I don’t know why I haven’t checked it out before, but when I did, I was surprised to see an entire box of vintage libretti in the music section.

Who knew they would have something like this?! They had (yes, past tense) a collection that included libretti from The Metropolitan Opera, the Metropolitan Opera House, Chicago Grand Opera, and the Cincinnati Opera. Two days later I returned with my imaginary cash card and purchased most of them. If you’re interested in buying the rest, you should probably do so before I get paid again.

These two libretti are from the Cincinnati Zoo Opera Company, when the opera was at the Zoo Opera Pavilion.

Isn’t this fun? Of course, I’ve never heard of the opera Andrea Chénier, nor have I heard of the composer Umberto Giordano and the librettist Luigi Illica (yes, I should know the latter). The next libretto cover should be a little more familiar.

Nice, huh? Here’s the inside.

And here’s something I discovered with some of these older libretti. They include the melody line from the arias in the back of the libretto.

This is something supertitles can’t give you. It’s too bad these melody lines aren’t printed in current opera programs.

Images by JennJolley from her Flickr Stream

Over the next week or two you’ll be meeting our new team members, today I’d like to introduce a new voice covering music in Cincinnati. Jenn will be looking at aspects of the Cincy audioscape that I feel escape notice far too often. So, without further ado, meet the composer! -Loki

You’re probably wondering what I do. I could tell you that I’m grad student at CCM and I teach music theory and orchestration on the side, but those are my day jobs. Ultimately, I’m a composer.

What I do is simple enough—I write music. Of course, the next thing you will probably ask me is what type of music I write, and this is where I start stammering.

I have a hard time describing my musical style because I don’t want you to think that I write stodgy old-fashioned music performed in concert halls. I do write music that can be performed in concert halls, but my music isn’t two hundred years old, and thankfully I’m not dead yet.

Instead of initially sharing what type of music I write, I should probably tell you how I stumbled upon writing music.

I began my piano studies when I was six due to my fascination with the instrument, and when I was in high school I took my piano studies seriously. At the time I learned and memorized standard piano repertoire, which included classics like Beethoven sonatas and Chopin études. Unfortunately I did not have the discipline to become a concert pianist; instead of practicing what I was supposed to, I changed what Beethoven and friends wrote on the page. In other words, I improvised ditties based on music I should have been practicing.

At the time I didn’t know that improvisation is a form of composing: I believed all musical compositions were completely original and didn’t stem from doodling on the piano. But after I realized that composing was the creative outlet I was looking for, I thought it would be the coolest thing to write music for films. I thought, “I can write music like that!” and decided that my music would be best heard on Dolby Digital 7.1 surround sound.

And now, over ten years later, I still write music. I don’t write music for films (although I’m still open to the idea), but I’ve been mainly writing music for the concert hall, art gallery, or whomever wants to play and listen to my music.

Here’s a sample of what I’ve been writing lately.

concert:nova asked me to write a response to a movement from Camille Saint-Saëns’s The Carnival of the Animals; I wrote a response to “The Aquarium.” (With Annunziata Tomoro conducting.)

The Silent World (2010) by jenniferjolley

A couple years ago I wrote a piece for nine violas. Nine! As one of my professors mentioned, the next time nine of his viola friends get together, they have something to play besides baseball. (With Vince Lee conducting.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POUFlRan-3Q

And here’s a piece I wrote for a solo percussionist and narration. I used text from the poem “How to be a Deep Thinker in Los Angeles” written by my librettist Kendall A. (Tyler Niemeyer, percussionist)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZlzMIA-oB4

JennJolley, a composer from Los Angeles, moved out to Cincinnati in 2007 to attend the College-Conservatory of Music. When not composing music like she should be doing, she’s probably at the CSO, the Cincinnati Ballet, the CAC, or a Reds game. She blogs at Why Compose When You Can Blog? to further her procrastination.

Image by WilliSlim on Flickr, Creative Commons License v. 2.0 

ArtsWave is partnering with the Cincinnati Ballet on Saturday, February 19 in presenting a ballet sampler for the entire family.  Included in the sampler will be a preview of the upcoming Firebird and Infamous Love Songs from Over the Rhine newest release. 

This is an incredible deal for the entire family; ticket prices are insanely inexepnsive and can be purchased at The College of Mount St. Joseph. BIG thank you to ArtsWave and the Cincinnati Ballet for reaching out to the West Side to provide such as fantastic opportunity to experience art in our community!

$9 = General Admission

$5 = Student and Seniors

FREE = Children 12 and under

Click to see full sized poster

New Year’s Eve I almost did not go out at all. I had woken up feeling poorly, my sinuses felt like they were reverting to swampland. Still, thanks to poking and prodding from friends I decided to hit Mayday to ring in the new year.

Now if you haven’t been to Mayday it is a terrific little hole in the wall hidden away on Spring Grove Ave in Northside (4227 to be exact) . It seems small at first but as you venture deeper you keep finding more. Dark and winding it will suddenly open out into dance floor or a large, two level open air patio. As a result it has one of my favorite traits in a club- a variety of spaces and atmospheres.

Being a sucker for fire performances and costume events I was looking forward to the performances, and happy to see that the cover was going to help fund West End art space The KOIpound (2008 Freeman Ave).

I grabbed Grim, one of the KOIPound people organizing the shindig and got him to answer a few questions about the performers and about their art space. Be advised, I was several cocktails into the evening at this point.

Here is one of my favorite performances of the night. Watch this guy closely, he is barely using his hands. I’ve never seen someone contact juggle a spear before, much less one with multiple flaming heads.

All in all a great way to ring in the new year- belly dancers, fire performers, a costumed crowd, and all in what is rapidly becoming one of my favorite bars in the city. Bonus points for benefiting a local arts organization as well!

Here is hoping that 2011 will bring improvements for everyone, and for our lovely Queen City as well. Happy New Year!

-Loki, Founder and Curator

The 3rd annual Carnival Noir returns to Cincinnati on Friday, October 22nd from 8pm to midnight. Featuring contortionists, belly dancers, spinners, bands and more, the show shines an artistic light on humanity’s dark side through a blend of filmed and live performances. Tickets are $15 to $20 and include entry to the Voodoo Lounge for shopping, tarot readings, make-up applications and dancing. And yes, you’re more than encouraged to wear a costume. Proceeds from the Silent Auction items will benefit Women’s Crisis Center.

Men’s Drop Inn Recovery Program

Women’s First Step Recovery Program

Readvitalization Final Friday

Book Bank

Final Friday readings were held this past Final Friday and readings will be held again this Saturday, September 4 from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM at the Contemprary Art Center  for their 44 Series.   Here’s the Facebook invitation – Join Us!

Flash forward 12 years later and I sat in the back of a classroom at Morehead State looking at the score to Mozart’s The Magic Flute my mother’s words echoing in my mind.  My peers were engaged in a lively discussion regarding the piece and I sat frantically trying to write down every word feeling like a spy in a dark alley peering into a lighted window.

This past April I walked into the Fine Art’s Fund BOARDway Bound program these thoughts again flittered just behind my pupils; I was once more crashing the party.  Earlier that month, I had written in my journal all the reasons why I shouldn’t apply for the program: I wasn’t traveled enough, networked enough, rich enough, connected enough, skilled enough…simply not enough.  Who did I think I was doing something like this-me? On an art board?  I put down my pen, wrote a Letter of Intent, updated my resume, filled out the application and dashed off an email.  My justification: I simply wanted to learn something new.

The program consisted of 3 meetings with 8-12 hours of online work between each meeting.  We covered Board Member Responsibilities, Financial Management and Staff Responsibilities, and Fundraising and an Overview of Engagement.  The meetings were informative and focused on application of what we learned on the website.  We heard from various Directors from Clifton Cultural Arts Center, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, and The Carnegie. The idea behind this program is to put together a Board Bank or a collection of individuals who are interested in participating on an art board within the smaller arts organizations in Cincinnati and the surrounding communities.  The Fine Arts Fund appears to be taking more of a community development direction with this program and The Arts Ripple Effect - billed as a “Research-Based Strategy to Build Shared Responsibility for the Arts.”

I learned much from this program; how an art board functions, the mission of an art organization and the how that mission effects financial decision-making.  However, the best was a new defintion of art and how art fits into my own life.

What makes a person rich? seeing a mural on a wall; teaching a child the art of clowning; painting a street; hearing original, independent music on Fountain Square; or seeing an original, contemporary play.  That which makes an individual rich is what makes a community rich.

Last weekend I saw my first Cincinnati opera, La Boheme courtesy of tickets from Enjoy the Arts. 

Hey mom, I’m one of the rich people now.

BOARDway Bound Video

*All photos courtesy of Fine Arts Fund

Mr. Thunder-Sky

When people ask why Thunder-Sky, Inc. (a gallery/arts organization housed in Northside near the Comet) exists, I normally tell them to keep Raymond Thunder-Sky’s legacy alive, and to focus the spotlight on artists like him.  But I also think that we did it so we could keep his name alive, as well collect the stories people remember about him.  Every time I write a facebook or blog post about Thunder-Sky, Inc, or draft a letter about something, or answer the phone or whatever it’s like I am keeping his memory around through incantation. Keep saying his name and his spirit sort of flickers, like lightning inside a thunder-cloud. Shakespeare asked the question, “What’s in a name?” I guess the answer is everything.

Dressed in his construction hat and clown collar, his work-coat, boots and jeans, toting his huge tool-box of art-supplies, Raymond Thunder-Sky was always moving from one part of Cincinnati to the next, in search of inspiration and subject matter.  From the late 70s till his death in 2004, he would set up makeshift easels in front of construction and demolition sites and then get to work.  His drawings, always done in magic-marker on card-stock, are of buildings being torn down and replaced by industries and projects imagined by Raymond:  Clown Suit Factories, Card Trick Amusement Parks, and Native American freeways.  Raymond’s father, Richard Bright-Fire Thunder-Sky, was a chief of the Mohawk tribe, and his mother was a descendent of an Austrian Nobleman.

No one ever really understood what Raymond was up to, however, and he spent a huge part of his life cloaked in mystery.  As we’ve gone about creating Thunder-Sky, Inc., we’ve heard all kinds of stories about encounters with Raymond from people across the area.  One gentleman called me a few months back, after coming across the Thunder-Sky, Inc. website (www.thunderskyinc.org).  He lives in North Carolina now, but back in the 80s, he said he used to ride the same Metro bus Raymond did.  One day he said three boys were bothering Raymond – making fun of him, talking really loud about the construction-worker/clown-suit outfit he was wearing.  In the middle of their taunts, Raymond stood up from his bus-seat and stared them right in the faces.  The guy from North Carolina says that cold, flat stare shut the boys up instantly.  Raymond’s face, he said, has stuck in his mind since then, as a sort of symbol of “standing up for yourself, letting people know you are not going to be messed with.”

Another story comes from a web-site Steve Kissing has set up to collect Raymond stories (www.raymondthundersky.com).  A contributor to Cincinnati Magazine, as well as a VP at Barefoot advertising here in town, Steve is on the Thunder-Sky, Inc. board.  Here’s the story submitted anonymously by someone who worked with Raymond:

“While in high school in 1974-1975 I worked in the kitchen of the Holiday Inn W.8th St. Cincinnati.  Raymond also worked there as the pot & pan washer.  The “Chief,” as he was known, loved to wash those pots & pans. This usually involved washing an entire day’s worth of cookware encrusted with dried up food.  This is all that Raymond wanted to do, and he did it very well.  We all understood that Raymond refused to do anything else in the kitchen  except pots & pans.  One evening,  the night dishwasher called in sick, and the new asst. manager ‘forced’ Raymond to wash dishes.  This was a very fast-paced job in this busy restaurant.  Several hours into the shift, the Chief was covered with food.  At that point, Raymond removed his clothing and ran them thru the dishwashing machine to clean them.  Needless to say, he wasn’t told to wash dishes any more.   Raymond was a very good artist with quite an imagination. He would walk around Downtown during the daytime before his shift at the “Inn” drawing pictures of buildings being torn down.  He seemed to be somewhat upset about the destruction of historical buildings. Many of his mid seventies drawings were on the back of restaurant paper place mats.”

Both of these memories point to Raymond’s dedication to his art, and also his sense of who he was not just as an artist but as a person.  He was complex, strong, and in charge of his own destiny.  He was living his art every day of his life.  Every week or so, we hear another story that illuminates his mystery, but in the end the beautiful mystery that he was will more-than-likely be his main legacy.  Even though he made drawings that were direct and meticulous on the surface, and even though he walked about the city dressed as a clown, Raymond’s strange, elusive charm evokes responses that seem to place him in a pantheon of characters that catch us all off guard while also making us feel at home, like Pee Wee Herman, E.T., or Edward Scissorhands.  Raymond created that character through sheer force of will, and performed in his own big-budget movie everyday of his life, riding the bus and walking from construction site to construction, drawing what he wanted to see.

In 1999 Bill Ross, a social-worker, artist and Thunder-Sky, Inc. cofounder, met Raymond when Raymond was placed on his caseload.  For some reason (perhaps Raymond sensed that Bill was an artist too), Raymond chose to show his drawings to Bill in a meeting.

“The point of the meeting was to try to get him to take better care of himself and to try to convince him to let his caregivers take him to the doctor and help him try to live healthier,” Bill says.  “This message never really sank in.  Looking back he had his own agenda for me at this meeting.  He wanted to make a connection with the world about his art.  This mysterious and very private man choosing this time to share something so deeply personal with me inspired and truly touched me.  I’ll never forget it.”

After that meeting, Bill introduced Raymond to me, and from that point on, Bill and I assisted with finding exhibition venues for Raymond and other self-taught artists with disabilities we had come across.  Eventually in 2003 we were able to establish Visionaries & Voices (V&V), an art-studio/day-program for artists with developmental disabilities here in Cincinnati.  V&V now helps many artists with developmental disabilities make art in two day-programs in the area (www.visionariesandvoices.com).

In 2004, Raymond Thunder-Sky passed away, leaving behind over 2,000 drawings, along with hundreds of tool-boxes, clown costumes, and construction paraphernalia he had picked up along his journeys throughout the city.  After Raymond’s death, Bill and I got so focused and diligent with ensuring that V&V became a flourishing organization that Raymond’s archive, and legacy, got put on the backburner.  Finally, last year (2009), we were able to establish Thunder-Sky, Inc., a gallery and arts organization dedicated to exhibiting and archiving Raymond’s work and maintaining his legacy through showcasing the works of other artists like him.

The inaugural exhibit, “Raymond Nation: Raymond Thunder-Sky’s Northside,” featured Raymond’s art, along with art made by local artists in tribute to him.  The gallery space is located in Northside, the Cincinnati neighborhood that Raymond grew up in.  In fact, an apartment he lived in as an adult is just one block down the street.  The opening event was attended by over 300 people. At the opening reception, a video featuring Mr. Thunder-Sky was debuted.  The video and other information about Raymond and the gallery can be accessed at www.thunderksyinc.org.  Since the opening, we’ve curated three other exhibits featuring artists that make work reminiscent of Raymond’s art.

The latest exhibit, “World Domination:  Antonio Adams & Tony Dotson” features the paintings and sculptures of Antonio Adams, another self-taught artist Bill and I came across doing our jobs as social workers.  We introduced Antonio to Raymond in 2000.  At this time, Antonio was a graduating high school student.  He was depressed and isolated, making art in his bedroom without a social outlet for his art or feelings.  When he met Raymond, something clicked, and as Antonio says, “He inspired me because he was a spiritual clown-artist and construction-artist.  He was happy being that.  He was very peaceful and he worked hard.”

Antonio’s brilliantly colored and intricately witty paintings and cat-sculptures are in collections across the United States.  He is the artist-in-residence at Thunder-Sky, Inc., overseeing the studio we’ve established in the basement under the gallery space, Under-Sky, Inc., an art-making workshop that occurs every Saturday.  Antonio’s two-person exhibit (along with outsider artist Tony Dotson) opens at Thunder-Sky, Inc. June 25, 2010 and will be on display through September 17, 2010.

Antonio references Raymond a lot in his work.  Raymond became not just an inspiration to Antonio, but a sort of totem-spirit.  In 2009, Antonio was able to create a mural memorializing Raymond.  Antonio did this with help from artist Cedric Cox, and high school students from a program called Artworks, which employs students to do arts-related jobs in the summer.  All of this mythologizing has culminated in the mural, which is on the side of the building that now houses one of V&V’s day-programs.  It is an expansive, Technicolor tribute that places Raymond at the center of a demolition site, with a speech-bubble floating beside his head (mimicking the way Raymond narrated all of his drawings):  “3841 Spring Grove Avenue is being town down to make way for the Raymond Thunder-Sky Construction Clown Amusement Park.”

Antonio says, “My mural and Thunder-Sky, Inc. are both fresh starts to know Raymond again.”

Back in 2004, during Raymond’s memorial, a Shriner’s clown chaplain read the “clown’s prayer” and placed a red nose on Raymond’s casket (making Raymond an honorary clown, which would have delighted him).  One of the stanzas in the poem goes, “As I stumble through this life/help me to create more laughter than tears/dispense more cheer than gloom/spread more cheer than despair.”

Raymond’s art and life have helped to create a cultural revolution here in Cincinnati – two studios for artists with disabilities, a gallery that showcases unconventional self-taught artists, and a gorgeous mural that depicts his brave life.  While we celebrate his legacy, we also continue to discover new and fascinating aspects of his life.  We also want to deepen our understanding of his art by curating and exhibiting new artists that embellish what he was pursuing aesthetically.  Raymond was and still is a natural resource.

Keith Banner, a social-worker for people with disabilities and a writer, lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He cofounded both Visionaries & Voices, and Thunder-Sky, Inc.   He teaches creative writing part-time at Miami University and has published two works of fiction, The Life I Lead, a novel, and The Smallest People Alive, a book of short stories.  He has published numerous short stories and essays in magazines and journals, including American Folk Art Messenger, Washington Square, Kenyon Review, and Third Coast.  He received an O. Henry prize for his short story, “The Smallest People Alive,” and an Ohio Arts Council individual artist fellowship for fiction. The Smallest People Alive was named one of the best books of the year by Publisher’s Weekly.

Now one thing I’d like to start off with is a comment on burlesque itself. Despite many misconceptions to the contrary it is not stripping. While saucy and mischievous, and often involving bare skin, burlesque partakes more of theater and dance than of simple prurient nakedness. As a matter of fact it has only become associated with the erotic elements of performance in the last hundred years, before that the main focus of burlesque was satire and comedy. So, no, it’s not just some top heavy hussy with three square inches of clothing writhing on a pole.

So here is a little background on today’s interview subjects, as taken from their own website:

• Ginger Snapps – Our “tight end”, Ginger is known for her red hair and her backside. Her heavy training in jazz and love for classic bump and grind music are evident in her dancing. Her solos are big in “wink and a smile”, and end in classic burlesque style – pasties.
• Sassy Frass– Sassy is our resident sex-kitten.  With her Barbie-like build, every step she takes charges the room with electricity!  Her competitive latin dance background can be seen in every line.  She is frequently heard singing show tunes off stage.
• Cherry Tarte -Cherry’s extensive ballet training can be seen in her posture and feet, as well as her tight little body.  Her strong and feminine physique can be seen dancing on pointe at any of our shows.  Her theatrical training is obvious, and makes for powerful solos.

They are joined by a member of their subgroup, The Hammerheads, their male auxiliary (or as they term it boylesque) troupe. He is referred to only as the King of the Tribe.

Now that we have that out of the way here is the audio interview, enjoy!

[Please pardon the slightly erratic nature of the recording, we are experimenting with a new audiocast system and are still working out the bugs -Loki]

So there you go, a little insight into the steamy and provocative side of the Queen City. Keep your eyes open for their performances, they’re well worth it!

-Loki, CincyVoices Founder