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Coming together in a magical moment of time and space – Synchronicity is the key to the stories on this episode of State of the Arts, featuring a hand bell choir, the art of printmaking, Hitchcock’s film scores, and a potter’s inspiration.
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State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz goes to a performance by Westminster Choir College’s renowned hand bell choir, then behind the scenes to see how the bells are made and how fourteen performers, each entrusted with not more than four pitches, manipulate the largest collection of hand bells in the world to perform extremely complex music. Schultz speaks with conductor Kathleen Ebling-Thorne, choir members, and bell manufacturer Malmark, Inc. president J.H. Malta, who holds over 20 US Patents for his hand bell designs.
There are tens of thousands of bell choirs in churches throughout the United States, but the virtuosic Westminster Choir is in a class by itself. They have performed many times on NBC's Today Show, they've appeared on the PBS series Mister Roger's Neighborhood, and they make annual concert tours throughout the United States. 
 Watch the Westminster Concert Bell Choir perform a virtuosic work composed specifically for bells by composer Kevin McChesney, "Passacaglia"
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The Westminster Concert Bell Choir
The Westminster Concert Bell Choir with Julie Andrews
Hand bell poster
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| hitchcock’s music |
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Alfred Hitchcock understood – perhaps better than any director before or since – how sound and images work together to create fear, tension, relief, and drama. Over his long career he presided over more musical styles than any director in history and ultimately changed how we think about film music. "Hitchcock's Music," by Rider University professor Jack Sullivan, is the first book to fully explore the essential role music played in the movies of Alfred Hitchcock.
Based on extensive interviews with composers, writers, and actors, and research in rare archives, the new book examines the director’s important relationships with various composers, especially Bernard Herrmann, and tells the stories behind the musical decisions. Sullivan takes State of the Arts producer Amber Edwards on an audio tour of Hitchcock's most famous films, and shows us new ways to watch – and listen – to his movies. |
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"Hitchcock's Music"
by Jack Sullivan
Jack Sullivan, author
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| surface rhythms |
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Famed ceramist Bennett Bean has traced his influences – ranging from Buddhism to Native American pottery – to synchronous, defining moments in his life. He draws inspiration from his travels to places like Nepal, Burma and Vietnam, where he’s soaked up the aesthetic climates that he pours into his work at his picturesque home studio in rural Blairstown, New Jersey. In 2006, some of Bean’s current work traveled down to the Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville, making up half of an exhibit that was called “Surface Rhythms.”
State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa spoke with the Noyes Museum’s executive director Michael Cagno about the show, and visited Bean at home where the artist has been creating more than his signature, highly sought-after clay vessels - he’s expanded into rug-making in Kathmandu and designed the ultimate bulb trowel, among other things.
Watch a 1995 State of the Arts story about ceramist Bennett Bean
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“Morning Glory 2: The New Wing Series” ceramic by Bennett Bean
“Untitled - Ghost Series” paper collage, porcelain and encaustic on aluminum by Bennett Bean
"Wing" by Bennett Bean
Ceramic work by Bennett Bean
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| brodsky’s vision |
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State of the Arts producer Susan Wallner visits The Brodsky Center at Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts, formerly the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper. Judith Brodsky founded the shop in 1986 to encourage the classical tradition of master printers working with artists, but she chose to focus on women artists, artists of color, and artists working in non-traditional media such as performance art. Her tactics struck a chord, and the Rutgers-based center is now a force to be reckoned with in the international art world.
In 2006, the Center was renamed in honor of Judith Brodsky, professor emerita of art, and her late husband. The Brodsky Center continues to work with more than 20 emerging and established artists (such as Kiki Smith, Will Barnett, and Willie Cole) every year. The artists are teamed up with print and papermakers to create works created with lithographic, silkscreen, digital, handmade paper, and other media. Wallner interviews quilt artist Faith Ringgold about her long friendship and working relationship with Judith Brodsky, and explores how the Brodsky Center has become an international force in the world of paper and printmaking.
Watch a 1982 State of the Arts profile of printmaker and arts administrator Judith Brodsky
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Judith Brodsky,
founder of the Brodsky Center
(formerly the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper)
“Coming to Jones Road: Under a Blood Red Sky”
print by Faith Ringgold
Untitled by Kim Joon Hyun
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