//*_FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE_**April 1, 2011*

Contact:
Suzanne Grady, Sara Pasti
Director of Communication & Marketing Director, Dorsky Museum
(845) 257-3245(845) 257-3846

*/Note to editors:/*/A photograph of Tapestry may be downloaded from the 
SUNY New Paltz Web site at 
//http://www.newpaltz.edu/news/images/Tapestry.html/


  Boston-based Tapestry vocal ensemble performs at


  The Dorsky Museum on April 14

*NEW PALTZ***-- The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (The Dorsky) is pleased 
to present a program of vocal works that includes /The White Rooster/, a 
dramatic cantata for women's voices, percussion and six Tibetan singing 
bowls performed by the vocal ensemble Tapestry, on Thursday*, **April 14 
at 6 pm. A 5:30 pm conversation with composer Sheila Silver and 
librettist *Stephen Kitsakos precedes the 6 pm performance. A public 
reception will follow. Tickets are available at the SUNY New Paltz box 
office at 845-257-3880 and on-line at 
https://newpaltzmuseum.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=339644. Ticket prices are 
general public, $15; seniors, $10; students; $5.

Tapestry,a Boston-based ensemble of women's voices, made its debut in 
1995 with the performance of Steve Reich's /Tehillim/ at Jordan Hall in 
Boston, which /The Boston Globe/ deemed "a knockout." The trademark of 
the ensemble is combining medieval repertory and contemporary 
compositions in bold, conceptual programming. Critics hail their rich 
distinctive voices, their "technically spot-on singing" and their 
emotionally charged performances. The /LA Times/ writes of their 
performance of Hildegard's /O Vos Angeli/: "... as radiant and exciting 
as any singing I've heard all season"and/The Cleveland Plain 
Dealer/describes Tapestry as "an ensemble that plants haunting 
vibrations, old and new, in our ears."
//
Their program travels from west to east and past to present framed by 
two tales: a medieval Portuguese tale of the miracles of St. Isabel and 
/The White Rooster/, a tale of compassion set in modern day 
Tibet.Between the two tales, they weave together a mix of medieval and 
contemporary songs exploring universal ideas of spirituality.

The first half of the evening program includes three medieval works, 
including a composition by Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) plus 
excerpts from a contemporary song cycle---/The Nine Orders of the 
Angels/---by Patricia Van Ness. The second half of the program features 
/The White Rooster/, a dramatic cantata along the lines of a short opera 
created by composer Sheila Silver and librettist Stephen Kitsakos for 
Tapestry. Sheila Silver is Professor of Composition, Theory and 
Instrumentation at Stony Brook University. Stephen Kitsakos is a 
lecturer in Musical Theatre and Theatre Studies at the State University 
of New York at New Paltz.The thirty-five minute work was commissioned by 
the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian 
Institution, in conjunction with /The Tibetan Shrine from the Alice S. 
Kandell Collection and Lama, Patron Artist: The Great Situ Panchen./

*ABOUT THE MUSEUM*

The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, located at SUNY New Paltz, is fast 
gaining wide recognition as the premier public showplace for exhibition, 
education, and cultural scholarship about the Hudson Valley region's art 
and artists from yesterday and today. With more than 9,000 square feet 
of exhibition space distributed over six galleries, the Dorsky Museum is 
one of the largest museums within the SUNY system.

This event is among a series of exhibitions and events celebrating the 
museum's tenth anniversary year. The Dorsky was officially dedicated on 
Oct. 20, 2001. Since then it has presented over one hundred exhibitions, 
including commissions, collection-based projects, and in-depth studies 
of artists including Robert Morris, Alice Neel, Judy Pfaff, and Carolee 
Schneemann. Tenth Anniversary Year exhibitions will highlight The 
Dorsky's focus on the art and artists of the Hudson Valley, a unique 
region that has served as a source of inspiration and nourished artistic 
creation and innovation since the time of the Hudson River School painters.

This event is sponsored by the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art and the 
Music, Theater and Asian Studies Departments at SUNY New Paltz with 
support from the SUNY New Paltz Office of Academic Affairs.

For more information about The Dorsky Museum and its programs, visit 
http://www.newpaltz.edu/museum, or call (845) 257-3844.

-30-

/Located in the heart of a dynamic college town, ninety minutes from 
metropolitan New York City, the //State University of New York at New 
Paltz/ /is a highly selective college of about 
8,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
/
/One of the most well-regarded public colleges in the nation, New Paltz 
delivers an extraordinary number of majors in //Business/ 
/, //Liberal Arts & Sciences/ 
/, //Engineering/ 
/, //Fine & Performing Arts/ 
/and //Education/ 
/.
/
/New Paltz embraces its culture as a community where talented and 
independent minded people from around the world create close personal 
links with real scholars and artists who love to teach./