Author: Liam Otten

Donald KosterNova Scotia summer cottageFaculty members, graduate students and recent alumni from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts have received a total of five 2006 Design Awards from the St. Louis Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The annual awards honor architects, designers and craftspersons for their contributions to excellence in the built environment. In all, 18 awards were given in five categories: Craftsmanship, Drawings, Interiors, Unbuilt and Architecture.

The Washington University Symphony Orchestra will present “OrganFest,” a concert showcasing the university’s recently refurbished Graham Chapel organ, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19. Dan Presgrave, instrumental music coordinator in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, conducts the 70-plus-member orchestra. Featured soloist are William Partridge, Jr., university organist; and Barbara Raedeke, instructor in organ.

Four aspiring playwrights will present staged readings of their work Nov. 16 and 17 as part of Washington University’s 2006 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, the festival’s selection process actually began in January, when students from across the university submitted original plays to an adjudication committee made up of faculty and theater professionals. The committee then selected four plays — two full-length works and two shorts — to undergo an intense two-week workshop this fall, culminating in the staged readings.

Donald KosterNova Scotia summer cottageFaculty members, graduate students and recent alumni from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts have received a total of five 2006 Design Awards from the St. Louis Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The annual awards honor architects, designers and crafts persons for their contributions to excellence in the built environment. In all, 18 awards were given in five categories: Craftsmanship, Drawings, Interiors, Unbuilt and Architecture. In addition, the Wainwright Building Complex received the chapter’s Twenty-Five Year Award.

Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, will speak on “The Great Jazz Schism” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14. A former editor of Down Beat magazine, Morgenstern has won six Grammy awards for best album notes and served as a senior advisor to Ken Burns 10-part PBS series Jazz. Earlier this year he was named a “Jazz Master” by the National Endowment for the Arts — a designation The New York Times calls “the nation’s highest jazz honor.”

The Washington University Wind Ensemble will perform a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, in the University’s Graham Chapel. Dan Presgrave, instrumental music coordinator in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, directs the program, which includes music of Franz Joseph Haydn, Malcolm Arnold, Franz von Suppé and Gordon Jacob.

Mezzo soprano Jade Lin Hornbaker, a master’s candidate in vocal performance in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, will present a graduate voice recital at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, in the auditorium of the Uncas A. Whitaker Hall for Biomedical Engineering. The program includes music of Modest Mussorgsky, Robert Schumann, Francis Poulenc and John Ireland.

It’s election season once again, but the political fun continues even after votes are cast. On Thursday, Nov. 9, the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will host “Playwrights and Politics: Two Acts on the National and International Scene.” The symposium will examine the nature of political theatre and the impact of the arts on national and international politics.

Photo by David KilperDedication of two new buildings for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts is celebrated by students and supporters, including designer and former WUSTL architecture professor Fumihiko Maki.

Paul VertucioShapiro & Smith DanceAs young dancers in the mid-1980s, Danial Shapiro and Joanie Smith frequently spent their evenings with Smith’s sister, the violinist Soozie Tyrell, and her best friend, a young singer-songwriter named Patty Scialfa. In the years since, Shapiro and Smith emerged as internationally renowned choreographers, praised by The New York Times for their “strong, sharp edged dancing and daring theatricality.” Meanwhile, Tyrell and Scialfa would both go on to perform as members of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. More recently, the quartet reunited to create Anytown: Stories of America, a dance theater piece based on Springsteen’s songs. In November, the show will make its St. Louis premiere at Washington University’s Edison Theatre.