The 2009 Choreographer’s Gallery: New Horizons

The Choreographer’s Gallery is a fantastic opportunity facilitated by the Department of Theatre and Dance for Gustavus dance students. The choreographers include Seniors Marissa Augustin, Jordan Klitzke, Sarah Jabar, Patrick Jeffery, Katelyn Pedersen, Andrea Nelson, Nina Serratore, Jill VanOsdol and Kayla Winter, and Juniors Haley Carpenter, Amy Hassenstab, and Leah McEllistrem.

This captivating and diverse dance concert is intended to be a platform for creative research in both choreography and design. The Anderson Theatre, normally a thrust stage, will be reconfigured to offer a proscenium stage experience for the students. The department will act as an accommodating resource to enable the students to realize their artistic vision.

The Choreographer’s Gallery will have the support and technical expertise of faculty Terena Wilkens in the area of lighting and sound, and Andrea Gross in costume design, along with student designers Kelly Franzen, lighting design, and Robert Crogan, costume design.

Tickets are available November 10 online at gustavustickets.com or by calling the Gustavus Ticket Center at 507-933-7590. Reserved seating tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens, and free for Gustavus students and staff.

Portrait of Felix Mendelssohn by James Warren Childe (1778–1862)

The Gustavus Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of conductor Gregory Aune, will feature Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, the “Reformation” Symphony, on its Fall Concert, Sunday, November 8. The concert begins at 1:30 p.m. in Christ Chapel and is free and open to the public.

The Symphony will open Sunday’s concert with Beethoven’s Die Weihe des Hauses and Wagner’s Prelude to Act III of Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. The Gustavus Choir then joins the orchestra to present Nänie by Johannes Brahms. Nänie (Latin for dirges) is one of Brahms’ masterful contributions to the literature and like his Ein Deutsches Requiem conveys comfort and consolation rather than despair in the inevitability of death.

Following intermission, the Symphony marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) with his Symphony No. 5. Mendelssohn completed the symphony in 1830 and hoped it would be premiered that year to mark the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession. Although that did not happen until two years later, the symphony earned the common title of the “Reformation” Symphony as the thematic core of the final movement is Martin Luther’s hymn, Ein feste Burg is unser Gott.

Sunday’s concert performed by the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra, conductor Gregory Aune, and assisted by the Gustavus Choir, begins at 1:30 p.m.in Christ Chapel and is free and open to the public.

Chair-curves-purple legs by Sculptor Dean Wilson

Works by furniture designer and sculptor and Gustavus alumnus, Dean Wilson, will be on display in Schaefer Gallery in the Department of Art/Art History beginning Thursday, November 5 – November 30.  An opening reception on November 5 will be preceded by the artist’s lecture/discussion in the Fine Arts Lecture Hall at 4:30 p.m. Schaefer Gallery and the lecture are free and open to the public.

Wilson attended Gustavus in the late 1960s before transferring to the sculpture program at the University of Minnesota. Since earning his MFA in sculpture in 1975, he has continued to stretch the boundaries of art and function in furniture design. He currently is professor of furniture design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. His work has been sold world-wide and exhibited at the University of Minnesota, the Gallery of Functional Art, Santa Monica; the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the Domont Gallery in Indianapolis.

The artist writes, “As I make my furniture and sculpture today, process often drives my aesthetic. Over the years, my curiosity about materials and their use increases until exploration of process and materials defines my art. There is no moral imperative, no running narrative, no desire to persuade others to my opinion. I just tell folks I make things that intrigue me BECAUSE of the how and what, and not so much of the why.  I love the challenge of a new material, like fiberglass, or process, heat shrinking.  See if you can tell what and where I am coming from.”

This exhibition has been organized through the Department of Art/Art History’s Alumni Artists in Residence program. Schaefer Gallery is open daily from 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. The exhibition is open to the public at no charge. Additional works by the artist can be viewed at:  http://www.mnartists.org/work.do?action=list&rid=9844

Organist Timothy D. Buendorf

St. Paul organist Timothy Buendorf, Gustavus class of 1988, returns to Christ Chapel on Friday, October 30 for for an alumni organ recital beginning at 7:30 p.m. The performance is free and open to the public.

For his recital, Buendorf has chosen a program that includes, among other works, selections from Bach’s Leipzig Chorales, Mendelssohn’s Andante with Variations and Cesar Franck’s Fantasie in A Major. It is, as Buendorf writes, “a program that covers a wide variety of musical styles and demonstrates the wide range of tonal colors that the organ can produce.”

Timothy D. Buendorf graduated from Gustavus in 1988 with a major in church music. During his years at Gustavus, Tim studied organ with David Fienen and Norma Aamodt-Nelson, and was organist at Trinity Lutheran Church. He went on to attend the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Worship and the Arts where he earned a Master of Music degree. Following an appointment as Chapel Organist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, Tim returned to Minnesota in 1997 where he has held church music positions at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral and Saint Mark’s Catholic Church before taking his present appointment as Chapel Organist at the University of Saint Thomas in St. Paul.

Friday’s recital in Christ Chapel is free and open to the public. Timothy Buendorf’s recital begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be followed by a reception in the Chapel narthex.

Wheelock’s lecture is supported by the Lecture Series of Gustavus Adolphus College.  It is presented in conjunction with the Hillstrom Museum of Art’s exhibition Winds of Inspiration, Winds of Change (on view through November 8), which explores wind turbines.  The exhibition and related programming is supported by a generous grant from the John P. & Eleanor R. Yackel Foundation, whose mission is “to support programs that create a just and peaceful society, build sustainable environments, and in all we do, work toward the common good.”  The exhibition is also supported by a generous donation from the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, which is active in developing and supporting wind energy.

USAF's New Horizons Clarinet Quintet

New Horizons, a clarinet quintet from the United States Air Force Heartland of America Band, will present a performance on Wednesday, October 21, beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the Interpretive Center of the Linnaeus Arboretum.

Members of the quintet are the squadron’s finest players bringing widely diverse talents and a highly entertaining program to the tour concerts. Works on the program include Fantasie KV 594 by W.A. Mozart; Music from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by John Williams, arranged by SrA J. David Beasley; Jump in the Line, Harry Belafonte, arranged by SrA J. David Beasley and Bulgarian Bat Bite by Mike Curtis.

The performance is open to the public at no charge.

Barry Green,a native Californian, served as Principal Bassist of the Cincinnati Symphony for 28 years. As former Executive Director of the International Society of Bassists, he is currently directing a young bassist program for the San Francisco Symphony Education Department, teaches privately at Stanley Intermediate in Lafayette and at the U. of Calif. Santa Cruz and has organized the Northern California Bass Club.

Principal Bassist with the California Symphony and the Sun Valley Idaho Summer Symphony and active as a bass soloist and teacher, Green has been performing for young audiences in schools in the Bay Area as well as performs bass workshops and concerts on tour. Green has studied with the legendary bassist FranÁois Rabbath. Greenís wrote The Popular Bass Method in three volumes in collaboration with Bay Area jazz bassist Jeff Neighbor.

Green is author of the Doubleday book The Inner Game of Music, with W. Timothy Gallwey, (1986) which deals with musicians reaching their potential in performance and learning which has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide. He has written seven Inner Game of Music Workbooks published by GIA Music for keyboard, voice, instruments and ensembles. Green seminars workshops and personal appearances sometimes include a unique lecture/concert called Journey into the Mind and Soul of the Musician that demonstrates concepts in Greenís Inner Game of Music book and his new book The Mastery of Music.

The Mastery of Music, Ten Pathways to True Artistry will be published by Broadway/Doubleday in May 2003 and is based interviews with over 120 world famous musicians on topics of courage, passion, creativity, discipline, humility etc. It deals with qualities of greatness from the human spirit that transcend all professions. Jazz and classical artists interviewed include Dave Brubeck, Bobby McFerrin, Joshua Bell, Frederica von Stade, Christopher Parkening, Evelyn Glennie, Jeffrey Kahane and many more.

One of the "Parade of Hats" for Far Away

Far Away is a comical, bizarre, and lively play with an intriguingly serious undertone. Andrea Gullixson, Shane Jensen, Kelly Nelson, and Sally Morrow, daughter of Gustavus Professor Terry Morrow, star in this dystopic fairy tale full of dark humor and stunning images. Churchill uses a child’s nightmare, an office romance, and a parade of designer hats to challenge us to look more closely at our own actions. With spectacular costumes and witty dialogue, Far Away is a play that abstractly helps the audience to recognize the links between our culture and poverty around the world and to realize that being complacent to oppression will not always be an option.

Seven Jewish Children was written by Churchill in response to the Israeli incursions into Gaza in 2008-2009. In seven scenes, adult characters urgently discuss how to teach Jewish children (who are never seen on stage) about important events and violence in Jewish history. Since it opened at London’s Royal Court in January 2009, this 10-minute play has been so controversial that many other plays have since been written in response. One of these is Seven Palestinian Children. Written by respected American playwright Deb Margolin in a similar format, this play gives a fascinating account from a different perspective in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gustavus’ Social Justice Theatre class will be performing in Seven Jewish Children with faculty members Mary Gaebler and Laurent Dechery, while Seven Palestinian Children will be performed by seven female Gustavus students. Because of the provocative nature of the plays, talk-back sessions will be held after every performance with the director and cast, led by members of the Curriculum II Theatre Arts course in Dramaturgy.

Far Away, Seven Jewish Children, and Seven Palestinian Children highlight student designers Kristen Mead, lighting design, and Lydia Francis, scenic design, who are both presenting their first full design for the department. Costume design for the production was created by Andrea Gross, and sound design by Terena Wilkens.

Tickets are available through the Gustavus Ticket Center at (507) 933-7590. Adult tickets $7.00, student and senior citizen tickets $5.00, Gustavus students and staff free of charge. Tickets not purchased in advance may be purchased at the Anderson Theatre Box Office beginning one hour prior to curtain. **NOTE: Ticket prices refer to Far Away only.  In accordance with requirements set by playwrights Churchill and Margolin, admission to their plays is FREE. These plays will begin after a break approximately one hour after Far Away begins. Donations are requested to Medical Aid for Palestinians and to the One Israel Fund.

Pianist Yumiko Oshima-Ryan

“The Goldberg Variations,” Johann Sebastian Bach’s An Aria with Thirty Variations, will be performed by pianist Yumiko Oshima-Ryan, associate professor of music at Gustavus Adolphus College, Sunday, October 18, beginning at 3:30 p.m. in Jussi Björling Recital Hall. This performance is free and open to the public.

It is believed that the “Goldberg Variations” were named after an extraordinary student, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, brought to Bach by the Russian Ambassador, Count Kaiserling. The story continues that the Count suffered from insomnia and young Goldberg would play the clavier to soothe the Count. When the Count suggested that Bach compose something specifically for this purpose, the composer returned with the variations.

Oshima-Ryan writes “whether the story is true or false, I sense that this composition has an amazing power of healing the human soul that comes through the compassionate warmth, faith, and most of all, strong hope and love expressed in Bach’s music.” 250 years later, we can “still feel the joy of Bach’s great art and his energy in our modern world of sleeplessness and suffering.”

First published in 1741, the “Goldberg Variations” were originally composed for harpsichord with two manuals. This presents a number of difficulties for the pianist as she performs the work on the one manual of the modern piano. As such, the variations are repertoire which continue to challenge concert pianists more than 250 years after its composition.

Sunday’s performance of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” by pianist Yumiko Oshima-Ryan begins at 3:30 in Björling Recital Hall. It is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception for the pianist in the recital hall lobby.

Kurt Elling: Dedicated to You

of our time.” Jazz Times traces the royal bloodline of jazz singers from Satchmo to Kurt Elling. The Washington Post writes that Kurt Elling has come to “embody the creative spirit in jazz.” And Billboard Magazine has selected Kurt Elling as the premiere jazz vocalist for the past ten years. No matter what your tastes, Kurt Elling has become vital to the evolution of jazz vocals and is considered the pre-eminent jazz vocalist of the day. The Gustavus Artist Series is pleased to bring one of Gustavus’ favorite sons back to Gustavus for his 20th anniversary concert at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, October 10. The site of this concert is the venue where this astounding talent first performed jazz before a live audience, Jussi Björling Recital Hall.

For Saturday’s performance, Kurt is joined by long-time collaborator and musical partner Laurence Hobgood on piano. Dave Brubeck calls Hobgood one of the most “incredible pianists I’ve ever known,” and the Chicago Tribune claims him to be a “powerhouse, an imaginative improvisor with a Herculean technique.” Bassist Michael Olatuja and drummer Ulysses Owens complete the combo.

With Hobgood, Kurt Elling has been pushing the boundaries of vocal jazz since they co-produced their first recording in 1995, Close Your Eyes. The duo has continued to produce 8 Grammy-nominated recordings one after the other. In their recent contribution to the music world, Dedicated to You, Kurt Elling sings the music of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman. Recorded in January 2009 as part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, the recording packs the best of the live performance into stunning spectrum of music, both vocal and instrumental.

In addition to 8 Grammy nominations, Elling has been honored with top honors in the Down Beat and Jazz Time Readers‘ polls, four Jazz Journalists Association selections as Best Male Vocalist and the Prix Billie Holiday form the Academe du Jazz in Paris.

But ultimately, it’s about the music, not awards. As Duke Ellington said, “There is only good music and bad music.” On Saturday night you have the opportunity to hear Kurt Elling live, on tour between Monterey Jazz and the Thelonius Monk Festival in Washington. You get to decide if all those who proclaim Kurt Elling as the premiere jazz vocalist of our day are correct or not. The house is ready and your seat is waiting. Lights go down at 8:00.

Tickets are available at gustavustickets.com and at the door.