The Friends of Cedarmere are celebrating the legacy of 19th century poet William Cullen Bryant next Saturday with a traditional musical offering from Bali by way of Queens College.
The organization is hosting the Balinese gamelan ensemble Yowana Sari, led by Michael Lipsey of Queens College’s Aaron Copland School of Music, to perform at Bryant’s Roslyn Harbor estate as part of its new Seasons at Cedarmere cultural series.
“It occurred to us that we needed something very celebratory to launch this new era and remind people that Bryant had a very outward embrace of the world and got some of his best ideas from going abroad,” said Paul Baserman, the chairman of the Friends of Cedarmere’s events committee. “The instruments and this kind of music are a way to relaunch that spirit.”
The ensemble, complete with gongs, metallophones and drums, is scheduled to begin its performance at 3:30 p.m. at Cedarmere’s Sunken Garden off Northern Boulevard in Roslyn Harbor. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the door.
Following the performance, the instruments will be individually demonstrated for their sound quality and technique.
“It’s suitable for an outdoor setting because in Bali it’s always performed outdoors,” Baserman said. “It’s very alive music and will resonate across the harbor. We’re hoping people hear it and come to check it out.”
The concert is the second event in the Friends of Cedarmere’s Seasons at Cedarmere cultural series, following a lecture from retired CUNY professor Gilbert Muller at the Sea Cliff Yacht Club in May.
“We want to restore the image of Bryant not as crusty old ivory tower figure but of someone who engaged with the world as a whole,” Baserman said. “He was a man of mission, a man of the world, and that’s our initiative, to restore the image of how he shaped the world to bring together the powers that be.”
Baserman said the Friends of Cedarmere are scheduling other lectures and musical performances to take place throughout the summer, but declined to disclose other events.
Proceeds from the concert will benefit the Friends of Cedarmere’s efforts to restore Bryant’s personal library and biographical film study to reconvene after a larger restoration of his Roslyn Harbor property is completed.
Bryant’s main house has been closed to the public since 2008. It had been used as a museum since 1994 but fell into disrepair and was regularly vandalized.
Since the house’s close, the Hagedorn Foundation, a Port Washington-based social service provider, has used Cedarmere as a temporary office and has committed approximately $250,000 toward the restoration of its interiors and bringing the house up to current building codes.
The Long Island-based rock band NGHBRS also wrote and recorded its full-length debut “Twenty-One Rooms” CD at Cedarmere during Superstorm Sandy.
“It seems everything’s happening at once, but it’s been a long time coming,” Baserman said.
