ArtWorks This Week is made possible by the members of MPT. Thank you for your generous support!

Production Funders:

  • The Abell Foundation
  • Baltimore Community Foundation
  • The Baltimore Orioles Foundation
  • Charles Delmar Foundation
  • Community Foundation of Frederick County
  • The Cordish Family Fund
  • The Harry L. Gladding Foundation, Inc.
  • The Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenburg Foundation
  • James G. Robinson Foundation
  • Marjorie Wyman Charitable Annuity Trust
  • SunTrust Mid Atlantic Foundation
  • Witt/Hoey Foundation

This Week: Featured on March 2, 2005

Peabody Jazz Orchestra

Baltimore has a long and rich history of jazz. Great jazz musicians from the early part of the 20th century closely associated with Baltimore include Cab Calloway, Eubie Blake, and Billie Holiday, among others. At Peabody, aspiring musicians are presented with the unique opportunity to learn from educator/performers who have been identified as some of the major creative forces on the international music scene. The faculty, a virtual "Who’s Who" in jazz, is dedicated to fostering the development of each student’s individual talents and inclinations. Peabody believes that it is of major significance for the student to have as instructors actual participants on the contemporary music scene. There is an added benefit for students when the information relayed to them is born of experience. Having first-hand knowledge of the requirements of professional music as a lifestyle, Peabody’s faculty is qualified to provide interested students with tested specifics–proven methods that have worked for many of our country’s greatest contributors to the performing arts. The Peabody Jazz Orchestra is led by Michael Formanek, who has been a major presence on the New York City creative jazz scene since the 1990 release of his debut album as a leader, Wide Open Spaces, on the Enja label. Formanek had already proven himself a skillful sideman in ensembles led by the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Dave Liebman, Fred Hersch, and Attila Zollar, but Wide Open Spaces was the first recording that revealed the bassist's ability to write widely varied compositions emphasizing the strong talents of his own ensemble members (in this case saxophonist Greg Osby, violinist Mark Feldman, guitarist Wayne Krantz, and drummer Jeff Hirshfield). In 1992, Enja released Formanek's second recording, Extended Animation, which featured the same bandmembers as Wide Open Spaces except for one important difference: a switch in saxophonist from Osby to Tim Berne. The Peabody Jazz Orchestra performs March 7th (and every Monday night), 7:30 and 9:00 pm at An Die Musik, located at 409 North Charles Street. Tickets are &8 general admission, $5 students with ID.

Related Links:
Peabody Jazz Program
An Die Musik

Into The Woods

Matthew Bowerman
Theater Teacher, Carver Center for Arts And Technology

School plays might be thought of as a pleasant evening diversion for the kids (and parents) involved, but that's never the case at Carver Center for the Arts and Technology. Their theatrical productions are on a par with many professional theater companies in the area, due to the stellar talent of the students in the cast, as well as the integrated, interdisciplinary group effort the school employs to get every - and we mean EVERY - student in the school involved in the production. The theater and voice students perform, the theater tech students build the jaw-dropping set, the graphic arts students create programs, poster, and PR material, the cosmetology students do the stage makeup - the video students even shot some of the footage appearing in Artworks's story tonight! Theater teacher Matthew Bowerman explains to us how this group effort results in an amazing night at the theater. Into The Woods opens at Carver Center for The Arts And Technology at 938 York Rd, Towson, MD, on March 9th at 7 pm with a gala dessert reception catered by Carver's culinary arts students. Tickets for this special event are $25. The play runs March 10th, 11th, 12th, 17th and 18th, all shows at 7 pm. Tickets for these later dates are $10, $8 for students. To purchase tickets, call Jeff Harrison at 410-887-2775.

Related Links:
Carver Center Website

Kasabian

During the past year, rock band KASABIAN- full of swagger and verve- have slowly but surely conquered Britain. Coming from a generation raised on Prodigy, Oasis, The Stone Roses and Primal Scream, KASABIAN combine beats and guitars with political venom. A series of thrilling singles ("Clubfoot", "L.S.F.", "Reason Is Treason") each accompanied by urban guerrilla imagery and riveting videos, have made increasing dents on the UK Chart. ArtWorks This Week met members, Tom Meighan and Serge Pizzorno as they began their assault on US soil at the 9:30 club in Washington, D.C. Their self-titled album is due to hit your favorite local music store on March 8th.

Related Links:
Kasabian

Salon Art: Leo Howard Lubow

In 1997, after 20 years as a business litigator, Leo Howard Lubow gave up his legal practice to pursue two passions: writing and photography. Since then, he has completed an existential thriller, and created a cross-disciplinary body of photography that includes fine art, portrait, photojournalistic and street-scene portfolios. Lubow shoots film (Leica and Canon) and digital (Canon), and performs all post-capture work to completion of the final print. Although he works in both color and black and white, the latter predominates, particularly when the subject is one of his favorites: jazz and blues musicians. This past week, Lubow's photograph entitled "Violinist, New York Subway" placed first in See the Music, a juried exhibit of approximately 40 artists commissioned by the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra. In addition, seven of Lubow's jazz images were featured in the February issue of the Baltimore Urbanite, and in the December 2004 issue of Petersen's PHOTOgraphic, Lubow's image of a saxophone player won the grand prize in a competition devoted to silhouettes. Additionally, the Gallery at An die Musik in Baltimore is currently presenting an exhibit of Lubow's work, entitled Blue Note Moments & Other Points In Time, through March 2005. The show consists of 60 images shot in Amsterdam, Baltimore, the Caribbean, New Orleans, New York, Paris, Tuscany, and Venice.

Related Links:
A Selection of Images by Leo Howard Lubow

Richard Cleaver

The Baltimore Museum of Art

Baltimore-based artist Richard Cleaver has long had a fascination for the Spring House which sits at the corner of The Baltimore Museum of Art's front lawn. This building was designed by Benjamin Latrobe, the same artist/architect who designed the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C, as well as the Basilica of the Assumption in downtown Baltimore. The Spring House was originally located near Falls Road and Cold Spring Lane --and was made for the owner of the Oakland Plantation. The house and the spring that ran through it provided a cool place in summer to store food -- and even had a loft-like second floor where one could play billiards on a summer night. Long after the plantation was sold off in pieces, the building was moved to it's present home on the grounds of The Baltimore Museum of Art. This beautiful building has been painted and spruced up and is now the home until April 3, to a "gathering" of figures created by Richard Cleaver. These figures of people and characters, both real and imagined, have influenced this artist in his life. A central figure is a Madonna-like woman, a slave who might have lived on the Oakland Farm Plantation. This woman stands above all the rest, holding a child, the son of the plantation owner. But look closely at the face of the boy -- there is a face behind his as the artist has left the locket-like sculptured face half open. There is the face of her on child as well.

Related Links:
The Baltimore Museum of Art