The Archetype of Modern Man

The Archetype of Modern Man

The Archetype of Modern Man is four-part series developed by Houston-musician and writer Elizabeth Newkirk. The project features a philosophical narrative alongside a classical music concert and visual art program. Each presentation explores a condition of modern man: loneliness, self-reliance, Americanism, and nihilism.

Located at the Steinway Selection Center in downtown Houston:

401 Louisiana St in Houston, TX.

Tickets are free, RSVP to secure your seat. If you would like to support the series, a suggested donation is $25 per ticket.

Make your donation here

A special thanks to German Consulate of Houston, Steinway & Sons of Houston, and the Houston Arts Alliance for their partnership and support.

Elizabeth Newkirk is an American classical pianist and writer. She specializes in music of the early 20th century, and her scholarship explores American culture, mannerisms, and archetypes, as reflected in her debut album and essay, the Americanist. A passionate humanist, she values a broad perspective for an enriched assimilation of the arts. She is on faculty at the University of Houston and Houston Community College, where she teaches in the interdisciplinary arts and the humanities.

www.elizabethnewkirk.com

Jeanette “Joy” Harris is a Houston-based artist, and artistic researcher focused on the multi-dimensionality of performance and its intersection with philosophy. She is particularly interested in the constellations that emerge from the discourse between dance, performance art, vocality, and opera in the 20th and 21st centuries. She is an adjunct at the University of Houston McGovern College of the Arts. Joy’s creative works have been shown in group and solo exhibitions in the US, UK, and EU, and she has presented academic work at institutions like the University of Cambridge, Sorbonne University, American Society for Aesthetics, and the American Political Science Association.

www.jeanettejoyharris.me

Heather L. Johnson ---- is a cross-disciplinary artist whose drawings, embroideries and installations explore intersections between nature, mechanical systems, human emotion and climate change. Her work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and the public realm internationally. She holds an MFA from California College of the Arts and has been awarded artist residencies at Grand Canyon National Park; Houston Center for Contemporary Craft; Villa Bergerie (Spain); McColl Center for Visual Art, and other institutions. Heather is best known for her multi-year project “In Search of the Frightening and Beautiful”, for which she traveled solo by motorcycle throughout the Americas, making artworks on the road and giving them to strangers. During the pandemic she launched “Artificial Heart”, a wearable art practice of hand-making bags from repurposed materials, which she embroiders with maps and diagrams sourced for her non-commercial work. Both projects enable her ideas to travel beyond the confines of gallery walls.

www.heatherljohnson.com

Tenor Zachary Averyt made his operatic debut in 2001 as Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors and has since continued to delight audiences. He appears frequently with some of Houston's most notable ensembles, and was recently hailed as a “strong, clear and bright tenor”, praising him for the “warmth and ardor of his singing.” He has sung leading roles in diverse repertoire spanning from Charpentier to Benjamin Britten and has garnered praise for his interpretations of Mozart and bel canto heroes. Modern music features prominently in the tenor’s repertoire, and he has recently premiered major works by composers Kyle Kindred (Canciones de Alfaro) and Karim Al-Zand (The Leader), the latter of which was recently recorded and released by Navona Records. He has toured the Mediterranean with Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion, and recently gave an all-Britten recital at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig, Germany. An avid chamber musician, Dr. Averyt has sung nearly all of Britten’s small-scale works and has adapted a variety of English and folksong literature for performance with his regular collaborator, harpist Hope Cowan, including works by Britten, Downland, Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Fauré, and Ravel. He holds degrees from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. Dr. Averyt serves on the voice faculties of the Moores School and the Vocal Institute of the Texas Music Festival.

Antonio Cevallos is an avid teacher, performer and sought after recording artist. Formerly a musician with the San Antonio Symphony, Antonio performs with the Austin Symphony, Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Chamber Music Center, Austin Camerata, Austin Unconducted, the San Diego Symphony and the San Antonio Philharmonic.

Antonio has performed on some of the worlds best stages including Chicago Symphony Hall and The Seoul Arts Center. Locally, Antonio has performed on Texas main stages such as the Long Center in Austin, KMFA Studios in Austin and the Tobin Center in San Antonio

As an educator, Antonio is the co-founder of Chamber Academy Austin (CAA). CAA is a chamber music training academy that specializes in high level and in depth study of string quartet and small ensemble playing.

David Liakos is a faculty member in philosophy at Houston Community College. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of New Mexico and is the author of several journal articles and book chapters on phenomenology and hermeneutics. His current research project is the development of a "phenomenology of the humanities" or a "phenomenological humanities," that is, a first-person approach to the disclosure of the meaning of history and art in which my own being is at issue.

United States native Stephen Webb is a composer and multi-media artist based in Helsinki, Finland. His work explores surreal abstraction, placing materials outside of their assumed past, present and future. By combining genres, Webb creates sardonic and melancholic worlds that distort expectation, leaving audiences in vaguely familiar soundscapes. Recent works include those for the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Chamber Choir, K!ART Ensemble, Defunensemble, and the Bowery Trio, as well as for soloists Teuvo Taimioja and Elizabeth Newkirk. Webb holds degrees in composition from the Sibelius Academy and the Chicago College of Performing Arts.

Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. He is the author of Comparing Religions (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014); Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal (Chicago, 2011); Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred (Chicago, 2010); Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion (Chicago, 2007); The Serpent’s Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion (Chicago, 2007); Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of Mysticism (Chicago, 2001); and Kali’s Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna (Chicago, 1995). His present areas of writing and research include the articulation of a New Comparativism within the study of religion that will put “the impossible” back on the table again, a robust and even conversation between the sciences and the humanities, and the mapping of an emergent mythology or “Super Story” within paranormal communities and individual visionaries.

Jake Eshelman is a photo-based artist and visual researcher exploring the complex relationships between people, our environment, and everyone we share it with. Working to transcend the notion that humanity is somehow separate from—or superior to—the natural world, his work creates opportunities to address anthropocentrism and (re)consider our ecological kinships. He has exhibited work internationally and enjoys speaking about the issues he explores in his work, as well as the value and validity of artistic research. He is currently pursuing his MA in Ecology & Spirituality from The University of Wales, Trinity Saint David.

http://www.jakeeshelman.com

Margaux Crump is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the entanglements between ecology, folklore, and the occult. She is currently investigating the phenomena of the unseen, from the microscopic to the mythic worlds that surround us. Her sculpture, photography, and ritual work has been exhibited across the United States, most notably at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Saint Louis; Women and Their Work, Austin, TX, and DiverseWorks, Houston, TX. She is a recipient of the Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Award. Crump holds a MFA in studio art from Washington University in St. Louis.

https://margauxcrump.com

Antonio Cevallos is an avid teacher, performer and sought after recording artist. Formerly a musician with the San Antonio Symphony, Antonio performs with the Austin Symphony, Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Chamber Music Center, Austin Camerata, Austin Unconducted, the San Diego Symphony and the San Antonio Philharmonic.

Antonio has performed on some of the worlds best stages including Chicago Symphony Hall and The Seoul Arts Center. Locally, Antonio has performed on Texas main stages such as the Long Center in Austin, KMFA Studios in Austin and the Tobin Center in San Antonio

As an educator, Antonio is the co-founder of Chamber Academy Austin (CAA). CAA is a chamber music training academy that specializes in high level and in depth study of string quartet and small ensemble playing.