Have you wanted to attend a Music at Amherst series concert but haven't made the time? WindSync on April 6 is your last chance until fall! Are you curious about the origins and inspirations of African American dance? Check out Amherst's two-day symposium on April 13 & 14. Can you recite an Emily Dickinson poem from memory? The Dickinson Museum will grant free admission to visitors who can on April 26. Want to know more about the Mead’s exhibits? The museum offers unique, student-led tours on Saturdays at 1 p.m.
Here’s a closer look at these and additional events and exhibits, this month at Amherst.
Artist Talks & Performances
Sarah Hennies. Photo by Micke Keysendal.
Artists and authors Glenn Goldberg and Amber Scoon will discuss their book Question Mark (THINK MEDIA: EGS MEDIA PHILOSOPHY SERIES) in the Center for Humanistic Inquiry on Tuesday, April 3, at 4:30 p.m. The book is a conversation between two artists that challenge themselves to articulate their questions and insights. The exchanges include ideas about ownership, instability, nature, curiosity, language, contemporary art, ghosts, religion, fetish objects and consciousness.
Also on Tuesday, April 3, percussionist Sarah Hennies will present “Gather & Release,” a one-hour performance for vibraphone and a variety of pre-recorded sounds at 6 p.m. in Room 7 in Arms Music Center. Hennies’s work explores issues related to queer/trans identity, mediated through sound and music technologies. “Gather & Release” entangles highly focused percussion playing with field recordings, sine waves and signifiers from Hennies’s personal and family history.
On Thursday, April 5, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Mead Art Museum, alumni Freddie Bryant ’87 and Darryl Harper ’90, Joseph and Grace Valentine Visiting Professor of Music, will perform Anthem for Unity, a duo for guitar and clarinet written by Bryant. The performance will be followed by a conversation with the musicians, and a performance of Unraveling by Amherst’s artist-in-residence Sonya Clark ’89, in which Clark and participants slowly unravel a Confederate battle flag, one thread at a time. All are invited to line up to participate, one by one, in the unraveling.
Gallery Talks & Tours
Lalla Essaydi, Les femmes du Maroc #14, 2005. Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. 2007.13
Enjoy a gallery talk by Alla Rosenfeld, curator of Russian and European art, in the exhibition Fragmented Identities: The Gendered Roles of Women in Art Through the Ages on Wednesday, April 4, at 5 p.m. in the Mead Art Museum. The works on view in the exhibition span ancient to contemporary time periods and examine the ways in which women have been depicted or have represented themselves across media, centuries and the globe.
This month, the Mead Art Museum offers unique, student-led tours on Saturdays at 1 p.m. in the museum. On Saturday, April 7, tour Amherst’s art museum with Olivia Luntz ’21 and explore the social role of the tiny house. On Saturday, April 21, Stephen Johnson ’19 will lead a tour about material and digital manipulation techniques used in some of the works on view. And on Saturday, April 28, Natasha Kim ’18 will lead a tour exploring the relationships between gender and the home.
As part of Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 26, the Emily Dickinson Museum will grant free admission during the museum’s open hours (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.) to any visitors who can recite a Dickinson poem from memory. Organized by The Academy of American Poets, Poem in Your Pocket Day is part of National Poetry Month. On this day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, street corners and on social media using the hashtag #pocketpoem.
Concerts
WindSync. Photo by Shannon Langman.
Music at Amherst closes out its 2017-18 series with a concert by WindSync, the award-winning wind quintet known for their dramatic interpretations of classical music. The performance will take place on Friday, April 6, at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall in Arms Music Center. Tickets are required and can be purchased here: http://amherst.universitytickets.com.
The Amherst Symphony Orchestra closes its season’s survey of American canonic concert-hall composers with a tribute to Samuel Barber, one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The performance will take place on Sunday, April 15, at 3 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall in Arms Music Center. Prices are $10 for the general public; $5 for senior citizens, students with ID and children under 12; and free to Amherst and all Five College students with ID. Tickets may be purchased only at the door.
Later that evening, on April 15 at 7 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall in Arms Music Center, the Amherst College Jazz Ensemble will perform the music of Pat Metheny, Lee Morgan, Gil Evans, Sammy Nestico, Thelonious Monk and student composer Dan Langa ’18. The concert is free and open to the public; cash donations to the Amherst Survival Center will be accepted.
The Amherst College Chorus and Glee Club will team up for a performance on Saturday, April 21, at 5 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall in Arms Music Center. Featured works include folk music of the Pacific rim and Europe, and selections from Forrest Pierce’s All-Night Vigil of Rabi'a al-Adawiyya with cello accompaniment. Each group will also present music with texts by Amherst poets Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. Prices are $10 for the general public; $5 for senior citizens, students with ID and children under 12; and free to Amherst and all Five College students with ID. Tickets may be purchased only at the door.
At 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 22, the Amherst College Concert Choir performs a wide variety of unaccompanied music in Buckley Recital Hall in Arms Music Center. Featured selections include the North American premiere of Sarah Rimkus’s Mater Dei along with other Marian settings including Rachmaninov's classic Bogoroditse Devo. The choir will also present local composer Alice Parker’s arrangement of Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal.
Amherst Symphony Orchestra will present Concertofest, its second concert of the month, on Saturday, April 28, at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall in Arms Music Center. The concert is a celebratory showcase of senior soloists in a variety of concertos. Prices are $10 for the general public; $5 for senior citizens, students with ID and children under 12; and free to Amherst and all Five College students with ID. Tickets may be purchased only at the door.
Dance Events
Amherst College Dance Ensemble. Photo by Maria Stenzel.
On Friday, April 13, and Saturday, April 14, experience the two-day symposium African American Dance: Form, Function and Style! that explores the history and practice of African American dance through public talks, master dance classes and more. Yvonne Daniel, Five College Professor Emerita of Dance and Afro-American Studies, will deliver the symposium’s keynote address on Friday, April 13, at 4:30pm in Kirby Memorial Theater. Visit www.amherst.edu/go/africanamericandance for additional events and details.
The Amherst College Dance Ensemble will perform on Saturday, April 28, and Sunday, April 29, at 8 p.m. in Holden Experimental Theater. Visit www.amherst.edu/go/performance for additional information as the event nears.
Exhibitions & Openings
Amanda Tobin ’17, Ruach No. 31, 2017. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Enjoy an exhibition of studio art senior theses projects opening in the Eli Marsh Gallery, 105 Fayerweather Hall, on Tuesday, April 24, and remaining on view through Friday, May 18. Join the artists for an opening reception on Thursday, April 6, at 4:30 p.m. in the gallery. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, on Saturday and Sunday of Commencement weekend from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Celebrate the exhibition Amanda Tobin ’17: Illuminate, on view in the Mezzanine and Beyond Words Galleries in Frost Library, with a special reception on Thursday, April 5, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. The works on view by Tobin invite viewers to ponder light, darkness, beauty, hope and wonder via narratives of color, material and form.
Also on view this month:
- Constructing A New World: The Soviet Experiment, 1920s-30s features works by a wide range of Russian artists inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution. It remains on view in the Russian Center Art Gallery, located in the Amherst Center for Russian Culture on the 2nd floor of Webster Hall, through June 23.
- HOUSE: Selections from the Collection of John and Sue Wieland presents interpretations of the house in various mediums by international artists. It remains on view at the Mead through July 1.
- Fragmented Identities: The Gendered Roles of Women in Art Through the Ages showcases works that examine the ways in which women have been depicted or represented themselves across media, centuries, and the globe. It remains on view at the Mead through July 1.
- New Publics: Art for a Modern India, 1960s–90s, presents drawings, paintings and sculpture that complicate the recent history of art from India. It remains on view at the Mead through July 1.
