Art Interactive: Etienne Charles and Mark Wiener
For Immediate Release
December 9, 2008
Panman Productions
Contact: Panmaninfo@gmail.com
125 E 47th Street, NY, NY 10015
AN ART INTERACTIVE EVENT – MARK WIENER PAINTS LIVE TO THE MUSIC OF TRINIDADIAN TRUMPET SENSATION ETIENNE CHARLES THURSDAY DECEMBER 18TH AT 7:00PM
Abstract painter Mark Wiener will paint live to the sounds of Juilliard alumnus Etienne Charles in the penthouse of the Roger Smith Hotel. The interactive event will broadcast live at http://PanmanGallery.tumblr.com with an eBay auction selling the work beginning at the start of the performance, Thursday December 18th at 7:00pm, lasting 7 days. Panman will document, from an insider’s perspective, the creation process between the two artists.
Panman Productions produces full length feature films, television broadcast segments, live internet broadcasts, and web 2.0 interactive platforms between clients and consumers with a focus in art – Roger Smith: LIVE!, The Starlight Series music program, Art Interactive and Panman Gallery – a platform for artists.
Roger Smith Hotel is a patron of the arts. Through www.rogersmithlife.com, the hotel brings art and hospitality together in midtown Manhattan. An in-house staff uniquely designs the 135 rooms of the hotel, bringing a warm, welcoming experience to their guests. (501 Lexington Avenue, NY, NY 10017. 212-755-1400)
Mark Wiener (b. New York City, 1951) is an abstract painter who studied under Bauhaus influences at Philadelphia College of Art, where he focused on painting and photography. Driven by visionaries Alexi Brodivitch, Frank Zachry and Alexander Lieberman, he developed an open mind toward working in simultaneously in several disciplines.
Devoting his first years to photography, Wiener, based upon observations of Irving Penn’s process, he conceived of an approach to painting he calls, “the white surface” - an acting out of a “visual story” during the creation of the work - which became and remains a driving force, alongside the Bauhaus ideal of the underlying structure in concert with natural spontaneity. In Wiener’s latest works it is manifest as his organic gesture of throwing, dripping and pouring paint, orchestrated between drawing and painting layers of geometric objects.
Based in Manhattan, Mark Wiener has exhibited in Los Angeles, London, Paris, Milan and Tokyo, and regularly in New York City. His work appears in numerous private and corporate collections worldwide and the permanent collection of the Housatonic Museum of Art. Honors include participation in the Felissimo Tribute 21 program benefiting UNESCO, commissions from the WFUNA and Croix de Croix de Chevalier de’orde Belgo Hispanique under the patronage of Queen Fabiola of Belgium.
Etienne Charles (b. July 24, 1983) Born in Port-of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, Etienne Charles comes from a rich legacy of folk musical tradition going back four generations. His great grandfather, Clement Monlouis emigrated to Trinidad from Martinique as a builder and soon after formed the first string band in Mayaro. His grandfather, Ralph Charles’ distinct cuatro style can be heard on the folk and calypso recordings of the Growling Tiger. His father, Francis Charles, was a member of Phase II Pan Groove, one of the world’s top steel bands and one that Etienne himself would later join. Music surrounded Charles as a child, emanating from his father’s vast record collection, the sounds of calypso, steel pan, and African Shango drumming. These formative years inspired Charles’s playing and are evident in his sound today.
At age 16, Etienne attended the summer performance program at Berklee College of Music. At Berklee he got reacquainted with his trumpet, studying with Lin Biviano and Tiger Okoshi. It was at this summer program that he decided that music was going to be his life. In August 2002, Etienne was awarded a scholarship and enrolled at the Florida State University, to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Music. There he was exposed to jazz like never before and fell in love with the genre. He began performing with the faculty at jazz clubs in Tallahassee and nearby Atlanta as well as touring with FSU Jazz Ensembles. In 2003 he met Marcus Roberts, world renowned pianist and began studying with him. Etienne graduated in 2006 as the College of Music’s Brautlecht Scholar with his Bachelor’s degree and was awarded a full scholarship to pursue his Master’s degree at the Juilliard School in New York. City.
At Juilliard Etienne studied with Mark Gould, Joe Wilder and Chris Jaudes, Toured with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra and Juilliard Jazz Ensembles. Fascinated with the artistry of New York he began working arduously getting into the scene. He released his first album, Culture Shock, and began freelancing in the city. In May, 2008 he received his Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School and was awarded the William Schuman Prize for outstanding achievement and leadership in music. Etienne is also an alumnus of the prestigious Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles where in 2006 he recorded on the album Elevation, which received two Grammy award nominations. He has performed and recorded with Grammy Award winners Roberta Flack, Ralph MacDonald, Wynton Marsalis, Johnny Mandel, Maria Schneider and the Count Basie Orchestra, legendary pianists Monty Alexander and Marcus Roberts among many other artists.
Culture Shock fuses Afro-Caribbean rhythms and straight-ahead jazz. Pianist extraordinaire Marcus Roberts is featured, with Ralph MacDonald, trombonist Vincent Gardner, Len “Boogsie” Sharpe„ vocalist Pam Laws, saxophonist Dayve Stewart, and the hard swinging and solid rhythm section of Rodney Jordan and Leon Anderson on bass and drums respectively. This all-star cast brings together Charles’s diverse influences and creates a unified, fresh, and urgent musical presentation on par with the best jazz being made today.
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