The Handel Society of Dartmouth College presents a luminous program of choral music spanning three centuries, with the help of singers from three area high schools, on Tuesday, November 14, 7 pm, in Spaulding Auditorium of the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth. The “town-gown” chorus, comprising about 100 singers and joined by a chamber orchestra and four visiting soloists, sings the Mozart Requiem as “completed” by Robert Levin, a Boston-based musicologist and pianist who last appeared at the Hop as accompanist for violinist Hilary Hahn. Animated by acute musical and historical … [Read more...]
New Kid in the Barbary Coast: From Lawrence Welk to Thelonius Monk
The Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble is Dartmouth’s student jazz group; the members play their instruments and improvise surrounded by other lively musicians. Directed by the dynamic Taylor Ho Bynum, the ensemble recently performed with visiting quartet Del Sol. It performs its own program on Friday, November 3, 8 pm, in Spaulding Auditorium - exploring the music of such innovators as Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams, Sun Ra and Thelonious Monk. As the Hop's Audience Engagement department intern, I was interested in the connection between student life and being in an ensemble. I recently … [Read more...]
Food review: Sacrificial Salad
The recent Hop Cafe changes provide students with superficially healthy options: the salad counter, the refrigerated wraps and sandwiches. As previously established, the breakfast options are now essentially limited to Greek yogurt and muffins. However, during lunch and dinner, the salad bar supposedly creates a diverse array of nutritional options. At closer inspection, the salad counter falls short in a few ways. Yesterday, I purchased the tomato-mozzarella salad with the addition of avocado. The menu claims I would be given a salad consisting of diced tomato, fresh mozzarella, walnuts, … [Read more...]
Exit interviews: World Music Percussion Ensemble, October 25
The student and community musical group World Music Percussion Ensemble played in Spaulding Auditorium of the Hopkins Center for the Arts on Wednesday, October 25, with guest ensemble LADAMA. The groups collaborated to play a concert celebrating the cycle of the seasons. The performance was dynamic, high-energy and above all, fun. It was clear the audience was having a great time. I talked to a few audience members after the show who enthusiastically described their impressions. One of the students, a ‘20 majoring in biomedical engineering, described the show as upbeat and rich with … [Read more...]
Dartmouth students and prison inmates share stories in compelling documentary
“It’s Criminal”: “We think in such a binary… it’s not about right or wrong, it’s self-awareness.” -Pati Hernandez “I don’t think I’ve been to a single performance where people haven’t cried. Because it touches people differently because they understand that there is human suffering in all the groups that don’t often get to tell their story to society. People need to take their pain and do something with it” -Polimana Joshevama '19 After first premiering in Los Angeles, documentary film It’s Criminal returns to its Dartmouth roots on October 26. The film follows a Dartmouth class … [Read more...]
Pink Martini surprises and empowers
By Nicole Sellew '21 [Editor's note: Nicole attended the Pink Martini October 17 performance in the Hop's Spaulding Audtiorium as a member of Arts Ambassadors, a club for first-year students who like attending Hop event.] I went into Pink Martini expecting an incredible show—and I was not disappointed. I did not know much about the band before attending the show, besides the fact that many of my friends missed getting tickets for the sold-out show (and were, subsequently, very disappointed). I was shocked when I started hearing Croatian songs, French songs, Cuban songs and even a … [Read more...]
New Kid: Meet a first-year in the DSO
By Lex Kang '21 [Editor's note: The Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra performs its fall concert on Saturday, October 28, 8 pm, in Spaulding Auditorium.] Hanlin Wang, ’21, is one of the handful of talented young musicians that joined the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, commonly referred to as the DSO, as a freshman this fall term. Arts Ambassadors got to hear about his musical history and his personal involvement with the DSO and the arts on campus. When and how did you start music? What made you interested in music? I started playing the violin when I was five or six years old. I was too … [Read more...]
New Kid: Meet one of the Wind Ensemble’s first-years
[Editor's note: Before you come hear the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble play Julie Giroux’s “Bookmarks from Japan” symphony, find out which bookmark – and movement from the symphony – best fits you!] Saturday, October 21, at 8 pm, the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble has its fall concert entitled “Music, She Wrote...” The ensemble will be playing four contemporary works by female composers. The ensemble is taking on this impressive repertoire with a lively new class of ‘20s and ‘21s. Seventeen new members, from percussionists to flautists, have been hard at work learning this difficult … [Read more...]
Dragons, fools and fire-breathing tickets in “Cuentos”
On Sunday, October 15, in the Hop's Spaulding Auditorium, storyteller David Gonzalez and accompanying musicians combined language learning, Latin music and life lessons into a single show: Cuentos, meaning “stories.” Wilson “Chembo” Corniel, a Grammy-nominated percussionist, took to the stage to perform a solo on his congas. Willie Martinez, a renowned Latin jazz drummer, joined Corniel in a duet of drums. Daniel Kelly completed the trio on piano, and the three played an energetic opening song for the performance. Finally, Gonzalez made his entrance to the energetic rhythm. Beginning … [Read more...]
Collis Cabaret: A musical mashup, plus pie
By Sarah Hong '21, with photos by Rob Strong Creating music, in many ways, is about communication. Not only do musicians strive to communicate with the audience, musicians in an ensemble also communicate with each other using a secret language of cues to play together as a whole. But what happens when two very different ensembles spontaneously communicate with each other to merge two disparate genres? At Collis Cabaret on Thursday, October 12,the Del Sol Quartet and Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble attempted to do just that, creating an exciting and captivating night of music. [EDITOR'S NOTE: … [Read more...]
