Events Calendar

 

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Spring 2023

Photo by Bethany Collier

Arja Saraswati Puja

February 25, 2023 | 2 pm and 7:30 pm
Boroughs Theatre, Prior Performing Arts Center
Tickets: $25//general, $10//Holy Cross faculty & staff, $5//students with valid id 

Featuring Sanggar Seni Citta Usadhi (Bali, Indonesia) and New Atlantic Chamber Gamelan (U.S.A.)

A contemporary Balinese performance piece: The story of the Goddess Saraswati, who descended from the heavens to bring knowledge and understanding to humankind.

Arja Saraswati Puja tells the story of the powerful King Watugunung, who rules the Kundadwipa kingdom with Lord Brahma’s blessing. Unbeknownst to the king, his most beautiful wife, Dewi Shinta, is actually his own mother. When Dewi Shinta recognizes that she has committed a grave wrong by marrying her son, she sends him to heaven on a futile quest to locate and capture the divine goddess Nawangsasih to be her maidservant. But Dewi Nawangsasih’s husband, the great Lord Wisnu, does not wish to surrender his beloved partner, so he transforms into the mighty Rudramurti, mounts a fierce battle, and expels King Watugunung — defeated and unconscious — from the heavens. After several days, King Watugunung awakens with divine awareness and repents for his wrongdoings. Honoring this enlightenment, the Lord Brahma sends the Goddess Saraswati to light the earth with knowledge.

 

Artwork by Drew Dir

Moderated discussion with Manual Cinema about their production of Frankenstein

February 27, 2023 | 5 pm
Seelos Theatre
Open to the Holy Cross campus community
Free

Manual Cinema is an Emmy Award-winning performance collective, design studio, and
film production company. In this piece, they stitch together the classic tale of Frankenstein
with the biography of the original novel’s author, Mary Shelley, to create an unexpected
story about the beauty and horror of creation. The real-life and fictional narratives of
Shelley, Victor Frankenstein, and Frankenstein’s monster expose how family, community,
and education shape personhood – or destroy it by their absence. Several classes of
Montserrat students will be traveling to see Frankenstein at ArtsEmerson on Sunday,
February 26. On February 27, the artists will come to Holy Cross for an interactive
discussion on the behind-the-scenes work involved in the company’s stunning shadow
puppetry interpretation.

While the discussion will take Frankenstein as its main subject, all are welcome to attend,
even if you did not see the performance. Holy Cross community members who took part in
2021 Zoom workshops with the company on their films Ada/Ava or No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks are especially invited to join!
 

Photo by Kat Bawden

Mirror/Lens

March 2, 2023 | 7 pm
Beehive and Luth Concert Hall, Prior Performing Arts Center 
Tickets: $35//general, $10//Holy Cross faculty & staff, $5//students

A special co-production between Music Worcester and the Prior Performing Arts Center at the College of the Holy Cross.

The concert features violinist Vijay Gupta, percussionist Chester Englander and guest speaker/narrator John W. Cormier Jr. of the OpporTUNEity program.

Hailed by The New Yorker as a “visionary violinist…one of the most radical thinkers in the unradical world of American classical music,” Vijay Gupta has performed as an international recitalist, soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician for over 20 years. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Street Symphony, a community of musicians creating spaces of connection for people in reentry from homelessness, addiction and incarceration in Los Angeles. He is also a co-founder of the Skid Row Arts Alliance, a consortium dedicated to creating art for and with the homeless community.

Chester Englander, who has been acclaimed for his “unnerving dexterity” (San Francisco Chronicle) and his “vivid” (The New York Times) performances, has a thriving career as a percussionist and concert cimbalom player with orchestras throughout the country. He recently played percussion on the recording of “Reach For the Stars” by will.i.am that was broadcast on Mars from the NASA Curiosity Rover.

 

An Evening with the Boston Lyric Opera

March 21, 2023 | 7 pm
Boroughs Theatre, Prior Performing Arts Center 
Tickets: $10//general, $5//students

A look into Omar, the new opera by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, presented by Boston Lyric Opera

"Inspired by bluegrass, hymns, spirituals and more, with nods to traditions from Africa and Islam. It’s an unforced ideal of American sound: expansive and ever-changing." New York Times

In 1807, 37-year-old Omar Ibn Said was made to board a ship bound for Charleston, South Carolina—the site of his enslavement and sale. Created by Giddens, the Grammy Award-winning musician and MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, and Abels, composer of the score to the Oscar-nominated film “Get Out,” the Boston Lyric Opera's New England premiere narrates Said’s 1831 autobiography. This record of his life and Muslim faith reveals a refusal to be defined or erased by his captors. It’s a seminal work of strength, resistance, and religious conviction—a work underscoring the indelible power of the written word.

During this special evening with the Boston Lyric Opera, audience members will get an inside look into the upcoming New England premiere of Omar through conversation and excerpts performed by Brianna J. Robinson, Fred C. VanNess, Jr., and Brendon Shapiro, alongside additional repertoire from the operatic tradition to which this striking new work adds.

 

American Moor
Film screening followed by moderated discussion with playwright Keith Hamilton Cobb

March 28, 2023 | 6 pm
Booth Media Lab, Prior Performing Arts Center
Free

"After American Moor, you may not see Shakespeare — and a lot of roles played by black actors — quite the same way." The Washington Post

"This deep-from-the-heart spellbinder by Keith Hamilton Cobb is a blisteringly eloquent and penetrating meditation on the ever-urgent matter of race in America." The Boston Globe

An 85-minute solo play written and performed by Keith Hamilton Cobb, American Moor examines the experience and perspective of black men in America through the metaphor of William Shakespeare’s character Othello. Writes New York Review of Books, “The performance becomes by turns a working actor’s autobiography, an exploration of America’s relationship to Shakespeare, a performance of a radically reconceived Othello, and [a] clear-eyed account of an African-American man’s experience of the United States.” Rewarding to those familiar with Shakespeare but also accessible to anyone with questions making art, representation, or how rules constrict the roles we play, American Moor is a heartbreaking, funny, provocative account of the stories we tell about race.

 

Fall 2022

Community Day

September 24, 2022, 1-5 pm
Prior Performing Arts Center

Community Day will give the Holy Cross and the greater Worcester communities the opportunity to see the brand-new Prior Performing Arts Center.  There will be performances, exhibits, food, and lots of opportunities to explore the PAC. The event is free and open to everyone, but advanced registration is appreciated. We hope to see you there!

Produced by Arts Transcending Borders with the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery - Creative Writing Program - Department of Music - Department of Theatre & Dance - Department of Visual Arts
 

SCHEDULE OVERVIEW

1:00 - 1:30 pm

• Balinese musical processional into the building

1:30 - 3:30 pm

• Theatre and dance rehearsals, musical performances, faculty exhibition, creative writing readings, and more
• Food trucks and ice cream

3:30 - 5:00 pm

• Pop-up performances
• Open exploration of the new building

 

Spring 2022

Arts Transcending Borders is thrilled to invite you to our Winter/Spring 2022 programming – highlighting a vibrant range of traditions and creative collaborations on stage, in the studio, in the classroom and community settings across Worcester! 

We begin with an evening with the legendary Glen Velez Handance Ensemble and special guests, showcasing an extraordinary layering of frame drums, vocalization and movement. Returning Silkroad artists Maeve Gilchrist and Kevork Mourad begin their residency with dedicated time in the studio, collaborating on a new work to be shared with you, in-progress, at the end of their time on campus. These hour-long events showcase compelling performance with conversation and insights directly from the artists.

When Brazilian percussion master Cyro Baptista & the Banquet of Spirits arrive in Worcester in the Spring, hands-on experiences will be front-and-center. A veteran of world stages, Baptista aims to bring music back to its origins in ritual and community, inviting participants of all ages and backgrounds to daily workshops, culminating in a joyous celebration on stage together. Our ongoing TimeSlips Creative Storytelling project continues with Holy Cross students and residents living with dementia in care facilities. Finally, we are so excited to bring Las Cafeteras to Holy Cross in person: Can you resist their boundless energy, infectious music and message of strength, hope and unity?

 

Glen Velez Handance Ensemble
Excerpts from Doctrine of Signatures 

February 1, 2022, 7 pm 
Hogan Ballroom 
Tickets: $10//general, $10//Holy Cross faculty & staff, $5//students

FEATURING
Glen Velez, Frame Drums, Mbira, Voice, Overtones, Riq
Yousif Sheronick, Frame Drums, Voice, Riq
Shane Shanahan, Frame Drums, Voice, Riq

With special guests Loire Cotler, rhythm vocalist, and Raman Kalyan, Indian bamboo flute

Silkroad artist and percussionist Shane Shanahan returns to Holy Cross with his long-time mentor, percussion master Glen Velez, exploring the universal link between rhythm and spirituality. A four-time Grammy Award winner, Velez is regarded as a leading figure in the modern frame drum movement. Velez’s virtuosic combinations of hand movements, finger techniques, along with his original compositional style, which incorporates stepping, drum language and Central Asian Overtone singing (split-tone singing), has undoubtedly opened new possibilities for musicians around the globe. Shanahan and Velez are joined by percussionist Yousif Sheronick, rhythm vocalist Loire Cotler and Raman Kalyan, a leading flautist in the Indian Carnatic style, in an hour-long presentation with conversation and excerpts from Velez’s 1989 composition Doctrine of Signatures, a seminal work that inspired John Cage to compose for Velez.    

HANDANCE WORKSHOP with Glen Velez and guests immediately following (60 minutes)
Open to percussionists of all levels. Free registration with ticket purchase; space is limited.

 

In Progress: An Evening with Maeve Gilchrist and Kevork Mourad 

March 1, 2022, 7 pm 
Brooks Concert Hall
Tickets: $10//general, $10//Holy Cross faculty & staff, $5//students

Famed Scottish harpist Maeve Gilchrist and prominent Syrian-Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad return to Holy Cross for a creative residency that builds on their first-time collaboration under Silkroad (“How the Knot Binds,” presented virtually in Fall 2020). This latest residency offers the artists dedicated time and space to delve further into an exploration of connections between their respective cultural heritages. At the end of their time together, they will come together onstage to share their work-in-progress, with lively conversation on the nature of their collaboration and creative process.

 

Las Cafeteras: Bridging Music, Activism, Community  

March 24, 2022, 7:30 pm 
Hogan Ballroom 
Tickets: $25//general, $10//Holy Cross faculty & staff, $5//students

Born and raised east of the Los Angeles river, Las Cafeteras are remixing roots music and telling modern day stories. Their Afro-Mexican beats, rhythms, and rhymes deliver inspiring lyrics that document stories of a community seeking love and justice in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles. Using traditional Son Jarocho instruments, Las Cafeteras sing in English, Spanish, and Spanglish and add a remix of sounds, from rock to hip-hop to rancheras. Las Cafeteras use music as a vehicle to build bridges among different cultures and communities, and create ‘a world where many worlds fit’.

 

Cyro Baptista & the Banquet of Spirits
Sounds of Community

April 3, 2022, 3 pm 
Jean McDonough Arts Center BrickBox
Tickets: $25//general, $10//Holy Cross faculty & staff, $5//students

“I don’t even think of him as a percussionist, because he is so much his own personality that it almost transcends any percussion instrument he could be playing.”
- Yo-Yo Ma

One of the premiere percussionists on the planet, Cyro Baptista leads his winsome quartet on a virtuosic trek through myriad musics of the world. Washed out surf rock splashes, blazing hardbop solos, breathtaking West African harping, exquisite Brazilian rhythms — the sounds all coalesce into a carnivalesque stew of joy and irreverence as these four astonishing players draw on sounds and instruments from around the globe to create utterly unique combinations.

A veteran of stage and studio work with the likes of Paul Simon, Herbie Hancock, Yo-Yo Ma, Trey Anastasio (of Phish), John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, Cassandra Wilson, Sting, the New York Philharmonic, the Kennedy Center Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and many others, Baptista is one of the most sought-after players around. His visionary approach to music-making stresses inclusion, community and pushing past boundaries, while remaining refreshingly fun and totally accessible.

As part of his week-long residency at the College of the Holy Cross, Cyro Baptista leads workshops with a variety of community groups and participants, using everyday objects as well as traditional instruments. This performance is the culmination of the residency and includes community participation.

COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS

Calling all community musicians with diverse musical & cultural traditions and music enthusiasts!

Hosted by Arts Transcending Borders at the College of the Holy Cross, renowned Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista arrives at JMAC/Worcester PopUp to lead Sounds of Community workshops, building towards a final performance at the JMAC/Brickbox with Baptista’s winsome quartet, the Banquet of Spirits, and community participants. His technique of using his body, spare parts of kitchenware, anything that’s out of the ordinary and traditional instruments, makes his workshops a truly unique and entertaining experience.

Free and open to the public.  Sign up for the workshops here.

 Kick-Off: Sounds of Community Workshop with Cyro Baptista
Tuesday, March 29, 6-8 PM
JMAC Worcester PopUp

Sounds of Community Workshop
Friday, April 1, 6-8 PM
JMAC Worcester PopUp

Family Music Day with Cyro Baptista
Saturday, April 2, 10 AM–12 PM
JMAC Worcester PopUp

From spare car parts and kitchenware to a wild assortment of recycled materials, legendary percussionist Cyro Baptista uses everyday objects and traditional instruments to bring participants together in rediscovering the most ancient form of communication – sound. Join us for a family-friendly workshop and exploration of the immensely rich musical world of one of the premier percussionists on the planet.

For families with kids ages 5 & up

This residency is funded in part by awards from the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies; the Worcester Arts Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency; and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Disclaimer: The Worcester PopUp at the JMAC is a creative co-working space of the Worcester Cultural Coalition and in partnership with The Barr Foundation. This event does not necessarily reflect the views of either organization.

Conversation with Sneha Shrestha (a.k.a IMAGINE) 

April 21, 2022, 4:30 pm 
Rehm Library
Free

IMAGINE (aka Sneha Shrestha) is a Nepali artist who incorporates her native language and meshes the aesthetics of Sanskrit scriptures with graffiti influences. She has shown her meditative works in several exhibitions, commissioned works and public walls around the world from Kathmandu to Boston. Her show “Mindful Mandalas” was on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her newest work is a thirty-foot sculpture commissioned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum currently on view. She was recognized by WBUR as one of the 25 millennial artists of color impacting Boston. Shrestha’s work is held in the private collections of Facebook, Google and Fidelity Investments. Sneha is also an educator and social entrepreneur. She established Nepal’s first Children’s Art Museum to provide a creative space where children and youth can develop 21st century skills through project based art experiences. Sneha received her Master’s from Harvard University. Besides creating larger than life murals and paintings, Sneha passionately supports Asian art by working as the Arts Program Manager at the South Asia Institute at Harvard.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Visual Arts, Cantor Art Gallery and Arts Transcending Borders

 

Arts Transcending Borders’ 2021-2022 programming is supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, Greater Worcester Community Foundation and the Worcester Arts Council.

Fall 2021

Manual Cinema: No Blue Memories

September 3-5, 2021 
Free, streaming on demand 
RSVP here to receive the link

Manual Cinema’s No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks brings to life the story of one of Chicago’s most beloved figures. She was an icon, a poet laureate, and a Pulitzer Prize winner—but she was also a treasured educator and mentor to the countless writers and children who knew her as their very own “Miss Brooks.” Weaving together poetry, storytelling, sound design, original music, and striking visuals, No Blue Memories is an exploration of Brooks’ beloved city and a story of how she navigated identity, craft, and politics over the course of one of the most remarkable careers in American literary history. The performance combines intricate paper puppetry, live actors working in shadow, and an original score for an unforgettable multimedia experience.

Featuring a screenplay by Eve L. Ewing and Nate Marshall of Crescendo Literary and with music by Jamila Woods and Ayanna Woods, No Blue Memories was commissioned by the Poetry Foundation for the Brooks Centenary and premiered in Chicago in November, 2017.

 

On Bach: Johnny Gandelsman, violin, Jan Müller-Szeraws, cello
with composer Osvaldo Golijov

October 4, 12 pm
Free, streaming live on YouTube 
RSVP to receive the link

Come hear a lunchtime concert & conversation on J.S. Bach featuring violinist Johnny Gandelsman, founding member of Brooklyn Rider and a member of the Silkroad Ensemble; cellist Jan Müller-Szeraws, artist-in-residence in the department of music, and composer Osvaldo Golijov, Loyola Professor of Music.

Co-sponsored with the Department of Music

 

Johnny Gandelsman, violin
This is America

October 5, 7:30 pm
Hogan Ballroom
Tickets: $25//general, $10//HC faculty & staff, $5//students

"...sparklingly personal Bach, shorn of grandeur, lofted by a spirit of dance, and as predictable as the flight of a swallow." -- The Boston Globe

A founding member of Brooklyn Rider and a member of the Silkroad Ensemble, Grammy-award winning violinist and producer Johnny Gandelsman returns to Holy Cross with a solo program featuring J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3 on the violin and selections from “This Is America,” a new commissioning and recording project featuring over twenty new works for solo violin, written by American and US-based artists.

As we live through a time of disruption and disconnection, with COVID-19, the recent US election, deep polarization, entrenched systemic racism and police brutality, it is clear that the years 2020 and 2021 will be seared in our collective memories for a long time. Developed in response to this turbulent period in history and commissioned by twenty presenters in eleven states and Washington DC, “This is America” celebrates America's rich cultural tapestry and its myriad perspectives, thoughts and ideas, offering a vivid counterpoint to the idea that this land can be understood through a singular, dominant point of view. Each composition in the anthology reflects on the current state of American society in a personal and intimate way, looking through an unflinching lens at universal topics like separation, loneliness, hope and love. johnnygandelsman.com

 

Absence: Terence Blanchard feat. The E-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet

October 21, 7:30 pm
Mechanics Hall, 321 Main St., Worcester
Tickets: $25//general, $10//HC faculty & staff, $5//students (Limited availability)

“Jazz is a fighter. The word 'jazz' means to me, 'I dare you. Let's jump into the unknown!’” —Wayne Shorter

In Absence, 2018 USA Fellow, Oscar nominee, and five-time GRAMMY®-winning trumpeter & composer Terence Blanchard celebrates both the brilliance of jazz master Wayne Shorter’s legacy and the inspiration he has given Blanchard, influencing his ever-expanding amalgam of music and storytelling.

For this monumental task, Blanchard unites his internationally acclaimed band The E-Collective, featuring young musical pioneers Charles Altura on guitar, Fabian Almazan on piano and synthesizers, Oscar Seaton on drums, and David “DJ” Ginyard on bass, with the double-GRAMMY®-winning Turtle Island Quartet.

Wayne Shorter’s evolution as an artist is vast & unending. Performing with and composing for Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Miles Davis Second Great Quintet naturally led to the formation of his own legendary groups—first Weather Report, then his musically unparalleled quartet. With Shorter’s career now focused solely on composing, his musical greatness has set the table for his protégé to carry his music forward to the next generation.

The repertoire will include arrangements of Shorter’s original work, including “Diana” from Native Dancer and “When It Was Now” from Weather Report’s 1982 self-titled release. Blanchard’s compositions will continue to expand on the reservoir of E-Collective tunes, utilizing a string quartet that is uniquely equipped for the full range of color and expression of the Blanchard sonic & stylistic sphere. Original compositions from the band include new contributions from Almazan, and for the first time on a recording, Ginyard. A heart-stopping string quartet work titled “Second Wave,” written by Turtle Island’s own David Balakrishnan, perfectly rounds out the recording. ABSENCE will be released by Blue Note in late August, coinciding with Blanchard’s second opera, Fire Shut Up In My Bones opening the Metropolitan Opera’s season. This new album honors the past, present and future of Wayne Shorter. www.terenceblanchard.com

This event is held in conjunction with the Presidential Inauguration of Vincent Rougeau, 33rd president of the College of the Holy Cross.

 

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company: Afterwardsness

October 27, 5 pm and 8 pm
Blaney Gym, Luth Athletic Complex
Tickets: $25//general, $10//HC faculty & staff, $5//students
Get tickets for the 5 pm show or 8 pm show 

Legendary choreographer Bill T. Jones brings his moving new work Afterwardsness to Holy Cross for a memorable and immersive artistic experience. The title, a Freudian term, comes very close to describing Jones’ state of mind when offered a commission to create a socially-distanced work at this particular collective moment. In some ways, the title parodies Jones’ (and many others’) desire to have reached an end point to our twin pandemics: COVID-19 and on-going violence against Black bodies.

Afterwardsness places the audience in an immersive space with the dancers and musicians directly on the gym floor. A poignant musical score crafted by musical director Pauline Kim Harris in collaboration with composer/vocalist/instrumentalist Holland Andrews heightens the performance. Excerpts from Olivier Messiaen’s great war-time composition Quartet for the End of Time and an original piece by Kim Harris paying homage to George Floyd set the tone for this profound experience. newyorklivearts.org/btj-az-company

Originally commissioned and produced by Park Avenue Armory, New York

Spring 2021

ATB HomeStage:
A virtual window into music, performance and art with dynamic exchanges with the artists behind the works

 

STATE VS. NATASHA BANINA
An Online Interactive Performance
Thursday, February 11, 4:30 pm
Live on Zoom, sign up for the ATB newsletter to receive the link

Performed live by Darya Denisova (2020 Elliot Norton Award-winner for Outstanding Actress) “State vs. Natasha Banina” unfolds as a Russian teenager tells the story of her life in a small-town orphanage and the crime of passion that landed her inside the “Zoom courtroom.” As she appeals to you, the jury, Natasha shares her dreams of love, family and her future. Is Natasha guilty of manslaughter? You decide her fate.  

Arlekin Players Theatre’s “State vs. Natasha Banina” is based on “Natasha’s Dream” by Russian playwright Yaroslava Pulinovich. A New York Times Critic’s Pick, this is Zoom as you’ve never seen it before: theatre for our time, made for the new virtual landscape. 

The performance will be immediately followed by a talkback with the artists moderated by Lynn Kremer, Professor in the Department of Theatre & Dance and Distinguished Professor of Humanities.

Photo by Igor Golyak

KEVORK MOURAD IN RESIDENCE
February 22 - March 4

Known for his spontaneous drawing technique and collaborations with performing artists, Kevork Mourad, printmaker and installation artist, will work with students to build Memory Gates on site in the Cantor Art Gallery. Based on themes of place and memory, the piece will be an immersive series of doors and passages through which visitors can travel, and will take shape as the artist interacts with the Holy Cross community.

Gallery as Studio: ArtBreak with Kevork Mourad
Check in virtually ⎯⎯or in person⎯⎯ with artist Kevork Mourad as he creates the site-specific installation work Memory Gates. Ask questions and listen as he describes his spontaneous drawing and printmaking techniques. All are welcome to join virtually; in person attendance is limited and restricted to members of the Holy Cross community.

     Thurs., February 25 | 12 - 12:45 p.m. Register>>

     Fri., February 26 | 4:30 - 5:15 p.m. Register >>         

     Tues., March 2 | 12 - 12:45 p.m. Register >>

Co-sponsored with the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery

Photo by Connie Tsang

THE HARPWEAVER
Thursday, March 25, 4:30 pm
Streaming on YouTube, Registration requested

Maeve Gilchrist, Celtic harp
Featuring the Aizuri Quartet
 

An acclaimed harpist and member of the Silkroad Ensemble, Maeve Gilchrist presents selections from her latest release, “The Harpweaver,” featuring the Grammy-nominated Aizuri Quartet. Drawing inspiration from “The Ballad of the Harpweaver” by 1923 Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, the suite of music weaves a rich textural soundscape that illuminates her roots as a traditional folk musical through the prism of luscious string parts. The album evokes a sense of nostalgia, the catharsis of familiar sounds and words that bring a sense of connection, possibility and joy.  Hailing originally from Edinburgh, Gilchrist blends original compositions and traditional Irish and Scottish music into a richly imaginative world.
 

MANUAL CINEMA: Ada/Ava

Available on demand from April 8 at 4:30 pm-April 11 at 11:59 pm ET

On demand on YouTube, Registration requested

In Ada/Ava, Chicago-based Manual Cinema use exquisite storytelling, handmade shadow puppets, live-action silhouettes and innovative cinematic techniques to create an immersive, richly detailed world. Set in gothic New England, Ada/Ava uses a story of the fantastic and supernatural to explore mourning and melancholy, self and other. Bereaved of her twin sister Ava, septuagenarian Ada solitarily marks time in the patterns of a life built for two. However, a traveling carnival and a trip to a mirror maze plunges her - and you - into a journey across the thresholds of life and death.

The screening will be followed by bonus material featuring a behind-the-scenes look at the production with co-artistic director Sarah Fornace.

MASARY STUDIOS: Massively Distributed

Submit compositions by April 16 to be displayed in an on-campus projection in late April

Start composing at md.place!

Massively Distributed is a site specific projected art piece and multimedia instrument created by MASARY Studios. Referential to a drum pad and beat sequencer, the web app allows anyone to create fresh audio/visual compositions that will be projected on a building facade on campus in late April.

Massively Distributed at Holy Cross is created in collaboration with the Natural World Cluster of the Montserrat program at the College. First-year students and professors in the cluster recorded and sent MASARY hundreds of sound and visual samples. From the crunchy sound of stepping into the snow to the visual images of our beautiful campus, the samples are the site-specific content that drives this piece. 

The Holy Cross campus community, alumni, friends, and family are invited to use the app to create their own multimedia compositions through April 16 and submit to a database. MASARY will aggregate all submissions into “meta-compositions,” creating longer pieces from our community's submissions. The final result will be presented via large scale video projection outdoors on the Holy Cross campus in late April; time and place to be announced.

• Learn more about the samples used in the app
• How to use the app

Spring 2021 Arts Transcending Borders programming is generously underwritten by Trudie and Cornelius B. Prior, Jr., Esq. '56.

 

Fall 2020

Announcing ATB HomeStage:
A virtual window into music, performance and art with dynamic exchanges with the artists behind the works

Fall 2020 Arts Transcending Borders programming is generously underwritten by Trudie and Cornelius B. Prior, Jr., Esq. '56.
 

OPEN STUDIO WITH KEVORK MOURAD
Thursday, September 10, 4:30 pm
Live on YouTube

Hosted by Cristi Rinklin, Professor and Chair, Visual Arts

Join us live for a tour of acclaimed Syrian-Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad’s Brooklyn studio and discover his current projects, with a window into his process, signature techniques he employs in drawing, printmaking and animation, and his intricate, multi-layered works.

This event is the first in a virtual series with Kevork Mourad in conjunction with an anticipated installation project in the Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross in Spring 2021.

Co-sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders and the Cantor Art Gallery

MARTHA REDBONE & AARON WHITBY
Thursday, October 8, 4:30 pm
Live on YouTube

One of today’s most vital voices in American roots music, Martha Redbone and her artistic & life partner Aaron Whitby return to ATB following an unforgettable appearance with BoneHill: The Concert in 2018. Be among the first to hear songs from a new work-in-progress Redbone and Whitby are creating as part of the Artistic Instigators series at the New York Theater Workshop. This song cycle is a reflection on our lives under the pandemic, Black Lives Matter movement and climate change in contrast to the Spanish Flu pandemic, the women’s suffrage movement and the racial tensions of the early 1900s.

BLACK SPRING: Music & Activism with Samora Pinderhughes
Wednesday, October 14, 7 pm
Live on YouTube

Join us live in conversation and performance with Juilliard-trained pianist, songwriter and vocalist Samora Pinderhughes who will share songs from his new EP Black Spring released back in April. The project is inspired by the revolutionary energy of 1960s songwriters, and looks to reflect the questions and anger that people are feeling during these times of uncertainty and chaos. The title describes an energy of uprising: a time for action, a time for flourishing and moving forward with revolutionary spirit. 

In Conversation: AND STILL YOU MUST SWING
Thursday, October 22, 4:30 pm
Live on YouTube

Last seen on campus in a captivating exploration of the percussive world of tap and Indian Kathak traditions, tap luminary Dormeshia turns her attention to the origins of her dance form in And Still You Must Swing. Hailed as “the most moving dance show of the year” by The New York Times, the show captures the heart and legacy of tap dance, and honors the jazz roots of this American art form. 

Dormeshia is joined live in conversation by life-long friends & collaborators Derick K. Grant and Jason Samuels Smith, along with guest artist Camille A. Brown. With highlights from the performance, together they delve into all things tap, entwined with American social, cultural and racial history.

FRAGMENTS: SILKROAD RETURNS
Thursday, October 29, 4:30 pm
Live on YouTube

Don’t miss this chance to hear brand new works by pairs of Silkroad artists who collaborated over the course of a month from a distance – sometimes across continents. Yet another avenue for Silkroad to build bridges across traditions, these brief works are both a reflection of life in the time of a global pandemic and a celebration of creativity that brings us together. Join the artists in a lively conversation as they share high quality video of their creations and reflect on drawing inspiration from city soundscapes and elaborate knotwork of Celtic and Armenian traditions, on letting go and the therapeutic process of creating together.

THE MIGRATION OF MEMORY: THE ART OF KEVORK MOURAD
Thursday, November 12, 4:30 pm
Live on YouTube

In his extraordinary practice, Syrian artist Kevork Mourad creates and projects drawings live in concert alongside musicians, such as members of the Silkroad Ensemble. His work explores a wide range of issues, including personal and cultural memory, the ways in which memory is inscribed in architectural spaces, the plight of refugees and survivors of genocide, and, perhaps most importantly, the possibility of our finding one another amid the cultural and political differences that so often divide us.  Mourad's work is thus animated by an abiding hope that, through art and artful collaboration, we can rediscover the deep history and shared humanity that binds us together.

In anticipation of the artist’s Spring 2021 ATB residency where he will create an installation in the College’s Cantor Art Gallery, join us for a live conversation featuring Mourad, composer and recent collaborator Osvaldo Golijov, Loyola Professor of Music, and Meredith Fluke, Director of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery. Moderated by Mark Freeman, Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Society.

Co-sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders and Cantor Art Gallery 

Spring 2020

SILKROAD ENSEMBLE: PERCUSSION ALL-STARS
Tuesday, January 28, 7:30 pm
Brooks Concert Hall

Silkroad's three-year exploration of curiosity, difference, and the arts in partnership with Holy Cross continues with a concert that will explore the rich history and creativity that exists within the percussion world. Experience instruments, rhythms, and melodies from along the Silk Road and beyond, including Japan, India, Central Asia, the Middle East, Peru, Cuba, Africa, and America. In an evening highlighting the percussionists of the Silkroad Ensemble, get to know the artists and the works they’ve selected in the intimate Brooks Concert Hall. The performance will also feature a new work commissioned by Silkroad and written by composer, arranger, and bassist extraordinaire, Edward Pérez. More>>

Silkroad Ensemble's multi-year residency at the College of the Holy Cross is supported by Trudie and Cornelius B. Prior, Jr., Esq. '56.

LAS CAFETERAS - Cancelled
Tuesday, March 24, 7:30 pm
Hogan Ballroom

Due to COVID-19 precautions at the College, Arts Transcending Borders is cancelling all remaining events through the end of the Spring 2020 semester. 

Born and raised east of the Los Angeles river, Las Cafeteras are remixing roots music and telling modern day stories. Their Afro-Mexican beats, rhythms, and rhymes deliver inspiring lyrics that document stories of a community seeking love and justice in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles. Using traditional Son Jarocho instruments, Las Cafeteras sing in English, Spanish, and Spanglish and add a remix of sounds, from rock to hip-hop to rancheras. Las Cafeteras use music as a vehicle to build bridges among different cultures and communities, and create ‘a world where many worlds fit’. More>>

RUBBERBAND: Vic's Mix - Cancelled
Tuesday, April 14, 7:30 pm
Fenwick Theatre

Due to COVID-19 precautions at the College, Arts Transcending Borders is cancelling all remaining events through the end of the Spring 2020 semester.

“…a judicious blend of street dance, Hip Hop, classical ballet, and contemporary dance, with even a few circus acrobatics added in…” –The Huffington Post 

Los Angeles native Victor Quijada brings together contemporary dance composition and west coast hip-hop like no one before him. Bursting onto the scene with his Montreal-based company in 2002, Quijada uprooted the boundaries of contemporary dance, creating a singular language of his own. Vic’s Mix blends musical and choreographic genres, urban and classical dance, tension and humor into a “best-of” showcase of a decade and a half of Quijada’s innovation for RUBBERBAND. More>>

 

Fall 2019

A CONVERSATION WITH TAYLOR MAC
Sunday, September 15, 5 pm
Brooks Concert Hall

TAYLOR MAC who uses “judy” (lowercase sic unless at the start of a sentence, just like a regular pronoun), not as a name but as a gender pronoun—is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer.   Judy’s work has been performed in hundreds of venues including on Broadway and in New York’s Town Hall, Lincoln Center, Celebrate Brooklyn, and Playwrights Horizons, as well as London’s Hackney Empire and Barbican, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Los Angeles’s Royce Hall and Ace Theater (through the Center for the Art of Performance), Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, the Sydney Opera House, The Melbourne Festival (Forum Theater), Stockholm’s Sodra Theatern, the Spoleto Festival, and San Francisco’s Curran Theater and MOMA. More>>

Moderated by Scott Malia, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Theatre and Dance 
In conjunction with Mac’s  A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Abridged)

Livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at 5pm EDT (New York) / 4 pm CDT (Chicago) / 2 pm PDT (Los Angeles).

TAYLOR MAC
A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Abridged)
Monday, September 16, 7:30 pm
Fenwick Theatre

A 24-Decade History of Popular Music is MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize finalist Taylor Mac's subjective history of America since its founding in 1776. Originally performed as a one-time 24-hour event, this abridged version is a highly immersive and outrageously entertaining crash course in the 240 years (and counting) of the history of American culture and dysfunction. Told from the perspective of groups whose stories are often "forgotten, dismissed, or buried," the show highlights various musical styles and artistic voices ranging from murder ballads to disco, Walt Whitman to David Bowie and beyond. Joined by longtime collaborator, Music Director and Arranger, Matt Ray and an incomparable band, Mac appears on stage decked and bedazzled in gloriously irreverent regalia for a night that is "Startlingly unique...a must see for anyone who wants to see a kinder, gentler society." (Huffington Post)  More »

 

Funded in part by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies
 

Co-sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance and the W. Arthur Garrity Sr. Professorship in Human Nature, Ethics and Society; and by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

SILKROAD ENSEMBLE RESIDENCY
Community Jam Session
Tuesday, September 24, 6:30 pm
Worcester PopUp (20 Franklin St., Worcester)

Calling all community musicians with diverse musical and cultural traditions! Join us for a free-flowing evening of music making and cultural exchange with members of Silkroad. We encourage you to bring along a simple tune from your tradition you'd like to share, but you are welcome to just show up with your instrument and join in!

Founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, Silkroad creates music that engages difference, sparking radical cultural collaboration and passion-driven learning to build a more hopeful world. The musicians of the Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble represent dozens of artistic traditions and nationalities, and appear in many configurations and settings. This event is part of Silkroad's three-year College of the Holy Cross residency exploring the roles that passion and art can play in learning.  More »

A reception with light refreshments will follow

SILKROAD ENSEMBLE RESIDENCY
Lunchtime Concert
Friday, September 27, 12:30 pm
Hogan Oval (Rain location: Brooks Concert Hall)

Join us for a short lunchtime performance by Silkroad artists and guests as part of the Festival of the Arts at Holy Cross, a day of arts immersion for high school students from Worcester Public Schools.

This event is part of Silkroad's three-year College of the Holy Cross residency exploring the roles that passion and art can play in learning.  More »

 

 

ROGER GUENVEUR SMITH
Otto Frank (New Work)
Tuesday, October 22, 7:30 pm
Seelos Theater

In a new solo, stage and screen actor, director and writer Roger Guenveur Smith navigates an intimate odyssey inspired by Otto Frank, the father of diarist Anne Frank. Smith's performance of this tragic and triumphant history is distinguished by archival immersion, physical narrative, and improvisation, signatures of his astonishing work for the stage and screen.

How does one negotiate loss? And in what currency?
Does our devotion to the dead preclude our commitment to the living?

Smith interrogates our present American moment through a rigorous view of our not-so-distant past. Scored by Smith's longtime collaborator, Marc Anthony Thompson.  More »

Post-performance: Artist Q&A moderated by Edward Isser, Associate Dean of the Performing Arts  |  Onstage

SILKROAD ENSEMBLE
Falling Out of Time, a song cycle by Osvaldo Golijov (World Premiere)
Thursday, October 31, 7:30 pm
Brooks Concert Hall

Three years ago, Osvaldo Golijov sat down on a park bench in Tel Aviv to read David Grossman's Falling Out of Time. Part play, part poem, part fable, the book narrates a journey "out of time" as parents grieve the death of their child, a quest to comprehend a loss with no name.

Osvaldo Golijov's exquisite and nuanced interpretation of the story portrays a musical, mythical walk that traverses vast and varied emotional landscapes to finally arrive at a place where breathing is again possible. Drawing on Grossman's powerful text, Osvaldo has conceived this song cycle for the Silkroad Ensemble, the collective whose delicacy of musical expression he describes as like "a harp of a thousand hairs."

Workshops for Falling Out of Time began in Fall 2017 as part of Silkroad's multi-year residency at Holy Cross. This performance marks the world premiere of Falling Out of Time, which will be followed by a national tour.  More »

Silkroad Ensemble's three-year residency at the College of the Holy Cross is supported by Trudie and Cornelius B. Prior, Jr., Esq. '56.

Spring 2019

An Evening with Silkroad, featuring Golijov's Falling Out of Time
Work-in-progress reading
January 23, 2019, 7:30 pm
Brooks Concert Hall

Three years ago, Osvaldo Golijov sat down on a park bench in Tel Aviv to read Falling Out of Time, Israeli writer David Grossman's genre-defying exploration of grief and loss. Part play, part poem, part fable, the book narrates a journey "out of time" as parents greive the death of a child, a quest to comprehend a loss with no name. 

Drawing on the English translation of the text, Osvaldo Golijov has conceived this hour-long song cycle for members of the Silkroad Ensemble. The vulnerable, exposed composition features two vocalists (Wu Tong and Nora Fischer) and imagines the Ensemble as a magnified Blues guitar, articulating a counterpoint of tender rage and raw intimacy impossible in an orchestra.

In a form that he calls an "epic lament" and in a voice that draws on the musical and narrative roots of the early Delta Blues and the ballads of Central Asia, he gives new expression to the notion that, as Edward Hirsch writes in his New York Times review of the book, "Grief is democratic. It crosses barriers and strikes at will."

The song cycle — which began workshops in Fall 2017 and will premiere in Fall 2019 — expresses a timeless, universal experience in a musical mode that itself rejects barriers, examining the nuances of grief in a voice that transcends borders. Listen to an excerpt »

 

Jam Session with Silkroad
January 24, 2019, 6 pm
Worcester PopUp, 20 Franklin St, Worcester

Calling all community musicians with diverse musical and cultural traditions! Join us for a free-flowing evening of music making and cultural exchange with members of Silkroad. We encourage you to bring along a simple tune from your tradition you'd like to share, but you are welcome to just show up with your instrument and join in!

 

FREE  |  Open to the public. A reception with light refreshments will follow.

 

Ronald K. Brown with members of Evidence, A Dance Company
Lecture/Demonstration
February 4, 2019, 7:30 pm
The Pit

Ronald K. Brown and his company Evidence have deeply moved audiences for over 30 years, and are praised for a sophisticated amalgam of Afrocentric movement and modern dance" that often makes "spirituality...something vibrant and transformative" (Los Angeles Times).

Brown and dancers from Evidence kick off a Spring 2019 residency at Holy Cross with a lecture-demonstration, sharing Brown's exquisitely crafted, spiritual blend of African, modern, Caribbean and social dance styles.

As part of a Spring 2019 creative residency with Ronald K. Brown  |  Learn More »

 

Agape Latte: Ronald K. Brown
March 13, 2019, 7:30 pm
Dinand Library Levis Browsing Room

Agape Latte is a series of events organized by the Holy Cross Student Government Association and campus co-sponsors to explore the intersection of life and spirituality. Arts Transcending Borders artist-in-residence Ronald K. Brown shares insights on his life's journey, spirituality and expression of that purpose through dance.

 

 

FREE  |  Open to the public.

 

Community Dance Workshops with Ronald K. Brown

Ronald K. Brown and his company Evidence have deeply moved audiences for over 30 years, and are praised for a "sophisticated amalgam of Afrocentric movement and modern dance" that often makes "spirituality...something vibrant and transformative" (Los Angeles Times).

This is a great opportunity to learn about his blend of modern dance technique with West African movements including traditional and social dance forms from US, Senegal, Cuba and Ivory Coast. No dance experience is needed; just an open heart! 

 

FREE  |  Open to the public. All ages, no dance experience is needed.
Please wear sneakers and comfortable clothing.
The workshops will build towards a final showcase and celebration with student and community participants on April 23, 2019. Repeat participation is highly encouraged.

Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes
The Transformations Suite
March 28, 2019, 7:30 pm
Brooks Concert Hall

"Wonderful...an absolutely gorgeous piece of music. A huge undertaking; a nuanced, delicate, and powerful perspective on heavy and important topics." —Anna Deavere Smith

Continuing in the tradition of artists like Bob Marley, Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye, Billie Holiday, and Tupac Shakur, Samora Pinderhughes' The Transformations Suite paints a musical picture of the current state of social inequality and injustice in the United States and beyond. Moving through five sections—Transformation, History, Cycles, Momentum (parts 1 and 2), and Ascension—the suite connects contemporary issues such as the prison industrial complex and the Black Lives Matter movement with the history of revolutionary movements of color as it builds a bridge between the past and future. Lyrics are drawn from original poems by actor and poet Jeremie Harris, as well as Pinderhughes, Saul Williams, and Tupac Shakur.  More »

 

Kevork Mourad
In residence April 1-5, 2019

Kevork Mourad is internationally acclaimed for his fusion of printmaking, animation, and collaborative performance that bears witness to painful and continuing histories. His work is an act of remembering and a profound expression of creativity in the face of tragedy.

This week-long residency marks Mourad's third engagement with Arts Transcending Borders. In 2017, for the performance Home Within, he collaborated with Syrian composer/clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, art and music developing in juxtaposition to create an impressionistic reflection on Syria's recent history. In the Fall of 2018, Mourad returned to campus as part of the residency of Silkroad Ensemble, of which he is a member. During this residency, Mourad will lead students in a collaborative project that builds on the College's Engage Summit and explores the 2018-2019 ATB theme, Healing.  Learn More »

Movement at Holy Cross: Dance & Community Celebration
Holy Cross Academic Conference 2019
April 23, 2019, 5:30 pm
Hogan Oval (Rain Location: Hogan Ballroom)

Showcase and celebration led by choreographer Ronald K. Brown, ATB Spring '19 Artist-in-Residence, and featuring the Modern Dance and Ballet 3-4 classes along with community participants. More »

 

FREE  |  Open to the public. A reception will follow the performance.

 

In collaboration with the Department of Theatre and Dance and Academic Conference 2019

Fall 2018​

Silkroad Ensemble: Perspectives on Arts & Healing
September 19, 2018, 10 am
Brooks Concert Hall

Silkroad artists Danny Mekonnen, Kinan Azmeh, Kevork Mourad, Mazz Swift, Cristina Pato, Hadi Eldebek, and Shane Shanahan will share their varying perspectives on how they each use their art to heal themselves and in connection to others. This will include discussions of Home Within, a multi-media work developed by Kinan and Kevork to address the traumas of the Syrian conflict, Cristina Pato's My Lethe Story, a musical composition dealing with the tragedy of memory loss, as well as work carried out by the artists in public schools and prisons.

Free  |  RSVP requested.

An Evening with Silkroad, featuring Home Within
September 20, 2018, 7:30 pm
Seelos Theater

This evening marks the start of the second year of Silkroad's residency at the College, a three-year exploration of curiosity, difference, and the arts. At the center of this presentation is Home Within, an audio-visual performance originally conceived by Silkroad artists Kinan Azmeh and Kevork Mourad. Kinan, a composer and clarinetist from Damascus, Syria, and Kevork, a visual artist born in Kamechli, Syria, create an impressionistic reflection on the Syrian revolution and its aftermath. Rather than follow a narrative, the artists document specific moments in Syria's recent history, using the counterpoint between image and sound to establish an abstract, emotional accounting of home in a time of conflict. More »

 

An Evening with Roger Guenveur Smith
October 2, 2018, 7 pm
Seelos Theater

Global Society faculty Ellen Lokos (Spanish) and Scott Malia (Theatre and Dance) lead a conversation with the acclaimed stage and screen actor Roger Guenveur Smith about his creative process through earlier stage works that draw on history (A Huey P. Newton Story, Frederick Douglas Now, Rodney King) into the work he's currently developing about Otto Frank.

 

Free  |  RSVP requested.

 

In collaboration with the Global Society Cluster of the Montserrat program

 

Rabbit Rabbit Radio presents: Black Inscription
October 17 & 18, 2018, 7:30 pm
The Pit

Black Inscription, from Carla Kihlstedt, Matthias Bossi and Jeremy Flower, is a multimedia song cycle that follows a deep-sea diver on her Odyssean journey. Written with guidance from experts at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and brought to life by a seven-piece band fronted by three singers, the immersive performance is a symbolic, scientific, and emotional plunge into the ocean where wonder, discovery, and reckoning entwine. More »

 

 

Lunchtime Concert with Kurbasy
October 29, 2018, 12 pm
Brooks Concert Hall

From Lviv, Ukraine, Kurbasy brings a rich trove of calendar song cycles, lullabies, and legends, tracing contemporary connections to an archaic past. Conceived and directed by the band's three actress-singers, Kurbasy's performances vibrate in tight vocal harmonies, resonant lyrics, and culturally unique instruments.

 

Listen & Watch
Kurbasy: Performance Excerpts

Free  |  RSVP requested. 

 

The presentation of Kurbasy is part of Center Stage, a public diplomacy initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts in cooperation with the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations, with support from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. General management is provided by Lisa Booth Management, Inc.

A Recitation from Memory of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets
Performed by John Farrell
November 8, 2018, 7 pm
Rehm Library

This is a rare opportunity to hear the entirety of Eliot's poetic masterpiece, spoken live by actor and poet John Farrell, artistic director and co-founder of Figures of Speech Theatre. In 2011, with special permission from the Eliot Estate, Farrell premiered a one-man recitation of Eliot's complex, deeply moving meditation on time, memory, and the human spirit. He has since toured his performance of Four Quartets throughout the US and Canada.

 

Free  |  RSVP requested. 

 

Co-sponsored with the English Department and the Catholic Studies Program of the College of the Holy Cross, and with the Worcester County Poetry Association

Figures of Speech Theatre
with Holy Cross Chamber Singers
the little match girl passion
November 15 & 16, 2018, 7:30 pm
Fenwick Theatre

In a brilliant theatrical adaptation with haunting shadow projections, masked dance, and puppetry, Maine-based Figures of Speech Theatre, in collaboration with Holy Cross Chamber Singers, brings contemporary composer David Lang's the little match girl passion to stage.

Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Music, Lang's exquisite score recasts the H.C. Andersen classic about the suffering and death of a child in the tradition of Bach's Passion music, elevating her sorrow to a higher plane. More »

 

Spring 2018​

Silkroad Ensemble
February 8, 2018, 7:30 pm
Brooks Concert Hall

Founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, the Grammy award-winning Silkroad creates music that engages difference, sparking radical cultural collaboration to build a more hopeful world. The Silkroad Ensemble will present a rhythm-driven exploration of music from India, the Middle East, Spain and the Jewish diaspora. More »

 

 

 

Artist Lecture: Dawn DeDeaux
February 14, 2018, 4:30 pm
Rehm Library

Dawn DeDeaux, Mothership III THE STATION, 2014-15
Installation Entrance / Evening View,
30' and 50' truss rings, ladders, Zeppelin Series
images on aluminum, each at 4'x6'

 

DeDeaux has merged art with new technologies for decades to broaden art and audience engagement. Early works from the 1970s such as CB Radio Booths were works of mobility that travelled the communication systems and streets of underserved communities. Mid-career works were large-scale installations and pioneering immersive, synchronized media environments including Soul Shadows, Women Eating, and The Face of God that premiered at the 1996 Olympics. Later works, including Project Mutants, The Goddess Fortuna, and The MotherShip Series, are inspired by environmental challenges.

Works by DeDeaux have been exhibited nationwide including Whitney Museum of American Art, Armand Hammer Museum, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art of Connecticut, The Contemporary / Baltimore, Canadian Film Society of Toronto, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX and a current exhibition at MASS MoCA – “Thumbs Up for the MotherShip” – on view from May 2017-October 2018. Upcoming exhibitions include a career Retrospective at New Orleans Museum of Art in 2019 and participation in the international environmental exhibition Alrededores on Chile’s Island of Chiloe in 2018.

Co-sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders, Cantor Art Gallery, and the Department of Visual Arts

FREE | Reservations not required.

Members of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company:
An informal showing of solos & duos
February 19, 2018, 5:30 pm
The Pit, Ground Floor — O'Kane Hall

Featuring Company dancers Christina Robson and Carlo Antonio Villanueva

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company was born in 1982 out of an eleven-year collaboration between Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1948-1988). During this time, they redefined the duet form and foreshadowed issues of identity, form and social commentary that would change the face of American dance. The Company has performed worldwide in over 200 cities in 40 countries on every major continent and is recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the dance-theater world.

As part of a creative residency with members of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, in partnership with the Dance Program of the Department of Theatre | Learn more »

FREE | Reservations not required but space is limited.

The Inverted Landscape: A conversation about environmental devastation and its impact on home and place
March 1, 2018, 5 pm
Smith Labs 154 (Science Complex)

Daniela Rivera, Andes Inverted #1,
Oil and soil on board, 5'x9' (2016)

 

 

Two artists, an environmental activist, and a sociologist contemplate the story of loss and destruction through human-caused environmental degradation. Daina Harvey, Assistant Professor of Sociology; Cristi Rinklin, artist and Professor of Visual Arts; Daniela Rivera, artist and Associate Professor of Art, Wellesley College; and Vivian Stockman, Vice Director of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition will explore how environmental destruction of a place bears upon the psyche of its inhabitants, and how images and works of art that address these topics resonate with an audience.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Visual Arts, Environmental Studies and Arts Transcending Borders

FREE | Reservations not required.

An Evening with Bill T. Jones
March 21, 2018, 7:30 pm
Fenwick Theatre

Recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, and two Tony Awards, the legendary choreographer and dancer Bill T. Jones offers a public lecture as part of a creative residency led by members of his Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at Holy Cross. 

For Jones, art-making is participation in the world of ideas. In this lecture, he reflects on his 40+ year artistic journey through some of his seminal works (Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land, Still/Here) to the work he is embarking on presently, The Deep Blue Sea (loosely based on the character Pip from Moby Dick). More »

 

As part of a creative residency with members of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, in partnership with the Dance Program of the Department of Theatre | Learn more »

An Evening with Martha Redbone 
April 2, 2018, 7 pm                                                                  
Brooks Concert Hall

Join us for an evening of music and conversation with the multi award-winning, charismatic songstress Martha Redbone.  

Hailed as “Americana’s next superstar” (The Village Voice) and a “true original, the kind of artist who sets trends” (Billboard Magazine), Redbone honors her Native American, African American and Appalachian heritage in a candid conversation about culture and identity, with musical selections that draw on a rich tapestry of Americana from folk, country, gospel, bluegrass, soul to traditional Southeastern Native American.

FREE | RSVP requested.

Martha Redbone  |  Bone Hill: The Concert
April 3, 2018, 7:30 pm
Brooks Concert Hall

Martha Redbone is one of the most vital voices in American Roots music. Inspired by her family lineage in the Appalachian Mountains, Redbone and a cast of actor-musicians present an epic journey of one woman's return to her homeland. Spanning the lives and stories of four generations of women in a Cherokee family, it is a story about the family's connection to the land — the simplicity and sacredness of that connection and the ruptures that threaten to extinguish it. More » 

Written by Martha Redbone, Aaron Whitby and Roberto Uno, with original compositions by Redbone and Whitby

Fall 2017

BANDALOOP 
September 8, 2017
4:30/5:30/6:30 pm
Hogan Campus Center Façade 

 

“They say what we do is death-defying. I’d say it’s life-affirming.” 
– Amelia Rudolph, Founder and Artistic Director

Pioneers in vertical dance performance, BANDALOOP intertweaves intricate choreography, dynamic physicality and climbing technology by turning the dance floor on its side, taking their performances out of the studio and onto skyscrapers, bridges, billboards, historical sites and cliff faces. Using the façade of the Hogan Campus Center as its “stage,”   BANDALOOP will activate the first-ever Festival of the Arts at Holy Cross with three ethereal 15-minute performances on September 8. Guests are welcome to bring blankets and lawn chairs to enjoy the outdoor performances. More>>

Part of Celebrate! Festival of the Arts at Holy Cross

In case of inclement weather, performances will take place on Saturday, September 9, times TBD. 

The BANDALOOP residency is funded in part by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies.

Screening: WHOSE STREETS?
A People's Documentary 
By Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis
September 18, 2017, 4:30 pm
Hogan Center - Room 519 

Introduced by Melissa Weiner, Associate Professor of Sociology

Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. Empowered parents, artists, and teachers from around the country come together as freedom fighters. As the national guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry, these young community members become the torchbearers of a new resistance. Filmmakers Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis know this story because they have lived the story. Whose Streets? is a powerful battle cry from a generation fighting, not for their civil rights, but for the right to live.

Official Selection:
Sundance Film Festival 2017 – World Premiere (U.S. Documentary Competition)
Full Frame 2017
San Francisco International Film Festival 2017

http://www.magpictures.com/whosestreets/ 
http://www.whosestreets.com 

ANTIGONE IN FERGUSON
Theater of War Productions
October 1, 2017, 2 pm
Mary Chapel (St. Joseph Chapel - Lower Level)

 

Featuring 
Chinasa Ogbuagu, Zach Grenier
with Duane Foster, Marjolaine Goldsmith, Willie Woodmore

Bryan Doerries, moderator
With members of the Holy Cross Chamber Singers

What happens when personal conviction and state law clash, and violence ensues? In this groundbreaking social justice project, a dramatic reading of scenes from Sophocles’ Antigone by acclaimed stage and screen actors serves to help bridge the growing divide between law enforcement and local communities across the US. Holy Cross choristers join members of a community choir from Ferguson, MO, where the project originated following the police killing of Michael Brown, performing the choruses of Antigone set to gospel music. 

Free | RSVP required. 

BARBARIAN NIGHTS
Compagnie Hervé Koubi
October 17, 2017, 7:30 pm
Robert R. Jay Performing Arts Center at Saint John’s High School, Shrewsbury, MA

6: 45 pm:  STAGE TALK with choreographer Hervé Koubi, in conversation with Jean Ouedraogo, O'Leary Chair in Francophone Studies

Drawing creative strength from his Algerian roots and Mediterranean culture, French-Algerian choreographer Hervé Koubi has assembled an exceptional all-male company of Algerian and West African dancers versatile in contemporary, street, and urban dance, capoeira, and martial arts. Following their astounding debut in 2015, the company has since made regular appearances with sold-out performances across the US. Arts Transcending Borders welcomes the return of the company with Barbarian Nights, or the first mornings of the world (Les Nuits Barbares, ou les premiers matins du monde), inviting the audience to revel in Koubi’s daydream about our common heritage on the shores of the Mediterranean. 

With music by Wagner, Mozart, Faure and traditional Algerian music

 

Venue sponsor: Saint John's High School

 

Compagnie Hervé Koubi’s residency is funded in part by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies.

TRIBUTE TO ISMAEL RIVERA: AN AFRO-CARIBBEAN ICON
Gonzalo Grau
October 20, 2017, 8 pm
Hogan Campus Center Ballroom

 

At the height of his career in the 1970s, Puerto Rican singer Ismael Rivera shared the stage with salsa greats such as Benny Moré, Tito Puente and Celia Cruz, and revolutionized tropical music with his unique singing style and improvisational skills. Today, he is lionized in various Afro-Caribbean communities as a bastion of cultural nationalism and Pan-Africanism.

Composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Gonzalo Grau breathes new life into Ismael Rivera hits in new arrangements for a stellar ensemble, including Worcester’s own Manolo Mairena.

In conjunction with the conference “Rethinking the Afropolitan: The Ethics of Black Atlantic Masculinities on Display,” Oct. 19-21

Free | RSVP Required. 

Spring 2017

A GUN SHOW 
Performance + Post-show discussion 
Sō Percussion with Emily Johnson
February 9, 2017, 8 pm
Fenwick Theatre, O'Kane Hall

What is it about our collective psyche that fastens so tightly to guns?  A Gun Show is an exploration of issues such as race, economic inequality, public safety and constitutional rights through music, text and movement. The work’s origins started as a way for the artists to process their emotions after the unfathomable school shootings in Newtown, CT but has since grown into a much larger collaborative process and conversation. More>>

With its innovative multi-genre original productions, sensational interpretations of modern classics, and “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam” (The New Yorker), Sō Percussion redefines the scope of the modern percussion ensemble. For over 15 years, this ensemble, formed by Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting, has engaged in creative collaborations and released 16 albums.

Following the hour-long  performance, members of the artistic team will be joined on stage by faculty and local leaders active in gun violence prevention efforts for a  multi-faceted conversation around issues raised by A Gun Show.  Sponsored by the Peace and Conflict Studies 

Funded in part by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies.

 

ON TRANSIENCE, BEAUTY and OTHER STUFF:
Patrick Dougherty's Stickworks in Conversation 
March 22, 2017, 4:30 pm
Levis Browsing Room, Dinand Library 

Christopher Dustin, Professor of Philosophy, and Michael Beatty, sculptor and Associate Professor of Visual Arts, invite us to take a closer look at the recently completed Stickwork sculpture by Patrick Dougherty as part of his ATB Fall '16 artist residency on campus.  

 

 

 

 

SPEAK: Kathak and Tap Unite
March 27, 2017, 8 pm
Hogan Ballroom 

Indian Kathak dance and American tap dance, continents and ages apart, share parallel stories of struggle and perseverance. They come together in this extraordinary collaboration that is rhythm, poetry, storytelling, music and dance. SPEAK carries forward the legacy of iconic artists like Pandit Chitresh Das, Jimmy Slide and James Buster Brown, while bringing to the forefront the voices of a new generation of female artists. 

Joined by leading Indian classical and jazz musicians, SPEAK promises to thrill, provoke and move your spirit. More>>

 

Film Screening: THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS
with post-screening Q&A with Silkroad Ensemble artists Kinan Azmeh and Kevork Mourad
April 3, 2017, 7 pm
Rehm Library, Smith Hall  

“The intersection of cultures is where new things emerge.”
- Yo-Yo Ma, cellist and founder of the Silk Road Ensemble

Over the past 16 years, an extraordinary group of musicians has come together to celebrate the universal power of music. Named for the ancient trade route linking Asia, Africa and Europe, The Silk Road Ensemble, an international collective created by acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, exemplifies music’s ability to blur geographical boundaries, blend disparate cultures and inspire hope for both artists and audiences.

The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, the latest film from the creators of the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom and the critically-hailed Best of Enemies, follows an ever-changing lineup of performers drawn from the ensemble’s more than 50 instrumentalists, vocalists, composers, arrangers, visual artists and storytellers as they gather in locations across the world, exploring the ways art can both preserve traditions and shape cultural evolution. https://www.silkroad.org/tmos

 

HOME WITHIN 
Kinan Azmeh, composer & clarinet; 
Kevork Mourad, live illustrations, visuals 
April 4, 2017, 8 pm
Seelos Theatre, Kimball Hall  

Donations at the event will benefit refugees in Worcester resettled by Ascentria Care Alliance

In partnership with the Chaplain's Office

A 60-minute audio-visual performance, Home Within is the newest project of Syrian composer and clarinetist, Kinan Azmeh (Silkroad Ensemble), and Syrian-Armenian visual artist, Kevork Mourad. In this work, art and music develop in counterpoint to each other, creating an impressionistic reflection on the Syrian revolution and its aftermath. Rather than following a narrative, the artists document specific moments in Syria’s recent history and reach into their emotional content in a semi-abstract way. More>>

 

 

THE NILE PROJECT 
April 18, 2017, 7:30 pm
Seelos Theater, Kimball Hall

“A committed, euphoric international coalition” — The New York Times

“From the playful swing of Sudan, to the sultry, funky grooves of Ethiopia, the more subdued colors of Egyptian art music, the musical colors speak for themselves.”
-- NPR

One of the tightest cross-cultural collaborations in history, the Nile Project brings together artists from the 11 Nile countries to make new music that combines the rich diversity of one of the oldest places on Earth. Resonant harps and lyres from up and down the river—from its sources beyond Lake Victoria to its delta in Egypt—have learned new musical modes, while buzzing timbres and ingenious polyrhythms support vocals in more than ten languages. Instruments that parted ways millennia before are reunited and pushed into new places. Love songs have crossed geographic and linguistic barriers to forge new, close friendships.

Using music to spark cultural curiosity, the Nile Project engages musicians and audiences, encouraging them to feel connected to the world’s longest river and to explore new approaches to its large-scale social, cultural, and environmental problems. More>>

Co-sponsored by Africana Studies

Fall 2016

STICKWORK: PATRICK DOUGHERTY
Fall ‘16 ATB Artist-in-residence
September 1 – 23, 2016

On view starting September 23, 2016
Lawn by Linden Lane, Main Campus Entrance

Arts Transcending Borders (ATB), in association with the Cantor Art Gallery, Environmental Studies Program and the Department of Visual Arts, welcomes environmental artist Patrick Dougherty as Fall ’16 artist-in-residence. For the past 30 years, Dougherty has combined elemental building techniques and a deep knowledge of nature to create his organic sculptures. As part of his residency, he will be creating a “Stickwork” sculpture with the help of volunteers on the lawn by Linden Lane. More >>

 

ARTIST TALK: Patrick Dougherty 
Tuesday, September 13, 2016, 5 pm
Rehm Library, Smith Hall

Environmental artist and ATB Fall ’16 artist-in-residence Patrick Dougherty takes a moment from his Stickwork sculpture project on campus to talk about his artistic practice.






Co-sponsored with the Tower Hill Botanic Garden

 

STICKWORK: Patrick Dougherty
Opening Celebration & Artist Reception
Friday, September 23, 2016, 3 pm
Lawn by Linden Lane 

Come celebrate the unveiling of renowned environmental artist Patrick Dougherty’s latest Stickwork sculpture, created with the help of over 300 volunteers from our communities on and off-campus during his Holy Cross residency (with remarks from the artist).  

Rain location: Cantor Art Gallery Lobby

 

STICK SPACE: Hands-on Art Project for All 
Saturday, October 22, 2016, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm and 3:30 - 4:30 pm
Lawn by Linden Lane 

Be inspired by Patrick Dougherty’s whimsical Stickwork sculpture! In this hands-on workshop, create something to take home in response to Dougherty’s monumental sculpture of woven sticks and twigs.
Led by Visual Arts faculty Susan Schmidt and her students; all ages.


Inclement weather location: Stein Hall Entrance Lobby

Co-sponsored with the Cantor Art Gallery

Beyond 'East vs. West': Challenging Assumptions
Panel discussion in conjunction with Othello in the Seraglio
Monday, October 24, 2016, 7:30 pm
Seelos Theater

With Faisal Baluch, Political Science
Sahar Bazzaz, History
Ed Isser, Theatre
Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, composer and founder of Dünya Musicians' Collective 
and moderated by Cynthia Hooper, History
 

 

An Ottoman Tableau of Faith
Lecture-demonstration by Dünya Musicians’ Collective
Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 5 pm
Mary Chapel

With Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, voice, ud, ney 
Robert Labaree, voice, çeng 
Burcu Güleç, voice 
Beth Bahia Cohen, bowed tanbur 
George Lernis, percussion
Bertram Lehmann, percussion 

The DÜNYA collective will present an historical tableaux of different religious musical practices in Islam, Christianity and Judaism, especially centered in Ottoman Istanbul. The many layers of communal interaction in the city created deep historical and musical influences between these religious traditions.

Co-sponsored with the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture
 

Musical Border Crossings
A lunch-time lecture-demonstration with excerpts from Othello in the Seraglio
Thursday, October 27, 2016, 12 pm
Brooks Concert Hall

Composer Mehmet Ali Sanlikol and members of the Dünya Musicians’ Collective offer a glimpse into the diverse musical influences and styles in Othello in the Seraglio, with performances on October 27 & 28.  


 

 

Othello in the Seraglio: The Tragedy of Sümbül the Black Eunuch
October 27-28, 2016, 8 pm
Brooks Concert Hall

A coffeehouse opera

Music by Mehmet Ali Sanlikol
Script by Robert Labaree
Directed by Brian Fairley

Original music, with music from 16th- and 17th-century European and Turkish sources arranged, and additional Turkish poetry, by Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol

Sanlıkol’s “music is colorful, fanciful, full of rhythmic life, and full of feeling. The multiculturalism is…sophisticated, informed, internalized.”  

-- Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe

“Brings timeless enchantment to this age-old tragedy…Gorgeous music.”

-- Boston Musical Intelligencer

With eleven musicians and a storyteller, Othello in the Seraglio: The Tragedy of Sümbül the Black Eunuch, is scaled to the intimate, informal setting of a coffeehouse in seventeenth century Istanbul (Constantinople). In the days before tea became the preferred Turkish beverage, this was a setting in which a professional storyteller (meddah) entertained a cosmopolitan audience of men while they smoked and sipped coffee, a newly-fashionable stimulant imported from Yemen. The storyteller spins out a well-known tale, an historically-based legend of love and jealousy, intensified by the crossing of boundaries between the free and the enslaved, white and black, Muslim and non-Muslim. More>>

Spring 2016

Film Screening and actor Q&A: A HUEY P. NEWTON STORY (2001)
Monday, February 22, 2016
7 pm, Hogan 519 
Post-screening discussion with actor Roger Guenveur Smith and Scott Malia, Assistant Professor, Theatre

Adapted for the screen from Roger Guenveur Smith’s Obie-award winning play of the same name, the film sheds light on the controversial life and times of the co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense,  drawing on his unpublished manuscripts, recorded interviews and correspondences. “As one of the most volatile participants in the era of the Civil Rights Movement, Newton can be seen as a microcosm for issues as diverse as community service and violent actions taken in the name of justice. All the complications, ambiguities, and moral quandaries bound up in America’s ongoing struggle with racism are captured in this virtuoso performance.” – Peabody Awards
More >>

 

 

Roger Guenveur Smith's RODNEY KING
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
7 pm, Seelos Theatre
Post-show discussion with the actor and Michael West, Associate Professor of History
Meet the Artist reception to follow in the Seelos Theater Lobby

History, poetry and tragedy collide when stage and screen actor Roger Guenveur Smith (American Gangster, Malcolm X, Do The Right Thing) tackles the thorny odyssey of Rodney King—deemed “the first reality TV star”—from the harsh initial glare of the national spotlight as the victim of police brutality to his involuntary martyrdom that ignited the 1992 L.A. riots to his lonely death at the bottom of a swimming pool. In this riveting performance, Smith offers a meditation on a flawed, goodhearted everyman and reveals America’s endlessly complicated relationship with its racial past and present. More>>

2015 Bessie Award: Outstanding Production
This play contains representation of violence and strong language.

Co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and funded in part by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies.


 

COMPAGNIE HERVE KOUBI
Excerpts from Ce que le jour doit à la nuit (“What the day owes to the night”)
Monday, March 14, 2016
7 pm, Hogan Campus Center Ballroom

Stirred by a late discovery of family roots in Algeria, young French choreographer Hervé Koubi embarked on a journey, traversing the Mediterranean, to create an all-male company of twelve Algerian and Brukinabé dancers, mostly with a street dance background. Following their “astounding American debut” (The Washington Post)  in 2013,  Compagnie Hervé Koubi returns to the US with Ce que le jour doit à la nuit (“What the day owes to the night”) that fuses contemporary dance with martial arts, urban dance and capoeira, inspired by the eponymous novel by Yasmina Khadra. Come see excerpts from this breathtaking work and stay to enjoy an exchange and conversation with Koubi and the company members. More>>

In conjunction with the French Program’s Semaine de la Francophonie celebrations

Alexa Horochowski: Club Disminución
An installation of sculpture and video
March 14 – April 16, 2016
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery

Artist Alex Horochowski immigrated to the United States as a child with her family from the Argentinian Patagonia. The exhibition Club Disminución, first seen at The Soap Factory in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2014, will be reimagined for the Cantor Art Gallery and include an immersive video experience and sculptural works inspired by Horochowski’s residency at Casa Poli in Coliumo, Chile in 2012/2013.

Casa Poli, a minimalist cement structure perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific, offers views of the ocean that connect it directly with the landscape. Here Horochowski pursued her interest in the physicality of form, using natural flotsam as source material, distilled into distinctive objects that are “charged with elements of the alien or unknown.”  Her sculpture, video, and large-scale digital prints work in concert to depict the human struggle to create “lasting symbols of culture” amidst the indifference of the Natural world.

Alexa Horochowski: Club Disminución at the Cantor Art Gallery is co-sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders.
 

The Art of War:  Vietnam
A Roundtable discussion and demonstration, moderated by Stephanie Yuhl  
Wednesday, March 30, 2016 
7 pm, Rehm Library 

You are invited to an informal discussion about the process of translating histories of war to performance in anticipation of the work-in-progress performance of Shirish Korde’s Questions for the Moon on March 31 at 8 pm in Brooks Concert Hall. A group of people who have shaped the piece will talk about the process and choices involved when adapting the historical account of north Vietnamese women who took up arms in 1965.  We will hear from composer, Shirish Korde, historian, Karen Turner, musician who knew some of the women in the story, Van Anh Vo, videographer, Raphael Shirley, and filmmaker, Holy Cross alumnus M.T. Barry’ 14.  Larger questions about war, history and art will be addressed through discussions with the audience.  Vietnamese snacks will be offered after the discussion. 

Co-sponsored with the departments of Music and History; Asian Studies Program; McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture 

QUESTIONS FOR THE MOON 
Work-in-progress performance
Thursday, March 31, 2016
8 pm, Brooks Concert Hall

Questions for the Moon, a multi-media song cycle is a collaboration between composer Shirish Korde and historian, Karen Turner.  Inspired by stories of the many North Vietnamese women who answered Ho Chi Minh’s call in 1965 for youth volunteers to fight American forces, this music-theater work is a mediation on the boundaries crossed and the potent forces unleashed in wartime.

Texts and images for Questions for the Moon are drawn from Karen Turner’s documentary: Hidden Warriors: Women on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and 18th Century Vietnamese poet Ho Xuan Huong.  The world music infused score by Shirish Korde will feature Vietnamese performer/composer Van-Anh Vo, Wu-Tong, a dramatic vocalist and performer who is a featured soloist with Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, and the dramatic lyric soprano Sonja Tegbland plus a chamber ensemble of five musicians.

Video projections for this production are based on archival footage from Karen Turner’s documentary film Hidden Warriors, and designed especially for this production by internationally renowned visual artist Raphael Shirley.

Co-sponsored with the Department of Music and Asian Studies Program

Ruminations on the Post-Anthropocene: A Panel Discussion
Monday, April 11, 2016
5 -6 pm, Hogan 519 

In this cross-disciplinary conversation, artist Alexa Horochowski and Holy Cross faculty from Biology, Political Science, Sociology  and Visual Arts reflect on the interrelatedness of natural environment, globalization, culture, and matter in relation to the artist’s hybrid works currently on view at the Cantor Art Gallery (Club Disminución, March 15 – April 16, 2016).  

With Alexa Horochowski, St. Cloud State University, and Holy Cross faculty:  Daina Harvey, assistant professor of sociology; Justin McAlister, assistant professor of biology; Maria Rodrigues, associate professor of political science; and moderator: Cristi Rinklin, associate professor of visual arts.

Co-sponsored with the Cantor Art Gallery 

Lecture:Transcending the Humanities-Sciences Border: New Approaches to the Study of Religion and Ethics
Edward Slingerland 
Professor of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia, and author of Trying Not to Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity 
Friday, April 15, 2016 
3:30 pm, Rehm Library 

In this talk, Edward Slingerland draws upon the case example of early Chinese thought to demonstrate how a “consilient” approach—one that transcends the border between the sciences and the humanities—to the study of religion and ethics can help us make progress on problems that have long concerned us. New content knowledge and new methodologies drawn from the cognitive and evolutionary sciences can help us hone in on plausible interpretative strategies and give us new tools to interrogate our texts and evaluate different models of ethics. At the same time, the sciences are badly in need of the sort of linguistic, historical and cultural expertise that is the specialty of humanities scholars. A new “second wave” of consilience recognizes the science-humanities cooperation is a two-way street, and points the way toward a future of genuinely productive and collaborative interdisciplinary research.
   
RAGAS, BACH & WUWEI 
Friday, April 15, 2016 
8 pm, Brooks Concert Hall

Performance: Amit Kavthekar, tabla and Jan Müller-Szeraws , cello
Discussion: Edward Slingerland, Jan Müller-Szeraws and May Sim 

“Ragas, Bach and Wuwei” features music for solo cello by J. S. Bach and Holy Cross composer Shirish Korde,and a performance by cellist Jan Müller-Szeraws, and tabla player Amit Kavthekar.  The concert will include discussions on the Daoist concept of effortlessness (wuwei) by Jan Müller-Szeraws, May Sim (Philosophy Department) and renowned guest speaker Edward Slingerland, Professor of Asian Studies (Associate member of Philosophy & Psychology) at the University of British Columbia and author of Trying Not To Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity.

Co-sponsored by Asian Studies, Arts Transcending Borders, McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, Department of Music and Department of Philosophy

A Jookin’ Jam Session with Lil Buck, Cristina Pato  & Friends  
Friday, April 29, 2016
8 pm, Dinand Library (Main Reading Room)

 

 “… a tremendous virtuoso, with a lovely, light wit”
– The New Yorker

The College's Become More: Campaign for the Future of Holy Cross kicks off  with an evening of celebration headlined by the international jookin phenomenon Lil Buck, who came to international attention when ballet star turned director Damian Woetzel paired the young dancer with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The performance, captured on video by Spike Jonze, went viral, with over 3 million views to date.  Lil Buck has gone on to perform with New York City Ballet and in Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson: One, the Spike Jonze film Her, Benjamin Millepied’s NOWNESS videos. In the latest of a series of unique performances created by Damian Woetzel,  Lil Buck is joined by a stellar cast of musicians, marking the welcome return of Fall ’15 ATB artist-in-residence, Galician gaita player Cristina Pato. More>>

FREE | Reservations not required but space is limited.

 

Co-sponsored with the Office of Advancement and in conjunction with the 2016 Academic Conference

Fall 2015

Participatory Session with Troika Ranch
as part of “Is the Internet a Realm of Creativity & Freedom or Corporatization and Control?” 
Friday, September 18, 2015, 11:45 am – 12:30 pm
Hoval (Rain location: The Pit, O’Kane 37)

Get out of your seat and participate in an exercise with ATB Fall 2015 artists-in-residence Troika Ranch that will help illuminate how creating a community in physical space mirrors and differs from experiences in a virtual space. 

Co-sponsored by the Charles Carroll Program and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture
 

Film Screening: The Grief of Others
Followed by Q&A with Patrick Wang, screenwriter and director, and Leah Hager Cohen, author 
Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 3 pm and 7 pm 
Seelos Theater

 
Adapted and directed by Patrick Wang 
Based on the critically-acclaimed novel by Leah Hager Cohen

“A richly meditative, beautifully rendered work of art about loss and how it connects us.”

-- Tim Sika, San Francisco Film Critics Circle

 

IN CONVERSATION WITH JAZZ MASTER TERENCE BLANCHARD 
Saturday, November 7, 2015, 6 pm
Cantor Art Gallery 

 

As part of a weekend (Nov. 7-8) that also features his Grammy-winning A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina) in concert at the College of the Holy Cross, multiple Grammy-winning trumpeter, bandleader and composer Terence Blanchard joins Daina Cheyenne Harvey, assistant professor of sociology and curator of the Katrina Then and Now: Artists as Witness exhibition, in a conversation about his hometown New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina and the artistic response in the aftermath of the disaster. 

 

Free | RSVP Required. 

TERENCE BLANCHARD QUINTET 
A Tale of God’s Will: A Requiem for Katrina
Berklee Jazz in Film Orchestra
Edward Cumming, conductor 
Sunday, November 8, 2015, 3 pm 
Brooks Concert Hall

Celebrated jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard brings his Grammy-winning project A Tale of God’s Will: A Requiem for Katrina to Holy Cross to mark the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Originally conceived as the score to Spike Lee’s HBO documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, the expanded suite offers a poignant meditation on the devastation in the aftermath of the Hurricane. The Blanchard Quintet is joined on this occasion by the Berklee Jazz in Film Orchestra (Dir. Eric Gould, Chair of Jazz Composition at Berklee College of Music), conducted by Edward Cumming. 

"…a purposeful convergence of his film-composer and jazz-musician identities….The result is a melancholy suite that feels both intensely personal and broadly cinematic. " — The New York Times

 

Free | RSVP Required. 

 

In conjunction with the Cantor Art Gallery’s Katrina Then and Now: Artists as Witness exhibition 

Part II: The Rebirth of Art | October 22 – December 18

Troika Ranch’s SWARM 
November 5-7 and 12-14, 2015, 7 and 9 pm 
Fenwick Theatre

 

SWARM is an immersive, multimedia installation/performance that uses simple visual and aural stimuli to call the audience and performers into collective action. Principles of emergence – the underlying system that governs the flocking of birds, evolution, and other natural phenomena – are the means by which an audience actively reveal a “media opera” consisting of live and computer media – movement, text, music, and video imagery. The crux of SWARM is that only through coordination, conversation, and collective action can the audience – the “swarm” – reveal the fullest and most complete dramatic arc of the piece.

SWARM is an experience greater than the sum of its individual contributors.

Co-produced with the Department of Theatre