Arts Center Season Opens with Indian Classical Music Concert

Sitar and tabla performance opens season Saturday.

On Saturday, Oct. 6 beginning at  8 p.m., Watchung Arts Center presents yet another evening of mesmerizing Indian classical instrumental music, this time showcasing the crowning glory of Indian musical instruments: the Sitar, accompanied by the always-alive, always-surprising: Tabla, through the supreme talent of Shri Partha Sarathi Chatterjee and Shri Suryaksha Deshpande. Shri Partha Sarathi Chatterjee started his Sitar training when he was five years old with Smt. Maya Mitra, a famous Veenakar, and later with the Late Pandit Indranil Bhattacharya of the Senia-Maihar Gharana in the true ‘Guru-Shishya style’. Over the years, Partha Sarathi has toured all over India and Europe, performing alonside several prominent musicians like Pandit …

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Arts Center Ready for New Season

September events include The Improvables, Lisa Coppola and a new exhibition.

The Watchung Arts Center, a multi-disciplinary arts facility serving Long Hill Township, Warren, Watchung, the surrounding communities and the Tri-State Area, will open its doors to an exciting season of programs beginning in September.   The Center provides cultural programs to members and non-members alike throughout the year.  Programs include musical series for Classical, Jazz, India Classicals and featured guests for all musical genres.   Also offered are a wide variety of classes and workshops for children and adults all season long culminating in camps in July and August.  Classes include Children’s Art Workshops, Life Drawing and Painting Open Studio, Yoga classes for all levels, Meditation and Ballroom Dance Classes. For the most …

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Arts Center Show Includes Art from 18 Students

Visit the Watchung Arts Center before April 28 to enjoy "As Seen Through Our Eyes."

The Watchung Arts Center invites the public to view the exciting April Exhibitions running through April 28, including the work of 18 young artists and two teachers from Watchung Hills Regional. The Upper Gallery will feature “As Seen Through our Eyes…” — Work of Watchung Hills Regional High School Students and Their Teachers.  The show includes 10 works by Brian Dursee and Vincent Colabella, co-curators of the show, which display an ongoing need to express what they see and experience. Dursee and Colabella take from the natural order and reconfigure what they see and feel. The artwork becomes a way of honoring the journey of one’s life. American artist Charles Sheeler said, “Photography is nature seen from the eyes outwards. Painting is …

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Expand Your Talents at Watchung Art Center Classes

Enrollment opens for spring classes.

Spring enrollment begins for all classes at WAC. Visit watchungarts.org for more information and to download registration forms and flyers.  Some classes have limited enrollment and will be taken on a first come first serve basis so register now.  Classes are open to all members and non-members. Open Studio Life Painting and Drawing Long pose figure sessions with class facilitator, artist Maryann Ficker.  Open to all artists and is non-instructional. Tuesdays, 7:30 - 10 p.m. Class dates: 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 5/1 (no class 4/24). This session will feature a clothed model. Fee: $50 for 4 sessions. Class size is small (capped at 8 artists) and filled on a first-come first-served basis. Walk-ins welcome, space permitting, for $15 each session. …

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Ruth Sachariah Named Runner-up in WAC's NJ Idol Competition

Mandham's Jessie Villa named grand prize winner.

Watchung's Ruth Sachariah was named the runner-up in the Watchung Arts Center's 2012 NJ IDOL vocal competition Saturday, after Jessie Villa, of Mendham, won the contest's grand prize. The competition drew 35 singers from all areas of New Jersey including Newark, Nutley, Toms River and Bridgewater to the Feb. 18 auditions. Of those, 20 advanced to the semi-finals, held Feb. 25, from which 10 finalists were named. Four Warren residents, Jessica Kundla, Alyssa Puccio, Sherry Cortese and Andrew Guerra, had advacned to the semi-final round, but did not make the finals. The sold out finals performance included Charisa Dowe, Newark; Alexa Pantaleo, Freehold; Sara E. Pike, Madison; Juliette Reilly, Berkeley Heights; Analisa Rotella, Denville; …

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Watchung's Chad and Dawn Boudreau Highlight Sunday Benefit Concert

Afternoon program includes area students in concert to benefit program for inner city kids.

The Watchung Arts Center presents a special benefit performance—Music du Jour featuring Beatrice Long and guests at 4 p.m. Sunday for the arts center and the Protestant Community Center, Inc.,-a tutoring service for inner city kids. The performance will include renowned concert pianist Beatrice Long, lyric tenor Chad Boudreaux, soprano Dawn Boudreaux take stage with talented local students in a charity concert; offers a delicious treat of master pieces for piano, violin and voice. Long, of Short Hills, is an internationally renowned concert pianist, recording artist and duo pianist, have received critical acclaim from Washington Post, American Record Guide, BBC, Nacion of Costa Rica: "Long plays with a maximum of insight and technical …

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Warren Residents Advance to NJ Idol Semifinal

Semifinals set for this weekend.

Four Warren Township contestants advanced to the semifinal round of the NJ Idol Vocal Competition held at the Watchung Arts Center, Executive Director Stacy Gannon announced Monday. Among the 20 contestants to advance to the next round are Warren residents Jessica Kundla, Alyssa Puccio, Sherry Cortese and Andrew Guerra. The competition, which is limited to New Jersey residents ages 15-29, consists of a panel of judges scoring each contestant and offering a professional critique following each performance. The Warren foursome will compete individually in the semifinal round, held Friday, Feb. 24 and Saturday, Feb. 25. Ticket information for the upcoming round will be posted online or via email at WACenter@optonline.net.  Tickets are priced …

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Watchung Arts Center Launching Meditation Class

Six-week course will help you tame your "monkey mind."

The Watchung Arts Center opens enrollment for a new meditation class beginning Feb. 16. The class will run for six consecutive weeks from 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays at a cost of $96 per 6-week subscription ($91 WAC members) and $18 for walk-ins. In an article in Psychology today by Colin Allen (April 1, 2003), Researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, recorded the brain waves of stressed-out employees of a high-tech firm in Madison, Wisconsin.  The subjects were split randomly into two groups, a control and a group that would learn meditation over eight weeks.  The researchers found that the meditators showed a pronounced shift in activity to the left frontal lobe.  In other words, they …

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Great Escape

Enjoy a Modern Jazz Master in Watchung

Kenny Werner performing at Watchung Art Center Saturday.

Your teens are holding a car wash at the high school Saturday. The grandparents volunteered to take the younger children to a movie Sunday afternoon. Your tweens take tap on Wednesday evening. It’s your time. Take it. Each week, we’ll tell you about one great idea to give you a much deserved break, and make your life a little easier, maybe a whole lot easier. This week, up your cultural intake with an evening of inventive music, courtesy of Watchung-native Kenny Werner and the Watchung Arts Center. Werner's book on jazz performance "Effortless Mastery–Liberating the Musician Within" has become a staple of teaching beyond his own department at NYU. He was the recipient of a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship Award for Music Composition for his work…

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Art Center Concert to Feature Works Composed for Performers

Jan. 22 concert by Samuel Magill and Beth Levin to also include sonata by "Boston group" composer.

  Cellist Samuel Magill and pianist Beth Levin will perform a fascinating program of unusual and rarely-heard music along with the masterful Cello Sonata of Debussy, with its journey to a mysterious musical world of Impressionism mixed with Asian musical styles, at the Watchung Arts Center. Bruch's Adagio on Celtic Melodies, a sentimental and touching tribute to Scotland, is seldom performed. Andrew Rudin’s Sonata, written last year for Mr. Magill and Ms. Levin, is a brilliant contemporary work which will keep you on the edge of your seats with its driving rhythms and constantly changing colors. Finally we resurrect the American past with an extremely rare reading of a sonata by Frederick Shepherd Converse, who was a part of the “Boston” …

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