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October 30, 2006
Emory Arts keeps National Humanities Month alive all year

‘Six Degrees of Separation’ playwright comes to Emory

By Paula Vitaris

Award-winning playwright John Guare will be the second author in this year’s Creative Writing Program Reading Series. Guare will speak at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 6, in the Jones Room of the Woodruff Library, preceded by a reception at 6 p.m. and followed by a book signing. This event is cosponsored by the Department of Theater Studies and the Playwriting Center at Theater Emory and is free and open to the public.

Guare’s many plays include “The House of Blue Leaves” (1971), which won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play and “Six Degrees of Separation” (1990), which won an Obie Award, The New York Drama Critics Circle Award and London’s Olivier Award for Best Play, and became a film in 1993. His screenplays include “Taking Off” and the Oscar-nominated “Atlantic City.”

“The confused, poignant monologues of these touchingly lost characters have made actors adore Guare,” Theater Studies Associate Professor Michael Evenden said. “But his plays are more than character studies: they are famous for their freewheeling structure. He is drawn to moments of historical transition and changes in mores. His dialogue scenes are often many-voiced and multi-layered, always uncanny and unpredictable. Typically, the characters drift past each other and the ostensible subjects of conversation, so that their intentions and desires seem to float out of the bounds of their will, making their scenes quirky, crazy, humorous, frustrating, pathetic, even tragic.” For more information call 404-727-4683 or visit www.creativewriting.emory.edu/series/index.html.

Ukrainian father-daughter team to perform at Schwartz

By Nancy Condon

Not many 14-year-olds get to travel across the globe to perform in concert, but on Nov. 5 at 4 p.m. in the Schwartz Center’s Emerson Concert Hall, Ukrainian concert pianist Viktoriya Koshuba will join her father, organist Volodymyr Koshuba, on stage. In this free concert, Volodymyr Koshuba will perform an organ passacaglia of Dimitri Shostakovich, transcriptions of Tchaikovsky, a work by Borodin and an organ arrangement of Mussorgsky’s “Great Gate of Kiev!” The program will conclude with an organ and piano duet composed by Alexandre Guilmant, and the artist will be joined by Viktoriya.

Now on his 11th tour of the United States, Koshuba has a growing international reputation for his musical and artistic performances as a concert organist. He began his career playing the piano, and once served as pianist for the Kiev State Philharmonic Orchestra. He has many credits to his name, including being elected a member of the Italian Music Academy. In 1988 he was awarded the title “Honored Artist” of the Ukraine, and has been named an honorary citizen of Kyoto, Japan. He has served as chief organist at the Kiev Concert Hall since 1981 and has performed extensively in Europe, North America, South America and Japan.

Daughter Viktoriya has studied music since she was five years old, and is touted as one of the top pianists under the age of 20. In 2002, she was awarded the Grand Prix in international competitions in Italy and France. She has taken an active part in her father’s concerts in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities. In 2004, she played under the French conductor Jean-Mari LeRoy in Chernovtsy, Ukraine. In 2004 and 2005, Viktoriya performed with her father in Chicago, Rochester, N.Y., Pittsburgh and Miami.

Cellist Beiser to perform at Schwartz

By Nancy Condon

On Nov. 4 at 8 p.m., cellist Maya Beiser will explore the “almost human” range of sounds of the cello with compositions inspired by the vocal traditions of Renaissance madrigals; traditional Cambodian, Chinese and Taiwanese minority singing; women chanters of Morocco; Jewish cantorial music; and Indian ritual singing. The multimedia piece and concert highlight, “I Am Writing to You From a Far-off Country,” will be performed by Beiser. The piece is based on a poem by surrealist Henri Michaux and features the music of Eve Beglarian and a movie by Shirin Neshat. The performance is at the Schwartz Center’s Emerson Concert Hall and tickets are $15 for the general public, $10 for Emory faculty and staff, and free for students.

Beiser also will give a lecture and contemporary music demonstration on Nov. 3 at 4 p.m. at the Schwartz Center’s Rehearsal Hall. The event is free and open to the public, and will conclude with a pizza party.

For more information on the arts at Emory call 404-727-5050 or visit www.arts.emory.edu.

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