Lied 10th Anniversary Season

Slatkin, National Symphony in Concert Oct. 18

Incomparable American music greats Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra will appear at 8 p.m. Oct. 18 in the Lied Center for Performing Arts. The performance will include works by Haydn, Adams and Copland.

Now in its 69th season, the National Symphony Orchestra of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is recognized as one of the finest orchestras in the world. The National Symphony Orchestra regularly performs at events of national and international importance including welcoming heads of state and presidential inaugurations.

In 1986 the National Symphony Orchestra officially became the artistic affiliate of the Kennedy Center, the nation's center for the performing arts. The Orchestra has been associated with the Kennedy Center since the center's opening in 1971, as the Orchestra presents its regular concert season there.

The 100-member National Symphony Orchestra presents a 52-week season with approximately 175 concerts a year. The orchestra is also dedicated to promoting American works and composers by commissioning new works and interpreting American classics.

Leonard Slatkin, the orchestra's fifth music director, is considered one of the leading conductors of our time. The orchestra's first recording under Slatkin won a Grammy for Best Classical Album, and the second recording was also nominated in this category. The Slatkin/National Symphony pairing has included critically acclaimed tours of Europe, Asia and the United States.

Pre-performance talks begin in the Lied's Steinhart Room 55 minutes and 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Tickets for this performance are $44, $40 and $36; student tickets are half-price. Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 or toll free, (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

Marshall Troupe Explores Millennium Through Dance

The Descent Beckons, a new post-modern dance piece exploring the end of the 20th Century and the beginning of a new millennium, will be presented by Susan Marshall & Company at 8 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

The Descent Beckons, which takes its title from a William Carlos Williams poem, is inspired by New Year's Eve celebrations and winter solstice rituals which involve the concepts of death, transformation and rebirth. It is a relevant piece for the coming millennium, as Marshall states: The Descent Beckons will contemplate the completion of the 20th Century lamenting the losses, brutality and good intentions never realized; seeking to put that time to rest; and finally turning to a new era with a sense of hope and possibility.

Co-commissioned by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, The Descent Beckons is performed by a cast of six dancers, an actor/performer who acts as master of ceremonies and 75 inflatable dolls. In reference to the use of these dummies, Susan Marshall remarks, These mute figures are a class of subordinate beings - controllable, dominated, manipulated. They become our alter egos. They are our dead. Their nakedness and incapacity reminds us of our atrocities.

The Descent Beckons is at times tender and moving, raucous and gaudy at others. The piece incorporates modern dance with vaudeville, cabaret and Las Vegas-style entertainment. This performance contains mature material.

Susan Marshall & Company has performed the works of artistic director/choreographer Marshall since 1982. The company has achieved a reputation for exploring the dark side of human emotions and the complexities of relationships. The company has performed in numerous international festivals to great acclaim, and since 1985, Marshall, her collaborators and company members, have received a total of eight New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies).

The Descent Beckons will receive its United States premiere at the University of Iowa's Hancher Auditorium, which is one of the co-commissioners of this project. Other co-commissioners include the National Dance Project, the Joyce Theater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and UNL.

Tickets for this performance are $36, $32 and $28; student tickts are half-price.

Henry II's Dysfunctional Family Takes to Studio Theatre Stage

University Theatre opens the second play of its 99th season with James Goldman's The Lion in Winter. The story is a brilliant, fierce and personal drama of Henry II deliberating over a successor on a fateful Christmas Eve. Curtain for the premiere performance is 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in the Studio Theatre.

A modern, and highly amusing, look at a dysfunctional 12th century family that just happens to be royal, is filled with anachronistic turns-of-phrase, each player carrying around unsheathed and blooded rapier wits. Setting verbal snares and hurling verbal barbs at one another are Henry's estranged wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine; her choice for a successor, Richard the Lionhearted; Henry's choice, young John; and third son Geoffrey. Into the verbal fray is thrown Alais, Henry's mistress, and Philip Capet, King of France. This Christmas gathering at the Castle of Chinon is far from festive, the ensemble is far too concerned with provinces - who controls them, who gives up which in exchange for which concession. Presents are of no concern when the determination of the future King of England is uppermost in everyone's minds.

The precarious balancing act that each of Goldman's characters perform makes the play hypnotically compelling. No one can show affection without being suspected of artifice, no one can give a kind word without receiving cruel treatment. The verbal jousting includes witty, brutal and heart-wrenching turns of phrase that illustrate the constant shifts in alliances and allegiances, and the roller-coaster fast changes in tone and mood. This story of a bickering royal family some 800 years ago parallel's similar rivalries and hostilities within modern families of wealth and position.

Playwright Goldman won an Oscar for the screenplay adaptation of The Lion in Winter in 1968, as did Katharine Hepburn for her performance of Eleanor of Aquitaine in the film.

UNL's production stars guest artist and Equity actor, David Wiles, as Henry II. Wiles was trained at the Yale-School of Drama and Shakespeare & Company. He has numerous credits with the Yale Repertory Theatre and the Yale School of Drama, including roles in Uncle Vanya, Timon of Athens, The Ghost Sonata, The Cherry Orchard, Phedre, Measure For Measure, and Curse of The Starving Class. Shakespeare and Company credits include Henry IV, Part I and Twelfth Night. Wiles has worked extensively with, and is currently teaching at the University of South Carolina. His roles include Theseus/Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Duke Senior in As You Like It.

Other members of the cast are Shirley Carr Mason as Eleanor of Aquitaine. Mason is head of the Professional Actor Training Program in UNL's Department of Theatre. Undergraduates Matthew Bross, Kyle Johnston, and Steve Barth, play sons Richard the Lionhearted, Geoffrey, and John, respectively. Undergraduates Karen Kumm and Jason Pope portray Alais and Philip Capet.

The production previews for students only on Oct. 21, and opens to the general public Oct. 22. Additional performances are Oct. 23 and 26-30. Tickets may be purchased by contacting the box office at 472-2073.

Irakere Brings Hot Cuban Sounds to Kimball Oct. 20

The temperature will be rising and the house will be rocking when Afro-Cuban band Irakere takes the stage at 8 p.m. Oct. 20 in Kimball Hall. Considered the best band in Cuba, Irakere will perform as part of the Lied's 10th anniversary season.

Irakere, which means Jungle, is a 12-piece ensemble from Havana. Their sound, often described at Afro-Cuban jazz, is a blend of Cuban folk music, jazz, salsa, classical and even rock and funk. However it is labeled, Irakere's music will electrify the audience with its original compositions and knock-out renditions of jazz classics.

Founded in 1973 by world-renowned pianist Chuco Valdes, Irakere has been the starting point for many of Cuba's most famous jazz artists including Paquito D'Rivera and Arturo Sandoval. While veteran members Enrique Pla and Carlos Emilio Morales have been with Irakere since its start, others are recent graduates of Cuba's rigorous music schools, ensuring the continuation of Cuba's vibrant musical heritage.

As a result of the cultural exchange policy which allowed Irakere to tour the United States in the 1970s, the band began to develop a large following in this country. In 1979 and 1980 Irakere's success included two Grammy Awards in the Latin music category. Irakere was refused entry into the United States for almost two decades. This didn't stop Irakere from garnering critical acclaim and standing-room-only audiences throughout Europe. Irakere is now permitted to tour the United States and again is knocking out audiences with its performances and recordings. One of the band's recent recordings, "Babalu Aye," was a 1998 Grammy nominee for Best Tropical Latin Performance.

Tickets for this performance are $32 and $28; half-price for students. Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 or toll free, (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

Ritchie-Rometo Faculty Recital Oct. 21

The School of Music presents faculty artists George Ritchie and Albert Rometo in recital at 8 p.m. Oct. 21 in Kimball Recital Hall. Admission is free.

The recital will feature "Constellations" by Dan Locklair, which Ritchie and Rometo recorded on their compact disc "New Music for Organ and Percussion," issued on the Titanic label. Also, they performed "Constellations" as the closing piece for the International Congress of Organists in Montreal in 1993.

Ritchie will also perform works of J.S. Bach, including the "Prelude and Fugue in G Major" (BWV 541), the chorale prelude "Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele", and the "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" ("Dorian", BWV 538). Ritchie has recorded these works as part of his ongoing series of compact disc recordings of the complete organ works of Bach. These are being issued on the Raven label.

Ritchie is the Marguerite Scribante Distinguished Professor of Organ at the University of Nebraska School of Music. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Redlands, Redlands, Calif. He holds a master of sacred music degree from Union Theological Seminary, New York City, where he graduated summa cum laude, and a doctor of music degree from Indiana University. He has studied with Helmut Walcha, Frankfurt/Main, Germany and André Isoir, Paris, France.

Rometo is vice director of the University of Nebraska School of Music and professor of percussion. Principal timpanist with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, Rometo also conducts numerous clinics, masterclasses and adjudications throughout Nebraska and surrounding states. He has performed with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Joffrey Ballet Orchestra, in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem with Robert Shaw conducting and nationally known entertainers such as Bob Hope, Tom Jones, Joel Grey and George Burns.

St. Mark's Announces Contest Winners

St. Mark's on the Campus Episcopal Church has announced the winning entries in its writing/art contest "Doom or Bloom? Creative Christian Visions of the New Millennium."

St. Mark's on the Campus Committee on the Arts awarded $50 prizes in three categories: visual art (reproducible black and white format), poetry and prose. Winners are: Poetry: Dale Biggs: A Doomsday Trinity Drawings; Mary Dixon: Face of Time Without Christ; Prose: Joe Hahn: Plane Crash.

For some Christians the millennium is associated with the Day of Wrath or Judgment Day (hence "gloom"). For others, it suggests renewal and rebirth ("bloom"). Entries received for this juried contest represented the full range of attitudes and perspectives about the millennium.

St. Mark's will publish a selection of entries in November that will be available for the church's annual meeting. Poetry entries selected include Dale Biggs: A Doomsday Trinity; Laura White: Christ at the Piercing Pagoda; Connie Backus-Yoder: Shall I?, Joy After Sorrow, Dishwater; Joyce Scheyer: Psalms; Nancy Westerfield: The Prairie Trains, The Man Who Heard the Noise, The Fifth Season; Mary Dixon: Cathedral Window Meditation; Don Hanway: Pattern in Chaos: A Fantasy of the Near Future. Drawings to be published include Mary Dixon: Face of Time Without Christ; and Xavier Yoder: Proteus. Prose slated for publication includes Joe Hahn: Plane Crash; Don Hanway: What If . . ,?; and Bette Sperry: Starr E's Journey.