Music Fest Kicks Off

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The 2007 Contemporary Music Festival, presented by the School of Music in partnership with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, kicks off Weds, Jan 31, and continues through Sun, Feb 4. The festival, organized by Donald Harris (Music), welcomes prominent composer Gunther Schuller, one of the most versatile and multi-faceted musicians in the nation. Concerts will be presented on campus and in theatres downtown, including Chamber Music of Gunther Schuller (Jan 31), Compositions by OSU Alumni and Student Composers (Feb 1), Columbus Symphony Orchestra with Schuller as guest conductor (Feb 2 and 3) and Music for Large Ensembles by Gunther Schuller (Feb 4). For a complete list of concerts, go to the festival website.

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Part of the Contemporary Music Festival is "all in the family." The Thursday concert will feature a piece composed by music alumnus Richard Smoot, which will be sung by his daughter, School of Music student Sarah Smoot!

The OSU Arts Scholars program presents its 2007 Juried Traveling Exhibition. A preview exhibition will be presented at Haskett Hall's Silver Image Gallery after 1 pm on Mon, Jan 29. The exhibition -- with works by undergraduate arts scholars -- then travels to Emack and Bolios Ice Cream at 945 N. High St in the Short North. The show will be spotlighted during three Saturday Gallery Hops -- from 6 to 10 pm on Feb 3, March 3 and April 6 -- with Arts Scholars musicians performing.


Catch leading archeologist William Saturno's lecture at 4 pm Weds, Jan 31, in the Wexner Film/Video Theatre. His presentation -- "Maya King and Country: Landscape, Mythology and the Origins of Civilization" -- explores his 2001 discovery of ancient murals and texts in the remote archaeological site of San Bartolo, Guatemala. The program is sponsored by the Arts Scholars Program and many areas within the university. The lecture and following reception are free and open to all.


James Sanders (Art Education) wrote an essay on Nick Cave's Soundsuits for the 2006 International Journal of Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education, which is just now hitting the market. He also has written peer-reviewed essays recently for two publications, Curriculum and the Cultural Body and the International Journal of Art and Design Education.

Ancient Images

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Images like this one of the Acropolis in Greece will be on display at the OSU Faculty Club Jan 26-March 16. The exhibition -- Imaging Antiquity: Selections from the Jack Balcer Image Archive -- comes from the OSU Visual Resources Library in the Department of History of Art, which houses the personal slides of the late Jack Balcer, professor of Ancient History at Ohio State. A prolific photographer, Balcer employed visual aids to engage and instruct students about the past. The archive consists of nearly 30,000 slides documenting his research on the Athenian Empire, Greek and Roman Numismatics and the Persian Empire. An opening reception is planned Jan 26 at the Faculty Club.

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Archeologist William Saturno (University of New Hampshire, Harvard's Peabody Museum) will present a lecture at Ohio State at 4 pm Weds, Jan 31, in the Wexner Film/Video Theatre. His lecture -- Maya King and Country: Landscape, Mythology and the Origins of Civilization -- focuses on his discovery of the ancient murals and texts of San Bartolo, Guatemala. In 2001, while exploring in northeastern Guatemala, Saturno and his team discovered the remote archaeological site of San Bartolo and the oldest intact murals ever found in the Maya world. These, and more recent discoveries of text, date from a period when Maya civilization itself was just forming, around 400 BC. The lecture is free and open to all. A reception follows in the Wexner cafe. The lecture is sponsored by the Arts Scholars Program in collaboration with a wide range of areas within the university.

In 2003, a critical edition of Lully's Armide, by Lois Rosow (Music) was published by Olms. Now, the premiere performance of her version of the 1686 opera will be presented Feb 3 at the University of Maryland. She serves as musicological advisor for the concert production with fully staged dance. Music will be performed by Opera Lafayette, a period-instrument ensemble based in Washington, DC, with internationally acclaimed vocal soloists under conductor and artistic director Ryan Brown. Dance will be provided by the New York Baroque Dance Ensemble, under choreographer and artistic director Catherine Turocy (an OSU Dance alumna). Opera Lafayette will record this production of Armide for Naxos.

The Living Culture Initiative and OSU Department of Art Visitors Series welcome performance, video and new media artist Constance DeJong to campus for a lecture at 4:30 pm, Weds, Jan 24, in the Wexner Film/Video Theatre. DeJong's interdisciplinary work has been exhibited in spaces around the world, including the Dia Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, Hamburger Bahnhoff Museum (Berlin), Arc Festival (Graaz, Austria) and Moderna Museum (Slovenia). In 1978, she published her first novel, Modern Love, which she adapted into a 60-minute serialized radio text. The noted Philip Glass wrote an original score for the novel. Since that time, DeJong has continued to explore and experiment with hybrid forms. Her lecture is free.

Ken Rinaldo (Art & Technology) was one of the nominees for a 2006 TopCat Award presented by Tech Columbus. Topcat Awards recognize outstanding achievements in technology leadership. He was nominated in the catagory of "inventor of the year" for his work the Autotelematic Spider Bots. The awards were presented Jan. 18 in Columbus.

Playwright Geralyn Horton has published her experiences at last summer's OSU retreat for the International Center for Women Playwrights (ICWP). Her essay appears in the newsletter for ICWP, and can be viewed online by clicking here. According to Alan Woods (Theatre), who organized the retreat, Horton's comments about Ohio State and Theatre and the whole experience are very positive.

Inventory of Objects. . .

A new book by Ann Hamilton (Art) has recently been published by Gregory R. Miller & Co. Ann Hamilton: An Inventory of Objects features a complete and comprehensive inventory of Hamilton's objects, made from 1984 to 2006, and relates to the larger installations for which she is internationally known. The major publication includes more than 130 color plates (see image, above) that document photographs, sculpture, video, audio and language pieces. Each object is accompanied by a text by Joan Simon, who also contibutes an essay placing Hamilton's objects in critical context.

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Don Harris (Music) has received a commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress to write a piece for the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. The piece is planned for the 2008-09 season. The 60-year-old foundation is named for conductor Serge Koussevitzky, a proponent of contemporary music who died in 1951. Harris also is working on a second composition for the Upper Arlington Community Orchestra.

Naxos, the largest classical music recording label in the world, has named the OSU Wind Symphony and Russ Mikkelson (Music) as their "Artist of the Week" in conjunction with the world-wide release of their new CD Winds of Nagual. The disc is scheduled for release in the US on Jan 30 and already is being sold in Europe and other parts of the world. Click here to go to the Naxos website, where Mikkelson and the CD are featured.

In addition, OSU Bands just concluded a successful weekend with 109 of the finest high school musicians, who came to campus for the 26th annual High School Honor Band weekend, according to Richard Blatti (Music). The students came from 68 high schools in Ohio and neighboring states, and as far away as Virginia and Rhode Island. Blatti, Russ Mikkelson, Jon Woods and music studio faculty taught master classes and conducted the talented young people.

Jan 31 is the application deadline for the summer quarter Art and Culture in China program, to be taught by Julia Andrews and Kuiyi Shen (History of Art). The program will include three courses (Arts of China, Modern Chinese Art and Art in Film) and will be taught on site in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Beijing, making use of museums, temples and historical sites there, along with classroom lectures and screenings. For more information visit the OIE website. For questions about the application, budget and financial aid, contact Jeff McKibben at mckibben.1@osu.edu. For questions about the program itself, contact Andrews at andrews.2@osu.edu.

Jefferson Academy of Music continues its 28th season of "Chamber Music - Sunday Afternoons" with a program of Bach selections on Jan 21. Caroline Hong (Music) will perform the incomparable Goldberg Variations at 2 pm Sun, Jan 21, at the Columbus Museum of Art, 480 E. Broad St. For ticket infomation, call 292-2693.

Thomas Wells (Music) has recieved a $20,000 commission from the Johannes Gutenberg University Faculty of Music in Mainz, Germany, to compose a new work for orchestra, chorus and soloists for the opening of a new music building there. He will travel to Mainz this spring to work with students and faculty in preparation for the project, and teach courses in composition and computer music.

'Supreme' Art Project

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A public art project by Malcolm Cochran (Art) was installed late last month at the Ohio Judicial Center, site of the Ohio Supreme Court on South Front Street. The project consists of 66 solid, white granite letters placed in the center's north reflecting pool, and spelling out words such as truth, honesty, integrity and peace. The granite letters -- each weighing between 150 and 350 pounds -- were cut in China by a Cleveland-based company, per Cochran's specifications, and shipped to the U.S. During the months when the pool is filled, the water will be level with the top of each letter. (photos by Alisa Courtney)


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The Other Paper, Columbus's news and entertainment weekly, published a "Best of 2006" list last week. In it, OSU's production of Hair was named Best Musical. The paper said, "Directed by Steven C. Anderson, the Tribal Love-Rock Musical was as tuneful and gloriously rebellious as ever. Dan Gray's set design added to the show's theatrcality with slides, circles and psychedelic colors."

Graeme Boone (Music) wrote the grant proposal and a summary of it for the American Musicological Society's "OPUS" fundraising campaign. You can read about it here via the link, Bulletin: NEH $1.2 million Challenge Grant summarized.