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‘Evita’ to be performed in CFA
The Center for the Arts will present the national tour of the legendary Tim Rice-Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Evita” at 8 p.m. April 11 and 12 in the Mainstage theater in the CFA, North Campus.
The winner of seven Tony Awards, “Evita” brings to life the dynamic, larger-than-life persona of Eva Peron, wife of former Argentine dictator Juan Peron. The charismatic Eva Peron captivated a nation by championing the working class, and her epic story is told in a sweeping pop opera, featuring “Don't Cry For Me, Argentina.,” one of the Broadway stage's most dynamic and lush melodies,
Beginning its life as a concept album in 1976, “Evita” instantly became a global phenomenon. It was the first mega-musical when it opened at the Broadway Theatre on Sept. 25, 1979, setting records for the largest box-office advance. It went on to sweep all theater awards in 1979, winning seven Tonys, including best musical, score, book and director. It played 1,568 performances, closing June 25, 1983.
“Evita” became the first Broadway show to be reproduced successfully in every major city in the world, including the Philippines, where it had been banned under the Marcos regime because of the uncomfortable parallels to Imelda Marcos.
Tickets for “Evita” are $52 and $42 for general admission and $30 for students, and are available at the CFA box office and at all Ticketmaster locations, including Ticketmaster.com.
For more information, call 645-ARTS.
Mayne to deliver Martell Lecture
Eminent American architect Thom Mayne, winner of the 2005 Pritzker Prize, the world's premier architecture award, will deliver the Martell Lecture at the School of Architecture and Planning on April 14.
His talk at 5:30 p.m. in 147 Diefendorf Hall, South Campus, will be followed by a reception. It will be free and open to the public.
Mayne, the "bad boy" of Los Angeles architecture, went on to found the Southern California Institute of Architecture and in 1972, with Michael Rotondi, established the Santa Monica architectural practice Morphosis.
In doing so they sought to develop an architecture that would eschew the normal bounds of traditional forms and promote new ways of working. Subsequently, Morphosis has grown into one of the most distinguished and creative studios in the world.
In addition to the Pritzker Prize, Morphosis received the 2007 Top Ten Green Projects Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment, the 2001 Chrysler Design Award of Excellence and the 2000 Los Angeles Gold Medal from the AIA.
Recently completed civic projects by Morphosis include the Wayne L. Morse United States Courthouse in Eugene, Oregon, which received a 2008 AIA National Design Award; The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration satellite operation facility on Suitland, Md.; and the San Francisco Federal Building.
The Martell Lecture is funded by the Martell Distinguished Critic Endowment, founded in 2005 with a gift from Christopher Michael Martell and his wife, Sally, to support a program to bring architects of international significance to the School of Architecture and Planning to work with graduate students, give an annual school-wide public lecture and make a publication.
UB Paints seeks volunteers
Neighbor to Neighbor—UB Paints, a new initiative led by UB’s Students for Urban Renewal and the university’s Office of Community Relations, along with several neighborhood organizations, is looking for volunteers to help improve overall neighborhood conditions, one street at a time.
The first UB Paints event will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 19. UB students, faculty, staff and alumni, as well as neighborhood residents and members of community groups, will assist Englewood Avenue homeowners and tenants with targeted exterior projects.
Volunteers will meet in the parking lot at the corner of Main Street and Englewood Avenue.
The initiative is part of UB’s ongoing commitment to the University Heights neighborhood.
Anyone interested in participating in UB Paints should contact Andrea Czopp at aczopp@buffalo.edu or at 829-3099.
Japanese drummers to perform
The Center for the Arts and the Asian Studies Program will present “Explosive Beats: Japanese Taiko Drumming” at 7:30 p.m. April 15 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.
The event is co-sponsored by the Office of Student Life and the Office of the Vice Provost of International Education.
Taiko is a drumming style of Japanese origin. A taiko is a drum made from an open-ended wooden barrel with animal skin stretched over both ends and it is played with two bachi (wooden sticks). While various taiko drums have been used in Japan for more than 1,400 years—and possibly much longer—the style of taiko best known today has a relatively short history, beginning in the 1950s.
The performance will feature leading taiko drummers Takumi Kato and Ryo Shiobara.
Kato began as a professional drummer in the United States in 2001 and from 2004-06 received further professional training from Kodo, one of Japan's leading taiko groups. In 2006, he relocated to Los Angeles and has given many concerts in the area. At the end of 2006, an audience or more than 8,000 saw him perform at the Taiko Festival at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.
Shiobara was the grand prix winner at the sixth Tokyo International Taiko Contest in August 2007. He made his professional taiko debut in 1999 after spending 13 years in a regional performing arts group. He has won many awards in national and international taiko drumming competitions and has traveled the world, performing in countries such as the United States, Hungary and Taiwan.
Tickets for “Explosive Beats: Japanese Taiko Drumming” are $15 for the general public and $10 for students and are available at the CFA box office and at all Ticketmaster locations, including Ticketmaster.com.
For more information, call 645-ARTS.
RIA lecture set
UB’s Research Institute on Addictions will present a spring seminar series beginning this month that will featuring national experts discussing addictions-related topics.
The three-part series is free and open to the public. It will be held from 10-11:30 a.m. on the first floor of the institute at 1021 Main St. on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
The series will open tomorrow with a lecture, entitled “Thinking About Sex: Cognitive Mediation of Alcohol’s Effects on Women’s Sexual Decisions,” by Jeanette Norris, senior research scientist at the University of Washington’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute. Norris’ research focuses on how alcohol consumption influences cognitive mechanisms associated with sexual decision-making, as well as sexual-assault resistance and perpetration. She is a co-recipient of the Ira and Harriet Reiss Theory Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality for her article “Cognitive Mediation of Women’s Sexual Decision Making: The Influence of Alcohol, Contextual Factors and Background Variables,” published in the Annual Review of Sex Research.
On April 25, Sara Jo Nixon, will present “Nicotine and Drugs: What Drives the Affair?” Nixon is a professor psychiatry and psychology at the University of Florida-Gainesville. Her current research is focused on neurocognition, nicotine and polysubstance abuse.
The series will close on May 9 with a presentation on “The Role of Dynorphin/Kappa Opioid Receptor in the Pathophysiology of Cocaine Addiction” by Toni S. Shippenberg, chief of the integrative neuroscience unit at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Md., and an expert on the role of dynorphin neurotransmission and kappa-opioid receptor activation in mediating drug dependence toward psychostimulants and opiates. She is the editor of Neuropsychopharmacology, Journal of Neuroscience and Journal of Psychopharmacology.
For more information about the seminars, call 887-2566.
Contest fosters entrepreneurial spirit
Six students from area high schools won first place in a recent entrepreneurship competition for their business proposal for a high-tech gaming center.
The competition was the culmination of a 19-week Entrepreneurship Training Program conducted by the School of Management and the Meszaros International Center of Entrepreneurship (MICE).
Members of the winning team were George Alexander of City Honors High School, Patrick Anhalt of Emerson School of Hospitality, Charles Beardsley of Burgard Vocational High School, Michael Cheaib of St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, Craig Nicpon of Burgard Vocational High School and Wes Richter of City Honors High School. Each team members was awarded a leather-embossed attaché case.
Seven teams presented business plans in the competition, which was held at Hutchinson Central Technical High School. Entries ranged from a proposal to provide microfinance funding in Ghana, to a unique restaurant concept to a fashion design business.
Judges for the competition were Louis P. Ciminelli, chair and CEO of LPCiminelli Inc.; Cynthia M. Shore, assistant dean of corporate and community relations, School of Management; and Chris Meszaros, product manager, Synacor.
Beginning in October, nearly 50 students from18 urban, suburban and rural high schools attended the Entrepreneurship Training Program on Saturday mornings at the School of Management, where they explored the possibilities and complexities of self-employment.
Funded by a grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation, the program focuses on ethical entrepreneurship training and features class exercises that encourage team skills and critical thinking, a number of area entrepreneurs as guest speakers and a business plan workshop.
“Young people have the greatest potential to develop positive attitudes and business behaviors,” said Joseph Salamone, co-founder of MICE, author of the Entrepreneurship Training Program and associate professor of organization and human resources in the School of Management.
“The entrepreneurship skills that students learned in this program—effective work habits, personal management and critical thinking—all transfer well into everyday life, and will help them to become high quality human assets," he added.
The Meszaros International Center for Entrepreneurship is a not-for-profit foundation that develops and delivers entrepreneurship training products and programs.
Spanish architect to give Bethune Lecture
The internationally recognized Spanish architect Benedetta Tagliabue will present the 2008 Bethune Lecture of the School of Architecture and Planning at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow in 301 Crosby Hall, South Campus. It will be free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
Tagliabue and her late husband, Enric Miralles, in 1992 founded EMBT architecture, a firm that has produced unique, daring and expressive designs for a wide range of projects.
Their design for the Scottish Parliament, which was awarded the Stirling Prize from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2005, has been recognized as the best public building in Scotland.
Tagliabue works in Barcelona, where she recently completed two major projects.
Parque Diagonal Mar is a mixed-use development that includes housing, shopping and a convention center that received the American Society of Landscape Architects Award in 2005.
The second project, Market and Quarter Santa Caterina, created an extensive new roofed market space which was described by Architectural Record as “characteristically uproarious…a flying carpet of brilliant colors and agitated forms.”
EMBT currently is working on a series of new projects in Europe and Asia, including the design of the Spanish Pavilion for Expo Shanghai 2010.
The Bethune Lecture is an annual lecture made possible by the joint sponsorship of the American Institute of Architects Western New York and the School of Architecture and Planning. It celebrates the life and professional work of Louise Bethune. Bethune, an architect who worked in Buffalo, was the first woman to be elected as a member of the American Institute of Architects.