Meet the Dance Faculty!

Calling all dancers! The dance faculty for the 2013 Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute has been announced.  Daniel Squire, the 2012 OSAI modern dance instructor, will return for another fantastic summer.  Ballet students can look forward to studying with Brian Reeder, former New York City ballet dancer.

Dance auditions take place at Tulsa Ballet on January 27 and at Oklahoma City Ballet on March 2.  Apply online and schedule your audition now at WWW.OAIQUARTZ.ORG.  Dancers with backgrounds in ballet and modern dance are encouraged to apply for both disciplines.

Daniel Squre, Modern Dance
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Daniel Squire was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire. He studied dance at White Lodge & Rambert, acting at The Barrow Group and the Atlantic Theater Company, and Acting Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He has performed with the West Riding Sinfonia, Royal Military School of Music, Michael Clark, Matthew Hawkins, Ian Spink, Merce Cunningham, Kimberly Bartosik, Magnetic Laboratorium, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, and John Kelly, among others. He has performed at venues including Wellholme Park, Royal Festival Hall, Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, Glyndebourne Opera House, Brixton Academy, Riverside Studios, Palais Garnier, Théâtre de la Ville, Staatsoper am Gärtnerplatz, Roundhouse, Barbican, Tate Modern, Edinburgh's Festival Theatre, the Kennedy Center, New York State Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, City Center, and Rose Theater. Squire has appeared with Radiohead, John Paul Jones, Sigur Rós, Sonic Youth, Alan Opie, Robert Tear, and Michael Chance. Squire lives in New York City, where he stages the work of Merce Cunningham and works as a dancer, teacher, videographer, filmmaker, editor, and actor.

Brian Reeder, Ballet

Born in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, Brian Reeder began his dance training with Marcia Dale Weary at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. He had the privilege of a dance career that saw him mainly at three widely respected dance companies: New York City Ballet (1986–1990), William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt (1990–1993) and American Ballet Theatre (1994–2003). During his time with these companies, questing gigs and international dance festivals, he danced numerous ballets and featured roles in the works of past and present dance masters.  As a choreographer, beginning in 2002, he has created or re-staged his ballets on American Ballet Theatre, ABT Studio Co., and many more. His work has been produced three times for the "Works and Process" series at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC. He has been involved with ABT's Summer Intensives for several years, teaching for its college program and five-week NYC program; and he acted as the coordinating director for Dance Bermuda, ABT's International Summer Intensive. Brian is also on faculty as a teacher and the current resident choreographer for The Manhattan Youth Ballet.

2013 OSAI Orchestra Conductor -- Meet Scott Parkman!

Scott Parkman, photo by Chris Macke

The Oklahoma Arts Institute is thrilled to announce that the 2013 OSAI orchestra conductor will be Scott Parkman from Boston, Massachusetts!  A conductor of remarkable versatility and exemplary musicianship, Scott Parkman is widely recognized for his engaging style and welcoming rapport with audiences. Critically acclaimed for his interpretation of the standard repertoire, Mr. Parkman is gaining recognition for his innovative enterprise and efforts to examine and perform the hundreds of works by 20th century American classical composers - music that is generally underrepresented on today's concert programs.

Mr. Parkman is the founding Artistic and Executive Director of American Century Music (ACM) an organization dedicated to performing the works of 20th century American composers. Launched in 2010, ACM is uniquely designed to work with a wide array of musicians and institutions, presenting repertoire ranging from solo instrument to full orchestra.

Mr. Parkman also has command over a large breadth of the traditional repertoire. During his tenure as Assistant Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (2003-2008), he led the orchestra in over 150 performances, including major works by Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner. He also performed works by Adams, Eisler, Reich and Rouse on the SLSO contemporary chamber music series at St. Louis's Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. As Music Director of the highly regarded Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra during the same period, Mr. Parkman performed Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with internationally-acclaimed soprano, Christine Brewer, and premiered several new compositions, including Fêtes and Fireworks by American composer Robert Pound, and his own work, Toward.

As an international guest conductor Mr. Parkman has led the New Zealand Symphony, Hong Kong New Art Camerata, and the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra. In the United States his engagements include the Minnesota Orchestra, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Lubbock, and Oakland East Bay Symphonies, Oakland Ballet, and the Sacramento and Palo Alto Philharmonic Orchestras.

You can learn more about Scott Parkman at his website, http://www.scottparkman.com/index.php.

Raise Money for OAI while you Shop!

Did you know you can raise money for the Oklahoma Arts Institute just by shopping online? More than 1,300 top retailers, including Amazon, Toys ‘R’ Us, Best Buy, Apple, Gap and more will donate a percentage of your purchase to the Oklahoma Arts Institute. Just go to GoodShop.com, designate us as the cause you support, and then click through to your favorite store. You pay nothing extra - and you can even save money! GoodShop lists thousands of money-saving coupons and free shipping offers. Or, add GoodShop’s toolbar to your browser and your purchases will count even if you forget to go to GoodShop first! Please spread the word, and happy shopping!

Toy Quartz Mountain?

OFAI photography faculty member Ben Long snapped this picture of Quartz Mountain during the last Fall Arts Institute weekend. It looks like a model version of the resort, but it's not! Not only that, there's no post-production or doctoring of the image. Ben explains:

The photo was created with a special type of lens called a tilt/shift. You can tilt and slide different parts of the lens to either correct perspective, or throw depth of field way out of whack.

When we see something with really shallow depth of field, we immediately assume it's small, because when you look at something up close, you don't see a lot of depth of field. So, by compressing the DOF to a thin slice across the middle, our brain interprets the resulting image as a miniature.

 I just climbed up behind the amphitheater with that lens. There's no post-production on that image. You can also shoot video through it, which is cool.

Quartz Mountain Converts

Fair warning to our friends who hail from the coasts – we’re going to have a little bit of fun with you. ;)

As you probably know, every summer and fall artists from across the U.S. and beyond teach at Quartz Mountain. Most have never been to Oklahoma before, and almost none have been to Quartz. All are usually a bit apprehensive at the idea of teaching at an arts camp in the middle of nowhere in a state known more for its football programs than for its arts scene.

Each faculty member arrives with different expectations; some are thrilled at the prospect of spending time in a beautiful setting thirty miles away from the nearest drive-through, but for others, Quartz Mountain is just a little too “natural.” The staff often gets quizzed about exactly what types of bugs, reptiles, and animals might be lurking around the lodge.

My favorite faculty members are always the ones who undergo a complete evolution at Quartz Mountain – the ones who arrive fearful of the fauna, desperate for a Starbucks, and uttering “in New York…” every other sentence. But give them two weeks in southwest Oklahoma, and they are extolling the deliciousness of chicken friend steak, proudly sporting a new piece of western wear, and asking when they can come back and teach again. And then, they utter our favorite phrase – “Why doesn’t my state have something like this?”

Certainly, we wish every state had an Oklahoma Arts Institute. While there are similar programs in other states, there’s nothing like OSAI anywhere in the world. So while we wish we weren’t quite so unique – every artist deserves to participate in a program like ours -- we do feel gratified when our faculty recognize just how special our programs, location, and of course, our students, truly are.

We’ve said it before, but it’s impossible to experience Quartz Mountain without leaving a little bit of your heart behind. Until we can gather at Quartz again, under those modest hills we call mountains, please keep in touch.

Meet Bobby

Today, we'll meet the third in our trio of new Oklahoma Arts Institute staff members.  Bobby Lee recently joined our permanent staff as the Public Relations & Programs Specialist.

Bobby is a lifelong resident of Oklahoma City with many years of experience in PR and multimedia production. He is also a visual artist, best known for his figurative woodcuts and linoleum cut prints. Before joining OAI, Bobby managed exhibitions and other operations for JRB Art at The Elms.  Bobby spent two summers at Quartz Mountain as an OSAI counselor and two autumns as an OFAI participant. Soon thereafter, he began designing promotional materials for OAI on a freelance basis. Barricaded in their Oklahoma City office, Bobby refused to leave, and OAI had no choice but to add him to their permanent staff. Bobby has a BA in philosophy with a minor in political science from the University of Central Oklahoma. Among other things, he enjoys playing musical instruments, making movies, reading the news, gardening, and chasing various animals around his backyard. Bobby is an Eagle Scout and can tie knots faster than you can.

Bash the Trash: Composing over Decomposing

“Don’t throw that out, I can use it!”

If you’re like me, you have trouble throwing anything away. Boxes, bottles, rubber bands, scraps of wood, you name it: each item is a friend, sharing fond memories of projects gone by and filling us with inspiration of all the things it could someday become. Unfortunately, these companions can sometimes pile up and outstay their welcome, like a slumber party that never ends. TV shows like Hoarders have brought attention to the more extreme examples of this affliction, and have motivated myself and others to thin out our treasures, pare down our dreams, and send them to the landfill.

But for the next week, we can hoard with impunity, knowing that all of our junk will be put to good use in the very near future. “Bash the Trash,” taught by renowned composer and educator John Bertles, will show us how to transform the world’s rubbish into beautiful music.  John will teach us how we can use the science of sound and sustainability to design and craft increasingly complex instruments out of the things we were so smart to keep, and then, of course, write and perform with our new instruments!  

The class is next week at Quartz Mountain, during the second week of our Fall Arts Institute. Learn more and register here: http://oaiquartz.org/programs/falldesc.cfm

Here’s a video from John’s website: