Concert Hall Celebrates Oscar Peterson

ort VOL. 24, N° 4 OCTOBER 21, 1999 http://pr.concordia.ca/ctr/ Concordia artists step into St. Jerome 25th anniversary series begins with a look at the buildings of Loyola page 2 pages 6-7 Concert Hall celebrates Oscar Peterson BY ANI TA G R A C E bassist Dave Young, guitarist Richard Ring and drummer Michel he room was filled to its 570- Lambert played several numbers Tseat capacity last Saturday chosen for their associations with night as Concordia paid tribute to the 74-year-old guest of honour. jazz legend Oscar Peterson by nam The new nameplate for the con ing its concert hall in his honour. cert hall was unveiled to The internationally acclaimed thunderous applause. Peterson artist, born and raised in St. Henri, paid tribute to his sister, the leg was visibly touched by the tribute. endary piano teac_her Daisy "I've gone through so many dif Sweeney, who was in the audience. ferent phases in my career, in the Without her, he said, "I would not swirl and radiance of the spotlight, be sitting here tonight." I haven't had the time to realize He also thanked his wife Kelly -how much people in my home and eight-year-old daughter Celine town think of me," he said in a for their love and care, which he deep voice filled with emotion. said saved his life after his stroke FROM LEFT TO RICiHT ARE MUSICIANS DAVE YOUNG, WRAY DOWNES, MICHEL LAMBERT AND RICHARD RINCi WITH CiUEST "There isn't anything that could two years ago. OF HONOUR OSCAR PETERSON (CENTRE). ever take away from me this As the concert hall exploded moment in my life." on ce more in applause, Celine Lowy, Charles Ellison and alumnus reception was held in the lobby, and technician in the Faculty of Fine The renaming ceremony was stood with beaming eyes and Ken Druker spoke. Mayor Pierre since the weather was fine, guests Arts, and Frarn;ois Cloutier. introduced by Vic Vogel, veteran mouthed "thank you" to her dad. Bourque and MNA Russell spilled out into the tent. There was a press confe rence bandleader and a longtime friend, Peterson smiled broadly, his eyes Copeland, among inany others, A plaster cast of Peterson's hands with Peterson on Saturday, which who played several short numbers shining, and blew her a kiss. were present. The guests entered the on display in the lobby attracted was attended by a number of inter on the piano. The gala naming ceremony was concert hall by walking through a admiring attention. It is for a national journalists, and a private A quartet comprising pianist and hosted by Dean of Fine Arts Christo tent, in which a student jazz band bronze sculpture being created by luncheon at the Rector's residence Music Professor Wray Downes, pher Jackson, and Rector Frederick was playing. After the ceremony, a well-known artists Mark Prent, a on Sunday. Where is it? A few -words from Oscar scar Peterson met the press "shake dancers" and strippers. It Young artists need to be encouraged, Oat a session held at t e Ritz lost something. not raked over. Don't bruise a young Carlton Hotel on Saturday after On the harshness of critics: "Any talent. Give the plant a chance to n oon. Here are some of th e artist from any city needs to know grow and yield its first flowers." questions, and his answers. that the community is behind them. - Paul Serralheiro Q: What is jazz? A: Jazz is instant composition. Jazz musicians are the greatest mathematicians. Q: What is your greatest achieve ment? A: Keeping trios and quartets in the foreground of music after the big band era. Q: What is your opinion of Mon treal as a jazz city? A: It was a great city when I was Th is stone, carved with stylized shamrocks, has moved across young and starting out, with the city. Answer on page 8. places like the Alberta Lounge and musicians like Steep Wade. Then the nightclubs began to fea ture Documentary bridges nature and art BY DENISE ROIG her film "exactly the way I want shoot in Quebec, often without a ed to make it." crew. Nearly eight months were aving been cinematographer The story began in the early spent finding the right tone for the H on some 50 films, Marielle 1990s with a telephone conversa soundtrack, as she worked with Nitoslawska is certain of one tion with Cisneros. A visual artist Michel Grzelak, a colleague in the thing. Sky Bones, her latest docu born in Mexico, he had spent 25 Film Department's sound section. mentary, couldn't have been made years living in a remote area of the The sense of being inside inside the film industry. "I would upper Laurentians, and had nature, as well as being inside the have heard questions like, Will become a force in ·the renaissance head of an artist, dominates Sky this sell on TV?" said the head of of Native culture in the 1970s. Bones. The visuals do the telling: Concordia University's Film Pro "Domingo was one of the first to images of water, sky, fire and for duction program. say, Moccasins are great, beads are est wash over the viewer, An evocative SO-minute film fabulous, but what are we going to insistent, dream-like. The ever about Quebec artist Domingo do as contemporary Native artists?" shifting landscape serves as a Cisneros, Sky Bones defies catego The filmmaker, who earned a mirror for Cisneros' highly origi rization. "People ask, Is this a BFA from Concordia in 1976 and nal installations of bones and film about art or about nature? Is an MFA from the Polish National furs, skulls and stones. it about man versus nature? Is it Film School in 1984, hit it off Part artist, part writer , part about life and death?" Yet it's this immediately with Cisneros. shaman, Cisneros says in the amorphous quality that makes "Domingo had been to Poland. film, 'The forest is my studio, my the film interesting, she believes. I'd been spending time in Mexi gallery, my museum." The same It's also not market-driven, co. He kept saying, 'You must might be said of Nitoslawska. She Nitoslawska said. "As one of the come up! "' Their rapport contin recalls sitting in a boat in the best schools in Canada, it's our ued over four years of filming, Laurentians and looking down at mandate to encourage and nour editing, mixing and fundraising. pieces of wood floating by. "You unconventional, in three lan film theatre, Ex-Centris. ish precisely this kind of work, so Nitoslawska began shooting in see something wonderful, and guages , to reach a general Nitoslawska has also shown it to that the opportunity to make Mexico in the summer of 1994 suddenly you're shooting. There audience. So far , it has been several of her classes, where it non-commercial films can contin with the help of a faculty research was always room for that magical enthusiastically received at the provoked lively discussion. ue." She calls Sky Bones "a real grant. Later, money from the thing to happen." Vancouver Film Festival, and was Sky Bones will be shown at the Concordia University story," and National Film Board and the She's aware of how difficult it one of the films chosen for the Cinematheque Qu ebeco ise on is grateful for the chance to make Canada Council allowed her to is for a film like Sky Bones, opening of Montreal's newest art November 4 at 9 p.m. 'Taking art to the people of St. JerOme BY MICHELLE RAINER lerin, undergraduate Clark Fergu the theme of transportation into Building, through the streets. town, making the night part of St. son and graduate students Michelle the soles of the shoes, making Then, as the city's firefighters Jerome's collective memory. As hen Fine Arts professor Bush and Patrick Visentin - them into wearable stamps. Then stood by, the artists burned most Visentin explained, watching the W Bonnie Baxter was invited decided to focus on St . Jerome, they embossed intricate prints of of the pieces they had taken so works going up in flames around to participate in Mythologie de s about an hour north of Montreal. bicycles, railway tracks and train long to produce. They hope they him, "You have to destroy the Lieux, an international symposium St. Jerome, population 25,000, signal towers onto huge rolls of have created a new legend for the record to create the myth." on contemporary art, she decided was once touted as a potential paper donated by local pulp and to make it a collective project industrial centre, but the promise paper mill Papier Rolland Inc. involving students. of prosperity never materialized. As Finally, they spread the rolls out "When you're out in the com a nod to St. Jerome's one-time alongside the old tracks in the cen munity and working in a real-life prominence on the railway, the tre of town, set out a few pans of experience, it's never quite the group dubbed their venture paint, and invited the people of St. same as what you can read about, TCHOU , as in choo-choo train. Jerome to put on some shoes and or what you learn within the uni The members of TCHOU went make their mark. versity," Baxter said, who teaches door-to-door around St. Jerome About 280 people came print media in the Studio Arts offering to do push-ups in throughout the week to add to the Department.

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