Her blazing performance at the 2018 Grammy Awards of the jazz standard Moanin’ let the world know just who Jazzmeia Horn is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udvpSKCQDI4 Singer Jon Hendricks added lyrics to that Art Blakey instrumental in 1961, making it a powerful jazz/blues shout that viscerally connected to the Civil Rights movement. Fresh-faced, broadly smiling and resplendent in West African-style gown and headwrap, Horn wrapped her mighty voice and presence around the song and made it newly relevant for today’s listeners. Horn brings those jazz roots and contemporary … [Read more...]
A bluesy baritone thinker’s powerful, loving music, February 13
By Aditya H. Prasad, Hopkins Center Arts Ambassador Gregory Porter’s masterful understanding and practice of vocal jazz is never quite as evident as when he belts out music that he himself has written. Backed by a talented band comprising a pianist, a drummer, a tenor saxophonist, a bass guitarist and a particularly outstanding organ player, Porter shook Spaulding Auditorium with his emotional, powerful and deep voice when he performed there February 13. An obvious follower and disciple of Nat King Cole, Porter also performed the legend’s song, "Mona Lisa." However, his strongest piece of … [Read more...]
The Emerson String Quartet: Connecting Past and Present
Music communicates emotion; in its well attended Hopkins Center concert on Saturday, September 30, the Emerson String Quartet managed to capture the emotion within quartet pieces through the players' synchronicity and delicacy of performance. As recipients of multiple honors (including nine Grammy awards) and 40 years of experience playing as an ensemble, they promised to offer an incredible performance. The concert began with my favorite piece, Quartet No. 17 in B flat Major, K. 458 “Hunt”, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. What drew me to the music was the joy within the notes, the effortless … [Read more...]
From sheep to (Virginia) Woolf, from zydeco to Peter Pan: summer at the Hop begins June 29!
HANOVER, NH—Summer 2017 offers ample pickings at the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College, with five free performances on the Dartmouth Green, concerts by folk legend John Prine and rising star Rhiannon Giddens, and screen offerings include an edgy film series and a sneak preview by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. In addition is the Summer 2017 crop of new and developing theatrical works offered throughout the summer through the Dartmouth Department of Theater, including an August series involving the New York Theatre Workshop. Thursday, June 29, 4:30 & 7 pm, … [Read more...]
Seniors, Get Serious About Your Dartmouth Arts Bucket List!
OK, Dartmouth seniors: time to get serious about that bucket list! With your last term on campus about to begin, you have precious little time to cram in those essential experiences. Help is at hand--especially for those bucket list items relating to the Hop and the arts. From Friday, February 17, through Saturday, February 25, the Hopkins Center presents Senior Spectacular, eight days of fun events in the arts, especially for '17s! With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Hop Student Engagement Team Interns Cynthia Tan ’17 and Mallory Rutigliano ’17 organized this series to … [Read more...]
Dartmouth grad’s group are Grammy winners
The Silk Road Ensemble, which at the 59th Grammy Awards February 12 won "Best World Music Album" for its recording Sing Me Home, includes a Dartmouth graduate with close ties to the college and the Hop. Kojiro Umezaki--a composer and renowned virtuoso of the Japanese shakuhachi flute who holds a 1993 master's degree in electro-acoustic music from Dartmouth's music department--is a founding member of the ensemble. A frequent visitor to the Music Department since his graduation, Umezaki was introduced to cellist Yo-Yo Ma by Arthur R. Virgin Professor of Music Ted Levin, who in 1998 had … [Read more...]
Your Hop Grammy Scorecard
The nominations have been revealed for the 2017 Grammy Awards, and while the Hop has not presented Beyoncé, who leads the pack with a whopping nine nominations, we can boast a fair number of past and future Hop artists in the running. Below is a list so you can root for the home team on Sunday, February 19, when the Grammy Awards air live on CBS at 8 p.m. ET. Best Contemporary Instrumental Album When You Wish Upon A Star, by Bill Frisell (last at the Hop in 2015). Label: Okeh Records. Best Alternative Music Album; Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Blackstar, by David Bowie. … [Read more...]
Barbary Coasters past and present praise ‘The Classroom of Don’
After 40 years at its helm, Don Glasgo will retire this spring as director of the Hop's Barbary Coast Jazz Band--but not before a fantastic final year that includes guest artist double-headers in the fall (October 22) and winter (February 10) shows. Former and current "Coasters" were eager to share their thoughts about the lasting impact Glasgo and the Coast experience has had on them. Here are a few: Vaughn Halyard '81, CEO and Executive Producer/Director, StoryLounge Film Music and Entertainment: "I was blessed to be at Dartmouth during what I call the Appleton/Glasgo Dynasty. Don … [Read more...]
Maria Schneider: majestic composer, ferocious digital-rights warrior
The following article first appeared in the Winter 2016 edition of HOP Live, the Hopkins Center Membership Newsletter. On April 19, when famed jazz composer/bandleader Maria Schneider takes the Spaulding Auditorium stage with her big band, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, fans will hear a singularly soaring take on jazz. Her music hailed by critics as “evocative, majestic, magical, heartstoppingly gorgeous and beyond categorization,” Maria Schneider has developed a personal way of writing for her 17-member orchestra since 1994. The group tours worldwide, and has received nine Grammy … [Read more...]
2016 Grammy nominees heard—or soon to be—at the Hop!
If names of nominees for the 2016 Grammy Awards sound familiar to Hopkins Center audience members, that’s because a large chunk of them have either performed at the Hop recently or will do so later this year. Coming up this winter and spring are several artists who received nominations earlier this week: Guitarist Bill Frisell (performing on January 27 with saxophonist Charles Lloyd), whose Guitar In The Space Age! (Okeh) was nominated for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album; Maria Schneider (April 19), whose The Thompson Fields (ArtistShare) was nominated for Best Large … [Read more...]