Board of Trustees Joan Plasner, President Claus Cardinal May 2008 Renata Cardinal Marion Grzesiak Volume 1 Number 7 Ludmila Kalivoda Arts News Florence Larkin Watchung Arts Center Patricia Price 18 Stirling Road Heinz Otto Watchung, NJ 07069 Sean Quinn Election News 2008 (908) 753-0190 Roger Seidel www.watchungarts.org Website/Newsletter [email protected] Ann Campbell The election for the Board of Trustees of the Watchung Arts The Watchung Arts Council is a 501(c)(3) Center will be held at the Annual Membership Meeting on June not-for-profit corporation. 11, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. WAC members may vote by mail ballot or in person at the meeting. By-laws require that at least ten percent of WAC members cast their ballots. From the President The Nominating Committee presents the following candidates, each for a three-year term: Good News! The renovation Ludmila Kalivoda to make the ladies room ADA James C. Longo compliant is completed! We now (Election News continued on page 6) have a lovely restroom that will well serve all our female patrons. Hopefully, through the efforts of the Borough of Watchung, Special Comedy Night another CDBG Grant will be Joan Plasner obtained to remodel the men’s The Watchung Arts Center is pleased to bring room in the near future. you a special night of comedy — one night only, Great News! The Somerset County Cultural & Saturday, May 17! The show will feature D.F. Heritage Commission (SCC&HC) has advised the Sweedler and Bill McCarty, two established WAC that our organization has been awarded a grant stand-up stars straight from the New York for the calendar year 2008, through the New Jersey Comedy Scene. State Council on the Arts State/County Partnership D.F. Sweedler, a twenty-year comic veteran, Local Arts Program. I am grateful to Trustees Claus is a familiar face at the most notable comedy Cardinal and Marion Grzesiak, who spent many clubs in the Big Apple. Sweedler’s credits include Comic Strip Live, Comedy hours preparing and writing the grant proposal. Central, Dangerfield’s and The Improv. He also teaches comedy classes at the Receiving this grant is a major accomplishment for Strip. In addition, he writes for advertising and radio and has even written the Watchung Arts Center! material for David Letterman’s monologues. Election News! The Board of Trustees Election Bill McCarty is a gifted comedian whose material can find will take place at the Annual Membership Meeting comedy in unexpected topics such as algebra, Olympic ice on June 11, 2008. This responsibility is given to the dance and the names of small towns. McCarty’s talents have WAC membership who will receive the ballots in the been seen on television’s The Rosie O’Donnell Show (NBC) and mail and must return them to the Center in time to Late Night with Conan O’Brian (NBC), as well as Evening at be counted during the meeting. At least 10% of the the Improv (A&E) and Caroline’s Comedy Hour (A&E). He has membership must vote for the election to be valid. performed at many of the nation’s best venues such as New York Thank you in advance for voting and mailing back City’s Comic Strip, Atlantic City’s Tropicana Hotel and Los Angeles’ Comedy the ballots. Store. McCarty has “opened” shows for comedian superstars David Brenner, Pat This will be the last newsletter of our current Cooper, Robert Klein and Bill Maher. season. We are in hiatus in July and August for the Come join these clever and quick humorists and a special Emcee as they take running of the Visual and Performing Arts Camps. the stage and elevate stand-up comedy to the level of fine art. Reserve your seats Please join us for the many exciting concerts and now! Tickets are $20 ($18 for WAC members). exhibitions in May and June. I wish you a pleasant Spring and a sunny Summer! Powerful Women of Song Series The Powerful Women of Song Series takes place on the first Ellis, June 7 Saturday of each month at 8 p.m. Tickets are $16 (members $14). Ellis is a rising star on the folk music Natalia Zukerman, May 3 circuit, creating a buzz after being voted “Most Wanted to Return” and performing Natalia Zukerman has a sound that can’t on the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival preview be defined; she is the bridge between strong tour. This talented singer, songwriter and and delicate, sexy and innocent, and gentle yet guitarist has since been invited back to several première listening persistent. She transcends being a folk artist rooms including Club Passim, Outpost in the Burbs, Caffe Lena, and as she layers her music with jazz, blues, and a P.A.C.E. as well as a formal showcase at the 2007 NERFA conference. soulful earthiness that showcases her incredible She has also been asked to open for several established artists such as musicianship and love of craft. Patty Larkin, Richard Shindell, Cheryl Wheeler, and Todd Snider. The daughter of violinist/conductor Pinchas Zukerman and flutist/ Ellis has a wealth of accomplishments including songwriting writer Eugenia Zukerman, Natalia grew up in Manhattan immersed and performance awards, but even more outstanding is her sincere in classical music. She realized that her early training as a violinist graciousness and ability to remain down to earth while her career was not taking her where she wanted to go. It was while attending is riding high. Known for her vibrant and open-hearted nature the Aspen Music Festival that she heard the folk sound that began and contagious sense of humor, Ellis’ music is described as joyful, her transformation as a musician. She picked up a guitar and began unpretentious modern folk with a slight hint of country inspired writing songs of her own after graduating from college. Through her by her southern roots. guitar she began to explore electric, acoustic, slide, lap steel, and the Although she tours nationally more than 130 dates each year, banjo. She has been hailed by a writer for the New Yorker, as having she continues to retain a devoted following in Minneapolis where “nimble fingers capable of picking thirty notes per measure.” she was voted Best Musician for five consecutive years and named At the Arts Center, the audience will enjoy a performance 2007 Best Musical Artist by readers of the Minnesota Women’s that is raw and unpolished but represents herself as she is — no Press. She is also a favorite on college campuses, and students gimmicks, no flashy pyrotechnics. Her voice will float through recently nominated her as 2006 Best Female Performer in Campus the room while her guitar playing weaves through the audience Activities Magazine. capturing their minds. Great Jazz Series 2008 The Great Jazz Series continues on Friday evenings at 8 p.m. Gerry Niewood Trio with Tickets are $18 (members $16), except for Five Play, for which Coleman Mellett, May 16 tickets are $20 (members $18). Reserve tickets on our secure web Gerry Niewood, tenor saxophonist, page at www.watchungarts.org, or call (908) 753-0190, or e-mail has performed and toured worldwide [email protected]. with Liza Minnelli for twenty years and Chuck Mangione since 1967. With his Five Play From DIVA, May 9 beautifully lyrical, rhythmically strong saxophone, Niewood will Five Play, the dynamically spirited be joined by guitarist Coleman Mellett who also performs with “Sister Group of the 15 member all Chuck Mangione. Niewood has also shared the stage with Lena women DIVA Jazz Orchestra,” produce Horn, Peggy Lee, T.S. Monk, Gerry Mulligan, a rich sound filled with joyous energy. Gil Evans, Simon and Garfunkel, Anne Murray They will be performing their wide and Sinead O’Connor. Performing on many film range of jazz from big band arrangements to straight ahead and soundtracks, Niewood’s saxophone can be heard their own original compositions. Five Play has particpated in major in “A Bronx Tale,” and his woodwinds in the festivals in Israel, France, Spain and Portugal and at Carnegie Hall orchestra for “When Harry Met Sally,” “Annie,” and The Kennedy Center. An international quintet, Five Play is led “Shining Through,” “National Lampoon Goes to by Sherrie Maricle (U.S.) on drums, with Anat Cohen (Israel) on the Movies,” and “King of Comedy.” Niewood, first saxophonist tenor saxophone, Tomoko Ohno (Japan) on piano, Jami Dauber of the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra, performed with Claudio (U.S.) on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Noriko Ueda (Japan) on Roditi this January at the Watchung Arts Center. bass. (more Great Jazz on next page) 2 www.watchungarts.org Other Performances Improv Jazz The Improvables Beacon Hill Jazz Band Join the Improvables for another Back by popular demand, round of special family-friendly per for- the Beacon Hill Jazz Band mances on two Saturdays, May 10 and returns to the Art Center on June 14! The shows are geared for kids Sunday, June 22, at 3 p.m. to 10 and up and parents, and sell out quick! All tickets are $8; call fill the room with their electrifying music. This band continually (908) 753-0190 for reser vations, which must be made in advance presents new arrangements from the great American songbook due to the popularity of the event. by some of the world’s top arrangers and creates an exciting The Improvables (www.theimprovables.com) have been atmosphere that can’t be beat. The concert finale is the “Meet the entertaining local audiences at the Watchung Art Center since Musicians” reception where the audience has a chance to chat with 2003.