This Week in the Arts World
As we all hit pause and hunker down, we at the Flynn still want to brighten your day and enrich your life with art and entertainment. Each week, we’ll update this post to highlight up-to-date happenings from all over, as well as from the Flynn, that you can access from home. We hope you enjoy this curated resource.
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Arts Across America: Christal Brown
Choreographer Christal Brown presents segments of her in-progress work What We Ask of Flesh, co-presented by The Flynn and the New England Foundation for the Arts, and presented on Monday, August 3 as part of the Kennedy Center’s Arts Across America series.This epic work has seen many variations over the years, exploring the distance between our aspirations and reality. The work was going to premiere at The Flynn in 2020/21 season, though Covid-19 has wreaked havoc with that.For the Arts Across America performance, Brown and her company will perform excerpts from the work, including a solo by Brown. She and Flynn Artistic Director Steve MacQueen will also discuss the piece and offer context throughout the hour.It happens on Monday, August 3 at 4 pm on the Kennedy Center’s Arts Across America Facebook page.
Online Classes
Pay-what-you-can online dance classes at the suggested cost of$10 per class (and as little as $0). Beat the quarantine blues while supporting the Flynn and our incredible teaching artists.
Youth classes
Online Show Choir (ages 8-19)
Online Choose Your Adventure(ages 8-12)
Pre-recorded Hip-Hop for Kids(ages 7-12)
Pre-recorded Mini Dancers(ages 4-7)
Movement in the Park with Rose Bedard
Teen/Adult classes
Online Tap
Online Burlesque (ages 18+)
Online Songwriters Bootcamp with Myra Flynn
Online Moth Storytelling class - coming soon!
Online Movement for Parkinson’s
Movement in the Park with Rose Bedard
Burlington ReDiscover Jazz Festival
From June 4-14, in partnership with Vermont PBS, Vermont Public Radio, and Burlington area restaurants, we streamed a wealth of jazz videos for the Discover Jazz Festival archives. All the videos from the virtual festival are available on the Flynn’s YouTube channel.
TURNon
Tuesdays and Fridays
TURNmusic, Vermont’s leading champions of contemporary chamber music, are holding livestream concerts every Tuesday and Friday at 7 pm, supporting local musicians and celebrating living composers and songwriters.
Replays
Llammadoll:Silent Shorts
Llamadoll is a Vermont-based project that melds silent film and original music in ways that are utterly magnificent and revelatory, charming and hilarious, entertaining and thought-provoking.
Le Patin Libre, Vertical
Five-strong troupe Le Patin Libre use the ice in daring and dazzling ways to present a completely new perspective in the full length 20-minute film, Vertical. The Flynn presented the group’s performance of Vertical Influences at Burlington’s Leddy Park in January 2017.
Ambassador Brother Mister
In 2015, Christian McBride, five-time Grammy winner and the preeminent jazz bass player of his generation, was the artist-in-residence for the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. He was out in the public, giving lectures, workshops and master classes, as well as performing with his trio and being a jazz ambassador to the town. This film, produced by Vermont Community Access Media in partnership with the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, chronicles his time in the Queen City and showcases his expertise, not only as a jazz musician and historian, but as an educator.
Brian McCarthy’s After l Life
Jazz saxophonist Brian McCarthy’s nonet, recorded live in Flynn Space on November 8, 2019, draws inspiration from the history of jazz while maintaining a modern awareness. McCarthy’s compositions consider the arising of a giant stellar dust cloud, the Primordial Nebula. Out of stars, planets, order, and chaos emerges all that connects and shapes the world we live in.
Flynn Chats
Jacob’s Pillow Virtual Festival
July 7-August 29
The longest-running dance festival in the United States now comes directly to you . . . for free! During Jacob's Pillow's first-ever virtual festival, held over eight weeks, you can pick and choose what you most want to see. RSVP to as many events as you want, then watch and participate on YouTube and Zoom with artists and audience members from around the world.
Vermont Symphony Orchestra
July 16-August 22
This summer, VSO is visiting all 14 Vermont counties, bringing a variety of repertoire to parks, patios, and other outdoor venues. The Close to Home and Far Afield series features small ensembles and ample room to stop by and enjoy music from a safe distance. All concerts are free of charge. Here are the shows announced so far:Manchester (July 16), Burlington (July 17), Greensboro (August 9), Woodstock (August 14), St. Johnsbury (August 15), St. Albans (August 22). Check vso.org/events to stay in the loop as more concerts are announced.
Yo-Yo Ma
July 24-25
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma makes his Global Concert Hall debut with an homage to Ennio Morricone, the legendary Italian composer and conductor who died earlier this month. Ma’s recital will explore these themes in an energetic program that brings performer and audience on a journey across space and time, from Morricone’s iconic film scores to traditional tunes from Mongolia and America to Schubert and Bach.
While We Breathe
July 29
#WhileWeBreathe: A Night of Creative Protest is a one-night-only event featuring short works written and directed by theater alums, to benefit the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, The Bail Project, Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD), BYP100 Education Fund, Forced Trajectory Project (FTP), The Justice Committee, and SONG. The premiere will be followed by a live discussion at 10 pm ET, hosted by CBS host Michelle Miller.
Wayne Shorter Celebration
July 31
Masterminded by Herbie Hanco*ck as a tribute and benefit for Wayne’s medical expenses, an all-star roster of jazz greats assembled over four nights to perform classic material written by Shorter. The SFJAZZ website is rebroadcasting this 2019 benefit concert, featuring Hanco*ck, Terence Blanchard, Terrace Martin, Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci, and Brian Blade, with proceeds going to Shorter’s ongoing medical needs. The July stream is part three; part four will stream on August 28.
Newport Folk Revival Weekend
July 31-August 2
The 2020 Newport Folk Festival was canceled in April so in its place Newport Folk has announced a a virtual event featuring performances by Phoebe Bridgers, Mavis Staples, Leon Bridges, Sharon Van Etten, Deer Tick, Jim James, Jason Isbell, Roger Waters, and more. The Folk on Revival Weekend will will include pre-recorded music performances, Newport Folk Revival Radio, audio archives, and the screening of an original film.
Sara Juli’s Burnt-Out Wife
August 11, 7 pm
Sara Juli’s dance-theater-comedy show Burnt-Out Wife will have its virtual premiere on August 11 (available to view through August 17). Burnt-Out Wifeexplores the decay and detritus of a once-promising marriage. Separation, sex deprivation, and lack of communication add up to wanting to run from the popular, yet impossible binding contract. Using her comedic text-driven dance style, Sara Juli blows up marriage.
The Metropolitan Opera
Every day, 7:30 pm
Each day, a different encore presentation from the company’s Live in HD series is being made available for free streaming on the Met website, with each performance available for a period of 23 hours, from 7:30 pm until 6:30 pm the following day.
The Muny
Mondays and Thursdays, 9:15 pm
Starting in July, The Muny began offering a free online variety show—The Muny 2020 Summer Variety Hour Live! The show features cast reunion sing-alongs, famous musical theater duets performed by real-life Muny couples, Munywood Squares, archived clips from past Muny summer productions, song and dances created by Muny artists across the U.S., behind-the-scenes stories, and so much more!
The Tank
Tuesdays, 4 pm
CyberTank is an e-home for e-merging artists. The CyberTank Variety Show is The Tank’s FREE virtual gathering place, hosting dozens of artists every week on Tuesday at 4 pm EST. View past episodes and catch the next episode on August 4 hosted by Stevie to launch off PrideFest.
Renée Fleming: Music and Mind Live
Tuesdays, 5 pm
Starting May 19, Renée Fleming will hold weeklywebinars that explore the powerful impact of music and artson human health and the brain.
The Next Festival of Emerging Artists
Tuesdays & Thursdays
This year's Festival goes online with free events on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons through July 2. The four-week series of workshop, mini-courses, and collaborative projects will feature over 20 guest artists and speakers, accessible online and open to the public through Eventbrite registration. This year's festival will culminate in performances of new works created by remote collaboration.
Live with Carnegie Hall
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 2 pm
Live with Carnegie Hall is a new online series designed to connect world-class artists with musical lovers everywhere, featuring live musical performances, storytelling, and conversations that offer deeper insights into great music and behind-the-scenes personal perspectives.
Houston Ballet
Tuesdays, 8 pm
Houston Ballet presents The Dancer Perspective,hosted by Principal Ian Casady, Tuesdays at 8 pm starting May 19. This mini-series is dedicated to giving insight into the Houston Ballet world of dance, directly from company dancers.
Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center
Wednesdays
Every Wednesday, Jazz at Lincoln Center will release a new full length concert on its YouTube channel.
Ballet Hispanico
Wednesdays
Ballet Hispanico Watch Parties happen live at 7 pm every Wednesday, beginning with a performance video premiere and followed by Choreographers & co*cktails, a live discussion with company artists. You can watch the video premiere of the full-length repertory on theirwebsite,Facebook page, orYouTube channel.
Vermont Comedy Club
Fridays
Every Friday night, Natalie & Nathan chat with celebrity comedians, local heroes, strange characters, talented musicians and other fun people in their series Talk to Us (please)!. The club also has a number of other streaming options across their channels including family-friendly and archival videos.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Fridays
AAADT is thrilled to share full-length videos of the company performing on stage, streaming free online, directly to your living room! This week, they are streaming their take on Camille A. Brown's City of Rain. Plus: though the Ailey dancers are still finding ways to connect and dance together, so enjoy their videos in #TheShowMustGoOn series, the "Dancer Diaries" series, and the "Conversations With..." series.
Lincoln Center’s Broadway Fridays
Fridays, 8 pm
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has announced Broadway Fridays, free online streams of some of the most beloved Live From Lincoln Center broadcasts of Broadway productions from Lincoln Center Theater and the New York Philharmonic.
Lincoln Center Youth Programs
Weekdays and Sundays
In addition to their weekly Broadway streams, Lincoln Center is holding regular youth-oriented concert streams and educational programming. Don't miss their Pop-Up Classroom weekdays at 2 pm and Pop-Up Concerts for Kids on Sundays at 11 am.
Caramoor
Thursdays, 7 pm
Caramoor, a summertime classical-music destination housed on a verdant estate near Katonah, New York, inaugurates a boldly reconceived festival, featuring both online concerts and outdoor events that allow for social distancing.
Sandglass Theater
Thursdays, 7 pm
Each Thursday, Sandglass Theater will release an archival video of a production that is no longer being performed in their repertoire. These livestream events are available on their website and Facebook page. These performances represent a wide spectrum of Sandglass’ work over their almost 40 year history. A Q&A will accompany each livestream and will include special guests such as Sandglass founders, ensemble members, and collaborators.
Joshua William Gelb’s Theater in Quarantine
Every other Thursday
Joshua William Gelb is a theater director, performer, and librettist based out of New York's Lower East Side. He is currently in residence in his 4x8x2 closet, which he has converted into a white box for the duration of this quarantine. His Theater in Quarantine (TiQ) series features new works posted every other Thursday. Any money raised will go to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
National Theatre at Home
Thursdays, 2 pm
Showing this week: Les Blancs, the final play by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Yaël Farber: a brave, illuminating and powerful work that confronts the hope and tragedy of revolution.Next up: Terence Rattigan’s devastating masterpiece, The Deep Blue Sea, contains one of the greatest female roles in contemporary drama, played by Helen McCrory.
Stratford Shakespeare Film Festival
Thursdays, 7 pm
Launching on Shakespeare’s birthday, April 23, Stratford Festival will premiere one Shakespeare production each week, for a period of 12 weeks. Each film will debut with a 7 pm on Thursday and remain available for free for a three-week period.
Joe's Pub Live!
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, 8 pm
While Joe's Pub is temporarily closed, they are hosting a free series of live-streamed and archived performances from their iconic stage in New York City.
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Fridays, 2 pm
Andrew Lloyd Webber is streaming of one of his Broadway musicals every Friday at 2 pm (available for 48 hours).
SFJAZZ
Fridays, 8 pm
SFJAZZ has launched a weekly series called Fridays at Five, featuring archival concerts from amazing musicians live from the SFJAZZ Center. Coming up: John Scofield & Lettuce (July 10), Afro-Cuban All Stars (July 17), Cécile McLorin Salvant (July 24), John Santos (August 7), Bokanté (August 14).
Bread + Puppet
Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, 4 pm
See Bread and Puppet's latest work, The Insurrection and Resurrection, live and in person at their farm in Glover, VT. Bread and Puppet is restricting the size of their audience in compliance with state guidelines for outdoor gatherings and has put in place a number of other practices for safety of audiences and the community. You must purchase a ticket for each person in advance (no same-day, drop-ins) so that they may track and limit audience size. Tickets are $10. Shows are Fridays through Sundays at 4 pm through August 30.
West Australian Opera
Saturdays
Each Saturday through the end of May, Ghost Light Operawill celebrate Western Australian singers performing gorgeous arias spot lit on a darkened stage.
Afro Latin Jazz Alliance
Sundays
Each sunday, ALJA hosts a Digital Village event with Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orquestra, playingVirtual Birdlandlive on Facebook at 8:30 pm. Their site also features a bunch of new performances and talks with a variety of jazz musicians.
Bria Skonberg
Sundays and Wednesdays
Hang out with 2019 Burlington Discover Jazz artist, Canadian singer, trumpeter, songwriter, arranger, and bandleader Bria Skonberg as she hosts Facebook Live chats every Sunday and Wednesday. It's lighthearted fun—songs, stories, even singalongs!
Second City
Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays
Three days a week, at 8 pm EST, Chicago's funniest comedy talent joins forces with Second City alumni from across the country to bring you an interactive Improv House Party. Plus, every Thursday at 2 pm EST, The Really Awesome Improv Show offers family friendly, high-energy fun for all ages, and relies on audience suggestions and participation.
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Every three days
Ryuichi Sakamoto has launched a new series called Incompletevia his YouTube account. Incomplete pairs new compositions with video art by Zakkubalan, with a new video released every three days, starting May 18. Sakamoto also shared a new concert film, Playing the Piano for the Isolated, which features Hidejiro Honjoh on shamisen, recorded in Tokyo in April.
Scottish Symphony Orchestra
In addition to frequently releasing archival concerts on their website, BBC SSO recently held a virtual Tectonics Festival, featuring performances of new and experimental music from their archives, all available to replay.
The Dark Theatre
The Dark Theatre mixes classroom drama techniques with an interactive comic book, framing you and your students as detectives trying to answer the question: who killed playwright Nathan Page? You just need a smartphone or tablet for personal reading, or PC, Mac, or Chromebook for a big screen read! Issue 1 and issue 2 are available now; issues 3 and 4 are coming soon.
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is holding a Digital Season series with new videos available daily. This weekly program features unmissable full-length performances, live recordings, and never-before-seen footage from the Opera House archives.
Bolero Julliard
Bolero Juilliard is a complex online puzzle with many components being conceived, rehearsed, and produced simultaneously. Directed and choreographed by Larry Keigwin with associate Nicole Wolcott, featuring a reimagining of Ravel’s score, conducted by David Robertson, and produced by Kurt Crowley. The short film features Juilliard dancers, musicians, and actors, with alumni Christine Baranski, Jon Batiste, Renée Fleming, Isabel Leonard, Laura Linney, Yo-Yo Ma, Andrea Miller, faculty member Itzhak Perlman, Bradley Whitford, and many more.
Vermont Shakespeare Festival
VSF is responding to this crisis of isolation with what it does best: spreading joy and connection through performance! Shakespeare To You is an opportunity for you to send a 2-3 minute performance to family, neighbors, or friends via front yard delivery, Zoom, or telephone. It's kind of like a live telegram! Shakespeare To You is free, and is a fantastic way to send a unique birthday wish, celebrate a graduation or anniversary, or simply offer a connection to someone who needs a pick-me-up
Spruce Peak Arts
Our friends at Spruce Peak Arts in Stowe streamed local artists for eight weeks as part of their Wednesday Night Music Series. Now you can catch them on demand on YouTube: Daniel Rodriguez, Myra Flynn, John Fusco, Patti Casey, Dave Keller, Dwight & Nicole, Michael Mwenso and Members of the Shakes, and Christine Malcolm and Rudy Dauth.
The Criterion Channel
The Criterion Channel has removed the paywall on classic Black cinema in support of Black Lives Matter. These films include Body and Soul by Oscar Micheaux, Black Panthers by Agnes Varda, Portrait of Jason by Shirley Clarke, Daughters of the Dust by Julie Dash, and Down in the Delta by Maya Angelou.
The Talk
Sonny Kelly performs his solo show about the lessons that black fathers are required to teach their sons about racial division in America, drawing on both his own family history and his research as a doctoral student at UNC Chapel Hill. This production, directed by Joseph Megel, was recorded during the show’s original run in Durham in 2019, and is being shared for free through July 10.
The Joyce
The Joyce Theater in Chelsea is curating a recurring archival series, Joycestreams, featuring full performances and artist talkbacks, a discussion series with choreographers and collaborators moderated by Joyce staff. Right now, they are streamingDeclassified Memory Fragment, a dance theater work inspired by some of the political and cultural realities affecting the continent of Africa. It is available through July 31. Coming soon: Meditations: A Silent Prayer on July 16.
The Walker
The Living Collections Catalogue—Creative Black Music at the Walker: Selections from the Archivesfocuses on a select group of influential black artists who came to the fore in the ’60s and ’70s, and appeared at the Walker multiple times, each having an indelible impact on US musical culture. Archival material not before available for public view is at the center of this publication, including rare audio and video recordings, photographs, posters and programs, and correspondence. The volume also features commissioned essays and interviews.
amplify 2020
An extensive library of COVID-era sound art has accumulated at amplify 2020: Quarantine, an online festival headed by Jon Abbey, of Erstwhile Records. Culled from experimental composers around the world, these projects conjure sonic otherness from the constricted, mundane circ*mstances of lockdown.
Interior Listening Protocol 01
Interior Listening Protocol 01 attempts to recuperate liveness and spatially dynamic, embodied listening back into our mediated moment. It functions as a participatory listening score that’s has to be done to be heard. You’ll miss the phenomenon entirely if you sit back and watch the video like Netflix. Think of it like a quartet for your skull, with you as conductor, shaping the temporal unfolding of the whole experience.
VTIFF
Every week, VTIFF streams exclusive new movies as part of their Virtual Cinema series, plus they feature live Q&As with filmmakers, discussions on specific topics, and showcases of local short films.
Hyperallergic
Online publication Hyperallergic compiled a watchlist of essential Black documentaries, including links where these works are available to stream or purchase. Collectively, they illustrate both the undeniable threat of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy and the incomparable strength of Blackness.
T.W. Wood Gallery
The T.W. Wood Gallery in Montpelier is currently closed to the public due to the pandemic, but its 2020 Members Show must go on. This year, the annual exhibition is online only and on view through September 15. Browse prints by Heidemarie Holmes-Heiss, paintings by Joann DiNicola, collage by Michael Levine, and works by 11 other Vermont creatives.
Manual Cinema
Manual Cinema’s 10th Anniversary Retrospectacular! is a month-long virtual birthday party featuring four of the company’s most seminal shows from the past 10 years on multi-camera, high-definition video, streaming for FREE through August 23. The streams come with a suggested donation to Manual Cinema to compensate for lost touring income due to Covid-19. In addition, each week, Manual Cinema will host live, online, virtual talkbacks reuniting each production’s creators, collaborators and fans.
