Jay Harvey Upstage

In 1964, I took my small collection of classical LPs to Kalamazoo College to play from time to time Indianapolis Quartet: Huntington, DePue, Genova, and Strauss. on my record player. One of them was a recording of Arnold Schoenberg's "Transfigured Night." I not only loved it for itself, but also for the bridge I interpreted it to be back to the 19th century. My adolescent tastes focused on the 18th and 20th centuries: I had heard too much Chopin and Rimsky-Korsakov on my mother's stereo. So imagine the thrill of hearing the 1899 sextet in concert for the first time Monday night, more than a half-century after I came to love the recording.  That guaranteed that the Indianapolis Quartet 's appearance on University of Indianapolis Faculty Artist Series would be a red-letter day on my schedule. And the ensemble's performance, with the addition of violist Atar Arad and cellist Eric Kim, never disappointed. A nearly unprecedented example of program music f...

Kenny Banks Jr. works the room from the bench. The jazz phase of the American Pianists Awards has got into a judgment phase after its recent Jazz Pizzazz introduction. A three-man jury (Phil DeGreg, Matthew Fries, and Scott Routenberg) began its work Saturday night. Their critiques will feed into overall evaluation of the competitors as the contest reaches its April culmination. Kenny Banks Jr. was the first of five finalists who will be heard in monthly outings through February at the Jazz Kitchen , accompanied by bassist Nick Tucker and drummer Kenny Phelps. Constantly relating to the capacity crowd and getting positive feedback from it, the 30-year-old Atlanta resident displayed his command of the full piano keyboard, focusing on a penchant for instrumental color. He also showed an affinity for medleys and original pieces that took the shape of tone poems for piano trio. He brought his assisting musicians — local stars in their own right — with him so faithfully throughout...

Uneasy visitor: Watson is apprehensive when served by the Matron as Dr. Evans watches. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was forced by public demand to keep Sherlock Holmes in the game, and that interest has not waned considerably in the almost nine decades since the author's death. It's left to literary discipleship of the sort Jeffrey Hatcher exercises in "Holmes and Watson" to keep the legacy fresh in the 21st century. Perhaps we're nostalgic for the extraordinary ability to figure things out by deduction and observation, assisted by such primitive technology as the telegram. Nowadays, it's still hard to figure out what's what, but that's not for lack of information. It's the technological overload that may have diminished our rudimentary ability to use the skills that were Sherlock Holmes' stock in trade. Hatcher's one-act thriller, which opened Indiana Repertory Theatre 's 47th season Friday night,  suggests at first that Holmes' ...

"The Merchant of Venice" is a problematic play primarily because of the anti-Semitism so prominent in it. But its difficulties go beyond that important quality. Indy Bard Fest opened a production of Shakespeare's play Thursday night at Indy Fringe Theatre under the direction of Doug Powers. Shylock readies the knife to exact his revenge. In director's notes, Powers addresses the complicated nature of what is ostensibly a comedy – which means not only funny lines, of course, but also that the love relationships overcome hurdles and are solid by the end. Powers has added a complication that undercuts the comedy — which is already undercut by the figure of Shylock the moneylender and the bigotry he occasions and responds to. That complication, supported somewhat by the text, is the same-sex attraction of Antonio, the merchant of the title, and his financially embarrassed friend Bassanio. In the first scene for Antonio and Bassanio alone, the actors Ryan Ruckman...

Some of the people foaming at the mouth this week over Gary Varvel' s cartoon depicting Christine Blasey Ford before the Senate Judiciary Committee have spiced their indignation by harking back to a Varvel cartoon in the Indianapolis Star that showed an apparently Mexican family invading a WASP home during Thanksgiving dinner. Back then I made an extensive defense of Varvel and his art here , while indicating my long-running disagreement with his politics. Since this is an arts blog, I think an arts-based defense is germane; I do not address the column-writing he has since added to his arsenal. I will quote the conclusion of that Nov. 27, 2014, post for those not inclined to click on the link above: The Varvel cartoon controversy seems to indicate a sad, narrowing trend of permissible discourse in America. Cries of "offensive" and "inappropriate" — and particularly the loose application of the "racist" label — tend to rule out of bounds creat...