4th Annual Butler ArtsFest, Apr. 7-17, 2016

Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana.
AroundIndy.com staff photo, (c) 2015, all rights reserved.

By Marc Allan
Butler University

Acclaimed bel canto tenor Lawrence Brownlee, Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Kurt Elling, and popular Afro-Caribbean music group Tiempo Libre are among the highlights of the Butler ArtsFest 2016 lineup, April 7-17,2016 on the Butler University campus and beyond.

Drawn from the celebration of Indiana’s bicentennial, the theme of the fourth Butler ArtsFest is Time and Timeless. This year’s events will explore the many concepts of time: how music may emulate the pounding of a heartbeat; how a playwright can pause time through the use of a memory; how dancers work with and sometimes against rhythm.

Many of the performances also underscore timelessness—Butler Ballet performs Swan Lake, Butler Opera Theatre presents The Pirates of Penzance, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra offers a combination of music and spoken word featuring great speeches by Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and more.

“Time marks where we’ve been, tells us where we are, and charts where we’re going,” said Ronald Caltabiano, Dean of Butler’s Jordan College of the Arts. “We spend it, and we waste it. It can be suspended in a dream or even warped in a memory. But what exactly is it? This year’s ArtsFest will allow us to explore all the many concepts of time.”

Tickets and more information are at ButlerArtsFest.com. Tickets also are available in person at the Clowes Memorial Hall box office or by phone at 800-982-2787.

Butler ArtsFest 2016 is made possible in part, by grants from the Efroymson Family Fund and the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation.

The lineup for this year’s ArtsFest is:

THURSDAY, APRIL 7

7:00 PM Lawrence Brownlee with the Butler Symphony Orchestra
Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts

Tickets: General $20-$30, Senior, $15-$20, Student $7.50
Hailed as one of “the world’s leading bel canto tenors,” Lawrence Brownlee—who made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2014 in Bellini’s I Puritani—returns to Indiana where he came of age as a performer at Anderson University. With a voice “perfectly suited for early 19th-century operas,” Brownlee will perform as the King in Rossini’s La Donna Del Lago at the Met this year, as well as appear with the Opéra National de Paris, Wolf Trap, National Theatre Mannheim opera company, among others. The Butler Symphony Orchestra will accompany Brownlee for the first half of the program. For the second half of this special evening, the BSO’s program will include Ravel’s La Valse, Copland’s Quiet City, and more. Don’t miss this opening celebration that launches our 11-day festival!

FRIDAY, APRIL 8

7:30 PM Butler Opera Theatre: The Pirates of Penzance
Shortridge High School Auditorium

Tickets: General $15, Senior $10, Student $7.50
Butler Opera Theatre brings to life this timeless tale of love and adventure. Debuting in 1880, the Gilbert and Sullivan classic has been a favorite for more than a century. Audiences will be swept away by waves of laughter as this comic opera proves the staying power of delightful music and witty humor.

7:30 PM An Evening with Kurt Elling and special guest Pharez Whitted
Basile Theatre at the Historic Athenaeum

Tickets: General $20-$30, Senior, $15-$20, Student $7.50
Grammy winner Kurt Elling is among the world’s foremost jazz vocalists. Elling’s rich baritone spans four octaves and features both astonishing technical mastery and emotional depth. His repertoire includes original compositions and modern interpretations of standards, all of which are springboards for inspired improvisation, scatting, spoken word, and poetry. Elling will be joined by the Butler Jazz Ensemble for this special event at the historic Athenaeum. Indianapolis jazz great Pharez Whitted will kick off the evening with Butler Jazz Combos in a tribute to the history of Hoosier jazz.

11:00 PM From Chicago: Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Lilly Hall, Room 328

Tickets: General $15, Senior $10, Student $7.50
What happens when a troupe of actors attempts 30 plays in 60 minutes? Find out when The Neo-Futurists take the stage for their acclaimed performance of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. Promising an emotional and intellectual rollercoaster of ideas and images ridden at breakneck speed, the performance, which includes audience participation, will be a theatrical experience unlike any other.

SATURDAY, APRIL 9

10:00 AM Butler Percussion Ensemble and Butler Community Arts School Youth Percussion Concert
Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts
Free

Perfect for families with little ones, this fun, interactive, and lively concert is a great opportunity to introduce kids to live performance. Children accompanied by adults will be welcomed on stage to see the instruments up close. This free family event will inspire smiles and perhaps a lifetime of appreciation for music.

Noon – 11:00 PM Riverrun: A Streamlines Experience with Big Tent
Lilly Hall, Studio 310
Free

StreamLines is an interactive, place-based project that merges the sciences and the arts to advance the community’s understanding and appreciation of Indianapolis’ waterways. Choreographed by Cynthia Pratt and performed by 100 dancers from the Jordan College of Arts, Riverrun is a dance that brings to life scientific concepts and concerns about human intervention of our waterways. Riverrun has been recreated as a film installation using footage from the original performance in September 2015 and formatted for viewing in Big Tent, a 360-degree, immersive and mobile performance venue. Created as an inclusive experience, audiences will walk away with an appreciation for our waterways and a sense of ownership for their future well-being.

Noon JCA Composers Orchestra Workshop
Lilly Hall, Room 112
Free

A workshop for musicians and educators on exploring alternative notation in an ensemble. All ages are welcome. Bring your instrument!

3:00 PM ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible)
Lilly Hall, Room 40
Free

Created as a commission for Butler ArtsFest 2015 and 2016, ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible) is an interpretation of John Cage’s work electronically orchestrated by Jordan College of the Arts faculty member Frank Felice. Written in 1985, the work was originally meant to be performed over a duration of approximately 20 minutes. Now, performances can stretch anywhere from a few hours to several hundred years. This performance is 3 hours and 6 minutes.

5:30 PM Indiana Bicentennial Governor’s Arts Awards
Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts
Tickets: Public $20, Student $10

Join Governor Mike Pence and the Indiana Arts Commission in celebrating Hoosiers who’ve made their mark in the arts! This one-night celebration will feature performances by several of the award’s recipients, including a special tribute to Jazz legend Wes Montgomery by ButlerBallet. In addition to honoring the Indiana Arts Commission’s 50th anniversary, this year’s Governor’s Arts Awards is a signature project of the State of Indiana’s Bicentennial Commission. Ticket purchases (less processing fees) are a donation to the Indiana Cultural Trust.

7:30 PM Butler Opera Theatre: The Pirates of Penzance
Shortridge High School Auditorium

8:00 PM Clowes Presents: Cameron Carpenter Featuring the International Touring Organ
Clowes Memorial Hall
Tickets: General $20-$30, Senior $15-$25

Often controversial and always spectacular, the Grammy-nominated, virtuoso composer-performer Cameron Carpenter tours with an instrument of his own creation, the International Touring Organ, which allows him to play his own version of classical music for the masses. His sound is lauded by media around the world. NPR recently stated of Carpenter: “It’s all here: pure imagination, presiding over a magical instrument with uncommon mastery.”

11:00 PM From Chicago: Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Lilly Hall, Room 328

SUNDAY, APRIL 10

11:00 AM – 7:00 PM Riverrun: A Streamlines Experience with Big Tent
Lilly Hall, Studio 310

9:00 AM Eric Satie’s Vexations
Irwin Library
Free

Erik Satie’s Vexations was composed in 1893 and consists of a short musical phrase with instructions to repeat it 840 times. The result is hypnotizing, enthralling, and time-warping. Butler students and faculty perform this epic work in Irwin Library over the course of approximately eighteen hours. You are welcome to come and go as you wish throughout the day.

12:30 PM The Nature of Time (Lecture)
Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall
Free

Presenter: Mark Kesling, Founder and CEO of the daVinci Pursuit, Presente
Questions about the nature of time and our understanding of our physical reality are ancient and relevant in light of today’s scientific discoveries. What is time? How are space and time related? Are there other universes than the one we can see? Is it possible to travel back in time? Attendees are asked to bring an open mind as well as questions about time to this informative and interactive lecture.

MARK KESLING

Mark Kesling has been a pioneering educator and designer in the fields of museum design and education for more than 30 years. As the founder and CEO of the daVinci Pursuit, Kesling continues to provide leadership through the design of a “museum without walls,” He possesses a unique set of skills, combining art with science in ways that engage learners of all ages. He works with neighborhood, city, institutional, artistic, and educational partners to create art/science installations in neighborhoods throughout Indianapolis.

1:30 PM A Tour Through Time: A Perspective from Chemistry and Physics (Lecture)
Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall
Free

Presenters:
Gonzalo Ordonez, Associate Professor of Physics, Butler University

Todd Hopkins, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Butler University
Have you ever wished you could change the past, slow down aging, or travel across the universe through a wormhole? Science says that all of this is possible. In this lecture, Prof. Ordonez and Hopkins will lead the audience on a tour through some of the more interesting aspects of time from the perspective of physics and chemistry.

Gonzalo Ordonez was born in Quito, Ecuador, and has been teaching at Butler University since 2005. He is an associate professor and is currently the department head of the Physics and Astronomy Department. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin in 1997 studying with the late physicist Ilya Prigogine. As a member of Prigogine’s group, he worked on mathematical models of quantum open systems, with the ultimate goal of understanding the problem of time and irreversibility in physics. His most recent work on this theme is entitled “Time-reversal symmetric resolution of unity without background integrals in open quantum systems”, co-authored by N. Hatano and G. Ordonez in 2014. Dr. Ordonez also works on applications of quantum mechanics to nano-scale electronic elements such as quantum dots and carbon nanotubes, together with Butler University students.

Todd Hopkins is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Butler University. He has been at Butler since 2003. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Virginia. He did postdoctoral training at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and also taught at the Honor’s College of Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Hopkins research involves developing chiral light emitting materials with the help of Butler students.

3:00 PM ButlerBallet: Now You See Us…
Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts
Tickets: General $25, Senior $20, Student $7.50

Dance is often considered the most ephemeral of all the art forms. In celebration of this evanescence, the ButlerBallet presents an evening of new creations:Anamnesis by Canadian choreographer Lesley Telford; an as of yet untitled work by David Ingram, Butler grad and artistic associate with Ft. Wayne Ballet, set to the music of Indiana jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery; and a look into the future with the presentation of outstanding student choreography. This is your only chance to see the future as it is happening.

3:00 PM Butler Opera Theatre: The Pirates of Penzance
Shortridge High School Auditorium

7:00 PM From Chicago: Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Lilly Hall, Room 328

MONDAY, APRIL 11

7:00 PM Mahler’s The Song of the Earth
Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall
Tickets: General $20, Senior $15, Student $7.50

Considered by some to be Mahler’s greatest work, The Song of the Earth (Das Lied von der Erde) comprises six songs that address living, dying, the seasons of life, and eternity. Jordan College of the Arts faculty member and tenor Thomas Studebaker will be joined by acclaimed soprano Jane Dutton for this intimate evening of song.

TUESDAY, APRIL 12

6:00 PM Wayne C. Wentzel Distinguished Lecture: The Flow of Notes and the “Flow” of Consciousness (Lecture)
Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall
Free

Presenter: James Parakilas, James L. Moody, Jr. Professor of Performing Arts at Bates College

What is flow? Recent studies have made a connection between a perceived flow in the coordination of musical sounds and a shared feeling of psychic flow, a special state of “deep concentration.” This presentation will address the relationship that may exist between these two distant flows as well as attempt to guide performers to musical flow in order to draw listeners into a state of psychological flow.

James Parakilas is the James L. Moody, Jr. Professor of Performing Arts at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he teaches courses in musicology, music theory, and performance. His musicological studies include the books Ballads without Words: Chopin and the Tradition of the Instrumental Ballade (Amadeus, 1992), Piano Roles: 300 Years of Life with the Piano (Yale, 2000), and The Story of Opera (Norton, 2012). His current research involves examining the relationship of historic Western concepts of the nature of music (including rhythm) to the current reshaping of those concepts by studies in psychology, neuroscience, and other sciences.

7:00 PM Eroica Trio
Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts
Tickets: General $25, Senior $20, Student $7.50

One of the most sought after trios in the world, the Grammy-nominated Eroica Trio enraptures audiences with flawless technical virtuosity, irresistible enthusiasm, and sensual elegance. For its Butler ArtsFest performance, the trio will be joined by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Cathryn Gross for Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. The chamber music piece was composed and performed for the first time in a Nazi prisoner of war camp in 1941. Grounded in the circumstances of its genesis, the transcendent work possesses an uplifting quality that instills hope and peace. Additional works on the evening’s program include music by Bach and Piazzolla.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13

7:00 PM Time(less) An Evening of Visual Art
Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts
Free

An evening with contemporary visual artists featured in the Schrott Center for the Arts’s exhibition, Time(less): Conversations Outside the Impact of Time with Stefan Petranek, Michael Rea, and Gary Wahl. Gallery tour at 7:00 PM. Individual presentations followed by Q&A.

Butler ArtsFest presents Time(less): Conversations Outside the Impact of Time, an exhibition of contemporary artworks featuring the work of Michael Rea, Stefan Petranek, and Gary Wahl. Each artist presents responses to time embedded intensely in the present, while simultaneously dealing with the vastness of time by exploring our experience with the landscape, the body, and genetics; setting up conversations that exist within ourselves and outside the impact of time.

Stefan Petranek

At its core, Petranek’s studio practice explores nature through the lens of contemporary culture, especially in response to technological and scientific advances. While science provides a deeper understanding of the natural world, the application of science-based technologies often draws conflict by allowing us to see ourselves as separate, if not above, nature. Petranek’s work points out these boundary lines with the intent of cobbling together a personal and possibly more holistic view of nature in the face of modernity. Influenced by his formal training as a biologist, his projects usually take the form of structured, serialized trials and draw conclusions through experimentation and repetitive observation.

Michael Rea

Rea has conflated the notions of working hard and playing hard for over a decade with his bombastic wooden sculptures. Replicated and reinvented moments of cinematic horror, science fiction, comedy and drama intermingle with memory to form bizarre personal narratives. Over the years, each uncanny conglomeration of familiar objects and themes has both thrilled and confounded audiences. The delight in the experience of Mike Rea’s vision is the balance between a feeling of understanding that is quickly replaced by new, surprising discoveries. Whether as conventional sculptures standing alone, or as props in interactive installations and performances, these often-massive objects reflect a culture of humor, violence, vulgarity, and sensitivity.

Gary Wahl

Gary Wahl’s recent work has examined issues of land-use in the rural Midwest, economic recession, and the housing bubble as viewed through children’s playhouses, developments, and organic house-forms. The Time(less) exhibition includes Wahl’s series Winter Blind. Taken during the onset of winter in Wahl’s home, the frost shadows of the Winter Blind series evoke the traditions of Chinese literati landscape painting. While compositionally beautiful, these images have deeper meaning highlighting the thin veil of security a home provides from the increasingly harsh elements.

7:00 PM Butler Theatre: Portal 1812
Lilly Hall Studio Theatre 168
Tickets: General $15, Senior $10, Student $7.50

Portal 1812 is an original ensemble performance work integrating movement, text, projected image, and sound. Told from multiple perspectives and through various means, the piece interweaves stories and portraits of time. Portal 1812 was conceived and directed by New York-based, multidisciplinary guest artist Darla Villani. Over the course of the spring 2016 semester, students from across the Jordan College of the Arts worked collaboratively with Villani in the creation of this brand-new work.

9:00 PM As Time Goes By: A Discussion of Relativity and Religion (Lecture)
Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium
Free

Presenters: James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature, Butler University
Brian Murphy, Department of Physics and Astronomy and Director of Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium, Butler University

What is the nature of time?”; “How do we understand the beginning and end of the cosmos and creation?”; and “What are the implications for our own place in the universe and our meaning-making as humanity begins to further understand and manipulate time?” Science and theology must respond to time. Both have made considerable efforts to describe time, react to time’s consequences, and articulate that which is not yet understood about time. The Center for Faith and Vocation brings together two academic voices, a professor of physics and a professor of religion, to help shed light on these questions. We hope audience members will find overlaps in their own interests, their own questions, and their own respect for that which we investigate, that which we take on faith, and that which is unknown altogether.

James F. McGrath

Dr. James F. McGrath is Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University. In addition to his work in Biblical studies, Dr. McGrath also writes and speaks about the intersection of religion and theology on the one hand, and science fact and science fiction on the other. He is the editor ofReligion and Science Fiction (Pickwick Publications, 2011) and co-editor of Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who (Darton, Longman, and Todd, 2013), and author of a forthcoming companion to theology and science fiction.

Brian Murphy

Brian Murphy served as Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy for nearly eight years and has also served as Director of Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium for all of his 23 years at Butler. In his role as director of the observatory he has given nearly 500 television and radio interviews on the subjects of physics and astronomy including such notables as the BBC, National Geographic, and NPR. During his time at Butler he has received numerous awards including the Butler University Distinguished Faculty Award for Research and Scholarship, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Award for Research and Scholarship, the Natural Sciences Outstanding Faculty Member, and a Student Government Association Apple Award for outstanding teaching. Besides his passion for working with his research students he has taught a wide variety of courses in his department in addition to numerous core courses.

THURSDAY, APRIL 14

6:30 PM Desmond Tutu Center Presents: Dancing in Jaffa (Film)
Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall
Free

“When you touch someone with respect, something changes.” Our beliefs, intolerance and misunderstandings, often nurtured over generations, underlie many of the world’s problems. In our own country and community, welcoming the stranger, living in harmony and respect with others of different racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds are front-of-mind issues. Our hearts break with each act of violence rooted in prejudice, stereotyping and intolerance. It is harder to hate someone or what they stand for when a personal connection is made—when we see that the “other” is a person with the same loves, cares and feelings as us. But how often do we expect others to do this and leave us safe with our “beliefs?” What if we each touched someone with respect? How much change might there be? How much would the paradigm shift?

This documentary follows Pierre Dulaine, an internationally renowned ballroom dancer, as he fulfills a life-long dream when he takes his program, Dancing Classrooms, back to his city of birth, Jaffa. Over a ten-week period, Pierre teaches 10-year-old Jewish and Palestinian Israeli children to dance and compete together. Dancing in Jaffa explores the complex stories of three different children who are forced to confront issues of identity, segregation and racial prejudice as they dance with their enemy. The classroom becomes a microcosm of the Middle East’s struggle to work together harmoniously while still caught in the politics of the region and race. With the guidance of Pierre, the children learn to dance together and trust one another. Dancing In Jaffa offers an up-close-and-personal perspective of how the future might unfold if the art of movement and dance could triumph over the politics of history and geography.

7:00 PM Los Angeles Percussion Quartet
Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts
Tickets: General $25, Senior $20, Student $7.50

Atmospheric and captivating, the Grammy-nominated Los Angeles Percussion Quartet (LAPQ) has forged a distinct identity as a world-class contemporary chamber music ensemble. The enticing rhythm of their performances underscores the ongoing beat of time while the complex textures of the compositions mesmerize, seemingly pausing the moment. Jordan College of the Arts faculty member Jon Crabiel joins LAPQ for an evening that strikes at the heart of the festival’s theme,Time and Timeless.

9:00 PM Butler Theatre: Portal 1812
Lilly Hall Studio Theatre 168

FRIDAY, APRIL 15

6:00 PM You’re Invited to the Party! Post-Studio Art and the Role of the Viewer/Participant (Lecture)
Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall
Free

Presenter: Gautam Rao, Associate Professor of Art

In the past, the ‘active’ time for an artwork was in the studio, while it was being created. Now that ‘active’ time is outside the studio, in the gallery or on the street. What was once timeless has now become the present. From Jackson Pollock to Jeppe Hein, this talk will explore a paradigm shift that has changed the role of the viewer to that of the participant.

Gautam Rao

Gautam Rao is an artist and Associate Professor of Art at Butler University. He earned his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002 and his BFA from Boston University in 1999. He has served on the Board of the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art and was a Founding Board Member of Herron High School in Indianapolis. His artwork is widely exhibited both nationally and internationally. Distinctions include a Susan Coslett Cromwell Traveling Fellowship, and awards from the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.

7:30 PM Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra: Peacemakers
Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts
Tickets: General $30, Students $12

This innovative work highlights speeches and contributions of the famous peacemakers of our time: Mahatma Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Anwar Sadat, Yitzak Rabin, Nelson Mandela, and Jimmy Carter. This multi-disciplinary evening includes several local arts organizations, as well as guest artists Kathryn Krasovec, Rob Dixon, and Dan Tepfer, 2007 Cole Porter Fellow in Jazz of the American Pianists Association. In this comprehensive work, ICO Composer-in-Residence James Aikman honors these peacemakers in music, media, and performance. Their inspiring ideas live on.

8:00 PM ButlerBallet: Swan Lake
Clowes Memorial Hall
Tickets: General $24.50-$31.50, Seniors & Students $20-$26

A timeless story of the power of pure love, this romantic and tragic story of the magical beauty of the swans, the maleficent evil of a sorcerer, and the eternal struggle between the forces of light and dark is undoubtedly the most popular of all classical ballets. Come revel in Tchaikovsky’s eloquent score performed by the ButlerBalletOrchestra under the direction of Richard Auldon Clark, and delight in the splendor of the ButlerBallet’s presentation of this unparalleled classic.

10:00 PM Butler Theatre: Portal 1812
Lilly Hall Studio Theatre 168

SATURDAY, APRIL 16

10:00 AM Butler Community Arts School Youth Dance Performance
Lilly Hall, Studio 310
Free

Young dancers join Butler dance majors in this high-energy concert of dances from Disney movies. Featured children represent BCAS community outreach classes at Martin Luther King Center and Tindley Genesis charter school.

11:00 AM Butler Community Arts School Youth Strings Concert with The Metropolitan Youth Orchestra
Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts
Free

For the third year, BCAS and Butler ArtsFest have commissioned a new work for this youth performance. This year’s composer, Emily Yoo, is an undergraduate composition major in the School of Music. Her piece, Sunken Bridge, reflects the unsettled end of the Korean War, also called the Forgotten War. The title of the piece comes from a photo from 1950 when the Chinese troops advanced into Pyongyang. The photo depicts North Korean refugees climbing and crawling onto a wrecked bridge over the Taedong River as they escape south. Today, the two nations’ peace is still unclear—the war’s time has been at pause since 1953. The two governments have grown apart, with ups and downs, for the last 65 years. The people of two nations have grown apart, more and more each year. Now the two nations’ peoples live fundamentally different lives. The time has passed, but the sunken bridge between the two has not been reconstructed.

The Metropolitan Youth Orchestra is a transformative program of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Learning Community that uses music instruction to engage children in activities that discourage at-risk behaviors and keep them committed to staying in school. MYO’s music-making experience can build a positive, supportive community that brings children and adults together to work side by side, set goals, create trust, and build confidence that will enable students to be successful in school and beyond. MYO is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Founder and artistic director Betty Perry was recently recognized by Jordan College of the Arts with a 2016 Legacy Award.

Butler Children’s Orchestra and Butler Youth Orchestra are programs of the Butler Community Arts School. Founding conductor Shannon Crow is an alumna of Jordan College of the Arts. BCAS provides high-quality arts instruction at an affordable price. Private lessons, group classes, and summer camps are held on campus as well as at 15 community partner sites. Instruction is provided by trained Butler students, “Teaching Fellows.” Learn more about BCAS at www.butler.edu/bcas.

2:00 PM Butler Theatre: Portal 1812
Lilly Hall Studio Theatre 168

2:00 PM Indianapolis Opera Preview: Happy Birthday, Wanda June
Basile Opera Center
Tickets: General $20, Students $7.50

Happy Birthday, Wanda June began life as a play by Kurt Vonnegut in October 1971 at New York’s Theater de Lys. The play was Vonnegut’s first attempt at stage work. Written to protest the Vietnam War in 1970, the play blends the sacred and the profane to produce an off-the-wall and deeply, strangely funny satire. Join us for a preview performance of this stunning new opera, based on the work of Kurt Vonnegut, produced by Indianapolis Opera, and composed by Jordan College of the Arts faculty member Richard Auldon Clark. The opera will have its world debut in fall 2016.

6:00 PM Butler Theatre: Portal 1812
Lilly Hall Studio Theatre 168

7:30 PM Tiempo Libre
Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts
Tickets: General $20-$30, Senior, $15-$20, Student $7.50

Three-time Grammy-nominated Afro-Caribbean music group Tiempo Libre is one of the hottest Latin bands today. Equally at home in concert halls, jazz clubs, festival stages and dance venues, Tiempo Libre is celebrated for its sophisticated music featuring an exhilarating mix of jazz harmonies, contemporary sonorities and seductive Latin rhythms. Join Butler ArtsFest for an unforgettable night as the stage of the Schrott Center heats up with irresistible tropical beats that’ll make you want to get up and dance.

8:00 PM ButlerBallet: Swan Lake
Clowes Memorial Hall

SUNDAY, APRIL 17

2:00 PM ButlerBallet: Swan Lake
Clowes Memorial Hall

4:00 PM Butler Theatre: Portal 1812
Lilly Hall Studio Theatre 168

6:00 PM Debussy and Mallarmé Break Step (Lecture)
Lilly Hall, Room 120
Free

Presenters: James R. Briscoe, Professor of Musicology
Anna Briscoe, Professor of Music
Natalie Farrell, Senior, BA Music and French

Claude Debussy re-invents the rhythmic language of each composition. In that way he links immediately with his Symbolist and Modernist poet-mentor Stéphane Mallarmé. Almost magically, their speech-color rhythms, despite a break with conventional patterns, remain compelling to a notable degree.
In the speech-rhythmic language of two Mallarmé poems Debussy sets, “Apparition” and “Soupir,” one sees the twin dispositions of the Symbolists in both early and late songs interlocked through the application of contemporary linguistic theory. Mallarmé set the pace for free, evocative language-rhythm evoking further ruptures of convention in T.S. Eliot, in “The Waste Land” as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement, and Marcel Proust, within “In Search of Time Lost.” The Symbolist poet breaks historic step at every turn with Romantic, 19th-century rhymed poetry, advancing the theory and practice of language as music and psychic evocation.

Inspired by Mallarmé’s language-music, which he based on the natural emphases and asymmetric rhythms of the French language, Debussy sought ongoing, self-generative formings–per Boulez and his concept of rhythmic and structural formant. The paired discussion of Farrell and Briscoe, first presenting the poet and then the musician, considers certain possibilities of rhythmic tension and release that Debussy and Mallarmé derive from language. That rupture with historic musical rhythm and with linguistic formation initiates the Modernist paradigm in the two Mallarmé poems and Debussy’s interacting treatment. Too, the music talk will examine the Modernist Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, musically evoking an ode by Mallarmé. Anna Briscoe will conclude by performing “Apparition’ and “Soupir” with a singer to be identified, along with the piano preludes “Des pas sur la neige” (Footsteps in the Snow) and “Voiles” (Veils or else Sails, purposefully vague).

7:00 PM Deadline for Choral Peacebuilding
Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts
Tickets: General $25, Senior $20, Student $7.50

The time is NOW! Dialogue through choral singing provides a new antidote for addressing our societal divisions and fears. Join guest artist Ysaÿe Barnwell (formerly of Sweet Honey in the Rock) as she leads a call to peacemaking through song. Witness an unforgettable collaboration as Butler choirs (led by Butler choral conductor John Perkins), Nassim Al Saba Choir (United Arab Emirates), São Vicente a Capella (Brazil), and local high school choirs join together for this global choral event.