On the topic of “maverick,” one of the words being used to describe the artists on offer in the Renegade series, I learned at yesterday’s first UMS “Night School” session that its primary meaning is an “unbranded calf or yearling.” The term comes from one Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803-1870), an American rancher who refused to brand his own calves so that he could claim any unbranded calf he found as his own. Needless to say, he wasn’t a popular guy in his neighborhood. More broadly, the word “maverick” refers to something—a calf, for instance, or maybe a composer—that lacks any markings of ownership. I suppose that’s what John McCain had in mind in four years ago, but I’m glad UMS is reclaiming the word for us in something like its original context, and I’m intrigued to think of artists like Robert Wilson and Olivier Messiaen (whose From the Canyons to the Stars is next up in the Renegade series) as stubborn ranchers who flat-out won’t, or can’t, brand their work.

Lots of talk at last night’s class—attended by more than 70 people—about what to expect at next week’s Einstein on the Beach. Instructor Mark Clague went over what EoB is (an opera with poetic texts, recitative, an orchestra pit, and a mythic hero) and is not (Aida). Of particular note are the work’s five-hour length and non-narrative structure, and the attendant challenges for audience members. If I leave to go to the bathroom, how will I know what I’ve missed? people wanted to know. Just how repetitive is it? I caught up with Dennis Carter, head usher for UMS, who came to last night’s class to prepare himself for next week’s event.

Inspired? What do you think it means to be a “renegade”?

UMS is presenting preview performances of Einstein on the Beach, an opera by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass, January 20-22. Absolute Wilson, a film which chronicles the epic life, times, and creative genius of theater director Robert Wilson, will be screened on January 9. The film screening is free.

Photo: Robert Wilson. “Video 50,” 1978. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York

In conjunction, UMMA’s Video 50 curates Robert Wilson’s “smaller-scale” experiments in video. Guest Curator Ruth Keffer describes the exhibit:

Video 50 consists of a randomly arranged set of 30-second “episodes”; counting occasional repeats and alternate versions, the 50 pieces of the title number nearly 100. Some of these episodes are static to the point of resembling still-lifes; others are self-contained vignettes that begin and end—or seem to end; any narrative resolution is teasingly withheld. With its use of early video techniques and the highly stylized, fashion-world look of its actors, Video 50 seems dated, but the way in which Wilson wields his domestic-gothic vocabulary is classic surrealism: everyday objects and settings made mysterious or comical or alien by their bizarre juxtaposition to one another, and by an equally nonsensical and cheerfully manipulative score of music and sound effects.

Read the full article in UMMA Magazine.

In this episode, Meg Bragle (mezzo-soprano) and Mary Wilson (soprano), Messiah soloists and good friends, talk about the fun of coming back to Ann Arbor to perform in Messiah:

Previously:

Episode 1: Jerry Blackstone, long-time Messiah conductor, forgets his jacket on the day of the performance.

Episode 2: Father Timothy Dombrowski, choral union member for over forty years, remembers “The Bat out of Hill.”

Episode 3: Megan Sajewski, resident of Martha Cook dormitory, talks about co-chairing the annual Martha Cook Messiah Dinner.

I’ve worked with Rani Kotha and Howard Hu for the past five years here at the UM School of Public Health, and I think of them primarily as science people—Rani’s the executive director of the UM Center for Global Health, and Howard chairs the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at SPH. So I was intrigued to see they’re co-sponsoring next week’s performance by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. I asked Rani why, and she told me that she and Howard are big fans of UMS—Rani’s a board member—and strongly advocates for the arts. Howard’s mother studied music and taught him the piano, and Rani danced and sang, and their 17-year-old son, Krishna, now plays piano and violin and performs with his school orchestra. Rani says although Krishna’s quite science-oriented, “music has really helped him to nurture the more creative part of his brain and has really built his confidence.”

UMS and the arts are also “very much a community thing,” she adds. Howard’s parents came to the States from China, and he’s got family in Taiwan. Rani’s family emigrated from India. Through Cloud Gate (and later in the season Zakir Hussain, whose UMS performance they’re also co-sponsoring) they’re able to share their cultural heritage with the A2 community.

Rani cottoned onto the idea of co-sponsoring Cloud Gate after hearing UMS programming director Michael Kondziolka describe the company’s work—and show this YouTube video [link]—to the board during a meeting of the programming committee last year. “the performers were so beautiful and lithe and physically strong, and there was almost this acrobatic feel to them, and they had such precision in their movement, but the performance was very simple and austere and meditative … very Asian.” She decided then and there that if they could swing it, she and Howard would help bring Cloud Gate to town.

To hear Rani tell it, meetings of the programming committee are themselves riveting performances. (Maybe UMS should sell tickets.) Here’s her take:

“My absolutely favorite committee meetings are the programming committee meetings, run by Michael Kondziolka. They allow board members to get inside his head and understand what goes into building the UMS season. The meetings are usually three to four hours long, but time goes by so quickly. Michael shares what goes into building a season—recruiting talent; developing long-term relationships with performers; embracing a wide variety of subjects, different genres, styles, different geographic regions of the country and world. It’s almost like a chess game—trying to make the dates work, figuring out where the performers need to be next in their tour, how it will benefit the University of Michigan to have these performers in residence, which venue is going to work, how much preparation will go into the venue to make it work, the cost to cover tickets. So much goes into it. My decisions on what to buy tickets for are based almost entirely on the content of these meetings. I know very little, and then I’ll listen to a recording, or Michael will show a YouTube clip, or he’ll tell a story, and you feel, oh my god, I’m going to buy tickets to that. And by the end of it you feel you need a second job, because I’ve just decided I’m going to buy 30 tickets to things. It’s my favorite activity of the board and such a privilege to be a part of.”

Below, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan in the words of Ann Arbor’s Taiwanese community.

And an interview with Artistic Director Lin Hwai-min upon his arrival in Ann Arbor:

And a little bit more about his inspirations:

In the fall, the films highlight deep cultural expressions which grow from communities of shared heritage. In the winter, the films tie in with UMS’s RENEGADE series, which focuses on artistic innovation and experimentation. We’ve created a mini film festival, UMS Renegade on Film, to extend the renegade idea and explore other artists who have created new arts frontiers.

All films (except one! see below) are presented in the U-M Museum of Art Stern Auditorium (525 S. State Street) and are free and open to the public.

Pure Michigan Renegade on Film:

The Legend of Leigh Bowery (with director Q&A)
(2002, Charles Atlas, 60 min.)
Monday, February 13, 7 pm

Renegade filmmaker Charles Atlas (who worked extensively with the late choreographer Merce Cunningham) introduces his 2002 documentary The Legend of Leigh Bowery. Artist/designer/performer/provocateur Leigh Bowery designed costumes and performed with the enfant terrible of British dance Michael Clark, designed one-of-a-kind outrageous costumes and creations for himself, ran one of the most outrageous clubs of the 1980s London club scene (later immortalized in Boy George’s Broadway musical “Taboo”), and was the muse of the great British painter Lucian Freud. The film includes interviews with Damien Hirst, Bella Freud, Cerith Wyn Evans, Boy George, and his widow Nicola Bowery.  Charles Atlas will participate in audience Q&A immediately following the film.   This film is co-presented with the U-M Institute for the Humanities which hosts Charles Atlas’s video installation “Joints Array” in February 2012.

Helicopter String Quartet
(1995, Frank Sheffer, 81 min.)
Wednesday, March 7, 7:00 PM at the Michigan Theater (603 E. Liberty)
Tickets: $10 general admission; $7 students/seniors/UMS and Mich Theater members; $5 AAFF members
Purchase Tickets Here

The UMS Renegade on Film series culminates at the Michigan Theatre in collaboration with the Ann Arbor Film Festival (celebrating its 50th anniversary in March 2012!!).   The curators at AAFF chose an amazing documentary that captures the renegade spirit and provides a fabulous lead-in to the San Francisco Symphony American Mavericks concerts.  In one of the most certifiably eccentric musical events of the late 20th century, German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen designed and executed the performance: four string quartet members playing an original piece by Stockhausen in four separate helicopters, all flying simultaneously. The sound was then routed to a central location and mixed; the work premiered, in turn, at the 1995 Holland Festival. Frank Scheffer’s film Helicopter String Quartet depicts the behind-the-scenes preparations for this event; Scheffer also conducts and films an extended conversation with Stockhausen in which the creator discusses the conception and execution of his composition and then breaks it down analytically.  Featuring music by Karlheinz Stockhausen, performed by the Arditti String Quartet.    Co-presented with the Ann Arbor Film Festival in partnership with the Michigan Theater, in collaboration with the U-M Museum of Art.

Past Films…

Fauborg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
(2008, Dawn Logsdon, 69 min.)
Tuesday, October 11, 7 pm

Connected with UMS’s presentation of A Night in Tremé: the Musical Majesty of New Orleans, this documentary follows Lolis Eric Elie, a New Orleans newspaperman on a tour of his city, a tour that becomes a reflection on the relevance of history, folded into a love letter to the storied New Orleans neighborhood, Faubourg Tremé. Arguably the oldest black neighborhood in America and the birthplace of jazz, Faubourg Tremé was home to the largest community of free black people in the Deep South during slavery, and it was also a hotbed of political ferment. In Faubourg Tremé, black and white, free and enslaved, rich and poor co-habitated, collaborated, and clashed to create America’s first Civil Rights movement and a unique American culture. Wynton Marsalis is the executive producer of the film, which also features an original jazz score by Derrick Hodge. Introducing the film is U-M American Culture faculty member Bruce Conforth, whom some may remember from last season’s series on American Roots music.

AnDa Union: From the Steppes to the City (with director Q&A)
(2011, Sophie Lascelles and Tim Pearce)
Tuesday, November 8, 7 pm

Before AnDa Union takes the stage at Hill Auditorium, filmmakers Sophie Lascelles and Tim Pearce will screen their new documentary, which follows the group of 14 musicians who all hail from the Xilingol Grassland area of Inner Mongolia. The film premieres at the London Film Festival on October 13, and Ann Arbor will be one of the first to screen it after its debut. AnDa Union is part of a musical movement that is finding inspiration in old and forgotten folk music from the nomadic herdsman cultures of Inner and Outer Mongolia, drawing on a repertoire of music that all but disappeared during China’s recent tumultuous past. Tim and Sophie will be here in Ann Arbor to introduce the film, and take audience questions after the screening.

Absolute Wilson
(2006, Katharina Otto-Bernstein, 105 min.)
Tuesday, January 10, 7 pm

Absolute Wilson chronicles the epic life, times, and creative genius of theater director Robert Wilson. More than a biography, the film is an exhilarating exploration of the transformative power of creativity – and an inspiring tale of a boy who grew up as an outsider in the American South only to become a fearless artist with a profoundly original perspective on the world. The narrative reveals the deep connections between Wilson’s childhood experiences and the haunting beauty of his monumental works, which include the theatrical sensations “Deafman Glance,” “Einstein on the Beach” and “The CIVIL WarS.”

This weekend, Center for Chinese Studies, inspired by the traditional Asian craft of kite flying, presented a one-day jubilee with a community competition, master kite fly-offs, lion dancing, and wind-borne activities, including a DIY kite workshop on September 25. Check out the fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opxj6G5kTo8

I brought a slew of Detroit blues & rock musicians to the show (including 4 guitarists!) and they were thrilled to see Honeyboy jam, as well as to shake his hand afterwards. I’ll remember his graciousness – signing autographs, and posing for photos for 90 minutes in Hill’s lobby after the show – as much as his spirited playing.

Honeyboy was a true gentleman, still giving everything he had to his art and his supporters at the age of 94.

David “Honeyboy” Edward passed away on Aug 29th, 2011.

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More on “Blues at the Crossroads” here.

Single Tickets to all individual performances went on sale at our ticket office yesterday, and you came prepared with lists of your favorites. Got your own list performances? Add a picture on Facebook or tweet it @UMSNews on Twitter!

Who do you like to go to UMS shows with?