While we may need to wait a little longer for spring, this month’s Iowa Arts Showcase includes plenty of events to get you through the last weeks of winter. The March showcase includes:
- Chuck Ginnever’s traveling “Rashomon” sculpture collection, currently located in the courtyard of Iowa State University’s Food Science Building, with Iowa State’s Campus Outreach and Exhibition Coordinator, Kate Greder and ISU’s Museum Interpretation Specialist Dave Faux
- Pianist Joel Fan, sharing details about his upcoming performances with the Quad City Symphony
- The 2015 Iowa Composers Forum Spring New Music Festival, with UNI Theory and Composition Professors Alan Schmitz and Jonathan Schwabe coordinated with a visit by internationally acclaimed composer Jake Heggie
- Jerry Owen, Coe College Professor of Music Emeritus, touting his 70th Birthday Celebration Concert
- And the 10th Annual Mission Creek Festival, with co-founder and director Andre Perry
Kate Greder, Iowa State’s Campus Outreach and Exhibition Coordinator, and ISU’s Museum Interpretation Specialist, Dave Faux, share details about “Rashomon,” a traveling sculpture collection by Charles Ginnever. Over the last fifty years, Ginnever has created large-scale bronze and steel sculptures that challenge and expand visual perception. This collection, inspired by a Japanese film of the same name that also focuses on changing perceptions, consists of 15 identical pieces that can be placed in 15 distinct stable positions. By walking around the collection, each different angle creates a different perspective of the work as a whole. The collection will be on display in the courtyard of Iowa State University’s Food Science Building until July 1, 2015.*
Pianist Joel Fan talks about his upcoming performance with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra on March 7 and 8. Fan studied at Juilliard, Harvard, and the Peabody Institute of the John Hopkins University. He is widely recognized as an “exuberant” virtuoso. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras worldwide, and worked with cellist Yo-Yo Ma as a member of the Silk Road Ensemble. His program with the Quad City Symphony includes Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Gould’s Interplay for Piano and Orchestra.
University of Northern Iowa Professors of Theory and Composition, Alan Schmitz and Jonathan Schwabe, discuss the upcoming Spring New Music Festival, hosted by the Iowa Composers Forum. The festival, held on March 27 and 28, will feature new works from composers across the state. This year’s concerts coincide with composer Jake Heggie’s residency at UNI on March 26 and 27, and will interface with both the composer and performances of his works.
Composer and Coe College Professor of Music Emeritus, Jerry Owen, gives us the scoop on his 70th Birthday Celebration Concert at Sinclair Auditorium on March 8. The concert features a multitude of talented Iowa musicians performing the composer’s original works.
And co-founder and director Andre Perry discusses this year’s Mission Creek Festival in Iowa City. Now in its tenth year, the festival boasts music performances, film screenings, literary readings, comedy, cuisine, and more. This year’s artistic feast takes place between March 31 and April 5.
Tune in to the Iowa Arts Showcase on Saturday, March 7 at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Iowa Public Radio Classical. Also, we hope you'll take the time to listen to some segments from our interview last year with composer Jake Heggie. You can find these segments below.
*(Chuck Ginnever: Rashomon is a collaboration of the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, NM and Chuck Ginnever in association with Gayle Maxon-Edgerton, GME LLC. The exhibition originated at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (SJICA) San Jose, CA, with an outdoor installation at the Montalvo Arts Center, Los Gatos, CA, and is part of the SJICA On the Road Traveling Exhibition Program. The installation is presented at Iowa State with the support from the Estate of Shirley Held and is part of the University Museums 40th Anniversary Celebrations in 2015.)
