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Discovering the Music of Paintings, with Oliver Prezant and Friends
Featuring the artwork of Mary Vernon
July 9th at 2pm
Strata Gallery presents Discovering the Music of Paintings, an interactive exploration and performance with Oliver Prezant and Friends, featuring the artwork of Mary Vernon and improvising musicians Carla Kountoupes, violin, Jerry Weimer, clarinet, and Katie Harlow, cello. The program will be presented on Saturday, July 9, at 2 p.m. Strata Gallery is located at 418 Cerrillos Road, in the Design Center.
How does a painting sound? How do line and shape, color and texture, mood and compositional relationships translate into music? During the program, arts educator and conductor Oliver Prezant will lead the audience in an interactive visual exploration of one of Mary Vernon’s colorful, imaginative, nine-foot wall paintings. Oliver and the musicians will then use the impressions of the audience and the elements of the painting to create a musical realization of the artwork, using the painting as a musical score.
“Mary’s a native New Mexican and a great artist,” said Prezant. “Her work rides the line between the figurative and the abstract, and it provides great opportunities for music making. And the gallery space at Strata is perfect for this kind of program, very resonant, and very intimate.”
“Carla, Jerry, and Katie are some of my favorite musicians for this kind of special performance,” he said. “Highly trained, musically flexible, and great improvisers. We’ll be rehearsing, yes, but there’s a good chance that the musicians won’t even see the painting until the day of the performance.”
Admission to the program is free, and donations are welcome.
Seating is limited, and registration required.
Masks and proof of vaccination required at door.
Mary Vernon, Wall with Dragonfly, Oil and acrylic on Yupo, 60” x 108”, 2022
Arts Educator and Conductor Oliver Prezant
Photo credit: Ruthanne Greeley
MUSICIANS’ BIOS:
Oliver Prezant has presented lectures and education programs for the Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Performance Santa Fe, the Tanglewood Association of Volunteers, Road Scholar, and the Guilds of the Santa Fe and San Francisco Opera companies. As the music director and conductor of the Santa Fe Community Orchestra, he worked with community musicians and choristers, professional soloists, public school music students, composers, creative artists, and community partners from Santa Fe and northern New Mexico to present a wide variety of innovative performances, unique education programs, and community collaborations. He has presented programs on the relationship of art and music for the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, the Albuquerque Museum of Art, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art. Oliver was one of the founding teaching artists in Partners in Education’s ArtWorks Program, which provides arts education workshops for Santa Fe Public Schools students and teachers in the areas of music, poetry, visual art, theater, and dance. As the artistic advisor to the program, he trained teaching artists and classroom teachers, and coordinated with area poets, museums, and other arts organizations. He studied at the Mannes College of Music in New York City and the Pierre Monteux School for conductors in Hancock, Maine, and he was an Assistant Professor in the Contemporary Music Program at the College of Santa Fe and an instructor at Santa Fe University of Art and Design.
Carla Kountoupes, violinist, is a member of the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, Arizona Opera Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, and Piazzolla da Camera Piano Trio. Carla has toured and performed professionally with orchestras and chamber ensembles in Central America, Taiwan, Germany, and all over the United States, including as a member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra in San Francisco and the Costa Rican National Symphony Orchestra. She enjoys performing and recording many genres in addition to classical, including Latin/world, alt-rock/pop, and jazz. A dedicated music educator, Carla is on the faculty at the New Mexico School for the Arts, and she is the director of the orchestra program at the Mandela International Magnet School in Santa Fe. She is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory (Violin Performance) and Oberlin College (English Literature). Carla’s violin was made in the 1740s and was inherited from her grandfather.
Jerry Weimer is a composer and clarinetist who has been a part of the Santa Fe music scene since 2001. Known for his unique sound, stylistic versatility, and compelling improvisations, Jerry is a regular presence in the Jazz and Latin music communities of Northern New Mexico, and was a featured soloist with the Santa Fe Community Orchestra in Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1. He has collaborated with many local artists, including Nacha Mendez, Joaquin Gallegos, Jono Manson, Nosotros, Rumelia, John Rangel, the Shiners Club Jazz Band, Revózo, and Victor Alvarez’s SAVOR. Recent performances include Le Carnaval des Animaux with the National Dance Institute, and Amane, with Joe Hay, Words in the Wind, with Melanie Monsour, and Zozobra in 2021. Jerry is a graduate of the College of Santa Fe where he studied with Eddie Daniels.
Katie Harlow, cellist, has performed on cello, mandolin, accordion, and viola da gamba in numerous symphonic, chamber, early, folk, and improvised music ensembles, including the Santa Fe Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, New Music New Mexico, the New Mexico Women Composer's Guild, Opera Southwest, the early music groups Three Bass Blondes and the Boxwood Consort, the improvising music ensembles Out of Context and Playroom, the Bill Horvitz Band (jazz and new music), Cicadas, a mandolin ensemble, the folk music groups Bailiwick and Caledonia, and the band Basement Dancing. In addition, she has created arrangements and compositions for concerts, recordings, and theater productions. Katie holds a Bachelors in Cello Pedagogy and a Masters in Music Education from the University of New Mexico, and was on the faculty of Albuquerque Academy for many years.