Victor Borge, Ambassador of Goodwill, Brings Humor, Charm to Lied Center

Prepare to laugh out loud - Victor Borge's coming to town. Part classical piano concert, part funnyman and all first-class, Borge's concert begins at 7 p.m. (one hour earlier than usual) Oct. 11 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

Borge's motto is "The smile is the shortest distance between people." And for more than 70 years, The Great Dane has charmed audiences worldwide with his satirical concert theatrics and his consummate piano skills. Classical music provides classical comedy for this gentleman performer who never fails to amuse audiences of all ages.

Borge's career began in the 1920s in his native Denmark, as a straight-forward concert pianist (a genuine child prodigy, he began piano instruction at age 3). But he soon was bringing audiences to laughter with light-hearted schtick.

By the 1930s, Borge was a top cabaret performer in Denmark, particularly well-known for his pointed barbs against the Nazis, then gaining power in nearby Germany. His satire landed him on Hitler's "most-subversive" list. As luck would have it, the Jewish performer was in Sweden when the Germans invaded Denmark in 1940, and he fled to the United States with just $20 in his pockets. He figured if he could learn English, he could have audiences rolling in the aisles, and that has proven true.

Now at nearly 90 years of age, Borge has the energy of a person decades younger. His sometimes profound, and never profane, humor has tickled hearts worldwide. He has sold more millions of recordings, including 2.6 million copies of a videotape, The Best of Victor Borge, that has earned popularity worldwide. His traditional routines, timelessly funny, include a beloved phonetic punctuation skit and sight gags galore augmented by gentle humor poking fun at the freshest of current events. A master of improvisation, he will work one-liners into his one-man show based on the weather, an audience member's sneeze or the day's headlines.

Pre-performance talks, part of the Lied Center's ongoing education programming, will be delivered by Robert Emile, professor emeritus of music at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music. The talks begin in the Lied's Steinhart Room 55 minutes and 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Tickets for the performance are $39, $35 and $29. UNL, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students and youth 18 and younger with proper identification can purchase tickets for half-price.

Call the Lied Box Of fice at 472-4747 or toll free, (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability. Box Office hours are 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays. On performance weekdays, the Box Office is open from 11 a.m. through the first intermission. For evening performances on weekends, the Box Office opens at 3 p.m. For more information about this performance or other Lied Center programs, see the Lied Center's web page at http://www.unl.edu/lied.

This performance is sponsored in part by the Jack and Katherine Thompson Family Endowment of the Lied Performance Fund.

Ross Theater Screens Smoke Signals

Chris Eyre's Smoke Signals (photo above), opening at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater on Oct. 8, is a Native American road movie about fathers and sons and forgiving that brings the sensitive and strong storytelling of author Sherman Alexie to the screen.

Adapted from Alexie's short story, "This is What It Means to Say Phoenix Arizona," the film, winner of the Audience Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, follows the cynical Victor Joseph and the goofy Thomas Builds-the-Fire, as they travel from Idaho's Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation to Phoenix, Ariz., to retrieve the remains of Victor's father (played powerfully by Gary Farmer) who left his family 10 years before.

Smoke Signals is showing on Oct. 8 through 11 and on Oct. 15 through 18. 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 Sundays.

Sotto Voce Trio Performs Oct. 5

The School of Music at the University of Nebraska will present guest artists Sotto Voce Trio in recital at 8 p.m. Oct. 5 in Kimball Recital Hall. Admission is free.

The Sotto Voce Trio members, Dorothy Crum, soprano; Jean Lansing, saxophone; and Sylvia Coats, piano, are faculty members in the School of Music at Wichita State University.

The Trio specializes in avant garde works written by American composers since 1980. Sotto Voce or softly sung reflects their performance philosophy: to present new music to the world softly, in an unpretentious way.

Their recital programs feature works by Kansas composers Dean Roush and Katherine Murdock of the WSU composition faculty; Harold Moyer, professor emeritus at Bethel College; and Andrew Bishop, a graduate of WSU and now a student at the University of Michigan. This recital will feature recently arranged George Gershwin songs by John W. Thomson, chair of the School of Music at Wichita State and a noted jazz pianist.

Sotto Voce has performed in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and extensively in the Wichita area. This month they have performed recitals at the University of Kansas and will perform at Wichita State University in October. They won first place at the International League of Women Composers Composition Competition, performing Christina Kuzmych's Sounds and Shapes. They have performed nationwide on special concert series, national conventions and conferences (National Congress of American Women Composers, International Saxophone Symposium, and Music Teachers National Association convention.

The Latino Spirit: Hispanic Icons and Images

Exhibition Highlights Latino Works from Sheldon Collections

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden presents The Latino Spirit: Hispanic Icons and Images from Sept. 22 to Nov. 29. This special exhibition of more than 30 Hispanic/Latino artists' work is drawn from Sheldon's permanent collection. The selection of photographs, prints, paintings and sculpture reflects strong cultural heritages and diverse ethnic traditions in imagery, technique and materials.

An expressive graphic tradition is represented by examples of internationally renowned Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, Jose Clement Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Rufino Tamayo. Social and political content as artistic expression is historically reflected in the woodcut broadsides of Jose Posada and continues in the Chicano silk-screened poster images of Rupert Garcia. Depiction of everyday rituals (Flower Vender by Emilio Amero) and cultural celebrations (Fiesta Dancers by Luis Jimenez) are often utilized by Latino artists to provide important social and historical information through a visual artistic means. The woodcarving Santero tradition of Northern New Mexico is represented by George Lopez's unpainted cottonwood San Rafael, while this Hispanic carving tradition is radically updated in more contemporary idioms in the polychromed wood and barbed wire Wounded Heart by Nicholas Herrera.

Folklore, indigenous mythology and Catholicism remain central to many of the artists' works as in the vivid colored photography performances in St. Sebastian by Puerto Rican Geno Rodriguez and Milagro by Guatemalan Luis Gonzalez Palma. The artistic storytelling tradition is vividly expressed in the narrative painting Epimachaus Ellioti by Cuban-American Paul Sierra.

Included in the selection are photographs by Mexican masters Manuel Alvarez-Bravo, Dia de Todas Muertos (Day of the Dead), and Emilio Amero, Bride Dancing the Zandunga, who reflect the documentary tradition of photography as part of the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. Poignant images of the Southwest are captured in the work by Mexican-American artists Louis Carlos Bernal, Untitled (La Virgen de Guadalupe) and Anthony Montoya, Ranchos de Taos Church.

George Neubert, Sheldon director, curated the exhibition.

"We are pleased to share with the larger community the diversity of the museum's collection that reflects the rich traditions and contributions of the Hispanic/Latino artists, and also continues to enrich our diverse American visual heritage," he said.

This exhibition has been organized in cooperation with El Museo Latino in Omaha to coincide with Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. The director of El Museo Latino, Magdalena Garcia will give a gallery talk from 12:15 to 1 p.m. Nov. 18 in the Sheldon Gallery as part of the Sheldon's "Wednesday Walks" series. An expanded version of the exhibition will be presented at El Museo Latino in February 1999.

Klezmer Conservatory Band Preserves Music of European Jewry

It's the screaming wail of clarinet infused with the minor-key melancholy of the Jewish mandolin overlaid with American tin-pan alley saxophone. Invoking the long history of Eastern Europe, Klezmer music is as old as the millennium but as fresh as Y2K.

The Klezmer Conservatory Band performs at 8 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

Klezmer means musician in Yiddish and refers to the itinerant musicians who traveled Eastern Europe in the middle ages, performing at Jewish festivals and weddings. Like all immigrants, when Jews came to the United States, they brought their music with them. It flourished and was embellished by American musical idioms (George Gershwin's opening clarinet wail in Rhapsody in Blue is straight out of Klezmer style). But by the 1960s, Klezmer music was fading in the United States and Jews struggled to assimilate.

Happily a revival of this imminently fun musical style began in the 1980s, thanks largely to the Klezmer Conservatory Band.

Think of a Jewish-Gypsy-Ragtime-Polka-Jazz-Cajun band. The hallmark of any Klezmer band is that its music compels you to dance to it. Afterall, this music was born at wedding dances. And the Klezmer Conservatory Band is the best of the bunch.

Formed in 1980 by Hankus Netsky, the band has recorded several albums, including the acclaimed In the Fiddler's House with Itzhak Perlman and Dancing in the Aisles. The band has appeared in specials for the Showtime Cable Channel, PBS and on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion.

The Klezmer Conservatory Band features vocals by Judy Bressler, backed by an ensemble of clarinets, violins, guitars, mandolins, brass and drums.

This music retains the wistful nostalgia of a people pushed from country to country. But one need not be Jewish or understand Yiddish to enjoy Klezmer music. Just be someone who enjoys music in all its forms.

Pre-performance talks, part of the Lied Center's ongoing education programming, begin in the Lied's Steinhart Room 55 minutes and 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Tickets for the performance are $20, $16 and $12. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students and youth 18 and younger with proper identification can purchase tickets for half-price.

Call the Lied Box Office at (402) 472-4747 or toll free, (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability. Box Office hours are 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays. On performance weekdays, the Box Office is open from 11 a.m. through the first intermission. For evening performances on weekends, the Box Office opens at 3 p.m. For more information about this performance or other Lied Center programs, see the Lied Center's web page at http://www.unl.edu/lied.

This presentation is made possible in part with generous support from the Burket and Sheila Graf Fund.

Indian Classical Music Concert Oct. 9

RAAG will present Shubhendra Rao (Sitar) and Partho Sarathy (Sarod) with Tanmoy Bose (Tabla) in a concert of Indian classical music at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 9 in the Nebraska Union.

Tickets are $10/general public and $5/students. Call Bidisha at 420-6360 or e-mail raag@unlinfo.unl.edu.

A Christmas Carol Open Auditions Oct. 3

Auditions for A Christmas Carol will occur from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 3 in the Temple Building.

Auditioners should reserve a time slot by calling 472-2072 between 1 and 5 p.m. prior to the audition date. Small groups will audition together during their alloted 20-minute section. They will be taught a short piece including: speaking lines, singing and some simple movement.

Auditioners must be at least 5-years-old. Parents will not be allowed in the audition room. There is no need for auditioners to prepare a monologue or song.

Rehearsals for A Christmas Carol will be from 6 to 10:30 p.m. Nov. 2 through opening night Dec. 10. Rehearsals will be six nights a week, which may include Saturdays and/or Sundays. The schedule will be posted as soon as possible and is always subject to change.

Bach Seminar Offered Statewide by Nebraska Public Radio

The master of Baroque music, Johann Sebastian Bach, is the focus of the fall seminar series offered statewide by the Nebraska Public Radio Network. The three-part seminar will be held on Nov. 5, 12 and 19.

The series originates from the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Center, 1800 N. 33rd St. in Lincoln, with audio and video links via NEB*SAT satellite to the following sites: Ainsworth High School, Alliance's Central Panhandle Cooperative Extension, Beatrice Public Library, Broken Bow High School, Chadron State College, Chappell High School, Columbus' Lakeview High School, Fairbury High School, Franklin High School, Grand Island's College Park, Harrison's Sioux County High School, Hastings College, Hyannis High School, Lexington's Central Community College, McCook Community College, Norfolk's Northeast Community College, North Platte's Mid-Plains Community College, Scottsbluff's Panhandle Education Center, University of Nebraska at Kearney and University of Nebraska at Omaha

The three-part series includes:

• "Bach Compositional Styles for Organ," Nov. 5, presented by Michael Barone, host of public radio's Pipedreams and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra series.
• "Bach's Choral Music: The Soul of a Composer," Nov. 12, presented by Carlos Messerli, music director, Lincoln Lutheran Choir, and former professor at Concordia College, Seward, Neb.
• "The Life of Bach, An Overview," Nov. 12, presented by Miles Hoffman, violist and artistic director, The American Chamber Players, and "termsmeister" on public radio's Performance Today series.

"We are thrilled to have the level of talent and expertise of this year's seminar presenters," says Penny Costello, NPRN special events coordinator. "We have also more than doubled the number of downlink sites across the state this year. Those planning on attending are encouraged to call in early to reserve a spot."

Seminars run from 7 to 10 p.m. The fee is $30. The registration deadline is Oct. 23. For more information call Penny Costello at 472-9333, ext. 237, or e-mail at pcostell@unlinfo.unl.edu.

"A" Festival Oct. 2

The College of Fine and Performing Arts and the College of Architecture are sponsoring the "A" Festival on Oct. 2. This one-day event will include activities for high school students from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and the Fourth annual "A"lympics for University of Nebraska-Lincoln students and faculty in the two colleges after 2:30 p.m. For more information call Ron Bowlin at 472-9339.

Tribute to Torch Singer Ruth Etting Airs Oct. 2

Internationally acclaimed singer/actress Andrea Marcovicci (shown at left) pays tribute to Ruth Etting, the Nebraska-born "Queen of the Torch Singers," in a new musical special from the Nebraska ETV Network. 10 Cents A Dance airs at 9 p.m. Oct. 2 on the statewide public television network.

Marcovicci, who has been called "the greatest cabaret star of her New York generation," came to Nebraska in October 1997 to perform her one-woman celebration of Etting's life and music for the Nebraska ETV Network's cameras. The taping took place before an enthusiastic standing-room-only audience in Etting's first venue, the restored Thorpe Opera House in her hometown of David City.

Ruth Etting (shown below) was a singing sensation in the late 1920s and early 1930s, performing in the Ziegfeld Follies, on radio and in films and, most memorably, in best-selling recordings of such great American standards of the era as "Shine on Harvest Moon," "Mean to Me," "Shaking the Blues Away," "Love Me or Leave Me" and "10 Cents A Dance." She is best remembered today for the Hollywood fictionalized version of her life displayed in the 1955 Doris Day-James Cagney film Love Me or Leave Me.

Andrea Marcovicci created 10 Cents a Dance: A Portrait of Ruth Etting as a cabaret act, determined to reclaim for Etting some portion of the recognition she felt Etting deserved. She premiered it in New York at the historic Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel, to glowing reviews and sold-out houses. She has since performed it at cabaret venues in London and on both the East and West Coasts.

Marcovicci's tribute features 20 of Etting's most famous songs. Intertwined with her remarkable interpretations of these songs Marcovicci spins the story of Etting's life by alternately narrating her story and adopting her persona.

Marcovicci began her career as an actress on daytime television in 1971 and has acted on Broadway, performed Shakespeare and appeared in Hollywood films. Over the past decade she has built a second career as one of the most sought-after stars to emerge in New York City's cabaret renaissance.

Welsch Hosts Antique Tractor Fan Bill Splinter

Hear about plans for a new museum as tractor enthusiast Bill Splinter appears at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 2 on Roger Welsch & on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network.

"There's something about a tractor that reminds us of our ties to the soil," Welsch said. "I don't mean these brand-new, air-conditioned behemoths with CD players and leather seats. My kind of tractor has flow-through ventilation (no windows or roof) and the only sound system is the muffler. I'm Roger Welsch and there's someone who shares my love of old tractors so much that he's doing all he can to create a Nebraska Tractor Test and Power Museum."

Splinter is the George Homes Professor Emeritus of Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Nebraska.

Sessions at West 54th Opens Second NETV Season

A varied mix of contemporary artists perform intimate sets when season two of the critically acclaimed music series Sessions at West 54th returns to the statewide Nebraska ETV Network at midnight Oct. 3.

The series showcases established and up-and-coming artists from an array of musical genres including adult alternative, world, new age, rock and pop, contemporary jazz, folk, blues and classical. Set in an intimate studio setting before a live audience, the programs feature spare, unobtrusive camera work that keeps the focus where it belongs - on the performers.

This season, the series is hosted by Grammy- and Academy award-winner David Byrne, an original and influential artist who redefined the possibilities of rock though his unprecedented work with Talking Heads and as a solo musical and visual artist.

Each weekly hour-long program features two musical performances, with a half-hour devoted to each artist. As host, Byrne will introduce and later interview the featured artists.

The season opener features performances by folk singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams and Academy of Country Music award-winner The Mavericks. Other October shows will feature jazz from the Pat Metheny Group with Charlie Haden and afrofunk from Angelique Kidjo (Oct. 10); heartland rock from John Hiatt and campy hip-hop by Imani Coppola (Oct. 17); a gumbo of downtown jazz and worldbeat from Medeski, Martin & Wood and sophisticated vocal stylings by Holly Cole (Oct. 24); and an hour-long special featured rock-poet Lou Reed (Oct. 31).

Discover Homesteading with Mark Engler

Discover the true meaning of homesteading when Mark Engler, supervisor of the Homestead National Monument near Beatrice, Nebraska, appears at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 9, on Roger Welsch & on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network.

"It may not be possible for today's Nebraska residents to know the meaning of homesteading," Welsch said. "Oh we know what it was - claiming land, paying a small fee, actually living on it, but can we know what it meant to people who had never in their lives imagined they would own land? Homesteading molded our history, and the Homestead National Monument near Beatrice honors this important part of our culture. My guest is Mark Engler, the supervisor of the monument. Spend a half-hour with us this week and learn something important about who we all are."

The weekly television series features humorist and author Welsch in discussion with a variety of Nebraskans - from authors and educators to historians and prominent citizens - whose contributions to the good life in Nebraska make for interesting conversation.

In the Life Returns For New Season on EduCable

In the Life, the only nationally broadcast series to present the art, culture, issues and news of the gay and lesbian community, returns for a new season at 9 p.m. Oct. 3 on EduCable, the cable television service of the Nebraska ETV Network.

The six hour-long newsmagazine programs - broadcast every other month - are taped on location across the country and serve a broad audience of gay and straight viewers.

Hosted by Katherine Linton, the programs focus on heightening understanding of gay and lesbian life through intelligent and entertaining segments. Covering a wide range of topics and individuals, In the Life has featured reports on gay teen suicide, gay foster parents, the AIDS Memorial Quilt, gay affirming churches, as well as the latest films and plays with gay and lesbian subjects to come to movie screens and regional theaters.

Hoppner, Johanns Debate Again Oct. 1 on NETV

Nebraskans still struggling to decide who will get their vote for governor on Nov. 3 will get another chance to hear Democratic nominee Bill Hoppner and Republican nominee Mike Johanns discuss the issues in the Gubernatorial Forum airing at 7 p.m. Oct. 17 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network.

The debate, broadcast live from the ballroom in the Milo Bail Student Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, will be moderated by Rob McCartney, news anchor for KETV Channel 7 in Omaha. KETV will also broadcast the debate live.

Hoppner and Johanns will answer questions from a panel consisting of KETV reporters Julie Cornell and Pamela Jones, and Bernard Kolasa, UNO professor of political science.

Tickets are required for admission to the forum. Free tickets are available from UNO Television at 554-2516 and from both the Hoppner and Johann campaign organizations.