2009 EARTH CELEBRATIONS HUDSON RIVER PAGEANT
In Partnership with Manhattan Youth
RIVER POEM, POETS HOUSE: 2pm Members of Poets House Class held at Manhattan Youth Downtown Community Center present a collaborative poem on the river and ecology.
BIO: Poets House is a national poetry library and literary center that invites poets and the public to step into the living tradition of poetry. Their poetry resources and literary events document the wealth and diversity of modern poetry, and stimulate public dialogue on issues of poetry in culture.
DANCE OF THE RIVE GRASS, HUMAN KINETIC MOVEMENTS ARTS: 2:15 Four dancers embedded in and melting into the environment of the banks of the Hudson River, represent river grass. These plants symbolize protection and nourishing as they stabilize watery grounds and are a breeding habitat for animals. The costume fabric of native grass cuttings woven into a natural net-like material was specially developed for this performance. Concept and choreography: Yana Schnitzler, Human Kinetics. Performers: Elisama Colon, Grace Eichinger, Stephanie Hyland, Masumi Kishimoto, Yana Schnitzler. Costumes: Yana Schnitzler.
BIO: Human Kinetics Movement Arts creates site-specific movement installations. Blending dance and visual arts. Our goal is to transform the environment in such a way that the audience becomes sensitized to new possibilities of perception and meaning.
CHOIR RIVER SONG, CHURCH STREET SCHOOL FOR MUSIC AND ARTS CHORISTERS – Church Street School for Music and Art Choristers, in partnership with Trinity Wall Street Choristers, will present songs in celebration of Mother Earth. Church Street School art students will also create costumes using sustainable material to enhance the choristers! performance.
BIO: Church Street School for Music & Art is the only not-for-profit school for the arts in Lower Manhattan serving as a community center supporting a diverse audience with affordable arts programming. Our process oriented approach facilitates art and music education through skill building and development of technique in performance.
EXPLORATORY VOYAGE OF HENRY HUDSON, NATIONAL HISTORIC THEATRE, KARL PURNELL: 3:30. The National Historic Theater will present a Theatrical vignette to highlight the Quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s and Samuel de Champlain’s exploratory voyage of 1609, directed by Karl Purnell.
BIO: The National Historic Theater produces historic musical and plays for presentation throughout the United States. It is currently offering its musical, Miss Chase, Mr. Lincoln, in honor of the Lincoln Bicentennial, to theaters in Philadelphia, Washington and New York.
TAMING OF THE TRASH TRICKSTERS: A Scene from Naomi Tessler’s Water’s Song: a Play that Sings out for Sustainable Change: 4pm
Katie Issel, Ariel Burke and Liz Wexler will perform a scene addressing the issue of water pollution from the play Water’s Song: a Play that Sings Out for sustainable Change written and directed by Naomi Tessler.
BIO: Water’s Song: a Play that Sings Out for sustainable Change written by Playwright, Director, and dramatic water workshop facilitator, Naomi Tessler, addresses world water issues and the need to take action as a global community to find resolutions for the world’s growing water crises.
LIVE FISH RELEASE WITH ORIGINAL SONGS BY JULES CAZESSUS & RAY KORONA: 4:15
Jules Cazdessus the “enviro Siren” sings her new song, “One River” on dulcimer for the Hudson RiverPageant.
Ray Korona writes stirring songs about working, the environment, fighting the system and homelessness along with heartfelt songs of love, friendship and peace.
HONORING OF LENAPE INDIANS, SILVER CLOUD SINGERS AND DANCERS:4:45pm
The Silver Cloud Singers, an intertribal Native American singing & dance troupe weaving the traditional with the contemporary of Native song & dance will perform a song and dance piece to honor the River.
BIO: The Silver Cloud Singers are an intertribal Native American singing & dance troupe weaving the traditional with the contemporary of Native song & dance. Silver Cloud has been honored to perform at the commemoration ceremonies for the Year of the Indigenous People’s at the United Nations, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, The Public Theater, The Apollo, Roseland, the Theater at Madison Square Garden, Trinity Church, The American Museum of Natural History, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and the American Indian College Fund Flame of Hope Gala. Silver Cloud was also proud to open for Midnight Oil and Joan Osborne at the Ritz as part of Earth Day celebrations held in Los Angeles and New York City in March 1993.
WATER DANCE OF BOATS – Choreographed and Designed by Alice Farley: 5pm
The Bessie Award winning dancer/costume designer features a choreographed dance of kayaks, canoes, and rowboats festooned with giant elemental river puppet-masks. Boat participants include: The Downtown Boathouse, Village Community Boathouse, New York Kayak Company, and The New York Harbor School
Alice Farley dance Theater creates theatrical productions, dance extended through sculptural costuming, illusion, puppetry, stilts and circus skills. Outdoors they create imaginary landscapes for public spaces, a dream life for architectural and natural environments. They have performed for World Financial Center, The Whitney Museum, The Smithsonian, Lincoln Center, The Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater as well as festivals around the world.
HARMONIC CHANT CONCERT-MUSIC, DAVID HYKES AND THE HARMONIC CHOIR: 5PM
David Hykes, award-winning composer-singer, film composer and pioneer of overtone singing will perform a River Chant with his Harmonic Choir.
BIO: Award-winning composer-singer and film composer David Hykes is the founder of Harmonic Chant, a vocal music of the spheres. He has collaborated with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Mind and Life Institute, exploring sacred sound, healing and meditation, and has presented and performed in countries, festivals and spiritual centers all over the world. He founded the Harmonic Choir, the western world’s preeminent overtone ensemble, in NY in 1975 and released 12 albums of music, including the best-selling overtone album of all time, “Hearing Solar Winds.” Esteemed collaborators and long-time Harmonic Choir members Timothy Hill, Seth Markel and Joel Bluestein, and percussionist extraordinaire Evry Mann will all be joining in. For more information, please visit http://www.harmonicpresence.org
WATER DANCE OF BOATS-FISH SOUND SYMPHONY – SOUNDSCAPE, GREGORI CZERKINKSY: 5pm
Formerly a member of the popular French band Mikado, (Gregori) Czerkinsky, with his romantic sensitivity, has risen to the upper echelon of French pop music. Equally inspired by late French pop vocalist Serge Gainsbourg (1928-1991), the Beatles, the Sex Pistols, Duke Ellington and Disney soundtracks, Czerkinsky’s music blends the pop traditions of his homeland with diverse global influences. Czerkinsky was featured on the soundtrack to Marois’ “Live Virgin: There’s a Time for Everything”, and in 2001-released the album “Club”.”~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide.
“RIDE LA OLA” SONG FOR THE RIVER & EARTH, JOSE CONDE: 5:30pm
Jose Conde, Singer, Songwriter and Composer will perform his Afro-Cuban Funk song “Ride la Ola” honoring the Earth and Water from his new CD, Ola Fresca for the pageant finale.
BIO: Jose Conde glides the line between Latin heritage and American storyteller traditions sliding poetically from universal themes of nature’s beauty to personal expressions of romantic longing and loss as well as a personal commitment to nonviolence, and preservation of the Earth. Conde who has been featured in international compilations by Putumayo and Rough Guide, and two critically acclaimed albums with his group Ola Fresca, is working this summer on new solo Latin funk pop fusion production of new songs inspired by nature and love which he plans to release in Spring 2010. For more info about Jose Conde and to buy cds please visit:http:www.myspace.com/josecondemusic
PARADE BAND, HUNGRY MARCH BAND:
Hungry March Band will be one of the Hudson River Pageant bands performing along side the pageant procession.
BIO: The Hungry March Band, NYC’s legendary street brass march band has earned a reputation for mythical revelry, having performed at a huge variety of fine venues including: MOMA, Lincoln Center, the Mermaid and Halloween Parade, as well as Earth celebrations garden pageants. Their musical repertoire consists of original compositions written by band members as well as scores selected from our multi-cultural world community.
PARADE BAND, GRUPO KLAUNG NEG MAWON:
Grupo Kalunga Neg Mawon band, playing bamboo flutes, performing the Haitian and Dominican processional phenomenon known as “Rara” in the Republic of Ayiti (Haiti) and “Gaga” in the Dominican Republic. It originated with the Haitian maroons who escaped the hardships of enslavement and sought refuge in the mountains of the colony then known as San Domingo/Saint Dominigue .
BIO: Grupo Kalunga Neg Mawon is a musical dance ensemble that consists of members who have spent most of their lives researching and studying African culture in the Americas. Their aim is to preserve aspects of African tradition and identity existing in Quisqueya- Ayiti, known today as the Dominican Republic and The Republic of Haiti.