MCC Offers Art/Concert Combo

A combined artistic and musical experience exploring universal themes will be held at the Middlesex County College Studio Theatre Gallery, starting September 25 and running through November 4. The art portion will be displayed weekdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The musical concert will be held in conjunction with a reception on Thursday, September 27 from 5 to 7 p.m.

The performance will be at 6 p.m. in the Studio Theater. The artist is Julia Randall; the composer, David Adamcyk.

“Both of us investigate universal themes in drawings and compositions,” Ms. Randall said. “Our exhibition, ‘Blown,’ uses metaphor to explore the passage of time, the

susceptibility of the body, and desire. Dualities activate our work: images and sounds are playfully strange, and narrative allusions are elusive and mysterious. We employ a range of organic and synthetic sounds and images, to speak visually and aurally to the experience of being human.”

Mike Truesdell will perform “Six Drawings by Randall,” a short instrumental theatre piece for one vocalist/percussionist and electronics. During the concert, the six drawings that inspired the piece are projected near the performer, providing a visual counterpoint to the music. 

“As the piece progresses though its six uninterrupted movements, the performer explores these impressions through a sound world related to bubbles, breath, and rippling audio effects,” Mr. Adamcyk said. “In this composition, I responded to the simultaneous and sometimes conflicting impressions I sensed from Julia Randall's work: Whimsy, nostalgia, fright, longing, and eroticism.”

Ms. Randall’s creations have been featured in solo exhibitions at Jeff Bailey Gallery in New York City; in Sydney, Australia at Esa Jaske Gallery; and in November 2012, at Garvey Simon Art Access in New York. Her drawings have been included in numerous group exhibitions, including at The Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY; The Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC; The National Academy, NYC; Bravin Lee Programs, NYC; Morgan Lehman Gallery, NYC; and at the Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University in Newark. She is the recipient of numerous artistic fellowships, including the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, NY Arts, Art on Paper, Flash Art, and The Sydney Morning Herald. Additionally, her drawings have been featured in New American Paintings, American Artist, and Beautiful Decay magazines.

Mr. Adamcyk has recently completed a doctorate in composition at McGill University in Montreal. In 2006-2007 he studied in Paris with Philippe Leroux, and, during the following academic year, he participated in Ircam’s composition cursus. He took part in the Nouvelles Rencontres composition program at Domaine Forget, in St-Iréné, and was selected for the National Arts Center's Young Composers program in Ottawa.

He has won four prizes at the SOCAN Foundation composer’s competition, two of which ranked first place in the 2007 edition, and he was also one of the five finalists in the 2009 edition of the CBC/SRC Evolution composition competition.