New dean to perform at Collage Concert

Kansas University’s School of Music will usher in the new school year with the 11th annual Collage Concert. This year’s concert will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Lied Center, KU’s West Campus.

The Collage Concert is an opportunity for the community to come out and experience the full-range of talents of KU music faculty and students. This year’s event will welcome the new Dean of Music, Robert Walzel, to campus. Dr. Walzel, who joins the University of Kansas from the University of Utah School of Music, will also perform at this year’s concert. The program includes:

“Excerpt from Scheherazade” by Rimsky-Korsakov, performed by Lukasz Lagun on violin and the KU Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Professor David Neely.

“Danny Boy,” performed by the Chamber Singers, conducted by Paul Tucker.

“Tico Tico,” by Zequinha de Abreu, performed by the KU Trumpet Ensemble, Clint Ashlock as soloist.

“Within …” by Ian Clarke, performed by the KU Flute Choir, David Fedele, director.

Concerto for Clarinet by Artie Shaw, performed by the KU Jazz Ensemble I, directed by Dan Gailey, featuring Dean Robert Walzel on clarinet.

Tickets for the concert are $15 general admission and $10 for seniors and students.

Following the concert will be a ticketed fundraising reception in the Seymour Gallery of the Lied Center. Tickets to the reception are $75 (includes entry into the concert), and proceeds will go to the School of Music Student Opportunity Fund. Call the Dean’s Office at 864-3422.

Book group will study Middle East, immigration

Two four-part book discussion groups are scheduled at the Lawrence Public Library this fall, and registration is open now for both.

The Middle East is an area of the world that is much in the news, but little known and less understood by most Americans. This book group is an opportunity for readers to get to know some parts of the Middle East a little better. The group will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesdays in the Library Gallery.

Sept. 28: “Persepolis,” by Marjane Satrapi: A graphic novel telling the author’s own story of life in Iran at the time of the Shah’s overthrow.

Oct. 12: “The Yacoubian Building,” by Alaa Al Aswany: A novel by an Egyptian author, about the very diverse inhabitants of a run-down building in Cairo.

Oct. 26: “The Israelis,” by Donna Rosenthal: Written by a journalist who conducted extensive interviews with people representing a broad cross-section of Israeli society.

Nov. 9: “My Prison, My Home,” by Haleh Esfandiari: Author relates how a trip to Iran to visit her elderly mother ended in imprisonment and an international incident.

The second group features four novels about American immigrants in the second half of the 20th century. This group will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesdays on alternate weeks from the Middle East group.

Oct. 6: “Breath. Eyes. Memory,” by Edwidge Danticat: Story of a 12-year-old Haitian girl who comes to New York to live with her mother, whom she has never met.

Oct. 20: “Typical American,” by Gish Jen: Three Chinese immigrants come to New York to escape the Communist Revolution, and become “typical Americans.”

Nov. 3: “Caramelo,” by Sandra Cisneros: Family secrets are revealed in this story of Mexican immigrants in Chicago, with flashbacks to the Mexican Civil War.

Nov. 17: “Harbor,” by Lorraine Adams: An Algerian stowaway arrives in New York and is swept up in the illegal activities of his shady cousin and other Arab immigrants.

Registration is required if you wish to borrow a set of books from the Library. Call 843-3833, ext. 123, or e-mail mbutler@lawrence.lib.ks.us.

KU musicology professor publishes book

Paul Laird, Kansas University professor of musicology, recently published a book titled “The Chichester Psalms of Leonard Bernstein.” The book appeared in the “Sourcebooks in American Music” series from the College Music Society and Pendragon Press.

Director of the Musicology Division from 2000 to 2009, Laird has taught at Kansas University since 1994 after previous experience at Binghamton University and University of Denver. He holds a doctorate in music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests include the Spanish and Latin American villancico, Leonard Bernstein, the Broadway musical, and early string instruments.

Call the KU School of Music at 864-3436.

African objects on display at Spencer

A new exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art brings together an array of African objects from the collections of the Spencer and the Kauffman Museum, Bethel College, in conjunction with an international conference at KU. “African Healing Journeys: Historical & Contemporary Responses to Disease” is on view through Oct. 3 in the Raymond White Teaching Gallery.

The installation represents a further Spencer collaboration with KU faculty supported by the Museum’s Andrew W. Mellon academic programs initiative. African Healing Journeys was curated by KU anthropology professor John Janzen and was featured in the programming for The Kansas African Studies Center’s Sept. 17-18 conference “Medical Anthropology in Global Africa: Current Trends in Scholarship and Practice,” at The Commons at Spooner Hall. The exhibition draws from Janzen’s joint exhibition project with Prof. Lee Cassanelli, the University of Pennsylvania, for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology.

Raven announces upcoming events

The Raven Bookstore has two events planned for readers. “Big Tent: Stories and Poems in Three Acts,” will feature Priscilla Howe, storytelling; Chloe Cooper Jones, fiction, and Gary Lechliter, poetry. The event will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at the bookstore, 6 E. Seventh St.

Barbara Stuber, Kansas City-based author of “Crossing the Tracks,” will give a reading at 7 p.m. Sept. 29 at the bookstore. “Crossing the Tracks” is about a 15-year-old, Iris, hired out as a housekeeper and companion for a country doctor’s elderly mother in rural Missouri, too far from her only friend, Leroy, and too close to a tenant farmer, Cecil Deets, who menaces the neighbors and, Iris suspects, his own daughter.