Arts & Culture

The Saint Louis Art Museum and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis jointly announce the selection of artists Bruce Yonemoto and Ian Monroe as the Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellows for the academic years 2009-10 and 2010-11, respectively. The Freund Fellowship consists of two month-long residencies in the Sam Fox School’s Graduate School of Art and a Currents exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum. The collaboration was established in 1995.

The Gateway Festival Orchestra will begin its 46th season of free Sunday-evening performances July 12 with a concert celebrating American music. The program will include orchestral excerpts from Wicked and other popular musicals as well as the Armed Forces Salute, a medley of official songs representing each branch of the armed forces, and The Stars and Stripes Forever. Subsequent concerts, on July 19 and 26, will highlight Vienna’s classical era with music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven; and works by “Old World” and “New World” composers, including Bach, Beethoven, Adler and Dvořák.

The Linda Presgrave Quintet will launch Washington University’s summer Jazz at Holmes Series from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday, June 11. The series will feature six free concerts — in a relaxed, coffeehouse-style setting — by professional jazz musicians from around St. Louis and abroad. Presgrave, a pianist and former St. Louisan, lives and performs in New York City, where she recently released In Your Eyes, her debut CD.

Theater is challenging, educational and inspiring. It is also, lest we forget, fun. For its 2009-10 season, Edison Theatre will present more than a dozen events by nationally and internationally renowned performing artists.

Beginning May 8, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will showcase “Rirkrit Tiravanija: Chew the Fat,” a multifaceted video installation that together profiles a loose-knit group of 12 internationally known artists.

A handsome prince, a distant land, a damsel in distress. Yet in the world of The Magic Flute, little is as it seems. Next week the Washington University Opera will present an abridged version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-91) beloved classic in Karl Umrath Hall.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will honor six outstanding architecture and art alumni at its second annual Awards for Distinction dinner April 23. Recipients will include Ralph Cunningham (BA 1983), Ann Fertig Freedman (BFA 1971), Tom Friedman (BFA 1988) and Harry C. Kendall (BA 1978). In addition, Sara Velas (BFA 1999) will receive the 2009 Young Alumni Award. Judy Pfaff (FA71) will receive the Dean’s Medal for distinguished service to the school.

Three campus ensembles will join forces April 26 for the 2009 Chancellor’s Concert. The Washington University Jazz Band will open the program with a selection of big band scores. The Washington University Symphony Orchestra will perform music of Leonard Bernstein and Robert Schumann while the Washington University Concert Choir will present a selection of popular opera choruses. To conclude the program, all three ensembles will share the stage for Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.

Rirkrit Tiravanija creates spare yet provocative installations designed to blur lines between art and life, transforming galleries and museums into ephemeral social spaces for cooking meals, playing music and hanging out. Beginnin in May the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will showcase one recent project with its exhibition Rirkrit Tiravanija: Chew the Fat, a multifaceted video installation that together profiles a loose-knit group of 12 internationally known artists.