February 21, 2002

The Harlem Renaissance is reborn on the Lied Center stage in a performance at 7 p.m. March 4.

Harlem Renaissance comes alive at Lied

In the 1920s, New York City's Harlem neighborhood was the focus of African American culture in America. This unique and powerful era of American history comes to life in Harlem, presented at the Lied Center at 7 p.m. March 4.

Take a vibrant journey through the streets of Harlem in the 1920s where life, language, history, rhythm and music merge in to an exciting blend of poetry, jazz and art, telling the tales of the people of Harlem. Building upon the words of Walter Dean Myers' award-winning poem, "Harlem," the stories are expanded and enriched with artwork and music.

Join a storyteller, a vocalist and a jazz quartet as they explore, through young eyes, the excitement of being in the midst of the creativity of the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. Celebrating both arts and community, Harlem explores the power of role models, creativity, and hope though the dramatization of vivid stories. As the storyteller and musicians tell their tales, Harlem immerses the audience in the images, history, and personality of jazz.

The Harlem area of New York had become the home of many African Americans after the Civil War. Harlem was seen as a haven for African Americans seeking a place free from segregation. In the 1920s and early 1930s, Harlem experienced an explosion of creativity that became known as the Harlem Renaissance. A few of the amazing artists creating during this period include poets Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen and writer/educator W.E.B. Du Bois, the co-founder of the NAACP.

Peggy Jones, artist and adjunct professor of art at UNO and Metropolitan Community College of Omaha, will deliver a pre-performance talk in the Lied's Steinhart Room 30 minutes before curtain.

Tickets are $20, half price for students. Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 or (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

Harlem is a production of The Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration® on Tour, sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

The program is designed to provide high quality performances for school children, teachers, young people and parents across the nation. Two to four productions, primarily Kennedy Center commissions, tour the country each year.

On stage Harlem begins at 7 p.m. March 4 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are $20; half price for students. Call 472-4747 or (800) 432-3231.

Hillestad Gallery offers appliqué workshops

A one-day workshop Slash And Fray: Extreme Reverse Appliqué with artist Tim Harding will run from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on March 9 and repeat on March 10 in room 222 of the Home Economics Building on East Campus. Both sessions are identical. A box lunch is included in the registration cost.

Learn the basics of Harding's reverse appliqué technique, which uses layered, quilted, slashed and frayed fabrics. Create samples of various textures and explore simultaneous contrast coloring. You will leave the workshop with a set of texture samples and enough knowledge to plan and create your own art to wear piece. Process slides will be part of the learning experience.

This workshop is offered in conjunction with the exhibition of Harding's wearable art and wall pieces. Harding will lecture on The Fragmented Surface: Color, Light, Texture at 7 p.m. March 8 in room 11 of the Home Economics Building. A reception will follow in the gallery. The exhibition runs from March 11-April 25.

Harding's work can be seen at the Smithsonian Institution's Design Collection at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York and galleries around the country.

Sign up early, registration is limited to 20 participants each class. Call Sharon at 472-2911 for a registration form. The cost is $115 for general registration; $80 for Friends of the Gallery, and $40 for students.

The St. Petersburg Philharmonic will perform March 2 at the Lied Center.

St. Petersburg Philharmonic plays Russian repertoire

The St. Petersburg Philharmonic returns to the Lied Center at 7:30 p.m. March 2. For the Lied Center performance, the ensemble will play selections from Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich.

Formed out of the 19th-century "Imperial Music Choir," the St. Petersburg Philharmonic is one of the world's premier philharmonic orchestras and is the oldest in Russia. It initially played only for the Imperial Court and in aristocratic circles; in 1917 the ensemble was declared a state orchestra and gave its first public concert in Soviet Russia. Since then the orchestra, though known by different names, has been a Russian cultural constant. During World War II, the philharmonic continued to give concerts and after the war was active in introducing to Russia important foreign composers and conductors including Leopold Stokowski, Charles Munch, and Igor Markevitch.

The philharmonic has also played helped further the reputations Russians composers, notably debuting seven symphonies by Dmitri Shostakovich and recording much of the central Russian repertoire.

Together with musical director and conductor Yuri Temirkanov, the philharmonic's recordings include Prokofiev's oratorio On Guard for Peace and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13. Other releases include Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances and Symphony No. 3 with Maestro Mariss Jansons and Mahler's Sixth Symphony with Thomas Sanderling.

In 1918 the ensemble undertook the first tour of the West by a Soviet orchestra and has since been acclaimed by the public and press alike in more than 30 countries throughout Europe, North and South America and the Far East. The orchestra's recent tours include visits to major European festivals, including highly celebrated performances in Salzburg, Edinburgh and London, as well as participating in residencies in Paris and Vienna.

The St. Petersburg Philharmonic has also toured the United States three times with return performances in such cities as Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C.

Clark Potter, associate professor in the UNL School of Music, will deliver the pre-performance talk in the Lied's Steinhart Room 30 minutes before curtain.

Tickets are $50, $46, and $36, half-price for students. Call the Lied box office at (402) 472-4747 or (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

NPRN Nebraska Concerts series continues

Nebraska Concerts, a series produced by and broadcast on the Nebraska Public Radio Network at 8:30 p.m. Fridays features the best concert performances statewide.

The March 1 broadcast features Lincoln Symphony's 2001 Nebraskaland performance, with Music Director Edward Polochick conducting and including selections from composers Aaron Copland, Anton Dvorak and Nebraska's own Howard Hanson. Bob Kerrey, former U.S. senator and Nebraska governor, narrates.

On March 8, the opening concert of the current season of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Victor Yampolsky, will air. Selections include Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto No. 1 and Edward Elgar's Nimrod Variations as well as compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven and Claude Debussy. Violinist Pinchas Zukerman is the featured guest performer.

On March 15, the program highlights the Third Chair Chamber Players' August 2001 performance during Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum's

"Bagels and Bach" series. Third Chair Chamber Players musicians regularly perform with the Omaha and Lincoln Symphonies, the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra, the Plymouth Brass and the Lincoln Municipal Band. Many are music educators, including faculty members of Lincoln Public Schools, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Doane College and Concordia College. NPRN staff members William Stibor (vocalist) and Graham House (horn) perform with the group.

The March 22, broadcast presents the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra with And Miles to Go with Miles Hoffman, from the symphony's 2000-2001 season. Miles Hoffman is a violist and artistic director of the American Chamber Players as well as a regular contributor to National Public Radio's Performance Today, heard at 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday on NPRN.

On March 29, Quartetto Gelato's performance from Lincoln's Abendmusik series will air. Toronto-based Quartetto Gelato members play multiple instruments and perform classical favorites, operatic arias, traditional melodies, tangos and gypsy fiddling.

NPRN's Jerry Johnston is the program producer with Gunter Hofmann as scriptwriter and Graham House hosting.

Statewide profiles growing towns

Not every small town in the Midwest or Great Plains is getting smaller. Tune in to Statewide, the Nebraska ETV Network's weekly news magazine, at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 22 to learn how two Nebraska communities - Ord and Callaway - are fighting the tide of out-migration.

This episode of Statewide, which includes up-to-the-minute news reports from across the state and other features of interest, repeats at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23, and at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 24. It also repeats on NETV2 at 3 p.m. Feb. 24.

Perry Stoner takes viewers to Ord, where the town's population fell by 8 percent during the 1990s. To fight back, Ord voters approved a tax increase to fund economic development projects in Valley County.

By contrast, Stoner reports, Callaway's population grew by nearly 100 during the 1990s because of cooperative, communitywide efforts. When someone in town said "go fly a kite" 10 years ago, for example, the community took the message to heart: Today, Callaway hosts one of the nation's most popular kite-flying festivals.

Stoner's report features two communities that will figure prominently in "Saving Our Small Towns: A Nebraska Town Hall Meeting," which airs at 7 p.m. Feb. 26 on Nebraska ETV and the Nebraska Public Radio Network. The 90-minute program explores the challenges facing small communities across Nebraska, with in-depth background reports, expert commentary by economic development specialists, and questions from the public.

Girls' HS basketball finals on NETV

The best girls' high school basketball teams in Nebraska battle for the state championships in six classes with the title contests telecast live from the Bob Devaney Sports Center on March 2, on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network.

Nebraska High School Girls' Basketball Championships begin at 9:30 a.m. with the Class C-2 finals. The coverage continues with the Class D-2 championship game at 11:30 a.m., and the Class A title game at 1:30 p.m.

The match-ups continue at 5 p.m. with the championship game for Class D-1, followed at 7 p.m. by the Class C-1 final. The Class B championship game concludes the day's action at 9 p.m.

Big Red wrestling on NETV

Big 12 Conference wrestling rivalry will be at its height when the Oklahoma State Cowboys face off against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Nebraska Men's Wrestling at the Devaney Sports Center. The event airs live at 8 p.m. Feb. 22 as part of NETV Sports on NETV2.

An encore broadcast of the wrestling contest will air at noon Feb. 24 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network.

HS swimming, diving on NETV

High school swimming teams from across the state will compete for boys' and girls' state titles when Nebraska High School Boys & Girls Swimming Championships airs live at noon Feb. 23 from the Devaney Sports Center, as part of NETV Sports on the Nebraska ETV Network.

The four-hour competition also will feature videotaped segments of diving competitions, held the preceding evening.