Peoria Riverfront Museum - Sounds in Solitude

The Peoria Riverfront Museum will host Sounds in Solitude beginning at 6:30 pm.  A special music series where art and music come together in a beautiful and moving way. Featuring Dr. Joshua Russell who will choose artwork from the exhibition Solitude: The Necessity of Art and performs a solo piece inspired by what he sees. A museum curator will join the performance to walk the audience through the selected artworks, giving insight into the art and the creative exchange between the musician and the visuals.   Light hors d’oeuvres will be served after the performance and a cash bar will be available.  Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for adult members and $10 for students with ID and are available online at https://www.peoriariverfrontmuseum.org

Dr. Joshua Russell has performed as a pianist, organist, and conductor throughout the United States, Europe, and Haiti, and currently serves as the artistic director and conductor of the Peoria Area Civic Chorale.  Dr. Russell’s performance is inspired by George Wesley Bellows’ Return of the Useless (1918), from the collection of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The blending of art and music comes together meaningfully as Dr. Russell shares his personal response to his selected piece, creating a powerful connection between sound and image.  Through solo piano works by Liszt, Prokofiev, Brahms, and Sibelius, pianist Joshua Russell explores multiple facets of the human experience of solitude as portrayed in the museum’s Solitude exhibition. Using carefully selected music to elicit the emotions of the artwork in the gallery, and Bellows’ painting in particular, Dr. Russell intends to evoke the emotional intent of these paintings, from quiet contemplation and isolation to even firm resolution and heroism.  Peoria Area Civic Chorale members will perform further to immerse the audience in the experience of Solitude. The performance takes place inside the galleries, with the piano placed directly in front of the artwork that inspired it. A reception immediately follows in the lobby.