UNT to host memorial concert for arts patron Bill Winspear

OK, one more thing before we’re off.  Longtime and much-beloved North Texas arts patron Bill Winspear - who passed away in June - will be honored with a concert this Sunday at 4 p.m., in the UNT performance hall bearing his name.  Grammy-nominated tenor Richard Croft and the award-winning Vladimir Viardo protegee Anastasia Markina will be featured, along with several other vocal students and the UNT Symphony, under the direction of Stephen Dubberly.  Mr. Winspear’s eldest son Don will also be on hand for remarks.

The afternoon’s performances will include Mozart’s “Dalla sua Pace” (from Don Giovanni), Liszt’s transcription of Wagner’s “Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde, and selections from Charles Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette and Faust.

The public is invited to come out and enjoy this free performance and pay tribute to the man who made it all possible.

*****The Bill Winspear Memorial Concert - Sunday, December 2nd at 4 p.m. in the Margot & Bill Winspear Performance Hall, in UNT’s Murchison Performing Arts Center.  For more information, call (940) 369-7802.

Valuable objects missing from Dallas Historical Society

The Dallas Historical Society just released information that some of its most significant holdings are missing. These include the personal effects of Gen. Santa Anna (right, top), The Beeman Family Bible (the Bible belonging to John Neely Bryan’s wife), a pair of collar insignias from Adm. Nimitz (right, bottom), and historical artifacts from arts organizations from the turn of the last century, among others.

The executive director of the DHS, Michael Duty, believes the objects may have been removed during a two-day period when a television production crew was using the Hall of State, where the artifacts are stored. The objects were in a storage box in a staff area and have not been found.

Bill Zeeble is working on a story for broadcast this afternoon on All Things Considered, and he’ll have more details. And for transparency’s sake, I sit on the DHS Board and I received the confirmed information moments ago. The DHS is offering a $10,000 reward for information on these historical items.

Needless to say, this is an enormous loss beyond the borders of our city and state.

Have you been naughty or nice?

For photographic examples of appropriate and inappropriate behavior, visit Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery this weekend. The show Naughty or Nice, which opens tomorrow, features the greatness of notables including John Albok, George Krause, Dallas’ own Misty Keasler, Esteban Pastorino, Bill Owens, and several others. Sounds like a good time to me.

Arts and Diplomacy

I’ll bet the concept of arts and diplomacy may have escaped you, but consider this for a moment: The U.S. does not have Ministry of Culture, but other nations do. Does the U.S. engage in diplomatic cultural efforts and if so, what might they be?

To find out, you might want to attend a panel discussion put together by The World Affairs Council in Dallas and Fort Worth next week with the savviest area scholars:  Ted Pillsbury, the Senior Fine Arts Expert at Heritage Auction Galleries; Timothy Potts, the former director of the Kimbell and soon to direct the Fitzwilliams Museum in Cambridge,England; Dorothy Kosinski, the Barbara Thomas Lemmon Curator of European Art at the Dallas Museum of Art; and Rick Brettell, the Margaret McDermott Distinguished Chair of Art and Aesthetics at UTD.

In addition, they will be joined by Elizabeth Rohatyn, the founder of FRAME (The French/Regional/American Museum Exchange).

The Dallas discussion is next Tuesday at The Heritage Auction Galleries, 4:30 p.m. and Fort Worth’s is next Wednesday at the Kimbell Art Museum at 10 a.m. For more information, check out: The World Affairs Council.

Your Friday gallery-hoppers’ round-up

 Freedom of choice is a beautiful thing, but unfortunately, only three of these puppies received on-air plugs today because yes, I remain a total slave to my allotted 60 seconds.  So if you’re slogging through your Friday morning routine while mentally calculating how you’ll be able to squeeze in some quality gallery-opening time this evening, rest assured you’ve got options galore.  Good luck and gallery picks after the jump…

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Huckleberry Finesse

KERA commentator Tom Dodge wrote an interesting piece about the recent controversy at Richland High School in North Richland Hills over the approach used to teach Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and about lessons Tom learned when he taught the same novel. The Dallas Morning News article provides more on the controversy in North Richland Hills.

From Queen to academia

Queen guitarist Brian May - he of the flowing locks and soaring harmonies - has been named chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. At first glance it may appear to be a publicity stunt or a glorified honorary title, but May’s actually got some pretty decent academic credentials for a rock icon:

Brian studied Astrophysics at Imperial College, London and gained his BSc before progressing to a PhD. He put his academic career on hold to concentrate on his musical ambitions and more than 30 years later, in October 2007, Brian completed his PhD thesis A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud and was awarded his doctorate.

May’s blog (or “Soapbox” as he calls it) makes for interesting reading, as he writes about astrophysics, environmental issues and music, along with other topics. It’s nice to know that rock music has its science geeks, even if they are fairly rare.

Though unconfirmed, the rumored working title for his doctoral thesis was “Another One Bites The (Zodiacal) Dust.”

Thank you, thank you … I’ll be here all week.

“Rhythm Science”: The DJ as artist

Paul D. Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid), long one of the most eclectic and thoughtful personalities of the trip-hop/electronic set, has transmogrified over the years into a full-blown conceptual artist.

Miller first illuminated his theories of using found sound and aural textures to create new kinds of art in a critically-lauded 2004 book entitled Rhythm Science. More recently, he applied those theories to a DJ set inspired by sounds he heard in Angola, Ghana and other African countries that was included in the Venice Biennial’s 52nd International Art Exhibition, which closed on Nov. 21 after a successful five-month run.

The mix (click for audio and playlist) covers over a dozen genres of music, sound effects, spoken word and ambient noise, but is highly listenable and worth downloading when you have time to absorb it properly. Where else will you hear Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, ” Public Enemy, David Byrne, Orson Welles, Duke Ellington and a Malcolm X speech along with all manner of African rappers, singers and instrumentalists rolled into a cohesive sound collage?

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Go. See. The Snow Queen.

How often do you get to see the world premiere of a world-class playwright’s new play right here in Dallas? How often is it the work of a playwright who thought she might never write for the stage again? This convergence of circumstance (and opportunity for you - the theater-going public) will occur this weekend under the building at 3200 Main Street as the Undermain Theatre opens The Snow Queen by Lynne Alvarez. The play is directed by Undermain Artistic Director Katherine Owens. Lawson Taitte tells the story behind the story here.

Tchaikovsky with a bit of bump-and-grind

‘Tis the season for the attack of ‘The Nutcracker,’ the holiday staple that never fails to dazzle.  But if you’re the type who runs screaming from the room when you hear the first strains of “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” Dallas playwright Mark-Brian Sonna shares your seasonal angst and offers up the perfect antidote with ‘The Beulaville Baptist Book Club Presents: A Bur-less-Q Nutcracker!’  In this delightfully saucy production - opening Thursday night at the Stone Cottage in Addison - the ladies of the Beulaville Baptist Book Club hire their local ballet company to perform the perennial Tchaikovsky holiday fave, in a last-ditch effort to keep themselves financially afloat.  But when one of the book club’s member’s casseroles sickens the entire cast, the Velvet Kittens Burlesque Dancers step in to save the day.  Whoo-hoo!

And yes, definitely keep in mind that ‘A Bur-less-Q Nutcracker!’ is about as far from family-friendly as you can get, but fear not - there are several other area companies offering up the more traditional approach to the holiday classic, and there’s even a production with marionettes.  More after the jump…

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