Arts & Culture

Internationally acclaimed architect Craig Dykers, whose recent projects include the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the former World Trade Center site in New York, will chair the jury for Washington University’s 2012 Steedman Fellowship in Architecture International Design Competition. Sponsored biennially by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, the competition is open to young architects from around the world and carries a first-place award of $50,000 — one of the largest competition prizes in the United States.

Amanda Walther and Sheila Carabine have come a long way in a short time. Since meeting as high school students in 2002, the two best friends — who perform together as folk-pop duo Dala — have crisscrossed their native Canada, emerging as sharp songwriters and soulful performers in the tradition of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Tom Cochrane. Next month, Dala will present an intimate evening of folk classics and original songs as part of the Edison Ovations series.

Described as “a force of nature” by The New York Times, dancer Kirstie Simson is internationally renowned for creating virtuoso improvisational performances. On Tuesday, Feb. 7, Simson — the 2012 Marcus Artist in Arts & Sciences — will present a free, informal concert in WUSTL’s Annelise Mertz Dance Studio. The event will include a performance of Simson’s solo Somewhere and excerpts from the documentary Force of Nature as well as a new improvisational work created in collaboration with dance professor David Marchant.

The husband-and-wife team of Roger Kaza, principal horn of the St. Louis Symphony, and pianist Patti Wolf will launch the Danforth University Center’s spring Chamber Music Series with a free performance at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31. Sponsored by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences and the Danforth University Center, the performance is the first of five scheduled for the spring semester.

Dancer Melinda Myers, praised for her “emphatic muscularity” by The Village Voice, will present an informal lecture/performance Jan. 30. Myers, a former member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company, will be on campus as the 2013 Marcus Residency Dance Artist in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences.

Maurice Ravel’s Trio in A minor is among the most technically difficult works in the piano trio repertoire, demanding virtuosity on the part of all three players. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Trio in B-flat major, opus 97 — the “Archduke Trio” — is widely acknowledged as a masterpiece of the form. At 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan 22, Washington University’s Eliot Trio will present both works, along with Alexander Zemlinsky Trio in D minor, opus 3, for an intimate concert in Holmes Lounge.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ Public Lecture Series presents free weekly lectures by nationally and internationally recognized artists, architects, historians and critics. This spring, the Public Lecture Series — which begins Jan. 20 — will feature talks by Hungarian installation artist Balázs Kicsiny and by architect Craig Dykers, whose firm, Snøhetta, designed the National 911 Memorial Pavillion in New York. Other highlights will include lectures by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, New York illustrator Jessica Hische and art historian Susan Laxton.

Edison Theatre at Washington University in St. Louis has received a prestigious Challenge America Fast-Track grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). A repeat recipient in the Challenge America category, Edison will use the $10,000 award to support Algo Nuevo (Something New), a series of free activities to be held in March exploring the history and aesthetics of Hispanic dance and traditional costuming.

The army, the circus and the restaurant: three diverse institutions, each embodying distinct ideas about the nature of service. In Killing Time, Hungarian installation artist Balázs Kicsiny both investigates and conflates these institutions and their raisons d’être: to protect or kill, to entertain, and to feed. Beginning Friday, Jan. 27, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present Killing Time, Kicsiny’s newest work and his first U.S. museum exhibition, developed while in residence with the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts as the Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist.

In 1947, Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers and changed baseball forever. Now, imagine traveling back in time to witness Robinson’s historic season first-hand. In Jackie and Me, young Joey Stoshack does exactly that, when a rare baseball card transports the headstrong Little Leaguer to Ebbets Field.