I thought I’d take some time to acknowledge and sincerely thank the many students and other members of our vibrant campus community who generously applied considerable heart and talent toward enhancing and contextualizing performances of our past season. There’s a whole wonderful lot of them!

Our on-campus group, Student Committee for the Arts (SCA) this year launched a new programming track for the Royce Hall terrace. Aptly dubbed “The Terrace Series,” SCA sought out performers (most of them also UCLA students) to create free concerts open to all UCLA students prior to our main stage presentations. A happy (and not entirely unexpected) byproduct of having these talented young performers sharing their work outside the hall before the artists on our season took the stage, was the energetic tone they set as audiences arrived.

The first Terrace Series concert featured hip-hop and experimental DJ Co. Fee and experimental soul/jazz singer and UCLA student Moses Sumney who set the stage for an evening of boundary-defying jazz and soul artists with the Robert Glasper Experiment plus special guests José James, Taylor McFerrin and Austin Peralta, a program CAP UCLA co-presented with SCA.

DJ Co. Fee performing on the Royce Terrace

The second Terrace Series got groovy inside the Royce Hall west lobby (thanks to rain). UCLA student acts Ace Mack and Free Food started things off just right as later that night Charles Bradley and Menahan Street Band brought the Royce Hall crowd to its feet in a truly soul-stirring performance.

Most recently, SCA teamed up with noted UCLA Jazz Reggae Festival to create a head-to-head competition between two student groups—The Wes Coast and The Street Hearts— who battled it out on the Royce Terrace before our presentation of avant-groove jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood. Winners The Street Hearts will be the opening act at Jazz-Reggae Fest on campus next weekend—an amazing opportunity for young musicians. We’re proud to say we knew them when!

UCLA students and members of The Street Hearts perform on the Royce Terrace in a free concert.

Our student advocates at SCA also helped us perpetuate poetry this past season, presenting an incredibly inspiring open-mic poetry slam, hosted by author and poet Carl Hancock Rux, as part of his appearance on our season.

Carl Hancock Rux got things started and a flood of students joined in at SCA's open-mic poetry slam at Untitled Cafe in the Broad Arts Center.

Speaking of poetry, in conjunction with SCA, we created a live poetry bureau on the steps and terrace of Royce Hall the evening of David Sedaris’ performance. Audience-goers from the literarily inclined crowd made great use of a dozen waiting student writers by filling out a small questionnaire and in return, getting an on-the-spot personalized poem.

Awesome UCLA students making on-the-spot poetry.

Student writers Megan Lent, Denise Lin, Meagan Hogan, Wendy Du, Katie Neipris, Brendan Hornbostel, Catherine Kang, Anthony Cerrato, Lena Muratova, Ashley Simmone, Eric Lim, Jeanette Zhu, Makayla Bailey dutifully (and gleefully) clacked away on old-school typewriters and created a very special sense of occasion for our final spoken word event. Check out our full photo gallery and some poetry samples on Flickr.

The winners of our annual humor-writing competition, UCLA students Ida Cutler, Jenna Westover and Patrick Nolan, not only poured their hearts into some truly poignant pieces of writing, but also bravely faced a sold-out Royce Hall audience to do an impromptu live introduction of David Sedaris. They took on the task of informing the rapt crowd that Sedaris’ most recent book had just hit No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. “I’m so embarrassed they mentioned the bestseller,” Sedaris teased when he took the podium a moment later. “I was afraid I was going to have to do it myself.”

Winners of our humor writing competition, just before we surprised them with the news they would be introducing David Sedaris from the stage.

There’s something automatically energizing about having UCLA student performers and artists on site. The extremely talented young instrumentalists of We the Folk joined us several times this year—leading audience-goers (who arrived, string instruments in tow) in a “Pick Your Brains Out” jam session on the terrace prior to David Grisman Sextet plus special guest David Lindley and also providing live music in the Freud Playhouse courtyard before several performances of Cheek by Jowl’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore. Fellow student musicians Los Tres Compadres also greeted theatergoers during Cheek by Jowl’s run with a the trio’s classical music approach to modern tunes.

Prior to our presentation of fiery Argentinian group Bajofondo, we invited WAC/Dance grad student Sharna Fabiano and partner Isaac Oboka to host a lively mini-milonga and tango lesson on the Royce Terrace, which the audience participated in to full effect.

Tango expert and WAC/Dance grad student Sharna Fabiano and partner Isaac Oboka on the Royce terrace.

And, while they’re not technically UCLA students or teachers, we must thank the dance activists of CONTRA-TIEMPO and Latin percussionists from  Son of the Drum for a glorious salsa-dancing sunset as part of our “Carmageddon Tailgate Party,” which kicked off the first of 2012-2013 music performances in Latin style on the evening of Bebel Gilberto plus Forro in the Dark.

Our major April program, Trisha Brown Dance Company: The Retrospective Project, would not have happened without the support and efforts of many campus entities, but we were particularly delighted to witness first-hand the transfer of knowledge from Trisha Brown Dance Company to the student performers of Floor of the Forest, which ran in the Hammer Museum Courtyard from April 1-21.

The work was performed by: Courtney Ryan, Rachel Getman, Sarah Jacobs, Elena Yu, Emily Nelson, Ahilya Kaul, Anna Eliza Pastor, Eydie McConnell, Gwyneth Shanks, Myrrhia Rodriguez, Hana Cohn, Cyndi Huang, Samantha Goodman, Alexis Wilkinson, Brynn Shiovitz and Katherine Ann Kaemmerling.

Not only did these talented young artists volunteer for a rigorous rehearsal period and performance schedule, but several of them also made a point to dive into every element of the Trisha Brown programming, attending talks and other Company performances throughout the week.

Here are a couple Floor of the Forest dancers getting into the moment during the Company’s performance of Roof Piece at The Getty Museum.

UCLA students and Trisha Brown devotees get into the transfer of movement during Roof Piece.

Earlier in the year another amazing group of students (and a few non-students) leaped at the chance to work with Meredith Monk as she returned to CAP UCLA in January to complete her artist residency and debut her new work, On Behalf of Nature. Monk collaborated with this group of artists to create a very unique installation piece that they performed in the Freud Playhouse courtyard before each evening of On Behalf of Nature. The subtle and individualized movement of each artist happened among the foliage and gathered crowd. The performers came together several times to sing a gentle wordless refrain reminiscent of Monk’s newest composition. It set a delightfully pensive tone for the audience as they entered the space to enjoy Monk’s elegiac and meditative work.

The Meredith Monk installation performances featured: Sonya Chávez, Chankethya Chey, Meryl Friedman, Jean Garcia-Gathright, Kaitlyn Huwe, Sarah Jacobs, Mary Neely, Odeya Nini, Hap Palmer, Courtney Ryan, Tommy Schulz, Gwyneth Shanks, Alexandra Shilling, Brynn Shiovitz, Elaine E. Sullivan, Kanwal Sumnani and Laurel Jenkins Tentindo.

Scenes from CAP UCLA's Meredith Monk installation.

Our collaboration with UCLA Library Special Collections and the wealth of cultural history and passion that resides in the documents, images and curators of that department yielded a wealth of events related to our presentation of Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish. Two exhibits on Beat writers and the history of Beat culture in Los Angeles continue through June. Special Collections also graciously welcomed both our Artist Fellows–Laurie Anderson and Robert Wilson–to explore the treasure trove of cultural archives on this campus. Inspiration ensued! (Stay tuned)

This season we also launched a new informal discussion series for our donor audience—“Tonight in the Lounge.” Supporters of our organization at the Sustainer level and above are invited to the private Royce Hall lounge before performances. For “Tonight in the Lounge” we often mined the deep expertise of this campus to create significant moments of insight and inspiration around the artists on our season. These casual talks made an indelible impression on our generous supporters thanks to the great enthusiasm and generosity of many UCLA students and faculty members.

• Michael Hackett, Professor and Chair of the Department of theater in UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television helped us welcome international theater back to the 2012-2013 season and gave our donor audience a primer on Eugene Ionesco  before performances of the acclaimed playwright’s Rhinoceros from Theatre de la Ville-Paris.
• Sahba Shayani, fifth-year graduate student in UCLA’s Program of Iranian Studies/Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, provided thoughtful context around the work of Rumi to performances of Akram Khan Company’s Vertical Road, a compelling dance work inspired in part by words from the beloved Persian poet.
• Alex W. Rodriguez, UCLA PhD Student in Ethnomusicology joined us for a lounge talk prior to performance from jazz legend Ron Carter, celebrating the enduring bassist’s stature, legacy and influence in jazz.
• James Newton, Distinguished Professor, Ethnomusicology and director of UCLA Charles Mingus Ensemble shared his distinct expertise to set the stage for jazz pianist Vijay Iyer, who performed in several combo configurations and was joined by a personal mentor, saxophonist Steve Coleman.
• Oded Erez, second-year doctoral student in the Department of Musicology helped contextualize the passionate music of Israeli band Yemen Blues.
• Eric Schmidt, second-year MA/PhD student in the UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology joined us to celebrate the work of Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré and share thoughts on the legacy of his legendary father Ali Farka Touré. (Eric also did a wonderful interview with Vieux in preparation for his talk with our donors–scroll down to the January 31 issue of our blog.)
• Cheryl L. Keyes Professor of Ethnomusicology & Director of Undergraduate Studies, HASOM came out for our Mardi Gras party, talking to our supporters about the colorful culture that surrounds New Orleans music, as we presented Allen Toussaint Band and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band in Royce Hall.

At every turn, we discover how fortunate we are to be surrounded by the students, staff and professors who populate this campus. The exchange of ideas, the energy created by embracing an atmosphere that is dedicated to new ideas and experiences is an important part of who we are. And we thank them all.

There’s much more to come.

It’s a doozy, with plenty of theater and dance, the launch of Tune-In Festival L.A.– a weekend of amazing contemporary music– plus so much more. We welcome you to dive in and discover it all.

Check out our teaser video and peruse our online program guide. And, we sincerely thank you for all the energy you brought to our artists and programs over the last season. Here’s to more amazing times ahead.

CAP UCLA 2013-2014 Season Teaser from CAP UCLA on Vimeo.

He brings with him a natural coolness, a vibe, an aesthetic heartbeat that is utterly engaging. Get a dose of what’s in store via this trailer.

Teaser: Carl Hancock Rux / The Exalted from FEATUREZOO on Vimeo.

We count ourselves extremely lucky that Carl is able to join us early and participate in some student engagement activities this week, including a classroom session Wednesday afternoon. And he will generously host “Free Form,” a very special open mic night for students on <Thursday night, an event organized by our awesome student arm, Student Committee for the Arts.

Carl has definitely become one of the poets in our lives this season as we have prepared to present him at UCLA for the first time.

We asked him the question we’ve been asking our audiences all year long: “Who is the Poet in Your Life?”

“There are thousands of poets in my life,” he said. “But three that I can think I cannot live without (and whose work I find myself constantly returning to) are Li Young Lee, Breyten Breytenbach, and Derek Walcott–particularly because of their ability to illustrate the conceptual and pictorial realms of poetry as biography, as memoir, as theater, as historical narrative…and political essay.”

Because Carl is infinitely cooler than me (a fact I admit have long suspected), I had to do a bit of research on these artists.

But hey, I’m open to bringing a few more poets into my life, so a bit of exploring served me well, perhaps you will feel the same way? I’ll get you started.

Li Young Lee—A child of Chinese political exiles, his collections of poetry traverse stories of his family’s life, gentle and profound tales of humanity and humility…and so much more.

Breyten Breytenbach—Also a visual artist, he is known as South Africa’s most important poet of the 1960s. A staunch anti-apartheid activist, he spent seven years in jail for treason and wrote “True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist” about it.

Derek Walcott—Nobel Prize winner and playwright, known for his epic Homeric poem “Omeros” set in the Carribbean. You can read an excerpt of it at The Poetry Foundation website.

I feel cooler already.

There are a very few seats left for Carl’s performance in the intimate Glorya Kaufman Dance Theater just down the way from Royce in Kaufman Hall.

Come join us, we can be cool together.

P.S. I find it incredibly heartening to know that in the dog-eat-dog modern media climate that a Magazine and foundation dedicated to all things poetry continues to survive. Viva La Poetry Foundation!

Erasure poetry is created when an artist or writer takes the pages of a book (pretty much any book) and eliminates, strips away, covers up or erases most of the words on the page to unearth something entirely new. Whether the result becomes a recognizable narrative of its own or simply exists in stream of consciousness imagery doesn’t matter. (You can try your hand at erasure online at Mary’s publisher site.)

The process is equal parts unearthing and burying, Ruefle said, pointing out that if you were to dig a hole in the ground you would be doing both of those things simultaneously. Building a pile of dirt by digging a hole next to it….unearthing a new story, by burying pieces of the original.

Ruefle has erased more than 60 books. Some became gifts, some were bought by collectors, one was published as a book of its own. She’s even working on erasing the Bible.

“I hope to be working on one when I die,” she said.

She talked about how much this work has affected her life as an artist; how her physical space is replete with potential books to erase, alongside myriad books and supplies that will be used for “fodder,” to illustrate and re-articulate the emerging new text on the pages, the words of which she erases with carbon, graphite, Liquid Paper (which is better than White Out, she proclaimed authoritatively); the strange spiritual conversation she has come to have with one particular authoress named Laura Richards whose books, Mary discovered, she was quite coincidentally gravitating to erase.

“I love her so much, I want to erase every word she ever wrote,” Mary said, eliciting laughter from the rapt artists and poetry lovers in attendance.

It became clear quickly that there is a great deal of love in the process of erasure. Love of language. Love of exploration. Love of art.

The process is meditative and cathartic. She told us this and then she showed us this. Intrigued and compelled we gravitated to our own pages of text, our own fodder, heads bent and intent as she walked through an erasure exercise. Mary read resulting texts aloud, offered encouragement and exclaimed delights.

She often reminded us that there is always more to erase, and to fearlessly continue stripping away to the most minimal essence.

With soft, serene rays of sunlight caressing the glorious architecture of the Clark Library lecture room, Mary likened erasure art to the process of living and dying.

Life is an erasure. We say goodbye people we love, we lose things, our memories fade, we let go of innocence, and yet, somehow we can still manage to become something more of ourselves in the process.

And when we die, if even just one word, one memory, one kind face remains of what once was a lengthily written life, that is a gift.

We’re so grateful for the gift of Mary Ruefle. We’re grateful she came among us and planted seeds of poetic action as part of our ongoing Who is the Poet in Your Life initiative.

Here’s a gallery of some of the work we shared in our erasure workshop, and some scenes from the gorgeous Clark Library.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for a few special moments of erasure.

Both of these artists are releasing albums this month that harness their distinct artistry in honor of musical collaborators who have greatly inspired them.

“Robert Randolph presents The Slide Brothers” hits stores next Tuesday. It is the first album for the enduring and beloved Slide Brothers–Calvin Cooke, Chuck Campbell, Darick Campbell and Aubrey Ghent, each of whom was raised worshiping and performing “Sacred Steel” in The Church of the Living God. They were an ad hoc family, traveling and learning from the other dominions in their communities in cities from Nashville to Chicago to Newark. They’ll join us here in Royce Hall with Randolph as part of a triumphant tour in support of their first-ever studio release, decades in the making.

Since hitting the scene in 2000, Randolph himself has been instrumental in proselytizing the Sacred Steel tradition to modern audiences with his engaging Family Band.

He counts The Slide Brothers as a major influence and an inspiration.

“I was born with these guys,” Randolph says. “I look to them the same way I look to blues greats like Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. Aubrey Ghent and Henry Nelson, Aubrey’s dad, and The Campbell Brothers; they all shaped this Sacred Steel tradition inside the churches but they weren’t allowed to leave the church until now.”

The Slide Brothers’ album includes 11 tracks and features some of the most dynamic electric slide guitar playing ever recorded. Inspired by Randolph to finally emerge beyond their respected positions within the Sacred Dteel community, the Slide Brothers tackle rock, funk and even the deepest blues with a ferocity that will startle fans of Duane Allman, Derek Trucks and even Muddy Waters.

The Slide Brothers shift easily between genres, incorporating both traditional gospel repertoire as well as and secular material. To underscore the album’s diversity, a stirring instrumental version of the spiritual classic “Wade in the Water,” is followed by a vibrant and bluesy cover of Fatboy Slim’s 1999 trip hop hit “Praise You” (featuring vocals by blues queen Shemekia Copeland and backing by Robert Randolph & the Family Band). Jimmy Carter of the famed Blind Boys Of Alabama joins Aubrey Ghent to provide lead vocals for “My Sweet Lord.”

“It has long been a vision of all of ours to be able to this,” says Chuck Campbell. “Robert was able to pull together the top steel players from different generations. It is truly an honor to be a part of album that brings together so many wonderful people such as [Jimi Hendrix bassist] Billy Cox, Shemekia Copeland, and the Blind Boys Of Alabama. Instead of us meeting at a church convention we were able to get everyone together in a recording studio to play secular songs and religious songs with the same conviction. We feel blessed that we have finally been able to do this.”

Meanwhile, on Feb. 12, Otis Taylor’s 13th album arrived with “My World is Gone.” With his powerful and unique blend of roots music and narrative poetry, Taylor explores the struggles of Native Americans, with contributions from guitar virtuoso Mato Nanji, frontman of American blues-rock band Indigenous.

The central theme of “My World Is Gone” was fueled by Nanji.

“Mato inspired the entire direction of this album,” Taylor said. “We were talking about history backstage at a Jimi Hendrix tribute concert that Mato had just played, and, in reference to his people, the Native American Nakota Nation, he said ‘My world is gone.’ The simplicity and honesty of those four words was so heavy, I knew what I had to write about.”

Taylor had already begun composing new tunes with other themes for his follow-up to 2012’s critically heralded Contraband. Three of those — “Green Apples,” “Gangster and Iztatoz Chauffeur” and “Coming With Crosses” — appear on “My World Is Gone.”

But inspired by Nanji — who also plays electric and acoustic guitars on six tracks and joins Taylor on vocals for several songs — and by his own understanding of Native American culture developed in part through dealing in Indian art as a young man, Taylor embarked on a soul-searching journey into the past and present, and into the psyche, of America’s indigenous people.

“I’ve written songs about slavery, but here in America that’s considered part of the past,” Taylor explains. “What’s happened and what’s happening to Native Americans is still going on. A lot of people forget that. This is a reminder.”

The Circus Oz cast and crew hit Royce Hall last Wednesday to start setting up for their cheeky and yet utterly elaborate circus show. Several members of the mob joined us VERY early that morning to warm up local KTLA audiences for the weekend’s forthcoming antics. Entertainment reporter Allie MacKay’s slightly warped wit and natural comic timing fit right in with the group. (Seriously, I half expected them to give her a costume and rig her up for circus flight.)

The generosity of these performers was amazing. In a very short time they brought a real verve and vibrancy to our program and the communities we seek to engage. Thursday afternoon a group of performers, including company artistic director Mike Finch, musical director Carl Polk and several others met with UCLA arts students for a inspiring and free-wheeling discussion about the art of circus and Circus Oz’ uniquely collaborative creative process in developing both an exciting stage show and the truly amazing live soundtrack that goes with it.

Friday morning, 1,200 elementary-schoolchildren from across Los Angeles filed excitedly into Royce Hall for a DFS Demonstration Performance. It was quite chilly outside but the rain held and the cold didn’t stop the Circus OZ crew from getting the fun started as the kids lined up outside and worked their way into the hall.

If you joined us for the performances you well know by now just how delightfully talented these performers are and there is an underlying sense of welcome and warmth in everything they do. They dedicated each performance to the concepts of compassion and human kindness. (What kind of fruit are you by the way? Did you catch a glimpse of Godzilla in the background during intermission? Give us a shout on Twitter with the tag #capuclaoz)

Check out our Flickr gallery of Circus Oz performing in Royce Hall.

The circus is one of those things that just captures your imagination and takes hold. The obvious camaraderie of the performers and the clear trust they hold in one another is a subtle glue that runs through the comedic antics, flashy displays and truly death-defying stunts.

We asked schoolchildren across the city to tell us what they would do if they were to join the circus. We also invited audience-goers at each performance to take up a blank sheet of paper and draw us or tell us a story about their own circus dreams… and we decked out Royce Hall with the answers.

Thanks to everyone who was part of this amazing experience. Today, Royce Hall feels very empty, but we’re so pleased Circus Oz left such an indelible mark on our program, our space and in our imaginations.

See you under the big top!

“It is a time to celebrate the musical traditions of our land,” explains Vieux Farka Touré. The Malian guitarist is at the end of a brief tour in Africa before he heads to Los Angeles to perform at UCLA’s Royce Hall, and if he’s not already exhausted from a busy performance schedule, he’s probably weary from the challenging year that he and his compatriots have just been through. But the latest news is a source for cautious optimism: a coalition of French, Malian, and other African troops in just the past few days liberated many of Mali’s celebrated cities, including Timbuktu, from religious extremists who wrested control of the country’s desert north from a secular separatist movement in the spring of last year. It seems like a return to normalcy might be on the horizon for Mali, and for musicians in particular, this is a cause for celebration.

Vieux Farka Toure

Named for the medieval Mali Empire that once ruled this region and amassed immense wealth through trans-Saharan trade in gold and salt, Mali is a diverse country whose borders were more or less artificially established through French colonization in the 19th and 20th centuries. When it became an independent state in 1960, the Malian nation confronted a sort of identity crisis that was shared by many of the new countries in post-colonial West Africa: how does one establish a unified nation where previously had been dozens of different peoples separated by ethnicity, language, and way of life? One solution was to establish national and regional performing arts ensembles, such as the Ensemble Instrumental National du Mali, which brought together the music and dance traditions of these various populations in a single setting.

It was during this period that Vieux’s father, Ali Farka Touré, first gained professional music experience, directing the regional ensemble from his hometown Niafunké during the 1960s and early ’70s. Although he always insisted that his primary profession was farming, Ali Farka began performing and recording in Europe, and discovered through his own listening that American blues guitarists like John Lee Hooker employed techniques quite similar to those of Malian string musicians. In time, Ali Farka began collaborating with American bluesmen like Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, recording albums such as The Source (1992) and the Grammy-winning Talking Timbuktu (1994) that stirred international interest in the historical connections between Malian music and American blues.

There is another important factor to bear in mind about Ali Farka, one perhaps of greater significance in Mali than his international fame alone; after all, global stardom is not entirely rare in a musical powerhouse like Mali, which has produced scores of internationally popular artists including Salif Keita, Oumou Sangaré, Toumani Diabaté, Amadou and Mariam, and Tinariwen. It is the geographic factor: Ali Farka’s hometown of Niafunké is located along the Niger River near Timbuktu, roughly positioning him in the middle of Mali and straddling a widely perceived north-south cultural division in the country. In this environment, Ali Farka became not only multilingual but multi-musical as well, familiar with the traditions of many Malian peoples from both halves of the country.

When I ask about his father’s legacy, Vieux proudly echoes these points. “My father helped to show the world that the blues comes from Africa, and more specifically, from Mali. His music touched millions of people around the world and opened their minds to our world. He showed the world that Mali is a land of beauty, of peace, and of deep tradition. So, the nation of Mali is very proud of him and [his] legacy.”

This leaves Vieux some pretty big shoes to fill. But he’s done more than simply continue in the same vein as his father. He has boldly made a name for himself as an artist in his own right. Unlike Ali Farka, Vieux proudly proclaims himself a professional musician, although his background is as strongly rooted in Mali’s richly diverse heritage as his father before him. Whereas Ali Farka directed the regional ensemble from Niafunké, Vieux trained as a percussionist at the Institut National des Arts in Mali before beginning to play guitar in secret. (His father preferred that he make a career in the military, but eventually Vieux earned Ali Farka’s blessings to pursue music).

“I am of the new generation,” Vieux explains. “My music is based in the same traditions…but it is one generation further into modernity. My father was pushing the boundaries by playing the electric guitar, by playing with American blues musicians, …and by taking [Malian] music out to the world. For me it is an extension of that work. I am taking Malian music into rock, into reggae, into funk music. I am working with all different kinds of artists from all over the world. But you see, it is really just the next branch of the same tree, with the same spirit and the same heart.”
Indeed, Mali is a different place today than when Ali Farka was getting started in the 1960s. But for a country recently shaken by internal political divisions, with half of its territory just beginning to reemerge from a period in which musical performance was strictly forbidden, the music of Vieux Farka Touré might be just the right ingredient to invigorate a reunified Mali: diverse, modern, and globally engaged.

In fact, Vieux will be releasing a new album this spring that is a tribute to his home country. “With what is happening there, it is more important now to make sure that people hear and understand the true identity of Mali, and the best way for the people of Mali to get their messages across is through their music.” Undoubtedly, this message will be heard loud and clear when Vieux and special guests Fool’s Gold play a tribute to Ali Farka Touré at Royce Hall.

I invite you to join us in this celebration, to listen for these messages, and to respond unequivocally: we hear you, Mali.

We started 2013 with that mission in full effect and have also been fortunate to spend this New Year surrounded by the purposeful intent of some truly astonishing artists.

Cheek by Jowl’s early-January performances of a 400-year-old and yet still utterly shocking work of English drama illuminated just how powerful intention can be. It is companies like Cheek by Jowl who keep ancient words and thoughts and language very much alive and give them shape and form. Classic theater texts like John Ford’s would not live on the way they do without the purposeful intent of artists like the performers, directors and crew of companies like Cheek by Jowl and we were honored to host the final performances of the ever-controversial “‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore.”

Amadeus Leopold performing "Till Dawn Sunday" in Royce Hall Jan. 10

Avant-pop violinist Amadeus Leopold brought us a fascinatingly purposeful look at his own highly theatrical approach to classical music. In an oddly compelling blend of bondage gear and blood capsules, he confessed to “the murder of Hahn-Bin,” rising anew as the one-and-only Amadeus Leopold and treated us to a recital that straddled virtuosic skill and highly intentional imagery.

Just two weeks ago, a tiny but by no means diminutive, force of nature blew through our lives as Meredith Monk and her acclaimed vocal ensemble prepared for the world premiere of her “On Behalf of Nature.” As the name implies, this deep, profound and meditative piece was incredibly purpose-driven. It is not in Monk’s nature to outright preach or create a work of abject activism. But there was a wistful sadness, and an elegiac longing in the intricately staged theatrical moments of “On Behalf of Nature,” deftly woven into the beautiful vocal and instrumental compositions. We were meant to leave that space ruminating on our own interpretation of our place in nature, our power as humans to either destroy or preserve it, our responsibility to it and to ourselves.

Leading up to the performances, Meredith re-visited the work she began with students last spring as CAP UCLA’s first resident artist, working with them to craft a subtle and highly-individualized pre-show installation that those students (and a few art-loving non-students!) performed in the courtyard of the Freud Playhouse prior to every showing of “On Behalf of Nature.” It was simultaneously conspicuous and understated in a way only Meredith could create and it set an incredibly appropriate tone for the audience before they even entered the theater.

Watching these students interact with Meredith Monk in those days before the performances, it was clear that part of her purpose as an artist is to pass along elements of her craft to a new generation, and it is clearly something that will echo long into their futures. These students and members of our campus community quite literally, as they rehearsed in uncharacteristically frigid Los Angeles temperatures, warmed to Meredith like moths to a flame.

I watched her sit within a circle of them as they rehearsed a brief vocal refrain, turning her head from one to another, smiling with approval and almost, it seemed to me, in blessing.

Meredith Monk performing "On Behalf of Nature" Freud Playhouse Jan. 18-20

It was a beautiful moment to witness and a beautiful one for the students involved to experience. But you don’t have to take it from me. Read first-hand from one student-participant’s perspective.

Just last weekend we were incredibly proud to be a home-away-from-home for Australia’s Back to Back Theatre, in the company’s first visit to Los Angeles. Their truly compelling and uniquely crafted original work “Ganesh Versus the Third Reich” was moving and stimulating as it challenged us to consider who has the right to tell a story and how.

These tireless storytellers approach the world from a different point of view. As performers with intellectual disabilities, their worldview often comes from a place of marginalization, and almost always from a sense of “otherness.” The actors and creators here last week were incredibly generous with our audience and our community, sharing their work and insight into their creative process with high school students from across Los Angeles, with students on this campus, and with our own audience Saturday night in a candid Q&A session. We were enthralled company’s bold creativity and intentional mission to set askew our own notions of power, stories and art itself.

It serves us to be intentionally set off our axis once in a while, I think. And many of our visiting artists did that in varied ways this month.

I will wind this long-windedness up with a closing thought about this Friday night, and a bit of a challenge.

Coming up Feb 1, is a concert from “the Hendrix of the Sahara,” Vieux Farka Touré who will perform in tribute to his legendary father Ali Farka Touré. LA’s own afrobeat collective Fool’s Gold opens the show.

Typically this would be just another amazing Royce Hall music moment from another amazing musician.
But, this Friday night serves another purpose–to shine a spotlight on the heartbreaking situation in Ali and Vieux’s homeland of Mali, where the rich culture of music and art came under attack by Islamic fundamentalists.

It’s an unfathomable situation, and one that has only recently started to improve, slowly. Still, it remains somewhat under the radar in U.S. media coverage and general public attention. But Mali matters.

Mali and its rich musical history matters to Fools Gold. The group has been greatly inspired by the artists and music from this part of the world, and is looking to help affected people in the area. They have partnered with an organization called African Sky, which sends humanitarian aid to Mali.

Come to Royce Hall Friday night, hear some amazing music both directly from and inspired by Mali, and check out the limited-edition T-shirts designed by the mission-driven design collective
Upperatus, which will be on sale at the Fool’s Gold merch table. Proceeds from the sale of these T-shirts will go to African Sky.

Many thanks to all of you who joined us for a January filled with artistic riches. And there is so much more to come. We hope to see you soon!

We’re especially proud to play host to the ever-evolving Meredith Monk as she is one of our resident artists this season. Meredith generously arrives early next week to begin working with students on yet another new original work that they will perform in the Freud Playhouse courtyard prior to each performance of “On Behalf of Nature.”

Though she recently turned 70, Meredith also remains a tireless explorer of her own craft. “On Behalf of Nature” is an exploration that builds on compositional themes she set last year during the creation of “Realm Variations,” a piece originally commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony.

Reflecting on the difference between “On Behalf of Nature” and her earlier, more-theatrical work such as “Education of the Girl Child,” Meredith says that her continuing evolution as a composer has had a great impact on the resulting work she creates.

“As I’ve gotten older my form is to the bone,” she describes. “I go to essentializing. It seems more simple but it’s a very very complicated process, and the result is very pure.

“My music has developed so much, it has become more complex,” she says. “Once that element has become complex, some of the other elements become less complex.”

Monk says “On Behalf of Nature” is an elegiac “meditation on the fragility of nature,” not set in any one particular landscape.

“I think almost any piece I’ve ever done is about nature,” she said. “I’m evoking the mystery and the wonder in the processes and workings of nature and the inner structure of nature, and the mystery and wonder and the beauty of what we take for granted.”

The piece is purposefully abstract, as is natural to Monk’s aesthetic and process, and audience members are meant to make their own interpretations, Monk says. It’s not an activist piece, but in its own subtle way, it is certainly meant to inspire eco-conscious thought, a purpose that Monk says also drove elements of its creation.

Monk imbued the entire creative process of On Behalf of Nature with a spirit of re-using, rediscovering, transforming and re-imagining something new from something already in existence.

Two sections of “On Behalf of Nature” are from “Realm Variations” but re-orchestrated for Monk’s ensemble of six vocalists and three instrumentalists. (“Realm” was created for six singers and seven instrumentalists).

Monk said she also revisited old notebooks from the 1990s, extracting elements and phrases that would become wholly new pieces. For video in “On Behalf of Nature,” Monk used elements of footage from her 1998 film “Book of Days, ” re-cutting and adding new imagery.

In creating the costume design for the piece, Monk’s longtime collaborator Yoshio Yabara worked with a collection of previously worn items the performers brought in from their wardrobes. The result is some “really wild creations,” Monk says.

(Side note: A couple of years ago Yoshio was inspired to create a series of cleverly minimalistic Meredith Monk puppets).

Next weekend’s performances constitute the birth of “On Behalf of Nature,” but Monk says she fully expects the work to continue to grow and evolve.

“The beautiful thing about live performance is it’s a very process-oriented thing,” she says. “It’s always an organic process. This piece is extremely organic in the structure, the music. I tried to follow that and not be afraid of that.”

I just popped up for a minute and caught a few strains of “Silent Night” being sung in German and it finally felt like the Christmas season is actually here. It was a nice moment of stillness in a time that’s not very still. It’s such a pleasure to be able to share these two special holiday performances with our audience this weekend and I hope you find a similar moment of stillness tonight and tomorrow night.

We can’t promise silence though, it will be a very not-so-silent night of great music and joy.

It’s been a busy couple of months at CAP UCLA and an extraordinarily busy year. So much has changed, including our name, but there’s also quiet confidence in knowing that the way we value the work and influence of great art and artists remains a constant.

It made me think about the holiday season in general and how much this time of year is simultaneously about tradition and change.

We nostalgically embrace old traditions even as we invoke new ones.

The world changes every year. We age, we lose people we love, we revel in the experiences and moments and people that inspire us—those things that buoy us during times of hardship and loss and add a special glimmer to the good times.

We’ve lost a few artists we love this year, most recently Ravi Shankar, who changed the world with his unique voice and innovation around ancient traditions. For so many decades, he touched so many fellow artists’ lives that his influence permeates the entire culture of music. Ravi performed in Royce Hall in the 1980s and his great spirit will undoubtedly continue to be felt here by the performers who come next.

More tragically, we also said goodbye this year to the stunning young jazz musician Austin Peralta, far too quickly after we said hello to him in his October 25 performance at Royce Hall. Still, his burgeoning talent and great presence lingers in the music he left behind and the people who were and will continue to be awed by him.

Rufus and Martha Wainwright and their family and friends upstairs are gathered in celebration of tradition and change, the tradition of joining together as a family to honor the season through song and also to lovingly remember their late mother Kate McGarrigle, whose lack is a change that is still keenly felt.

We’re very proud to be a part of this special event that really encapsulates what the holidays are about.

We’re also proud of the changes we’ve gone through as an organization in 2012 and we’re proud of the traditions we’ve kept and built upon.

There’s much more ahead, many more artists and traditions to discover and perpetuate and we can’t wait for what’s in store in 2013.

In the meantime, our hope for you is that your holiday season is filled with joy, wonderment and many exchanges of kindness.

Cheers to 2012 and see you next year!