This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area Performing Arts, guest host Kevin Vance talks with violinist Arnaud Sussmann (pictured), about his activities during the second weekend of the Music@Menlo 2021 Summer Festival, which runs through August 1. We broadcast episode three of the San Francisco Mime Troupe’ssummer series Tales of the Resistance - Volume 2: Persistence, as part of our Corona Radio Theater Initiative. And Peter Robinson reviews Woody Allen’s movie A Rainy Day in New York, and invites listeners to become movie critics themselves.
We talk about the 2021 edition of Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival and Institute with French-born American violinist Arnaud Sussmann. He is a graduate of the Paris Conservatoire and The Juilliard School, where he studied with Boris Garlitsky and Itzhak Perlman. Arnaud is a former recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. This weekend, he performs in Music@Menlo’s Concert program V, with music by Brahms and Dvořák.
Since its inception in 2003, Music@Menlo, led by founding artistic directors David Finckel and Wu Han, has garnered a reputation as one of the world’s leading chamber music festivals. The 19th edition of this summer festival celebrates its first concerts in its new home, the Spieker Center for the Arts at Menlo School.
Following last summer's all-digital festival, Music@Menlo returns to the live concert stage, although performances from the Spieker Center for the Arts will also be live- streamed. Through August 1, there are nine main-stage programs, plus two free afternoon Prelude performances featuring artists from the chamber music institute's international program.
Open Air continues its partnership with the San Francisco Mime Troupe by presenting the Troupe’s summer series of serialized radio plays under the banner of our Corona Radio Theater, with the third episode of: Tales of the Resistance - Volume 2: Persistence.
This episode is titled: We Keep Us Safe: A Discussion on Racial Equity and Police Violence. One year after the murder of George Floyd, national sentiments around reforming and defunding the police are swinging back to their levels before BlackLivesMatter protests swept the nation in summer 2020. The majority of Americans still oppose diverting funding from police departments. Where do we go next? We'll hear from guests who have worked successfully to reallocate budgets toward community-based interventions in health and wellbeing. How do racial justice and economic transformation go hand-in-hand?
Plus, Open Air’s regular contributor and critic at large, Peter Robinson, reviews Woody Allen’s romantic comedy A Rainy Day in New York, completed in 2018, but not released in USA until recently. The movie features starring Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Diego Luna, and Liev Schreiber. Its release was halted following controversy regarding Allen and the Me Too movement.
Peter also tells us what is happening in the Bay Area on the big screen, as movie theaters open. And he invites listeners to become movie critics. The rules are simple: submit a 300-word review of your favorite film from last year to [sanfranlit@aol.com] and include your contact info. There are prizes for three winners and their names will be broadcast on Open Air next month.
Open Air with guest host Kevin Vance, heard live on Thursday, July 22 at 1pm, to be archived at this very location for eternity. Listen now or anytime…