Page 8 / Sunday, January 30, 2011 Tallahassee Democrat / TLH

Dreamy musical ‘Night’ is prelude to Seven Days

W hen the sun sets and night falls, dreams

arise like smoke from the embers of the day.

When “Night” falls Thursday at TCC’s Turner Auditorium, the dreams of two musicians will merge and flourish on stage in a musical collaboration that heralds the advent of this year’s Seven Days of Opening Nights arts fes-tival.

The concert features classical pianist Simone (see-MOH-nuh) Dinner-stein — who charmed and dazzled Seven Days audi-ences in 2009 — and sing-er-songwriter Tift Merritt. They’ll perform a mixed bag of songs — some favor-ites reconfigured by vio-linist and arranger Jenny Scheinman, some special-ly created songs by such favorite composers as Pat-ty Griffin and Brad Mehl-dau, some classical piec-es, some of Merritt’s finely crafted tunes, some works-in-progress.

“I have to give Simo-ne credit for the ‘Night’ theme,” Merritt said. “It’s a wonderful umbrella — a place of darkness that you feel your way through, that holds emotion and is, in some ways, uncharted territory.

“It’s a metaphor for what we’re doing together.”

Dinnerstein conceived

of the collaboration two years ago, and when in Tallahassee for the 2009 Seven Days appearances she asked festival direc-tor Steve MacQueen if he knew any arrangers who could handle both classical and roots rock music.

“I immediately suggest-ed Jenny Scheinman,” MacQueen said. “When they offered a chance to be in on the project, I jumped at it.”

Seven Days co-com-missioned “Night” with Duke University and the Mondavi Center. It’s one of three special commis-sions for this year’s festi-val. Seven Days will also present the Southeast-ern premiere of “A Chi-nese Home,” by the Kronos Quartet and Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man. The fes-tival also asked Florida State University College of Music students to com-pose new scores for three old silent films, which will be screened as part of the festival.

Eloquence meets elegance

Dinnerstein and Merritt met when Merritt inter-viewed the pianist for a Gramophone Magazine story. She subsequently invited Dinnerstein to be a guest on her radio show “The Spark,” broadcast on KRTS Marfa for Texas Public Radio.

The rootsy poet — a North Carolina native transplanted to New York

City — and the peerless classical interpreter found they had more in common than they thought they would.

“Before I went on the radio show, I listened to her CDs and she listened to mine,” Dinnerstein said. “I really liked her songs a lot. When we did the inter-view, we just really hit it off and we became friends.

“We were thinking it would be interesting to do something together, but we couldn’t figure out what that would be.”

Merritt said, “When I first saw Simone play, I just cried the whole con-cert. She’s so passionate and beautiful, very pow-erful. We found we had so much in common, without even trying.

“We are both very seri-ous about our work and our lives. Working togeth-er has been such a treat,

because we both go at it with a lot of intensity. In the rock ‘n’ roll world, there are plenty of times when people look at you like you’re crazy for that kind of intensity.”

From the get-go, the two wanted to meld musical worlds.

“We thought it needed to have classical songs and pop or singer-songwrit-er compositions, and then it would be interesting to have a diverse group of composers, and mix in Tift’s music and my solo playing,” Dinnerstein said. “We had quite a long time of sending lists of songs to each other and introduc-ing each other to songs we liked. I have gaping holes in my knowledge of non-classical music.”

Merritt brought a Nina Simone arrangement of the Billie Holiday classic “Don’t Explain” for Din-

nerstein to consider. Din-nerstein envisioned Mer-ritt performing art songs. As “Night” began to take shape, the two helped each other strike out for new musical territory.

“We both are very detailed and thorough in how we approach the pro-cess,” Dinnerstein said. “But we learn music in dif-ferent ways. Tift learns a lot by ear — she recorded a lot of our rehearsals (to play back).

“I was kind of stunned by how quickly she absorbed classical music and can make it her own. I don’t feel like I’m nearly as good at absorbing her music. Both of us feel an element of exposing our-selves, of going out on a limb.”

Common musical ground

Before going on the road with “Night,” Merritt and Dinnerstein performed an informal house concert for friends. Both were more worried for the other than

for their own contributions to the performance.

“We’re both so support-ive of each other,” Dinner-stein said. “At the house concert, we both felt ner-vous for the opposite sets of pieces. We want ‘Night’ to be full of integrity, and we don’t want to feel silly.

“The important thing is that we’re being musi-cal and we’re interpret-ing the music in the way that feels right to us. The way I’m playing pop music isn’t necessarily the way a pianist in a band would play it.”

During the performance of “Night,” Merritt and Dinnerstein are onstage together the entire time.

“We wanted to have a kind of intimacy and relaxed feeling,” Dinner-stein said. “Sitting and listening to each other is nice.”

Merritt said, “It’s a full concert. We both have moments when we define ourselves clearly, so the weight of our coming together can be under-stood. The flow (of the show) is interesting. You get a sense of who we both are separately in order to get what we’re doing with the collaboration.”

The program for the con-cert will be handed out after the performance — in order to make the expe-rience fresher for both audience and performers.

“I’m sure the program will evolve as we continue (performing it),” Dinner-stein said.

By Kati SchardlDEMOCRAT FEATURES EDITOR

Simone Dinnerstein, left, and Tift Merritt will perform together on Thursday at Turner Auditorium.

IF YOU GOWhat: “Night,” featuring

Simone Dinnerstein and Tift MerrittWhen: 8 p.m. ThursdayWhere: Turner Auditori-

um, TCC, Appleyard DriveCost: $25 general

admission, $10 for FSU students with valid IDsContact: Call 644-

6500 or visit www.tick-ets.fsu.edu

SEVEN DAYS LINEUPFeb. 11-21: Seven Days

of Opening Nights cel-ebrates its return to the refurbished Ruby Diamond Concert Hall with a series of performances, includ-

ing the Mark Morris Dance Group (Feb. 11), Randy Newman (Feb. 12), Gabri-ela Montero (Feb. 13-14), two shows by cultural and comedy icon Bill Cosby (Feb. 13), the PRISM con-

cert (Feb. 15), author and culinary miscreant Anthony Bourdain (Feb. 16), Luciana Souza (Feb. 17), Kronos Quartet & Wu Man (Feb. 18), “Silents!” film screen-ings (Feb. 18-19), Geof-

frey Gilmore’s cinematic offering (Feb. 19), Ira Glass (Feb. 19), the Universi-ty Symphony Orchestra & FSU Jazz Sextet with guest soloist Marcus Roberts (Feb. 20) and dancer Savi-

on Glover (Feb. 21). Affiliat-ed events include a produc-tion of Shakespeare’s “A Comedy of Errors” by The Acting Company (March 14), a concert by the Pat Metheny Trio (March 23)

and an encore appearance by humorist and author David Sedaris (April 10). Some performances are sold out. Call 644-6500 or visit www.tickets.fsu.edu or www.sevendaysfestival.org.

TLH / Tallahassee Democrat Sunday, January 30, 2011 / Page 9

Florida’s beauty captivates Chinese artistIn 2004, while work-

ing on his MFA in painting at FSU,

Liu Nan made a discov-ery that would radical-ly change the course of his work. A friend took him to Lake Jackson, and for the first time, he painted directly from nature.

“I was trained old school, with still lifes and figures,” says Liu, an assistant professor of art at FAMU. “I had never painted outside. It was always inside the studio. Lake Jackson was love at first sight.”

Liu was raised in Tianjin, China’s third largest city, by his mother, an elementary school principal, and his father, a physical educa-tion teacher and wres-tling coach.

“Growing up in a large metropolitan city in north China, crowd-ed with millions of peo-ple and an increasing-ly obliterated natural environment, I rarely glimpsed the world that opened up to me in Flor-ida,” says Liu. “When I left my home in China, I could barely see the blue sky.”

Liu studied art from a young age. He remem-bers living in his grand-mother’s house as a boy, looking at a painting in her hallway.

“The artist was famous, and he lived in my grandmoth-er’s neighborhood. He gave her the paint-ing,” remembers Liu. “I started to imitate that painting, to copy it over and over.”

Soon he began saving money to buy art books from a nearby art sup-

ply store, and copy the paintings in the books. He took an art appre-ciation class in high school, but there were no practical art classes offered.

“There was one art teacher who encouraged us, and after school we would go to his room to draw. We would copy the old masters, and we had a friendly compe-tition about who could do it best. It wasn’t a formal class — we just went,” says Liu. “It was a golden time for me, when we didn’t have to worry about grades, we could just draw.”

Liu applied for admis-sion to Nan Kai Univer-sity, to the art program begun by renowned contemporary Chinese painter Fan Zeng, who would become one of Liu’s teachers.

“This was the first public university in China to have an art department,” says Liu. “Fan Zeng was a genius. He personally earned and donated the money to build the art depart-ment.”

The department accepted only nine stu-

dents a year, and the “audition” was a draw-ing and painting test that lasted three full days.

“After the first day, the drawing test, I couldn’t sleep. There was so much pressure. It was so competitive,” remembers Liu. “Some of the others who were applying had tried for five years to pass the test.”

Not only was Liu accepted, he received his BFA in Chinese brush painting, and later an MA in art edu-cation. In the course of his studies, he trans-lated an English video about art education for an international sym-

posium in China — he had studied English in college — and at that symposium he met sev-eral art professors from the U.S. He decided to apply for graduate stud-ies here, and chose the University of Arkansas in Little Rock because of Bill Clinton’s fame.

Coming to America was a shock, says Liu.

“I got to the apart-ment and there was no furniture,” he remem-bers. “My new room-mate and I sat on the floor and ate Ramen noodles off of an upside-down laundry basket. But when we went out-side and walked around campus on Sunday morning, it was just

us and the squirrels. It was beautiful and peaceful and so very different.”

Liu later came to FSU to work on his Ph.D. in art education and con-ceived a lifelong pas-sion for Florida’s lakes. Unwilling to give up his own artwork, he simul-taneously worked on his doctorate and an MFA in painting.

“In China, I could never have painted the way I do here,” says Liu. “I couldn’t have fit everything I need on my bicycle. But here I drive. I love to paint outdoors. I love how the light changes so quick-ly that you have to force yourself to make deci-

sions. Two hours later, everything looks differ-ent and you can never capture that moment again.”

When Liu was writing his dissertation, he was invited to teach a life drawing class at FAMU. He was later hired as a full-time assistant pro-fessor, teaching both art and art education.

Liu has not been able to go home to China for 10 years. His father has visited Liu in the U.S. and has met his wife, musician Deng Haiq-iong, and their 3-year-old son, Ethan. His mother has been unable to come visit.

“I had a student visa, and now I have a work visa,” says Liu. “I have to apply to renew it every year, but so far they have kept renew-ing it. I try my best not to worry about it. Art and teaching, that’s what I focus on. I have no energy for anything else.”

But Liu has no plans to leave Florida and the purity of its open, natu-ral spaces.

By Randi Atwoodspecial to the democrat

Liu Nan, whose “Lake Jackon Noon” is shown here, developed a passion for Florida lakes after a friend took him to Lake Jackson,

Liu Nan grew up in China and came to FSU to work on his Ph.D.

IF YOU GOsee paintings by liu

Nan in the “Natural awakenings” exhib-it at the artport Gal-lery in the tallahas-see regional airport through march 21. admission is free; gal-lery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily. see more of liu’s artwork at www.liunanart.com.

Dreamy musical ‘Night’ is prelude to Seven Daysfor their own contributions to the performance.

“We’re both so support-ive of each other,” Dinner-stein said. “At the house concert, we both felt ner-vous for the opposite sets of pieces. We want ‘Night’ to be full of integrity, and we don’t want to feel silly.

“The important thing is that we’re being musi-cal and we’re interpret-ing the music in the way that feels right to us. The way I’m playing pop music isn’t necessarily the way a pianist in a band would play it.”

During the performance of “Night,” Merritt and Dinnerstein are onstage together the entire time.

“We wanted to have a kind of intimacy and relaxed feeling,” Dinner-stein said. “Sitting and listening to each other is nice.”

Merritt said, “It’s a full concert. We both have moments when we define ourselves clearly, so the weight of our coming together can be under-stood. The flow (of the show) is interesting. You get a sense of who we both are separately in order to get what we’re doing with the collaboration.”

The program for the con-cert will be handed out after the performance — in order to make the expe-rience fresher for both audience and performers.

“I’m sure the program will evolve as we continue (performing it),” Dinner-stein said.

and an encore appearance by humorist and author David Sedaris (April 10). Some performances are sold out. Call 644-6500 or visit www.tickets.fsu.edu or www.sevendaysfestival.org.

Page 4 / Sunday, January 30, 2011 Tallahassee Democrat / TLH

Claim to fame: Campbell acts on the public stage

A few artful questions for Sheriff Larry Camp-bell:

Q: Can you play a musical instrument?

A: No. Tried to learn guitar once but did not have enough spare time to practice. Plus, I was terrible.

Q: Do you own any original art?

A: Yes. I own some oil paintings done by my grandmother, who stud-ied under Harold Hilton of Jacksonville, Fla.

Q: What was the first concert you ever attend-ed?

A: Don’t recall specifi-cally. It was probably “Peter and the Wolf” as a kid in Jacksonville.

Q: What book is on your night stand right now?

A: “Dead or Alive,” by Tom Clancy; “Decision Points,” by George W. Bush; “Going Rogue,” by Sarah Palin.

Q: What was the last live performance you saw?

A: “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Q: What movie has most affected you?

A: “The Sands of Iwo Jima.” It first brought to my attention (that) the wounds and death suf-fered in war are not fic-tional. They (happen) to real people!

Q: What was the last thing you made by hand?

A: A scuba tank line for hooking tanks while in the water, then climbing on the boat and pulling them up.

Q: When was the last time you were on a stage?

A: I’m on a “stage” on a regular basis due to public speaking, pan-els, etc.

Q: What artistic tal-ent do you wish you had?

A: I wish I was an accomplished — read “famous” — actor or singer.

SPECIAL TO THE DEMOCRAT

Mike ewen/Democrat filesLeon County Sheriff Larry Campbell is reading “Dead or Alive” by Tom Clancy.

ALL ABOUT COCAVisit COCA’s web-

sites at www.cocanet.org and www.more-thanyouthought.com. Send suggestions for artist profiles, news items, story ideas or fun facts to COCA at cultural@cocanet.org.

For the COCA profile of artist Liu nan, see Page 9.