Music Made Visible: Metaphors of the Ephemeral

Map Mandala by Marsha Levin-Rojer.
Date & Time Nov 30 - Jan 31 2019 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM
Department Bernstein Gallery
Audience Open to the Public

Panel Discussion: January 9, 2019, 4:30 p.m., McCosh 10

Reception: January 9, 2019, 6 p.m., Bernstein Gallery, Robertson Hall

The Bernstein Gallery at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs will present the exhibition “Music Made Visible: Metaphors of the Ephemeral” by artist Marsha Levin-Rojer, on view from November 30, 2018, to January 31, 2019. A public reception at the Gallery is scheduled for January 9, 2019, at 6 pm. The exhibit is being held in conjunction with Princeton University Concerts Artist-in-Residence Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, the extraordinary Music and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For Gustavo Dudamel, the power of music lies in its invisible beauty, “the fact that sound, vibration, and harmony can create something in us” and it is this magical connection between the physical and spiritual worlds that inspires the artwork of Marsha Levin-Rojer. How, she wonders, can something invisible and ephemeral feel so concrete? How can one express the way that rhythm stirs the soul? How might we visually grasp the complexity of a musical composition? Using her background in mathematics to explore these connections, Levin-Rojer conceives these inherent relationships in terms of mappings and dissections, and she expresses them through drawings that incorporate a variety of media and sometimes move off the wall and into space.

The overarching goal of Gustavo Dudamel’s residency at Princeton University Concerts is to bring people together through music, to consider the impact and relevance of music both inside and outside of the concert hall, and to explore the role of the artist in our times. In particular, El Sistema (or The System), the innovative public music education program of Jose Abreu (1939-2018) that originated for children in Venezuela and now flourishes across the world, has been at the core of  much of Maestro Dudamel's work. He sees music as a catalyst for individual, environmental, and world change.

This art exhibition is being complemented by a Panel about El Sistema organized and chaired by Stanley N. Katz, Professor of Public and International Affairs and Director of the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. Panelists who will join Gustavo Dudamel include individuals who have similarly devoted themselves to advocating for accessible systematic music education: Elsje Kibler-Vermaas (YOLA, Acting Director of Education), Anne Fitzgibbon (Harmony Program, Founder and Executive Director), and Lou Chen ’19. The panel will be held on campus on January 9 in McCosh 10 from 4:30 - 6:00 pm, immediately before the Gallery Reception. Both events are free, open to the public, and hosted by the Center for Arts & Cultural Policy Studies at Woodrow Wilson School. For more information about Gustavo Dudamel's extensive residency events throughout the 2018-19 season, please visit princetonuniversityconcerts.org.

About the Artist:

Levin-Rojer’s formal studies have included both mathematics (BA in Mathematics, Temple University) and fine art (Certificate program, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art). The recipient of several awards for Drawing and Watercolor, her work has been included in the US Artists Exhibition at the Armory in Philadelphia and the NJ Arts Annual. She has exhibited widely, both regionally and internationally, including New York, NY; New Brunswick, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; Princeton, NJ; Colmar, France; Cluis, France; Sydney, Australia;  and Amsterdam, Holland; and her work is held in private and public collections including the NJ State Museum, the Hunterdon Art Museum, The Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions, Penn Medicine at Plainsboro, Capital Health Regional Medical Center, and the Princeton Public Library. An active member of MOVIS, a multidisciplinary art group in Princeton, she is also a past president of the Princeton Artists’ Alliance. For the Arts Council of Princeton, Levin-Rojer has served as a member of the Board of Trustees; Chair of the Exhibition Advisory Committee; and Curator for a show entitled “Drawing Beyond: An Exhibition of Contemporary Drawing.” For Princeton University’s Performances Up Close Concert Series, Levin-Rojer created a set of three drawings-in-space entitled “The Musical Line”.