The new semester brings with it a vast array of opportunities for people to enjoy the arts at William & Mary. For more events happening at W&M this semester, see the university’s online calendar. – Ed.
Art
The Department of Art and Art History will host the exhibition “Architecture of Memory” featuring details about Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved at the Andrews Gallery in Andrews Hall from Aug. 31 through Sept. 23. The memorial was based on a concept by former architecture student Will Sendor ’11 and dedicated in May. The exhibition will explore the origins of various parts of Hearth’s architecture. For information on programming planned around the exhibition, visit the department’s calendar.
Works by sculptor Laura Frazure will be featured in the exhibition “Bodily Rhetoric” at the Andrews Gallery from Oct. 6 through Oct. 28. Frazure, assistant professor and coordinator of sculpture in the fine arts department at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, studied and taught anatomy for years as she developed a distinctive approach to figurative sculpture specifically concentrating on the female body. An artist talk at 5 p.m. and opening reception at 6 p.m., free and open to the public, will take place on Oct. 3.
Sam Chung will be the department’s distinguished lecturer for the semester. He will give the lecture “Sam Chung: Journey in Clay” on Oct. 31 at 5 p.m., free and open to the public, at a location to be announced. Chung is a professor of ceramics at Arizona State University who creates pottery that reframes historical ceramics from a cross-cultural perspective. His most recent work draws influence from Korean art and design, using the symbolism of clouds.
The Muscarelle Museum of Art will continue to feature The Curatorial Project exhibition “The Human Frame: Prints by Leonard Baskin” through Sept. 25. W&M art history students curated the exhibition from the Muscarelle’s growing collection of works by Baskin, a mid-century American artist best known for his works on paper and his bleak portrayals of the human figure.
The Muscarelle will host “Faculty Show 15” from Sept. 30 through Dec. 11 focusing on recent works by W&M’s studio art faculty, including visiting instructors and professors emeriti. The exhibition will highlight the diverse talents of the studio instructors in a variety of media including ceramics, drawing, painting, printmaking, photography and sculpture.
For a full schedule of events and programming, visit muscarelle.wm.edu.
Dance
Orchesis Modern Dance Company will present “DANCEVENT,” with original choreography by dance faculty members performed by faculty, students with Orchesis and guest artists, from Oct. 27 through Oct. 30 at the Kimball Theatre. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are available at the Kimball Theatre Box Office and online.
Ewell Concert Series
The music department will begin the Ewell Concert Series at 7 p.m. on Nov. 4 with composer, cellist and vocalist Dawn Avery performing at Williamsburg Regional Library.
Avery, professor of music at Montgomery College in Maryland, has spent years honing her musical talents, collaborating and performing in all genres of music. Her compositions span from orchestral to chamber. She has worked with artists from Luciano Pavarotti to Sting and performed at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, as well as in New York’s thriving downtown music stages at the Knitting Factory and La Mama. Avery specializes in the performance of contemporary Native American music with her own ensemble Okenti and as a soloist as part of the North American Indian Cello Project.
As part of spending the week working with students as the music department’s Class of 1939 Maurine Stuart Dulin Artist-in-Residence, the Ardelia Trio will perform a Ewell concert at 7 p.m. on Nov. 3 in Ewell Recital Hall. The Ardelia Trio’s presence on the international chamber music scene showcases its commitment to presenting innovative and engaging interactive concerts. Violinist Janey Choi, cellist Clara Yang and pianist Jihea Hong-Park formed the group after working together in various capacities as performing and teaching artists.
The series continues at 7 p.m. on Nov. 16 at Ewell Concert Hall with Ambrosia Quartet, which is a string quartet formed in 2002 by four friends exploring their passion for chamber music. Their pieces range from classical favorites to recent compositions by celebrated contemporary composers. All members of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, violinists Simon Lapointe and Mayu Cipriano hail from Québec and Tokyo, respectively; violist Beverly Kane Baker grew up locally in Hampton; and cellist Rebecca Gilmore came to the area from Charlotte, North Carolina.
The final performance in the series will feature pianist Maria Yefimova, W&M lecturer of piano, at 7 p.m. on Dec. 3 in Ewell Recital Hall. A competition prizewinner, the Russian-born Yefimova has established herself internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician and orchestra soloist, performing in Italy, Spain, England, Slovakia, Croatia, Russia and the U.S. She will give a solo lecture-recital of works by Alexander Scriabin in honor of the 150th anniversary of his birthday with highlights including “Nocturne for the left hand alone Opus 9, No. 2;” “Sonata No. 4, Opus 30;” and “Vers la Flamme, Opus 72.”
All performances are free and open to the public.
Music
The music department has various concerts scheduled throughout the semester, with more events to be added to its calendar.
The W&M Orchestra, along with the Wind Ensemble, Choir, Botetourt Chamber Singers and Barksdale Treble Chorus will perform the free Family Weekend Concert on Sept. 23 at 8 p.m. at Kaplan Arena.
The Botetourt Chamber Singers will perform a free Homecoming Concert at 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 7 at the Wren Building Great Hall. The W&M Choir will perform a free Homecoming Concert at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 8 at Sadler Center.
The orchestra’s Halloween Concert, featuring Johannes Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 11,” Alexander Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 4,” will be held at 4 p.m. on Oct. 30 in the Sadler Center. General admission is $3 for all.
The Barksdale Treble Chorus and Botetourt Chamber Singers will perform a free Candlelight Concert at 8 p.m. on Nov. 12 at Bruton Parish Church.
All three choral groups will perform their Winter Choral Concert “Sacred Drama” at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 3 at Sadler Center. The W&M Choir and Botetourt Chamber Singers, along with a professional orchestra, will perform Wolfgang Mozart’s “Requiem in D Minor,” which Interim Director of Choirs Daniel Parks described as “perhaps one of the most famous and influential pieces of choral music.” The Barksdale Treble Chorus will perform a choral-orchestral piece by Johann Hasse, who was a significant predecessor to Mozart. General admission is $10 and free with W&M ID.
The orchestra’s annual Fall Concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 10 at Sadler Center. It will feature Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 5,” Claude Debussy’s “Petite suite,” Giacomo Puccini’s “Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut,” Vladimir Rebikov’s “Christmas Tree Waltz” and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Christmas Eve Suite.” General admission is $10 and free for students, veterans and children.
The Wind Ensemble will host its free Family Weekend Concert at 8 p.m. on Sept. 23 at Kaplan Arena. The ensemble will host its Homecoming Concert at 8 p.m. on Oct. 7 at Williamsburg Presbyterian Church. General admission is $10 and free with W&M ID. The ensemble will hold its Winter Concert at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 7 at Sadler Center. General admission is $10 and free with W&M ID. In commemoration of the 300th anniversary of W&M’s Brafferton building, all concerts will feature music with Native American themes.
The Gallery Players, W&M’s conductor-less string orchestra, will perform music by Sir Hubert Parry, Florence Price and Tchaikovsky at a free Fall Concert at 8 p.m. on Nov. 17 at Bruton Parish Church. A free joint concert by the Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo will be performed at 7 p.m. on Nov. 29 in Ewell Hall. The Flute Ensemble will hold a free concert at 6 p.m. on Dec. 1 in Ewell Hall.
Theatre
W&M Theatre will stage the musical “Bright Star” directed by Guest Director Dana Margulies with musical direction by Phaedra McNorton, W&M lecturer in musical theatre and musical theatre director. “Bright Star” is a combination of the book by comedian Steve Martin and lyrics by singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, with story and music by both artists. “When literary editor Alice Murphy meets a young soldier just home from World War II, he awakens her longing for the child she once lost. Haunted by their unique connection, Alice sets out on a journey to understand her past — and what she finds has the power to transform both of their lives,” according to Theatrical Rights Worldwide. The show runs Nov. 17 through Nov. 20 at the Kimball Theatre. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are available at the Kimball Theatre Box Office and online.
Writing
Poet David Mills kicks off the Patrick Hayes Writers Festival series with an appearance at 6 p.m. on Sept. 14 at the Tucker Theatre. Mills has published the poetry collections “Boneyarn,” “The Sudden Country,” “The Dream Detective” and “After Mistic.” His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Colorado Review, Crab Orchard Review, Jubilat, Callaloo, Obsidian, Brooklyn Rail, Diode Journal and Fence. The Juilliard School of Drama commissioned and produced a play written by Mills. He wrote the audio script for MacArthur Fellowship winner Deborah Willis’ curated exhibition “Reflections in Black: 100 Years of Black Photography,” which was shown at the Whitney and Getty museums.
The series continues on Oct. 10 with a talk by author Lauren K. Alleyne at a time and location to be announced. Alleyne is the author of “Difficult Fruit” and “Honeyfish.” Her fiction, poetry and non-fiction have been widely published in journals and anthologies such as The Atlantic, Ms. Muse, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Guernica, The Caribbean Writer and Crab Orchard Review. She is the newly-named director of Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University.
Writer Paul Hendrickson will conclude the series with his presentation at 6 p.m. on Oct. 26 in the Tucker Theatre. Hendrickson, a former staff writer for The Washington Post, is a three-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award with his 2003 “Sons of Mississippi” winning the award. His non-fiction book, “The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War,” was a 1996 finalist for the National Book Award. His 2011 “Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He loved in Life,and Lost” was a New York Times bestseller. His most recent nonfiction book is the 2019 “Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright.” Hendrickson teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
Author Addie Tsai, lecturer of creative writing at W&M, will discuss their work at 7 p.m. on Sept. 29 in Tucker Theatre. Tsai also teaches in Goddard College’s MFA Program in Interdisciplinary Arts and Regis University’s Mile High MFA Program in Creative Writing. Tsai is the author of the queer Asian young adult novel “Dear Twin” and “Unwieldy Creatures,” which is an adult queer biracial Asian retelling of “Frankenstein.” Tsai is fiction co-editor and co-editor of features and reviews at Anomaly, staff writer at Spectrum South, and founding editor and editor in chief at just femme & dandy.
Kelli Jo Ford, 2022 Donaldson Writer-in-Residence at W&M, will read from new work completed during her residency at 7 p.m. on Nov. 10 in Washington Hall Room 201. Ford, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is the author of the 2020 debut novel-in-stories “Crooked Hallelujah,” which was long-listed for the Story Prize and the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel among other awards and honors. Her work has been published in McSweeney’s, The Missouri Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review and The Paris Review. She was the recipient of the 2019 Plimpton Prize and teaches in the graduate program at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
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