News

Who Cares About the Arts Anyway?

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:14:26 -0500

Dear Friends;

The human experience can be one full of horror and tragedy, as can easily be seen by flicking through the news channels; earth quakes, tsunamis and nuclear disaster in Japan, famine and AIDS epidemic in Africa, religious genocide and persecution in the middle east, the conversion of vast stretches of wild habitat into natural resource refineries, the exponential extinction of species, the toxification of our soils and water sources, the death of untold millions in Darfur and countless other catastrophes. Morbidly watching these travesties night after night in front of my flickering blue screen, I can't help but become consumed by downheartedness. My thoughts quickly spiraled out of control... What good are the scribblings of a painter, the musings of a poet or the improvisations of a musician when our world is increasingly saturated by suffering souls and tragedy? There are helpless victims out there that need our help. They need clothes, they need food, they need doctors, they need shelter and yet here I am, day after day, expending great sums of energy writing music, conjuring images with paint and trying to rhyme words. Isn't it all just a sweeping waste of time and energy that could so much more effectively be toward helping those in need?...

Soon enough I found myself in that place all artists have become ever so familiar with - the path way to the "dark night of the soul." It is a place where one comes to resent his art. Where he entirely discounts his creative talents and the usefulness of all artistry. But on the other side of that dark night lies a place of deep conviction. I say this not out of blind optimism but out of real experience. After what seemed like an endless "dark night" I've emerged bathed in hope and conviction with an indelible truth all artists must urgently learn.

Here is that message:

The arts are not important to this world... they are absolutely essential - integral even. Van Clyburn, the world's greatest living pianist once said that "The artist is a missionary - a solider for beauty." If it is true that we live in a world increasingly full of ugliness (which is hard for any aware person to deny), then the greatest warriors we have available are our artists. Should we forsake our arts, the magnitude of the loss would be incalculable - extinguishing the very concept of beauty itself. While many of us are unable to give money or shelter or clothing - we CAN give sympathy, empathy, and compassion - not simply by feeling it while watching the news, but through the waging war against the shadows of this life. And what shall we use as our weapons? Swords? Guns? Bombs? No - paint brushes, pianos, grande jetes, typewriters, welding irons, clarinets, spray cans, easels, pencils, pirouettes, manuscript paper, colors, sounds, textures - we have an infinite arsenal of weapons of mass expression. And with them, what we CAN give is of infinite value - it is an articulation of the human experience through our chosen mediums. Out of darkness and destruction the artist is the one who can bring creation and beauty. While the RedCross can heal the body and provide so many of those necessary things we are unable to as individuals - it is the artist that can heal the soul... For the artists and shamans are one - healers and priests - rectifiers of aesthetic gone askew - restorers of the human soul.

Without the compassionate expression of the human condition through the arts - humanity will inevitably loose site of the ultimate beauty that is the fabric of life itself. Evidence of this can easily be seen when comparing countries where the arts of treated differently. In China, where the arts have been systematically condemned and persecuted for nearly a century as a matter of communist policy, the people are extremely depressed, utterly defeated and repressed to a point of absolute resignation. But, in a places like Italy, France, Denmark, and may others, where the arts are not only supported but praised - worshiped even- the people have an attitude of unstoppable optimism and jubilance for life. These people may experience great tragedies but, armed with a culture richly immersed in the arts and creative traditions, their spirit is incredibly resilient. The choice is crystal clear - so clear in fact that there is no choice at all - instead, it is an imperative. An imperative to create and to share.

So, all you artists doubting the value of your given talents and gifts - keep in mind that you have an obligation. You are doctors on call - shamans charged in leading man kind in giving the highest and most sacred offering possible - the compassionate and sympathetic expression of the human condition.

Create and Share.

Ragghianti Honored by National Academy of Music

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:40:02 -0500

Founding Artistic/Executive Director Blake Ragghianti was awarded the distinction of “Finalist” of the “International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition 2011.” In recognition of this achievement he has been honored with a Diploma in Music Composition, awarded by the National Academy of Music.

In this year's edition of the competition there were more than 200 compositions entered from entrants from all over the world. The Academy processed more than 1,000 evaluations on these compositions from the members of their Artistic Committee.

The award was received this morning from Greece via Director Vasillis Boulousis, Secretariat of the
International Music Prizes.

Free Concert - Heinz Chapel

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:24:17 -0400

Dearest Friends!
Thursday, September 22, 2011
OverArts will be hosting a FREE community concert at the Heinz Chapel in Oakland, premiering innovative chamber works by local composers Blake Ragghianti and Luke Mayernik - the composers of the upcoming ballets “The Alkonost” and “Infinity.”

The concert will also feature sneak peaks of thematic material, key musicians and the conductor of the ballets as well as guest appearances by several dancers.

Doors open at 7pm and the concert will last just over one hour!
Heinz Chapel - 1212 Cathedral of Learning, University of PIttsburgh, PA 15260 - 412-624-4157

We look forward to seeing you there!

Blake Ragghianti
Founding Executive/Artistic Director, OvreArts
www.ovrearts.org

New Ballet “Infinity” to Be Premiered!

Sat, 5 Feb 2011 11:51:53 -0500

Hatched in the first month of this new year, Blake Ragghianti and Luke Mayernik have embarked upon a monumental task, the composition and production of two respective modern ballets, to be premiered in June of 2012. Thomas Octave, brilliant conductor has recently and enthusiastically joined the project together with Choreographer Maria Caruso and her Contemporary Ballet Company Bodiography.

These two ballets, the Alkonost and Infinity are explorations into the endless cycles of infinite reality which spring up throughout a google of complexities - some in the form of inanimate objects, some in the form of natural processes and patterns, and still others in the form of living, breathing beings. Our artistic expressions of this underlying theme have no message to preach, no theory to argue and no cosmic truth to pedal. Rather, they offer a rare moment of pure, unadulterated, spiritual expression through the mediums of sound and movement.

Infinity is an expression of humanities inescapable paradox - the finite and the infinite, the decaying and the ever-expanding, birth, death, and rebirth, meaninglessness and meaning. In a spirit that has become blind to personality and individuality but deeply rooted in the raw, primeval elements of the Human Condition. There is no lead character in this story - for the story itself is the lead character. Examining what it means to have life in the form of a human being is an insurmountable goal if approached with the rigors of science and method. But explored through the naked and pure inquiry of artistic expression and spiritual faith, man’s endless search for meaning in the great paradox of life finds meaning not in some extracted answer, but within the question itself.

Drawing it’s life and breath from ancient Russian mythology, the Alkonost poignantly expresses the life essence of a chosen heavenly being - half woman and half bird - carrying a divine message to the world of the mortals, enchanting the earth with the sound of her beautiful, angelic song and giving the ultimate sacrifice of her body. This sacrifice spawns the continuation of her lineage and legacy through the nativity of her child. Ultimately, this child, the Alkonost, will fulfill her destiny of revelation and sacrifice as once her mother so passionately and physically realized.

For information about event DATE, LOCATION, TIMES, TICKETS and Further DETAILS, please visit www.ovrearts.org/

Thomas Octave, Conductor

Thomas Octave is a conductor and baritone soloist who has performed as a conductor and baritone soloist throughout the United States and Europe. He holds a degree in vocal performance from Carnegie Mellon University and a masters degree from Duquesne University. Thomas has performed roles the of Dandini, Germont, Leperello and Figaro in the opera repertoire. He has had the opportunity to be an oratorio soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat, and the Faure Requiem. He has had the opportunity to present music for the Queen of Jordan and First Lady of Uganda.   As a conductor he presented the Pittsburgh premier of the Andrew Llyod Weber Requiem in 2001. In 2004, he conducted the world premier of Nancy Galbraith’s oratorio “God of Justice”. Thomas conducted the Diocesan Choir of Greensburg in their Rome tour of 2006. In the spring of 2007, he presented the world premier of Nancy Galbraith’s “Novena” in Chicago. Recently, he recorded Nancy Galbraith’s “Sacred Songs and Interludes:” with the Pittsburgh Camerata where he was the baritone soloist.  Thomas has served as the Director of Music Ministry at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Greensburg, the Director of the Diocesan Choir of Greensburg and the Cathedral Concert Series. Currently, he is the associate conductor of the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh and is an Assistant Professor at St. Vincent College in Latrobe where he teaches voice, opera workshop and conducts the Saint Vincent College Singers. Thomas is also the director of music at Mount Saint Peter Parish in New Kensington.

http://www.pgharts.org/

Private Lessons, Tutoring & Coaching

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:40:13 -0400

SkyLoft Music is now offering Private Lessons, Tutoring and Coaching in the following areas:

• Piano
• Organ
• Trumpet
• Oboe
• Guitar
• Voice
• Theory
• Composition
• Interpretation Coaching
• General Music
• Basic Conducting
• Undergraduate Application Preparation

Instructors include:

Gerald Gaudi Jr.,
Kelly Millar,
Blake Ragghianti,
Luke Mayernik,
Christopher Gaudi