WMV Music Web Log

Thoughts about beauty, as an artist:

We need beauty - it is part of happiness. The painting on my wall makes me happy because of its beauty. I sit on the couch and gaze at it, knowing that every time I do I will see something new and wonderful in it, year after year. Music makes me feel good to be alive. It reminds me of compassion and meaning. How do we forget the importance of these things in our lives, which are so full of other stuff?

We artists are driven to create the beauty we long to see and hear, to make the world livable for ourselves, this world in which beauty is often difficult to discern. You who are not artists: you need the beauty which we create!

Beauty is expensive - compressing a world of meaning into an object or a song costs us our whole lives. Can you afford this painting? How can you not afford something that actually makes you happy?

Ben Redwine is back from Spain - he says he jumped in the ring with a bull and will send me a photo to prove it. We played through a lot of music for his upcoming recitals - it all sounded wonderful. Ben likes the Kawai - he chose a modern type of electronic sound for Saturday night.

This is an old family photo that I like a lot. It shows Marilyn holding Gabe wearing a dog mask (she made it). I like that he is not confused by the mask - it's mommy, even if she is wearing a dog mask.

I thought of this photo while getting ready for Saturday's concert, to be played on a Kawai 9500 electronic piano. I anticipate some skepticism about this. Yes, I prefer an acoustic instrument! Wood, felt, buckskin, real steel strings; Steinway, Bechstein, Bösendorfer!

There are objections to my Yamaha upright piano, or any kind of piano for Baroque music. But the grand authentic instruments aren't always there, and I can play just fine on your old spinet or my Kawai 9500.

There is a fundamental confusion between quality of instrument and quality of music: music is meaning, has meaning; the instrument is just the voice. The meaning is in what the voice says. The real issue is the music - not what kind of mask it appears in.

The music, from my perspective (photo Marilyn Banner)

Amy Leung, cello

Philippe Chao, viola (photo Marilyn Banner)

Hasse Borup, violin (photo Marilyn Banner)

Soprano Charity Sunshine rehearsing Rorem's "Nantucket Songs". (Photo Marilyn Banner)

Charity Sunshine in front of Marilyn Banner's "Shin #2" from the series "The Presence of Spirit".

Marilyn Banner at the opening of her "Soul Ladders" show at Loudoun Community College Gallery. A few of the students really "got it".

One of Marilyn's favorite scenes: a NY rooftop, from our hotel window. (Photo Marilyn Banner)

Of course, we had to check out the Whitney Biennial and the Art Biz across the street.
You could almost imagine that there was *money* in art! (Photo Marilyn Banner)

What did they do to the Chrysler Building? They must have scrubbed it with a toothbrush. (Photo Marilyn Banner)

We were in NY to celebrate Mar's birthday. This saxophone player in Central Park was really really good, the genuine article. You could hear him from quite a distance. (Photo Marilyn Banner)

Ben Redwine & Carl Banner playing at the opening of "Strong Work Hot Topics", in front of Marilyn Banner's "Still With Us" series. (Photo Marilyn Banner)

People in front of Dylan Scholinski's painting. (Photo Marilyn Banner)

People looking at Donté Hayes' works at the opening of Strong Work Hot Topics. (Photo Marilyn Banner).

Installation of Clarissa Sligh's books "It Wasn't Little Rock" and "Reading Dick and Jane with Me" at PG Community College. (photo Marilyn Banner)

What a relief to have the website up again (it was down for several days). You don't know how much creative energy is invested in a website until it's down! Thank you, David Cheng, for creating, maintaining, and rescuing the WMV website. (He had to move it from yahoo to a new host, still in process).

Here is a terrific opinion piece about jazz and chamber music by composer Joel Harrison:
http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=4558

And here is a great article on Ellington:
http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=4548

Marilyn Banner writes about Strong Work Hot Topics:

The show that I curated is a big success. Well attended opening, great response. I am told that the show is a strong presence at the college, and that it is eliciting an unusually positive response from the community. No surprise to me! I picked artists and work that would speak to the students, let them see that they too can make art out of meaningful subject matter.

What’s missing is a response from the media – I spent 6 hours sending out press releases and making phone calls! I got one good response from the Washington Afro-American newspaper, which featured Clarissa Sligh and Donte’ Hayes in subsequent issues. But that’s it. Not even the PG Gazette thought it was worth writing about.

The silence is deafening. But not surprising. After all these years,
I still don’t understand Washington. Maybe it’s a lot of game playing and I just don’t play it well. Maybe “they” don’t like work that makes people confront their own racism, anti-Semitism, and bigotry. I guess not. I am left thinking about how stupid and conventional this seems. I need to think about not giving up when the silence asks me to do just that.

Well, the show is about to come down. It seems like we just put it up. Eight long hours on a Saturday, with gallery director Tom Berault getting everything just right.

Tom Berault: what a pro! The coolest thing for me was after I had installed one wall of my Still With Us series – maybe 6 big pieces on anti-Semitism – and they looked so strong that I was overwhelmed. I started putting smaller pieces along the adjoining wall. Then Tom came over and insisted that that wall needed equally strong pieces for balance. He said, “You’re afraid of overkill? Too many gravestones?” I said absolutely yes, that’s it. His response: “But that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Overkill …… and miles and miles of graves…..!” I haven’t heard such a supportive comment about my work since my thesis advisor Lowry Burgess told me to “bring the dark side out.” Thank goodness SOME people have courage and strength around this – showing and supporting work that can disturb people.