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In The Limelight For March 22, 2011: Local Arts News

Here's a look at what's in the limelight for the week of March 21, 2011 in local arts news.

A New Medium For Jacobs School Musicians



The YouTube Symphony Orchestra is a changing group of musicians from all over the world who gathered together last week for their third annual series of live performances broadcast via YouTube to millions of viewers worldwide. For the second year in a row, the group boasted two members of Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music: This year, bassist Matt Gray and violist Caroline Gilbert joined the 101-member orchestra, whose players, chosen from 33 countries, also included a number of Jacobs School alumni. The week of concerts was taped at the Sydney Opera House, and was conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. Its final program, which was broadcast Sunday at 5 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, included work by Benjamin Britten, Stravinsky, and a work commissioned especially for the occasion by the composer Mason Bates.



First Poetry Reading For Indiana Review



On Friday this week, Indiana University's literary journal, the Indiana Review, invites three renowned poets from around the country to read their work, in the first installment of the Blue Light Reading Series: Steve Scafidi of West Virginia, Erika Meitner of Montgomery, Virginia, and Curtis Bower, who will travel from Texas for the event. It's a project that's been long in the works for the thirty-year-old journal, which is recognized as one of the best in the country.

  • To find out more about the event and listen to an audio clip of Erika Meitner reading one of her poems, visit the Indiana Review online.


Indianapolis Museum Of Art's Installation Commission



The Indianapolis Museum of Art has commissioned the artist William Lamson to create a sculpture and sound installation in its entrance pavilion, as part of the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion series, for which a new installation is mounted every six months. Lamson's piece, which will be on display from April to August, will transform a former communications tower into a receptor of radio signals from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The signals will then be transformed into a series of vibrations, which will resonate throughout the pavilion. William Lamson is known for his environmental work; for a previous piece last year, he used a large, rolling lens to melt a dry lake bed in the Mojave desert in the path of the rising and setting sun.

  • For more information about Lamson's installation in Indy, read the IMA's press release.


World Language Festival Brings Together Disparate Cultures



IU's second annual World Language Festival is just around the corner. On Saturday, April 9, faculty, graduates, undergraduates, parents and community members will convene in Ballantine Hall for an afternoon of communication in more than thirty different languages. Presentations will include a presentation of African dance, instruction in Arabian song, a demonstration of French body language, and craft workshops in origami and Ukranian Easter egg painting. The event is free and open to the public. Attendees needn't speak another language, but while there, they'll have the opportunity to learn to speak or sing in a variety of different tongues, from Estonian to Kiswahili to Wolof.



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