Elevation by Eric Seritella
This program is made possible through the generosity of the Bryant & Nancy Hanley Foundation.
About the event
Take a moment for tea, for contemplation, for art, and for community. Artist Eric Seritella will perform a traditional Chinese tea ceremony to a soundtrack provided by pipa virtuoso Min Xiao-Fen. Complimentary tea and treats from Happy Persimmon will be provided at the event.
Why a tea ceremony?
"I do the tea ceremony as part of my ceramic story. While in residence in Taiwan I studied and made Yixing-style teapots. When I came back from my first residency, I spent a lot of time making teapots and throughout my career teapots of different kinds have been transitions from artistic plateaus and styles.
Yixing, China is the birthplace of the teapot. And in the 1600s they carved teapots to look like pumpkins and gourds and tree trunks to integrate nature into the tea ceremony. So Yixing and teapots are also historically significant to ceramic trompe l’oeil. Theoretically, all ceramic trompe l’oeil is derivative of them. Brewing tea gong-fu style became part of my daily studio ritual. It served as a transition ritual during parts of my day. A time to sit and contemplate."
-Eric Seritella
About the Visual Artist
Eric Serritella
Originally from New York, Serritella is now a North Carolina based ceramic artist specializing in hand-carved trompe l’oeil vessels transformed into birch and weathered logs. His one-of-a-kind sculptures are internationally recognized and have been exhibited, awarded and collected on five continents for their exquisite design and incredibly realistic textures.
Many of Serritella’s works are included in public collections, including among others The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Mint Museum. He has contributed to over 160 exhibitions and has shown at the world’s top art and design fairs in the USA and Europe.
For more information visit ericserritella.com.
About the Musician
Min Xiao-Fen
Few artists have done more to both honor and reinvent the 2000-year history of the pipa than soloist, vocalist and composer Min Xiao-Fen. Classically trained in her native China, she served as a principal pipa soloist at Nanjing Traditional Music Orchestra and was an in-demand interpreter of traditional music before relocating to the United States and forging a new path for her instrument alongside many of the leading lights in modern jazz, free improvisation, experimental and contemporary classical music. NPR Weekend Edition lauded Ms. Min as “one of the world’s greatest virtuosos” and JazzTimes hailed her as “a pioneer in integrating her ancient instrument with modern jazz and improvised music.” The New York Times raved that her singular work “has traversed a sweeping musical odyssey.”
In 2023, Min received a commission from the Smithsonian Institution in 2023 to compose new original soundtracks for Romance of the Fruit Peddler and Romance of the Western Chamber, two historical Chinese silent films from the 1920s, premiered with Middle Eastern percussionist River Guerguerian at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC in May 6,2023, also performed at the Brevard Music Center in November.
The two scores are being recorded for her album Metta. On March 24, 2024, Metta released and performed with the two films at the Big Ears Festival, also at Leaf Festival on May 10, 2024. GRAMMY U selected her as a mentor for 2023 and 2024.
Min’s other notable works include the 2021 album White Lotus, her original score to the 1934 silent film The Goddess, the deeply personal 2017 release Mao, Monk and Me, which explores the music of Thelonious Monk, on From Harlem to Shanghai and Back, Min’s Blue Pipa Trio commingles trumpeter Buck Clayton’s Kansas City swing with the music of Li Jinhui, the “Father of Chinese popular music” and 2012 Dim Sum spotlights the stunning scope of her compositions. Min was a curator at The Stone and the Museum of Chinese in America in New York. She also served as artist-in-residence with the Sound of Dragon Society for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and was a guiding artist for the Creative Music Studio and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. www.minbluepipa.com
Members Tickets $10; General Admission Tickets$15