Percent for Art: Beecher School

by Tia Blassingame

Every time I see this whimsical sculpture at Beecher School it brightens my day. The City of New Haven's Percent for Art in Public Spaces program mandates 1% of construction costs for the City's newly built and renovated projects be set aside for commissioned art. The program started 28 years ago. In the recent construction and renovation of numerous New Haven Public Schools, Percent for Art has successfully integrated artwork and artistic accents into the lives of countless students, teachers, parents, and residents. This is just one example.

Hugo Kauder Competition '09

It’s not very often that a young musician gets the chance to premiere a piece written half a century ago by a prolific European composer. But this September at the Hugo Kauder Society’s Fifth Annual International Music Competition, ten talented finalists—oboists, clarinetists, and flutists—will showcase Hugo Kauder’s musical works, several of which are being publicly performed for the first time. Kauder, a mid 20th-century Viennese composer, is being celebrated today as an artist who penned beautiful, lush works. This was rare at a time when the music of the Romantic Era was being cast aside to make way for the atonal minimalism of the mid 20th-century.

The Kauder Competition is a great opportunity for the finalists, who hail from all over the world and who come from prestigious music schools such as the Yale School of Music, The Juilliard School, and the Eastman School of Music. The Competition’s live final round will be held on September 11 at Neighborhood Music School from 9 AM to 6 PM. Admission is free. The winners will be decided by three esteemed judges: Doris Goltzer, the solo English Hornist of the New York City Opera for fifty-one years; Jeanne Baxtresser, Solo Flutist of the New York Philharmonic; and Richard Stoltzman, a two-time Grammy Award winner and one of today's most sought-after concert artists. On September 12, a Winners Concert will take place at Firehouse 12 in New Haven from 2-4 PM. The first place winner will receive $4000 as well as a NYC performance opportunity. The second and third place winners will receive $2000 and $1000 respectively.

So check it out- It’s a rare opportunity to attend a premiere of non-contemporary pieces, and it’s looking like this year’s Kauder Competition will be fantastic.

--Cynthia, Arts Council Intern

Working at Woodstock

By Jonathan Waters

I was working as a carpenter that summer, rebuilding a cape
cottage. I knew some tech people who worked at the Fillmore East in
New York City who asked me to give them a hand building a stage, etc. for a music festival in rural New York. I was eighteen.

I packed the car with tools, a tent, some grub, and a few friends and we were off. It was about a week before the festival and there was a lot to do.

I was assigned to work on a bridge over a road between the performers' pavilion area and the stage. We pitched the tent in the performers' area, so we were in a restricted area. We worked pretty much 24/7, supplemented by vitamin
b12 shots administered by the festival Dr. Feel Good.

At a certain point it started to get really crowded. There was concern that it
could easily get out of hand. We were sort of at the epicenter. The
only way in or out was by helicopter. They flew in food for us.

After the building was done I was assigned to work security on the bridge, to talk
down climbers. I watched a lot of the show from that area behind the
stage and in a video trailer that a friend was working in.

We had about ten people sleeping in a four-man tent.

The rain ...

My memories are mostly informed by the movie. What I remember of the
actual festival is a blur of images. Like most people, probably, I had
never seen so many people in one spot, all in the same situation. It
was a great leveler and there was a feeling of togetherness of which much has been spoken.

After it was over and our job was done we packed up our things and attempted to leave. I had been there two weeks and needed to get back, but the roads were blocked by abandoned cars and it took a while get out. It looked like the aftermath of some
great storm, lots of garbage and abandoned belongings, detritus from the event.

I saw a sunburned, half-naked man riding on top of a van fall off onto the highway at around sixty, bounce once, and roll into a ditch. Amazingly he was OK.

About six months later I received a check. I think it was about $250. I never expected I would be paid.

The next summer I worked the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music in England.

But that's another story ...

Katro gets some well-deserved press

Arts Council member (and friend) Katro Storm is (deservedly) in the news. Katro, along with students from Hillhouse High School, is working on a mural at the Stetson Branch Library on Dixwell Avenue. Read Adzua Agyapon's story in New Haven Independent and leave a comment. Then come back and leave a comment here.