Author: Liam Otten

Since 1968, the United States has been represented by 28 secretaries of state. But only 25 vocalists have had the chops to call themselves King’s Singers. At 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, the celebrated British ensemble will bring its peerless polyphony to Washington University in St. Louis’s 560 Music Center.

The Eliot Trio — pianist Seth Carlin, professor of music in Arts & Sciences, violinist David Halen and cellist Bjorn Ranheim, both of the St. Louis Symphony — will play the music of Beethoven, Bruch and Mendelssohn for its annual concert at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6, in Holmes Lounge on the Danforth Campus.

In 1980, Liz Callaway and Jason Graae made their off-Broadway debuts in “Godspell.” Three decades later, the pair are Broadway veterans, each boasting a long and storied career. On Feb. 14, these old friends will reunite at Washington University for “Happily Ever Laughter: A Valentine’s Party.” The special one-night-only performance is presented by the Edison Ovations Series.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will launch its spring Public Lecture Series with talks by architect Javier Maroto (Jan. 26) and artist Carrie Mae Weems (Feb. 2). Weems is a 2013 recipient of the MacArthur “genius award.” Her “Untitled (Colored People Grid)” recently was acquired by the university’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

This spring, students in Ignacio Infante’s “World-Wide Translation: Language, Culture, Technology” will help create positive experiences for critically ill children visiting St. Louis. The work is made possible in part  by an Arts & Sciences grant, one of 15, designed to support engaging and transformative classroom experiences.

Jazz bassist and composer Eric Warren will launch the spring Jazz at Holmes series with a free concert Thursday, Jan. 22. In all, the weekly series will feature 12 performances, including evenings with acclaimed guitarist John Abercrombie and saxophonist Eric Person, a St. Louis native now living in New York.

For Carmon Colangelo, dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, drawing is both an expressive art and a daily practice. At the office or in the studio, a sketchbook is always near at hand.

The Karb Family Quartet — which consists of senior Jonathan Karb, his parents Margaret and Benjamin and younger brother Aaron — will launch the spring Danforth University Center Chamber Music Series Jan. 20 in Goldberg Formal Lounge.

During the 1950s and ’60s, international abstraction played a crucial role in Cold War cultural politics. In St. Louis, Washington University emerged as one of the nation’s most important regional centers for postwar abstract art — in large part thanks to the efforts of curator William N. Eisendrath Jr. This spring, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will pay homage with “From Picasso to Fontana: Collecting Modern and Postwar Art in the Eisendrath Years, 1960-68.” 

Listening is a talent but also a skill. This spring, Andrew Raimist and Bob Hansman, both architecture faculty in Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, will lead “Community Building II: Ferguson,” a community studies class that explores the complex economic, political and racial landscape of north St. Louis.