On Sunday, July 14, Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts patrons celebrated 100 Years of Americana Music and Art in Foxburg with a pairing of Four-Time World Champion Old-Time Piano Player Adam Swanson on the Lincoln Hall Steinway followed by the opening reception for the Red Brick Gallery exhibit – MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS One Family. Four Generations of Women. 100 Years of Art.
The capacity Lincoln Hall audience including fans who had driven from New Jersey and Michigan were dazzled by Adam Swanson’s pianistic pyrotechnics, shining artistry and entertaining program commentary.
Greeted by enthusiastic applause throughout and a prolonged standing ovation, departing audience members attempted to describe their response to Adam’s artistry, creating new words to describe his performance beyond phenomenal… “SPEC-TASTIC” – and “FUN-NOMENAL”!
Indeed, FUN was had by all – as Adam entranced the audience with a journey through the richness of a hundred years of American popular music, beginning with Ragtime, Blues and Boogie-Woogie, and continuing with a Great American Songbook medley from Showboat – and his version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue including favorite Gershwin show tunes.
Paired with this retrospective of a century of music was the inspiring Red Brick Gallery exhibit Mothers & Daughters, presenting a nearly a hundred works demonstrating the depth of talent in four generations of women in one family – in 100 years of art.
ARCA Board member and RBG Cooperative Artist Karen Mortland and her daughter Nissa Rappoport, also a cooperative artist, are central to the exhibit, as they are joined by Karen’s sister Annette Kingman, her mother Carolyn Kingman, and her grandmother Ruth Coy.
This is a richly textured display of photographs, acrylics, oil paintings, watercolors, pen and ink, graphic designs and jewelry from a supremely talented family of women.
Each woman in their way followed their artistic muse in the midst of professions and raising children – creating a body of work that’s like a multi-colored tapestry of their family history, with each generation adding to the narrative – capturing images and stories, preserving memories, and invoking emotion.
View the exhibit weekends through August 11 and SHOP for glorious jewelry by Nissa Rappoport and artwork by RBG Cooperative artists in the first floor gift shop. Weekend hours: Fridays 1 to 6 PM, Saturdays 11 AM to 7 PM, Sundays noon to 5 PM.
After the concert and RBG opening, Dr. Arthur and Marybeth Hinds Steffee welcomed Adam Swanson to their home at StoneRidge overlooking the beautiful Allegheny River valley.
Adam is as warm and genuine as he is prodigiously talented, and entertained the Steffees with an encore on their Steinway.
