As more tragic news arrives regarding the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and along the Pacific, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families, as in many occasions the BU community will work to help those in need. More soon.
An Invitation To You From Conductor John Page
March 9, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Boston University Symphony Orchestra Concert at Tsai Performance Center Tomorrow Night -- Thursday, March 10.
8:00 pm. Admission is FREE.
Fineberg Commission Performed by Les Percussions de Strasbourg
Les Percussions de Strasbourg joins the BU Symphony Orchestra to perform the world premier of Professor Joshua Fineberg’s Speaking in Tongues. The program also includes performances of Paul Dukas’ Fanfare pour précéder La Péri and Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. John Page, Conductor.
I had dinner last night with members of Les Percussions de Strasbourg and they are a great group. They are excited to play the Fineberg piece and to be at BU. Please come and make them feel welcome.
Tsai Performance Center
Arts Entrepreneurship: What it is, and isn’t.
March 6, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Drexel arts administration professor James Underclofler is developing a course in arts entrepreneurship. He reminds us that arts entrepreneurship is not career counseling for artists. Such counseling is important but it is a distinct objective that might be called professional development, whereas arts entrepreneurship "...encourages whole systems (to be) rethought and reconstructed, where fundamental changes, both in substance and thought take place."
Arts Entrepreneurship -- Lack of Imagination, Lack of Chutzpah?
Metropolitan Museum Offers Fare Carefully Targeted To Children, Teens, and Adults
March 3, 2011 at 9:59 pm
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wkimedia Commons Public Domain Image.
Click here for the Met's Guitar Heroes Exhibit App.
The Met takes the time to carefully program its offerings with audiences in mind. This is important for all cultural institutions (CFA included!) in an age that diverts and distracts potential audiences in countless ways.
InCite 2011 — March 11-14 — New York
March 1, 2011 at 3:35 pm
The Power of Art
Please join us in New York for our fifth InCite Festival. This is a wonderful opportunity to display to the New York professional arts community the accomplishments of our students, the gifts of our faculty, and the reach of our programs.
“Every year around this time undergraduate and graduate acting programs from near and far release a crew of young, trained actors onto the New York City theater scene. Most schools introduce their students with a night of scenes for agents and casting directors. But Boston University is planning something different: the weeklong InCite Arts Festival.” – The New York Times, March 2008
“The visual aspects of the production are impressive… The [singers] are distinguished by their subtle portrayals in this heightened environment.” – NYC Onstage
“We have Boston to thank for many things: tea parties, baked beans, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Now we can add to that list Boston University’s First Annual InCite Arts Festival, a project of BU’s College of Fine Arts conceived to showcase the dynamic artistic strengths and synergy of the College’s Schools of Theatre, Music, and Visual Arts.” – Show Business, March 2008
Opera’s Composer, Stephen Paulus, Lauds BU’s The Postman Always Rings Twice
March 1, 2011 at 12:00 am
The Boston University College of Fine Arts presented Stephen Paulus’s The Postman Always Rings Twice, this past week on the mainstage of the Boston University Theatre. The opera featured conductor William Lumpkin, stage director Jim Petosa, singers from the School of Music Opera Institute and vocal program, and accompaniment by the BU Chamber Orchestra, with production design by students from the School of Theatre. Colin Graham’s libretto was sung in English.
I am grateful to Stephen Paulus for spending time with our students. I know that he was very happy with the results, placing it above professional productions of the opera. I look forward to having him work with our students in the future.
Congratulations to all of those who worked on this collaboration between the School of Music and the School of Theatre.
Major Events for CFA
February 27, 2011 at 3:14 pm
William Kentridge
Tonight
I would like to call your attention to two important events:
William Kentridge will give the 2011 Tim Hamill Visiting Artist Lecture on Monday, February 28, at 6:30 pm in Boston University’s Morse Auditorium, 602 Commonwealth Avenue.
One of South Africa’s leading visual artists, William Kentridge is best known for his remarkable films, works on paper, and theatre productions. Kentridge’s work touches on the atrocities of apartheid and social injustice, yet also reflects the exhilarating freedom of the new South Africa.
March 10
Fineberg Commission Performed by Les Percussions de Strasbourg
Les Percussions de Strasbourg joins the BU Symphony Orchestra to perform the world premier of Professor Joshua Fineberg's Speaking in Tongues. The program also includes performances of Paul Dukas’ Fanfare pour précéder La Péri and Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. John Page, Conductor.
Thursday, March 10, Tsai Performance Center at 8:00 pm.
BU Productions Warm Late-Winter Theatre Scene
February 26, 2011 at 10:50 pm
Carlos Fuentes. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Placed in public domain by Noticias e Información de la Presidencia.
Aura by Carlos Fuentes
Recently, I attended a School of Theatre production of Aura, based on the Carlos Fuentes novella of the same name. The story of sexuality and aging, among other things, unfolded as the audience moved from room to room. The production's artful staging allowed the audience to be within inches of the actors bluring the third wall. Having known Fuentes, I think I can say that he would have liked the production.
In 1968, Fuentes and I were neighbors. We became friends and during that golden time, I met a marvelous group of writers through him, including Gabriel García Márquez and Octavio Paz. I remember one night Fuentes and his then wife, the actress Rita Macedo (who died in 1993) asked me to have dinner at their house because they wanted to talk to me. They had come to the conclusion that instead of music, I should pursue a career in acting. Although I did not take their advice, it touches me that they took the time to so seriously consider my future.
BCAP's Road to Mecca
The Boston Center for American Performance features Professors Elaine Van Hogue and Mark Cohen in Athol Fugard's masterful examination of artistic freedom in small-town South Africa during apartheid. Directed by Professor Judith Braha, the cast also includes Ali Kerestly, a School of Theatre student.
Watch the ethereal set come together in a BU Today video.
Three Sisters at the Calderwood
Chekov's characters have the time (lots of it) and material comfort to ask the big questions. "Why are we here?" may be a dangerous one to ask in late-February Boston but Chekov though challenging, is never disheartening. His very genius and willingness to commiserate is answer enough. Directed by Professor Sidney Friedman.
Review excerpt from The Tufts Daily:
I would urge anyone with reservations about going to see a student production to think again — between the excellent original text, its masterful translation and the incredible justice the actors and director have done to their material, this is a must-see for anyone in the Boston area.
Should academic institutions sell their art to balance budgets?
February 21, 2011 at 4:07 pm
ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) on Boston's Waterfront. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
Inside Higher Ed reports that some academic institutions are having trouble hanging on to their art collections in the face of tight budgets.
Fortunately, BU is not in this position as it is not a collecting institution. This is because our students have a broad array of galleries and renowned museums from which to choose in their own backyard. This is in keeping with the general mission and philosophy of BU to be in and of the City of Boston but open to the world.
I urge students to take advantage of the inspiration, knowledge, and exhilaration Boston's museums provide.
From the political, yet deeply personal Mark Bradford show at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) to the Arts Abroad: London, Paris, Venice and Rome show at the Museum of Fine Arts, and of course, the new Americas Wing (free admission to full-time BU students to MFA).
Near the MFA is the charming one-of-a kind Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum where masterpieces by Bellini, Manet, Matisse, and Michelangelo, among others, are still hung where Mrs. Stewart wanted them.
Don't overlook the Harvard museums: Sackler, Fogg, and Busch-Resinger.
Now is the time for virtual expansion of CFA
February 13, 2011 at 12:18 pm
BU Photo Services
Yesterday, in a New York Times article, the new director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Thomas P. Campbell, spoke of expanding the institution -- virtually.
We must also expand a virtual CFA by increasing live streaming concerts, theater productions, research lectures, and an ever-changing virtual gallery!
