Be a part of the art! This Saturday, classical mandolinist Joe Brent and Grammy-nonimated violinist and jazz solist Sara Caswell will perform on the gallery floor of Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe: Tabernacles for Trying Times. Visitors are invited to enjoy the music while activating the artists’ site-specific installation, Parlor for the People. The conceptual tabernacle filled with handmade stools and textiles designed or sourced by the artists is a place for communities to relax, observe, converse, and be together.
The musicians will play 15-minute sets between 2 and 4 pm. The performances are free with admission and will take place in accordance with the Museum’s safe social distances practices.
About the artists
Joe Brent has been called, “one of the truly exceptional musicians of his generation.” A mandolinist about whom it has been said, “there has never been a mandolinist with greater technical skills,” and a composer whose music, “touches and communicates the essence of what it means to be an alive, feeling human being,” Brent has forged a career as both instrumentalist and composer with unparalleled fluency across multiple genres.
As a classical mandolinist, Mr. Brent has worked closely with many of the great modern composers, premiering works by Elliot Carter, Pierre Boulez, Magnus Lindberg, Olga Neuwirth, David Loeb, Nathan Davis, and Joe Hisaishi among many others. He has performed with many well-known chamber ensembles, including The International Contemporary Ensemble, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Argento New Music Project, Speculum Musicae, A Far Cry, Fireworks Music, Art of Élan, Tres Americas, NOVUS, and nunc. Concurrently, he is thoroughly versed in the traditional orchestral repertoire, having performed with Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, New World Symphony, The American Symphony Orchestra, and the New York City Ballet and City Opera. As a solo artist, he has given recitals and clinics in North and South America, Europe, and Asia, made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2001, has lectured on contemporary music at New York's Museum of Modern Art, and was the 2017 artist in residence at Marble House Project.
Grammy nominee Sara Caswell“is a brilliant world-class violinist…one of the very best of the present generation of emerging young jazz stars” according to the late David Baker, internationally-renowned jazz educator and former Director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. Rooted in an early exposure to a variety of musical genres, Sara’s technical facility intertwined with her gift for lyricism continue to attract growing attention to her artistry as a jazz soloist, sideman, and teacher.
Recognized as a “Rising Star” in the DownBeat Magazine Critics and Readers Polls every year since 2013, Sara’s two groups (the Sara Caswell Quartet and the Caswell Sisters Quintet) have been heard in venues ranging from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club to university concert halls nationwide. In 2013, Sara and her sister, vocalist Rachel Caswell, released their CD, Alive in the Singing Air featuring jazz pianist Fred Hersch to rave reviews and its selection by jazz critic Thomas Cunniffe as one of the year’s “Best Vocal CDs” on Jazz History Online. Sara’s two CDs, First Song (Double-Time Records, 2000) and But Beautiful (Arbors Records, 2005), were recognized in several year-end best-of jazz album releases.
Sara regularly performs with mandolinist Joseph Brent’s 9 Horses and has toured extensively with Grammy-winning bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding’s Chamber Music Society, clarinetist David Krakauer’s The Big Picture, vocalist Roseanna Vitro’s quintet, violinist Mark O’Connor’s American String Celebration, and violinist Darol Anger’s Four Generations of Jazz Violin. She has performed and/or recorded with such artists as Brad Mehldau, Linda Oh, Fabian Almazan, Regina Carter, Jenny Scheinman, Lynne Arriale, Alan Ferber, Ike Sturm, John Clayton, Gene Bertoncini, Charlie Byrd, Skitch Henderson, Bucky Pizzarelli, and Bruce Springsteen. She is a member of the New York Pops Orchestra with whom she has been a featured soloist several times in Carnegie Hall, and was part of the house band for NBC’s weekly variety show “Maya & Marty” starring Maya Rudolph and Martin Short.
Currently on faculty at both the Berklee College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, Sara’s formidable teaching experience also includes the Mark O’Connor String Camps, the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops, the Indiana University String Academy, and a private studio. She has given numerous jazz string improvisation workshops and master classes and is involved with JEN (Jazz Education Network), MENC (National Association of Music Education), and ASTA (American String Teachers Association).
Please review our health and safety protocols before you arrive. MAD strongly recommends all visitors six months and older are vaccinated against Covid-19 and visitors ages two and up wear face coverings, even if vaccinated. Thank you for your cooperation.
