The Arts in New York City

Enhanced Podcast Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The dulcet melody of etudes from Chopin Op. 10 enthralled my ears when I was sitting in the audience at a professional pianist competition in the recital halls at NYU. I was infatuated by the mostly twenty-minute-long pieces each pianist performed in front of a panel of judges. My piano teacher had invited me to come see her participate at an annual competition held right near Washington Square. I was in awe when I saw her and the other competitors run their fingers so vigorously yet beautifully over the clavier. To me, it is absolutely captivating to see someone lay their hands on the keys and give meaning and emotions to simple black dots on fine-lined sheets of paper. This infatuation has been my motivation in continuing to play for almost eleven years. Sitting in the audience witnessing these heart-felt deliveries of such comprehensive pieces, I thought to myself that these pianists shouldn’t be perceived as “competitors” for they can merely compete in terms of technique. Instead, they should each be applauded as artists who are able to play marvelous music in their own, individual interpretation. In the end, a twenty-two-year-old pianist won whose excellent technique was undeniable. To me, he stood out among the others because of the refined tone he produced and his sensational delivery. I was truly inspired by these pianists; it provided reassurance once again that I want to always hone the skill of playing the piano.    

Enhanced Podcast Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For the past three weeks, I had the opportunity to work on Anton Chekhov’s critically acclaimed play “The Seagull” at Brooklyn College. Not as an actress however, but as a crewmember. I was assigned the job of the “sound operator”. This was totally unfamiliar territory to me, but over the course of three weeks I experienced the complex and often stressful job of the people who truly take care of bringing the authenticity of a play to life – the crew. As an audience, one gets to enjoy the captivating performances of the actors and take in the marvelous set, lights, sound, period costumes and props. These components, which at times we don’t give enough credit to, let one engage and find a connection to the circumstances of the play. What is going on behind the scenes however does not reflect the beauty of art and theater at all – it certainly posed a new challenge and experience to me. During shows, I sat on a headset in a small, dark sound booth, waiting for my stage manager to call the next cue. I realized that I didn’t perceive “The Seagull” as a beautiful play filled with great characters anymore, but it turned into a technical piece of text to which I didn’t have any emotional connection and merely dissected it into cues, breaks and “stand-by’s”. It was enriching as an actor to make this experience of being a crewmember. I believe it broadened my horizon to the extent that I now understand the complexity and huge undertaking of only one play – the people, technicalities and money that is involved; something that the audience and even actors mostly don’t pay much attention to.

As the “tkts”- booth on Times Square is popular among both New Yorkers and tourists for making a good bargain on Broadway-tickets, there is one musical we never see displayed on the screen: “Wicked”. After its debut in 2003, “Wicked” is still known to be the most sought-after musical on Broadway. Besides “Premium Seats”, tickets to see this musical – praised as being “The best show in town!” and “A must-see!”- are sold out months in advance. Surprisingly, I good lucky and got two tickets after waiting for two hours on the ticket-return-line, tickets that had been cancelled by someone and were then sold back to the public. I thought I knew what was going to expect me since I was very familiar with the music, but “Wicked” exceeded my expectations by far! “Wicked” is everything we imagine when we think of a “Broadway Musical”: extravagant costumes, mesmerizing songs, lavishing sets and dramatic effects. The spectacular coups de theatre combined with breath-taking music and vocal performances engaged the audience in such a way that I could have never imagined. (more…)

Searching for an event that would make up for the Sigrid Nunez Reading at the Newman Conference Center at Baruch on Tuesday, I quickly realized that I had not look too far. Macaulay’s common events can actually be very beneficial besides contradictory observations many students had made after the first event. I was lucky to have met a guy that over the last two months has become a dear friend of mine: Sean.
(more…)

When I saw the performance of “Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute” at The Joyce Theater, I couldn’t help but ask myself, “What would Mozart say about the Cambodian adaptation of his epochal opera ‘Die Zauberfloete/ The Magic Flute’?” Though this wasn’t out of disinclination towards the performance, it was a question that was adequate to ask oneself. For anyone who had an opportunity to see Mozart’s “Magic Flute”, differences and similarities were easy to depict and a slight preconception about what was going to be expected could inhibit one from truthfully enjoying the performance. A major difference was the fact that the Cambodian Magic Flute was solely performed through movements. Besides the rather “quote-like” surtitles above the ten musicians upstage, there were no spoken words at all. Dressed in absolutely stunning, traditional Cambodian costumes, the dancers performed traditional Cambodian movements, which are mainly focused in the hands and feet. Dances almost seemed like a sequence of striking poses that progressed very slowly from one to another. Though I found that “Pamina Devi” at The Joyce Theater was a captivating experience, I personally found it extremely difficult to stay focused during the 120 minute performance. The story that was told through the movements was very similar to Mozart’s original– the five main characters (Pamina, Tamino, Papageno, Papagena and the Queens of the Night) were all translated into Cambodian names- but it took deep focus and endurance to follow the story throughout. To fully immerse in this adaptation and not simply get carried away by the beauty of costumes and Cambodian tradition, one must have had a deep appreciation for movement and dance and the rather trained mind and etiquette of a frequent dance spectator.

Suzan-Lori Parks’ “In The Blood” is a riveting play, ultimately concerned with the effects and existence of hypocrisy within human social systems. The questions posed are difficult and demand that we, the audience, examine the answers within ourselves as well as within the society as a whole. While “In The Blood” takes on the qualities of a sophisticated, truthful and certainly socially critical play, Mary Beth Easly, working together with the Brooklyn College Theatre Department, found the compelling nuances between a performance with great depth and yet a sense of genuine humor that keeps the audience engaged and entertained. (more…)

The critically acclaimed “The Frick Collection” located on the Upper East Side, is a beautifully preserved site and a magnificent building, filled with many impressive pieces of art. Henry Clay Frick, the former owner and resident of the estate, and his family had an undying passion for fine art and therefore laid the foundation for a sumptous collection in their home that would later be modified into a museum in the years of 1913 to 1914. Among these awe-inspiring paintings and sculptures were Joseph Mallord William Turner’s “The Harbor of Dieppe” and “Cologne: The Arrival of Packet Boat: Evening” hung on opposite sides of the West Gallery, because of their tremendous detail and endowment to inspire the observer to see and feel the movement in these paintings themselves. Jeans Barbet’s sculpture “Angel”, held entirely in black and located in the garden, which is an artistic, spiritual site in itself, caught my attention the most because of the defined features and striking pose of the angel. Though, the artistic value and beauty of all the pieces displayed in “The Frick Collection” is undeniable, I got the impression that most of the pieces didn’t seem to get the full appreciation they deserved. While the building has all potential to be an enjoyable, sophisticated museum, many of the galleries felt crammed and the arrangement of the pieces was rather imperfect. Even though I took advantage of the Art Phone Audio Guide, provided for no extra fee, I was not fully able to immerse in the depth and focus these pieces required of me as the observer. “The Frick Collection” is a museum that requires one to have preparation, maybe even do research, before hand, I believe, to fully appreciate every piece of art and in order for one to know what to look for in the numerous galleries.