Emory Report
July 20, 2009
Volume 61, Number 35




   

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July 20, 2009
Summer brings change of scene for Emory artists

By Jessica Moore

Lights are dimmed for summer in Emory performance spaces, but arts faculty are at work on local and international creative projects. Here are just a few examples:

Timothy McDonough, associate professor, Theater Studies, is juggling three roles with Georgia Shakespeare. He plays Egeus and Snout in Shakespeare’s romantic comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (closing July 31), Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams’ classic Southern drama “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (closing Aug. 1), and Marcus Andronicus in Shakespeare’s chilling “Titus Andronicus” (closing Aug. 2). Tickets/ information: www.gashakespeare.org.



William Ransom, Mary Emerson Professor of Piano, Music Department, doubles as artistic director of the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival (July 5–Aug. 9). For its 28th season the festival features the Eroica Trio, Biava Quartet and Vega String Quartet. Ransom says: “I look forward every summer to the HCCMF, and not just for the music — the mountains are incredibly beautiful, there are great restaurants, film series, galleries, golf...paradise! I encourage everyone to come up to the area for a weekend, or the whole summer.” Information: www.h-cmusicfestival.org.



Richard Prior
, director, orchestral studies, Music Department, premiered an original composition and a new transcription in June at the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. As music director and conductor of the Rome (Ga.) Symphony Orchestra, Prior led the orchestra in a concert featuring euphonium soloist, Adam Frey. He conducted Ukraine’s National Symphony Orchestra in Odessa recording several works including Nicola Resanovic’s “Collateral Damage,” a concerto for clarinet and orchestra dedicated to civilian victims of war. In Oporto, Portugal, he heard a performance of his work “The Darkening Land” that was selected for the International Clarinet Association’s conference.



George Staib, senior lecturer, Dance Program, traveled with his company StaibDance to Houston this June to perform in the 7th annual Big Range Dance Festival at the Barnevelder Theatre. Staib was interviewed on KUHF, Houston’s NPR affiliate. Neil Ellis Orts of Dance Source Houston, wrote “the company proved to be highly skilled dancers…and showed a strong command of a diverse movement vocabulary.” Staib traveled to San Francisco for the American College Dance Festival Association’s national board meeting. He will perform in New York with Atlanta’s Gathering Wild Dance Company and will return to rehearse three new pieces with StaibDance for a January premiere at 7 Stages here in Atlanta.



Diane Kempler, senior lecturer, Visual Arts Department, participated in a two-and-a-half-month residency at Guldagergaard, an international ceramic research center in Denmark, with 10–15 international ceramicists at work on individual projects in a communal setting. Kempler’s work concentrates on her impressions from her recent research in India. She has traveled to Copenhagen several times for museum visits and reports spending non-working hours taking tai chi and meditation classes, walking and eating chocolate.



To read about more of the summer activities of the arts faculty, including Pat Miller’s theater study abroad in Oxford, UK; Leslie Taylor’s set design for “Blood Knot” (Theatrical Outfit, through Aug. 2); Gary Motley’s jazz performance (Callanwolde, July 31); Greg Catellier at Bates Dance Festival, Maine (July 3–Aug. 10); Anna Leo’s new choreography; Sally Radell’s dance paper presentation; Lori Teague with Moving in the Spirit; Linda Armstrong’s residency in Berlin; Julia Kjelgaard’s year in France; Jason Francisco’s photography and Bill Brown’s video and new media projects, visit www.arts.emory.edu/about/artist.

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