Check out this video about The Intersection of Classical & Jazz Keyboard Festival and Competiton, put together by WVU Extended Learning.

Four sculptures from WVU will be exhibited on the grounds of Kentuck Knob during their Jazz After Hours event on Saturday, May 5 at 6:00pm. Enjoy the After Hours Tour of Kentuck Knob, then relax on the patio and terrace and enjoy the West Virginia Jazz ensemble for a truly unique experience. Tickets are $80 a person and include a tour of Kentuck Knob, its sculpture garden and grounds, wine and hors d’oeuvres. Tickets for the event must be purchased in advance by Saturday, April 28. Availability is limited.

Tickets are available through Fallingwater’s website or by calling 724-329-1901 and selecting option 1.

Student Ambassador Dallas Wright attended the recent WVU Symphony Orchestra concert on April 19, which closed the 2011-2012 season with a program of vibrant, exciting dance-inspired music from Mexico, Russia, Spain, and France, as well as rock and roll by WVU’s rock cello group, “Trio.”

The program also featured “Polovtsian Dances” by Alexander Borodin, Maurice Ravel’s exquisite “Pavane” and “Three Spanish Dances” by Enrique Granados, and the stunning finale featured Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas’s an intense, rhythmic work depicting an ancient snake killing ritual!

But it was the rock cello group,”Trio,” consisting of three undergraduate cellists – Rayce Leib, Nathan Lavender and Chris Jones – that most impressed our CCA Student Ambassador.

“Sitting back down after intermission at the Symphony Orchestra concert I didn’t expect to stand again until the concert was concluded. But I was wrong when ‘Trio,’ the three-man cello group took a bow after their orchestrated piece,” Dallas said. “Everyone gave a standing ovation, not only to three of them, but the wonderful orchestra that was able to play and portray the Trio’s piece, ‘Triple Concerto,’ so well. ‘Triple Concerto’ combined metal and rock styles within a classical structure, and it was amazingly pulled off. Not only that, but to answer the crowd’s applause, the Trio and orchestra went on to do an encore.”

The rock cello ensemble has been burning up their strings since they formed. Together they compose, arrange, play, and sing their own music, in addition to performing some covers with passionate intensity.

“The Symphony Orchestra went to play two other pieces after that, one being “Sensemayá,” by Revueltas, which as Mitchell Arnold, conductor, mentioned was a benchmark piece for the group,” Dallas said. “The whole concert was extremely captivating and I don’t think it’s a performance that will be easily forgotten by any of us that were graced with hearing it or the wonderful musicians that so masterfully delivered it.”

– submitted by Dallas K. Wright

The Morgantown Community Orchestra, conducted by Alejandro Pinzón and made up of students in West Virginia University’s Community Music Program and Morgantown-area musicians, will perform a concert at the Creative Arts Center, Sunday, April 29.

The program titled “Noche Latina” (Latin Night) begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Antoinette Falbo Theatre and is free and open to the public (donations accepted).

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Young violinists from the Morgantown area who study in the Community Music Program at the West Virginia University College of Creative Arts will present a Suzuki recital at the Creative Arts Center, Saturday, April 28, at 1:30 p.m. in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (Room 200A).

The concert is free and the public is cordially invited to attend.

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Stop by the West Virginia University Creative Arts Center to find some great gifts for Mother’s Day and graduation.

The Ceramics Studio in the School of Art & Design will host its Annual Spring Ceramics Sale at the Creative Arts Center, Friday through Sunday, April 27-29.

The sale will feature work by WVU students and faculty, including porcelain that was created by WVU students during their participation in the College’s international program at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in China.

Proceeds from the sale benefit the ceramics program, student scholarships, student travel and study in China.

The sale will be held in the Douglas O. Blaney Lobby at the front entrance of the Creative Arts Center. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and Noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

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ust weeks before crossing the stage for graduation, the senior members of the dance program at West Virginia University have one last chance to take the stage with their fellow dancers.

The Spring Student Dance Showcase is the final dance production held by the School of Theatre and Dance this season and will be held on Thursday (April 26) in two showings at 7 and 9 p.m. in the Falbo Theatre at the Creative Arts Center.

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West Virginia University graduate student Vlad Basarab was recently featured in the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts 2012 Projects Space.

His exhibition entitled “Cenzura Memoriei,” which is Romanian for the “censorship of memory,” was performed in Seattle.

“Cenzura Memoriei” consists of a constructed 9×19×10-foot space made out of lumber and burlap. Once constructed, Basarab coated individual pages of a book with kaolin slip and hung them on rows of strings stretched from one side of the space to the other. The space also housed a projector and desk where Basarab worked on the pages.

“Various political regimes have burned and destroyed many books, thus collective memories were lost while flooding people’s memories with propagandistic slogans and literature,” Basarab said. “The burning of books is intended to reproduce historical memory of censorship.”

Basarab, originally from Romania, is a graduate student at WVU studying in the School of Art & Design in the areas of multimedia, sculpture, performance and video. His research goals are to travel and conduct collaborative performance videographies. He works collaboratively with other artists in the production of artworks that either reflect or are tied to the local environment. He has won various awards and grants for his work. Basarab has also been a contractor for eight years and owns Artistic Homes in Anchorage, Alaska.

The council chooses from an international pool only three individual and two collaborative artists teams whose conceptual and material conversation takes them beyond the confines of their kiln.

Each artist was provided a stipend to present a live on-site specific installation or performance-based artwork that explores the 2012 Conference theme, “On the Edge.”

Projects Space is intended to act as a platform for experimental and innovative work that stretches the confines of the contemporary ceramic field.

The artists were selected by 2012 Projects Space Coordinator Marianne McGrath, Jeffry Mitchell and National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Exhibitions Director Linda Ganstrom.

For more information, see the website: http://nceca.net/static/projectspace.php.

West Virginia University School of Theatre & Dance costume design graduate student Candice Caldwell Day received two awards when she competed recently in the 2012 Southeastern Theatre Conference.

Day received third place in costume crafts and honorable mention in graduate costume design. Her costume crafts entry was a furry, pink llama mask, which took a month and a half to construct. The eye-catching mask tempted many patrons at the conference to touch the fluffy fur.

Her costume design entry was a conceptual version of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” combining Romanesque period style, Scandinavian Viking influence and the artwork of Swiss artist H.R. Giger, who was the concept artist for the film “Alien.”

Day is originally from Concord, N.C. She received her bachelor’s degree in studio fine arts with an emphasis on painting and drawing from Warren Wilson College and started in theater by co-founding and performing in the Asheville Aerial Arts. She has also been an artist-in-residence at the Rabun Gap Nacoochee School in Georgia, coaching the Cirque program and assisting in the art department. She grew up as a competitive Whitewater Slalom Kayaker and has raced in Europe while a member of the Junior National Canoe and Kayak team.

Day is inspired in her work by the passion she feels for the circus arts. The combination of athleticism, artistry and fantasy in aerial arts lead her to try her hand at costume design.

“Costume designers create characters and worlds,” Day said. “I adore any artwork that transports the viewer to a fantastically beautiful realm, or is really out there and a little creepy.”

Another huge inspiration in Day’s life comes from her late father, who was also an artist and graphic designer.

“I had an early mentor that really pushed me and he was an incredible talent and teacher that I miss dearly,” Day said.

Caldwell is also one of the students in the WVU Costume Shop who created the unique masks for the School of Theatre & Dance production of “The Visit,” by Frederich Dürrenmatt, currently playing at the Creative Arts Center through April 22.

The Southeastern Theatre Conference is the largest and most active regional theater organization in the United States. This season’s conference was hosted at the Chattanooga Convention Center in Tennessee. The Technical Design competition boasted more than 150 entrants in categories ranging from costume design to sound to props design.

This year’s judges included famous Broadway costume designer Tony Walton, lighting designer Richard Pilbrow and costume designer Jennifer Caprio.

West Virginia University’s Chamber Winds will present an unconventional concert filled with mad cows and twisted melodies on Tuesday, April 24.

The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Gladys G. Davis Theatre at the Creative Arts Center.

The event is free and open to the public.

Under the direction of Professor of Music John Weigand, the Chamber Winds usually consists of only wind instruments. For this concert, a string quintet is added, as well as two synthesizers.

The highlight of this concert is “Gnarly Buttons” by John Adams (b. 1947), for solo clarinet and small orchestra. Doctoral candidate Amy McCann will join the ensemble as clarinet soloist.

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