It wasn’t until the couple got married that they realized the music they could create together.

They had avoided performing together, but a conversation during their first anniversary got Johannes Dietrich and Marie-Aline Cadieux thinking.

And soon, they’ll bring their performance to Butler.

The duo follows performances by music professors Kate Boyd, Douglas Spaniol and David Murray.

Duo Terlano, guest artists, a violin and cello duet, will perform in the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

Dietrich and Cadieux—the husband and wife that make up Duo Terlano—play violin and cello, respectively.

The couple had originally tried to steer away from performing together.

“Everything else was going so well, we were worried about how the music would turn out,” Dietrich said.

While on vacation for their first wedding anniversary, though, the two musicians decided to form a performing group, resulting in the birth of Duo Terlano.

The unusual name was taken from the northern Italian town, Terlano, where the two were spending their anniversary, Dietrich said.

Once they made the decision to play together, Dietrich said their playing experience was “more fun than anyone should have the right to have, performing as musicians.”

The group has multiple connections with Jordan College of the Arts faculty, including longstanding ties to violin professor Davis Brooks, Johannes said.

The idea of a recital at Butler came when he and his wife attended a baroque performance workshop last summer with Butler bass instructor David Murray.

In addition to performing, both Dietrich and Cadieux hold teaching positions as well.

Dietrich is a faculty member of Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Penn., and Cadieux is both a professor of music at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania and an adjunct cello instructor at Lebanon Valley College.

Despite the relative scarcity of music written for a violin and cello duo, the group has no trouble holding an extensive repertoire list.

Duo Terlano’s biography states that, in addition to looking for lesser-performed works from the baroque, classical and romantic eras, the group also frequently commissions new works, including original compositions and new arrangements.

The range of Duo Terlano’s repertoire can be seen in the program it has planned for its upcoming performance, which Dietrich called “eclectic.”

The scheduled program, covering 300 years of music, features duos composed by Beethoven, Kodály, Carlo Antonio Campioni and modern Bostonian composer Elena Ruehr, as well as an arrangement of portions from Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia.”

The Beethoven piece is a repurposed clarinet and bassoon duo. The Kodaly composition—which Dietrich characterized as “a monster piece”—was written just prior to World War II and contains a dark tone in spite of Kodaly’s signature folk music elements.

The Campioni piece was added when Dietrich and Cadieux “caught the baroque bug” after attending Murray’s workshop.

Looking for a pedagogical tool around which to build baroque performance techniques, Dietrich looked through the online International Music Score Library Project archives until he found Campioni’s Six Duets for Violin and Violincello.

In addition to performing at various colleges and concert halls around the country, Dietrich and Cadieux offer master classes and clinics at public schools and universities.

Dietrich will be presenting a master class at 4 p.m. on Tuesday in the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall.

On Sept. 4, Butler University’s Kate Boyd will be performing the renowned “Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano” by American composer John Cage in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Cage’s birth.

Boyd, the head of the piano department in the Jordan College of Fine Arts, spent her semester-long sabbatical last spring mastering the piece.

Since then, Boyd has  performed the piece in Ontario, Oklahoma and England.

“Being the 100th anniversary, I wanted to perform the piece as a way to commemorate Cage,” Boyd said.

Cage has been called one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, and “Sonatas and Interludes” is arguably his most complex work for prepared piano.

Cage specially altered a standard concert piano by adding screws and bolts to 45 strings. This distorts the sound of the piano, producing percussive sounds.

Boyd said that one of Cage’s main philosophies is to appreciate all noise as music and understand that people should not privilege music over traffic or any other noise.

Cage composed “Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano” from 1946 to 1949.  The piece contains 16 different sonatas and four interludes, combining for a total of 65 minutes.

“John Cage used to be so far out that it seemed like he was from another planet,”  Daniel Bolin, chair of the music department, said, “but John Cage has become more and more listenable as our ears and experiences have expanded. He’s not a far-out composer by any means anymore.”

The performance will take place in the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. next Tuesday. The show is free and open to the public.

Photo courtesy of Butler University

In its varied forms and centuries-old tradition, ballet is an art form with no written text—until now.

Jennifer Homans, dance critic, historian and author of “Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet,” will speak on Feb. 22 in the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall as part of the Jordan College of Fine Arts’ “Leadership Through the Arts Forum.”

JCFA dean Ronald Caltabiano said Indianapolis is on the verge of creating its very own ballet company with the Indianapolis City Ballet’s premiere season taking off in the fall. He said this makes Homans’ visit more relevant.

“From my point of view,” Caltabiano said, “who better to talk to us as a community than someone who has done a definitive history of ballet?”

A former dancer, Homans provides insight into the culture of ballet in her new book.

Examining several facets of ballet, from the intricacy of the costumes to the way the bodies contort, Homans illuminates the past, present and future of this art form.

“The history of ballet informs the present of ballet,” Caltabiano said.

In an interview with Charlie Rose, Homans said, “I kind of became engrossed in it [ballet].”

Homans began dancing in a world dominated by Russian influence and strict movements.

In order to discover how this culture came to be, she left the dancing world and dedicated her life to researching the dancing world
instead.

The forum is intended to bring innovative and transformative voices in the arts to campus to discuss their stories and struggles and to inspire students to follow their passions.

Caltabiano said that the series is a great way to start conversation in the Indianapolis community, perhaps even sparking conversation around campus.

“Campuses can take risks more easily than professional institutions,” Caltabiano said.  “So we must.”

Dance majors are equally excited.

“It is so important to have innovators in different fields visit campus…to share their experiences and knowledge of the world we would someday like to become a part of,” Mary Kate Kronzer, a sophomore dance major said.

Since JCFA is made up of five distinct concentrations, arts administration, visual arts, dance, music and theater, the series will feature guests representative of each of these areas.

Caltabiano said that he loved Homans’ book, and he has it on his nightstand.

“I pick it up from time to time,” Caltabiano said.

Homans kicks off the series, followed by Krzysztof Urbanski, music director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and Benjamin Ball, artist, designer and founder of Ball-Nogues Studio.

Caltabiano said he is most looking forward to having the opportunity to talk to three great people.

“Everyone has taken a significant risk in his or her art,” Caltabiano said.

Homan’s discussion will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall in Robertson Hall.

LEADERSHIP THROUGH THE ARTS FORUM

JENNIFER HOMANS
7:30 p.m.
Feb. 22
Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall

KRZYSZTOF URBANSKI
7:30 p.m.
March 21
Atherton Union Reilly Room

BENJAMIN BALL
7:30 p.m.
April 25
Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall

Photo by Maria Porter

This year, Butler University is looking to planet Earth to stimulate academic conversations throughout its colleges.

The Earth Project, run by a committee of faculty and staff through the provost’s office, is designed to support cross-campus collaborative activities and promote collegiality among the faculty, staff, and students.

“I think it’s interesting that although the themes have all been planet-related, there has been a wide diversity of interpretations of these themes, some of which are explicitly environmental and some of which are not,” said Timothy Carter, director of the Earth Project and director of the Center for Urban Ecology.

Events this semester have included an author’s presentation, a local food convention, an alternative cooking demonstration and lectures on biodiversity conservation and environmental justice.

Titled “Yin Yang Ruminations: Mahler’s Song of the Earth,” the next event in line celebrates the centenary of the death of composer Gustav Mahler by investigating his song cycle “Das Lied von der Erde” (“The Song of the Earth”).

Xiaoqing Liu, an assistant professor in the department of modern languages, is presenting this event with professors from the Jordan College of Fine Arts.

“Yin Yang Ruminations,” according to the proposal submitted by Liu and others will delve into the song cycle to illuminate the relationships between Mahler’s German lyrics and the classical Chinese poems that inspired them.

The proposal says that the translations of these poems from Chinese to French, and then to German, and their adaptation by Mahler have transformed the poems into a complicated picture of Chinese aesthetic.

This cultural mixture will be expounded upon in the event, which will include both lecture and performance elements.  The implications of such a mixture are also an important element of the event, according to Liu.

“Artists communicate with one another across time and space,” she said. “That’s one thing that I especially want the Butler students to be aware of. They should open their minds to a much larger world, rather than their immediate lives and environment.”

Another Earth Project event, open through Friday, is a student photo gallery exhibition throughout Jordan Hall, featuring photographs by Butler students of the land in and around Rome.

Over the summer and throughout this semester, the committee members have been accepting proposals from faculty, staff and students for events related to an investigation of the Earth.  The committee chooses events to sponsor and offers grants to help offset the costs.

Carter said next semester’s events so far include a lecture by Wes Jackson on the relationship between land and one’s sense of place, an exploration on the history and practice of brewing cider and a presentation on literary and film genres relating to eco-horror and eco-fantasy.  The committee is still accepting proposals.

Specific information regarding these events is forthcoming on the Earth Project’s Facebook page, “The Butler University Earth Project,” and on Butler’s website through the provost’s office.

The next Earth Project event takes place today at 7:30 p.m. in Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall.

The importance of composer Robert Schumann was discussed as Butler University’s Leadership Through the Arts Forum began Sept. 29 at the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall.

Music historian, author and professor of music at Duke University Larry Todd was the keynote speaker.

Schumann, a German composer who lived from 1810 until 1856, changed the world of music forever, Todd said.

“He radically transformed composition and really blew it out of the water,” he said.

Todd said Schumann established a name for himself by introducing aspects of music in ways that were unprecedented at the time.

“Schumann was one of the first composers to explore the borderlines between music and literary devices,” Todd said. “He wanted to work to dissolve them.”

Todd frequented the keys of a baby grand piano at the center of the stage to clarify his positions on the composer.

“If you strictly adhere to musical theory, you miss Schumann’s music,” he said. “There’s much more beyond that.”

Kyle Ferrill, visiting professor of voice, said Todd was, “intelligent and very passionate about the romantic composers that he studies.”

Audience members were invited to attend the Butler Symphony Orchestra’s open rehearsal of Schumann’s “Rhenish Symphony” at Clowes Memorial Hall, which was performed on Sunday.

This year is especially important, as it marks the 200th anniversary of Schumann’s birth.

Ferrill said the school of music celebrates the birth of many prominent composers and artists.

“With this being Schumann’s bicentennial, it is an important time for us to reflect on Schumann and his relevance to us,” Ferrill said.

To do so, the Jordan College of Fine Arts hosted numerous Schumann-inspired recitals as part of a “mini-festival.”

Visiting assistant professor Mary Anne Scott, along with Ferrill and his wife, Lexa Ferrill, presented works by Robert and Clara Schumann on Oct. 1.