The Lehman Chamber Players will begin their musical season at Lehman College on Sun., Oct. 4, at 2 pm with a performance of piano trios by Beethoven, Arensky, and Shostakovitch. The public is invited to attend the free concert, which will be held in the Music Building’s Recital Hall, located on the third floor. Seating is limited.
The program will include Beethoven’s renowned “Archduke” Trio Op. 97; Arensky’s brilliant Trio Op. 32; and Shostakovich’s dramatic Trio No. 1 Op. 8.
Featured will be cellist Andre Emelianoff, professor of cello and chamber music at the Juilliard School; violinist Anton Miller, professor of violin at NYU’s Steinhardt School and The Hartt School; and pianist Diana Mittler-Battipaglia, professor of music and choral director at Lehman College.
For more information call (718) 960-8247. Lehman is located on Bedford Park Boulevard West and Goulden Avenue.
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The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT, presents approximately 40 framed, original cartoon artworks of Charles Addams, the beloved cartoonist of The New Yorker and creator of the characters known as the “The Addams Family.” The exhibition Charles Addams: Cartoonist, on view from Sat., Oct. 3, through Sun., Jan. 24, 2010, is organized for the Bruce Museum by the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation. The show provides a sampling of the creative wit and sometimes macabre but always lovable humor of Addams’ oeuvre. The show is supported by Anne and Fred Elser, the Elizabeth Elser Doolittle Charitable Trusts, Mel Seiden, and the Charles M. and Deborah G. Royce Exhibition Fund.
Charles Addams (1912-1988) had a happy childhood in suburban Westfield, NJ. But his curiosity sometimes drew him to a nearby graveyard and the hauntingly handsome and occasionally deserted Victorian homes in the neighborhood, one of which later became the model for the Addams’ family home. After a few attempts at higher education at Colgate University, University of Pennsylvania, and the Grand Central School of Art in New York City, he signed on as a regular cartoonist for The New Yorker in 1935.
Addams developed a sophisticated style of humor, turning clichés on their heads by twisting preconceived definitions and putting them in a contemporary light. He once quipped in an interview that “If I’ve haunted you, I have done my job.”
Of the several thousand works produced by Addams in his lifetime, nearly 1500 were published in The New Yorker, as well as on the pages of newspapers within the McClure Syndicate, Collier’s, Holiday, TV Guide and numerous other publications. Some of his most popular characters were even spun off into a popular television series The Addams Family. His books of collected cartoons were best sellers.
The exhibition at the Bruce Museum features Addams’ original, large drawings focusing on several themes: The Addams Family, At Work, Holidays, New York City, Relationships, and No Explanation Necessary. The show also includes DVD excerpts from the original 1964-66 television series The Addams Family, based on the characters that Addams created: Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Cousin Itt, and the rest of the gang.
The museum is located at 1 Museum Drive in Greenwich, CT. For information call (203) 869-0376.
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The Hebrew Home at Riverdale, 5901 Palisade Avenue, Riverdale, announces its latest exhibition, Shana: My Muse/Assemblage Works by Alexandra Zizmor, featuring the mixed media works of Riverdale resident Alexandra Zizmor. Using paint, ink, collage, and found objects, the artist depicts a naively rendered Great Dane performing various activities in a minimal stage-like setting. These whimsical assemblages reference the modern art masters, fashion styles, and leisure time activities, Yet, a dead fly strategically placed on each work suggests a vanitas theme, as does the black knobbed frames, alluding to the Northern Renaissance painting tradition.
The exhibition will be on view through Jan. 20, 2010 in the Elma and Milton A. Gilbert Pavilion Gallery, and is free of charge. For more information call (718) 581-1596.
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The Uptown Coffeehouse, 4450 Fieldston Road, Riverdale, presents the Danny Kalb Trio on Sun., Oct. 4, at 5 pm Admission is $15. Bronx Cultural Cards accepted.
Kalb has been recognized as one of America’s foremost guitarists and blues performers. A founding member of The Blues Project, Danny honed his trade jamming with greats John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. His latest album, I’m Gonna Live The Life I Sing About, is a mix of old standards and originals and has been called mesmerizing and pure magic.
For more information call (718) 885-2955.
