FACULTY NEWS
In Honor of Black History Month, Joseph Edgar Maddy Distinguished University of Voice Professor, George Shirley and Associate Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation, Geri Allen will be performing for "The 2007 Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Heritage Celebration" in Washington D.C. on Feb. 13, 2007.
James Kibbie, Professor of Organ at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, is undertaking a three-year project to record the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Dr. Kibbie is recording some 270 extant Bach organ works, totaling over 18 hours in length, on original 18th-c. organs in Germany, most of which Bach himself played and in some cases helped to design. The University of Michigan will make these recordings available free of charge as internet downloads, marking the first time the complete canon of Bach organ works will be available through the internet. The website will also feature information on the organs, the music, and U of M’s Historic Organ Tours, hosted by Prof. Marilyn Mason. During the 2007 phase of the project, Dr. Kibbie is recording the Leipzig Chorales, the Kirnberger Chorales, and a variety of free works on the historic Gottfried Silbermann organs in the Hofkirche in Dresden and the Georgenkirche and Marienkirche in Rötha. The initial recordings will be posted as free downloads in late summer of 2007. This project is made possible through a generous gift by Dr. Barbara Sloat in honor of J. Barry Sloat. Additional support is provided by the U of M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the Office of Vice-President for Research. Recording, editing and mastering are under the direction of David Lau of Brookwood Studios, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“Babel”, a new videodance work by Dance Gallery Foundation artistic director and UM Thurnau Professor of Dance Peter Sparling, will be screened at the 2007 Dance On Camera Festival in New York City during the festival’s run January 3-13. The festival is the oldest annual dance film/video festival in the world. Initiated to foster creativity and encourage fruitful collaborations between dancers and filmmakers, the Dance on Camera Festival has been co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center since 1997 and has toured to over 70 venues. “Babel” was choreographed, danced and edited by Sparling as an experiment in making dance specifically for the camera. Mirroring the four voices of Arvo Part’s musical score with four danced personae, a dreamer (Sparling) splits into four separate but related characters and struggles to keep up with his own metamorphosis. The austere, formal framings of the white-clad figures against black backdrop highlights former Graham dancer Sparling’s expressive powers and improvisational abilities. The work was filmed in the video and Performance Studio at Digital Media Commons, Duderstadt Center, University of Michigan, with the assistance of technical director, Jacques Mersereau and video mastering by R. Thomas Bray. With a firm working knowledge of Part’s music and the concept of the multiple voices within one man, Sparling improvised for the camera during a two-hour session in May, 2005. He then edited his footage over the following 18 months until he arrived at a finished version.
