In store for this week: 4/29- 5/6

The Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band will be performing at 7:30pm at Templeton Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium.  Conductors will be Dr. Richard Suk and Dr. Andrew Trachsel.

The Kennedy Museum of Art will be opening a new exhibit called “Teec Nos Pos: Navajo Weavings” 

Example of Navajo Weavings

This exhibition highlights the bold geometric design of Teec Nos Pos weavings from Kennedy Museum’s collections. Teec Nos Pos, a navajo community in northeaster Arizona, means “Ring of Cottonwood Trees.”

Check back for postings on other events this week such as the AZA! African Dance and Music Concert and Mom’s Weekend Choral Concert: University Singers, Singing Men of Ohio, & Women’s Chorale.

Don’t Miss Out!

There will be a performance of the Athens’ Children’s Chorus tonight at 7:30 in the recital hall at Robert Glidden Hall.  The concert will be directed by Melanie Horne and assistant Rebecca Gierhart.

Starting tomorrow the exhibit “Butterflies in our Midst” will open to the public at the Kennedy Museum of Art.

A family-friendly exhibition showcasing images of butterflies represented in the Kennedy Museum’s collection and in Ohio University’s Zoology Museum collection of butterfly specimens. Butterfly imagery is seen in jewelry, weavings, prints, ceramics, and in a side-by-side butterfly and moth specimen collection. Special programming for the exhibition features hands-on activities and tours.

This weekend only! Threepenny Opera

 

Photo Credit: Linsi McCall

Come join Macheath, Jenny, and the mischievous Peachum’s for an evening of greed and lies featuring an unforgettable score including “Mack the Knife” at Ohio University’s production of The Threepenny Opera, written by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. Students from Ohio University’s Opera-Music Theatre and Wind Ensemble programs bring to life this story that focuses on the under-belly London’s lowest of the low. Opera you say? Don’t be dismayed, this production (translated in over 18 languages worldwide) is being performed in English! No “opera” experience necessary. Performances run only one weekend, April 27th and 28th at 7:30 p.m. so be sure to call ahead to Blackburn Memorial Auditorium (740-593-4244) to reserve your tickets. Partnered with Arts for Ohio, any Ohio University student with a valid ID will receive admission for free. Appropriate for ages 14 and up.

Set in Victorian London, the play focuses on Macheath (Christian Lindsay), a sleazy, antiheroic criminal. Macheath loves and weds Polly Peachum (Anna Grossman) which greatly upsets her father, who controls the beggars and whores of London. Out of spite he plans to have Macheath hanged. His attempts are unsuccessful because the Chief of Police, Tiger Brown, is Macheath’s friend from their Army days. Nevertheless, Peachum is too powerful and eventually gets Macheath arrested and sentenced for execution. Macheath flees the gallows mere moments in advance when, a messenger from the Queen arrives with comedic timing and a royal pardon and a title as Baron.

The Threepenny Opera is a work of epic theatre. It asks the question: “Who is the greater criminal: he who robs a bank or he who founds one?” The Threepenny Opera is also an early representation of what comes to be the modern musical comedy genre with music heavily influenced by jazz. The song “The Ballad of Mackie Messer” which appears both at the beginning and end of the show is the work’s most popular song, later translated into English by Marc Blitzstein as “Mack the Knife”. It became jazz standard that has been performed by Louis Armstrong, Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Michael Bublé.

Visiting Artist- Sha Sha Higby

The College of Fine Arts is hosting performance sculpture artist Sha Sha Higby in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the College.  She is known for her evocative and haunting performances using the exquisite and ephemeral body sculpture she meticulously creates herself and moves within. Sha Sha Higby has spent years traveling internationally to study and develop her unique combination of Dance, Sculpture and Theater. She has performed and taught workshops in foreign destinations such as Korea, Japan, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Australia, Belgium, England, Singapore and a number of other countries.

The sculptures will be on display at the Kennedy Museum of Art from April 20 until August 12, 2012. The exhibition presents sculptural costumes and drawings by the international performance/sculptural artist.

Sha Sha Higby will be giving the following lectures and workshops throughout the week.

Lecture: April 23, 8pm at the Forum Theater

Performance: April 24, 8pm at the Forum Theater- Folds of Gold

Workshops: April 25, 5:10-9pm an April 26 5:10-7:30pm at the Kennedy Museum of Art

Workshop Presentation: April 26, 7:30-8pm at the Kennedy Museum of Art

Exhibition Reception: April 26, 8-9:30pm at the Kennedy Museum of Art

Gallery Walk and Talk: May 9, 12:10-12:50pm at the Kennedy Museum of Art

39th Annual Athens International Film and Video Festival

Join the southeast Ohio Community for seven days of national and international feature films, guest artists and special events.

39th Annual Athens International Film and Video Festival will begin Friday, April 13, 2012 at The Athena Cinema. The film festival will be ongoing until April 19th.

The Athens International Film and Video Festival was founded in 1974, and since then has presented independent films from around the world. The Festival is sponsored by the Athens Center for Film and Video, a project of the College of Fine Arts at Ohio University.

Each year, a Prescreening Committee comprised of artists, students, and community activists watch all the films and videos entered in the competition.
After all entries have been watched, the prescreeners evaluate all entries to determine films to include in public screenings.

Cash prizes are awarded by guest jurors, in four categories: documentary, experimental, narrative, and animation. Festival Jurors will be announced just prior to the Festival. Awards will be announced on the final day of the Festival.

Competition films are then programmed around various themes that emerge from the films selected; our intention is to group films into shows that reflect a common thematic thread.

The mission of the Athens Center for Film and Video is to develop, encourage, sponsor and otherwise support the appreciation, production, and growth of independent, community and alternative media arts in southeast Ohio and the surrounding region. “We believe that collective experience of moving pictures, in a public space, enhances and strengthens our community while simultaneously celebrating and supporting media artists engaged with contemporary issues and committed to expanding the possibilities of this art form.”

The Athens International Film and Video Festival showcases contemporary international films, sponsors a competition for independent media artists, and invites guest filmmakers to screen and discuss their work.

For a complete list of films and show times visit: http://www.ohio.edu/orgs/athensfest/

New This Week: April 2- April 6

At 7:30 pm Ohio University Faculty Garry Wasserman will be performing on the double bass in the School of Music Recital Hall.

Garry Wasserman, adjunct professor of double bass, has been a member of the Florida Philharmonic, Harrisburg Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, a full time substitute with the Indianapolis Symphony, Principal Bass of the Columbus Bach Ensemble, and an associate member of the Columbus Symphony. A prolific studio artist in the Indianapolis area for over 15 years, he has performed on HBO movie sound tracks, solo albums with Sandi Patti, Ray Boltz, Daniel Narducci, Erich Kunzel, Disney on Ice productions, and Brazilian christian pop albums. He can also be heard on the Essential Elements for Strings demonstration CDs for the Hal Leonard comprehensive string method series. Additionally, he has performed frequently with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and the Louisville Orchestra.

Originally from Philadelphia, Mr. Wasserman began bass studies in Washington D.C. with H. Stevens Brewster, principal bass of the National Symphony, continuing with Lucas Drew in Miami. Upon graduation from the high school at the North Carolina School of the Arts, he attended Indiana University, obtaining the BM as a student of Murray Grodner and Stuart Sankey, continuing master’s studies with Bruce Bransby. Additional study was with Anthony Bianco in Pittsburgh, Eugene Levinson at the Aspen School, Lawrence Hurst at Indiana, and Matthew Zory in Cincinnati. Attending Penn State University on a graduate assistantship, he studied music education with emphasis on educational psychology and string pedagogy. In the final stages of obtaining the DMA at the Ohio State with Paul Robinson, focusing on the Alexander Technique, jazz bass instruction and performance, and research on newly discovered works of Serge Koussevitsky.

He is a member of “Indy Klez”, a klezmer folk group based in Indianapolis, as well as “Clintonville Jazz Company”, a Columbus based jazz trio performing an alternative jazz sound combination using bass, guitar, and violin. He performs jazz and klezmer on a 1864 bass by August Gemunder, classical on a 1854 five string bass by Prosdicimo Gazolla.
The Ohio University School of Music is pleased to announce that the percussion ensemble Clocks in Motion, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will present a recital on Wednesday, April 4th at 7:30pm in the Glidden Recital Hall.

Formed in 2011, Clocks in Motion is a contemporary percussion ensemble dedicated to performing classic percussion ensemble literature, chamber music, and commissioning new repertoire. In 2011 and 2012, the group is scheduled to perform 10 programs of contemporary chamber music. In addition to these concerts, Clocks in Motion is embarking on its first tour to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Ohio University, the University of Michigan, and Butler University.

Besides performing, Clocks in Motion also has a passion for educational and community outreach. The group performed with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra Percussion Extravaganza in March of 2012 to raise money for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin.

Future plans for this relatively young group includes more educational outreach and commissioning projects. The Clocks in Motion 2012-2013 season will feature 6 world premieres, from student and professional composers, the construction of a 5-octave quarter-tone marimba, and a collaborative project with the University of Wisconsin-Madison dance department .

Clocks in Motion began as an extension of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Graduate student percussion ensemble. Now, the group functions as a graduate student-run, resident percussion ensemble at the university. Clocks in Motion are all members of the UW-Madison percussion studio under the direction of Anthony Di Sanza.