The Cypress String Quartet will present a concert Wednesday featuring the works of Felix Mendelssohn.

“A Celebration of Mendelssohn” commemorates the composer’s 200th birth year. It will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Lied Center.

The program features “Lento Assai,” an original work by emerging young composer Kevin Puts. The new piece, co-commissioned by the Lied Center, the Library of Congress, the Cypress String Quartet and the Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center, is an inspired “response” to Mendelssohn’s first and Beethoven’s last string quartets. The program also consists of Felix Mendelssohn’s “String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 13,” Kevin Puts’ “Lento Assai” and Ludwig van Beethoven’s “String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135.”

Featuring Cecily Ward and Tom Stone on violin, Ethan Filner on viola and Jennifer Kloetzel on cello, the Cypress String Quartet is known for innovative and precise performances. Together, the quartet performs more than 90 concerts each year throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Stanford Lively Arts, Krannert Center and Ravinia Festival.

While in Lawrence, the Cypress String Quartet will conduct residency activities with elementary and high school students.

Asian video show opens at Spencer

An exhibit that opened Friday at the Spencer Museum of Art at Kansas University assembles recent works by video artists working in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Afghanistan.

The works share a common interest in the meaning of ordinary, day-to-day lives in Asia.

“Extra/Ordinary: Video Art from Asia” investigates new ways of transforming familiar experiences and daily routines into moments of expanded meaning, contemplation and humorous reflection.

The exhibition, organized by Asian art curator Kris Imants Ercums, runs through Feb. 14, 2010.

“Together, these artists uncover the potential of daily experience and explore the material stuff of the world as mutable and laden with potential,” Ercums says.

Library displays Kansas stories

A Kansas Humanities Council project that explores what it means to be a Kansan will be on display through Nov. 27 at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt.

“Kansans Tell Their Stories” includes the tales of stories exploring the orphan trains, Garden City’s Vietnamese community, Topeka’s Mexican community and the railroad, Volga-German heritage in Collyer, African immigrants in northeast Kansas, Shawnee’s Belgian community, Wichita’s El Huerache neighborhood and Fort Scott’s African-American heritage.

For five years, the Kansas Humanities Council has supported special “Kansans Tell Their Stories” projects. Many, like those in this exhibit, involved conducting oral histories and researching community heritage.

“These stories from across the state were researched and written by local community organizations,” said Julie Mulvihill, executive director of the Kansas Humanities Council. “Together, they inspire curiosity about our past and really get us thinking about our own histories.”

Trio to perform commissioned works

Allegresse, a Lawrence-based trio, will present a concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Swarthout Recital Hall in Kansas University’s Murphy Hall.

The trio is comprised of Annie Gnojek on flute, Margaret Marco on oboe and Ellen Bottorff on piano.

The trio will perform works commissioned for a tour, supported by a recent grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. New works include those by Gebriela Lena Frank, Kip Haaheim, Ingrid Stolzel and Brian Nelson.

The concert is free and open to the public.

Orchestra to play Halloween concert

Halloween will be the theme of an “All Hallow’s Eve” concert performed by the Kansas University Symphony Orchestra this week.

The concert will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Lied Center.

The concert will feature works by Gustav Holst, Engelbert Humperdinck, Hector Berlioz, Paul Dukas, Camille Saint-Saëns, Richard Wagner and Modest Mussorgsky, with the orchestra decked out in Halloween attire.

“This concert promises to be a fun, family-friendly event,” says David Neely, the orchestra’s conductor. “We strongly encourage everyone, especially kids, to come wearing Halloween costumes.”

Tickets are $7 for the public and $5 for students and seniors.

Novelist to discuss morality in writing

An author from the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota will speak on, “Morality and Cultural Literacy: What Role Does Morality Play in Writing Culture?” this week at Kansas University.

David Treuer will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union. His most recent novel, “The Translation of Dr. Apelles: A Love Story,” was named a best book of the year by The Washington Post, Time Out and City Pages in 2006. His previous novels were “The Hiawatha” and “Little.”

Treuer is the 2009 John F. Eberhardt Memorial Lecturer. The program is sponsored by the KU department of English.

New choir director opens tenure at Baker

Baker University’s new choral director will present his first concert this week.

Matthew Potterton, who took over the director responsibilities from John Buehler this semester, will direct the “Fall Choral Concert,” featuring performances by the Women’s Choir, Chamber Singers and Concert Choir.

The conert is at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at First United Methodist Church, 704 Eighth St. in Baldwin City.

Tickets on sale soon for Sedaris appearance

Tickets go on sale soon for David Sedaris’ appearance at the Lied Center.

Tickets are on sale Nov. 2 for Friends of the Lied and are on sale Nov. 16 for the public.

Sedaris, best known for hosting Public Radio International’s “This American Life,” will speak at 7:30 p.m. April 24 at the Lied Center. Tickets are $38 for adults and $19 for students and youth, and will be available by calling 864-2787, at the Lied Center box office or by visiting www.lied.ku.edu.