Thursday, February 8, 7:00, Willard Straight Hall

Former Ithaca resident and recipient of a Cornell Council for the Arts Emerging Artist award, Ritsu Katsumata is a classically trained violinist who has been performing since she was ten. She has played acoustic violin in Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Academy of Music, and the Smithsonian Institution. She composed and performed the scores for the two films screening tonight: Yasin (Betty Lee Kim, 13 mins, www.yasinmovie.com), a narrative short about a young boy in California whose Jordanian-born father is arrested and accused of being a terrorist, and Heroes (Lynn Estomin, 22 mins), a documentary short featuring the mother of a fallen soldier and an Iraq War Veteran who is speaking out against the War. Ritsu will talk about her work on these films and then perform a 45 minute set of music. Watch clips of Ritsu on YouTube from a recent show at NYC's Flea Theatre -- the program, curated by Kathleen Supove, included Joshua Fried, performing on old shoe and a steering wheel, as well as Nick Didkovsky composing computer music with audience participation:

Performance on You Tube.

color, 1 hour 30 minutes