Dunderberg Gallery Welcomes Composer, Pianist Friedman

GILBERTSVILLE—On Friday, March 15 at 6 p.m., Gilbertsville’s Dunderberg Gallery will present composer and pianist Jacob Friedman in a program titled “Improvising on the Elements.” Friedman will be responding to the theme of primal elements which his mother, artist Carla Hall, represented in her ceramic mural, “Pancikarana,” created at the Elizabeth Nields Clay Studio in Otego. A large-scale representation and full-scale studies of this work are now on view at the Dunderberg.

Friedman has performed with orchestra, jazz big band, percussion ensemble, and world music featuring sitar, table, and piano. His songwriting, film scoring and orchestral compositions reflect his drive to cross musical borders. World-renowned sitarist and composer Pradeep Ratnayake said of his work, “Jacob’s music goes right to the heart.” Friedman has performed at Columbia and Princeton universities, and Weill Recital Hall in New York City. He is organist and choir director at Saint James’ Episcopal Church in Goshen.

Carla Hall is a painter, sculptor, environmentalist and former brand designer. She now lives in the Butternut Valley on the land first settled by her family in 1789. In 1974, she graduated Middlebury College, studying painting for one year at the New York Studio School with Philip Guston. Moving to New York City that year, she founded and led the Carla Hall Design Group, and with her late husband, Ben-Ami Friedman, raised their three children, Jacob, Ilana, and Matthew. Hall moved to Morris in 2017, where she serves on the board of the Butternut Valley Alliance and as president of the Otsego Land Trust, and continues her ceramics work with Nields.

Speaking of her son, Carla Hall observed, “Music has been the heart of Jacob’s soul since he was born. As a 5-year-old, he showed me how to create the sound of an orchestra ‘in my mouth.’ For years, we have wanted to collaborate through our respective arts. With ‘Improvising on the Elements,’ the Dunderberg Gallery will bring our hopes to life, as Jacob improvises on the mural’s five elements—creation’s space, air, fire, water and earth,” she said.

Tickets for this performance will be available at the door on March 15 beginning at 5 p.m. at the Dunderberg Gallery, 118 Marion Avenue, Gilbertsville. For more information, call (607) 783-2010.