Arts & Culture

The Concert Choir of Washington University will perform King David, the dramatic oratorio by Swiss composer Arthur Honegger (1892-1955), at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 2, in Graham Chapel. Described by Honegger as a “symphonic psalm,” King David is divided in 27 brief sections that together revisit a series of familiar Biblical stories. These range from David’s early life as a shepherd and his relationship with Saul, the first king of Israel, to the famous battle with Goliath, David’s own rise to power and his lust for the married Bathsheba.

Love and death: the most primal of motivations. At 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 10, Washington University’s Eliot Trio — which consists of pianist Seth Carlin, violinist David Halen and cellist Bjorn Ranheim — will perform a pair of works by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-93) — works composed, respectively, to honor a doomed romance and a departed friend.

During the 2011-12 academic year, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will mark the centennial of its College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design as well as the 50th anniversary of the Master of Urban Design program. On April 1 and 2, the Sam Fox School will preview festivities with “Architecture at 100: Architectural Education at Washington University in St. Louis,” a series of informal talks, roundtable discussions and alumni reflections.

Amidst the chaos of the most recent Liberian Civil War, four women are kidnapped and forced to serve as “wives” to a rebel warlord. It is perhaps the unlikeliest community imaginable, and daunting territory for any dramatist. Yet Eclipsed, a recent work by acclaimed actress and playwright Danai Gurira, is at once sharp-edged, humanizing and surprisingly funny — a portrait of resilience in even the most difficult of circumstances. In April, Washington University’s Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will present Eclipsed for six performances in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.

Design is a problem solver. Design is a provoker, a test lab for change. Design is a tool for breaking old patterns and discovering new ways of thinking. So argues Alan Webber, cofounder of Fast Company, the pioneering magazine written for and about progressive business leaders. At 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 4, Webber will deliver the annual Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Lecture for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. The talk is co-sponsored by the Olin Business School. 

Ackert Walkway is an important University City pedestrian corridor, running north from Delmar Boulevard to Vernon Avenue and connecting the Loop arts and entertainment district with the surrounding Parkview Gardens neighborhood. On Saturday, March 26, six multidisciplinary teams from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will present design concepts for revitalizing the walkway as part of a public art workshop titled “Ackert Walkway: Designing for the Future.” 

Cemeteries and marching bands, skeleton krewes and carnivals both glittering and raucous. Even prior to Hurricane Katrina, few cities understood the fine line between revelry and requiem better than New Orleans. In April, celebrated choreographer Trey McIntyre — arguably among the most acclaimed of his generation — will return to the Edison Ovations Series with Ma Maison, a rousing homage to the spirit, vibrancy and resiliency of The City that Care Forgot.

Cellist Anne Fagerburg, violist Morris Jacob and violinist Erin Schreiber — all members of the St. Louis Symphony — will join pianist Martin Kennedy, assistant professor of music, and mezzo-soprano Nöel Prince, instructor in voice, for a free performance at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 28. Sponsored by the Department of Music and the St. Louis Symphony Community Partnership program, the concert will feature music of Franz Liszt, Edward MacDowell, Franz Schubert and Gustav Mahler.

The SGC International is the largest printmaking organization in North America, with thousands of members in all 50 states, Canada, South America and Europe. Next week, the SGCI will bring more than 1,200 printmakers from around the world to the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, which is hosting Equilibrium, the organization’s 2011 conference. 

In 1997, at the distinguished Siddons School on Manhattans Upper East Side, the school year opens with distressing news: Astra Dell, “that pale girl,” “the dancer with all the hair,” is suffering from a rare disease. And so begins All Souls, the funny, poignant and wickedly original tale of innocence, daring and illness by Christine Schutt, the Visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Washington University’s Department of English in Arts & Sciences, who will present two events as part of the Writing Program Reading Series.