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:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2174BD9A35DF9216 more at www.ritsu.com
color, 1 hour 30 minutes