Arts & Sciences

“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.

Provost Edward S. Macias, PhD, has announced that Barbara A. Schaal, PhD, the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences, will become the university’s next dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, effective Jan. 1, 2013. Schaal succeeds Gary S. Wihl, the Hortense & Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities in Arts & Sciences, who will be on leave beginning Jan. 1, 2013.

Chelsea Clinton announced during the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York on Sept. 25 that Washington University in St. Louis will serve as the host of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), April 5-7, 2013, on the Danforth Campus.  President Bill Clinton launched CGI U in 2007 to engage the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world. Each year, CGI U hosts a meeting where students, youth organizations, topic experts, and celebrities discuss solutions to pressing global issues.

“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 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.

Clara McLeod (right) greets Jane Ervin, the widow of John B. Ervin, after Ervin spoke at the Ervin Scholars Program 25th Anniversary Celebration Banquet, held Sept. 15 at St. Louis Union Station Marriott. McLeod’s husband, the late James E. McLeod, founded the Ervin Scholars Program in 1987 to pay tribute to WUSTL’s first African-American dean, John B. Ervin, PhD.

Educator, administrator and physicist Walter Massey, PhD, is delivering the inaugural James E. McLeod Memorial Lecture in Higher Education Tuesday, Oct. 2. His lecture, titled “Liberal Arts: The Higgs Boson of Higher Education,” will begin at 4 p.m. in Graham Chapel.

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.

Himadri Pakrasi, PhD, director of WUSTL’s International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES), has become the inaugural holder of the Myron and Sonya Glassberg/Albert and Blanche Greensfelder Distinguished University Professor.