Jeni Houser, soprano
Nadia Fayad, mezzo-soprano
David Walton, tenor
Richard Ollarsaba, bass-baritone
Joseph Li, piano
Arts & Letters Live presents Happy Hour!, a sweet (and sour) blend of song with a splash of cocktail craft and literary mixology. The DMA’s current exhibition Shaken, Stirred, Styled: The Art of the Cocktail packs just the punch required to encourage five musicians to create this adventurous concoction of rhythm, music, and text to be enjoyed responsibly for one night only. This marks the ninth collaboration of Arts & Letters Live with artistic programmer Ryan Taylor, who seeks to illuminate visual arts with musical and literary excerpts. The songs will range from Mozart, Offenbach, and Verdi to Cole Porter and Joni Mitchell.
Past performances include ARTsong (2004), Secrets of the Sky and Sea (2005), Shakespeare Unplugged (2006), generation m: modern masters from the mid-century to the moment (2007), Blithe Spirits (2008), Vocal Colors (2009), and Fashioned Forward (2012)
6:00–7:00 p.m., Founders Room: Enjoy a cocktail and a talk/Q&A with David Wondrich, one of the world’s foremost authorities on cocktails and their history, Esquire’s long-time Cocktail Correspondent, and one of the founders of the current craft cocktail movement. The author of Imbibe! serves up a lively, historically informed, and definitive guide to American cocktails, complete with over 100 recipes. The first edition won a James Beard Award. Tickets for this pre-event experience are $20 and cover the cost of one drink; space is limited.