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Summary:

Headline: Madness and Music Festival examines history of mental illness and music

Layercake: Four-day festival to honor Robert Schumann and other composers at Mondavi Center

By LEA MURILLO and ROBIN MIGDOL

Aggie Arts Writer and Aggie Arts Editor

Mental illness is often studied in a variety of disciplines: biology, psychology and even sociology, to name a few. Now, UC Davis can add one more discipline to the list: music.

Tonight, the Mondavi Center begins a four-day long festival called Madness and Music. The festival will include six concerts and two discussions that aim to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of composer Robert Schumann and explore how mental illness, or “madness,” affected him and other musicians over the years.

Concerts include an electronic/mixed media performance featuring several students in the technocultural studies department, a performance by innovative 20-member ensemble Alarm Will Sound, and a closing concert by the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra. Tickets are $9 for students.

Music professor Sam Nichols is one of the directors of the festival. He said the various programs hope to explore the link between music and mental illness.

“[The festival will explore whether] madness and music have a link, or if it’s just an old-fashioned idea,” Nichols said. “There’s Lord Byron the poet, people selling themselves to the devil, which is hard to verify, and [the tradition of] existing on the fringes of society as an artist. Let’s look at it and see if it’s true – we’re not necessarily saying that it is.”

Nichols said the festival will present works by Schumann composed when he was suffering from auditory hallucinations. Eventually, the composer ended up in a mental asylum.

“We will reexamine his legacy by playing his music,” Nichols said.

Christian Baldini, conductor of the UCD Symphony Orchestra and a fellow festival director, said there has always been a tradition of audiences wondering if composers were “going mad.”

“Beethoven’s string quartets were difficult and balanced so people thought he was going mad, but what you expect from a composer is to do something challenging or mad,” Baldini said. “The interchangeable parts are interesting to explore. What is mad nowadays?”

The music performed at the festival will represent many diverse styles and time periods, Baldini said. The orchestra will also premiere two brand new works.

“There will be electronic music that will be closer to what some youngsters are used to, classical and acoustic,” he said. “Lu-lu, Lu-lu, a Korean lullaby that was chosen among 60 submissions, is a beautiful piece that was written for [the composer’s] baby. Another piece is about killing a snake – it’s a powerful piece.”

Alarm Will Sound is performing on Saturday. The ensemble’s managing director, Gavin Chuck, said Alarm Will Sound’s aesthetic fits perfectly with the theme of the festival. The concert will feature acoustic, electronic and remixed music.

“We’re bringing a new perspective of contemporary music. It’s interesting that they’re reaching back to old music from those who saw music as solace or were in various mental states,” Chuck said. “It’s good to bring together different types of old and new music.”

Nichols said the festival provided a valuable opportunity for various musicians and departments to come together in support of a great composer, even during difficult economic times.

“It will provide the audience with interesting vantage point on Robert Schumann, [in such a] fantastic facility as the Mondavi Center,” he said. “You realize that even during budget cuts, ambitious projects can still happen.”

For a complete schedule of Madness and Music concerts and lectures or to purchase tickets, go to mondaviarts.org.

LEA MURILLO and ROBIN MIGDOL can be reached at arts@theaggie.org. XXX

Go see Waiting for ‘Superman,’ the new documentary film by director Davis Guggenheim, and I guarantee you’ll walk out of the theater convinced of the reasons why the American public education system is in ruins.

But is it the truth?

Waiting for ‘Superman’ portrays inner-city public schools as the breeding grounds of the nation’s dropouts and criminals, ineffective teachers as the main cause of students’ failures and independent charter schools as shining beacons of hope in an otherwise broken system.

It’s a powerful message, the kind designed to shock everyone into action much the same way Guggenheim’s An Inconvenient Truth inspired the fight against global climate change in 2006. The man is a master storyteller, to be sure: If the sight of a 10-year-old girl crying because she can’t go to a good middle school and fulfill her dreams of being a doctor doesn’t put a lump in your throat, you clearly don’t care enough about American children. At least, that’s what the film implies.

The problem with this message is that it seems to have been crafted before Guggenheim even began making the film. He himself attended Sidwell Friends, an elite private school in Washington, D.C. that now boasts Sasha and Malia Obama as students, and now sends his own kids to exclusive schools. This is a guy who has no firsthand experience, either as a student or a parent, with public education. So why does he consider himself an expert on America’s public schools?

Well, he isn’t an expert. The movie hits us with disturbing and questionable claims about nearly every facet of public education. The majority of students are not performing at grade level, he says (according to Diane Ravitch, professor of education at New York University, this isn’t true). The government pays more money per student than ever and yet we rank embarrassingly low next to other developed countries in reading and math (not a fair comparison considering the low poverty rates of some European and Asian countries).

Then there are the messages of hope in the form of independent, zero-tuition charter schools. Charter schools have highly qualified teachers, nearly 100 percent graduation rates, and even poor kids have the chance to succeed, Guggenheim says breathlessly. Their only problem is that too many kids want to attend them, so they are forced to hold public lotteries to fill openings.

Guggenheim has clearly gotten his hands on impressive facts and figures, but his argument is so one-sided it’s laughable. He glosses over one interesting statistic – that only one in five charter schools actually achieves higher test scores than public schools – and fails to mention that the schools with the most amazing results have million-dollar funding to provide all the resources necessary to get low-income kids to succeed. He also insinuates that a student’s ability to learn is a direct result of the quality of his teacher, but doesn’t acknowledge that parents, home situations and poverty might also influence a child’s chance of success.

And where are the schools I, and most everyone I know, grew up with – the neighborhood public schools that, while not perfect, taught us well enough to get into UC Davis? Apparently there are two kinds of schools: “dropout factories” or highly successful charters, and nothing in between.

Waiting for ‘Superman’ has achieved what it set out to do: deliver a doomsday message that gets everyone talking about how we’re failing our kids. But it’s fast-food documentation – quick, easy-to-understand, sensationalist stuff for the masses not smart enough to consider the greater complexities of the issues. Guggenheim knew the film he was setting out to make, and he found the evidence necessary to back up his lopsided view. Sadly, in trying to give a voice to all the American kids struggling in today’s schools, he only made his own voice that much louder.

ROBIN MIGDOL can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Artist: Brandon Flowers

Album: Flamingo

Label: Island

Rating: 2

The Killers’ front man steps out into his own limelight on solo album Flamingo. The album, which Flowers wanted to be homage to his hometown of Las Vegas, falls short of dazzling. Spread out over 40 minutes, the album should have been called Sam’s Town II, with Flowers regressing back to his Springsteen worship and shoddy lyrics that play with ideas of angels, devils, lost loves and other big life and death situations. Songs like “Hard Enough” and “Jilted Lovers and Broken Hearts” sound like songs the Killers left on the cutting room floor and are hollow and fragmented. Flowers failed to take himself anywhere as a songwriter, and saved face by not pushing himself to challenge the boundaries in which he feels very safe in.

The only redeeming quality on the album is the running Las Vegas theme. Overall this is a nice soft rock, drive time radio album that fades in to the background on almost every occasion.

Give these tracks a listen: “Was it Something I Said,” “Swallow It”

For fans of: U2, The Killers

– Anastasia Zhuravleva

Artist: The Radio Dept.

Album: Clinging to a Scheme

Label: Labrado Records

Rating: 5

A symphony of electronic haze and echoing piano gives Clinging to a Scheme an irreplaceable vintage and romantic feel.

Reigning from Sweden, The Radio Dept. preserves its soft and melodic sound in Clinging to a Scheme. The Radio Dept. stays loyal to its low-key atmospheric and melodic sound.

Frontman Johan Duncanson’s soft voice reverberating through soundwaves practically dances with the xylophone and guitar in “You”. But by far the best track on the album is “Heaven’s on Fire” which is impossibly catchy and sweet.

The perfect autumn day: a book and a cup of coffee in hand with Clinging to a Scheme prancing along in your ears. You can thank me later.

Give these tracks a listen: “Heaven’s on Fire,” “A Token of Gratitude,” “You”

For fans of: Wild Nothing, Moscow Olympics, Air France

– Uyen Cao

Artist: Mumford & Sons

Album: Sigh No More

Label: Glassnote Records

Rating: 4

Get ready for another British invasion, this time in the form of Mumford & Sons, a folk rock band that hails from London. The band has already taken over radio stations with their first single “Little Lion Man,” and the rest of their debut album shows just as much promise.

Sigh No More is a beautiful blend of soft folk vocals and rock melodies that are infused with the sound of banjos and mandolins, giving the group’s sound a very grassroots feeling.

The songs themselves are riveting in their intensity, and the album contains both slow ballads and energetic songs in the same line as “Little Lion Man.” The lyrics, which the band said has been influenced by the works of Shakespeare and John Steinbeck, are both interesting and powerful when matched with lead singer Marcus Mumford’s clear and mellow voice.

Mumford & Sons is a great new band that is quickly finding fans throughout America. Give them a listen and see why.

Give these tracks a listen: “After the Storm,” “Sigh No More,” “Timshel”

For fans of: Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Noah and the Whale

– Anneta Konstantinides

MUSIC

Expo 70

Wednesday, 7 p.m., small cover fee

The Cake House, 2271 Halsey Circle

Improvisational psychedelic band Expo 70, hailing from Kansas City, Miss., is set to bring its unique style to Davis. Get ready for some truly out-of-this-world musical stylings.

Old Man Markley, Miss Lonely Hearts and the West Nile Ramblers

Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., $15

Odd Fellows Hall, 415 Second St.

Nine-piece bluegrass band Old Man Markley, country/roots Miss Lonely Hearts and jazz/Americana group West Nile Ramblers will share the stage at Odd Fellows Hall this Wednesday. Support Davis musicians and enjoy a night of bluegrass and country music.

AT THE MOVIES

House on Haunted Hill

Friday, 8 p.m., free

UC Davis East Quad

One of the best parts of Halloween is watching scary movies. Don’t miss out on this time-honored tradition – stop by the quad tomorrow night to catch the 1959 Halloween classic “House on Haunted Hill,” starring the ever-creepy Vincent Price. A millionaire offers $10,000 to whoever can stay in his haunted house for one night, but they’ll have to survive ghosts, murderers and more.

THEATER/MONDAVI

Shinkoskey Noon Concert (Madness and Music Festival)

Today, 12 p.m., free

Mondavi Center Lobby

If you missed out or are too cash-poor to get tickets to any of this weekend’s Madness and Music Festival concerts, never fear: You can attend a preview concert at noon today, absolutely free. Eric Zivian on piano and Hrabba Atladottir on violin will play works by composers Lee Hyla and Gyorgy Kurtag, among others, who will be featured throughout the festival.

Electronic/Mixed Media Concert (Madness and Music Festival)

Tonight, 8 p.m., $9

Mondavi Center, Vanderhoef Studio Theater

Members of the UC Davis technocultural studies department will take part in David Tudor’s Rainforest IV, a percussion piece that utilizes custom-built sound generators, found materials and other instruments. The piece will be performed on all three levels of the Mondavi Center Lobby, so you’ll really be surrounded by sound.

Alarm Will Sound (Madness and Music Festival)

Saturday, 8 p.m., $10

Mondavi Center, Jackson Hall

Alarm Will Sound is a 20-member ensemble featuring a variety of instruments that performs truly innovative interpretations of modern works. On the program are works by Aphex Twin, Lee Hyla, Sir Harrison Birtwistle and more. Lee Hyla, who is a composer-in-residence, will give a pre-performance lecture about his featured work Pre-Pulse Suspended at 7 p.m. in Jackson Hall.

UC Davis Symphony Orchestra (Madness and Music Festival)

Sunday, 7 p.m., $5

Mondavi Center, Jackson Hall

The always-fantastic UCDSO concludes the whirlwind Madness and Music Festival with a concert of a diverse group of pieces. Highlights are sure to be Four Hardy Songs for soprano and orchestra, composed by music professor Pablo Ortiz and Lu-lu, Lu-lu, by Festival Composition Fellow Jean Ahn.

Note: For a full schedule of the Mondavi Center’s Madness and Music Festival, go to mondaviarts.org.

Venice Baroque Orchestra

Wednesday, 8 p.m., $17.50

Mondavi Center, Jackson Hall

Violinist Robert McDuffie leads Venice’s revered period-music ensemble in Vivaldi’s famous work Four Seasons, followed by Philip Glass’ The American Four Seasons.

Delfeyo Marsalis Octet

Wednesday – Saturday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m., $18.50

Is there any Marsalis relative who isn’t a master musician? Brother of famed jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis leads his jazz octet in a rendition of his latest album, Minions’ Dominion.

ART/GALLERY

William Maul, Cynthia Charters and Sharon Wolpoff

Wednesday – Nov. 27, free

John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 First St.

Maul’s surrealist pop culture paintings and Wolpoff’s photo-realist paintings are eye-catching and masterful. This Natsoulas Gallery exhibit is certainly one for the 21st century.

ROBIN MIGDOL can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Surrealism, dreams and infinite streams of unconscious thought are all intangible ideas waiting to be made tangible, or better yet, made into film.

For the first time, undergraduate, student-run Studio 301 Productions will be exploring the medium of film. The film is currently in the final stages of casting and will start filming this fall. Entitled Everyone’s Wrong, it will be screened at the Varsity Theatre this spring.

The seed began with James Marchbanks, a dramatic arts major, who proposed the idea of constructing a film around the Davis community.

“As a student group comprised of student actors, directors and writers, it seemed like a wonderful opportunity to expand our horizons to other mediums,” said Michael Lutheran, publicity coordinator of Studio 301 Production and a junior dramatic arts major. “I’m really glad our members have an opportunity to act in shows, but film is a new territory for us and we are excited to see what happens with it.”

Marchbanks collaborated with undergraduate students Daniel Olivas, John Malin and Ashley Bargenquast to create the foundations for Everyone’s Wrong.

“As soon as James proposed the idea I knew that I wanted to be a part of it,” said Bargenquast, who is currently studying abroad in Scotland. “After several meetings we had worked out some themes and interested parties came in and dropped out for various reasons, leaving Jim, Daniel, John and I meeting semi-weekly during the summer.”

The goal of this project was to also allow students the opportunity to audition and be a part of the 90-minute, feature-length film.

“The audition process was a completely different world from what I’ve been used to,” Olivas said. “However, it was incredible to hear our words from actors for the first time. This was one of the most thrilling experiences of all. As a songwriter myself, I always envision how others would sing my words, and this process was just that.”

Everyone’s Wrong aims to capture the social constructions of our daily lives that we create consciously and subconsciously. Through the script and acting, the film hopes to portray the complexities of the human identity.

“I feel that students will definitely be able to connect to the characters,” Lutheran said. “This film is about the several individuals’ search for what their ‘identity’ is and I feel that that is a common struggle that all of us college students deal with. Whether it is finding the right group of friends, sexual orientation or political ideology, it’s about the search for what makes you unique from everyone else. So it will be interesting seeing what these students will do.”

Playing with abstract ideas such as dreams and subconscious thoughts, Olivas wants to explore the implications of various perceptions on the individual identity.

“This is where the idea of incorporating multiple realms of perception came in,” Olivas said. “There are at least, but indeed nowhere near limited to, three ways to perceive the world around us: How we face reality behind our own eyes, how we face the infinite subconscious of dreams (in multiple forms such as day-dream, flashback, etc.) and how our perception is represented to us through our own eyes.

“There is an amount of power in film media; and the power to engage and propose perspectives is an art of communication that film has so much possibility.”

UYEN CAO can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.