January Music, Art and Lifestyle Enrichment Programs at Fort Lee Library

The announced its first concert of 2012 this week, the husband and wife musical duo of Naoko Nakagawa, a soprano, and composer and pianist Satoshi Kanazawa.

The program on Sunday, Jan. 8 at 2 p.m. will feature Nakagawa and Kanazawa performing Schumann, Gounod and Puccini, in addition to traditional Japanese folk songs and original compositions.

“Best known for his compelling compositions, and [Nakagawa] for her sublime soprano voice, the graduates of the prestigious Tokyo National University of the Arts have been making music together for over ten years,” library organizers said in a statement. “Their repertoire encompasses a variety of musical genres, including operatic arias, Japanese folk songs and original material.”

Nakagawa began her vocal training when she was just 15, and she has studied with the likes of Noriko Fujiwara, Michio Tatara, Dora Ohrenstein, Jean-Ronald LaFond, Joan Krueger, Martina Arroyo and Maestro Steven M. Crawford of the Metropolitan Opera. She performed at a benefit concert for Japanese earthquake victims in May 2011 hosted by Artists in Action for Japan, a not-for-profit project launched by Kanazawa in response to the earthquake in Northeast Japan in March to raise money for the victims, and to which Nakagawa is currently artistic advisor. She also performed at “Concert for Japan,” hosted by the Consulate General of Germany and the Consulate General of Japan in New York in June 2011.

Kanazawa, who has lived in New York City since 2006, has studied composition with Kenjiro Urata, Manabu Kawai, Yutaka Kamoshita and Eric Ewazen and was awarded the grand prize in the Composition Competition for Trombone Works hosted by the Japan Association of Trombonists in 2008.

“Kanazawa's music includes a wide variety of styles from tonal music to atonalism, and from serious music to music for children including solo, vocal, chamber and orchestral pieces,” library program organizers said.

Featured Artist for January

The Fort Lee Public Library will also display the artwork of Bloomfield, NJ artist Stanley Gavidia throughout the first month of the year.

Born and raised in El Salvador, Gavidia studied Visual Art at Centro Nacional de Artes de El Salvador (CENAR). Some of his past shows include “Open Doors Newark,” “Hispanic Paintbrush,” Bronx Hispanic Pre-Biennale Art Show” and “Collective Art Show” at the Queens Museum of Art.

“In his artwork Mr. Gavidia communicates knowledge through basic concepts of vitality and universal values,” library organizers said. “He also attempts to convey insight into the truth through an exaltation of the mind or the soul.”

Here’s Gavidia on his own work:

I cannot say anything concrete about painting; what happens on the canvas is unpredictable and surprising to me. There is no particular system I follow when I begin painting. Each painting suggests something. Once I sense the suggestion, I begin to paint intuitively, and when the painting is finished the subject reveals itself. I work on many canvases at once; some of them speak, some do not. They tell me what I have to do at the moment. I leave it to the spectator to fix meaning. The relationship between the spectator and my painting is through art. It can always be interpreted in many ways. I frequently hear the question, ‘What do these images mean?’ However, this is simply the wrong question; visual images do not have to conform to either verbal thinking or optical fact. A better question would be, 'Do these images convey any emotional truth?'

The gallery is located on the library’s lower level and is open during regular hours: Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.

Lifestyle Enrichment Program – Falun Dafa

Continuing its “lifestyle enrichment programs” in 2012, the library will hold introduction and demonstration sessions of Falun Dafa—otherwise known as Falun Gong.

Falun Dafa, which literally translated means “Law Wheel Practice,” is a traditional “self-cultivation practice to improve mind and body based on the universal principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance,” according to library organizers.

“Local practitioners will hold free seminars to share this great system, including the five sets of peaceful meditation, which help relieve stress and anxiety, increase energy and vitality and improve physical health,” organizers said. “Combining the practice of meditation and slow-moving quigong exercises (aligning breath, movement, and awareness for exercise, healing, and meditation), the practice of Falun Gong aspires to bring better health through meditation and cultivation of virtue.”

The library is offering two free Saturday Falun Dafa sessions: one on Jan. 7 and one on Feb. 4. Both start at 10 a.m.

Organizers urge people who wish to participate to bring a towel or a mat if you have one.

For more information on any of these programs, contact program coordinator Olga Kuharets at 201.592.3614, ext. 4010 or visit the Fort Lee Public Library’s website.