Author: Liam Otten

Sustainability and economic growth: two desirable goals which should demonstrably complement one another, especially in our cities. But how? On Feb. 21, the Sam Fox School and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., will present The Innovative Metropolis, a daylong symposium (and web simulcast) on fostering economic competitiveness through sustainable urban design.

In 2011, acclaimed pianist and composer Amina Figarova left Europe for the United States. The result is Twelve, a suite of new songs that Figarova wrote shortly after the move. On Feb. 21, Figarova will visit WUSTL’s Jazz at Holmes Series as part of a 14-city tour in support of Twelve, her 12th full-length album.

Renowned author and art historian Udo Kultermann, who taught architecture at WUSTL for nearly 30 years, died Feb. 9, 2013, in New York City, following a long illness. He was 85.

Alonzo King cuts a unique figure in the contemporary dance world — an African-American choreographer creating original works within the traditions and structures of classical ballet. On Feb. 22 and 23, King and his acclaimed touring company, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, will return to Washington University for two shows presented as part of the Edison Ovations Theatre.

Kathy Ryan, program coordinator in the School of Medicine’s Career Counseling Office, helps students navigate the long, arduous and high-stakes process of national residency matching.

Franz Schubert’s Winterreise (“Winter Journey”) opens on a melancholy note. Memories of warmth and spring vie with cold anticipation of the road to come. It’s an apt metaphor for Schubert himself, who would die at age 31, shortly after completing the cycle. On Sunday, Feb. 10, musicians from WUSTL and the St. Louis Symphony will present an evening of late works by this most romantic of Romantic composers.

As a young man, Oedipus outwitted the deadly Sphinx but also committed terrible sins — slaying his natural father, marrying his widowed mother. Now the former king of Thebes wanders Greece a beggar, blinded by his own hand. But in Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles’ melancholy meditation on age and loss, this once-great hero finally concludes his tortured, penitent journey.

Eric Hoffman, professor of practice in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, has won a national 2013 Young Architects Award from the American Institute of Architects. Hoffman is both the first Sam Fox School faculty member and the first Sam Fox School alumnus to receive the honor, among the highest available to architects in the early stages of their careers.

With its fractured spaces and multiple viewpoints, Cubism marked a radical break fromWestern painting’s long tradition of naturalistic depiction. But even Cubism had its influences — among them, the visual techniques of early cinema. In February, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum and KDHX Media Arts will help contemporary filmmakers return the favor with the Kemper Braque Film Challenge.

At a reading speed of 250 words per minute, it would take the average adult almost three full days (without sleep or bathroom breaks) to complete J.K. Rowling’s mammothly popular Harry Potter series. Now you can do it in 70 minutes flat, thanks to Potted Potter, which comes to Edison Theatre Feb. 15.