George Mason University's Center for the Arts

Huh Hwe Tae will be showing in the Mason Hall Atrium Gallery from February 15 to March 15, 2010. Tae is a calligrapher who deals with philosophical and religious themes. His show will involve a 'performance' work for the reception.

*This show may start one week earlier due to conflict with the Spring Break schedule. We apologize for any inconvenience and encourage you to check back often for any updates to the School of Art Gallery schedules.

The juried Undergraduate Exhibition will be in the Fine Arts Gallery and will be an exhibition of undergraduate student work selected by juror Sarah Tanguy. It will include works from all art disciplines.

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 25, 6 to 8PM

This show was originally scheduled for Feb. 16, 2010. Due to the inclement weather conditions during that time, we were forced to reschedule the concert.

For questions regarding tickets, please contact the Center for the Arts Box Office at 703-993-8888.

Mary L. Levkoff, "The Curator's Dilemma"

GMU PLAYERS AND THE DEPARTMENT OF THEATER
PRESENT TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’ “ORPHEUS DESCENDING”
DIRECTED BY KRISTIN JOHNSEN-NESHATI

Post-performance discussion to follow the performance on March 6 at 2 p.m. TheatreSpace

GMU Players and George Mason University’s Department of Theater present Tennessee Williams’ 1957 American classic “Orpheus Descending” at TheatreSpace on Mason’s Fairfax Campus.

“Orpheus Descending” is set in a small southern town, not far from Williams’ ancestral home of Clarksdale, Miss. The story tells the tale of Val, a young musician with a guitar, good looks and a questionable past, who wanders into a conventional small town and takes a job at a store run by a middle-aged woman named Lady, who has a past of her own and a loveless marriage with an elderly husband who is dying. Lady becomes entranced with Val and is tempted by the possibility of a new life that he seems to offer.

Underscored by mountain music and Delta Blues, this retelling of the Greek legend of the musician and poet Orpheus and his bride Eurydice tests the endurance of art, love, truth and justice through a drifting musician’s chance arrival and a townswoman’s offer to take him in.

The GMU Players ensemble is a dynamic faculty-directed, student organization within the theater department. The Mainstage Series provides students the opportunity to work directly with Mason theater faculty and guest artists, while the Studio Series is selected, directed and designed by students. The GMU Players produce eight productions each season. Director and professor Kristin Johnsen-Neshati has taught on the theater faculty of George Mason University since 1993. In addition to her work as a translator, director and writer, Johnsen-Neshati serves as dramaturg/artistic associate for Theater of the First Amendment, where she has worked on more than 30 productions and workshops. She is the recipient of the KC/ACTF Criticism Faculty Fellowship to the Critics Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and Mason's Fenwick Fellowship. She holds a B.A. in Russian and theater from Swarthmore College, and M.F.A. and D.F.A. degrees in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism from the Yale School of Drama.

Tickets are $12. ($8 For students, seniors and GMU faculty/staff)
Limited free tickets available for GMU students.
All performances are in TheatreSpace. Free parking available in adjacent surface lots on weekends, paid parking available in the Mason Pond Parking Deck. Tickets may be purchased at the door one hour prior to the performance. To purchase tickets by phone, or for directions, please contact the Center for the Arts Box Office at (703) 993-8888.

For information on group sales, please call Kimberly Schall at (703) 993-8600

For Information on the GMU Theater Department or the GMU Players, please call (703)-993-1120.

“One of the most riveting modern dance performances of the season,” says The Washington Post about this spectacular dance troupe from New Zealand. For more than ten years, Black Grace has delighted audiences across the globe with its joyous spirit, irresistible passion, and unique point of view. A fusion of traditional Pacific cultures and contemporary dance, this sensational ensemble can rock the house with thundering stomps and syncopated body slaps, or sing in sweet three-part harmonies accompanied by gestures that softly curve and sway. Never before has a group of male dancers seemed so gentle yet breathtakingly virile. “Startlingly fresh and full of invention, humor and infectious exuberance.” (The New York Times)

Single Tickets are on sale now!

Chopin the Storyteller

“Insightful and poetically interpreted, both in words and music,” The Washington Post says of this extraordinary performer. In this Keyboard Conversations® concert, Jeffrey Siegel presents three of Chopin’s Ballades: the fiery G Minor, the rhapsodic A-Flat, and the quirky F Major, as well as three Novelettes of Robert Schumann, a great romantic composer and contemporary of Chopin, whose 200th birthday we also celebrate this season. 

Single Tickets are on sale now!

Tickets available at the door.

Guest Soloists: Ryan Anthony, Barbara Butler, and Thomas Gansch

Free and open to the public.

Christopher Zimmerman, Conductor
Alon Goldstein, piano
Free ConcerTalk at 7:00 p.m., Concert begins at 8:00 p.m.

On March 13th, the FSO will present a local premiere, Avner Dorman's Piano Concerto, composed for and played by pianist Alon Goldstein, an FSO audience favorite.  The percussive nature of Dorman's composition creates its own atmosphere, which is complemented by the Borodin piece, which draws from the composer's Asian heritage.  Both pieces are enhanced by hearing them in combination with the Sibelius.

"Alon Goldstein, a young pianist with technique to spare, joined the FSO for Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3.  ... Goldstein was particularly impressive in the first movement's lyrical sections and the expansive parts of the following theme and variations.  The finale was filled with fireworks and fine rapport." – The Washington Post

BORODIN: In the Steppes of Central Asia
DORMAN: Piano Concerto *East Coast Premier*
Alon Goldstein, piano
SIBELIUS: The Lemminkäinen Legends

Alon Goldstein photo by Richard Anderson

An homage to the rich and tireless passage of the native Irish people from their homeland to the United States, nine-time All-Ireland Fiddle Champion Eileen Ivers returns to the Center with Beyond the Bog Road, a stellar collaboration of Irish and Old Time musicians, singers, step dancers, and cloggers. Ireland’s bog roads, paths into ancient sod fields led millions of immigrants from their beloved homeland to a thriving country where they passed down their musical and dance traditions through the generations. Don’t miss this celebration of Irish-American musical history featuring music, story, film, and dance, and told with Ivers’ signature passion and rootsy grace. “Ivers suggests the future of the Celtic fiddle.” (The Washington Post)

Single Tickets are on sale now!

VanLaven:
Framed as a medical waiting room in the gallery, humorous and sincere, multimedia and installation works raise issues including the cultural conception of wellness, how we perform as patients, and how spaces intended to be innocuous become charged with memory and emotion.

Sarkissian: Across the Body
This autobiographical video documents the pilgrimage to the Holy city Jerusalem. By the end of the journey, the artist marks her body with a BADGE OF PRIDE called "HAJJI TATTOO," an iconographic image tattooed on her right arm as her Armenian cultural religious heritage. And in contrast, this body project experience transcends from its traditional religiousness to become a pure form of self-narration, self-construction, and a live archive of her breathing identity.

The graduate thesis shows are required of graduating MFA students.  They are meant to tie in with a written thesis.  Students typically show recent work, which is a culmination of growth and distillation of ideas developed over their two (or more) years at GMU. Some MFA students, however, choose to show works which are an overview of all the time they've spent here.

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 18, 6 to 8 PM

GMU Student Jazz Combos.

6:00 - 7:30 pm.

Described as “powerful, dynamic and unique” by Time Out Chicago, this energetic ensemble combines athletic bodies and contemporary costumes with explosive Taiko drumming and innovative choreography for an electrifying theater experience. Though their art form is often thought of as male-dominated, TAO creates a unique allure with both male and female performers, all having undergone years of rigorous training in the ancient art of Japanese drumming to reach the highest level of virtuosity. By drawing on backgrounds as diverse as rock musicians, gymnasts, and composers, each member brings their own special flair, resulting in a young and vibrant interpretation of this traditional art form. “Extraordinarily talented…incomparable muscular zeal.” (Chicago Tribune)

Single Tickets are on sale now!

VanLaven:
Framed as a medical waiting room in the gallery, humorous and sincere, multimedia and installation works raise issues including the cultural conception of wellness, how we perform as patients, and how spaces intended to be innocuous become charged with memory and emotion.

Sarkissian: Across the Body
This autobiographical video documents the pilgrimage to the Holy city Jerusalem. By the end of the journey, the artist marks her body with a BADGE OF PRIDE called "HAJJI TATTOO," an iconographic image tattooed on her right arm as her Armenian cultural religious heritage. And in contrast, this body project experience transcends from its traditional religiousness to become a pure form of self-narration, self-construction, and a live archive of her breathing identity.

The graduate thesis shows are required of graduating MFA students.  They are meant to tie in with a written thesis.  Students typically show recent work, which is a culmination of growth and distillation of ideas developed over their two (or more) years at GMU. Some MFA students, however, choose to show works which are an overview of all the time they've spent here.

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 18, 6 to 8 PM

The Gala Concert is the Dance Company’s crowning season event. Presented in the Concert Hall and featuring live music, the program includes works by contemporary professional choreographers.

The Financial Crisis: Where It Came From and Where We Are Headed

Tyler Cowen
General Director/Professor, Economics

How—and when—did the present economic turbulence really begin? How do the actions of government, business, and the citizenry affect the larger economy for better or for worse? What do we mean when we talk about a global economy? What should we expect in the future, and how much should we actually expect to know? A noted economist (as well as food writer and art collector) offers a timely analysis of the current crisis and the possible paths forward.