A quartet of Boston musicians, proudly featuring in their ranks Brandeis music professor and Lydian String Quartet violinist Daniel Stepner, performed a charming collection of beloved classic songs before a lively and appreciative audience in the Slosberg Recital Hall last Saturday night.
So many of us live in fear of being too "out there." It's safer to keep doing the same things we've always done, leaving others to push boundaries and take the risks-and the world of classical music is not exempt from this compulsion.Fortunately for concert-goers, there are musicians like Arum Chun '08, whose commitment to century-spanning music proved her artistic courage Saturday in the Slosberg Recital Hall, and whose skillful musicianship and deep understanding of her program made sense out of what, in less sensitive hands, might have sounded like simple noise.Chun opened her junior recital daringly, selecting a piece by Arnold Schienberg, considered by some to be the father of atonal music.
Brandeis' Slosberg recital hall is covered with photos of musicians and their instruments-a trumpet here, a violin there-but most passersby who see them never guess that the building also contains virtuoso players of such unconventional instruments as the lute, the vielle and, most obscurely, the rauschpfeiff, a 400-year-old ancestor of the bassoon.
The audience was whooping, whistling, cheering and screaming at the top of their lungs, blowing kisses to the backup dancers and dancing to the rhythm of a chest-thudding bass beat.
When asked if her 25 years at Brandeis have taught her any life lessons she'd like to share, Prof.
3 StarsDirected by Christopher GuestStarring Catherine O'Hara, Ed Begley Jr., Eugene Levy, Fred Willard and Jane LynchThe pivotal scene in For Your Consideration, a slight little comedy about what happens when a dreadful movie gets some undeserved Oscar buzz, features two studio executives taking over a production while promising to not change "the theme of the movie." The perplexed producer, played by Jennifer Coolidge, asks in bemusement, "What is the theme?" I couldn't have put it better myself.For Your Consideration wants to spoof Hollywood, especially the circus surrounding awards season.
4 starsDirected by Christopher NolanStarring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Scarlett JohanssonThe Prestige, the latest deliciously dark film from director Christopher Nolan, is one of those movies you wish would never end.
"What can literature really do?" In a world often plagued with racism, sexism and narrow minds, "is there any way in which art can give us some of these answers?" These were the questions posed by Prof.
Directed by Amy BergFor the first five minutes of Deliver Us From Evil, Amy Berg's new documentary about the recent sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, the camera never shows Father Oliver O'Grady's face.
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady4 Stars"How many of you want to be those who will give up your lives for Jesus?" Minister Becky Fischer asks in Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's new documentary Jesus Camp.
Over 180,000 people rally in Boston Common for March 28 "No Kings" protest
Brandeis Public Safety dispels circulating ICE vehicle rumors
A seat at the table: inside the ICC's "Be Curious Dinner"
Re/Chic: Threading together clothing and community
Professors discuss possibility of nuclear disarmament amid high political tensions