Events

Arts kick off in grand style

The start of a new semester means heading back to class and textbooks, but it does not mean shutting out social life. This spring UH has various arts- and campus life-related events to be enjoyed in between studying.

On Jan. 24, the Houston Room at the University Center will have a free roundtable panel discussion with students, faculty, and staff on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact Renia Butler at [email protected].

On Jan. 26, the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture presents “Young Architects of Spain: A Window to the Unknown” from 6 to 9 p.m.

A panel discussion featuring curators Jesús María Aparicio and Jesús Donaire and respondent Carlos Jiménez will take place the first hour followed by a reception and the opening of the YAS exhibit.

This event, which is co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Spain in Houston, is free to the public. Additional YAS events will take place at the college throughout April.

For more information, visit www.arch.uh.edu.

The Moores Opera House is bringing two musical plays to the stage during the month of January.

“Tartufee,” a play written by famed Frenchman Molière, debuts at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 26.

“Tartufee” tells the story of a pious man who is also scam artist. The version to be held at the Moores Opera House takes place in 1920s Monaco with music by Kirke Mecham.

“Amelia,” written by Stephen Wadsworth with music by Daron Hagen, outlines the life of a woman who lost her father when he was a pilot in the Vietnam War. The woman’s father has returned to her life — as a ghost.

The UH staging will be the works second performance. “Amelia” was first performed in 2010 by the Seattle Opera.

For more information and for tickets, visit www.music.uh.edu/opera.

The 2012 International Piano Festival will take place at the Moores Opera House Feb. 3-5.

The event will feature the music of Mozart, Chopin, Liszt and Franck during separate recitals by UH music professor Abbey Simon, German pianist Markus Groh, and Uruguayan virtuoso Alberto Reyes.

Groh was the first German pianist to win first place at the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Brussels, Belgium in 1995.

Reyes has been performing for 50 years and had his first recital at the age of eight in Montevideo, Uruguay.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please call the Moores Opera House at (713) 743-3388.

Starting Feb. 24, UH’s School of Theatre and Dance will present a production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”

Miller’s work won the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play and was thought to be a metaphor hinting at Senator Joseph McCarthy and his communist claims against many renowned Americans.

This historical play is based on the actual events of the notorious Salem witchcraft trials of seventeenth century Puritan Massachusetts.

The school will also stage “Fragments,” written by UH Distinguished Professor of Theatre Edward Albee. The production will take place March 23-April 1.

Beginning April 20, the school will also present “The Cripple of Inishmaan,” which will be directed by Carolyn Houston Boone

The play, according to the school’s website, is a “touching comic tale in the great tradition of Irish storytelling” that focuses on Billy, a young cripple who wishes to escape the bitterness of his life.

For more information on any of the school’s upcoming performances or to purchase tickets, visit www.theatre.uh.edu/onstage.

The school will also feature its dance program when it presents “Between the Lines,” the annual show that features contemporary works by faculty and guest artists performed by the UH Dance Ensemble, a pre-professional dance company.

For more information, visti www.theatre.uh.edu/onstage/wortham_4.asp.

UH’s Blaffer Arts Museum is presenting two exhibits this semester.

The first, “Anton Ginzburg: At the Back of the North Wind,” to UH after closing at the renowned Venice Biennial.

The exhibition “documents the artist’s search for Hyperborea, a mythical northern territory,” according to the museum’s website.

The exhibit features a video installation, large-scale sculptures, site-specific bas reliefs, photography, paintings, and a series of works on paper.

The exhibit runs from April 14 until July 1.

“Andy Coolquitt: Attainable Excellence” opens two weeks after the Ginzburg exhibit.

The exhibit is both a debut at the Blaffer and Coolquitt’s first solo museum exhibition. It “will recombine 60 discrete sculptures and tableaux made between 2006 and 2011 into a site-specific installation,” according to the Blaffer website.

The exhibit runs April 28 through Sept. 23.

UH’s School of Art will present its Master’s Thesis show at Diverseworks art gallery this year.

The annual show, which features works by students about to graduate from the school’s master of fine arts program, will take place April 27.

For more information, visit www.uh.edu/class/art.

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