Yingqing funeral Vase, China, Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1279 A.D.) shown at right

Lentz Exhibition Represents Leung Ceramic, Photo Collections

The Lentz Center for Asian Culture is presenting a double exhibition containing about 50 examples of Chinese ceramic art from the collection of Professor Kam-ching Leung, Department of Physics and Astronomy, and photographs of Asia taken by Leung. The exhibitions will run through April 1.

Leung has been collecting Chinese ceramic art since the 1970s. From his extensive collection, he has chosen some of the most arresting pieces. The ceramics include not only vessels but figural and animal sculptures as well. Spanning the 6,000 years of Chinese history, Leung has selected three prehistoric vessels to open the exhibition, followed by representative pieces from all major historical periods. Many of the pieces date from the Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.), well known for its ceramic achievements. This includes some black ceramics with reddish brown patterns in the glazes known as hare's fur and tortoise shell. Celadon, possibly more familiar to most visitors, is represented by a Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368 A.D.) vase with elephant-headed handles and a tall vase from the Qianlong reign (1736-1796 A.D.) of the Qing Dynasty on which celadon is combined with blue and white.

Most dynamic are the Han (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) small dancing figures, lively in outline and expression, and the stark white Tang fantastic animal guardian figure glazed with only a streak of green. Two Ming officials dutifully observe all that passes.

Leung's travels have taken him to Africa, South America and all over Asia. For this exhibition, he has chosen a variety of outstanding color photographs from his Asian trips. Subjects include scenes, people and still life. Many recognizable scenes are included as well as potent pictures of individual indigenous people.

The two exhibitions form an interesting blend of contemporary portraiture and historic ceramics giving a solid view of Chinese ceramic art enlivened by scenes in the background.

Ron Short performs during Junebug/Jack Jan. 18 in the Lied Center. The company performed a collection of songs and stories about common people in American history as part of the university's Martin Luther King Day observance.

Pieces of 8 Unify Audience with Tuneful Message

By Gabi Volgyes, Public Relations

They come from St. Louis, and they deliver a sound that brings people together. The group is Pieces of 8, an a cappella "vocal orchestra" that combines nearly every kind of music in unique blends and original arrangements. During their campus performance Jan. 15, some part of Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream came true; members of the UNL community and the Lincoln area sat down, drawn in by the music, and seeking seats in the packed room, joined perfect strangers to celebrate King's amazing legacy of hope. By the end of the hour-long performance, it was standing room only in a room ringing with sound and soul.

The group performed original arrangements of such classics as "The Entertainer" and "If I Had a Hammer;" medleys of doo-wop and blues, including the piece "St. Louis Blues"; and a number of songs arranged by the group's artistic director, Charles Mead. The group played on their smooth, sultry sound in excerpts from the opera Lady in the Dark, and the song "Gold Chain." However, the real highlight of the performance was the 10-minute medley that used text from King's "I Have a Dream" speech as well as incorporating the American anthem "My Country 'Tis of Thee" in a powerful testament to King's vision.

William Olubodn, assistant director for Student Involvement at the Nebraska Union, agreed that people were brought together by the performance. "Music is a universal language that a lot of people do relate to," he said.

The octet group performed in the Union to honor Martin Luther King Jr.'s actual birthday on Jan. 15. Members of the group are Ray Sherrock, Tom O'Brien, Collie Collie, Joshua Vorvick, Juliet Jackson, Debby Lennon, Wendy Whitby and Jan Marra.

O'Brien is a 1987 graduate of the NU School of Music.

Musica Pacifica Next on Friends of Chamber Music Calendar

Taking up where the appearance of Quartetto Gelato left off last September, the next concert of Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music again departs from the usual classical string trio or quartet format with the presentation of the Baroque ensemble Musica Pacifica at 8 p.m. Feb. 13 in the Sheldon Gallery.

LFCM President Joseph Kraus calls the appearance of Musica Pacifica, "a major event for Lincoln."

"This group consists of some of the finest early music performers in the U.S. - players who have achieved excellent critical acclaim," Krause said. "They have appeared on National Public Radio's Performance Today and were the featured artists at the prestigious Berkeley Early Music Festival in California. The chamber music of this program challenges that of any other era for unity of ensemble, beauty of tone and instrumental mastery."

The Feb. 13 concert is titled "Venice from A to Z - Viva Venezia!" It consists of magnificent 17th- and 18th-century music from Venice, including virtuoso pieces from Albinoni to Ziani. It features trio sonatas by Castello, Turini and Uccellini; a chamber concerto for recorder, oboe, violin and continuo by Vivaldi; a violin sonata by Veracini, recorder diminutions by Bassano, an oboe sonata by Platti, and other exciting works.

The members of Musica Pacifica include co-founders Judith Linsenberg, recorder, and Elizabeth Blumenstock, baroque violinist. Other members are Gonzalo Ruiz, oboe, David Morris, cello/gamba, and Charles Sherman, harpsichord.

The concert will be preceded at 7:30 p.m. by a lecture by John Bailey, member of the faculty of the UNL School of Music. Following the performance, a reception for audience and artists will occur in the Great Hall of Sheldon Gallery. Parking for persons with special needs is available in the lot north of the Gallery. Tickets for the concert may be purchased at the door: $25 for adults and $5 for students. For ticket information, call 435-5454.

The Russian National Ballet performing Sleeping Beauty

Russian National Ballet Performing Two Favorites During Lied Appearance

Founded in Moscow during tile late 1980s, the Russian National Ballet counts as its principals dancers from the upper ranks of the Bolshoi and Kirov companies as well as the Stanislavsky, Riga, Kiev and Warsaw troupes. This outstanding company, making its first North American tour, performs Swan Lake at 8 p.m. Jan. 29, and The Sleeping Beauty at 8 p.m. Jan. 30 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

With more than 50 dancers, the Russian National Ballet has focused on upholding the grand national tradition of major Russian ballet works. Artistic Director Sergei Radchenko, formerly with the Bolshoi Ballet, leads this company as well as the Moscow Festival Ballet.

The Russian National Ballet has in its repertory nearly all the works of the great choreographer Marius Petipa. While the company concentrates on the classics, it also works to develop new dance talents in Russia and integrate new developments in dance from around the world into the Russian ballet idiom.

Swan Lake is a full-length ballet performed in four acts to the soaring music of Russia's great Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The breathtaking image of the corps de ballet dancing as the swan maidens is perhaps the most enduring image in all of ballet. The story involves a prince who overcomes an evil spell cast upon a beautiful maiden who has been turned into a swan.

The Sleeping Beauty, again with music by Tchaikovsky, is the classic tale of a young princess maiden doomed to sleep forever unless awakened by the kiss of a handsome prince This dance, created by the great Russian choreographer Marius Petipa, is often considered the finest achievement of the classical ballet. It is grand and lavish, yet refined and expressive, filled with fairies, magical castles and a lovely royal wedding. This ballet is a tour de force for dancers, who must exhibit steely point work, spinning turns, soaring leaps, high extensions and daring lifts, all strictly timed to Tchaikovsky's luminous score.

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

Tickets for the performance are $38, $34 and $30. 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.

Mixing the Old and New: Lazer Vaudeville Makes for Classy Family Fun

Team traditional vaudevillian antics of acrobatics and zany humor with high-tech laser magic and black light effects. The result is clean, classy family fun that dazzles and delights.

Lazer Vaudeville casts its spell for three magical performances at the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 7 p.m. Feb. 5 and 2 and 7 p.m. on Feb. 6.

Accuracy with flying ten-pins, airborne chainsaws and cowboy rope tricks, enhanced by contemporary lighting and sound effects, means even the TV generation will be hooked by Lazer Vaudeville's theatrics. This event is part of the Lied Center's Family Series, which was created to stage events that can be enjoyed by all ages at more affordable prices.

Founded in 1987, Lazer Vaudeville fulfills founder Carter Brown's dream of reviving old-time vaudeville for modern audiences. The show features a cast of fantastical characters who lead the audience on a journey through their own imaginations as wizards perform magical illusions with laser beams and fire-breathing dragons dance on the stage.

Brown's specialty is the lost art of hoop rolling. Hoops roll around his body and the entire stage, seeming to take on lives of their own. Pinwheel illusions and precision juggling mark this troupe as uniquely talented.

Troupe members are veterans of the Ringling Brothers big show, the Carden International Circus, the Monte Carlo Circus, Walt Disney World and the Pickle Family Circus.

Because the first 15 minutes of the performance are done under black light, latecomers will not be seated during this portion of the show.

Pre-performance entertainment will begin in the Orchestra Lobby at 6:15 p.m.

Tickets for the performance are $9. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students and youth 18 and younger with proper identification can purchase tickets for $4. Call the at the Lied Box Office at 472-4747 or toll free (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

UNL Studio Faculty Biennial Exhibition Through March 28 at Sheldon

The works of 12 artists on the studio faculty of the UNL Department of Art and Art History comprise the UNL Studio Faculty Biennial, an exhibition of 19 works on display at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery through March 28.

Participating in this year's biennial are Ron Bartels, Eddie Dominguez, Dana Fritz, Martha Horvay, Elizabeth Ingraham, Keith Jacobshagen, Gail Kendall, Karen Kunc, Mo Neal, Pete Pinnell, Joseph Ruffo and Tom Sullivan. Dominguez, Fritz, Ingraham, and Sullivan have joined the faculty since 1996. Because of these new additions, this year's Biennial exhibition offers an eclectic selection of artwork, which reflects the growing aesthetic diversity of the art faculty.

Included in the exhibition are examples of Jacobshagen's new field sketch series, which are direct and highly intuitive compositions. Neal's aggressive rubber and styreen wall piece invades the viewer's space and offends the viewer's aesthetic sensibilities. Also exhibited are two highly experimental digital prints by Ruffo and an artist book by Kunc that illustrates a series of poems by Hilda Raz, a nationally recognized poet who is associate professor of English at UNL and editor of the Prairie Schooner.

The new faculty is well represented by a diverse selection of artworks of art in various media that reflects a variety of aesthetic perspectives. Ceramicist Dominguez is represented by Art and Craft, a satirical and aesthetically challenging wall piece. Graphic artist Sullivan is represented by two computer-generated photomontaged posters which, according to Sullivan, "addresses social and political concerns of the working class."

Fritz (in collaboration with her husband, artist Larry Gawel) is represented by two conceptual artworks in which both were divided into two parts, with each component given a theme, "one for each collaborator to alter with advice from the other."

Ingraham, whose aesthetic subject is, according to the artist, "skin: flexible and emotive, superficial but essential, protective but vulnerable," has exhibited one of her hand-sewn life-size female "skins" named karma.

Dan Siedell, Sheldon curator, will present a gallery talk on the exhibition from 12:15 to 1 p.m. Feb. 17 as part of Sheldon's ongoing educational program "Wednesday Walks." Gourmet coffee provided by The Mill and cookies will be available. The public is welcome and the event is free.

Schickele and Lark Combine for Masterful Evening

Peter Schickele, the alter ego of P.D.Q. Bach, joins the all-woman Lark Quartet for a concert of masterful and entertaining music. The concert begins at 8 p.m. Feb. 4 in Kimball Hall as part of the Lied Center for Performing Arts' season.

The Lark Quartet is composed of Diane Pascal, violin; Jennifer Orchard, violin; Danielle Farina, viola; and Astrid Schween, cello. Farina most recently joined the quartet, which was founded in 1985. The quartet plays with the brilliant enthusiasm of youth and the seasoning of accomplished veterans. Its laurels include a gold medal at the 1991 Shostakovich International String Competition and top prize at the 1986 Banff Competition in Canada. The quartet tours internationally and is in residency at Ohio University in Athens.

Schickele, best known for his humorous musical parodies, is a composer of true musical genius. His String Quartet No. 2 "In Memoriam," written for the Lark Quartet in 1988 as a memorial piece for his brother-in-law, is the heart of this concert. The piece is warm, humorous, sad but uplifting. He has composed pieces commissioned by the National Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Minnesota Opera. Since 1992 he has worked on a syndicated radio program, "Schickele Mix," broadcast on Public Radio International member stations.

Other pieces in the evening's repertoire are Haydn's String Quartet in D Major, Op. 64, No. 5, "The Lark" and Schickele's Quintet No. 2 for piano and strings. The audience is invited to remain in the theater for a brief discussion and question-and-answer.

Tickets for the performance are $22 and $18. Call the Lied Box Office for ticket availability.

Reading Rainbow Announces 5th Annual Young Writers, Artists Contest

The Nebraska ETV Network and Reading Rainbow, the Emmy award-winning PBS children's series, announce the Fifth Annual "Young Writers and Illustrators" Contest. The national contest is designed to encourage children in grades K-3 to write and illustrate their own stories. Last year the contest attracted more than 800 entries in Nebraska and 38,000 entries nationally.

"The 'Young Writers and Illustrators Contest' is another great way Reading Rainbow reaches out to kids everywhere," said LeVar Burton, host and co-executive producer of the series. "Like the series itself, the contest invites kids to open their minds and explore their world in an exciting and creative new way."

For Nebraska ETV viewers, the Fifth Annual "Young Writers and Illustrators" Contest will be held locally from January to March, 1999. To enter, children in grades K-3 should submit a story (50-200 words for grades K-1, 100-350 words for grades 2-3) and no less than five original illustrations related to the story. Stories can be real, imagined, fantastic, whimsical or humorous. Entries will be judged and prizes awarded to winners in each grade level. Winners' entries will be produced Reading Rainbow-style and broadcast on the Nebraska ETV Network. First-place winners from the local contest will be submitted to Reading Rainbow for the national competition. All entrants will receive a special Certificate of Recognition signed by series host LeVar Burton.

Official entry forms are required and were mailed, along with the contest rules, to elementary school media specialists, libraries and bookstores the first week of January. The entry form and rules will also be posted on Nebraska ETV's World Wide Web site, http://net.unl.edu. They can also be obtained by writing to Reading Rainbow Contest, MS 40, Nebraska ETV Network, P.O. Box 83111, Lincoln, NE 68501-3111; by e-mailing dm@unlinfo.unl.edu; or by calling 402-472-9333, ext. 353. The deadline for entries to be received at Nebraska ETV (at the address above) is March 12.

Prizes for the national contest include a computer and printer, VCR and Reading Rainbow library set featuring ten home video and book titles. In addition, a similar Reading Rainbow set will be awarded to each national winner's local school and public library.

"Reading Rainbow's'Young Writers and Illustrators Contest' helps reinforce the message in each episode of the series about the great value - and sheer fun - of reading," said Twila C. Liggett, executive producer and project director of the series. "The contest encourages young people all across the country to stretch their imaginations to create a unique work in words and pictures that they can be proud of."

Special Sheldon Exhibition Profiles New York School

The Sheldon Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden presents aspecial installation of New York School art of the 1940s and 1950s in three galleries of the permanent collection from Jan. 11 to May 2.

This special installation of more than 30 works profiles one of the most important and influential periods in the development of modern art in the United States, a development that culminated in Abstract Expressionism. The national and international attention that retrospective exhibitions of seminal New York School artists Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko have received provides a unique opportunity for the public to view in greater depth the powerful aesthetic statements made by these artists and their colleagues at mid-century.

The reinstallation is curated by Sheldon Gallery Curator Daniel A. Siedell on the occassion of a special topics seminar on the New York School that Siedell is teaching in the Department of Art and Art History.

"The role of the university art museum is not only to provide a resource for the academic community but to interact with that community in proactive and creative ways," Siedell said. "I hope that this special topics course and the reinstallation of the permanent collection will serve as a model for productive interaction between the academic community and the Sheldon Gallery's collection."

The reinstallation features important examples of the most well-known Abstract Expressionists such as Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still along with examples by lesser-known New York School artists such as Bradley Walker Tomlin, Conrad Marca-Relli, and sculptors David Hare and Seymor Lipton, each of whom made significant, but often overlooked, contributions to the development of the New York School.

"This course, which will integrate the art object into the fabric of the curriculum," he said. "And it will provide a dynamic framework within which the New York School can be analyzed and studied aesthetically as well as historically, in the presence of the art objects as well as in the library."