The Rose Art Museum explores Empires and Environments
The End of
Composing the Future
Redefining the sound of the twenty-first century
Innocence
Curtain Calls
Brandeis resident actors take a bow
VOLUME 4 / NUMBER 2
A m ag a z i n e d e vo t e d t o t h e C r e at i v e a r t s
Winter/Spring 2008
Brandeis University
Contents
Enter the Picture
The Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts transforms art, culture…and environments.
In October 2006, Joshua Louis Simon ’07 came to my office with a proposal for the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. A little tentatively—I was the new festival producer and he had an idea that he wasn’t sure
was entirely sane—Joshua explained that he wanted to
build a life-size, three-dimensional replica of Vincent van Gogh’s bedroom, as depicted in the painting Bedroom in Arles, and install it in the Shapiro Campus
Center. “I’m not an art history major, but I know how to
build stage sets,” he said. “Is that OK?”
It was more than OK. I was delighted. Delighted that
Joshua had lived with a poster of this painting for years
and loved it enough to want to be inside it; delighted that
he wanted the entire campus to do so as well. I encour-
aged Joshua to apply for an Office of the Arts grant, which
he did, receiving most of the rather substantial amount of
money he needed to build and furnish the room.
Along the way, Joshua consulted with art history professor Nancy Scott on the peculiar obtuse angles of the room;
enlisted his studio art friends to reproduce the paintings
that hung on the walls; got the OK from building supervisors
regarding modern fire codes; scoured estate sales and junk
stores for just the right bed, chairs, and props; and of course
stayed up all night the week before the festival to complete
and install the work.
As Joshua hoped, people stepped out of the threestory-high Shapiro atrium—hung with modern art and humming with electronic activity—and entered van
Gogh’s world, and in this simple, yet meticulously crafted
environment they lounged, studied, marveled. Passing by
one afternoon with a cup of coffee, I waved at Joshua himself, who reclined on the narrow van Gogh bed, chatting
on his cell phone. He stage-whispered back, “I’m talking to my Nana!”
It was a transformative scene that van Gogh would have
found astonishing.
Joshua’s innovation, creativity, and spirit of “I love it,
therefore I will share it with everyone” suffuses the Festival of the Creative Arts. Founded by the great American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein for
the first Brandeis commencement in 1952 and renamed in
his honor in 2005, the festival hosts performances and art
exhibitions by our
talented and visionary students, staff,
and faculty, as well as by select artists from across New England.
As we edit this
issue of State of the
Arts, plans for the
April 2008 festival are starting to
bubble up. In Shapiro Campus Center,
in line for coffee and bagels or sharing laptop time on the couches, students
tell me about their proposals: a musical murder mystery; a live “remix” of Hassidic melodies and contemporary
percussion; an ambitious ten-person theater collaboration.
I look over at the empty spot where van Gogh’s bedroom
lived last year—and I can’t wait to see what this year brings.
Experience art as transformation, and witness the
dreams and visions of a new generation of artists and
thinkers. Please join me April 9–13 for our annual celebration of the arts at Brandeis!
winter/spring 2008
Vol. 4, Number 2
State of the Arts is published twice a
year by the Office of the Arts and the Office of Communications.
The Office of the Arts Director
Scott Edmiston
Program Administrator
Ingrid Schorr
Design
Chan Miller Design
University Photographer
Mike Lovett
Publications Editor
Cathy Mallen
Contributors
David Colfer
Stephanie Herold
Leigh Hilderbrandt
Shawna Kelley
Lisa Lynch
Mary Ruth Ray
Michael Rush
Joy Vlachos
Provost and Senior Vice President
for Academic Affairs
Marty Wyngaarden Krauss
Senior Vice President for Communications
Lorna Miles
Correspondence
Office of the Arts
MS 051 Brandeis University
PO Box 549110
Waltham, MA
02454-9110
brandeis.edu/arts
Ingrid Schorr
Brandeis Office of the Arts
<<
On the cover:
World #11
by Ruud van Empel
Visual Arts at Brandeis
2
Environmental Studies
4
Rose Art Museum Exhibitions and Events
6Women’s Studies Research Center/Department
Margaret Evangeline and Dominique Nahas question the legacy of empire.
of Fine Arts Exhibitions
8
Music at Brandeis
Composing the Future
ne of the nation’s top-ranked music programs, Brandeis redefines the
O
sound of the twenty-first century.
10 A Noteworthy Tradition of Innovation
11
Lydian String Quartet: Around the World in a String Quartet Series
12 MusicUnitesUS World Music Concert and Residency/Marquee Series
13 Brandeis Department of Music Concerts
Theater at Brandeis
14 Brandeis Theater Company Winter/Spring Season
16
Curtain Calls: The MFA acting class of 2008 takes a bow.
The latest score on Brandeis’s award-winning faculty composers
18 Festivals: The Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts, SunDeis Film Festival, and Jewishfilm.2008
19 Membership
20 The Art of the Matter
21 Calendar Highlights, Winter/Spring 2008
visual arts
at Brandeis
From outside the collection we’ve
included mainly—but not exclusively—
emerging artists from a wide cultural
mix. They represent photography (Rudd
van Empel), performance video (Kate
Gilmore, a current Rome Prize winner), sculpture (John Powers, Michael
Combs), abstract painting (Karl Klingbiel), representational painting (Natalie
Frank, Tonya Ingersoll), and architecture
(F+T Architects).
Environmental
Curators Margaret Evangeline and Dominique Nahas
question the legacy of empire.
V
isitors to last year’s Paper Trail exhibition at the Rose Art Museum will remember Margaret Evangeline’s large-scale paintings,
including her recent work made with gunshots. This semester
Evangeline returns to the Rose as co-curator of Empires and Environments, an exhibition that brings significant but relatively unknown artists
into the museum alongside works from the collection.
Empires and Environments is intended to ignite symbolic relationships
between emerging and established artists. “Exhibits like this add to
the constantly unfolding meaning of our collection and enable the Rose
to explore contemporary art like no other institution in our area,” says
Rose director Michael Rush.
Putting together the exhibition proved to require a lengthy exploration period. Evangeline and her co-curator, Dominique Nahas, visited
the Rose five times over a three-month period on what they came to
call a “safari” into the Rose’s vaults.
Rush conducted an e-mail interview with Evangeline and Nahas (who
responded jointly) about the upcoming exhibition.
brandeis university | State of the Arts
Where did the title Empires and
Environments come from?
Like all things in the world it came from
a series of remarks and comments at the
breakfast table. We were reading accounts
in the New York Times of how mismanaged
our country is legally and fiscally and environmentally, and how much of its legacy as
a leading democratic country has flattened
and withered during this century. It also
came from our discussion of the difference between morality and ethics. We saw
morality as the environment that initiates
the code of meaning, and we discussed
ethics as the behavior and the intention that
motivates it (a bit like building an edifice of
conduct). So we started playing with the
words high ground/low ground/keeping
one’s ground/ground-breaking. Somehow
inferences relating to ethics, retrenchment,
and innovation kept popping up in light of
this wordplay, and Empires and Environments was born.
<<
Studies
Tell us how you decided which pieces
from the collection to use and
how they relate to the young artists
you’re including.
Purposeful indirection was the way to go.
After each safari into the heart of the col-
lection, we noted aspects or tendencies
that struck us. As we identified possible
guest artists, we came up with an organizing
narrative—” Empires and Environments”—
in which we assigned each artist a role as
either a “protagonist” or an “antagonist.”
Natalie Frank, Pact, 2006. Oil on canvas, 71.25 x 47.25 in.
We wanted to avoid mental ready-mades,
clichés having to do directly with the
ecosystem and empire-building—the Pax
Americana thing. And we wanted to avoid
overt militaristic themes; we all see enough
of that in the media.
In getting to know the collection over
these months and with your knowledge
of the contemporary field, how do you
think what is going on today connects
with our collection?
The collection at the Rose is a living,
breathing organism that has been and
continues to be shaped by forces that
connect us all and reflect us all in various ways (ideological, economic, social,
historical). In a sense it is a humanistic
archive of visual achievement from all
nationalities and inclinations. We felt
that the inclusive, generous spirit of the
collection reflects the extraordinary giveand-take of the contemporary art scene
nationally and internationally.
The Rose collection, with iconic
works from Warhol and Rauschenberg
to De Kooning and Lichtenstein, is a
treasure trove, but it also embraces so
much more, such as South African artist Robin Rhodes and the “future icon”
Dana Schutz. This early-century era,
with all of its seemingly intractable
social problems and political cynicism,
will nevertheless be seen as a period
of great cultural experimentation
and innovation.
Empires and Environments is on view at
the Rose Art Museum through April 13.
State of the arts
| brandeis university
Music at Brandeis
visual arts
The Rose Art Museum
Rose Art Museum
The Rose’s exhibitions and collection of modern and contemporary art are among the most
distinguished in the country. Dedicated to the significant art, artists, and ideas of our time,
University Collection. Admission is $3; free to the Brandeis community and to members.
Visit go.brandeis.edu/rose or call 781-736-3434.
Winter Exhibitions: January 24–April 13
Empires and Environments
Broken Home: 1997/2007
The Lois Foster Wing
Curated by Dominique Nahas and
Margaret Evangeline
The Rose Building
Curated by Meg O’Rourke and
Caroline Schneider
This exhibition features several works
from the Rose collection shown with new
work from emerging artists. It addresses
how the will to power conditions and
influences psychic, physical, and material
environments in unanticipated and often
unforgettable ways.
This exhibition is a historical re-creation
of a 1997 New York gallery exhibition,
one of the first “guest curated” shows
in a commercial gallery, a practice now
ubiquitous in the art world. Broken Home,
1997/2007 re-creates the influential
exhibition of the same name at Greene
Naftali Gallery, New York. Artists in the
exhibition included Robert Gober, Vito
Acconci, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Dan Graham, Franz West, and Thomas Demand.
Winter/Spring 2008
Programs and Events
Make your visit to the Rose even more spectacular! Enjoy
gallery talks by artists and curators; classical and jazz
Arp to Reinhardt:
Rose Geometries
concerts; and panel discussions on a variety of cultural
topics. On Sunday, April 13, the Leonard Bernstein Festival
of the Creative Arts will present free performances and
Herbert and Mildred S. Lee Gallery
Curated by Adelina Jedrzejczak,
Ann Tanenbaum Assistant Curator
family activities. For a schedule of programs and events,
visit go.brandeis.edu/rose.
Arp to Reinhardt: Rose Geometries features important artworks from the Rose’s
extensive modern and contemporary collections. Showcasing works by Ellsworth
Kelly, Leon Polk Smith, Josef Albers, Mary
Heilman, Brice Marden, Jean Arp, and Ad
Reinhardt, the exhibition investigates geometrical abstraction’s coming to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s: rooted in
Constructivism, a reaction to the emotionality of Abstract Expressionism, in relation
to Op art and Minimalism.
Pedagogy of the Imagination:
An interdisciplinary symposium
Tuesday, March 4, 4:00 p.m.
What happens to the acquisition of knowledge
and skills when creativity—the “poetic understanding”—moves to the center of the curriculum?
Michael Armstrong’s keynote address, as well as
presentations by Brandeis faculty and students,
will be of interest to educators, writers, and
artists, especially those with an interest in creative,
cognitive, and educational processes.
<<
Elizabeth Murray,
Duck Foot, 1983,
Oil on canvas
Vito Acconci, Proposal for a Stream Through a
Housing Complex, Regensberg (detail), 1990.
Mixed media
<<
the Rose presents a range of established and emerging artists and works from the Brandeis
<<
Ellsworth Kelly,
Blue White, 1962
Oil on canvas, 103 x 106 in.
brandeis university | State of the Arts
spring Exhibitions: May 8–July 27; Opening reception: May 7, 6:00 p.m.
Alexis Rockman:
The Weight of Air
The New Authentics: Artists
of the Post-Jewish Generation
Paper Trail II, curated by
Odili Donald Odita
Alexis Rockman is well known for his
intricately crafted and often surreal depictions of the relationship between nature
and human culture. In the past two years,
he has been creating an extraordinary
new body of work on paper that reveals a
depth of experimental process resulting
in a unique mix of beauty, wonder, and
encroaching catastrophe.
Works by sixteen American artists who
raise important questions about cultural,
ethnic, and religious identity in the
United States today.
The second in a series of three exhibitions
in which artists integrate their own work
with pieces they select from the museum’s
works-on-paper collection.
State of the arts
| brandeis university
Music at Brandeis
visual arts
Women’s Studies
Research Center
The Kniznick Gallery at the Women’s
Studies Research Center is the only exhibition space in New England devoted to
women’s art and art about gender. Located
in the Epstein Building at 515 South Street
across from the Brandeis/Roberts train
station, it is free and open to the public
Healing, Community, and
Transformation: Student Visions
from Johannesburg
weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or by
appointment. For more information, call
781-736-8102 or visit go.brandeis.edu/wsrc.
January 16–February 26
Opening reception: Wednesday, January 23, 5:00 p.m.
department of
Fine Arts
<<
In a region ravaged by HIV/AIDS and the long-term legacies of apartheid,
how can individuals and societies begin to mend? Explore the healing power
of art through the photography of Naomi Safran-Hon ’08, an Ethics Center
student fellow who worked with AIDS orphans in Johannesburg; and the
linocuts of South African students of the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg,
taught by Stompie Selibe (Brandeis International Fellow 2004, musician, artist, and teacher). This exhibition is part of a yearlong celebration of the tenth
anniversary of the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life.
A Ripple in the Water:
Healing Through Art
February 7, 4:00 p.m.
This award-winning documentary by Eileen Foti
and Patti Piroh focuses on the inspiring work
of Kim Berman (Brandeis International Fellow
2004), whose “Paper Prayers” campaign uses
papermaking and printmaking to address HIV/
AIDS awareness, poverty alleviation, and the
empowerment of women and children.
Naomi Safran-Hon ‘08
Lynne Avadenka:
A Thousand and One Inventions
March 17–May 21
Opening reception: March 18, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
Words and images interweave in Lynne
Avadenka’s site-specific installation, creating an
environment that opens up and reveals layers
visually, as a book does conceptually. A multiplicity of marks in a variety of media transforms
the Kniznick Gallery’s unique architecture into a
work of art that invites and absorbs the viewer.
brandeis university | State of the Arts
>>
Breaking Ground in the Fine Arts
Spring 2008 Exhibitions
The study of fine arts at Brandeis begins a new era this
spring when construction gets under way on the new
Edmond J. Safra Center for the Arts. This long-desired
and highly anticipated building, located adjacent to the
Rose Art Museum, symbolizes Brandeis’s ambitious commitment to the arts in the twenty-first century.
The internationally renowned firm of Moshe Safdie and Associates is designing the center. It includes studios for drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture;
a critique gallery for student work in progress; a technologically advanced lecture hall; and public galleries to
showcase exhibitions by Brandeis students, faculty, and
visiting professionals.
The Safra Center will allow undergraduates to experience visual thinking as both scholarship and a process
of creation. Construction will take place in three phases.
Renovation of Goldman-Schwartz began this year.
Students and faculty should be using the new spaces by
fall 2009, according to the Brandeis University Office of
Capital Projects.
The Safra Center will become a highlight of Brandeis’s
lively arts campus, which includes the Rose Art Museum,
Spingold Theater Center, and Slosberg Music Center.
The Department of Fine Arts enrolls nearly fifteen hundred Brandeis students each year, and the number of fine
arts majors has increased by 50 percent during the past
several years. “We have not been able to keep pace with
the growing interest by our students in this field,” said
Professor Charles McClendon, chair of the Department
of Fine Arts. “The Safra Center will create a complete
community on campus in which everyone benefits from
the interaction and sharing of ideas.”
Student art exhibitions are held in the Dreitzer Gallery at the
Spingold Theater Center and are free and open to the public.
For more information, visit go.brandeis.edu/finearts.
Dimensions2
January 29–February 15
Opening reception January 29, 4:30–6:30 p.m.
See two-dimensional works by undergraduate studio artists.
Dimensions3
February 27–March 14
Opening reception February 27, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
Students explore traditional forms and new media in sculpture.
Prospect I
March 19–April 4
Opening reception March 19, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
The accomplished postbaccalaureate studio artists exhibit painting, sculpture, drawing, and prints.
Prospect II
April 9–25
Opening reception April 9, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
View new work from the postbaccalaureate artists.
Senior Honors: Artwork by the Class of 2008
April 29–May 18
Opening reception April 29, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
Celebrate the graduation of the Class of 2008’s studio art
majors, and see the best of their final year’s work.
State of the arts
| brandeis university
music
at Brandeis
Composing
the Future
with One of the nation’s Top-ranked music
programs, Brandeis redefines the sound of
the twenty-first century.
Since its beginnings, Brandeis has
been home to one of the premier music
composition programs in the United
States. Aaron Copland was one of the
first faculty, co-teaching with the young
composer Irving Fine (“winked away from
Harvard,” wrote Abram L. Sachar in his
account of Brandeis’s founding); their enthusiasm and optimism convinced Leonard
Bernstein to commute from New York to
teach a course on modern music. Arthur
Berger, a prominent music critic and the
chief interpreter of Copland’s work, followed, as did the rising young composer
Harold Shapero. Soon after, Look magazine put Bernstein, Berger, and Shapero
on the cover and proclaimed them “the
future of American music.”
Of course, someone or something is
always being proclaimed as the future
of American music. Bruce Springsteen
received his proclamation in 1974 (by
Brandeis alumnus Jon Landau). If it’s not a
musician, it’s a technology (digital recording) or a product (synthesizer), or a means
of transmission (Napster et al).
In the realm of new music, the future
still resides to a large degree at Brandeis,
where undergraduates can major in
composition and theory, and graduate
students choose from three degree programs (MA, MFA, and PhD). Depending
on their interests, students have the opportunity to create electro-acoustic music
in the Brandeis Electro-Acoustic Music
Studio (BEAMS) or participate in several
concerts a year; already some are writing
music for theater and opera on the international stage. They study with faculty
who are prolific composers themselves,
who have heard every trend and fancy of
the past fifty years.
What is new music? Is it “classical” music, only written by a living composer? Is it
brandeis university | State of the Arts
electronic squeaks and beeps? Not necessarily. Today’s composers are as likely to
find inspiration in rap, jazz, and reggae
as they are in the classical forms of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and
in the tonal innovations of the twentieth.
They are moved by philosophical problems
and by technological challenges. They may
write for the traditional instruments found
in an orchestra, or for voice, or for computer (now considered an instrument).
Ingrid Schorr of the Office of the Arts
sat down with professor Eric Chasalow,
adviser to the graduate program, and
with second-year master’s student Peter
McMurray to find out what’s going on in
composition today.
What exactly does a student of
composition do?
Chasalow: The program is fundamentally
about process. We get them to write a
lot of music. Like all artists, our students
know that every day you’re reaching for
something and you can’t quite reach
it—we help them to speed up the process
by encouraging them to hear things
that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to,
to see possibilities in their own work.
McMurray: I feel free to write music
that is as complex as I’d like, knowing
that someone will take a crack at it.
The regular concert series brings in topnotch players who will play whatever you
New Music Brandeis
throw at them. I recently wrote a piece,
“Dem Blow,” that was so demanding that
three performers turned it down before
I found a bass clarinetist and cellist to
play it. Brandeis made it possible for
this piece to be performed in a concert
setting, and that’s no small thing.
Chasalow: Artists are cerebral or
intuitive, or some combination. These
days more students are intuitive. We
help them be more conscious of those
choices, to step outside of the piece
and inspect it more coolly, to see it
more clearly before you enter the
battle again.
Where does the inspiration
come from?
Chasalow: Many of our undergraduates
play in the orchestra and want to write
music for their peers. Others are interested in the computer technology that we
use in the electro-acoustic music studio.
There, you can do things that you can’t
do with, say, an oboe. Sound becomes
plastic and you can sculpt it into different shapes. But you still need the same
fundamental musical thinking.
A lot of my work is about taking something that’s a touchstone in the culture
and making it something new. I wrote a
piece based on John Lennon’s music and
on interviews with him. I have one based
on Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.”
McMurray: I’m interested in music that
departs from traditional academic music.
For a while I couldn’t stop listening to
reggaeton [a fusion of Jamaican, Latin
American, hip hop, and electronica music]. And it felt good, in a way, to bewilder
the faculty with that. My undergraduate
major was classics, and I do take a lot
of abstract inspiration from a number
of Greek artists and thinkers. It’s a very
trendy background to have: modern
composers Elliott Carter, Christian Wolff,
and John Adams all studied classical
literature.
Sunday, February 10, 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 15, 8:00 p.m.
Slosberg Recital Hall
Graduate composers present new works
performed by professional guest musicians. Free and open to the public.
BEAMS Half-Marathon
Friday, April 11, 7:00 p.m.
Slosberg Recital Hall
New works of electronic and electroacoustic music by Brandeis composers
and their counterparts from around the
country. Free and open to the public.
How do you get your music
out into the world?
Chasalow: We all do a lot of commissions: someone pays you to write for an
occasion or a particular concert. Usually
it’s a performer who likes your music
and wants you to write something for
them, and they get exclusive rights for a
certain amount of time. We help our grad
students network and develop commissions; we help undergrads get internships
in recording studios.
McMurray: Given that people listen
to iPods, live on MySpace, and watch
YouTube incessantly, it seems that composition suddenly has a whole world of
promising new possibilities.
Chasalow: I don’t think of composers
as different from other kinds of artists,
fundamentally. We want the same deep
engagement with the work. It’s so gratifying to be in the process of creating, but
there is gratification in the product, of
course, when you end up with a piece that
you enjoy hearing—something distinctive
that appeals on initial hearing and that
rewards repeated listening as the musical
plot unfolds.
State of the arts
| brandeis university
music
Noteworthy
a
Tradition of Innovation
Cross-Cultural Modulations
Yu-Hui Chang
Described by critics as “vivid and consistently engaging” and “compelling...with
inventive touches,” Yu-Hui Chang’s music
is characterized by its lyricism, intense
harmonic language, and inventive effects.
She is writing the score for the upcoming Brandeis Theater Company production of The Orphan of Zhao, which will
use Chinese as well as Western instruments. “I’m interested in
cross-cultural genres and topics, so I’m literally working all over
the world,” says Chang. She is composing a piece for cello and
gayageum (Korean zither) for the Arts Council Korea; a piece for
solo piano that reinterprets a Taiwanese political folk song of the
Japanese Colonial Period; and a piece commissioned by the Ju
Percussion Group, a preeminent Taiwanese percussion ensemble
excelling in contemporary repertoire as well as Chinese gongdrum music.
Meditations on Mortality
Martin Boykan
Martin Boykan has been immersed lately
in music that commemorates. In the past
year he has completed two commissioned
works for piano, both of them in memory
of distinguished composers. Brandeis
colleague Pam Dellal will sing a song
cycle by Boykan that uses poetry by
W. S. Merwin, Wallace Stevens, Goethe,
and Phillip Sydney. “I believe that all three of these works belong together as a sort of trilogy, a meditation on mortality, and
I can’t wait till the songs are done so I can turn my attention to
something cheery,” Boykan says.
10
Can we get a higher resolution
of this image?
The latest score on Brandeis’s award-winning faculty composers
brandeis university | State of the Arts
Sanctuary and Support
David Rakowski
Twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize,
David Rakowski is a composer of both
extraordinary wit and depth. Though
he has a home in Maynard, Massachusetts, Rakowski is most productive in the
sanctuary of the artist’s residency. These
temporary communities support creative
artists of all kinds and play a major role
in developing culture in the United States and internationally.
Rakowski must be a good guest, because they keep asking
him back: in the past two years he’s been hosted twice by the
MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire; twice at
Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, New York; and once at the Bogliasco Foundation outside Genoa, Italy. In these idyllic settings he
completed a piano concerto, a piano quintet, a piece for flute
and two pianos, and a large work for wind ensemble. “The wind
ensemble piece will be played by five wind ensembles in four
time zones,” Rakowski notes. “Oh yeah, and last summer I was
also part of a large celebration of the MacDowell Colony’s onehundredth anniversary; my part was to mentor a thirteen-yearold composer, who wrote and performed a piece in a celebratory concert there.”
Lydian
String
Quartet
Around the World in
a String Quartet
Audiences around the world have experienced
the exceptional musicianship of the Lydian String
Quartet, professors of the practice on the faculty
at Brandeis. In 2007–08, Daniel Stepner, Judith
Eissenberg, Mary Ruth Ray, and Joshua Gordon
continue their concert series “Around the World
in a String Quartet,” a five-year project presenting
musical narratives of diverse cultures across
time and place, from the potent harmonies of
the Middle East to the intricate dance rhythms
of Latin America.
Myth Buster
Eric Chasalow
Performances of Eric Chasalow’s music
regularly take place around the world—
recently in Hong Kong, Stockholm, Lyon,
Boston, Bourges, New York, and Bratislava. Last May saw the New York premiere
of his Flute Concerto, co-commissioned
by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation; a performance by the Brandeis
Dance Collective set to his music; and the world premiere of his
multimedia opera The Puzzle Master, based on the Greek myth
of Daedalus and Icarus and performed by a live ensemble of five
singer/actors in a digital video environment. “Crossing Boundaries,” an “audio family scrapbook,” was performed at the 2006
Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music.
Germany/Iran/Ukraine
Saturday, February 2
Beethoven Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, #4
Reza Vali Quartet #3 (2001)
Leo Ornstein Quartet #2, Op. 99
Hungary/China/Finland
Saturday, April 5
Bela Bartok Quartet #2 (1917)
Chen Yi Fiddle Suite for Huqin and
Quartet (1997) with Jiebing
Chen, erhu
Sibelius Quartet in D Minor, Op. 56
“Intimate Voices”
Concerts begin at 8:00 p.m. in Slosberg Music Center,
unless otherwise noted, and are preceded by a free
lecture at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $10–$25. Purchase
tickets online at go.brandeis.edu/BrandeisTickets or
call Brandeis Tickets: 781-736-3400.
Music at Noon
February 6 Rose Art Museum
April 2Rapaporte Treasure Hall,
Goldfarb Library
ut the day on pause and enjoy a free noontime
P
concert by the Lydian String Quartet.
Lydian Summer Music Festival
Saturday, June 7
Saturday, June 14
State of the arts
| brandeis university
11
music
MusicUnitesUS
Department of
Music Concerts
World Music Concert and Intercultural Residency
Experience diverse histories and cultures through the universal narrative of music.
Fine Memorial Concert
Saturday, March 22, 8:00 p.m.
Brandeis student ensembles perform music from the Renaissance to contemporary
This semester, MusicUnitesUS presents Jiebing Chen and Yangqin Zhao. The concert
In the annual tribute to composer Irving
Fine, the founder of the Brandeis music
department, the Monteverdi Singers,
the Orpheus Singers, and the studentproduced Irving Fine Society perform
work by Fine and by present and past
Brandeis faculty Yu-Hui Chang, Seymour
Shifrin, and Donald Martino. Free and
open to the public.
jazz. All concerts are held in Slosberg Music Center, and tickets are $5–$10, unless
begins at 8:00 p.m. in Slosberg Music Center and is preceded by a free lecture at
otherwise noted. Purchase tickets online at go.brandeis.edu/BrandeisTickets or call
7:00 p.m. in the Rose Art Museum. Tickets are $10–$25. Purchase tickets online at
Brandeis Tickets: 781-736-3400.
go.brandeis.edu/BrandeisTickets or call Brandeis Tickets: 781-736-3400.
In association with the residency, Brandeis sponsors free films, open classes, and
symposia on related culture, literature, and music. For a complete schedule, visit
<<
brandeis.edu/MusicUnitesUS.
Chinese Modulations:
Jiebing Chen and Yangqin Zhao
Residency: March 27–28
Concert: Saturday, March 29
Experience the exquisite Chinese classical repertory
and new cross-cultural musical expressions that
span time and place. Chen performs on the erhu
(two-string vertical violin)
and Zhao on the yangqin
(hammered dulcimer).
Both artists extend the
boundaries of their
traditions with
technical innovation
and stylistic virtuosity.
Marquee
Series
Brandeis Early Music Ensemble
Sunday, April 6, 3:00 p.m.
Vocal and instrumental works from
fifteenth- to seventeenth-century Europe.
Sarah Mead, director.
The area’s finest professional musicians
offer a series of exciting concerts featuring diverse styles and themes. Concerts
begin at 8:00 p.m. in Slosberg Music
Brandeis Wind Ensemble
Center, unless otherwise noted. Tickets
Sunday, April 6, 7:00 p.m.
are $10–$25. Purchase tickets online at
Thomas Souza, director.
Concert featuring the music of
David Holsinger, Johan de Meij, Clare
Grundman, and Andrew Boyson.
go.brandeis.edu/BrandeisTickets or call
Brandeis Tickets: 781-736-3400.
Bob Nieske 3 and Tre
Corda: Double Trio Leap
Year Concert
Tim Ray’s trio Tre Corda, featuring Tim Ray (piano), Greg Hopkins
(trumpet), and Eugene Friesen (cello),
teams up with the Bob Nieske 3,
featuring Brandeis jazz professor Bob
Nieske (bass), Phil Grenadier (trumpet), and Nat Mugavero (drums).
Free admission if it’s your birthday!
Concert version of Lost in the Stars (Maxwell
Anderson and Kurt Weill) and classic American songs. James Olesen, director.
Hear Brandeis’s best in this complete
program before the Chorus and Chamber
Choir sets off on their European tour.
James Olesen, director.
Evan Hirsch: Forward and Back
Saturday, March 1, 8:00 p.m.
Brandeis piano instructor Evan Hirsch
presents a solo recital exploring the music
of familiar and not-so-familiar composers,
both trailblazers and traditionalists. Free and
open to the public.
Chris Smither:
New Orleans Blues
Friday, March 21
Critics have lauded Chris Smither’s
“sleek, unhurried, and insistent”
finger-picked guitar and “gravel and
molasses” voice. For more information on this authentic folk and blues
artist, visit www.chrissmither.com.
brandeis university | State of the Arts
Wednesday, April 9, 7:00 p.m.
Classics American and German
Saturday, February 9, 8:00 p.m.
Friday, February 29
12
Brandeis University Chorus
and Chamber Choir
Brandeis University Chorus
and Chamber Choir
The Art of Song
Saturday, March 8, 8:00 p.m.
Showcasing members of the Brandeis
University Chorus and Chamber Choir.
James Olesen, Pamela Wolfe,
Pamela Dellal, directors.
Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra:
Catch a Rising Star
Thursday April 10, 8:00 p.m.
Featuring the winners of the 2007
Brandeis and Wellesley concerto
competition. Neal Hampton, conductor.
Brandeis Jazz Ensemble
Sunday, April 13, 4:00 p.m.
Bob Nieske, director.
Improv Ensemble
Monday, April 14, 8:00 p.m.
Tom Hall, director
Free and open to the public.
State of the arts
| brandeis university
13
The Orphan of Zhao
theater
at Brandeis
Brandeis Theater Company
The production and performing ensemble of students, professional guest artists,
faculty, and staff of the Department of Theater Arts creates cutting-edge theater
that promotes multiculturalism alongside artistic achievement. Productions are
held in the Spingold Theater Center. Tickets are $16–$20. Purchase tickets online
at go.brandeis.edu/BrandeisTickets or call Brandeis Tickets: 781-736-3400.
<<
>>
Directed by Eric Hill and Naya Chang,
MFA’08
Adaptation by Mia Chung
Original music by Yu-Hui Chang
March 27–April 6
In this new stage adaptation of a classic
Chinese folktale, the streets of Jin are
awash in the blood of the noble Zhao
clan. This vicious slaughter ignites a
succession of individual acts of virtue
and sacrifice—as the hope for retribution and a return to a humane social
order is pinned to the survival of a
baby boy. The timeless swing of the
pendulum of justice—powered by the
momentum of personal humanity—
reverberates to new music performed
by Jiebing Chen, Yangqin Zhao, and
members of the Lydian String Quartet.
As You Like It
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Adrianne Krstansky
February 7–17
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women
merely players. They have their exits and their entrances;
and one man in his time plays many parts.” Travel to the
magical Forest of Arden where lovers, exiles, kings, and
clowns fall in and out of love in this beloved romantic
comedy. One of Shakespeare’s greatest heroines,
Rosalind, takes you on a journey filled with poetry,
melancholy, and insight into the human heart.
Shakespeare’s
Greatest Heroine
“Rosalind in As You Like It is the largest female role in Shakespeare’s canon. She has been compared to Hamlet for the
breadth and depth of characterization. Personally, I love how Rosalind grapples with love. She feels the possibilities of
it, the idealism, and romanticism. Simultaneously, she has the courage and sense of humor it takes to live in the light and
darkness of imperfect human love. It’s brilliant that she stays disguised as a boy to woo her beloved Orlando. He would
never tell a woman all the things he does when he thinks she is a man. That’s a smart thing to do if you are thinking of
marrying a guy and want to know what you are getting yourself into. For me, Rosalind embodies the hope we all have
that we will fall in love, forget the world, and dwell in the divine.” —Adrianne Krstansky, director
Second Look Series
During the second weekend of each
production, Brandeis Theater Company
invites you to attend a post-play discussion.
Performing Arts Clubs
Visit www.brandeis.edu/btc for dates and
Brandeis has a range of student performing arts clubs, including a cappella singing groups;
more information.
improv and sketch comedy teams; and ballet, folk, modern, hip hop, and ballroom dance
troupes. Through the Intercultural Center, students of international backgrounds present
performances that celebrate their diverse cultural traditions.
For more information, visit go.brandeis.edu/clubs.
Theater is one of the most popular activities on campus, with six student theater clubs
performing throughout the semester. All productions are free and open to the public. For
more information, call 781-736-5064. Visit the Undergraduate Theater Collective Web site at
14
brandeis university | State of the Arts
go.brandeis.edu/utc and the Free Play Theater Cooperative at people.brandeis.edu/~freeplay.
State of the arts
| brandeis university
15
theater
Curtain Calls
This spring, Brandeis will graduate a new Master of Fine Arts acting class
after three years of intensive professional experience and training. These
ten exceptional actors have served as the core resident acting company
for Brandeis Theater Company productions. Their professional careers will
be relaunched in a showcase at the Producers’ Club in New York City on
April 7 attended by agents, producers, and casting directors.
Robert Serrell
Hometown: Knoxville, Tennessee
Favorite playwright: Shakespeare
Favorite actor: Irene Worth
Dream role: Hamlet
Favorite BTC experience: The Two Orphans. I got to play a very ugly villain who
could charm the pants off the audience;
sing for the first time onstage; and work
with very talented undergrads and a director who now runs one of the largest theaters in Canada. Awesome.
Dramatic changes: I think it’s exciting that there is so much
nontraditional theater produced here. As an actor, I possess more
craft now—I know how to approach a part vocally and physically
and to create purposefully. As a person, I have learned a great
deal about discipline. To survive in the theater, an actor must possess more than just talent.
Future plans: I may return to Shakespeare & Company in Lenox,
Massachusetts; start a theater company in France; or follow several leads in New York City and Los Angeles for commercial work.
One thing is certain: I am getting married this September to a
wonderful woman!
Naya Chang
Hometown: Taipei, Taiwan
Favorite playwright: Shakespeare
Favorite actor: Gong Li
Dream role: A role in an Ang Lee film
Favorite BTC role: Forgiveness from
Heaven in The Waiting Room.
Intercultural aspirations: I want to use
theater to build a bridge between Eastern
and Western cultures. I want to make
something that helps each culture see that fundamentally all
people are the same. During my time here, I have been astonished
by how talented my classmates are and how deeply we relate to
each other.
Future plans: New York City or Los Angeles
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brandeis university | State of the Arts
Anthony Mark Stockard
Hometown: Toledo, Ohio
Favorite playwright: August Wilson
Favorite actor: Brian Stokes Mitchell
Dream role: Coalhouse Walker in Ragtime
and Scar in The Lion King
Favorite BTC role: The Amazing Tarquin in
Things Beyond Our Control because of his
multiple personalities and the excitement
and terror of performing interactive magic
tricks with the audience.
Personal transformation: Brandeis was my first choice for graduate school because I know many alumni who are working consistently. I have learned to be more specific with my process, and I
am physically a different body altogether. I have more emotional,
physical, and creative tools. Most importantly, I now know that my
gifts and abilities are sufficient to get me where I want to go.
Future plans: Broadway, TV, and film, with a possible recurring
temporary employment detour at your favorite New York City
restaurant/bar or department store.
Hannah Wilson
Hometown: Tarboro, North Carolina
Favorite playwright: Theresa Rebeck,
George Bernard Shaw
Favorite actor: Helen Mirren, Edward
Norton
Dream role: Blanche in A Streetcar Named
Desire, Lady Utterword in
Heartbreak House, and Cherie in Bus Stop
Favorite BTC role: Victoria in The Waiting
Room. That was a funny, touching experience with a great director-actor-audience relationship.
Shocking developments: I experienced a culture and climate shock
coming from Bible-Belt, rural North Carolina to an academically
rigorous school in freezing Boston. Even more shocking was when
it started to seem normal. I have been challenged on both a physical
and mental level and developed a greater feeling of responsibility
for all aspects of a production. I have looked deeper into myself
than I knew was possible.
Future plans: Not waiting tables.
Matthew Crider
Hometown: Jacksonville, Florida
Favorite playwright: David Mamet,
Steve Martin
Dream role: Edmond Dantes in The Count
of Monte Cristo
Favorite BTC experience: Big Love. It
was the first show for our class and my
introduction to Suzuki acting technique.
Professional matters: Brandeis has excellent contacts in professional theater that it uses for the benefit of
students. BTC is representative of the professional theater world
in that it demands everything you are willing to give and then
some. I’ve gained a greater sense of where I am professionally,
and I feel more focused. I’m more aware of both my strengths
and weaknesses, and what I can do about them. And I’ve made
friends for life.
Future plans: To act, become a fight director, and teach movement at a university.
Lindsey McWhorter
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia
Favorite actor: Angela Bassett
Dream role: Nala in The Lion King and
costarring with Denzel Washington
Favorite BTC role: Henriette in The Two
Orphans because I got the opportunity to
work with playwright Theresa Rebeck.
Seeing possibility: I’ve been fortunate to
be cast in a variety of roles, from a naive
young girl to a Greek god to a murderer. It’s wonderful to see how
my range has grown, and I feel a sense of possibility. I’ve learned
not to be so hard on myself as a person or an actress. I’ve realized
that there is no right or wrong in acting.
Future plans: To pursue a Broadway career and someday begin
my own performing arts school.
Joshua Davis
Hometown: Edwardsburg, Michigan
Favorite playwright: Paula Vogel
Favorite actor: Alan Rickman
Dream role: J. Pierpont Finch in How to
Succeed in Business without Really Trying
Favorite BTC role: Mack the Knife in The
Threepenny Opera. He is so far from my
personality that I had a blast.
Rigorous demands: I knew grad school
would be difficult, but the experience pushed me even more than
I expected. I have much greater confidence now. I’ve also learned
how to work with different styles of directors.
Future plans: Chicago or New York
Sara Oliva
Hometown: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Favorite playwright: The Greeks,
Luigi Pirandello, and Tennessee Williams
Role model: Maria Callas
Dream role: Cleopatra, Medea, Electra,
and if I could sing, Carmen
Favorite BTC role: Wanda in The Waiting
Room. She was such a passionate force of
nature: spontaneous, crazy, and hilarious
one moment and drowning in sadness and regret in the next. We
took care of each other, and I became very close to her.
Passionate learning: I am in awe of my fellow grad students. This
has been a learning environment, not a contest. Criticism is never
offered to diminish but to enrich you. That was a huge challenge—
to accept all the generous gifts that are being given on a daily basis.
Future plans: I would love to do theater in every country, on every
continent. To live in Europe, have ten kids with the love of my
life, and surround myself with people who are passionate about
theater and dedicated to creating every day.
Brian Weaver
Hometown: Harrisonburg, Virginia
Favorite playwright: Charles Mee
Dream role: Konstantine in The Seagull
Favorite BTC experience: Creating an
original dance in last year’s dance concert.
Breaking ground: I have been amazed by
the extraordinary talents of the Brandeis
design students and the scale of the BTC
productions. Though it was challenging to
leave the professional world and become a student again, I feel
more grounded in my own work.
Ramona L. Alexander
Hometown: Boston/Roxbury,
Massachusetts
Favorite playwright: James Baldwin,
Lorraine Hansberry, as well as some
Boston playwrights
Favorite actor: Josephine Baker, Phylicia
Rashad, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee
Dream role: Anything associated with
director Julie Taymor
Favorite BTC experience: The Bacchae, which taught me that one
could lead silently and gracefully.
Creative discoveries: Brandeis has been an unexpected blessing. The faculty is so genuine and available for guidance, tutoring,
and support. It was challenging being a student after being out of
school for eight years, and I had to be careful not to use that as an
excuse to sabotage my own success. This experience was not about
what I had to “get” but enhancing and identifying what I already
have. To quote Alice Walker: “As long as there is joy in creation there
will always be new creations to discover, or to rediscover, and that a
prime place to look is within and about the self.”
State of the arts
| brandeis university
17
festivals
at Brandeis
Leonard Bernstein
Festival of the Creative Arts April 9–13
The Brandeis Festival of the Creative Arts was founded in 1952 by
legendary American composer
and Brandeis faculty member
Leonard Bernstein. In 2005, the
annual festival was renamed in
Bernstein’s honor. It is dedicated
to Bernstein’s belief that “the
art of an era is a reflection of the
society in which it is produced,
and through creative endeavors
the thoughts and expression that
characterize each generation are
revealed and transformed.”
From April 9 to 13, Brandeis
celebrates the creativity of our
students, faculty, alumni, and
professional guest artists through
concerts, plays, and art exhibitions across campus. Most events
are free, and most are open
to the public. For a complete
schedule, visit: www.brandeis.
edu/arts/festival.
Highlights include:
A Cappella Fest
Culture X
Brandeis’s lively vocal groups unite for one
glorious benefit concert.
A dynamic celebration of the multicultural
Brandeis community through diverse and
dramatic performances including dance, rap,
music, and poetry.
Brandeis University Chorus and
Chamber Choir
Concert highlights from Porgy and Bess and
Lost in the Stars.
Student Exhibitions
Painting, sculpture, multimedia work, and sitespecific installations across campus.
Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra
Catch a Rising Star: Sibelius Symphony No. 1
and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
Symposium on Creativity
Artist-scholars from the Women’s Studies Resource Center share their sources of inspiration.
Sketch Comedy
membership
While many communities and institutions are reducing their support for the arts,
Brandeis University is committing new resources and energy to them. If you
would like to join our efforts, become an Arts at Brandeis member. Members are
active participants in the creative life of the university, with special benefits that
give them unique insight and access.
You can direct your gift to the Rose Art Museum, the Brandeis Theater Company,
the Brandeis Concert Season, or the Office of the Arts. Membership contributions are tax-deductible. You may also choose to decline benefits for the full
deduction. Join online at go.brandeis.edu/arts.
The outrageous student troupe Boris’s Kitchen
satirizes pop culture and campus life.
BEAMS Half-Marathon
Graduate composers from the Brandeis
Electro-Acoustic Music Studio premiere
new work.
Performing Arts Festival
Sunday, April 13, 1:00–5:00 p.m.
Throughout the afternoon, more than two
hundred actors, singers, dancers, and musicians perform in locations across the Brandeis
campus, with free art-making activities for
the whole family. Last year’s event drew an
estimated three thousand people! Experience
the power of art as transformation at this great
Brandeis tradition.
SunDeis Film Festival
Jewishfilm.2008
March 15–16
Wasserman Cinematheque,
International Business School
Shapiro Campus Center
The National Center for Jewish Film’s Eleventh Annual Film Festival
April 3–13
Wasserman Cinematheque,
International Business School
SunDeis is New England’s premier student film
festival. It offers screenings of student films
from around the country as well as discussions with professional directors, actors, and
producers. Previous honorees include Academy
Award–winners Celeste Holm, Patricia Neal,
Jesse Martin, and S. Epatha Merkerson. This
year’s event features Brandeis alumni in the
entertainment industry and culminates in an
awards presentation for lifetime achievement
and the top student films. For more information, including application guidelines, please
visit: www.sundeis.com.
18
brandeis university | State of the Arts
Patron: $500
• All of the above, plus complimentary
ticket for the Food for Thought series
• Invitation to special VIP events
• Eight complimentary tickets
to Brandeis concerts or plays
(subject to availability)
($440 deductible)
Benefactor: $1,000
• All of the above, plus reception
at the house of a Rose board
member/collector
• Free catalogs of all Rose exhibitions
• Twelve complimentary tickets to
Brandeis concerts or plays (subject
to availability)
($910 deductible)
Angel: $2,500
• All of the above plus a small-group
tour of the Rose collection or
Spingold Theater Center
• May request to attend a rehearsal
or hold a private Rose reception
($2,350 deductible)
The Rose Art Museum
<<
Associate: $250
• All of the above, plus two additional
guest admission passes and one
nonmember guest for public programs
• Six complimentary tickets to Brandeis
concerts or plays (subject to availability)
($205 deductible)
Enter the Picture
Individual/Couple: $50/$75
• Free admission to the Rose
• Ten percent discount on publications
• Event notifications
• Acknowledgment in State of the Arts
(Fully deductible)
The Boston Phoenix calls the National Center
for Jewish Film’s annual film festival “one of
the season’s cinematic highlights.” All ten
films are Boston-area premieres, including
The Last Jews of Libya, a documentary about
the final decades of a centuries-old North
African Sephardic Jewish community and the
Roumani family, who lived in Libya for hundreds of years. The film has a special Brandeis
connection: Maurice Roumani attended
Brandeis as a Wien International Scholar in
1960, which precipitated the family’s exodus
from Libya. For more information visit www.
jewishfilm.org or call 781-736-8600.
Friend: $125
• All of the above, plus invitations to
opening events, reduced admission to
member events, and a free Rose catalog
• Four guest admission passes
• Four complimentary tickets to the
Brandeis Theater Company or Brandeis
Concert Season (subject to availability)
($95 deductible)
Director’s Circle: $5,000
• All of the above plus a private tour
of the Rose collection
• Dinner with the Rose director, theater
director, or Lydian String Quartet
($4,810 deductible)
Founder’s Circle: $10,000
• All of the above, plus a reception with
the president of Brandeis University
and Rose Overseers
($9,810 deductible)
Please send your gift, payable
to Brandeis University, to:
Brandeis University Arts Membership
MS 051, PO Box 549110
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
State of the arts
| brandeis university
19
the art of the matter
Emily Mello has been appointed the
new education director of the Rose Art
Museum. Mello comes to Brandeis from
Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center.
January 23–April 13
Empires and Environments; Arp to Reinhardt
Rose Art Museum
Through February 26
Healing, Community, and Transformation: Student Visions from Johannesburg
WSRC
February 2, 8:00 p.m.
Lydian String Quartet
Slosberg Music Center
Timothy Carter ’02 is currently playing
Scar in the national tour of The Lion
King. Recently he appeared in The
Three Musketeers and Macbeth
with the Tony Award–winning The
Acting Company.
February 6, noon
Music at Noon: Lydian String Quartet
Rose Art Museum
February 7–17
As You Like It
Spingold Theater Center
February 9, 8:00 p.m.
Brandeis University Chamber Choir
Slosberg Music Center
February 10, 7:00 p.m.
New Music Brandeis
Slosberg Music Center
March 15, 8:00 p.m.
New Music Brandeis
Slosberg Music Center
March 15–16
SunDeis Film Festival
Wasserman Cinematheque
March 17–May 21, 3:00 p.m.
Lynne Avadenka: A Thousand and One Inventions
WSRC
March 19, noon
Chamber Music at Noon
Rapaporte Treasure Hall
March 21, 8:00 p.m.
Chris Smither
Slosberg Music Center
March 22, 8:00 p.m.
Irving Fine Memorial Concert
Slosberg Music Center
March 27–April 6
The Orphan of Zhao
Spingold Theater Center
March 29, 8:00 p.m.
World Music: Jiebing Chen and Yangqin Zhao
Slosberg Music Center
April 2, noon
Music at Noon: Lydian String Quartet
Rapaporte Treasure Hall
Bruce Springsteen
Lydian String Quartet cellist Joshua
Gordon and pianist Randall Hodgkinson released Leo Ornstein: Complete
Works for Cello and Piano to rave
reviews, including kudos from the
New York Times for the duo’s
“exemplary performances.”
Legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog
screened his new film Encounters at
the End of the World at the Wasserman
Cinematheque and took questions from
students in Brandeis’s growing Film
Studies program.
Los Angeles–based artist Claudia
Bucher has been appointed Avnet artistin-residence in sculpture. Last fall she
taught Three-Dimensional Design and
Sculpture in the Age of New Media.
Becoming Natasha, a new play created
by Isadora Productions, the theater
company of Stacey Cervelino, MFA’98,
was hailed in American Theatre magazine for its “ripped-from-the-headlines
relevance.” Based on accounts of
human trafficking, the multimedia
production piece kicked off a week of
Amnesty International human rights
events in New York.
Music faculty David Rakowski premiered his composition Piano Concerto
with the Boston Modern Orchestra
Project, which commissioned the work
through the Serge Koussevitzky Music
Foundation.
Artists Tom Sachs, Steve Miller, and
Alexis Rockman, all of whom have
exhibited at the Rose, discussed their
20
calendar highlights
Avenue Q
work and creative process at New York
City’s Brandeis House last October.
Tony Award–winning Avenue Q
producer Robyn Goodman and her
Brandeis roommate, documentary filmmaker Jane Paley Price ‘69, returned
to campus to share creative insights and
advice on a life in the arts. Goodman’s
New York credits also include Metamorphosis, In the Heights, and Altar Boyz.
Following the success of Bruce Springsteen’s latest recording, Magic, legendary music producer Jon Landau ’68 was
profiled in Entertainment Weekly. He
coproduced Springsteen’s albums from
1975 to 1991, and he continues to act as
his manager.
Damien Hirst ’s controversial The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of
Someone Living, featuring a thirteenfoot tiger shark in a glass tank, is on
exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in November. Gary Tinterow ’76,
the Met’s curator of nineteenth-century,
modern, and contemporary art, commented, “We are thrilled to exhibit a
work that epitomizes the art of
our time.”
brandeis university | State of the Arts
Damien Hirst
April 3–13
Jewishfilm.2008
Wasserman Cinematheque
The Brandeis University Chorus is embarking on a European tour this semester. Nicholas A. Brown ’10 organized
the tour of Frauenkirche, Wieskirche, and
Burgersaalkirche in Germany and the
Salzburg Dom in Austria. The students
also will perform at a memorial service at
the Dachau concentration camp.
April 5, 8:00 p.m.
Lydian String Quartet
Slosberg Music Center
April 6, 3:00 p.m.
Brandeis Early Music Ensemble
Slosberg Music Center
April 6, 7:00 p.m.
Brandeis Wind Ensemble
Slosberg Music Center
April 9, 7:00 p.m.
Brandeis University Chorus and Chamber Choir
Slosberg Music Center
April 9–13
Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts
Campuswide
April 10, 8:00 p.m.
Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra
Slosberg Music Center
April 11–12
Boris’s Kitchen Spring Show
Shapiro Theater
George Wachter ’73, senior vice
chairman of Sotheby’s North and South
America and chairman of the Worldwide
Old Master Department at Sotheby’s
Inc., gave a campus lecture in November on the History of Art.
April 12, 7:30 p.m.
Culture X Spingold Theater Center
April 13, 4:00 p.m.
Brandeis Jazz Ensemble
Slosberg Music Center
April 14, 3:00 p.m.
Improv Ensemble
Slosberg Music Center
April 15, 7:00 p.m.
MUS116 Chamber Music
Slosberg Music Center
May 8–July 27
Alexis Rockman; The New Authentics; Paper Trail II
Rose Art Museum
Theater Arts faculty Adrianne
Krstansky directed an all-female
production of Macbeth for Boston’s
Actor’s Shakespeare Project featuring
faculty Marya Lowry in the title role.
The Boston Globe reported: “Krstansky’s
impassioned and forceful staging is not
a gimmick but a way of inviting us to see
a familiar tragedy in thought-provoking
new ways.”
Graduate composer Richard Beaudoin
adapted Herman Melville’s novel Pierre
for a production at the Arcola Theatre
in London.
Join the Arts at Brandeis E-List to receive monthly
arts information and invitations, including free or
discount ticket offers: www.brandeis.edu/arts
Programs, artists, and dates are subject to
change. For updates and additional arts events,
visit www.brandeis.edu/arts. For directions to
Brandeis University, call 781-736-4660 or visit
www.brandeis.edu.
Patron Information
Purchase tickets for the Brandeis Theater
Company or the Brandeis Concert Season:
• online at go.brandeis.edu/BrandeisTickets
• by phone: 781-736-3400
• at the box office: Monday–Friday,
10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Reservations are recommended. Any person
requiring special or wheelchair accommodations
should contact the box office at 781-736-3400.
For more information, visit www.brandeis.edu/btc.
Admission to the Rose Art Museum is $3; free to
the Brandeis community and to members of the
Rose. The Rose is open Tuesday through Sunday,
noon–5:00 p.m. For more information or to
become a member, visit www.brandeis.edu/rose
or call 781-736-3434.
The Women’s Studies Research Center (WSRC)
is open to the public Monday–Friday, 9:00
a.m.–5:00 p.m. There is no charge for admission.
Visit go.brandeis.edu/wsrc or call 781-736-8120
for more information.
State of the arts
| brandeis university
21
Leonard Bernstein
April 9–13
Festival of the Creative Arts
State of the Arts
Brandeis University
Office of the Arts
MS 051 / PO Box 549110
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
www.brandeis.edu/arts
Nonprofit Organization
U.S. Postage
Paid
Boston, MA
Permit No. 15731