Composer and pianist Jacob Friedman. (Submitted photo)

GILBERTSVILLE – At 6 p.m. on Friday, March 15, Gilbertsville’s Dunderberg Gallery will present composer and pianist Jacob Friedman in a program called “Improvising on the Elements.”

Friedman will be responding to the theme of primal elements which his mother, the artist Carla Hall, represented in her monumental ceramic mural, Pancikarana, created at the Elizabeth Nields’ Clay Studio. A large-scale representation and full-scale studies of this work are now on view at the Dunderberg.

Friedman has performed with orchestra, jazz big band, percussion ensemble, and world music featuring sitar, tabla and piano. His songwriting, film scoring and orchestral composition reflect his drive to cross musical borders. World-renowned sitarist and composer Pradeep Ratnayake said, “Jacob's music goes right to the heart.” Friedman has performed  at Columbia and Princeton  Universities,  and Weill Recital Hall in New York City.  He is organist and choir director at Saint James’ Episcopal Church in Goshen, NY.

Carla Hall is a painter, sculptor, environmentalist and former brand designer. She now lives in the Butternut Valley on the land first settled by her family in 1789. In 1974, she graduated Middlebury College, studying painting for one year at the New York Studio School with Philip Guston. Moving to New York City that year, she founded and led the Carla Hall Design Group, and with her late husband Ben-Ami Friedman, raised their three children, Jacob, Ilana, and Matthew.  Hall moved to Morris in 2017, where she serves on the board of the Butternut Valley Alliance and as President of the Otsego Land Trust, and continues her ceramics work with Elizabeth Nields.

Speaking of her son, Carla Hall said, “Music has been the heart of Jacob’s soul since he was born. As a 5-year old, he showed me how to create the sound of an orchestra ‘in my mouth.’ For years, we have wanted to collaborate through our respective arts. With Improvising on the Elements, the Dunderberg Gallery will bring our hopes to life, as Jacob improvises on the mural’s five Elements— Creation's space, air, fire, water, and earth.”

Tickets for this performance will be available at the door on March 15th from 5:00 pm at the Dunderberg Gallery, 118 Marion Blvd in Gilbertsville. For more information, please call 607-783-2010.

-Information from the Dunderberg Gallery