Author: Liam Otten

It’s one of the most acclaimed off-Broadway shows of the last decade and surprise winner of the 1996-97 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best musical.

It’s dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth “Ibby” Gray Danforth, the University’s first lady for nearly a quarter century, and Sona Haydon, a longtime lecturer.

Jeff FasanoImani WindsSt. Louis native Josephine Baker was one of the most acclaimed, controversial and ultimately beloved African-American performers of the 20th century. Her sensual allure and sharp comic timing caused a sensation in Paris during the 1920s, at a time when U.S. popular culture remained largely segregated. On Friday, April 28, the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series at Washington University will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Baker’s birth with a special, one-night-only performance of The Josephine Baker Project: A Life of Le Jazz Hot.

Mary Butkus/WUSTL Photo ServicesBallgown by Rachel LwinThe Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis will present The 77th Annual Fashion Design Show at Saint Louis Galleria Sunday, May 7. The fully choreographed, Paris-style extravaganza will feature more than 50 professional and volunteer models wearing close to 130 outfits created by six seniors and 19 juniors from the school’s fashion design program.

Joe Angeles/WUSTL Photo ServicesLingerie by Natalie AntinPress images for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ 77th Annual Fashion Design Show, which takes place at Saint Louis Galleria Sunday, May 7.

The Washington University Concert Choir will present an evening of French choral music at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 20, in Graham Chapel. The program, which will feature Gabriel Fauré’s beloved Requiem, is dedicated to the memories of Elizabeth Gray Danforth, wife of Chancellor Emeritus William H. Danforth and first lady of Washington University for nearly a quarter century, who passed away last spring; and Sona Haydon, a longtime lecturer in piano for the Department of Music, who died last fall.

Opal Andrews*Violet: A Musical Pilgrimage*It’s 1964. An embittered yet deeply religious young woman, disfigured by childhood injury, boards a bus for the Deep South, in search of a TV evangelist who claims to possess healing powers. So begins Violet: A Musical Pilgrimage, one of the most acclaimed off-Broadway shows of the last decade. From April 21 to 30, the Performing Arts Department will present six performances in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.

The assistant professor of theory & composition earned a doctorate from the Juilliard School in 2005 and joined WUSTL’s music department last fall.

Jon Cook, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will speak on the craft of poetry at 8 p.m., Thursday, April 15. Cook is the author of Romanticism and Ideology (1981), William Hazlitt: Selected Writings (1991), Poetry in Theory (2004) and the forthcoming Hazlitt in Love.

She succeeds Sabine Eckmann; the appointment comes at a critical time for the museum, which will open a new 65,000-square-foot facility this fall.