"Black Bear's Hudson Valley Tale" is available at CD Baby and on iTunes

Order "Black Bear's Hudson Valley Tale" from CD Baby Here.

To find out more about what Madera Vox is doing, visit our website at maderavox.org or on Facebook!

The Bear Went Over the Mountain - The Sequel to BB'sHVT!

Caterskill Falls by William Cullen Bryant

http://www.wunderground.com/wximage/walcek

Catterskill Falls

 William Cullen Bryant

 

Midst greens and shades the Catterskill leaps,
  From cliffs where the wood-flower clings;
All summer he moistens his verdant steeps
  With the sweet light spray of the mountain springs;
And he shakes the woods on the mountain side,
When they drip with the rains of autumn-tide.

But when, in the forest bare and old,
  The blast of December calls,
He builds, in the starlight clear and cold,
  A palace of ice where his torrent falls,
With turret, and arch, and fretwork fair,
And pillars blue as the summer air.

For whom are those glorious chambers wrought,
  In the cold and cloudless night?
Is there neither spirit nor motion of thought
  In forms so lovely, and hues so bright?
Hear what the gray-haired woodmen tell
Of this wild stream and its rocky dell.

To read the entire poem: http://www.poetryatlas.com/poetry/poem/719/catterskill-falls.html

The River Otter from Black Bear's Hudson Valley Tale

from Art Jonak on Facebook

We thought that this was a pretty cute photo of an otter and her baby!  Enjoy while listening to our recording of "The River Otter's Tale" from Black Bear's Hudson Valley Tale.

The Hudson River School of Art: "Black Bear" was there too!

"Over one tier and then another..." where it all begins for Black Bear

At left: "The Falls at Kaaterskill" by Thomas Cole 

The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism. The paintings for which the movement is named depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, including the Catskill, Adirondack, and the White Mountains; eventually works by the second generation of artists associated with the school expanded to include other locales.

There is a special "Hudson River School Art Trail" that takes you to all of the sites that inspired the paintings, including the one of "The Falls at Kaaterskill" by Thomas Cole. Click here to learn more about the Art Trail, and to download maps to the different sites along the Hudson River.

Capital Region BOCES Arts in Education Showcase - May 17, 2012

Cornelia and Kelly spent the day upstate at the Capital Region BOCES Arts in Education Showcase.  Looking forward to connecting with the many teachers and parents we met during the day! Thanks to Shelley Viola and her colleagues for their hard work in putting this together every year.

Iza Trapani's Book Launch Party!

Here are some photos from Iza's book launch party - she was so wonderful with the children, and graciously talked about our performance of her "Black Bear's Hudson Valley Tale" in Beacon on April 14. Hopefully we will have some of her new books on hand too!