Author: Liam Otten

Harold Blumenfeld, professor emeritus of music in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis — and the first composer to devote extensive attention to the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud — died Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 91.

Andrew Jackson stalks the stage in leather jeans. A power chord fills the air. Jackson was seventh president of the United States but this isn’t history class — it’s “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” an irreverent romp through the American political id. The production from the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis takes place Nov. 14-23.

They’ve shrunken Shakespeare, condensed Christmas, abbreviated the Bible and pruned and pared great works of poetry and prose. At 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, at Washington University’s Edison Theatre, The Reduced Shakespeare Company will tackle the subject it was born to abridge: “The Complete History of Comedy.”

In 1974, Washington University students organized “Women in Architecture,” a groundbreaking symposium that drew hundreds of participants from around the country. Now the Sam Fox School is marking the symposium’s 40th anniversary with a three-day event that will celebrate the achievements of the last four decades but also explore what has, and hasn’t, changed.

Clarinetist Nicolas del Grazia and St. Louis Symphony violinist Jooyeon Kong will join Washington University in St. Louis pianist Seth Carlin for works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert Schumann, Sergey Prokofiev and Igor Stravinksky Oct. 26.

You know the voice but do you know the dance moves? On Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 1 and 2, Ira Glass, host and executive producer of “This American Life,” will join Monica Bill Barnes & Company for “Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host” at Edison Theatre.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum has brought “How to Build a Universe that Falls Apart Two Days Later” (2014), by Danish artist Jakob Kolding, to the Skinker MetroLink station. The piece has been installed at the southwest entrance of the staton at the corner of Skinker Blvd. and Forest Park Parkway. It explores the gaps between how architectural spaces are planned and how they’re actually used, consists of protest-style posters, pasted to the wall in variable configurations.

Architects from across the country converged on the Danforth Campus Oct. 6 and 7 to install “Sukkah City STL 2014: Between Absence and Presence.” The design competition challenged participants to reimagine the traditional Jewish Sukkah through the lens of contemporary art and architecture. On view through Oct. 12.

Pity the poor bassoon — large and awkward, often consigned to comic roles, its warm, mellow harmonics overshadowed by the thunder and lightening of piano and violin. But on Oct. 13, St. Louis Symphony bassoonist Andrew Gott and the WUSTL Symphony Orchestra will showcase the bassoon in all its expressive potential.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, in which thousands of volunteers helped register African-American voters in Mississippi, and of John Coltrane’s landmark album “A Love Supreme.” On Thursday, Oct. 9, Washington University will celebrate both anniversaries with a free Jazz at Holmes concert.