Discovering the Music of Paintings

Art Image: Beatrice Mandelman, Sea Shapes (#1), c. 1960s (detail), Tia Collection, Santa Fe, NM. Image courtesy of Modern West Fine Art, Salt Lake City and the UNM Foundation, Inc.

SANTA FE, NM: How does a painting sound? How do line and shape, color and texture, mood and compositional relationships translate into music? Join conductor and arts educator Oliver Prezant, violinist Carla Kountoupes, clarinetist Jerry Weimer, and cellist Katie Harlow for an interactive, musical exploration of a colorful, abstract painting by New Mexico artist Beatrice Mandelman, a prominent member of the Taos art scene from the mid-1940s to 1998. During the program, the audience will have the opportunity to explore the expressive implications of line, shape, color, texture, and the mood of the painting, as Oliver and the group turn the audience's impressions into musical ideas. At the end of the program, the musicians will use the work of art as a musical score, from which Oliver will conduct an improvised musical interpretation.

“What makes Discovering programs so special is the participation of the audience,” said Prezant. “As we explore together, the relationship between the audience, the painting, and the music deepens. Everyone has been a part of the creative process by the time we create a full-fledged musical interpretation of the painting at the end of the program.”

“We’re so grateful to Tia Collection and the UNM Foundation for this opportunity to work with a painting by Beatrice Mandelman,” Prezant continued. “It will be interesting to see what people come up with when they see the bright colors and bold shapes in this work by an iconic Taos artist.” 

Seating is limited, scroll up to purchase tickets online. Remaining tickets may be available at the door. 

Thanks to our generous sponsors: Susan and Steven J. Goldstein, Sherry Parker, and Bernadette Snider.

Special thanks to Tia Collection and the UNM Foundation for permission to use Ms. Mandelman's painting for this program.

Program and artists subject to change. 

Discovering the Music of Paintings is a presentation of Opus OP Arts and Education Projects.

Please support us with an additional donation at checkout! Your charitable donation is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. 

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Photo captions and credits:

Conductor and arts educator Oliver Prezant: Ruthanne Greeley

Violinist Carla Kountoupes: Will Wilson (Diné)

Clarinetist Jerry Weimer: Nacha Mendez

Cellist Katie Harlow: Joseph Sabella 

Art Image: Beatrice Mandelman, Sea Shapes (#1), c. 1960s (detail), Tia Collection, Santa Fe, NM. Image courtesy of Modern West Fine Art, Salt Lake City and the UNM Foundation, Inc.

About Tia x Chatter: Tia Collection, a global art collection with a mission to support artists and institutions through its acquisitions and lending programs, has partnered with non-profit musical ensemble Chatter. Tia x Chatter provides a backdrop of loaned artworks from the collection for Chatter’s Santa Fe programming. Exhibitions are curated by Tia staff on a bi-monthly, rotating basis.

Current Exhibition: Field of Vision, curated by Brooke Denton on view April 27 through June 22, 2024, in the Muñoz Waxman Gallery at 1050 Old Pecos Trail in Santa Fe, NM. An open house with the curator is scheduled Saturday, May 18, 11:30am–2pm. A closing reception will be held Friday, June 21, 4–6pm.

Artist Biographies:

Beatrice Mandelman 1912–1998, New Mexico, was an American abstract artist associated with the group known as the Taos Moderns, who moved to Taos in 1944 with fellow artist and husband Louis Ribak. Through the 1940s, her paintings featured richly textured surfaces and a subtly modulated, often subdued color palette. The New Mexico landscape and culture influenced a brighter palette, more geometric forms and flatter surfaces. An intensely dedicated painter, Mandelman leveraged the isolation of northern New Mexico to explore and develop a style that was distinctly her own.

Oliver Prezant has presented lectures and education programs for the Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Performance Santa Fe, the Tanglewood Association of Volunteers, Road Scholar, and the Guilds of the Santa Fe and San Francisco Opera companies. As the music director and conductor of the Santa Fe Community Orchestra, he worked with community musicians and choristers, professional soloists, public school music students, composers, creative artists, and community partners from Santa Fe and northern New Mexico to present a wide variety of innovative performances, unique education programs, and community collaborations. He has presented programs on the relationship of art and music for the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, the Albuquerque Museum of Art, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art. Oliver was one of the founding teaching artists in Partners in Education’s ArtWorks Program, which provides arts education workshops for Santa Fe Public Schools students and teachers in the areas of music, poetry, visual art, theater, and dance. As the artistic advisor to the program, he trained teaching artists and classroom teachers, and coordinated with area poets, museums, and other arts organizations. He studied at the Mannes College of Music in New York City and the Pierre Monteux School for conductors in Hancock, Maine, and he was an Assistant Professor in the Contemporary Music Program at the College of Santa Fe and an instructor at Santa Fe University of Art and Design.

Carla Kountoupes, violinist, is a member of the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, Arizona Opera Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, and Piazzolla da Camera Piano Trio. Carla has toured and performed professionally with orchestras and chamber ensembles in Central America, Taiwan, Germany, and all over the United States, including as a member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra in San Francisco and the Costa Rican National Symphony Orchestra. She enjoys performing and recording many genres in addition to classical, including Latin/world, alt-rock/pop, and jazz. A dedicated music educator, Carla is on the faculty at the New Mexico School for the Arts. She is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory (Violin Performance) and Oberlin College (English Literature). Carla’s violin was made in the 1740s and was inherited from her grandfather.

Jerry Weimer is a composer and clarinetist who has been a part of the Santa Fe music scene since 2001. Known for his unique sound, stylistic versatility, and compelling improvisations, Jerry is a regular presence in the Jazz and Latin music communities of Northern New Mexico and was a featured soloist with the Santa Fe Community Orchestra in Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1. He has collaborated with many local artists, including Nacha Mendez, Joaquin Gallegos, Jono Manson, Nosotros, Rumelia, John Rangel, the ShinersClub Jazz Band, Revózo, and Victor Alvarez’s SAVOR. Recent performances include Le Carnaval des Animaux with the National Dance Institute, and Amane, with Joe Hay, Words in the Wind, with Melanie Monsour, and Zozobra in 2021. Jerry is a graduate of the College of Santa Fe where he studied with Eddie Daniels. 

Katie Harlow, cellist, has performed on cello, mandolin, accordion, and viola da gamba in numerous symphonic, chamber, early, folk, and improvised music ensembles, including the Santa Fe Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, New Music New Mexico, the New Mexico Women Composer's Guild, Opera Southwest, the early music groups Three Bass Blondes and the Boxwood Consort, the improvising music ensembles Out of Context and Playroom, the Bill Horvitz Band (jazz and new music), Cicadas, a mandolin ensemble, the folk music groups Bailiwick and Caledonia, and the band Basement Dancing. In addition, she has created arrangements and compositions for concerts, recordings, and theater productions. Katie holds a Bachelors in Cello Pedagogy and a Masters in Music Education from the University of New Mexico, and was on the faculty of Albuquerque Academy for many years.