The arts at Brown
are alive and thriving! Look here for information on
CAC events, or use the links at the left to see what is happening around campus.

Martinos Auditorium, 2pm - 3pm, February 28th, 2013:

Stephen Drury talks about his experience working with Cage, previews clips of the evening’s program, and talks about Cage, now and into the future.

Martinos Auditorium, 8pm - 10pm, February 28th, 2013:

Stephen Drury performs a solo concert with the program to include Music for Piano, In a Landscape, and Etudes Australes Book III.

This concert is free but ticket registration is required. Registration will end on February 28 at 4:30 p.m.

Part of the Music Department's two-day residency with pianist Stephen Drury entitled “100 Years, and Still Counting: Cage Centenary”.

Throughout the past year, people from around the world have celebrated John Cage's 100th birthday in various formats: full-fledged music/arts festivals, concerts, workshops, master classes, and lectures, in professional and casual venues, universities, and every day locations. Over the course of that year, people have collectively shared their experiences, ranging from that first Cage discovery in a practice room, to working closely with the composer himself and becoming a life-long friend and collaborator. Many people have developed unique relationships with and to John Cage, whether personal, creative, or both. One such person happens to be one of John Cage's favorite pianists, Stephen Drury, who worked closely with Cage in performing and recording seminal works. An active pianist and conductor, Stephen Drury is a Cage devotee and has become one of the leading Cage interpreters of our time.

Pianist and conductor Stephen Drury has performed throughout the world with a repertoire that stretches from Bach to Liszt to the music of today. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Barbican Centre and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus. A champion of contemporary music, he has taken the sound of dissonance into remote corners of Pakistan, Greenland and Montana. Drury has worked closely with many of the leading composers of our time, including Cage, Ligeti, Rzewski, Reich, Messiaen, Zorn, Berio, Lachenmann, Wolff, Harvey, Finnissy, and Hyla. Drury has recorded the music of Cage, Carter, Ives, Stockhausen, Zorn and Rzewski, as well as works of Liszt and Beethoven. He is artistic director and conductor of the Callithumpian Consort, and he created and directs the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at New England Conservatory where he is on the piano faculty.

Sponsored by the Creative Arts Council and the Music Department.

Award-winning artists Lisa D’Amour, Katie Pearl and Shawn Hall contemplate an urban-dweller’s relationship with nature, creation, and destruction in an eight-hour installation, How to Build A Forest, presented twice at Brown’s Granoff Center: February 27 and 28, 2013 from 2pm-10pm.

Wandering through the brightly-illuminated and multicolored trees of the hybrid art installation How to Build a Forest, the ethereal and beautiful forest seems inspired by a fairy tale, rather than one of the worst natural disasters in American history. But throughout the course of the eight-hour creation and then systematic dismantling of the fabricated forest, the members of the collaborative team PearlDamour + Shawn Hall, remind us that even when we live in cities we are tied to the fragile natural world in intimate and devastating ways.

How to Build A Forest, was conceived in response to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, where the artists are based.  It begins on an empty stage, where over the course of 6 1/2 hours D’Amour, Pearl, Hall and their team of builders obsessively work to construct an exquisite, fake, fabric forest. Audiences are invited to come and go at any point during the build, and can observe the action from seats outside of the project, or from within the forest itself. Audiences are also able to interact with helpful forest rangers who offer guidance, and will encounter other choreographed elements and quiet spectacles that come together to create this temporary, living ecosystem. The completed forest exists for only 30 minutes; after that time deconstruction begins and in just one hour the forest is cleared and the space is empty once more.

Obie Award-winning PearlDamour is the interdiscipinary performance-making duo Katie Pearl  (nationally recognized director and current Brown MFA student) and Lisa D'Amour (Pulitzer Prize nominated playwright). Shawn Hall is a nationally exhibited painter and installation artist.

How to Build a Forest is sponsored by Brown’s Creative Arts Council and the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. The installation is free and open to the public. All ages are encouraged to attend.

The fundamental qualities embodied in the act of ‘making’ are a challenge to empathize with ‘others’ different from us.  This public talk will focus on ‘making’ as empathic conversation.  7pm, Martinos Auditorium.

5pm in Martinos Auditorium: Lecture by Filmmaker Randy Olson:

"Climate Skeptics: They're Here, They're Queer, Get Used to Them"

6pm in Martinos Auditorium: Panel Discussion featuring: 

• Stephen Porder, Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Amanda Lynch, Professor of Geological Sciences
• Wendy Abrams, Founder of Cool Globes

6:45pm in the lower lobby: reception

7pm in Martinos Auditorium: screening of "Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy"

written by Randy Olson and Ifeanyi Njoku and directed by Randy Olson

The film "Sizzle" is a hybrid of three genres -- mockumentary, documentary and reality. While initially met with a wave of disapproval by many in the science community (with comments like, "There's no place for comedy with such a serious issue") it received solid praise in the film community -- Variety called it, "An exceedingly clever vehicle for making science engaging," Cinemasource called it, "Brilliant filmmaking," and the Arizona Daily Star says it's, "Laugh out loud" funny.

As a mockumentary, the movie is about a scientist-turned-filmmaker (Randy Olson) trying to make a documentary about global warming that features his beloved scientists, but the only sources of funding he can find are two flaky Hollywood producers who want the host of the film to be someone like Tom Cruise (not a scientist, but a Scientologist and, "most people don't know the difference"). The movie was criticized in part for allowing a number of climate skeptics to speak on camera. But after the November, 2009 attack on climate science (dubbed "Climategate") the film, while still being solidly pro-science, turns out to be one of the only places where you can hear the voices of both sides of the climate controversy, thus making for a popular evening of viewing and discussion.

East Coast Taiko Conference is the gathering of all taiko players to celebrate their love for taiko, share their diverse skills and styles, facilitate collaborations, attend workshops, learn and strengthen the East Coast taiko community.

The conference was started in 2011, hosted by Yamatai in Cornell University. Over 100 students from taiko teams of universities across the region congregated for a weekend of taiko workshops, discussion sessions, and performances. Last year, Kaze hosted the Eastern Taiko Conference in Wesleyan University. More taiko lovers came together to share the same passion and build on the relationship. This year, Gendo from Brown University will help and continue to foster the taiko community on the East Coast.

Please join us at Brown University on Friday, February 1st – Sunday, February 3rd, 2013!

Brown's Middle East Studies sponsors Maestro Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra Panel Discussion and Social Event on January 25. The Discussion is entitled "Harmony & Dissonance: The Arab-Israeli conflict through Music and Academic discourse."

7pm, Martinos Auditorium
Free and Open to Brown Community only. 
Please register for this event on Middle East Studies Website: mes.watsoninstitute.org

Space is limited so attendance will be granted on a first-come first-served basis only.

'Full', the 5th annual Brown-RISD Dual Degree exhibition will be on display throughout the Granoff Center from January 18th to February 13th, 2013.  There will be an opening reception on January 24th, 2013 from 7pm - 10pm.  

Students from the Communicating Science Through Visual Media course, taught by Steve Subotnick and John Stein, will screen videos created throughout the semester, and will be on hand to talk about their work.  

12.12.12 at 4pm in Kooper Studio

Todd Winkler's Digital Performance class will host their Final Concert at 8pm in Studio 1 on December 11th, 2012.  The course is a production seminar examining the artistic impact and creative potential of digital media in the context of live performance.