Author: Liam Otten

Peter Schmelz”Though many scholars resist the idea that country music is solely aligned with conservatives, it has been used as a powerful political tool by the right, tapping into a kind of nostalgic fantasy about what America once was,” says Peter Schmelz, an assistant professor of musicology who studies the intersections between music and politics.

The Saturday afternoon jazz series, a set of four free concerts in conjunction with the “Birth of Cool Exhibit” at Kemper Art Museum begins Sept. 27 with the BAG Trio.

Aliens and dinosaurs, inner space and outer space. On Oct. 3-4, L.A. Theatre Works, the nation’s foremost radio theater company, returns to Edison Theatre for special back-to-back productions of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World.”

Three aspiring playwrights will present staged readings of their works Sept. 26-27 as part of the 2008 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival, sponsored by the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences.

Harold BlumenfeldWithin a month of publishing his notorious collection Les Fleurs du mal (“Flowers of Evil,” 1857), the French poet Charles Baudelaire was charged with insulting public decency and ordered to remove six works from subsequent editions. Yet Baudelaire’s poems, which centered on themes of eroticism and mortality, would influence generations of writers. Now St. Louis composer Harold Blumenfeld has recorded Vers Sataniques (“Satanic Verse”), a major new piece based on Les Fleurs du mal, which will be featured as part of a mixed media concert Oct. 13.

Courtesy photoThe Trey McIntyre ProjectTrey McIntyre is one of today’s most innovative and sought-after choreographers, known for both challenging and expanding the limits of contemporary ballet. On Oct. 10 and 11McIntyre’s company, the Trey McIntyre Project, will make its St. Louis debut as part of the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series.

Novelist Zachary Lazar, author of Sway (2008), will read from his work at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, for the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences. Set in the 1960s, Sway interweaves three emblematic stories of the period: the early days of the Rolling Stones, the life of filmmaker Kenneth Anger and the rise of Charles Manson and his followers.

Marge BetleyThree aspiring playwrights will present staged readings of their works Sept. 26 and 27 as part of the 2008 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival, sponsored by the Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences. Named in honor of alumnus A.E. Hotchner (AB and JD ’40), the festival consists of an intensive two-week workshop that culminates in the staged readings. This year’s workshop is led by Marge Betley, literary manager and resident dramaturg for the Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY.

Courtesy PhotoGrammy Award-winning a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock will launch the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series with a special one-night-only performance at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27.

Celebrated violinist Martin Chalifour, principal concertmaster for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will join musicians from Washington University and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for a chamber music recital at 7 p.m., Monday, Sept. 22.