STUDENT SARA LILLY (below) demonstrates how the "magical worship bridge" will be constructed. The project is part of Undulations and Other Rhythms at the Hillestad Gallery through May 10.

Student Exhibition Next at Hillestad Gallery

Undulations and Other Rhythms will be the featured exhibition in the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery April 23 to May 10. A reception with the 17 student artists is planned from 6 to 8 p.m. April 23 in the gallery. The public is invited. Refreshments in the spirit of the exhibition will be served. The Friends of the Gallery are sponsoring the reception.

Throughout the semester advanced students in textile and apparel design have been evolving new forms and combinations of textiles to create apparel and visual environments representative of an invented people. The artists will transform the gallery space into a magical environment that will captivate the viewer using sound, light, and a wide array of materials and constructions. The gallery will be subdivided into areas that take on the unique characteristics of the experience the artists are expressing.

You will be able to observe the mystic land of the butterfly. The air filled with small pieces of glitter that sparkle and dazzle. Move into a physical depiction of the unseen, indulge your senses in mystery, experience the beauty of perfection. Be jolted when you witness the genesis of the apocalypse: ice, toxic fumes, isolation.

Unconventional materials describe the resurrection of mutated life forms, somber and rigid. Discover an island with tropical island dwellers and prehistoric peoples. Within the deep rainforest lies a worship site with god totems, cave paintings and amulets. Here the gods of wind, water, earth and fire live, and they compromise and war with each other over the natural world.

The 15 undergraduate students in the class are: Jen Ballan, Suzi Beiermann, Michelle Boicourt, Heidi Kubicek, Sara Lilly, Karina May, Alison Meyer, Kori Ostendorf, Natilee Poppe, Shawn Shepherd, Connie Stansell, Hallie Stevens, Molly Taylor-Burgher, Nga Vu and Kaoly Xiong. Michael Harlan and Vince Quevedo are graduate students. Wendy Weiss, associate professor and gallery director is the faculty member teaching the course for which this exhibition is the culmination.

The gallery is located on the second floor in the Home Economics building on East Campus. The gallery is open M-F, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on selected Sundays. Call 472-2911 for more information.

University Symphony Orchestra in Concert April 24

The School of Music presents the University Symphony Orchestra in concert at 8 p.m. April 24 in Kimball Recital Hall. Admission is free.

Tyler Goodrich White is the orchestra director and Benjamin Carlisle is the graduate associate conductor. The 70 student ensemble will perform Debussy's Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun, Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 in G Major for Piano and Orchestra, featuring faculty guest artist Ann Chang-Barnes, piano; and Edward Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme.

Founded in 1884, the orchestra program at the University of Nebraska is the oldest continuously operating orchestral institution in the state. Long an important fixture in the cultural life of Lincoln, the state of Nebraska, and the Plains region, the NU Orchestras perform approximately six programs per academic year, performing repertoire ranging from traditional symphonic and chamber-orchestral works, to works featuring chorus and faculty or student soloists, to fully staged operas and musicals.

Orchestra members are selected from qualified musicians throughout the university, from doctoral students in musical performance to undergraduates in a variety of nonmusical disciplines. Former members of the NU Orchestras now hold positions in major symphony orchestras, in college and university music schools and departments, and on public school music faculties throughout the United States.

White, director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Nebraska School of Music, maintains an active career as conductor, composer, and teacher. A native of Atlanta, Ga., White was raised there and in Manhattan, Kan. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, White pursued graduate study in composition, musicology, and conducting at Cornell University, receiving the doctorate in 1991. He has also studied at the University of Copenhagen and at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France. His principal teachers of composition have included Steven Stucky, Karel Husa, Niels Viggo Bentzon and Roger Hannay. Before coming to Nebraska in 1994, White directed orchestras at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

As a composer, Tyler White has received commissions from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the St. Luke's Trio, the University of Nebraska Opera Program and other ensembles. His other honors include awards and grants from BMI, Vienna Modern Masters, The MacDowell Colony, Tulane University, the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau (Prix Maurice Ravel), Indiana State University, and the Southeastern Composers League. In 1985, his orchestral work Triptych: Three Panels after Pascal was nominated by Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony for the Pulitzer Prize in Music, and in 1997, White's cello concerto Threnos (William Schuman in memoriam) became the first work by a Nebraskan to win the Omaha Symphony Guild's annual International New Music Competition. White's operatic adaptation of the Willa Cather novel O Pioneers! is slated for premiere in November 1999 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Chang-Barnes (shown at right) is a lecturer at the NU School of Music. After receiving the DM degree in piano performance from Indiana University, Chang-Barnes was appointed to the faculty of DePauw University where she served as the principle opera coach. Chang-Barnes has performed numerous times with the Lima Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Indiana University Orchestra and the Chicago Civic Orchestra. As a duo performer with her husband Paul, she has also performed for the Indianapolis Symphony music director, Raymond Leppard. As a solo pianist, Chang-Barnes was the winner of a national audition in 1983, and was subsequently invited to perform at the Ravinia Music Festival where she received coachings by world renowned pianists Paul Badura-Skoda, Misha Dichter, and Menahem Pressler. Her specialization in early twentieth-century Spanish keyboard music inspired her recent solo performances of the complete "Goyescas" by Enrique Granados in lecture recitals given throughout the midwest. During her studies at Indiana University, Chang-Barnes was the student of French pianist Michel Block.

Indian Music Concert May 23

Raag announces a concert featuring Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan on Sarod and Ustaad Zakir Hussain on Tabla at 7 p.m. May 23 in Kimball Hall.

Tickets are $50 (limited), $30 and $20; half-price for students with valid ID.

Special donor tickets are available for $250 per person or $400 per couple. They include seats in the front two rows, a post concert dinner with the artists at The Oven and a compact disc.

Please contact Bidisha Nag, 420-6360, or Aradhna Srivastav, 476-7282, for tickets. Reserve your tickets early, as demand has been greater than expected.

For more information, e-mail raag@unl.edu or visit the website http://www.unl.edu/raag.

This concert is cosponsored by Pepsi and Startec.