Arts & Culture

“Improvisation isn’t matter of just making any ol’ thing up,” jazz great Wynton Marsalis once observed. “Jazz, like any language, has its own grammar and vocabulary.” On Thursday, Oct. 4, guitarist William Lenihan and poet Eileen G’Sell will put that analogy to the test with “The New Beat Generation,” an evening of improvised music and poetry, presented as part of the Jazz at Holmes Series.

At the turn of the last century, Australian composer Percy Aldridge Grainger developed a fascination with folk music of the British Isles. Among the results was Molly on the Shore, an arrangement of two traditional Irish reels, or dances. On Oct. 7, the Washington University Wind Ensemble will perform Molly on the Shore as part of a free concert marking the public debut of new conductor Chris Becker.

Last fall, students from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts created Parking Plot, a subversive look at just what constitutes “urban nature.” Now, Parking Plot is one of two projects with ties to the Sam Fox School included in the U.S. Pavilion of the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale — arguably the profession’s leading international showcase. In addition, Peter MacKeith, associate dean of the Sam Fox School and associate professor of architecture, curated the Nordic Pavilion in its entirety.

In 1958, Alvin Ailey and a small group of dancers staged a performance at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The concert helped revolutionize perceptions of African-American dancers, and led to the founding of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Next week, Sylvia Waters, a former principal dancer with the company, will be on campus as part of the Alvin Ailey Legacy Residency, hosted by the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences.

“Who is this Mr. Head and where can I find more of his beautiful music?” As host of From the Top, NPR’s classical showcase, Christoper O’Riley could not resist a subversive impulse. Amidst the Bach and Brahms, the virtuoso pianist inserted his own Radiohead transcriptions. Curious fans began phoning in. On Oct. 12, O’Riley and fellow classical pioneer Matt Haimovitz will present Shuffle.Play.Listen., their latest genre-busting collaboration, as part of the Edison Ovations Series.​

In drama as in life, there is what we say, and then there is what other people hear. On Sept. 28 and 29, three young playwrights will put their words to the test as part of “The Hotch,” WUSTL’s annual A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival.

In Modern Life, her third book of poems, Matthea Harvey offers a whirling, riffing, buoyantly ironic take on post-9/11 America. At 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, Harvey, the Visiting Hurst Professor of Creative Writing at Washington University in St. Louis, will read from her work for The Writing Program in Arts & Sciences.

What is the state of the humanities? How are they taught, what do they teach us, and how do they serve the public good? Earlier this month, cultural leaders from across the state gathered at the Missouri History Museum to discuss “The Importance of the Humanities and Social Sciences for Public Life.” Convened by WUSTL’s Gerald Early, the meeting was the third in a series of regional forums presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The employees are getting restless. Trapped in a nameless, New York company, they are buffeted by Orwellian management-speak, inter-office sabotage and inappropriate contact. And then the Firings begin. Welcome to Personal Days, the acclaimed corporate satire by fiction writer Ed Park, who will read from his work Thursday, Sept. 20, for the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences.

No Child Left Behind was the signature education bill of the Bush administration. No Child… is an award-winning one-woman play by Nilaja Sun, who spent eight years teaching in the New York City public schools. From Sept. 21-30, The Black Rep will revive its acclaimed production of this Obie Award-winning play in WUSTL’s Edison Theatre.