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(04/28/14 4:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Blue lights illuminated a giant, superimposed image of three “Indiana Jazz Legends” Saturday night in the Musical Arts Center. A densely packed audience sat to pay tribute to some of the most popular tunes of the 20th century. IU presented its Jazz Celebration at 8 p.m. in honor of famous Hoosier jazz musicians.Along with several guest musicians, including the IU Vocal Jazz Ensemble, the 50-plus-piece Studio Orchestra performed works written by guitarist Wes Montgomery, trombonist J.J. Johnson and pianist Hoagy Carmichael, a Bloomington native whose iconic statue sits outside the IU Auditorium. “It was like being in a 1940s club,” IU student Alex Black said. “It swung. I loved the feel of it.”The concert opened with Hoagy Carmichael Overture, arranged by Musical Director Brent Wallarab. Referred to as “America’s first songwriter” by guest announcer and WFIU’s classic jazz director David Brent Johnson, Carmichael is responsible for writing some of the most popular American songs of all time. His 1930 release “Georgia on my Mind,” the official state song of Georgia as of 1979, became enormously popular after pianist Ray Charles released a cover in 1960. Two of Carmichael’s other songs, “Stardust” and “Heart and Soul,” were performed Saturday night with a similarly warm reception from the crowd.Along with his musical career, Carmichael’s image has been ingrained in popular culture as the inspiration for an iconic 20th-century character. Writing in the early 1960s, James Bond creator Ian Fleming decided that his famous Secret Service operative should resemble Carmichael. Direct references to Carmichael appear in the dialogue of Fleming’s “Casino Royale” as well as “Moonraker.” The sounds and sights of jazz were both honored at Saturday’s performance. As a tribute to the late jazz photographer Duncan Schiedt, who took some of the most famous pictures of 20th century jazz icons, a massive poster depicting his images of Montgomery, Johnson and Carmichael hung above the orchestra. “The pictures really help you understand the people you’re listening to,” Black said. “They were people. They weren’t just musicians.”With celebrated guest soloists such as jazz guitarist Dave Stryker, Grammy-nominated trombonist Wayne Wallace and vocalist and IU graduate student Richard Baskin Jr., Saturday’s celebration treated patrons with the music of Indiana icons.“You wouldn’t have thought of the Midwest as a place for music,” Black said. “IU does a great job getting everyone to listen.”
(04/22/14 2:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Country singer Granger Smith will perform at 9 p.m. today at the Bluebird Nightclub. Tickets are $10 and attendees must be at least 21 years old.The show is part of Smith’s tour to promote his ninth and latest album, “Dirt Road Highway,” which was released April 2013 and debuted at No. 1 on the iTunes Country Chart. “Granger Smith is a very popular up-and-coming country star, and he’s done very well in the surrounding area, so we thought it would be a good idea to invite him to come play here in Bloomington,” Bluebird owner Dave Kubiak said.Smith’s performance is marked with a twist, as he performs his encore as his alter-ego, Earl Dibbles Jr., who appeared on a weekly segment called “Dip ’Em and Pick ’Em” on CBS Sports Network. Smith wrote the song “We Bleed Maroon” in honor of his alma mater, Texas A&M University, which has become the school’s new anthem.Outside of music, Smith is involved with the 100-Mile Boot Walk, an annual event where participants walk in combat boots for five days to raise money for the U.S. Armed Forces.His song, “That’s What I Do With It,” was inspired by his interest in supporting American troops.Smith also founded “Drive Now, Text Later,” a campaign aimed at high school students to encourage safe driving behaviors.“We know that there is a bigger demand for more country music, so we’ve been working on booking more country acts, and lots of people have requested Granger to come to the area to perform,” Kubiak said.
(04/21/14 12:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The skies were a clear blue and the sun shined down on Dunn Meadow on Saturday for the second annual “Hey St. Jude!” benefit concert.The event, sponsored by the Human Biology Student Government, featured food, games, karaoke and music from local bands. Proceeds benefitted St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. The hospital aims to prevent and find cures for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Senior Jessica Shaker, president of the Human Biology Student Government, said St. Jude has been a part of her life since she was young.She said members of her family are on the hospital’s board and have taken part in fundraising efforts in her hometown Chicago. She interned at the hospital last summer and will work there again this summer. Shaker said after she saw a music video campaign put on by the hospital for the “Hey St. Jude!” concerts, she wanted to bring one to Bloomington.“I just thought it would be cool to do something here,” she said. “People have done it, but we tried to make it our own.” Some students in attendance wore T-shirts that read, “Finding cures, saving children.” Shaker said her favorite thing about St. Jude is no child’s family has to pay for treatment. The hospital needs about $3 million per day to keep facilities up and running, she said, and that money is mainly provided through donations and grants.“It’s pretty amazing that they manage to fundraise this,” Shaker said.Attendees had the opportunity to participate in a few small game tournaments and win prizes donated from local vendors, which included Taste of India, Noodles & Company and Yogi’s Bar and Grill. Another contest had participants guess the number of jellybeans in a jar. Performers included folk bands the Underhills and Dietrich John, blues band Lost Catfish and rock band Fizzbang. Lost Catfish bass player Justin Peña, who calls himself “Gilby,” said he heard about the concert from his bandmates and simply came along to perform.“We like humans and biology,” he said.Senior Austen Rang, vice president of the Human Biology Student Government, said all of the participating bands were supportive of the event and very willing to help out. He said he enjoyed seeing people come together to have fun and raise money for a good cause. “Hopefully we can keep it going for a few years to come,” he said.
(04/14/14 3:19pm)
Underground artists and indie rock bands played at the Dunn Meadow on Saturday as a part of the annual Culture Shock music festival organized by IU student radio WIUX.
(04/14/14 3:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As the sun set Saturday, the crowd grew restless and excited. Mac DeMarco was preparing to perform at Culture Shock, WIUX’s annual concert. The artist, an unassuming figure in a white baseball cap, appeared without much of a fuss. He greeted the cheering crowd, then played his more well-known songs, including “Ode to Viceroy.” Event-goers climbed on each others’ shoulders to get a good view of the artist, whose toothy grin was recently illustrated on T-shirts and posters mimicking Alfred E. Neuman, the famous cartoon mascot of MAD magazine.Demarco has been described as a “blue wave” or “slacker-rock” artist likened to groups such as Pavement, Kurt Vile and Beck. His sound puts a new, softer twist on grunge without forgetting the certain twang that has become signature of the flannel-wearing artist.But DeMarco wasn’t the only attraction at Culture Shock.The event, which concluded IU’s Culture of Care Week, raised awareness about local Bloomington artists and businesses. It also supported anti-bullying groups.DeMarco, the headline of the show, played at 9 p.m. — the end of the six-hour mini-festival of Bloomington bands and student musicians. As students and locals rounded the corner of Dunn Meadow, they were greeted by music, barking dogs and a sky filled with white kites. Tables where local businesses and artists sold food, jewelry and art lined Dunn Meadow. I asked a few vendors why they participated in the event, and their answers varied.“We decided to participate in Culture Shock this year because it’s a really great community event,” said Shelby Everett of Fair Trade Bloomington and Global Gifts. “It’s great exposure for local vendors and food places and Global Gifts this year, and obviously great exposure for WIUX.” Her booth sold fair-trade jewelry and products, and it raised awareness for local fair-trade markets.The Culture Shock table sold T-shirts and kites and allowed attendees to enter raffles and win prizes. In the middle of the meadow, attendees were able to decorate a huge plywood board in support of the event. One attendee painted an elaborate wolf head, while others simply painted the wooden board. Some even smeared paint on their friends. Many milled around with flower crowns or paintings of sunsets.As the event carried on, more and more attendees joined. People relaxed on the grass and watched as the more daring wrestled with the wind to get their kites into the air.The featured bounce house attracted young Bloomington kids and, to my excitement, IU students who raced up and down the slides.Artists set up booths to help support the event. Karen Heminger, whose artist name is “Midwest Waves,” sold refurbished wood pieces with intricate carved designs. Others sold oil paintings.Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard raised funds for a new tool-share program for families without access to proper equipment.Senior Elisa Shrack, a human development and family studies major, attended with friends.“I came to Culture Shock because I wanted to become more aware of different organizations in Bloomington and to actually interact with them in order to learn more about them,” she said.She had come to the right place.
(04/14/14 2:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ten members of the Hoosier Tap Company stood on stage, lined up with their backs to the audience, for nearly a minute. Audience members cheered each member’s name, eager for them to begin. The music began abruptly, and the members turned around, tap dancing in an organized, sequenced fashion.The Hoosier Tap Company presented “Tap into Art,” their showcase performance, at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Willkie Auditorium.The collaboration included a wide variety of performers in addition to the Hoosier Tap Company.Other campus groups such as a capella group Ladies First, InMotion Dance Company, Hooshir A Cappella, the Indiana Hoosierettes dance team and students from IU’s Contemporary Dance Program also performed.Hoosier Tap Company is a student-directed dance company that gives IU students the opportunity to share their passion for tap dancing, according to its Facebook page. IU junior Laura Miller and senior Hannah Morton founded the company.“Our vision for ‘Tap into Art’ was to provide a showcase for the many different art forms and artists represented at IU,” Morton said. “It is a part of our mission to bring awareness to tap dancing as an art, but we also wanted to give other performance groups the same opportunity to share their passions and incredible talents.”The company was launched in the fall. This weekend’s performance was the first showcase to which Hoosier Tap Company played host.Many of the musical acts that took part in the event came from the many connections the Hoosier Tap Company built when it contacted and invited the performers in the fall.The auditorium was nearly full of audience members who clapped along and chanted with every performance.“We were thrilled with the excitement and support from our audience, and HTC was so grateful that so many people came to see the show,” Miller said. “It is always more fun, as performers, to know that your audience appreciates all of your hard work, passion and time spent preparing for the event.”IU junior and pianist Nat Zegree collaborated with the other acts and received a positive audience response for his own solo performance of “Beyond the Sea.”“The most important thing is to have fun and simply share your music to anyone that will listen, and that’s exactly what I did, and I thought it went very well,” Zegree said.Zegree expressed his interest in the success of Hoosier Tap Company.“The talent that this University fosters is unbelievable,” he said. “This tap company is a stellar idea, and I will continue to applaud and support their efforts in any way I can.”Miller and Morton said company members enjoy collaborating at other dance events, and they hope this helps promote the Hoosier Tap Company at IU.“We hope to make ‘Tap into Art’ an annual show,” Miller said. “Student dancers, musicians and vocalists deserve a place to showcase their work, and HTC was honored to be able to do that with this event.”
(04/11/14 2:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The band first came together as a joke, but after learning how to write and play music properly, punk group the Coathangers turned music into a full-fledged career. The group will perform at midnight Saturday in the Bishop with a $10 admission. Attendees must be at least 18 years old. Originally from Atlanta, Meredith Franco, Julia Kugel and Stephanie Luke created the band in order to hang out and play at parties. They had little knowledge of how to play instruments. But as time went on, they began to take their craft more seriously and started playing more personal material. This evolved into their current punk-rock sound they now have.“We take it seriously in the fact that playing has become our lives for eight years now, and it’s the only thing we ever want to pursue,” Franco said. “However, we still try to have fun and keep in mind that it’s just rock ’n’ roll we are doing.”Franco plays bass. Kugel plays guitar. Luke plays drums and all three members sing.The group will perform material from all four of its albums: “The Coathangers,” “Scramble,” “Larceny & Old Lace” and “Suck My Shirt,” which was released in March.According to the Bishop’s website, the title of the album refers to an incident involving the salvaging of spilled tequila during the recording session for the album.The Coathangers were booked to play at the Bishop because of being presented by the Spirit of ’68 Promotions. Mackenzie Blake, an intern for Spirit of ‘68 Promotions, said the group members were primarily booked because of their diversity.“Spirit of ’68 aims to bring a diverse lineup to Bloomington, regardless of genre or how far away they are,” Blake said. “Essentially they bring awesome diversity to the Bloomington music scene.”The Coathangers have toured North America and Europe multiple times and performed alongside bands such as the Black Lips, Deerhunter, Nobunny and Growlers. The group described its music as punk, rock ’n’ roll mixed with magic and rage.“Inspiration for our music comes from everywhere and everything, whether it be someone we know or something one of us experienced,” Kugel said. “Sometimes our music is just a collaboration of words and thoughts that really mean nothing.”This will be the band’s second visit to Bloomington, having previously performed at the Bishop in 2011.“It’s always been a dream to come back,” Kugel said. “Kids like to have a good time, and as a band we want to play all over the U.S.A. It doesn’t matter if we are in Bloomington or LA.”
(04/09/14 3:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Violetta, a young escort, sits in a lavender gown atop a cushioned stand. She is surrounded by other women in royal blue, joined by a large group of men. They begin to laugh, flirt, dance and drink with one another until Alfredo Germont, a nobleman, comes in with friends. He sees Violetta and his friends tell her that he is in love with her.The group celebrates further, until Violetta abruptly sits on the stand, coughing. A doctor comes in to give her medicine as the crowd exits. She stands up and returns to the party.IU Opera and Ballet Theater will present La Traviata, its last season opera, at 8 p.m. Friday in the Musical Arts Center. Tickets start at $12 for students and $25 for general admission. The performances will also be streamed live Friday and Saturday through IUMusicLive! Live performances in the MAC will continue April 18 and 19.La Traviata is an opera written by 18th century composer Giuseppe Verdi based on the novel “The Lady of the Camellias.” To prepare for this opera, actor Derrek Stark, an IU graduate student, read the original novel to better understand his character, Alfredo. Although the opera is not entirely true to the original novel, reading the work helped Stark develop his character’s persona. “You have to work to flush that character out as fully as you can,” he said. “That happens throughout the entire process. You spend time learning who that character truly is.” The first step in preparing for the opera was learning the music, Stark said. Stark went though the text with a diction coach to ensure that he was pronouncing each name and word correctly in his singing. His coach had previously performed the female lead, Violetta Valery, and was able to offer a lot of advice about the part, Stark said. After practicing diction and learning the music, Stark worked on blocking, or learning where he needs to be on stage, and creating natural movement for his character. His character, Alfredo, falls in love with Violetta, a 19th century French escort who has moved up the ranks in her work. Violetta has never allowed herself to fall in love because of her various relationships with men. But when she meets Alfredo, she decides to follow her feelings and falls in love, stage director Jeffrey Buchman said. “I’m the only man who truly cares about her beyond what she can offer me,” Stark said. However, Alfredo has a sister back home with a wealthy suitor who refuses to marry her because of her brother’s relationship with an escort. Because of this, Alfredo’s father Giorgio comes to speak with Violetta about her relationship with Alfredo, asking her to end it in order to help his daughter and stop tainting the family name. “She does that, which infuriates Alfredo,” Buchman said. “And in the end, she is just hoping that Alfredo and the world understand the sacrifices she made, all while she is dying.” Violetta suffers from tuberculosis, also known as consumption. The disease typically attacks the lungs and causes victims to experience chronic cough, which can often draw blood. Tuberculosis was usually fatal, especially in the 19th century, when the disease was more common and there were few known cures.“In the opera, people really see the demands society places on women,” Buchman said. “It’s a woman who society never gave a chance in this world, and all she’s looking for is to be a noble creature.”One particular scene that Stark struggled with was near the end. At one point, a large Plexiglas wall comes down between Violetta and Alfredo onstage to symbolize their separation. Alfredo sings through this wall to Violetta, but because he couldn’t hear the actress on the other side, it caused some difficulties. “It’s all about finding that inner connection and personal point of reference that you can use to fuel the acting,” Stark said. “I’m still working toward it, but it’s a little more self-reliant because you can’t immediately interact with someone.” He was forced to work even harder in order to make his character believable in this scene.Stark participated in musicals his senior year of high school and worked as a pianist for a few other musicals. It wasn’t until his undergraduate work at Mansfield University that he became interested in opera from his vocal teacher.“I always thought opera was just a bunch of fat ladies gurgling,” Stark said. “Through learning to sing and really careful guidance, I became really interested in it. Now, it’s a very large part of my life.” From his experience with musical theater, Stark can see a few differences with opera. “One of the most immediate differences is that the singers don’t use microphones,” he said. “It’s the singer against the orchestra.” “La Traviata” is different from other operas. “It’s one of those pieces that’s so immediate for the audience,” Buchman said. “It touches you very deeply. It has its own unique quality in the way it does that.” New stage elements occur during the first few minutes of the opera. Traditionally, the set opens with a 19th century Parisian parlor with rich fabrics, a fireplace and other period décor. “We let that go and created a world that was influenced by symbols,” Buchman said. “We created an atmosphere instead of literal structure and detail.” The production is new because of the poetic approach the director and designers took with the original play. “It stays true to the text, but allows us to create a world that the audience will get a new experience out of even if they’ve seen it 10 times,” Buchman said. With a new production, it’s all about seeing the day-to-day changes and eventually seeing it all come together, Buchman said. “Live theater is something we don’t get a lot of anymore,” Stark said. “In an opera that you’re watching live, anything can happen. I think you would get an entirely more moving experience coming to a live show than you would doing anything else.”
(04/08/14 4:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For 144 hours, student filmmakers shoot and edit their videos, ones they have been preparing for months, writing scripts and working with actors and musicians.Students are given six days to complete a five-minute video for the IU Campus MovieFest competition every spring. These 144 hours are the only time the students can work on filming or editing for the competition.IU student filmmaker Chandler Swan and his partner Brendan Elmore took turns sleeping on a makeshift bed of three chairs in Wells Library while the two edited their video for last year’s competition. Their movie, “Under Euclid’s Watch,” is a drama about a young prodigy who is on the verge of a mathematical discovery. In the same library where the drama was being edited, IU student Ben Tamir Rothenberg was creating a very different production — an infomercial for toilet paper called “SheetWOW.” Little did these filmmakers know, the two movies would both be selected for a screening at the Cannes Film Festival in France this summer. At the film showing for Campus MovieFest a few days after the videographers finished editing, “Under Euclid’s Watch” won Best Picture and Best Cinematography. “SheetWOW” won Best Comedy. Four films from each campus are selected to be shown in Hollywood after every competition.Because of their awards, Rothenberg, Swan and Elmore traveled to California for the screening. It was here that Swan and Elmore met Rothenberg. The three were recently informed that their films will screen at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. This film festival is one of the most prestigious in the world and shows films from Meryl Streep, George Clooney and Steven Spielberg, Swan said. Only one film created by 21- and 22 year-olds has been shown at the Cannes Film Festival before, Swan said, so this screening is a huge accomplishment for the student filmmakers. Swan and Elmore first met through their fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, when Swan had been selected to receive an award for cinematography work he completed with his father. Elmore interviewed him about the award and the two started working together soon after that. Both filmmakers began creating videos from a young age. Swan began making films when he was given a Digital Blue camera at the age of eight. His father works for a news channel, he said, and his mother works for Paramount Pictures, so the interest was always there. Elmore remembers shooting videos with his uncle’s camera before shooting a horror movie with his brother in second grade. His freshman year at IU, Elmore met a senior in his fraternity that was participating in Campus MovieFest. “I had no idea what I was getting into,” he said. “But it was a great learning experience.” These experiences helped lead up to the success of “Under Euclid’s Watch.” The two met many challenges reserving spaces and lighting their scenes when making the movie, but Elmore said it was all worth it when they finally saw it screen at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater and eventually in Hollywood. Rothenberg said he watched hundreds of infomercials every day in order to prepare for the six days of shooting. “The film gives the viewer this weird feeling because it looks really professional, but it’s about poop,” Rothenberg said. Most of the movies he makes are graphic, he said, and showing them to his family always makes for interesting responses. “I showed it to my grandma and she said, ‘Ben, I love you, but you’re not winning anything there,’” Rothenberg said. All of the work Rothenberg put in made for an award-winning film, but it didn’t come without dedication.“If you want to make a good film, you just have to stop going to school,” Rothenberg said. “I just stopped going to classes eventually. It was more important to me.” Rothenberg was a telecommunications major, where he said he learned all of his video-shooting skills. Although IU doesn’t have a film school, Rothenberg is now pursuing his passion through a general studies major. “One thing that’s really cool about these films’ success is that it shows what IU is doing without even having a film school,” he said. “We’ve won the past four years.” Now that the campus festival and Hollywood screening are over, Rothenberg, Swan and Elmore are looking toward their preparation for Cannes. Attending the festival and paying for expenses in France will cost each student upwards of $5,000. The three are trying to propose to have some of these costs subsidized by the University as well as starting their own Kickstarter campaign. The group is also working to get a variety of actors and production companies to come to the screening of their films, so they can get more publicity while they are in France. Although the costs can be high, the group feels it is worthwhile. “We didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to represent IU,” Rothenberg said. “We are proud Hoosiers.” Despite the festival plans hovering over the filmmakers, all three have continued to work on other projects. Elmore said he just finished a short film script that he hopes to begin shooting in the next few weeks and send on to other film festivals. Swan said he has begun a script about a newscaster and the psychological effects that reporting stories about events like school shootings can have on the character and his family. Rothenberg said he recently completed his film for this year’s Campus MovieFest called “The Rebound,” which won Best Comedy and Best Soundtrack at this year’s awards ceremony. The musical is about a young woman who breaks up with her cheating boyfriend and hits the town with her friends. Rothenberg is also working on a documentary called “Art Heals,” he said, which follows his mother, an artist working in St. Vincent’s Hospital. She works with cancer patients and helps them use art to communicate with people about their sickness and disabilities. “To make a good film, you have to have good actors, good production and a good story,” Rothenberg said. “A lot of films will be missing one of them, but the good ones have all three.”To get all three assets, the students said they look to their fellow Hoosiers. “Because we’re students, the community really wants to help us make films,” Rothenberg said. “We want to be representing Hoosiers.”An earlier version of this story identified Ben Tamir Rothenberg as Ben Tamir Rothenberger, and called the production "SheetWOW" an infomercial for musical toilet paper.
(04/07/14 3:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A mix of Spanish, Portuguese and English echoed throughout the walls of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Friday. Students and guest performers tuned their guitars and warmed up their vocals moments before the show began. IU students, faculty and local community members of all ages gathered for the fourth Annual Spanish and Portuguese Song Festival. Event organizer Israel Fernando Herrera came up with the idea to have a Spanish and Portuguese singing competition several years ago while he was teaching Spanish here at IU.“I asked my students what they did in their free time,” Herrera said. “Many said they sang, played instruments or were in bands. I wanted to find a way to combine Spanish with music.” Herrera said he encouraged all of his students to participate in the event and stressed that this particular competition was different than others in the past.“It’s much more informal. You don’t need to be a professional. This is a matter of giving students the opportunity to use the language they are learning and enjoy being on stage,” Herrera said. This year, six undergraduate students competed for the top prize. They chose to sing popular songs from Columbia, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela. The participants were judged on two main categories: musicality and language. A music jury and a language jury selected the top three winners. Each specialized jury consisted of IU graduate students, faculty from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Latin American Music Center and other expert musicians. Rachel Colegrove took second place for her performance in Portuguese. Colegrove is double majoring in Spanish and Portuguese at IU. She worked with senior lecturer Vania Castro for two weeks on her pronunciation in preparation for the performance. “I saw the competition last year and have been thinking about competing ever since,” Colegrove said. Continuing a tradition that began in last year’s competition, there was a special category for high school students learning Spanish. This year, three students from the Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship participated. Next year, the performance will include a fifth edition non-competitive section for children ages 6 to 10. First place winner Carina Liu learned Spanish not from classes at IU, but from her boyfriend with whom she practiced her performance and pronunciation. “I haven’t taken any Spanish classes, but I learned everything I know from my boyfriend, and I joined the competition because I’ve always wanted to sing on stage,” Liu said. Aside from the competition, IU Jacobs School of Music students, ROK GROUP, the Latin American Guitar Ensemble, IU Opera Theater, the Latin American Music Center, Spanish singer Tomás Lozano and the Amigo Fields band composed of IU faculty gave special guest performances. The festival was made possible because of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the IU Vice President Office for Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs, the Institute of European Studies, the La Casa Latino Cultural Center, Latino Studies Program, IU Commission on Multicultural Understanding, the Latin American Music Center and the Jacobs School of Music.
(04/04/14 4:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Praised as a superstar, a champion of classical music, a beloved humanist, conductor, performer and artist, Itzhak Perlman holds an unprecedented musical influence. At 8 p.m. Thursday at the IU Auditorium, a packed audience welcomed him as the reigning virtuoso of the violin.Like the great classical musicians of the nineteenth century, Franz Liszt and Niccolo Paganini, Perlman commands a celebrity rarely enjoyed by performers in the world of classical music.Even those who don’t know Perlman’s art know his reputation. State Rep. Jim Lucas, R-69th District, came to the show after hearing of Perlman’s talent.“We came just to hear the world’s best violinist play,” he said.Perlman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1945. At the age of three, after being denied entrance to the prestigious Ron Shulamit music conservatory for being too small to hold a violin, Perlman taught himself the instrument. He gave his first concert at the age of ten, shortly before moving to the United States to study at the Juilliard School.In 1958 Perlman performed the third movement from Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E minor live on the Ed Sullivan show. He was thirteen years old.“It sounded like a talented 13-year-old with a lot of promise,” Perlman said in a Huffington Post article. “But it did not sound like a finished product.”Despite his early appearances on national television and his unique talent, he denied being a child prodigy.“A child prodigy is somebody who can step up to the stage of Carnegie Hall and play with an orchestra one of the standard violin concerts with aplomb,” he said. “I couldn’t do that.”Ironically, Perlman’s most famous collaborations have not been for the concert hall, but rather for the movie theater. The film score for Steven Spielberg’s epic historical drama “Schindler’s List,” one of the most recognized film scores to date, was composed by John Williams and featured Perlman on the violin.It won an Academy Award, a BAFTA and a Grammy, as well as a nomination for a Golden Globe, which Williams and Perlman won in 2005 with “Memoirs of a Geisha.”Perlman’s performance Thursday night did not feature these works. Instead, it featured three sonatas by the nineteenth and twentieth century composers Ludwig van Beethoven, César Franck, and Claude Debussy.These were performed with the pianist Rohan de Silva, winner of the prestigious Best Accompanist award for the 1990 Tchaikovsky Competition and a frequent collaborator with Perlman.Ranging between blissful harmonies and tempestuous drama, the program featured a wide range of influences. Concertgoer Madeleine Steup said she was amazed.Beethoven’s Sonata No. 8 in G Major, Op. 30 was composed between 1801 and 1802, the same years that he composed his second symphony.The period was a traumatic time in the life of the composer. Beethoven had recently discovered his hearing loss and was contemplating suicide, a secret he disclosed in his famous Heiligenstadt letter, which he wrote just months after the sonata.Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major was the second piece performed by Perlman. It was written in four movements and composed as a wedding present for the famed Belgian violinist Eugene Ysaye.“It’s very tempestuous,” IU sophomore Steup, a former violinist, said. “It has lots of different characters and it’s very balanced.” Hailed as the father of musical Impressionism and the creator of a new, enriched tonality, Debussy moved away from this label as he began distancing himself from his pictorial, sensual music in favor of a more abstract sound.His dozens of albums feature music from every major Classical epoch, as well as Jewish folk music, film scores, Spanish dances and jazz.“He’s the best in the world,” said Lucas. After the intermission, audiences returned for Perlman’s powerful finale, Debussy’s Sonata in G Minor for Violin and Piano.The last work completed by the composer before his death at 55, the sonata showcases a new development in Debussy’s musical tendencies.“It’s really incredible,” said Steup. “It’s mercurial, very romantic, very French.”
(04/03/14 2:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The sounds of swinging mallets clanging on vibraphone bars, the reverberating thrum of bass strings and jazzy vocals will come to Players Pub tonight.Sarah’s Swing Set, a local three-piece jazz band with 11 years of performance experience, will play at 8 p.m. today. Cover charge for the show is $5. A percussionist will join the band.Musicians Sarah Flint and Robert Stright started Sarah’s Swing Set in 2003. Flint and Stright met each other while performing in another jazz group, Stardusters.Ron Kadish, an IU alumnus who plays bass for Sarah’s Swing Set, was added soon after.Flint said one of the attractions of her band’s live show is watching Stright play the vibraphone.“He is amazing to watch,” Flint said. “He has got those mallets flying, and it is a lot more interesting to watch than a piano player.”Flint said her band focuses on music from the American Songbook, which contains music primarily from the 1920s through the 1950s. A self-taught musician, Flint plays guitar, flute, ukulele and percussion, in addition to vocals. She currently instructs guitar and voice lessons in Bloomington and has been teaching music for more than 20 years.Flint has played in several bands of different genres. She also released an album this year with her other band, Hoosier Darling, also called Gozpel Gurlz. She said she does not have to try as hard to get her voice heard in jazz as she did with rock ’n’ roll. Her experiences with different genres do, however, affect her in her jazz singing.“Since I come from such a diverse background, singing hard rock and country, I suppose I might have a different take on the jazz style,” Flint said. “I also scat a little bit.”Scatting is a singing technique used to create a melody with nonsensical words.Sarah’s Swing Set’s live jazz shows sometimes incorporate guest musicians. Among these include guitarist David Gulyas and New York City saxophonist and clarinetist Charles Frommer. “The last few months have been just fantastic,” Flint said. “The crowds were wonderful, and the shows were really great.”Kadish is a versatile bass player. In addition to Sarah’s Swing Set, he has recorded music with John Mellencamp, Jennie DeVoe and Ruthie Allen Lincoln, among many other musicians.“I don’t really have a particular style,” he said. “I have a wide variety of styles that I call from.” Kadish recollected a recent time when Sarah’s Swing Set was scheduled to play at Oliver Winery during a downpour. “I got to the winery fully expecting them to say, ‘Sorry, but its raining too hard,’” he said. “And they didn’t. It was an outside gig.”He said an audience came out, despite the wet weather. Oliver Winery put up awnings for the crowd.“It was a blast,” he said. “Bloomington, where people sit out in the rain and listen to jazz.”
(04/01/14 2:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Musician Aly Spaltro, otherwise known as Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, began her career in an unusual place — a DVD shop.Spaltro started writing and recording music late at night in Bart’s & Greg’s DVD Explosion in Brunswick, Maine, where she worked. The solo project Lady Lamb the Beekeeper is Spaltro’s brainchild, cultivated and inspired on those late nights after closing up the store.Lady Lamb the Beekeeper will perform at 9 p.m. today at the Bishop. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. Audience members must be at least 18 years old to attend.As far as touring goes, Spaltro said, the other musicians are just friends who tour with her to help play the songs as they were recorded.Spaltro has released records under Lady Lamb the Beekeeper since 2007. Last year, the Boston Music Awards presented her with the “Best Boston Artist Who Doesn’t Live In Boston” award.Mackenzie Blake, an IU sophomore and intern for Spirit of ’68 Promotions, said she thinks Spaltro will create an interesting live show.“I listened to some of her stuff,” she said. “It is really raw, and it is almost a little erratic at some points, which I think will make for a really interesting live show.”Spirit of ’68 Promotions, which was founded by Dan Coleman, is designed to bring a diverse crowd of musicians, local and touring, to Bloomington. According to the company’s website, one of their primary objectives is to “bring the music to you, because distance and high gas prices shouldn’t be a barrier to hearing great music.”Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Blake said, is going to perform a good show because of the intimate setting the Bishop offers coinciding with the rawness of Spaltro’s style.“You can clearly tell she is not holding back,” Blake said.
(03/28/14 3:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Starting today, IU Theatre will show the first of three new plays for its program “At First Sight,” a collection of pieces written by master of fine arts students Kelly Lusk, Iris Dauterman and Nathan Davis. Incorporating themes and issues of sexual trauma, mental paralysis and the nature of fate, the plays challenge various ideas and social constructions. The first piece, “The Art of Bowing,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Wellz-Metz Theatre.It is a meta-theatrical drama that explores human civilization, the role of divinity in human life and the philosophical concepts of fate and determinism. The genre of meta-theater blatantly breaks the fourth wall. Techniques of meta-theater include the actors’ recognition of their jobs as actors and of the play they are in. It has roots in the work of the 20th century dramatists Tom Stoppard and Samuel Beckett.“The groundwork was laid by playwrights like Beckett,” said playwright Nathan Davis, a third-year MFA candidate. “This bare, spare world where large ideas can fit. It’s a combination of being very specific and very vague.” For Davis, the thematic elements of meta-theater often take precedence over its characters or narrative aspects. “I look at characters in terms of archetype — what they stand for or what they represent,” Davis said. “I don’t view my characters as actual people.”Universality rather than individuality figures heavily in “The Act of Bowing.” The actors each play multiple roles throughout the development of the play and emerge onto the set under the premise that theater itself is dead. From this metaphorical death, however, Davis said he believes his characters have been given a chance to achieve a greater kind of freedom.“Ideas of freedom and death are very much common links,” Davis said. “The death of self so that God can move within you. The journey of submission. Giving yourself up for a greater truth.”Davis worked on the project with director Rob Heller, a second year MFA student who has worked on numerous projects at IU, including a play by Davis’ colleague Iris Dauterman.“It’s been a very highly collaborative process,” Davis said. “Rob’s enthusiasm for the script and commitment to keeping it fresh and dynamic is exactly what the play needed.”The second piece, “Lacy and Ashley Live in a Trailer Now,” will open at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Wells-Metz.It is directed by Dale McFadden, associate chair in the Department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance. “Lacy and Ashley” is about a gay couple in a place of their life they didn’t expect to be, Lusk said. “They find themselves stuck in a trailer, stuck in this town,” Lusk said. “It’s hard for them to get themselves out of this rut.”The play draws influence from the notable Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, whose work “Three Sisters” deals with the difficulties of moving out of the ruts of life. “It’s kind of a fantasy we have of just moving,” Lusk said. “But this move to be happier isn’t always the best of options.”Throughout the play, other characters including a drug addict and a gay man who finds himself in relations with married men maneuver in and out of Lacy and Ashley’s life. Lusk said by writing characters he considers rather unlikeable, he believes he is able to reach a culture not often depicted in theater. “I wanted to explore people that society views as bottom of the barrel — gay people and trailer trash,” he said. “People who don’t think very much of themselves talking with one another. It ends up being about how they communicate and how they make a community of themselves.”Lusk’s themes of human sexuality and community are also apparent in Dauterman’s play “Trigger Warning,” directed by professor and actress Nancy Lipschulz.The play will open at 5 p.m. Wednesday. It features issues of sexual violence, trauma and survival. “It was difficult to write about,” Dauterman said. “I wanted to be very respectful. I wanted to make sure that none of the characters came across as stereotypes or helpless victims. I wanted to make sure I portrayed the severity of what was happening to them.” “Trigger Warning” brings attention to sexual abuse in the lives of five women who share their stories with one another in an effort to release themselves from their trauma. Dauterman, who describes herself as “ambitious to the point of being idiotic,” believes that sexual abuse and the role of women in playwriting is underrepresented.By writing multiple roles for strong female characters, she said she views herself as representing a demographic in need of a voice.In dealing with strong themes and controversial subject matter, Dauterman, like Davis and Lusk, said she would like for her work to inspire and provoke her audience. “I would love to change some minds,” she said.
(03/28/14 3:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Eight Bloomington High School South students gathered around a table, a menorah sitting in the center.It was Hanukkah.After presenting her gifts to the others, freshman Maria Lysandrou led the group in a traditional Hanukkah song. Suddenly, they heard a crash. A dog barked. The students stood still and remained quiet, some huddling together. They heard footsteps getting louder and louder. The student playing Otto peaks through the bookcase door to see whom it was.“I think they’re gone,” he said. Everyone was relieved — it was only a thief. They thought it was the Gestapo, the Nazi police, discovering their hiding place.BHSS’ performance of “The Diary of Anne Frank” will begin at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the school’s auditorium. They will perform again at the same times on April 5. Tickets cost $10 for students in grades K-12 and $15 for the general public. They are available for purchase in advance on musicalartstix.com and at the BHSS box office 30 minutes before each show begins.The play is based on Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl.” Frank’s family was forced into hiding during World War II and, along with another family, spent two years living in a secret office apartment in Amsterdam to avoid the Nazis. During that time, Frank kept a diary. Her diary was first published in 1947, and the original play opened on Broadway in 1955. BHSS is performing a new adaptation by Wendy Kesselman. Catharine Rademacher, a BHSS drama teacher and the play’s director, chose to use an onstage “in-the-round” seating style. Because of this, only 100 seats are available per performance. The seats surround the edges of the stage. Wooden beds, tables, chairs and blankets lie in the middle. A bookcase with stairs leading to a small attic on the other side stands toward the curtain at the back of the stage. Quotes from Frank’s diary are painted on the stage, winding their way through the middle section. Nazi propaganda and swastikas around the auditorium complete the set.Attendees enter the auditorium and go behind the stage before coming onstage through the bookcase’s door. “I wanted the audience to feel like they were in the attic,” Rademacher said. “I really wanted it to feel close.”Rademacher traveled to Poland last summer, where she visited the Auschwitz concentration camp. “I really wanted to bring the experience back to not only my students, but to as many people as possible,” she said. She said she chose to perform “The Diary of Anne Frank” because Frank’s story was familiar to both audiences and students.“People know about her,” Rademacher said. “I just thought people would be more in touch with it.” Lysandrou, who plays Anne, said she read the diary last year in one of her classes and wanted to learn more about it through theater. “I was excited to learn about her story,” Lysandrou said. “I really wanted to be a part of it.”She said she watched documentaries about the Holocaust to further prepare herself for the role.“She matured a lot during her life,” Lysandrou said. “Anne is not like the other people in this play. I would’ve been scared to death, but Anne is hopeful. She skips around the room and is very bright.” The cast has rehearsed since January. Rademacher and the students visited the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, where they heard from museum founder and Auschwitz survivor Eva Kor.“Hearing from her made it a real experience,” Lysandrou said. To better understand the Hanukkah scene, Rademacher had the students learn about traditional Hanukkah foods and songs. She said some of the cast members are Jewish, and one had the rest of the cast over for a potluck Hanukkah dinner. “They are just a really amazing group of kids,” Rademacher said. Rademacher said this cast is a young one — only three of the 13 members are seniors. Freshmen Justin Baltzegar, Hunter Brown and Bryce Carson play Nazi soldiers. They said they took it upon themselves to learn how the Gestapo worked and how to properly speak with a German accent. All of their lines are improvised.“We need things to be accomplished, but how we go about accomplishing them varies from show to show,” Baltzegar said. Carson said he hopes their performance of “The Diary of Anne Frank” provides a good educational experience for audiences. “Even through how horrible people can be, you can still forgive like Anne did,” he said.Baltzegar said the show is a humanizing look at Frank’s experiences.“The people at the Annex weren’t perfect,” Baltzegar said, “but they were people, and they didn’t deserve what happened to them.”
(03/27/14 4:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On Wednesday night, avant-garde chamber musicians known as the Bent Frequency Duo Project performed a guest recital in Ford-Crawford Hall. They played seven pieces by contemporary composers, five of which they premiered this year.A number of different themes and motifs, such as the Book of Job, mathematical constructions and Popeye the sailor, inspired the pieces. Professional percussionist Stuart Gerber and saxophonist Jan Berry Baker founded the Bent Frequency Duo Project in Atlanta in 2003. Gerber, whose “consummate virtuosity” was praised by the New York Times, has toured and taught internationally, most recently as the associate professor of percussion at Georgia State University. Also an acclaimed performer, Baker has appeared with numerous ballet, opera and chamber music companies. In May, she will appear on the “Blurred Edges 2014” presentation by the German company aktueller Musik. The first piece performed and the only track not commissioned for Bent Frequency, “From the Air” was written by artist Laurie Anderson in 1982 for her experimental, minimalist album, “Big Science.” The album remains influential, particularly for its combination of pop elements into experimental, contemporary classical music.“O Superman,” an eight-minute track on the album inspired by the crash of a military rescue helicopter outside Tehran in 1980, featured repeated or looping harmonies as well as vocals and sporadic instrumentation.The disaster and terror that inspired “O Superman” was felt in “From the Air” as well. “I sort of felt like my life was ending,” freshman Katherine Knapp said. “I couldn’t decide if I was okay with it until the song was over.”A similar sense of confusion was felt in the duo’s fourth song, the three-part “Oh, Popeye!” “I’ve never heard anything like it before,” freshman Meredith Baker said. “Oh, Popeye!” opened with a looping recording of the sailor’s dry cackle, which the performers built upon in a series of chromatic glissandi. The sound culminated into what the program notes called, “a tempest of crashing oscillations” which led to the second section, “a grooving dialogue” between Popeye and his love interest. The third section, labeled “Fight! (Tattoos, Forearms & Fisticuffs),” was entirely improvised. After a brief intermission, the musicians returned for the last three songs on the program. “Roulettes” explored various tones and figures through different rhythms and sounds presented by a baritone saxophone and a number of percussion instruments, including base drum, marimba and chimes, among others. “‘Roulettes’ imagines a musical equivalent for mathematical constructs,” composer Christopher Burns wrote in his program notes. “A series of complex interactions between saxophone and crotales (a series of miniature cymbals) which result in a variety of elegantly curved melodic shapes.”Unlike “Roulettes,” the amorphous “METTA,” its name derived from a Buddhist concept of meditation, did not experiment with the instruments’ relationship with each other, but with their relationship with reality and imagination. Playing over a prerecorded disk of seemingly arbitrary sounds, the musicians mirrored, echoed and enlarged themes and ideas introduced by the recording.“A deep integration of the live and electroacoustic components develops, that blurs distinctions between ... the ephemeral and concrete and the temporal and timeless,” composer Robert Scott Thompson wrote. Baker expressed surprise at the result.“I never would have thought someone would make that kind of sound,” Baker said.Although the audience at Ford-Crawford Hall was sparse, the attendees responded to each piece with enthusiasm and curiosity. “Music is about expression,” Knapp said. “Why not express yourself to your full extent? Bring out all you’ve got.”
(03/27/14 2:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Comedian Nikki Glaser will perform several shows at the Comedy Attic this weekend.Performances will take place at 8 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday, with additional shows at 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets range from $8 to $14 and may be purchased on the Comedy Attic’s website.Glaser, who began performing stand-up comedy when she was 18, started her career at comedy clubs in Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo. “Performing at the gritty clubs in both cities taught me how to be a road comic before I was out on the road,” she said in an interview with Westword, an alt-weekly newspaper in Denver. “The rooms were drunk and smoky, and the crowds were down to hear anything. They weren’t uptight or trying to be cool. It was a great place to start.”Glaser has since appeared on several TV shows including “Last Comic Standing,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Conan.” Last year, she co-hosted the late night MTV talk show “Nikki & Sara Live” with fellow comedian Sara Schaefer. Since the show’s cancellation, she has spent much more time on the road. “I have the skill set to try new jokes in the middle of a set and not have their inherent weakness derail me,” she said. “I don’t feel the same pressure to be perfect up there that I did in the beginning.”Rachel Osman
(03/14/14 3:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Fresh from the tomb, wrapped in bandages and ready to rock, Here Come the Mummies is playing March 14 at the Bluebird Nightclub. The band from Nashville, Tenn., is touring with its new EP, “A La Mode.”The Bluebird’s doors will open at 8 p.m. and the show is scheduled to start at 9 p.m. Tickets range from $20 to $22 and attendees must be at least 21 years of age.Here Come the Mummies is a band constructed around the concept that the members are actual mummies. They bring a mummified appearance into their live performances, with eight live performers dressed in mummy attire for each show.The band members’ true identities remain shrouded in anonymity. The band members say they are real mummies with musical inclinations. They claim they once toured nomadically as minstrels, and chased women more than three millennia ago.Java, one of the band’s eight live performers, stuck to his story when questioned about the band members’ obscurity. “We were not always anonymous, but it got old explaining to people that we were actually 3,500 years old and had names like Teknet, Horakhty and Sekhmet,” Java said.While the band’s musical influence tends to lean toward funk-induced rock, Java said they sometimes also venture into other styles such as Latin and ska.Beyond dressing like mummies, the band incorporates some dance moves and props into its live performances. The Freak Flag prop routine involves members of the band waving a flag out to the audience.There is also a prop called a “cowbelt,” which is an apparatus members of the band attach around their waists and thrust their hips in a lewd manner in order to play. Essentially this prop keeps beat much in the way a cowbell would.This is not the band’s first time playing at the Bluebird. Java said the band has been filling the local Bloomington bar for years. He described the energy of the venue as being profound due to the intimate nature of the establishment.Here Come the Mummies released its first album in 2002, entitled “Terrifying Funk From Beyond the Grave.” The band tends to write lyrics about adult themes.“Our lyrics tend to be slightly naughty and all about getting it on,” Java said.The band soon made regular appearances on the “Bob & Tom Show,” a radio program for WFBQ Indianapolis. The first time on the show, Java said the band was initially scheduled for just four songs, but by the time they finished, they had played eight.The new EP is free and available on SoundCloud. William Garraty, the band’s manager, said this EP is only the first of a series to come.“We want to give back to the fans that support the band,” he said.
(03/13/14 3:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Widely known for their irreverence and generally offensive content, the New York-based sketch comedy group the Whitest Kids U’ Know will perform today through Saturday at the Comedy Attic.Trevor Moore, Darren Trumeter and Sam Brown will perform at 8 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday, with additional shows at 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets range from $12 to $16, and Comedy Attic owner Jared Thompson expects all five appearances to be sold out.Three of the five members of the troupe appeared at the venue last March. Moore, the founder and best-known member of the group, released his debut album, “Drunk Texts to Myself,” in March 2013. A collection of songs borrowing from rap, country, rock and pop genres, the album was inspired by Moore’s habit of drunk-texting himself a to-do list and then later reading the nonsensical messages. Nevertheless, Moore views the album as expressing cultural topics. According to an IDS article from March 28, 2013, Moore said of the album, “I didn’t want to just do parody songs.“I wanted each song to have a point,” he said. “I go into a song about circumcision. I wrote a song about the Founding Fathers smoking pot and the Pope and how much money he makes.” Moore has worked with his troupe for more than 14 years, although the Whitest Kids U’ Know only emerged as a viable sketch comedy group in the mid-2000s after several of their videos went viral on YouTube.“We were kind of in the right place at the right time,” he said. “People were taking videos off our site and putting them on YouTube and spreading it around the net.”Thompson said their viral success was an unorthodox approach to their later fame. “There really never was a way to make it without being handed a TV show,” he said. “They kind of pioneered marketability based on just YouTube views. They were definitely on the forefront of that.” Whitest Kids U’ Know released its self-titled debut album in 2006 and was also named Best Sketch Group at the Aspen Comedy Festival the same year.Though Thompson describes himself as skeptical of sketch comedy, he realized the troupe’s potential after coming across their popular Civil War sketch on the Independent Film Channel.“I think they just have a natural feel for each other,” he said. “They’ve been doing this for so long. A lot of it is just their understanding the strengths and weaknesses of what they have to work with.” Unlike most other comedians that have performed at the Comedy Attic, the Whitest Kids U’ Know does not feature much stand-up. Instead, it relies on multimedia, skits and songs. Thompson said showcasing a troupe with such a diverse approach to comedy was a new experience at the Comedy Attic.“We’ve never done anything that wasn’t remotely stand-up at all,” he said. “But everyone who was here last year just had so much fun.”
(03/13/14 3:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Singer-songwriter Crescent Ulmer will perform at the Bishop tonight in celebration of her new album, “Creature Comforts.” The show will start at 9:30 p.m. Cover is $8.The cover charge will decrease to $4 when all of the albums are sold, and download codes are available for the first 50 people who purchase an album.The show is open to those 18 years of age and older.Last summer, Ulmer was voted Bloomington’s best singer-songwriter. After a Kickstarter campaign, she was able to book time in a studio to record an album.Ulmer gets inspiration from multiple genres, including jazz, hip-hop, folk and punk rock, according to a press release. It all accumulates in her acoustic sound. She cites influences such as Blink 182, Lauryn Hill and Dashboard Confessional. Originally from Indianapolis, Ulmer has been frequenting Indiana venues since 2010.In addition to Ulmer’s performance, Bloomington-based artist Kate Siefker will perform her solo act, “Follies.” Follies has a progressive, rhythmic folk sound created by percussive textures and harmonies, according to a press release. Siefker mixes, produces and records everything herself.Sarah Zinn