1001 South Tamiami Trail
Sarasota FL
34236
“Citizen Arts: Music, Theater, and Dance”
with Hermitage Fellows Sam Max and Marcos Balter
Presented in partnership with Sarasota Art Museum
Friday, July 22 at 6:30pm
Sarasota Art Museum Klein Plaza (entrance at 1001 South Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236)
Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.
Art exists not only in the purpose built-spaces of theaters, museums, and concert halls, but also throughout our lives. In this interdisciplinary program, we hear from three accomplished artists in three different mediums sharing insight and discussing how their work interacts with the public. Brazilian-born composer Marcos Balter’s compositions have been described by The New York Times as “utterly lovely” in addition to having a focus on the hyper-dramatization of the performed work; theater-maker Sam Max’s work center’s the queer experience in poetic spaces; and dancer/teaching artist Amanda Cantrell Roche combines her skill in dance with a history in journalism and a passion for social justice.
Marcos Balter, born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is a Hermitage Fellow who has been praised by The Chicago Tribune as “minutely crafted” and “utterly lovely,” by The New York Times as “whimsical” and “surreal,” and by The Washington Post as “dark and deeply poetic.” His musical of compositions are at once emotionally visceral and intellectually complex, primarily rooted in experimental manipulations of timbre and hyper-dramatization of live performance. Recent performances include a Miller Theater Composer Portrait and appearances at Carnegie Hall, Köln Philharmonie, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, ArtLab at Harvard University, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Hall, Teatro Amazonas, Sala São Paulo, Park Avenue Armory, Teatro de Madrid, Bâtiment de Forces Motrices de Genève, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago. Recent festival appearances include those at Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Ecstatic Music Festival, Acht Brücken, Aldeburgh Music Festival, Aspen, Frankfurter Gesellschaft für Neue Musik, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, and Banff Music Festival.
Sam Max (they/their) is a writer, director, producer, and returning Hermitage Fellow. Their work is known for centering queer characters in “poetic spaces where death and dreams converge, making otherworldly encounters possible” (Suhrkamp). They are a recipient of the 2021 Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences, a winner of the 2019 Chesley-Bumbalo Playwriting Award, a resident playwright of New Dramatists, and a member writer of Suhrkamp Theater Verlag publishing house in Berlin. Their work includes Coop (Paradise Factory in the East Village, Theatertreffen in Berlin, Goethe-Institut China in Beijing), Pidor and the Wolf (Finalist: O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Honorable Mention: The Relentless Award), and performance art concert Twin Size Beds (Selection: Under the Radar Festival, Selection: Joe’s Pub, Excerpt: Museum of Sex). They have developed their work as a member of The Public Theater’s Devised Theater Working Group and Pipeline Theatre Company’s PlayLab, and have received additional residencies and support from National Sawdust, The Mastheads, Cutting Ball Theater, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. SamSpaceMax.com
Hermitage Fellow Amanda Cantrell Roche divides her time between writing, dance, volunteering, and working as a teaching artist. She has been a dance teaching artist for Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s education program since 2000, conducting aesthetic education residencies for students of all ages. Independently and in collaboration with a team of lead teaching artists, she designs and facilitates professional development for teachers and other teaching artists. Amanda has collaborated as an organizer, choreographer, or teaching artist with organizations such as Global Education Center, Nashville CARES, Poverty & the Arts, and Vanderbilt University. A mother of two, she also birthed and has nurtured Blue Moves Modern Dance Company since 1989 with co-founder Lee Anne Carmack. Her choreography often blends her background in journalism with her passion for social justice and telling stories through movement and recorded words. She has offered workshops at The Estuary, abrasiveMedia, Ha.Le’ Mind and Body, and Gilda’s Club, and is a regular workshop facilitator at Art & Soul Studio. Her alchemy is most powerful when she combines a trilogy of her deepest passions: dance, writing, and social justice. AmandaRoche.com