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Traditions Personified On Stage
  
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'On Canvas,' WHYY's Worldly Performance Show
By JONATHAN L. FISCHER, The Bulletin
Each episode of “On Canvas,” WHYY TV’s music and dance program, focuses on a single artist or group, and yet in the interviews that pepper each show’s performances, the subjects seem particularly interested in discussing the careers and lives of others.
“With the musicians that I admire, there is something so strong about their personalities that comes through,” said the classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein in an “On Canvas” episode from last October.
Influence — which is to say, continuity and tradition — is a theme that fascinates the minds behind “On Canvas.”
What that means is “where the person comes from, their introduction to music and their relationship to music,” explained Heidi Saman, an associate producer of the show, in a recent interview. This boils down to, she said, “How they’re steeped in a tradition and what they do with it.”
The show wraps up its second season this June, and each episode features wildly different performers — some national acts, others regional gems, still more far-flung groundbreakers from across the globe.
Past episodes have spotlighted classical music (Simone Dinnerstein and Jennifer Curtis), forward-thinking dance (BalletX), folk forms (a program of banjoists), jazz (the Terence Blanchard Quintet), indie rock (She & Him) and several performers who can hardly be classified at all (like Oud Blues, who blends sounds from at least four continents). It can be safely said that “On Canvas” is genre-blind.
“When it comes down to it now, all these years later, to the younger people we’re the kind of people who at least had contact with the stuff that we love. We got to see those people, and we got to love those people.” — blues singer and pianist Marcia Ball, performing at Montgomery County Community College
The show’s only continuity, it seems, is continuity.
“A good fit [for the show] tends to be something with old and a new sounds,” Ms. Saman said. “They’re tapping into something historical but using it in a modern way.”
Hugh Haynie, the show’s producer, said that he and Ms. Saman look at suggestions users have submitted through the Web and conduct their own research when programming each season. Intentionally or not, he said, many of the artists that the show features are classically trained.
The episodes juxtapose the interviews with performances in local venues — some intimate, like the Painted Bride Art Center in Old City, others cavernous, like the Electric Factory and the Theater of the Living Arts, and even a few outdoors, like Camden’s Wiggins Waterfront Park.
The “On Canvas” team records each show using four robotic cameras (I asked if they resembled predator drones, which elicited some laughs and a quick denial) and one hand-held one; the sounds and images are monitored outside the venue in a “mobile studio” manned by a technician.
“Performing is great, but it’s more for me [about] being in service to the song than the song being in service to me.” — folk singer Janis Ian, performing at the Grand Opera House
Good storytelling, the producers said, has yielded some of their favorite episodes. So has simple on-stage gusto.
“The artists who tend to have stories and have some longevity in their career tend to have the better interviews,” Ms. Saman said. “Marcia Ball, I really liked what she had to say. For entertainment and show value, it was [the Cambodian American rock band] Dengue Fever.”
I asked the producers if they had a wishlist of performers they would like to film in future seasons.
“There are Philly bands that we have our eye on,” Ms. Saman said, declining to say which. “[Spotlighting local acts] is something we should do more of.”
Mr Haynie added: “With all this talent in the air, there’s so many places to go.”
Tomorrow night’s 8 p.m. episode features the Syracuse, N.Y., band Ra Ra Riot, whose indie rock has an orchestral flavor. A week later, the show will feature Philadanco performing at Montgomery County Community College. Other upcoming episodes feature the Cajun group BeauSoleil and the Kenyan-American band Extra Golden, whose music is partially inspired by the sub-Saharan Benga genre. WHYY airs in Philadelphia on channel 12.
I asked Mr. Haynie if “On Canvas” ever happened to catch a performer on an off-night.
He laughed and said no: “I think they turn it up a notch because they know it’s being recorded.”
Jonathan L. Fischer can be reached at jfischer@thebulletin.us
“With the musicians that I admire, there is something so strong about their personalities that comes through,” said the classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein in an “On Canvas” episode from last October.
Influence — which is to say, continuity and tradition — is a theme that fascinates the minds behind “On Canvas.”
What that means is “where the person comes from, their introduction to music and their relationship to music,” explained Heidi Saman, an associate producer of the show, in a recent interview. This boils down to, she said, “How they’re steeped in a tradition and what they do with it.”
The show wraps up its second season this June, and each episode features wildly different performers — some national acts, others regional gems, still more far-flung groundbreakers from across the globe.
Past episodes have spotlighted classical music (Simone Dinnerstein and Jennifer Curtis), forward-thinking dance (BalletX), folk forms (a program of banjoists), jazz (the Terence Blanchard Quintet), indie rock (She & Him) and several performers who can hardly be classified at all (like Oud Blues, who blends sounds from at least four continents). It can be safely said that “On Canvas” is genre-blind.
“When it comes down to it now, all these years later, to the younger people we’re the kind of people who at least had contact with the stuff that we love. We got to see those people, and we got to love those people.” — blues singer and pianist Marcia Ball, performing at Montgomery County Community College
The show’s only continuity, it seems, is continuity.
“A good fit [for the show] tends to be something with old and a new sounds,” Ms. Saman said. “They’re tapping into something historical but using it in a modern way.”
Hugh Haynie, the show’s producer, said that he and Ms. Saman look at suggestions users have submitted through the Web and conduct their own research when programming each season. Intentionally or not, he said, many of the artists that the show features are classically trained.
The episodes juxtapose the interviews with performances in local venues — some intimate, like the Painted Bride Art Center in Old City, others cavernous, like the Electric Factory and the Theater of the Living Arts, and even a few outdoors, like Camden’s Wiggins Waterfront Park.
The “On Canvas” team records each show using four robotic cameras (I asked if they resembled predator drones, which elicited some laughs and a quick denial) and one hand-held one; the sounds and images are monitored outside the venue in a “mobile studio” manned by a technician.
“Performing is great, but it’s more for me [about] being in service to the song than the song being in service to me.” — folk singer Janis Ian, performing at the Grand Opera House
Good storytelling, the producers said, has yielded some of their favorite episodes. So has simple on-stage gusto.
“The artists who tend to have stories and have some longevity in their career tend to have the better interviews,” Ms. Saman said. “Marcia Ball, I really liked what she had to say. For entertainment and show value, it was [the Cambodian American rock band] Dengue Fever.”
I asked the producers if they had a wishlist of performers they would like to film in future seasons.
“There are Philly bands that we have our eye on,” Ms. Saman said, declining to say which. “[Spotlighting local acts] is something we should do more of.”
Mr Haynie added: “With all this talent in the air, there’s so many places to go.”
Tomorrow night’s 8 p.m. episode features the Syracuse, N.Y., band Ra Ra Riot, whose indie rock has an orchestral flavor. A week later, the show will feature Philadanco performing at Montgomery County Community College. Other upcoming episodes feature the Cajun group BeauSoleil and the Kenyan-American band Extra Golden, whose music is partially inspired by the sub-Saharan Benga genre. WHYY airs in Philadelphia on channel 12.
I asked Mr. Haynie if “On Canvas” ever happened to catch a performer on an off-night.
He laughed and said no: “I think they turn it up a notch because they know it’s being recorded.”
Jonathan L. Fischer can be reached at jfischer@thebulletin.us
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