UW News

April 18, 2013

Arts Roundup: Drama, art — and a student-run jazz festival

UW News

Robin McCabe, left, and Rachelle McCabe will perform together April 24 in Meany Hall.

Robin McCabe, left, and Rachelle McCabe will perform together April 24 in Meany Hall.Adam Davis

This week, the School of Drama offers an ensemble-created Western, School of Music professor Robin McCabe and sister Rachelle McCabe perform solo and duo works for piano, and jazzman Bill Frisell visits for the fifth-annual IMPfest. All this, plus Grammy-winner Lila Downs comes to Meany Hall. Maybe T.S. Eliot had it wrong and April is really the coolest month.

Modern Music Ensemble, 7:30 p.m., April 18. The ensemble, also known as Inverted Space, performs a program of works by Elliott Carter, Tristan Murail, Giacinto Scelsi and Arnold Schoenberg. Part of the Music of Today series, in Meany Hall. Tickets are $12-$20. 206-543-4880.

Play: “Once Upon a Time 6X in the West,” 7:30 p.m., through April 28.  Director Jeffrey Fracé views The Western through a series of theatrical lenses iconic in their own right, all created by the ensemble of actors. The play is divided into six sections, each devoted to a theater director. Advance notes say, “The ensemble delves below the surface of every ‘style’ to uncover the director’s process.” Presented by the School of Drama in the Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse. 2 p.m. matinees April 21 and 28. Tickets are $10-$20.

Symposium – Global Health and the Arts, noon-6 p.m., April 20. The final event of Global Health Week, exploring the intersection of global health and the arts – dance, photography, cinema, theater and music. Learn more online and read a UW Today article about the event, held in the auditorium of the William H. Foege Genome Science Building.

Lila Downs will perform in Meany Hall on April 20.

Lila Downs will perform in Meany Hall on April 20.

Lila Downs, 8 p.m., April 20. Downs will bring her dramatic and unique reinventions of traditional Mexican music and original compositions fused with blues, jazz, soul and African roots to Meany Hall. She won a 2013 Grammy Award for her album “Pecados y Milagros,” which The New York Times called “sleek modern Mexican pop with a thrilling, chameleonic voice at its center.” Tickets are $34-$38, $20 for students. A pre-show conversation begins at 7:10 p.m. Presented by the UW World Series.

Lecture: Sculptor Dan Webb, 6 p.m., April 23. A free presentation in the Ceramic Arts Building by a visiting sculptor. Learn more about Webb and his work at his website.

Faculty recital: Robin McCabe with Rachelle McCabe, 7:30 p.m., April 24. The UW professor of piano joins her sister, head of the piano program at Oregon State University, in an evening of solo and duo pieces for piano in Meany Hall that will feature works by Chopin, Debussy, Ravel and Rachmaninoff. Tickets are $20, $12 for students. 206-543-4880.

Improvised Music Project’s IMPfest V, April 24-27. An annual student-organized festival that pairs local musicians with some of the world’s top performers in a series of concerts at the School of Music and the Chapel Performance Space in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood. This year will feature performances by guitarist Bill Frisell with drummer Ted Poor; Cuong Vu, UW associate professor of jazz studies, with students; and Grammy-winning bassist Eric Revis together with Poor, Vu and  students. Poor and Frisell also will conduct workshops with students on April 24 and 25 that are open to the public. Find more details and a complete schedule online.

David Brody

David Brody

David Brody in concert, 7 p.m., April 25. Brody, a UW art professor, is also a lifelong singer-songwriter who has performed with such talents as Pete Seeger, Jay Ungar and Vassar Clements and on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” He will perform at Soulfood Books and Café, 15748 Redmond Way in Redmond. Tickets are $10, $5 for students. Learn more about Brody’s music at his website.

  • Next week: The UW Wind Ensemble and symphonic bands, together again.