Hi everyone I'm Jim Ryan and I'm here with my trusty camera woman otherwise
known as my daughter Phoebe and together we are delighted to welcome you to arts
on the hill the digital edition now as some of you may know last month we
started a program here at Carr's Hill called arts on the hill where we invited
local and visiting performers to perform for students faculty and staff and at
that first performance we had a faculty member playing the marimba a student
reciting an original poem and an amazing choir from Oakwood University for this
first digital addition you've already heard from John D'earth a legendary
trumpet player and faculty member here at UVA coming up you'll hear from a
student acapella group an MFA student reciting an original poem on being
quarantined and an amazing cello performance from a fourth-year student
the show is going to be hosted by my remarkably talented colleague Matt Weber
who works in the president's office and has acquired the unofficial title of
chief creativity officer he along with vice provost for the Arts
Jody Kielbasa have done an amazing job of pulling together these performances
and also sending out a call to other performers who we can feature in later
shows now we were originally going to have arts on the hill just once a month
but my view is that we need the arts more than ever so our hope is to post
something every Sunday night at 8 p.m. I think the arts speak to the full range
of the human condition which is on vivid display right now sorrow and joy tragedy
and triumph selfishness and selflessness and it's a time for us through the Arts
I think to connect as a community because the arts remind us of the
transcendent and the enduring isn't that right Phoebe?
yeah that's what I thought too so on behalf of Phoebe and myself welcome to
some of you and welcome back to others I hope you enjoy the show thanks Phoeb
our first performance today is 'Hoos in Treble. UVA's internationally renowned
all female a cappella group since 1999. Thank you for letting me crash your rectangles.
Here we go.
hi I'm Raisa and I am a poet through UVA's MFA program and I wrote a poem about
being quarantined and the coronavirus so this called Coronas and it begins
with a passage from Dante
Dante Sodom those concentric circles of light around the moon one a reflection
of the other another a flame set of professor not long ago as I thumbed page
after page and looked up at Corona golden wreath far from pale lager left
behind a cold ring on the bar I learned of mouthy constellation Corona borealis
Eagle's Nest Bearsden how in the end Adrian tosses her crown
into elf Alka blaze star arch of light across the sky it's hung over our heads
for some time now my hands are drier than they've ever been and I can only
see the eyes of the people I love profunda a Chiara like in middle school
when we covered the bottom half of our faces guess if I'm smiling guess if I'm
we called it smizing from profound and luminous mouths don't touch dante looked
and was not blinded love told him i am like the center of a circle every night
I walk home I stare straight at the moon beautiful poetry Raisa and for anyone
who wants to learn more about what she's writing or has written you can check out
her website and if I'm doing an okay job editing this show it's gonna show up
right here the URL should be right right here if we're gonna be bringing up Dante
though golly the phrase that I've been thinking a lot
about is abandon all hope ye who enter here these are trying times these are
scary times and I must say that what gets me through it is knowing that in
the Divine Comedy things are bad in the
inferno for sure but Virgil gets us through that gets us through purgatory
oh and to the Paradiso so I'm really counting on a bunch of Virgil's out
there who know a little bit about pandemics to help out and I see that
every day and I'm very grateful and in terms of
more metaphorical artistic Virgil's who can nourish our hearts these days our
last performance is certainly one of them John Canoe is a fourth-year cellist
and what he's about to perform for you from the deck of his house I think will
give you chills Nessun Dorma thank you John
all right folks that's the end of our show totally low production value I'm
holding an iPhone in my yard right now but in terms of artistic performance and
caliber hopefully quite high let John know just what an incredible cello
performance he provided he was supposed to have a concert at the end of March in
Old Cabell Hall which obviously is not happening but let him know how much his
song meant to you which is leading me to my final thought the song he chose
Nessun Dorma translates to let no one sleep and as the father of a
three-year-old and a one year old and as I know multiple people out there or
maybe watching this after your day and after a week of both homeschooling their
children and watching their children and doing their work let no one sleep seems
to resonate quite well and we just want to give you an outlet if you need to
fill any elements of your days let us know what your kids are doing musically
and we'll throw them on the end of this show every Sunday like with the green
woods and the banks on this first episode of Arts on the hill