Before the end of July and the conclusion of Cornell’s summer series events, I attended three more events: two Tuesday night performances at Schwartz and one Friday night arts quad concert.
The first performance at Schwartz was a violinist and a pianist. The first half of their concert featured Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61. After a brief intermission, they played a half dozen shorter pieces that were more “fun.” They each performed a solo piece, then played a series of pieces with names like “Jane Shakes her Hair” and “Jim Jives” (I’m not kidding . . . this time). At the low end, a ticket to a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert costs over thirty dollars. This was free. Granted, the BSO is slightly more involved than two musicians, but this was a good substitute for the moment.
The second Schwartz performance was also an instrumental group, but of a slightly different style. They played klezmer music. Klezmer is a Jewish music genre from eastern Europe, originally played mainly at weddings and other celebrations. In terms of instrumentation, a klezmer group feels a little like the rejects from jazz band. Klez Project, the group that performed, featured a clarinet*, violin, tuba, drums, accordion, piano, and lute.
*There are jazz clarinetists, but typically featured as soloists, and many clarinets switch to saxophone for jazz band.
The surprise of the night came after the group finished their first couple of songs and the clarinetist was introducing the band members. I had thought one of the members looked vaguely familiar, but I think a lot of people look vaguely familiar. Then when he was introduced, I wasn’t listening very carefully, but I thought the clarinetist might have said a name I recognized, so I looked in the program, which I apparently hadn’t read very thoroughly. The percussionist was one of my p-chem professors.
That aside, the concert was fun, and the music was lively. The friends I went with and I were considerably younger than most of the audience, but that just means everyone my age missed out. Going to the bar takes money; running total for my night activities = $0.00.
As for the Friday night concert, Mutron Warriors held the distinction of being the only non folk band to perform this summer. Like at the Rockwood Ferry concert, my roommate and I went armed with a Frisbee and staked out a spot to throw the Frisbee around and listen to music. Another fun night in Ithaca for the grand total of zero dollars and zero cents. I can live with that.
Moral of the story: if it’s free and I’m free, I can probably be persuaded to go to it, whatever it is.
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