Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the San Francisco Symphony.

San Francisco Symphony to Grace Lied Stage

One of the recording industry's favorite orchestras, the San Francisco Symphony, will provide an evening of classical music at 8 p.m. March 11 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

Among its numerous recordings, the orchestra performed the soundtracks for three major motion pictures: Amadeus, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Godfather III. In February, the San Francisco Symphony released a new album of scenes from Sergei Prokoviev's Romeo and Juliet. Four of those pieces will be performed at the Lied Center, along with symphonies by Henry Dixon Cowell and Hector Berlioz.

The San Francisco Symphony will be conducted by music director Michael Tilson Thomas, who has been associated with the orchestra in various capacities since 1974. His career began at age 19 as music director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra, a post which brought him into contact with famous composers such as Stravinsky and Copeland. In 1969, he earned international fame when he replaced the Boston Symphony's William Steinberg in mid-concert at Lincoln Center.

Two pre-performance talks will be given by Robert Emile, professor of strings and music theory at the UNL School of Music. The professor will speak in the Lied Center's Steinhart Room 55 minutes before the performance and again at 30 minutes before curtain.

Tickets are $42, $38 and $34; half-price for those 18 and under or UNL, Wesleyan and Doane students who present identification. The Lied Center box office is open for walk-in sales on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and 90 minutes before the performance. Phone orders may be placed by calling 2-4747 or 1-800-432-3231.

It's Just Plain Politics at the GPA Gallery

The Great Plains Art Collection presents a special exhibit of political cartoons, It's Just Plain Politics: Cartoons as Perceptions of the Regional and National Scenes, which will run March 5 to May 3. The exhibit consists of 40 pieces by 10 artists including Oswald (Oz) R. Black, John J. Cassell, Jay N. 'Ding' Darling, Homer C. Davenport, Paul Fell, Ed Fischer, Herbert Johnson, Jeff Koterba, John T. McCutcheon and Guy R. Spencer. Examples of these cartoonists' work have been selected to reflect historical and contemporary issues relevant to the Great Plains. The exhibit has been planned specifically to tie in with the Center for Great Plains Studies' symposium "Politics and Culture of the Great Plains," which will take place April 11 to 13.

The Friends of the Center for Great Plains Studies will host a reception and panel discussion in conjunction with the exhibition, "The Role of Editorial Cartoons," from noon to 1 p.m. March 8 in the gallery, 205 Love Library. Panelists will include area cartoonists Paul Fell and Jeffrey Koterba as well as Nancy Hicks, editorial page editor of the Lincoln Journal Star. Michael Stricklin, UNL professor of news editorial, will moderate the discussion. The event and exhibition are free and open to the public. Those attending are invited to bring their lunches. An informal reception will begin at 11:30 a.m. in the gallery prior to the program.

Both the exhibition and panel discussion have been planned to complement the Center for Great Plains Studies upcoming 20th annual Interdisciplinary Symposium, "Politics and Culture of the Great Plains," April 11-14. For more information about the symposium, call the center office at 2-3082 or 2-3964.

Paul Taylor Dance Company

Lied Showcases Award-Winning Taylor Dancers

Featuring 15 of the world's most gifted modern dancers, the award-winning Paul Taylor Dance Company will perform three original works beginning at 8 p.m. March 9 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

For more than 40 years, the Paul Taylor Dance Company has set the standard for modern dance troupes.

With more than 100 modern dance works completed and more in the works, Paul Taylor is one of the most prolific modern choreographers. In the Lied Center performance, the company will perform Arden Court, Offenbach Overtures and Speaking in Tongues, which won an Emmy award after being adapted for television on PBS in 1991.

Two pre-performance talks will be given in the Lied Center's Steinhart Room. Modern dance expert Charlotte Adams, visiting assistant professor at UNL's Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, will offer her insights 55 minutes before the performance and again at 30 minutes before curtain.

Tickets are $26, $22 and $18; half-price for those 18 and under or UNL, Wesleyan and Doane students who present identification. The Lied Center box office is open for walk-in sales on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and 90 minutes before the performance. Phone orders may be placed by calling 2-4747 or 1-800-432-3231.

Ross Theater Features Acclaimed Canadian Films

The Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater is presenting the retrospective "The Changing Face of Canadian Cinema: New Films From Canada."

Scheduled for Feb. 27 through March 9, the retrospective features multiple screenings of nine recent feature films, both dramatic and documentary, and 10 new short animated films produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Complete schedules and synopses are available at the Ross Film Theater.

Admission to each of the screenings is $5.50; $4.50 for students; and $3.50 for senior citizens, children and members of the Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater. A series ticket good for admission to all of the screenings is available at the Ross Film Theater box office for $15.00.

On March 3 at 4:45 p.m., a panel of film and Canadian literature scholars will convene on the stage of the Ross Film Theater to discuss with the audience issues raised by the films presented in this retrospective. There is no admission charge for the panel discussion. Panelists include: June Levine, professor and director emerita of the UNL departments of English and Film Studies; Frances W. Kaye, professor, English; and George E. Wolf, professor, English. The panel will be moderated by Danny L. Ladely, director of the Ross Film Theater.

Lenten Concert Offers Bach's 'Passion'

The UNL University Singers and the Nebraska Wesleyan University Choirs will be joined by members of the Lincoln Orchestra Association in a performance of the Passion According to St. John by Johann Sebastian Bach at 7:30 p.m. March 16 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are $15 and $10 with students tickets at half-price.

The guest conductor will be Elmer Thomas, professor (emeritus) of music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Singing the role of the Evangelist will be Randall Black from Murray State University in Kentucky. Charles Smith from Hastings College and William Shomos from UNL will sing the roles of Jesus and Pilate respectively. Kyle Hancock, baritone, of UNK, Cathleen Porter Dregalla, mezzo-soprano, of Nebraska Wesleyan University, and sopranos Tamara Ensrude and Karen Kness, graduate students at UNL, will round out the other solos.

This rare Lincoln performance of the St. John Passion will conclude the six-state North Central Divisional Convention of the American Choral Directors Association being hosted in Lincoln March 13-16.

Musical Assembly Brings Baroque to Life

Musical Assembly will bring the wonders of the Baroque era vividly to life in a performance presented by the Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music at 8 p.m. March 15 in the auditorium of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery.

The performance, titled "Over the Rhine: A Celebration of French and German Chamber Music in the High Baroque," will feature works by Telemann, Couperin, Rameau and J.S. Bach, played on period instruments. A pre-concert talk will be given at 7:30 by John Bailey of the UNL School of Music. A reception for the artists and audience will follow the concert in the Great Hall of the Sheldon Gallery.

Tickets for the Musical Assembly concert can be purchased from the Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music. Individual concert tickets are $25, with a special student price of $5. Reservations are requested. For more information call 435-5454.

American Quilts Bring 19th Century to Textile Gallery

The 19th century was a century of change within the textile industry. These changes are reflected in the quilts of the day and are featured in an upcoming exhibition March 14 to April 4 in the UNL Textiles, Clothing and Design Gallery titled American Quilts: A Century of Change, 1800-1900. Changes in technology, fashion and style are all seen in this exhibition of American quilts. The exhibition is drawn from the private collections of two Nebraska quilt collectors, Sara Dillow and Mary Ghormley, who have quilts that show the imagination and skill of 19th century quilters.

Prior to the 19th century, quilts were primarily whole cloth quilts. The quilt top was a single piece of cloth, and the skill was in the quilting itself. Quilts were not the make-do coverings of the poor as popular myth would have it. Too much time and expensive fabric went into a quilt's manufacture to be an affordable pastime to any but the rich during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. As technologies changed and fabric became less expensive, more people could afford to make and own quilts.

One of the major changes in textile technology of the 19th century was in the method of printing patterns on fabric. In early quilts, printing different colors required different blocks or were added to by penciling, a hand-painting technique.

By the mid-18th century a new technique used an engraved copper plate to render the design, but it wasn't until the 1780s that someone got the idea to wrap an engraved copper plate around a roller to get a continuous printing process. By the 1830s, roller printing had supplanted block and plate printing. A medallion-style quilt from about 1800 to 1820 shown in the exhibit embodies the changes in printing techniques of the early 19th century. The quilt has a central star medallion of floral chintz and an outside border with deer and oak leaves, both of which are block printed fabrics.

Another factor influencing 19th century American quilts was the increased availability of red fabric, including a colorfast red dyeing process which created a vivid red, called "Turkey red." The exhibit includes two pieces reflecting this change.

A rare Baltimore Album quilt will also be included in the exhibit. The "Baltimore Beauties" were popular during the 1840s through the 1850s in the Baltimore area. These showcase quilts required tremendous commitment of time and money and only the wealthy could afford them.

Many fine examples of pieced quilts also are included in the exhibit, and all the quilts reflect the changing taste in patterns and colors of fabric.

The Textiles, Clothing and Design Gallery is located on the second floor of the Home Economics Building on East Campus. Gallery hours are Monday to Thursday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call 2-2911.

An opening reception will be held 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. March 16. Sara Dillow and Mary Ghormley will be introduced and will make brief remarks at 3:30 p.m. The public is invited.

Lecture Examines Why Art Museums Matter

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery will present Roy Slade, former president of the Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, in a public lecture, Why Art Museums Matters, 7 p.m. March 4 in the Sheldon auditorium. A brief reception for Slade in the Sheldon Great Hall will follow the lecture.

In addition to the public lecture, Slade will serve as juror for the Department of Art and Art History's Annual Undergraduate Student Exhibitions. The selected works will be on view March 6-21, in the Gallery of the Department of Art and Art History, Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For questions regarding these Scarlet pages, contact:
dtaurins@unlinfo.unl.edu
(402) 472-8518, Fax: (402) 472-7825