Credit: SZALON logo by Mia Bosna
Sunday, March 26th, 2023, 7:00 PM ET - Welcome; 7:30 PM - SZALON. (Philadelphia, USA: GMT-4)
March 26th SZALON:
honoring Manfred Fishbeck
dancer, choreographer, musician, poet
beloved member of the Salon team for 35 years
1. Solo dance by Laina Fischbeck inspired by “City Avenue” poem/music by Manfred Fischbeck, from her studio the Blue Bass Lounge, in Saint Malo de Phily, France
2. EMERGENCE, dance by Myra Bazell and Sloan Shelton and music by Raveena, performed from her loft in Portland, OR
3. Dan Lippel will perform movements from Douglas Boyce’s Partita III: La Comète for solo guitar, from his apartment in NYC
4. Modern dance improvisation and poetry by Manfred Fischbeck performed by Katie Bank & Renee Kurz to recorded music by Tim Motzer, from Andrea’s Salon in Philadelphia
5. Accordionist Dallas Vietty will perform original arrangements to feature his Moschino free bass accordion, from the Salon
6. Peter Price and Megan Bridge (Fidget) will perform an improvised dance and electronic music duet, from the Salon
7. Piano Duo Madalina Danila and Hugh Sung will perform 4-hand works by Mel. Bonis and Moritz Moszkowski, from the Salon
8. Sheila Browne will perform Max Reger, Suite No. 3, Op. 131d for Solo Viola, from the Salon
9. Singer/songwriter Marion Halliday will share some of her latest creations, from the Salon
10. Painter/Sculptor Rita Blitt will present an excerpt from “Finding Center”, her collaboration with choreographer David Parsons and the Parson Dance Company, from her home in Berkeley, CA
11. Aura Fischbeck-Wise presents her dance/poetry from Tomales Bay, CA
Laina Fischbeck
Laina Fischbeck, dancer and choreographer for over 35 years, born in Philadelphia, now living in Rennes, France since 1998, has produced her own creations with her company D.E.A.D. Company internationally (Poland, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Greece). A firm believer in the mixing of art forms, cultures, styles and ideas, she has always worked with artists in collaboration, looking to bring to the surface the hidden, the unknown, the profound emotional and obscure side of human existence. Laina is the first daughter of Brigitta Herrmann and Manfred Fischbeck, the founders of the Group Motion Company Berlin/Philadelphia and of the Group Motion Improvisation Workshop, who were her first and most important teachers, in dance, music, and life as an artist. She studied and performed improvisational dance at a very early age, while also studying numerous dance techniques: Wigman, Graham, Horton, Taylor, classic ballet, Capoeira, Yoga, contact dance, and very importantly Butoh dance. Laina continues to perform with numerous companies; singing and playing in "ZeWitches" female soul music group, "Equine Situ" dancing and performing with horses, and others, while continuing to give classes and Workshops where she lives in Bretagne, France.
Paypal:@Laina Fischbeck
Links:
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/576764919
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/195763767
https://soundcloud.com/zewitches
https://www.facebook.com/laina.fischbeck
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063543578472
Videos:
Myra Bazell
For thirty years Myra Bazell has been choreographing her own work, directing theater and freelancing as choreographer for major opera companies, films, and theater productions. This work has taken her throughout East and West Europe, South America, the Middle East and Russia. Bazell draws from a diverse and extensive background in Release Technique, Contact Improvisation, Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Flamenco and street dance of an Afro-Latino base. Bazell’s teaching credits includes 12 years at the University of the Arts, Lehigh University, Temple University, Georgian Court University, Rowan University and Bryn Mawr College for 16 years. Bazell has a long standing relationship to the Phila. community of choreographers and dancers through teaching technique and composition in studios owned by the city's dance artists. She has received awards and commissions from the PA Council on the Arts, Pew Charitable Trust, the International Woman's Theatre Festival of Moscow, Berlin Senate, Puffin Foundation, Leeway Foundation, the Independence Foundation, Dance Celebration Phila. and Idea Capital. Myra is the director of SCRAP Performance Group, a company dedicated to creating new dance theater work. She received a BFA from University of Arts and her MSW from Bryn Mawr College. Bazell performed works with Group Motion and Waves from 1979 – 1994. She studied with Trish Brown, Bill T Jones, BeBe Miller, Ushio Amagastu, Romeo Castellucci, Steve Paxton and recently performed original works at LaMAMA NY, Spoleto Fest. Italy, Phila. Live Arts and Joes Pub, NY.
Videos:
Dan Lippel
Guitarist Dan Lippel, called an “exciting soloist” (New York Times), has a multi-faceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, collaborator, and recording artist. Recent recital highlights include Cleveland International Guitar Festival, Le Poisson Rouge (NYC), Sinus Ton Festival (Germany), the National University of Colombia in Bogota, and the Triangle and New York Classical Guitar Societies. As a contemporary chamber musician, he has been a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble since 2005 and counter)induction since 2019, and played as a guest with many other ensembles, including St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New York City Ballet, New York New Music Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, Tale Ensemble, and Ensemble Dal Niente, performing at such venues as the Ultima Festival at the Oslo Opera House (Norway), Macau Festival (China), and Kunst Universitaet Graz (Austria), Mostly Mozart Festival, Ojai Festival, and Ottawa Chamber Festival (Canada). He has worked closely with many renowned composers including Mario Davidovsky, Nils Vigeland, Charles Wuorinen and Ken Ueno. Lippel has also been active in various creative improvised contexts in performance and on recording. As longtime guitarist with eclectic indie group Mice Parade he performed on several international tours and albums. He is the co-founder, owner, and director of New Focus Recordings, performing and producing on several of its albums, as well as appearing on recordings on other labels including Kairos, Sony Classical Japan, Bridge, and New World. Australia’s Limelight magazine called his recent recording of Bach works on a re-fretted Well-Tempered guitar “a watershed in Lippel’s ability to bring together novel musicological and philosophical strands in the service of pure pleasure." Lippel has given presentations and masterclasses to guitar and composition departments internationally. He completed his DMA at the Manhattan School of Music, with earlier studies at Cleveland Institute of Music and Oberlin Conservatory.
Links:
https://danlippelguitar.bandcamp.com
Instagram: @danlippel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063462185852
Videos:
Katie Bank and Renee Kurz
Katie Bank MA, BC-DMT, LPC is a dancer, board certified dance/movement therapist and a licensed professional counselor. She is a graduate from The University of the Arts and Drexel University where she received her BFA in Modern Dance, Dance Education, and MA in Creative Arts Therapies. She’s performed mostly throughout the Philadelphia area and with Group Motion Multimedia Dance Company, where she currently serves on the Board of Directors. Over the last 10 years she’s devoted her work to dance/movement therapy and helping different communities heal through the expressive arts. She has been an active member in the Philadelphia dance community since 2007 and currently works in private practice serving the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania area through dance/movement therapy and counseling. www.withinreachcounseling.com
Renee Kurz MA, BC-DMT, LPC is a dancer, board certified dance/movement therapist and a licensed professional counselor. She is a graduate from Drexel University where she received her MA in Creative Arts Therapies, with a BFA in Dance Performance from Missouri State University. She began moving with the Monday Night Improv Lab directed by Manfred Fischbeck in 2012 and performed with the Group Motion Multimedia Dance Company. Her passion for dancing as a means to connect and inspire people has spanned from New York City, to India, to Philadelphia, and to her current homebase of Lancaster, PA.
They will perform to a poem by Manfred Fischbeck written for the 10-Year Anniversary of the SALON in 1996. Artwork by Gail Gorlitzz.
Dallas Vietty
In February of 2020 I received a call from George Secor alerting me of his imminent passing from this world, and asking me if I would drive from my apartment in Brooklyn to his home in St Louis to retrieve a collection of accordions - all of which possessed an obscure and intuitive left-hand system for the accordion called Free Bass. I am now the custodian of this small lending collection of remarkable instruments named "Moschino Free Bass" accordions. Three instruments that I own have become my main performing accordions. Since my return to Pennsylvania in 2022, I have made my top priority the exploration, understanding, and creation of music on the Moschino accordion. There is no one to teach this system, and there are very few materials on it - time has been divided between understanding what is possible and appropriate, and building reflexes. My work on the Moscino accordion is very much influenced by my discovery that solo bandoneon repertoire can be transcribed 1:1 on this system. My work is also very influenced by my recent close studies with French pedagogues Jacques Mornet and Nathalie Boucheix at their school in France and their workshop in New Orleans. In my music you'll hear the instrument's capacities for enormous and tiny voicings, polyphony, and all the qualities of good accordion repertory music; you'll hear Monsieur Mornet's ideas of accordion musicality par excellence and "playing from your gut". – Dallas Vietty, accordionist
Venmo: @Dallas-Vietty , website: dallasvietty.com
Videos:
Megan Bridge and Peter Price
Fidget (Megan Bridge & Peter Price) creates & performs experimental works of music and dance. Founded in 2008, Fidget is a platform for the work of Bridge (choreographer) and Price (composer/video art), who have created more than twenty original works that involve live performance, sound, and visual design. With a home base in Philadelphia, the company has toured nationally in the US and internationally in Austria, Bulgaria, Colombia, France, Georgia, Germany, Macedonia, Poland, South Africa, and Switzerland. Fidget maintains an artist workspace and event space in Kensington, Philadelphia. In addition to being the co-director of Fidget and an internationally touring dancer and choreographer, Megan Bridge is also a dance educator, currently teaching in the dance departments at Temple University and Bryn Mawr College. Peter Price is also a media theorist and in that capacity has lectured in New York, London, Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, Basel, and elsewhere.
Links:
Instagram: @thefidget_space
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fidgetspace
Videos:
Madalina Danila and Hugh Sung
Romanian-born pianist Madalina Danila is a graduate of the Bucharest Conservatory and is currently pursuing doctoral studies in piano performance at Temple University. Korean-American pianist Hugh Sung is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and loves good food and travel. And sci-fi. They will perform a set of piano 4-hand works by French female composer Mel. Bonis and Moritz Moszkowski, a German composer of Polish-Jewish descent.
Links:
Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/madahughpianoduo
Podcast: https://madahugh.com/podcast
YouTube: youtube.com/@madahughpianoduo
Performance starts at 3:17
Sheila Browne
Violist Sheila Browne is from Gladwyne, PA and also holds Irish citizenship. She is Associate Viola Professor at Lynn University Conservatory, and has concertized and presented masterclasses on six continents. She was the inaugural violist to be hired at the Tianjin Juilliard School and the Tianjin School Ensemble in China. As Karen Tuttle's official Teaching Assistant at Juilliard while an undergraduate, Sheila continued with an Aufbaustudium in Freiburg with soloist Kim Kashkashian, receiving a M.M. at Rice University with Paul Katz and Karen Ritscher. Her latest CD- Leaps and Bounds, with pianist Julie Nishimura is being released this spring, which includes viola-piano works of Andrea Clearfield, Rochberg and her own transcription of Prokofiev's Cello Sonata. She is the interim Artistic Director of Techne Music, and also directs the Annual January Karen Tuttle Viola Workshop. Sheila is a nature lover, has a husky- maly mix, Zora, and believes in the power of music to bring people in peace together from all over the world.
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/sheilabviolist
Videos:
Marion Halliday
Marion Halliday, a native Kentuckian now splitting her time between Louisville, Kentucky and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is proud purveyor of her own special blend of bluegrass and bourbon-infused, original, women-powered, Americana. While she has been a professional singer for many years, Marion only began focusing on songwriting in the last 5 years. She released her debut solo album Rings Around Saturn on July 1, 2019 and in its first month, both the album and Marion (as artist) were ranked #3 on the US/International Folk DJ charts. Marion also had two songs in the top ten folk releases in her launch month. Even though released late year, the album also landed in the official listing of top-50 most played albums on Folk radio for 2019 at #41. Marion has appeared solo or in one of her bands (Trickster Sister; The Weeping Pints) at venues and festivals throughout the US, as well as Scotland and Mexico.
Links:
https://www.trickstersister.com/
Booking: 502.807.6387
Connect:
https://www.facebook.com/Trickstersister/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMcmQxykILRxUphK8XOIuww
VIDEOS
Rita Blitt
Rita Blitt is an international award-winning painter, sculptor and film collaborator. Her works, which are in many museum collections have been featured in over 70 solo and many group exhibitions. Her monumental sculptures are installed in Australia, Israel, Japan, Singapore and the United States. Her signature sculpture “Inspiration” won a sculpture award in the Florence Biennale. In 2019, she was awarded an Honorary Doctoral degree in Fine Arts by Washburn University, the home of the Mulvane Art Museum that includes the Rita Blitt Gallery and Sculpture Garden Legacy Collection. The award winning book "Rita Blitt The Passionate Gesture" was published in 2000 by RAM and Brandeis University. “Rita Blitt Around and Round” was recently released by the Mulvane Art Museum. The Museum Director Connie Gibbons talks about many works from this book in the film by the same name. Blitt’s work celebrates love of life, nature, music and dance. In 1977, she wrote “I feel like I’m dancing on paper”. She is happy to donate art collections to non-profits.
Links:
Donations to www.parsonsdance.org
Videos:
Aura Fischbeck-Wise
Based in San Francisco, and established in 2008, Aura Fischbeck/Aura Fischbeck Dance creates performance events which investigate and communicate the body's intelligence and reflect the complexity of a contemporary human experience. Their work seeks to examine the intersection of movement, language and culture as a bodily poetics. Aura Fischbeck Dance is fiscally sponsored by Dancers' Group.
Links:
Make a tax deductible donation to Aura Fischbeck Dance on the Dancers' Group website
A special thank you to our wonderful Tech Team!! Thank you for volunteering your time.
Learn more about them on our Team Page.