>> BOWEN: I’m Jared Bowen, coming up on Open Studio, Jonathan Cohen strikes a chord as Handel and Hayden Society’s new artistic director.

For Ruth Carter, the Oscar is a perfect fit.

She wins another Academy Award for costume design.

We'll walk through her most memorable designs on film.

How overtly political was your work in Do the Right Thing?

>> We all knew that we were doing a protest film.

>> BOWEN: Then, Wampanoag artist Elizabeth James-Perry is forever tied to the ocean.

>> Each shell is unique, no two shells are the same.

And so it’s kind of a surprise when you're opening the shells, you see a new pattern, new striations, new colors, and you get inspiration that way, it just keeps me going.

>> BOWEN: It’s all now on Open Studio.

♪ ♪ First up, everything old is new again.

Boston’s Grammy-winning Handel and Haydn Society, which just announced its 2023-24 season, has been captivating audiences for-- wait for it-- 208 consecutive seasons, the most of any performing arts organization in the United States.

Now the age-old institution has a new artistic director: Jonathan Cohen.

I recently sat down with him to talk about his vision for taking H and H into its 209th season, and beyond.

Jonathan Cohen, new artistic director of Handel and Haydn Society, welcome.

>> Thank you, lovely to be here.

>> BOWEN: Well, where do you begin to start?

It's, I think it's an interesting juxtaposition.

You're described as the youngest leader of the oldest continuously performing arts organization in this country.

And so how do you look at that juxtaposition of, of young and very institutional?

>> Young and institutional, yes, it is a juxtaposition.

But, you know, somehow I don't think of, I mean, H and H is old, isn't it?

207, 208 years old.

Um, it's a formidable, um, kind of tradition.

And that's great, but it's sort of always reinventing itself.

I mean, now it's a period instrument orchestra.

So I think that's, that's the key, really.

It's always, um, it's always new and developing.

And that's, that's probably how I solve the juxtaposition, I guess.

(orchestra performing) >> BOWEN: Walk me through this; how music that we may have heard time and again throughout our lives can still be new and can still be evolving and changing.

>> Yeah, that's the beauty of music, isn't it, in a way?

That each time you pick up your instrument, each time you make a note, a sound, you're recreating the music.

The music is not, um, it's not a sound from the 17th century, you know, so we're recreating and it's just as new and relevant now as it ever was.

That's the beauty of music, I think.

Certainly, you know, when we're with all the musicians on the stage, we're making something in the moment and new.

And the great thing about baroque music is actually there's a lot of symbiosis between folk music, pop music, baroque music.

There's the dancing styles of the music.

So it's very, you know, sometimes when I was hearing some music by the Beatles not too long ago, I thought, goodness, that sounds very, very baroque, somehow.

>> BOWEN: Where did you come to it?

And when did you come to it?

The period music.

>> In baroque, in period music?

Yeah, well, I studied musicology at Cambridge University and, you know, with the chapel choirs there, I actually had the college harpsichord in my room for a while.

And I took a real interest in that because, the university had this baroque instrument collection, you know?

So I sort of grabbed, grabbed a cello from a cupboard and tried to... 'cause I was really interested by that, you know?

It was always, maybe it was driven a little bit by the, by the old music in the chapels, and the religious music as well.

That was always very inspiring.

To go sit in King's College chapel and listen to some Bach, for example.

>> BOWEN: Is it a chemical reaction you have?

Is it an emotional reaction?

>> It just seems very, very natural.

It's all driven by a kind of aesthetic of, you know, of the culture and of the time.

And just to put yourself in the shoes of what it might be like to be in Venice in 1600 and what was going on and what were writers and poets doing and what was the zeitgeist, you know, that's, that's somehow all part of the music.

>> BOWEN: So there's an element of, if not travel, storytelling for you in this music.

>> Oh, for sure, yeah, very much, you know, especially when with so many, so much music is connected to opera and the cantatas and kind of the, the, the dreams of, of people, you know, that sort of the whole pastoral idyll.

That's a big, big thing for the cantatas.

They're always talking about a poor shepherd that's been lost in love, you know?

I mean, I'm not sure that it's a very specific shepherd, but it's more of a sort of fantasy.

And it's important to understand those themes, you know?

>> BOWEN: When you're on stage conducting, are you, are you visualizing those stories?

>> Um, no.

I mean, for me, it's more sort of archetypal or sort of, it's a sort of key.

I don't take things often too literally.

There's a lot of importation from classical archetypes and stories, and Greek myths and things like that.

But, you know, they're there to symbolize things.

If we're doing a cantata about Ariadne left on an island, then it's not necessarily about someone being left on an island.

It's about abandonment, it's about love, it's about loneliness, so all those things, you know, it's like little keys, really.

>> BOWEN: Well, thinking about the, all of the other people in the room, the audience, why is it that this music endures, and you have these halls filled, especially for Handel and Haydn Society, which really has just grown in such a marvelous fashion.

I would say especially over the last decade.

The group has again come in to its own.

>> Yeah.

Well, one of the things that really attracted me about H and H was the way that the musicians are communicating with each other.

(orchestra performing, choir singing) There's a lot of vitality and energy in the group.

And, you know, essentially it's like a big chamber music.

Even when we're doing things with a large chorus and orchestra, everyone's invested in the score and in the music, you know?

And that's the sort of, that, that kind of vitality and the communication between musicians, that's very infectious and noticeable to the public, I think.

>> BOWEN: Do you feel that you have any sort of mission when it comes to this music?

>> I mean, you know, there's many difficult things going on in the world, and music is a, is a balm, it's a respite.

It's a place of dreams, it's a place of beauty.

And I think that's, you know, I certainly feel that when we're doing concerts that you see people's faces and, you know, you don't know about their personal lives.

But it's just... it's a moment, you know?

And the world needs more beauty in it.

>> BOWEN: Do you have a sense of how you will start to lead Handel and Haydn society?

>> Yeah, I mean, there's, there's, um, there's many things to talk about there because I have lots of, lots of ambition for the group.

I, I love what it's doing.

It's doing great work in education as well.

I'm very keen to see education as a priority.

As you know, H and H has seven youth choruses, and I want to figure out how we can, how we can collaborate, how we can help instrumentalists in the same way.

It'd be nice to bring H and H, while it's very important that it's part of the community and I want to deepen that tie as well, what about getting out of Boston as well, and looking and traveling and waving the H and H flag abroad?

And, you know, these are all, all things I want to investigate, and it's a very exciting time.

>> BOWEN: Well, it has been great to speak with you.

Congratulations, and we look forward to seeing what you do, even better if we can attend concerts in Europe.

>> Yeah.

>> BOWEN: Why not?

We'll go on the road with you.

>> That's fantastic.

>> BOWEN: Thank you.

>> Thanks, Jared.

♪ ♪ >> BOWEN: Next, in 2019, Springfield's own Ruth Carter made history as the first Black woman to win an Oscar for costume design.

She now has two-- winning another Academy Award this year for her work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

>> Thank you to the Academy for recognizing the superhero that is a Black woman.

She endures, she loves, she overcomes, she is every woman in this film.

>> BOWEN: We bring you a conversation I first had with Carter in 2021 at the New Bedford Art Museum, where a retrospective of her work, from early Spike Lee films to the wonderland of Wakanda, was on view.

This is one of Oprah Winfrey's ensembles from the film Selma by director Ava Duvernay, one of countless costumes Ruth Carter has designed over her 30-plus-year career.

>> We had Oprah's character, who was Annie Lee Cooper, who had a scene where she was going to attempt to register to vote.

>> You work for Mr. Dunn down at the rest home, ain't that right?

>> Annie Lee Cooper was a domestic.

So I at first gave Oprah kind of her uniform.

And then Ava said, you know, "No, I feel like "this is a special occasion for her.

Let's have her dress up in her Sunday best for this."

>> BOWEN: And why would she have had a brooch?

>> Well, you know, I remember brooches and earrings when I was a little girl in church.

So that's a little bit of, you know, my heart on-- in the costume design.

>> BOWEN: At the New Bedford Art Museum, this is a collection of costumes Carter has personally kept over the years, from her work on the Roots reboot, to a polyester panoply from the comedy Dolemite Is My Name, to Spike Lee's groundbreaking Do the Right Thing.

>> Always do the right thing.

>> BOWEN: How overtly political was your work in Do The Right Thing?

>> We all knew that we were doing a protest film-- this was about one hot day in New York City.

The colors in Do The Right Thing are very saturated, almost in a surrealistic form, that at night you could see these colors almost ignite.

>> BOWEN: Carter's career began in Springfield, Massachusetts, where she interned in a college costume shop after a brief spell as an actress.

I actually could feel how important my wardrobe was to my, my performance.

>> BOWEN: Her job, she says, is literally in the details-- the little things she does in color, fabric, and accessories to manifest a mood.

>> The aging of the jacket, the billowing of the pockets, shoes that are run over.

All silently tell the story.

>> She's like unmatched in the field, and just a really, really special, thoughtful person.

>> BOWEN: Jamie Uretsky is the museum's curator, who spent two years sifting through Carter's costumes, sketches and mood boards.

But her chief inspiration was the designer's Oscar acceptance speech in 2019 for her work on Black Panther, making her the first Black person to win an Academy Award for costume design.

>> Black Panther, Ruth Carter!

(cheers and applause) >> Thank you for honoring African royalty, and the empowered way woman can look and lead on-screen.

I think that her as, like, a powerful Black woman, who has just, like, had her hand in, you know, like over 40 films that are imperative to understanding American history and the Black experience.

She makes the experiences of these people feel real.

>> BOWEN: When she first started out in Hollywood, Carter says there was a limit to how Black people were portrayed on camera.

>> Every time a Black person was cast, they were a gang banger, or they had their hat turned backwards, or they had a big gold chain.

And there were so many more stories in the community that weren't being seen.

>> BOWEN: Carter is now a world away from that time, in the world of Wakanda-- the fictional setting of Black Panther.

Her looks came from deep research into African tribes and influences, and after the film's blockbuster success, Carter's designs on Wakandan culture melded into our own.

>> I hate to tell you, but you can't get to Wakanda.

It's totally made up.

(laugh) But it's kind of an aspirational place.

We want to create that place that you want to go to because it looks like, you know, the perfect place to experience culture that has not been appropriated, or has not been spoiled by, you know, colonization.

>> BOWEN: Spend some time with Carter and you quickly realize she may be most proud of how much research she's done, tracing the path of indigo from Sierra Leone through generations of Africans as she illustrated in Roots.

Noting how tight Martin Luther King, Jr. kept his collar or sitting down at the Massachusetts Department of Correction to read the letters of Malcolm X.

>> Learning was very important to him and growth was very important to him.

When I look at Malcolm X, I can see my intent.

The color palette is very vibrant when he's a young dancer in the dance halls.

It kind of washes itself away with the denim in the prison.

And then when he comes out, it's almost like a black and white film.

>> BOWEN: A fitting if not poetic description from a woman who has always been able to dress the part.

♪ ♪ >> BOWEN: Wampanoag artist and scientist Elizabeth James-Perry has just be named a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow, the country's highest honor in folk and traditional arts.

A member of the Wampanoag tribe, she approaches her artistic work with the power of ancestry, history, and the sea all at her fingertips.

We're bringing you a conversation I had with James-Perry in 2020, when her exhibition Ripples.

Through a Wampanoag Lens was on view at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Elizabeth James-Perry, thank you for being with us.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> BOWEN: Well, I have so many questions about all of you that you bring to your work from your family history, who you are as an artist, a marine biologist.

But... but talk me through what comes into play when you're making your pieces.

>> Sure.

So when I'm practicing my art, I start with the quahog shells, and I kind of sort them by size and thickness and I guess age to some degree.

And I look at the deeper purple part of the shell for cues to what kind of designs might come out of the shell really nicely.

Sometimes it's really beautiful, kind of stellar designs in the purple.

Sometimes there is an image that almost suggests a fisherman casting his net or a nice, you know, rich bear.

It's a nice northern symbol.

So I just look at those, and scrutinize them, and wait for some inspiration.

And once in a while, I have a beautiful, beautiful shell and I won't have an immediate need for it.

So I'll just put it aside, knowing it's a special piece, and I'll just wait for the proper inspiration.

>> BOWEN: How do you find your shells?

Where do you find your shells?

>> Sure, so I'm located right in Massachusetts, in the South Coast area and that's where I get my quahog shells.

I also get them occasionally on Martha's Vineyard near my home community of Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard, I should say.

>> BOWEN: And how... has it changed?

And I understand this is you look at climate, you look at the seas again, going back to your marine biology background.

Have you noticed the shells change in what turns up now and how many turn up now?

>> There's a lot of fishing pressure, of course, on quahogs in this region.

So as a result, when I work with shell, I'm actually working with shells that are, on average, smaller and younger than those that my ancestors used.

>> BOWEN: How did you learn your process?

I understand that it gets passed down-- or in your case anyway-- it's been passed down from woman to woman in your family.

>> Actually, so it's a little bit more flexible than that.

You know, I think my entire family, I should credit them all with being very creative and really influential.

I grew up watching my mother practice scrimshaw.

And so there's a strong background in jewelry.

Wampum wasn't really as commonly produced when I was very young, but there were still some community members who were working with wampum.

And then I think, you know, gradually, as we continued to use it and others began to really appreciate its value and its unique appearance-- that purple and white shell is so striking and unique.

I think we just had more of a market and a niche, and we had more opportunities increasingly to share culture along with the beautiful shell jewelry and along with the other cultural arts that we practice.

And so it's just been something, I think, that's been more so steadily growing and more and more, I think tribal members are practicing it now.

>> BOWEN: Did all of those factors come into play with you or what drove you to decide to... to really be an artist?

(soft chuckle) >> I think what drove me to focus on wampum arts was that I was also going through a phase of really immersing myself into 17th century Wampanoag history and culture.

And wampum is such a huge part of those times, still very, very common.

And it was common for leadership to be adorned with belts.

There's also leadership pendants.

If you're made for it, I guess, wampum is very addictive.

The shell is so intriguing.

Each shell is unique.

No two shells are the same.

And so it's kind of a surprise when you're opening the shells and you see a new pattern, new striations, new colors, and you get inspiration that way.

It just keeps me going.

>> BOWEN: As you talk about and you think about your history, is this an especially poignant moment for you?

I know this does play into why the Whaling Museum has your exhibition now.

And this one we're where we're commemorating the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the pilgrims here, which, of course, came of great consequence.

What does that mean for you in this moment?

>> Sure.

It was really meaningful for me when the New Bedford Whaling Museum approached me.

Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes approached me to potentially do an exhibit around the time of the 2020 exhibits.

It seemed really timely.

It was something of great personal importance because, of course, I have so many generations of Wampanoag whalers in my family and so much of a strong association with Gay Head and New Bedford whaling history, and Nantucket history as well through other lines.

It was just really special.

It was really unique.

It was very close to my heart.

I was really pleased to be able to be there representing my family.

I think it's important to have those opportunities.

I think that for, for me and for my community, it represents a chance to show that we're still here, that we still care, that we still have a connection with our homelands and home waters, and are still using some of the same traditional creative expression that were important to our ancestors as well.

So there's a nice cultural continuity.

>> BOWEN: And finally, I just want to ask about one piece in particular.

You walk into this, the gallery, and it just blazes off the wall.

It's the leadership medallion.

Tell me about that piece.

>> Sure.

So the, the... the leadership medallion is a piece that is referred to a lot as the Wampum Star.

The symbol itself is actually a four directional symbol that there is white that picks out that four directional symbol or star or sun symbol.

And it has to do with our beliefs in the qualities of a good leader and our expectations about what a good leader is.

And among those properties is the ability to be really patient, be really consistent, to stay involved and engaged and to stay present and to be there to support your people, no matter what, through thick or thin.

And they could have, um, you know, not stay true to their people.

But when I look at their behavior, they... they sacrificed everything for us, they went through unbelievable hardships and met terrible ends.

And I can't imagine I'm smiling, but it's like hard to process, really, on camera.

They went through... they, they gave up everything, including their lives, so that we could be here today.

Um... and it's humbling.

It's really amazing.

It's very admirable.

And it's not hero worshiping.

It's the reality of how they carried themselves.

And that's a challenge to live up to but I think it's a worthy challenge.

>> BOWEN: Well, as I say, of all of your wonderful pieces, it just drew my eye, I think it came through... in what you've created.

Elizabeth James-Perry, thank you so much for being with us today.

>> Thank you.

♪ ♪ >> BOWEN: And that is all for this edition of Open Studio.

As always, you can see us first on youtube.com/GBHNews.

Remember to follow us on Instagram and Twitter @OpenStudioGBH.

I'm @TheJaredBowen.

And visit us online at GBH.org/OpenStudio.

I'm Jared Bowen, thanks for joining us.

Every Friday, Boston Public Radio hosts live music at GBH's studio at the Boston Public Library.

So we return to Jonathan Cohen on harpsichord, playing along with musicians of the Handel and Haydn Society, performing two movements from Handel's Gloria.

(performing song) (operatic singing in Latin) (operatic singing in Latin) (operatic singing in Latin) (operatic singing in Latin) (song ends, new song begins) (operatic singing in Latin) (operatic singing in Latin) (operatic singing in Latin) (operatic singing in Latin)