Jeanette Colby, the University calendar editor, offers a selection of events and activities to check out this weekend. Browse, discover, and share upcoming events on the University Events Calendar by logging in with your University NetID. The calendar features a variety of events at all campuses, including the River Campus, Eastman School, Memorial Art Gallery, and Medical Center.
#1: Learn about the ‘aesthetics of idleness’
The 12th annual Visual and Cultural Studies Graduate Conference on “Rest and the Rest Aesthetics of Idleness,” will kick off with a keynote on Friday, April 12. Jean Ma, associate professor of art and art history at Stanford University, will give the talk “The Somnophile’s Guide to the Cinema” at 5 p.m. in the Humanities Center Conference Room D, Rush Rhees Library. The conference is hosted by the Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies and is organized by PhD students Amanda Ju and Madeline Ullrich. The conference is free, open to the public, and continues on Saturday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Humanities Center. Ma’s talk will highlight themes of the conference as she “explores films that make use of what typically gets left out (or simply cut) from a film’s storyline: sleep,” says Ullrich, conference cochair.
#2: Hear the Chamber Orchestra play in Rochester historic building
The University’s Chamber Orchestra will make its debut at St. Luke and Simon Cyrene “Two Saints Church” on Saturday, April 13. A landmark and one of Rochester’s oldest public buildings, the special musical program is tailored to relate to its history and space. The program features a performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s overture to “The Song of Hiawatha,” and Camille Saint-Saens’ “Symphony No. 3,” which will be performed by Naomi Gregory, director of music at St. Luke. The concert will also feature performances by Valerie Montague ‘19 and Emily Loose ’21, both winners of the Music Department’s 2018-19 River Campus Concerto Competition. The church is located at 17 South Fitzhugh Street in Rochester begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
#3: Spend an art-filled evening at the museum
The exhibition 1969 Turns 50—a display of diverse works linked by the year of their creation, 1969—opens at the Memorial Art Gallery on Friday, April 12. Spend an evening at the museum as it offers several things to do for “$5 Friday,” an event that features art, entertainment, and discounts at the museum store. Take part in Art Social for $20, beginning at 6:15 p.m., and make art you can bring home. After Hours A Capella will perform in the Vanden Brul Pavilion from 6 to 8 p.m. Get dinner and drinks at Brown Hound Downtown from 5 to 7 p.m., and take advantage of happy hour specials including $5 wine or beer and a $5 signature appetizer.
#4: Watch new works by student composers and choreographers
The Program of Dance and Movement will present “Spring Explorations and Experimental Dances (S.E.E.D.)” on Saturday and Sunday, April 13 and 14. The spring program features collaborative premiers between student dance choreographers and Eastman composers as well as an original work by the renowned choreographer David Dorfman. “The dance we’ve made together is full of optimism that points to our expectations of one another, as if to ask why can’t we honor our neighbors as we do ourselves?” explains Dorfman, founder and artistic director of David Dorfman Dance. “Aside from these large real world dilemmas, the dance is populated by quotidian gestures and exaggerated movements. Which can be both humorous and poignant as they point to our daily foibles as people on this planet.” Tickets are $5 for the general public and available at the Common Market at Wilson Commons or at the door. Free tickets for Rochester undergraduate students are sponsored by the Institute for the Performing Arts. Performances start at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Spurrier Dance Studio on the River Campus.
#5: Get a seat for renowned music theater competition
The Lotte Lenya Competition is Saturday, April 13, at Eastman School of Music’s Kilbourn Hall. Thirteen performers from across the United States will sing an operatic aria, two songs from American musical theater, and a selection by German composer Kurt Weill. The performances will be judged by a panel three-person jury, including Ute Gfrerer, Austrian singer and actor; Adam Benzwi, opera and musical theater performer; and Mark Lamos, artistic director of Westport Country Playhouse. The top three winners will take home prizes of $20,000, $15,000, and $10,000. The finalists will present his or her full programs during the daytime round, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. An evening concert, in which contestants sing only a portion of their programs, follows at 8 p.m. Events are free to attend, no tickets required. In addition, both the daytime finals and the evening concert will be streamed live from Kilbourn Hall at https://www.esm.rochester.edu/live/kilbourn/.
