“Like the Body of a Flower” is a site-specific installation by Mette Tommerup and part of the three-person exhibition with Cristina Lei Rodriguez and Amanda Bradley, “Of what surrounds me" at the FIU Frost Art Museum. (Photo by Karly Evans)
The Frost Art Museum at FIU presents its final Tertulia Nights, a free admission after-hours experience that takes place every second Thursday of the month.
For November, it is a musical performance in the Frost's Grand Galleries by Fellows from the New World Symphony. Visual arts and music collide for a uniquely immersive experience in the exhibition “Of what surrounds me.”
Violinist Allison Smith will perform with cellist Alexander Wu in "Tertulia Nights Featuring Fellows of the New World Symphony" on Thursday, Nov. 14 at the FIU Frost Art Museum. (Photo courtesy of New World Symphony)
Musicians Allison Smith (violin), Alexander Wu (cello), and Sooyoung Kim (oboe) will perform classical and contemporary pieces in each individual sections of the galleries.
“Tertulia Nights Featuring Fellows from The New World Symphony” is from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 14.
Michelle F. Solomon, miamiartzine.com editor and artburstmiami.com editor, curated the music working with artist Mette Tommerup for this one-of-a-kind experience.
“The music is meant to activate the work,” says Solomon. Violinist Allison Smith teams with cellist Alexander Wu to open the evening performing in the first gallery, which is showing Tommerup’s installation “Like the Body of a Flower.”
The duo will begin with Handel/Halvorsen “Passacaglia,” where they will perform to Tommerup’s floor-to-ceiling canvas wall tapestry, “Which She Adores,” a spiritual piece and a reference to the Rothko Chapel in Houston.
The famous virtuoso piece is based on Handel’s harpsichord suite and is a lively and acrobatic work that requires the mastery of the musicians.
Photographer: Alan Cresto/Courtesy of the Sarasota Music Festival
NWS Fellow Cellist Alexander Wu performs with violinist Allison Smith in a musical activation of Mette Tommerup's installation "Like the Body of a Flower."
Next, a piece by Philip Glass, Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, composed as a commission for the Netherlands Dance Theater in 2010 is an intimate and timeless piece that requires virtuosic technical skills of both musicians.
Smith and Wu will be performing the concerto to “activate” the large grid piece on the opposite wall from the tapestry. Entitled “How to Stroll Through the Fields” is a grid of 64 modular paintings each at 36” X 36." The piece has a total dimension of 24’ x 24.’
New World Symphony fellow Sooyoung Kim will perform in the second gallery surrounded by Cristina Lei Rodriguez and Amanda Bradley's works. (Photo courtesy of New World Symphony)
All of the artworks were made specifically for this exhibition. “How to Stroll Through the Fields” is the first work of art that has taken up the entire area from floor to ceiling in this particular location of the Frost Art Museum.
“It is meant to be reminiscent of sunlight as it hits a vast field,” says Tommerup, “and this piece of music will invoke that kind of experience.”
For the finale in the first half, the musicians will play Jessie Montgomery’s restively intensive “Duo for Violin and Cello, III. Presto,” another difficult and acrobatic piece known for its vibrant immediacy and potency. Montgomery made history as the first Black composer awarded the Grammy for Best Contemporay Classical Composition.
The activation will be to a large acrylic on raw canvas, “Like the Body of a Flower,” which swoops from the ceiling at 40-feet by 12-feet.
For the second half, oboist Sooyoung Kim will perform in the second gallery surrounded by Cristina Lei Rodriguez’s works, most notably playing to the interactive sculpture of a Japanese Zen garden, “Endless Autumn.”
Photographer: michael r lopez
Cristina Lei Rodriguez's work, the interactive sculpture of a Japanese Zen garden, “Endless Autumn,” is in the second gallery. (Photo by Michael Lopez)
Kim will perform works by George Philipp Telemann, Claude Debussy, and Benjamin Britten.
The final piece, by Antal Dorati, will surround Amanda Bradley’s photographs in the third gallery. Bradley describes her practice as “photographic work that explores place and landscape as a means to connect and understand identity, belonging, histories, and relationships.”
Photographer: michael r lopez
Sooyoung Kim will perform the final piece, by Antal Dorati surrounding Amanda Bradley's photographs in the third gallery. (Photo by Michael Lopez)
Read more about the exhibition itself in a story in the Miami Herald: “Three Artists Make “Of What Surrounds Me” Larger Than Life” at the Frost Art Museum.
The musicians are Fellows of the New World Symphony. Invitations to join the NWS program as a Fellow are highly competitive. Its fellowship program consists of an in-depth course of performance and instructional activities designed to expand the musical and professional horizons of NWS Fellows.
Violinist Allison Smith is a first-year Fellow at the New World Symphony and is originally from Dublin, Ohio. She discovered her passion for music after performing in Perú at age 12. An avid orchestral player, Allison has served as concertmaster and Principal Second Violin of the Tanglewood Music Center orchestra, and she has performed as a substitute violinist with the Houston, Atlanta and Fort Worth symphonies.
Taiwanese American cellist, Alex Wu, is a first-year Cello Fellow at the New World Symphony. Hailing from Philadelphia, he debuted with the Warminster Symphony in 2010 and has since performed as a soloist with the Lansdowne, Old York and Southeastern Pennsylvania symphony orchestras, among others. He is a laureate of the National YoungArts competition, the Ninth “Annarosa Taddei” International Competition in Italy, and a recipient of the Marjorie Jane Brewster Career Grant.
Oboist Sooyoung Kim, a native of South Korea, is a second-year Fellow at the New World Symphony. After winning second prize at the International Double Reed Society Gillet-Fox competition in 2021, Sooyoung expanded her performance career onto the international stage. She is also the first prizewinner of the 2020 Pasadena Showcase House Instrumental Competition. She has played with the KBS Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic and Korean National Symphony and is also an alumna of the National Repertory Orchestra, Pacific Music Festival and KNSO International Orchestra Academy.
Tertulia Nights is free and open to the public and sponsored by the Art Bridges Foundation. Refreshments are provided by Tripping Animals Brewery on the terrace following the performance to guests ages 21 and older.
Tertulia Nights is recommended for guests ages 18 and older. This is the final event of this season’s Tertulia Nights at the Frost Museum.
“Of What Surrounds Me” is on view at the museum through Sunday, Jan. 12.
The FIU Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum is on the Modesto Maidique Campus, 10975 SW 17th St., Miami. Call (305) 348-2762 or www.frost.fiu.edu.
