Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman, William Sidney Mount and the Sounds of the19th Century
Trudy Williams, Author

"The public history performance model by The Red Skies Music Ensemble brings the things that we can normally
only stare in wonder at in silence in our collections areas or gallery walls, to fully-fleshed out, breathing, dancing-in-the-aisles reality."
Joshua Ruff, Deputy Director, Director of Collections and Interpretation, The Long Island Museum of American Art and History.

Sponsored by the Long Island Museum of Art as companion to their exhibit,
Walt Whitman's Arcadia: Long Island Through the Eyes of a Poet & Painter

Walt Whitman, William Sidney Mount and the Sounds of the 19th Century explores the interconnected geographical, social and artistic biographies of the poet Walt Whitman and the painter/fiddler William Sidney Mount, highlighting the ways in which music was an essential part of their creative and social lives. With music performance as the portal, accompanied by narration, theatrical cameos, poetry, large screen imagery of art, music notation and other artifacts, general audiences hear what is seen in Mount’s music-related genre art and feels feel what is heard in the musical metaphores and references in the poetry of Whitman, a self-described “bard of songs”.

Favorite tunes of Whitman are played as well as selections from Mount’s own musical manuscripts, illuminating how both artists responded to the soundscape and developing social transformations of their times in complementary and overlapping ways: though their artistry, the experiences they sought out, and in their mutual belief in the creative and democratizing power of music.

With live music as the portal, the research-based narrative, theatrical cameos and archival imagery, the show also includes an audience sing-along and ends with a Q/A.

Video: Sara Banleigh as Hanna, describing her brother Walt's mercurial musical views before singing and playing a favorite aria .

Ensemble
Author/Curator: Trudy Williams
Music Director/Curator: Colin Harte
Assistant Musical Director: Matthew Christian
Actors
Narrator: Joshua Ruff
Ruth Mount: Sara Banleigh
W.S.Mount's Banjo player: Sebastian MacLaughlin
W.S.Mount's Mandolin player: Rob Meador

Musicians
Fiddle: Matthew Christian
Vocals: Sara Banleigh
Banjo: Sebastian MacLaughlin
Guitar: Colin Forhan
Mandolin: Rob Meador
Piano, percussion: Sara Banleigh

Walt Whitman, William Sidney Mount and the Sounds of the 19th Century was generously funded in part by the Ward Melville Heritage Trust.

Images: Long Island Museum