January 31, 1997




Ace of Bass McBride Coming to Lied

Hot young ace of bass Christian McBride and astonishing tenor saxophonist and composer Joe Lovano and their quartets will cook up some sizzle at the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 8 p.m. Feb. 8.

Twenty-four-year-old Christian McBride plays with a polish and confidence that belie his age and is the most acclaimed jazz bassist of the last two decades. McBride began playing the electric bass when he was eight years old, was recognized as a prodigy at 13 and later studied jazz and classical bass at the Julliard School.

"These two artists are cutting edge in what's happening today in mainstream jazz. If you enjoy jazz, you'll enjoy this performance. Lovano is one of the best saxophone players in the world. He is regarded as a hot, creative improviser. McBride is one of the hot 'Young Lions'-the young, up-and-coming black jazz musicians of the late 80s and early 90s," says Dave Sharp, UNL School of Music instructor.

Sharp will be the featured speaker at a 15-minute pre-performance educational talk scheduled at 7:05 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. the evening of the performance. The free talk will be in the Lied Center's Steinhart Room and is a component of the Lied Center's outreach education aimed at acquainting the public with various artists and music forms.

Tickets for the Christian McBride Quartet and Joe Lovano Quartet are $24, $20 and $16, with half price tickets for youth 18 and under and students with valid identification from UNL, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College.

'Bound' Coming to Ross Theater

Opening at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater on Feb. 6, Bound works you up, wrings you out, and leaves you gasping. Made with amazing virtuosity and confidence for first-time filmmakers and brothers, Larry and Andy Wachowski, Bound is pure cinema, encompassing several genres: a caper movie, a gangster movie, a sex movie, and a slapstick comedy.

"[Bound] takes you to the brink and piles twist upon twist with a plot involving murder, triple crosses, close calls, and steamy sex," said film critic Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Renovating an apartment has never looked as hot as when Corky (Gina Gershon, far right), dressed in handyman chic, is doing it in the stylish lesbian thriller Bound. Violet (Jennifer Tilly, at left) is Corky's neighbor, who learns just how handy Gershon can be. Bound is a Reservoir Dogs with sex appeal, sly humor, arty photography and a finger-chopping scene to show how tough it really is.

Bound is showing on Feb. 6 through Feb. 8 and on Feb. 13 through Feb. 16. Screenings are at 7 and 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays; at 1, 3, 7, and 9 p.m. on Saturdays; and at 3, 5, 7, and 9 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $6; $5 for students; and $4 for senior citizens and members of the Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater.

'Secrets and Lies' Showing Through Sunday

Winner of the Palme d'Or and Best Actress awards at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and opening at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater on Jan. 23, Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies is a deeply felt work, a whirl of bruising tenderness and bravura acting.

Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies was universally admired for its supple juxtaposition of tragedy and comedy, its exquisite performances and its emotional resonance. When 27-year-old London optometrist Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), who was adopted, decides to track down her biological mother, she has no idea what hidden secrets she is about to unearth. In her quest to learn about her identity, the well-adjusted Hortense, who is black, never anticipated a significant detail: Her mother, Cynthia (Best Actress winner Brenda Blethyn), is white.

Secrets and Lies is showing through Feb. 2. Screenings are at 7 p.m. Friday; at 1 and 7 p.m. on Saturday; and at 3, 6:30, and 9 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $6; $5 for students; and $4 for senior citizens, children, and members of the Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater.

Violist Ngwenyama Performs Saturday

Nokuthula Ngwenyama's great gift with the viola has placed her in the company of the nation's most talented musicians. She will perform at 8 p.m. Feb. 1 in Kimball Recital Hall.

Ngwenyama won the 1994 Young Concert Artists International Auditions - the first violist to be chosen in 14 years. In 1995 her performance at the Young Concert Artist Series at Washington's Kennedy Center received rave reviews. Last year she made her New York concerto debut at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall with the New York Chamber Symphony as a recipient of the Aaron and Irene Diamond Soloist Prize of the Young Concert Series.

Ngwenyama will be conducting master classes and workshops around the state the week before her performance at UNL's Kimball Recital Hall.
Tickets for Nokuthula Ngwenyama are $18 and $14 with half price tickets available for youth 18 and under and students from UNL, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College with valid identification. Target Treatseat discount coupons are available at participating Target Stores. The Lied Center box office is open for walk-in sales from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and 60 minutes before the performance.

Eisentrager Paintings on Display at Augustana

James Eisentrager, professor emeritus in the UNL Department of Art and Art History, has recent paintings on display at the Elde-Dalrymple Gallery at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D.

This one-man show is on display until Feb. 23.

Work of Omaha Firm on Display at Architecture Hall

The work of Omaha architecture and design firm, Randy Brown Architect, is on display until Feb. 14 in the Architecture Hall Gallery, located in Architecture Hall East, Main Floor.

The exhibit consists of four projects which are housed in a special display structure built by the firm. The structure was designed and built by Tim Wurtele, Matt Kruntorad, Christian Petrick and Randy Brown. The four projects displayed in the structure are "Greater Omaha Packing, Livingreen Interiors, Brown & Wolff Law Offices and Randy Brown Architect Studio." All of the projects are in Omaha.

The Omaha architecture and design firm, Randy Brown Architect, founded in 1993, avoids easy classification by practicing architecture, interior design, urban design and furniture design. The firm has won numerous state, regional and national awards and has been published in Architecture, Architectural Record, Interior Design and Interiors. The firm is working on a variety of projects including custom homes, office buildings and custom furniture. Randy Brown, AIA, the firm's principal, received his Masters of Architecture from UCLA. He teaches part-time at the College of Architecture at UNL and has given lectures at other universities, AIA conventions and trade shows.

Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Duggin to Present Reading Feb. 20

The Creative Writing Program and Prairie Schooner will present Richard Duggin, reading from his fiction at 7 p.m. Feb. 20 in the English Department Lounge, 228 Andrews Hall.
Duggin, a graduate of the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, founded the Writers Workshop at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1972, and has taught fiction writing there ever since.

He is the author of The Music Box Treaty, a novel, and his stories have appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal, Crosscurrents, Kansas Quarterly, The Sun, Playboy, and elsewhere. He's received an NEA Fellowship, a Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artists Merit Award, and several fellowships to Yaddo and Ragdale. His work has been cited by Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize Anthology, and Playboy Magazine. Most recently he's finished a novel and a two-act stage play.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Creative Writing Program at 472-1871.

Sheldon Gallery to Host Faculty Biennial

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden will present UNL Faculty Biennial: Past and Present, the UNL Department of Art and Art History Studio Faculty Biennial Exhibition from Feb. 11 to March 23.

This biennial exhibition showcases the recent work of 13 studio faculty, which encompasses a wide variety of media, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography and prints. Included in the exhibition will be Ron Bartels, Shelley Fuller, Martha Horvay, Keith Jacobshagen, Gail Kendall, Karen Kunc, Mo Neal, Pete Pinnell, Dave Read, Doug Ross, David Routon, Pat Rowan and Joe Ruffo.

An added dimension to this biennial is a smaller exhibition of the work of former UNL faculty curated from the Sheldon's permanent collection presented in an adjacent gallery, which will include, among others, the work of James Eisentrager, Dan Howard, Dwight Kirsch and Sara Hayden.

Past and Present offers a unique opportunity to view the work of current faculty within the broader historical context of more than a century of NU faculty work in the permanent collection of the Sheldon Gallery. A public reception for the artists included in this year's faculty exhibition will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Feb. 21.

Contemporary New Mexico Artists to be Featured at Sheldon

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery will present Contemporary New Mexico Artists: Sketches & Schemas, a presentation of an eclectic group of artists that represents the cross-fertilization of three cultures in the Southwestern United States.

The exhibition, which opens Feb. 14 and runs through April 13, features the work of 48 artists, focusing on artistic developments in the New Mexico area since 1975. The exhibition features a wide variety of media, from video to photography to old Hispanic craft traditions such as carving, and emphasizes the tri-cultural nature of art-making in New Mexico.

"The artists in the show use traditional craft media and imagery with a contemporary twist," said curator Jan Adlmann of the College of Santa Fe.

An illustrated book, Contemporary Art in New Mexico, authored by Jan Adlmann and Barbara McIntyre, functions as a catalogue for the exhibition and provides an overview of the New Mexico region and its unique cultural influences. The book will be available for sale in the Sheldon Gift Shop.

There will be a public opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Feb. 14, sponsored by the Nebraska Art Association. Adlmann will deliver an informal gallery talk beginning at 5:30 pm. and later will sign copies of his book.

Funding for Sketches & Schemas was provided in part by the Nebraska Art Association, a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the advancement of the visual arts in Nebraska through educational and enrichment opportunities. Additional funding has been provided by the Nebraska Arts Council, a state agency, through a Basic Support Grant, which has supported all the year's programs of the Nebraska Art Association.

Artist Diversity Residency Program Announces Workshops

The Artist Diversity Residency Program, sponsored by the UNL College of Fine and Performing Arts, will host five visiting artists this spring, beginning Feb. 3.

This year's artists include Juan Tejeda (Feb. 3-7); Flo Oy Wong (Feb. 17-21); Jeff Raz (Feb. 17-28 and April 7-10); Kahil El'Zabar (March 3-20); and Linda Anfuso (March 23-April 4).

Juan Tejeda is a native of San Antonio. He attended the University of Texas in Austin and in 1978 graduated with a B.A. in Chicano Studies and English with a special emphasis in Education.

While in Austin, he seriously began his work in the arts and arts administration and worked with different organizations including CASA (Chicanos Artistas Sirviendo a Aztian) and Lochs (League of United Chicano Artists) where he directed various arts projects.

Upon returning to San Antonio in 1979 he began working with a group of Chicano artists who were organizing to acquire city funding. in 1980 he was hired by PAN (Performance Artists Nucleus, Inc., later to become the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center), the newly funded Chicano arts consortium, to direct its initial Mariachi Program.

After the first year, he changed the Mariachi Program to the Xicano Music Program. Tejeda has directed the Xicano Music Program for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center for the last 16 years.

Tejeda is a musician and a songwriter. He plays the button accordion, guitar, mandolin flute, percussion and sings. He learned to play the accordion from Santiago Jimenez when he was nine years old. While at the University of Texas in Austin, he formed and performed with the Conjunto Aztlan. Recently he played with Roger Velasquez and the New Latins and is currently reuniting the Conjunto Aztian.

For eight years, Tejeda was the iefe stun (second in charge) of the only traditional Aztec dance group in Texas. Known as Xinachtli, the group of concheros performed ceremonies throughout Texas, the Southwest and Mexico from approximately 1977 to 1985.

Tejeda is also a published poet and editor of various anthologies of Chicano Literature.

The Artists Diversity Residency Program is designed to promote a greater appreciation for diversity on the campus and in the community. The program brings to the campus and community different artists from diverse cultural backgrounds for residency periods of one to three weeks in duration, totaling twelve to fifteen weeks per academic year.

Participating artists are selected with great care. They must be strong artists in their discipline, effective verbal communicators, and be willing to share information about themselves and their cultural background. Each artist is given the opportunity to be presented as an artist, either to perform or to have their artwork shown. This is integral to the concept of the program. As a college of fine and performing arts, the first and foremost commitment is to the arts. The work of artists from outside the Western European tradition is not as accessible in Lincoln and is highlighted by this program. Performances or exhibitions by the artists during their residency are scheduled whenever possible.

In addition to being quality artists, they must be effective communicators. They have the challenge of communicating about their culture in a way that can touch a potentially resistant audience. Even though the arts can be a non-confrontational way of talking about a culture, the artist must have a special ability to share cultural insights through their artistic eyes. This is a different perspective than that of the historian, social scientist, or scientist, for it relies on the artists' unique perceptions based on their creative work.

On the UNL campus, artists are scheduled to go into classes or meet with special groups . There is a network of more than 100 faculty and staff who have participated in the program. The type of presentation done by the artists varies enormously. Some programs are general cultural presentations and others are able to tie very closely to the focus of the course. In the past three years more than 12,000 students have been reached.

In the community, artists go into schools, meet with community groups and meet with culturally based groups in the community.


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