Author: Liam Otten

As an artist, the Sam Fox School’s Patricia Olynyk frequently investigates the intersections of art and science. Now Olynyk is helping to lead a national task force on the topic while also planning a vertical seminar about “The Role of Arts Practice in the Research University.”

Tony Award-winning playwright, and Washington University alumnus, Steven Sater discusses theater, adolescence and his Broadway smash Spring Awakening.

The hope was to repair a friendship. The result was a masterwork. On Dec. 9, the St. Louis Symphony’s Bjorn Ranheim and Shawn Weil will join the Washington University Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Johannes Brahms’ “Double Concerto in A for Violin and Cello.”​

It is perhaps the most beloved work of holiday music. The debut was almost prevented by Jonathan Swift. But on Dec. 15, the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences will present its annual sing-along of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah (1741) in Graham Chapel.

As a young saxophonist in the early 1970s, Marc Copeland experimented with modern and electric harmonies but grew dissatisfied with his instrument. He quit the sax and, a decade later, re-emerged as a jazz pianist, renowned for his dexterous lyricism. On Friday, Dec. 6, Copland will join acclaimed bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Joey Baron for a performance in WUSTL’s 560 Music Center.

Gerald Early, PhD, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in Arts & Sciences, has been appointed to the National Council on the Humanities, the 26-member advisory board to the National Endowment for the Humanities. Early is one of five new members nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

“John-John,” a new aria by playwright Carter W. Lewis and composer Kamala Sankaram, debuted recently as part of “November 21, 1963: The Day Before,” a multidisciplinary event marking the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

The U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America and the Washington University in St. Louis Wind Ensemble will mark the anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination with a free concert Nov. 22 in the 560 Music Center.

The air chills, the leaves fall, the crops are collected and stored for winter. From India to Estonia, from Holi to Thanksgiving, virtually every culture celebrates the harvest. On Nov. 24, the WUSTL Concert Choir and Chamber Choir will honor fall’s bounty with Thanksgiving, featuring music that stretches from Renaissance Italy to contemporary Senegal.

In 1974, Walt Reed opened the Illustration House. For decades, the New York gallery was the nation’s premier advocate for illustration art. Now, Washington University Special Collections has worked with Reed and his son, Roger, to acquire the Illustration House archives, along with a substantial number of original artworks.