Fellows, Affiliated Fellows, Residents, Trustees and friends of the American Academy in Rome gathered on Manhattan’s Lower East Side at the Angel Orensanz Foundation for Contemporary Art on Friday, November 22, for the 2013 Cabaret. The evening included a reading, music, an Italian feast, and nonstop conversation. Now in its fourth year, the Cabaret was the idea of Academy Trustee Laurie Anderson (2006 Resident) who curated and performed at past Cabarets, sometimes with her husband Lou Reed, so AAR President and CEO Adele Chatfield-Taylor (1984 Fellow) launched the 2013 event with a salute to Laurie and Lou and dedicated the fourth Cabaret to Lou Reed’s memory.
As always when there is a reunion of Academy folk, the evening was well attended, and the dinner bell had to be rung several times before everyone sat down, and Mona Talbott, founding chef of the Academy’s Rome Sustainable Food Project, and volunteer chefs Mary Pat Walsh, Greer Nuttall (2007 RSFP intern), Timothy Woodward, Mahsa Kazemifar, and Cerise Mayo were able to bring out the delicious dinner, featuring pasta based on the recipes from the new cookbook Pasta by RSFP chef Christopher Boswell. Spirits and decibels remained high, but when the program began as dinner was winding down, you could have heard a pin drop. John Guare (2013 Resident) began by reading and performing a piece he had written in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, based on his own experience of the horrendous events of that day at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
Following the reading, AAR President and CEO–elect Mark Robbins (1997 Fellow) introduced Academy Trustee and Bang on a Can cofounder and artistic director, the composer David Lang (1991 Fellow), who presented each selection and musician from Bang on a Can All-Stars. Curated by Lang, the performances included Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, performed by the electric guitarist Mark Stewart, Tom Johnson’s Failing, performed by the bassist Robert Black, and Lang’s Press Release, played by Ken Thomson on bass clarinet.
The party went on until 10:30pm, when the wine ran out, and the Academy Bookstore, a new venture that was launched that night, closed its doors. Items for sale included the RSFP cookbooks (Biscotti, Zuppe, and Pasta); iPhone covers featuring the new mural, tea towels, notecards, and “Home From Rome” caps. (For items still available for purchase, visit the AAR Bookstore online).
Special thanks go to the sponsors of the 2013 Cabaret: Pasta Delverde, Gustiamo: Italy’s Best Food, Lucini Olive Oil, Pasanella and Son vintners, and Sullivan Street Bakery, who saw to it that all the Italian food was the real thing!