Impressions of Brown County: An Evening of Art, Music, & Storytelling
Inspired by the extraordinary artistry of Brown County, the Brown County Playhouse is developing an innovative project that uses iconic early 20th Century photographs of Frank Hohenberger to generate new works by composers, musicians, and young visual artists.
The collaboration between local art students from Brown County Junior High, New Voices Opera, Novacane Quartet and storyteller Paul Whitehouse will culminate in a showcase event at the Brown County Playhouse on March 12 at 7:30pm. The evening will include a viewing of new art by the students and premieres of new compositions by IU Jacobs School of Music composers, all performed by a virtuosic ensemble of musicians.
Tickets for the event, available at the Brown County Playhouse Box Office, are $12 (general admission,) and $8 (students, seniors, and members of the military.)
Photographer and newspaperman Frank Hohenberger spent forty-seven years recording the life, customs, and scenes of the hills of Brown County, with side trips and hired assignments in other areas of Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Mexico. Thousands of images taken from 1904-1948 of landscapes, buildings, and people testify to Hohenberger's belief, recorded in his diary, that "pictures speak the only language all mankind can understand."
The Partners
The Brown County Playhouse entertained its first audience on July 1949. For more than 61 years, the Playhouse was owned by Indiana University Foundation and operated for the benefit of IU Theatre Department. In 2011, the IU Foundation handed over the keys to the Playhouse to the Brown County Community Foundation. A local group of professionals formed Brown County Playhouse Management, Inc. to manage the facility. The Playhouse doors are open once more, offering a diverse selection of performing arts year round.
New Voices Opera is dedicated to promoting American contemporary opera by performing emerging composer's works. With a fully staged and orchestrated opera production in Bloomington each spring and several training programs and workshops throughout the year, the organization provides invaluable performance and growth opportunities for young artists and student musicians.
Founded in 2014, the Novacane Quartet aims to elevate the clarinet quartet and its repertoire to an artistic level. By exploring new genres of music, commissioning new works, and collaborating with artists of various disciplines, the Novacane Quartet seeks to present interesting art to new audiences.
Storyteller Paul Whitehouse is a Chicago based performer and teaching artist. His original stories have been featured at This Much is True, Paper Machete, Hump Night and Chemically Imbalanced Comedy Theater. As an actor, he has performed on stages in Chicago, tours the country with Child's Play, and can be seen in student film, webisodes, and web commercials. As a teacher, he spends his summers with General Theatre Studies, Goodman Theatre's teen intensive program, and he has developed curriculum and teaches for Child's Play Touring Theatre.
With approximately 350 students, Brown County Junior High School was established in 1982 in a complex that includes the high school, an intermediate school, and the corporation administrative offices. Art teacher Karena Sarber led the students involved in this project to create their own unique works.
IU Jacobs School of Music’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development, directed by Alain Barker, provides expert guidance, resources, and a wide variety of events designed to empower Jacobs School of Music students as they prepare for careers in music and dance. Through the student-led initiative Project Jumpstart, the program offers entrepreneurship workshops, networking events, student competitions, {well-advised} lunches, and residencies by prominent arts entrepreneurs. For more information and a list of upcoming events, visit music.indiana.edu/oecd.
