A Musical Feast presents Amblongus Pie: Dance, Music, Verse, and Song

A Musical Feast returns to the Burchfield Penney Art Center this fall!

Founded in 2006 by retired Concert Master of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Charles Haupt, A Musical Feast ventures to fuse contemporary and classical music with poetry and dance, featuring musicians of international stature as well as local players.

Amblongus Pie: Dance, Music, Verse, and Song, developed by State University of New York Distinguished Professor Ann C. Colley, includes a contemporary musical setting and reading of Edward Lear’s “Nonsense Cookery” in honor of Edward Lear’s 200th birthday, performed by mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley.

Lear’s nonsense sketches, illustrations, and rather withering self-portraits are also included.

For questions and inquiries, contact Don Metz at (716) 878-5564 or visit www.AMusicalFeast.com

Buy tickets online or call 716-878-6011 during gallery hours.

Child’s Play for Adults: Enjoy a slice of ‘Amblongus Pie’: Music, Dance, Verse and Song

The independent, cutting-edge musical group known as A Musical Feast launches its 2012-2013 season on Friday, November 9 at 8pm, co-sponsored by the University at Buffalo’s Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music in its home in the acoustically superior Peter & Elizabeth C. Tower Auditorium of the Burchfield Penny Art Center. With this program, which features a decidedly high whimsical content, ‘A Musical Feast’ may well surpass its well-earned reputation for presenting uniquely eclectic combinations of music from a very wide range of eras, along with poetry and dance. Special guests for the concert include the Chicago-based mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley and her collaborative pianist Kuang-Hao Huang, along with the members of the LehrerDance Company, the finest interpreters of modern dance in Western New York, just prior to their Russian tour this December.

This event is focused on celebrating the undying spirit of childhood, both in children and adults, and also honors the bicentennial of the birth of the English author, illustrator and poet Edward Lear (1812-1888), best remembered for well-loved examples of nonsense poetry and prose. SUNY Distinguished Professor Ann C. Colley is the literary advisor for this event which will include Julia Bentley offering her own interpretation of examples from Lear’s ‘Nonsense Cookery’ including recipes from his 1870 ‘Nonsense Gazette’, such as “Take 4 pounds (say 4 1/2 pounds) of fresh Amblongusses, and put them in a small pipkin.”

This year also marks the centennial of the birth of composer John Cage (1912-1992), a genuine American maverick, who, it is safe to say, never lost the spirit of childhood during his long and very influential career. Cage’s 1942 work, Four Dances was originally composed for wordless tenor voice, prepared piano, handclap and percussion. The piece was subsequently re-titled Four Dances, and this rare performance of the re-titled work by mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley and pianist Kuang-Hao Huang will feature an original choreographic interpretation by the LehrerDance Company.

Bentley and Huang will also perform three other sets of songs, including Cage’s Songs for Contralto and Piano, an early work from 1938 based on the poetry of the iconoclastic American poet ee cummings, as well as French composer André Caplet’s 1919 work Trois Fables de Jean de la Fontaine, a setting of texts by the French Renaissance fabulist Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695). Rounding out the vocal portion of the program will be an area premiere performance of Czech-born Canadian composer Oskar Morawetz’s 1984 work, Souvenirs of Childhood, based on poetry from Robert Louis Stevenson’s beloved collection A Child's Garden of Verses. Also on the program, appropriately enough, Buffalo-based composer John Bacon will perform his 2007 work for percussion and electronics, The Electronic Playground.