increasing feats of violence and narcissism), as they go on a bloodthirsty quest to take over the world.Brock’s Department of Dramatic Arts is staging the classic French production in a run from March 1 to 9.

    Fancy said he is looking forward to generating discussions on the work’s timeless themes at the upcoming roundtable.

    “Whenever we’re programming productions, we attempt to provide students and the department, and by extension the wider community, the opportunity to work through a set of themes that resonate with what is going on with the world,” Fancy said. “Given this is about a person who is obsessed with their own power, King Ubu seemed like a good fit, thematically.”

    The controversy surrounding the play’s opening run is also going to be discussed. Panelists will debate whether King Ubu opened and closed in a single night because of its controversial content, or, whether the hubbub was an example of 19th century “fake news,” intentionally manufactured and exaggerated to promote the production.

    Panelists will also explore Fancy’s adaptation of the play and the queering of main character Pa Ubu (who will be played by female cast member Emma McCormick in the Brock production).

    In addition to Fancy and Porter, panelists will include Professors Leah Bradshaw (Political Science), Tim Conley (English) and Karen Fricker (Dramatic Arts), and DART students McCormick, Kristina Ojaperv (Assistant Director), Mae Smith and Catherine Tait.

    Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts Director Elizabeth Vlossak will moderate the discussion.

    “The roundtable provides a unique opportunity to foster discussion and the sharing of ideas and debate between people who may not interact academically otherwise,” she said. “Hosting the event on the main campus with a variety of different panelists also brings the work taking place at the MIWSFPA into the community, showcasing the connections that visual arts, music and theatre can have to our everyday lives.”

    The roundtable discussion is free and open to the public.

    No registration is required but seating is limited and first-come, first-served. Light refreshments will be served, and attendees will be eligible to enter into a draw for free King Ubu tickets.

    King Ubu runs at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts from March 1 to 9. For more information, visit the Department of Dramatic Arts website. Tickets are available through the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre box office at 905-688-0722 or on the PAC website.

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    Categories: Current Students, Department/Centre News, Events, News

  • International art exhibition makes Canadian debut at Brock

    Thursday, February 28, 2019 | By

    Alinka Echeverria’s The Road to Tepeyac consists of hundreds of photographs the artist took of devout Mexican pilgrims carrying their personal image of the Virgin of Guadalupe on an annual journey to commemorate her apparition in 1531.

    (From The Brock News, February 28, 2019 | By: Sarah Ackles)

    An internationally recognized exhibition is making its Canadian debut at Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) next week.

    The Road to Tepeyac, from Mexican-British artist Alinka Echeverría, will open in the VISA Gallery and Student Exhibition Space of the downtown arts school on Tuesday, March 5 as part of the Walker Cultural Leaders Series.

    It features visually stunning images documenting an annual journey to Tepeyac, Mexico City, that millions of people undertake to pay tribute to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

    Mexican-British artist Alinka Echeverría will present The Road to Tepeyac at the VISA Gallery and Student Exhibition Space of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts beginning Tuesday, March 5 as part of the Walker Cultural Leaders Series.

    On their backs, the devout pilgrims tote personalized items of the Virgin — from paintings and life-sized sculptures to brightly coloured clothing and floor-length robes — to be blessed when they reach their final destination.

    Described as an immersive photographic installation, the award-winning work deconstructs the historical, political, philosophical, psychological and anthropological relationship between an invisible presence and its materialized expression.

    Brock Visual Arts Assistant Professor Amy Friend, who curates the exhibitions in the gallery, said she found Echeverría’s work “to be both political and deeply human, which is not an easy feat to accomplish.”

    The Road to Tepeyac has been featured in exhibitions held in more than 20 countries.

    An opening reception for the Brock show will take place Thursday, March 7 in the VISA gallery, and is free and open to the public.

    A public lecture will immediately follow the reception at the Robertson Theatre in the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, where Echeverría will discuss her acclaimed photography and sound projects.

    Trained in social anthropology, Echeverría combines aspects of documentary photography with visual anthropology and conceptual art in her work.

    Alinka Echeverria’s The Road to Tepeyac consists of hundreds of photographs the artist took of devout Mexican pilgrims carrying their personal image of the Virgin of Guadalupe on an annual journey to commemorate her apparition in 1531.

    Friend looks forward to hearing the impact Echeverría’s background has on her investigative process: from how she initiates her projects to the factors determining how she achieves the final, visual form.

    In addition to the The Road to Tepeyac (2010), Echeverría will discuss her projects Deep Blindness (2013 to present), Becoming South Sudan (for which she was named International Photographer of the Year by the Lucie Awards) and Nicephora, a four-year project based on her BMW Art and Culture Residency at the Musée Nicéphore Niépce. In Nicephora, the artist deployed a rigorous, research-based approach to explore the male and colonial gaze from the inception of the photographic medium.

    Tickets to the lecture are free, but registration is required by visiting the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre website.

    Generously funded by Marilyn I. Walker, the Walker Cultural Leader series brings leading artists, performers, practitioners and academics to the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University. Engaging, lively and erudite, these sessions celebrate professional achievement.

    The Road to Tepeyac
    Exhibition opening reception: Thursday, March. 7, 5 p.m.
    Where: VISA Art Gallery and Student Exhibition Space, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
    Exhibition runs: March 5 to 26.

    Public lecture: An anthropological gaze in contemporary photographic practice
    Thursday, March 7 at 6 p.m. in the Robertson Theatre of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.

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    Categories: Events, News, Walker Cultural Leader Series

  • Brock prof to premiere new works by St. Catharines composer

    Monday, February 25, 2019 | By

    Pianist Karin Di Bella will perform at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines on Tuesday, Feb. 26.

    (From The Brock News, February 22, 2019 | By: Jaquelyn Bezaire)

    Following her recital with Maltese-Canadian flutist Rebecca Hall last semester, Associate Professor Karin Di Bella will give a solo performance on Tuesday, Feb. 26 as part of the RBC Foundation Music@Noon Recital Series.

    Focusing on one of her areas of expertise, contemporary Canadian repertoire, Di Bella will premiere a set of works by St. Catharines composer James Moffett during her performance in the Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.

    Di Bella is currently working at Brock where she teaches studio piano, master classes, accompanying, keyboard harmony, piano literature and piano pedagogy. She has been sought after as an adjudicator for music festivals across Canada and is a senior piano examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music.

    The RBC Foundation Music@Noon Recital Series features free one-hour concerts most Tuesdays at noon during the academic year. Students, faculty, staff and the community are invited to join the Department of Music on Tuesday, Feb. 26 in the Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines.

    For more information on upcoming performances, please visit the Department of Music website.

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    Categories: Events, Faculty & Instructors, News

  • Event to explore bodies and illness through art and literature

    Thursday, February 21, 2019 | By

    Yasmine Kandil, Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts, and six Brock Dramatic Arts students will present “Still Here,” cat the fifth annual Art, Archives and Affinities event. Hosted by the Social Justice Research Institute, the event takes place at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts on Tuesday, Feb. 26.

    (From The Brock News, February 21, 2019 | By: Alison Innes)

    Art-making and trauma. Non-human organisms in the human body. Early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

    These are some of the ideas and experiences Brock scholars will explore through art and literature at the upcoming Art, Archives and Affinities event hosted by the Social Justice Research Institute.

    Held Tuesday, Feb. 26 from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in downtown St. Catharines, this year’s event features scholars from Visual Arts, Dramatic Arts, and English examining ideas about the body, illness and trauma.

    Included among the speakers is Candace Couse, an artist and PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Humanities, who will present an art installation and discuss her research on art and illness. Couse’s research examines the role that producing art has on artists who are undergoing illness and body trauma and how addressing trauma and illness through art-making helps artists reclaim their bodies and experiences.

    Also presenting is Adam Dickinson, Associate Professor in the Department of English, who subjected himself to a wide variety of bio-medical tests to measure and identify the precise chemical and microbial diversity of his body. The book of poetry he wrote examining the experience and its results, Anatomic, explores how we rely on nonhuman organisms to make us human and the permeability of our bodies to the environment.

    Yasmine Kandil, Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Arts, and a team of six Dramatic Arts students will present performance piece “Still Here” at the event. Students created the performance based on interviews they did with caregivers of people with early onset Alzheimer’s. The performance explores the disease and the impact it has on caregivers.

    Art, Archives and Affinities is free and open to the public.

    What: Art, Archives and Affinities
    When: Tuesday, Feb. 26 from 2 to 5 p.m.
    Where: Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts Room 151 and Studio D

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    Categories: Events, Faculty & Instructors, News

  • Scrap textiles to be turned into artistic treasures at Brock workshop

    Thursday, February 21, 2019 | By

    Fifth-year Visual Arts student Emma Mary Sked will lead a workshop Feb. 27 to teach participants how to transform scrap fabric into unique sculptures, similar to the animals she created in her recent exhibition, Maybe You Should Drive.

    (From The Brock News, February 21, 2019 | Sarah Ackles)

    Bits of fabric set to be thrown away will instead be used to create unique sculptures during a workshop held on Brock’s main campus next week.

    Fifth-year Visual Arts student Emma Mary Sked, who is also part of the upcoming VISA 4F06 Honours Exhibition, will show participants how to transform the scraps into works of art on Wednesday, Feb. 27 in the James A. Gibson Library.

    The workshop is the third event in the new Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) Wellness Series, which is hosted by the MIWSFPA and features free monthly activities that promote well-being and the benefits of engaging in the arts.

    Sked recently worked with textiles to construct brightly coloured fabric animals as part of her Maybe You Should Drive exhibition at the MIWSFPA in November.

    She is excited to now teach others how to bring their own creations to life.

    Everyone in the Brock and broader community looking to relax and unwind, while harnessing their inner creativity and learning a new skill, is welcome to attend. The event runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in ST231 of the Library’s Matheson Learning Commons.

    No previous art experience is required and all necessary materials will be supplied.

    The event is free, but registration is required at ExperienceBU or by contacting sackles@brocku.ca

    For more information about the event and others in the series, visit the MIWSFPA Wellness Series web page.

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, News

  • King Ubu coming to Marilyn I. Walker Theatre

    Friday, February 15, 2019 | By

    Cast and crew members of the upcoming mainstage production King Ubu have been busy preparing for opening night on Friday, March 1. Tickets are on sale now for the production, presented by Brock University’s Department of Dramatic Arts.

    (From The Brock News, February 13, 2019 | By: Sarah Ackles)

    Alfred Jarry’s controversial classic King Ubu will bring audiences face-to-face with the absurdity of modern life when the production comes to Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker Theatre starting Friday, March 1.

    Presented by Brock’s Department of Dramatic Arts (DART), the show is an avant-garde and hilarious commentary on human folly and the dangers of unchecked political ambition.

    Director and Associate Professor David Fancy said Ubu’s references to populism and the blurred lines between celebrity culture and politics are fitting themes for our current climate. Although first performed in 19th century France, King Ubu, he added, offers “an invitation to look critically at, but not disengage with, the current moment in time.”

    The play centres on Ma and Pa Ubu’s bloodthirsty quest to become the new king and queen of a fictionalized version of Poland.

    Between their continuous bickering, Pa, an egotistical and inept tyrant who wields an enormous toilet brush while speaking nonsense, and Ma, his enabling and devious wife, scheme to take over the world through a series of antics that play out like a reality show gone wrong.

    To emphasize the theatrical nature of Ma and Pa Ubu’s political exploits, the show features puppets, karaoke numbers and a giant puppet head that eats half the cast.

    Although the production stays true to the absurdist spirit of Jarry’s original work, Fancy said there is also a layer of introspection that exists beneath all the silliness.

    “On one side we’re being playful, irreverent and sarcastic like Jarry, but on the other side there are also lots of heartfelt moments,” he said. “We can use laughter on some level to celebrate, criticize and escape, but we will also be forced to confront the fact that these are real people having difficult experiences. We question what caused them to become such trainwrecks — and whether we need to have compassion for these people who are perhaps not so different from us.”

    The show’s gender-bending lead role selection also provides a unique twist.

    “Ubu admonishes supremacy logic in all of its forms and casting a woman as Ubu helps heighten the critique of patriarchy. At the same time, this casting points out that anyone, given the right context, can engage in human folly,” Fancy said of the distribution of roles across genders. “Everybody can behave like a dangerous fool.”

    All these aspects of the production, combined with intense and moving performances, make for an entertaining experience, he added.

    “I think a big part of it is tapping into the creative possibility of what theatre can be as an art form,” Fancy said. “The experience gives our cast and crew the creative confidence to respond to the world around them, like Jarry did, using their own, creative voices.”

    King Ubu is translated by David Edney and directed by David Fancy, with costume design by Jo Pacinda and scenography and scenography by James McCoy.

    The production showcases the talents of students in the DART undergraduate program, including Ash McEachern, Avery Delaney, Chris Murillo, Emma McCormick, Jackson Wagner, Jasmine Case, Juan-Carlos Figueroa, Lauren Reid, Leah Eichler, Rachel Frederick, Samuel Donovan, Taylor Bogaert and Tsipporah Shendroff.

    Brock students, staff and faculty members of the creative and production team include Kristina Ojaperv (Assistant Director), Jordine De Guzman (Stage Manager), Alicia Bender (Assistant Stage Manager), Meryl Ochoa (Assistant Lighting Designer), Trevor Copp (Choreographer), Holly Kurelek (Wardrobe Supervisor), Diego Blanco and Molly Lacey (Dressers), Brian Cumberland (Production Manager), Gavin Fearon (Technical Director), Ed Harris (Shop Supervisor), Dawn Crysler (Theatre Technician), Danielle Wilson (Shakespeare Coach) and Roberta Doylend (Head of Wardrobe).

    King Ubu runs from Friday, March 1 to Saturday, March 9 at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in downtown St. Catharines. Showtimes are March 1, 2 and 9 at 7:30 p.m., March 3 at 2 p.m. and March 8 at 11:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.

    Tickets for the show are $18 for adults and $15 for students and seniors. A group rate is also available. Tickets are available through the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre box office at 905-688-0722 or on the PAC website.

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    Categories: Current Students, News, Uncategorised

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