The roster of winter quarter guest artists includes talent from around the globe. Melbourne Australia’s Choir of Trinity College performs with the Stanford Chamber Chorale; Maqueque, a collective of female artists from Cuba led by Canadian Jane Bunnett, performs in Bing Studio; the Hideaki Bunno Gagaku Ensemble performs classical music and dance of the Imperial Court of Japan; and the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic from Poland, featuring South Korean guest violinist Bomsori Kim, performs in Bing Concert Hall.
Among the national treasures are creative pioneer Laurie Anderson; Academy Award, Golden Globe, Emmy and Grammy-winning artist, actor and activist Common; multi-instrumentalist and musicologist Rhiannon Giddens; novelist and distinguished writer-in-residence at New York University Nathan Englander; and Pulitzer Prize-winner and former poet laureate Louise Glück.
Alums returning to campus as guests are performance artist and LGBTQ rights activist ALOK, BA and MA ’13; writer and director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop Lan Samantha Chang, Stegner Fellow ’95; and comedian Omar Qureshi, JD ’18.
The full list of guest artists on campus this quarter for conversations, lectures, readings, performances and workshops follows.
Winter 2020 guest artists
ALOK
Performance artist and writer ALOK, whose eclectic style offers a poetic challenge to the conventional gender binary, discusses performance, body images and self-fashioning.
Talk Jan. 23
Hosted by Cantor Arts Center
LAURIE ANDERSON
Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Known for her multimedia presentations and recognized worldwide for her groundbreaking use of technology in the arts, she has cast herself in roles as varied as visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, vocalist and instrumentalist. At the Bing, Anderson will present her work The Art of Falling. She will be in conversation with artist Jim Campbell the day before the event at the Bing.
Conversation Jan. 28
Performance Jan. 29
Hosted by Stanford Live
DARCY JAMES ARGUE
Renowned jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant’s Ogresse, an original concert concept arranged and conducted by jazz luminary Darcy James Argue, uses Salvant’s eclectic choices, from hip-hop to Cuban to baroque idioms, coupled with her exquisite vocal gifts, for a one-of-a-kind audience experience. Touching on social themes such as the status of women and race relations today, the work is part of Renée Fleming’s VOICES series, co-commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum, New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Kennedy Center.
Concert Mar. 13
Hosted by Stanford Live
BACK TO BACK THEATRE
Back to Back Theatre presents The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes where five activists with intellectual disabilities hold a public meeting to start a frank and open conversation about a history we would prefer not to know, and a future that is ambivalent. With the rapid development of AI and continuing advances in automation, where does human intelligence fit in? As in all communities, nobody is self-sufficient and everyone is responsible.
Performances Feb. 5-8
Hosted by Stanford Live
REGINALD DWAYNE BETTS
Reginald Dwayne Betts transformed himself from a 16-year-old kid sentenced to nine years in prison to a critically acclaimed writer and graduate of the Yale Law School. Between his work in public defense, his years of advocacy and Betts’s own experiences as a teenager in maximum security prisons uniquely position him to speak to the failures of the current criminal justice system and present encouraging ideas for change.
Reading Feb. 11
Hosted by Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Humanities Center, Program in Ethics in Society, Stanford Arts Institute, Stanford Law School Criminal Justice Center
JANE BUNNETT
Jane Bunnett is a five-time Juno Award Winner. She has turned her bands and recordings into showcases for the finest musical talent from Canada, the U.S. and Cuba. She has been nominated for three Grammy Awards, received The Order of Canada, The Queen Diamond Jubilee Medal, and most recently, The Premier’s Award for Excellence. What started out as a project to record and mentor young, brilliant Cuban female musicians, Bunnett’s band Maqueque has become one of the top groups on the North American jazz scene. She joins Danae Olano in a conversation moderated by Ned Sublette.
Conversation Feb. 27
Hosted by Stanford Live
JIM CAMPBELL
Contemporary artist Jim Campbell uses technology to filter images of daily life, mediating the audience’s encounter with his subjects and amplifying the flow of time and memory. While many of Campbell’s public projects have been physically sweeping in scale, such as Day for Night (2018) atop the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, the current exhibition at the Anderson Collection focuses on his more intimate works, placing them in dialogue with the permanent collection to create new visual and sensory experiences. He is on campus for a conversation with artist Laurie Anderson.
Conversation Jan. 28
Hosted by Anderson Collection at Stanford University
LENNY CARLSON
Lenny Carlson has produced five albums of eclectic original music including Nothing Wrong: Jeff Sanford’s Jazz Orchestra Plays the Music of Lenny Carlson. He is a Grammy-nominated composer, guitarist and producer with more than 40 years of professional credits and he teaches in the music department at the City College of San Francisco. On Feb. 9, musicians Frederick Harris and Andrew “Endika” Currier premiere two of Carlson’s compositions: Thumb and Variations (for Jerry Reed) and Down by the Riverside: Theme and Variations (for Frederick Harris). Both works are eclectic in approach and based on American vernacular genres such as spirituals, the blues and country music. There is no improvisation in these works, but the performers will improvise elsewhere in the program.
Concert Feb. 9
Hosted by Stanford Continuing Studies
TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON
Acclaimed co-musical directors Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto saxophone) and Terri Lyne Carrington (drums) celebrate one of the most innovative and influential artists in modern musical history and examine his impact in pop, hip-hop, rap, rock and jazz. Joined by a superb lineup including Charenée Wade (vocals), Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), Kris Davis (piano), Larry Grenadier (bass) and Kassa Overall (dj), Mahanthappa and Carrington honor Charlie Parker’s centennial year by showcasing “Bird’s” uncompromising musical joy, humor and beauty by mining his deep repertoire and showcasing new, modern compositions.
Concert Mar. 28
Hosted by Stanford Live
BOBI CÉSPEDES
Gladys “Bobi” Céspedes has been at the forefront of representing and promoting Cuban music in the Bay Area and the U.S. for over 40 years. On her new album, Mujer Y Cantante, Céspedes thrills us with her prowess as a woman and singer. Boldly celebrating the strength acquired through her rich familial and cultural legacy, she pays tribute to the forces that sustain her music and nourish her spirit. She wears the mantle of a seasoned sonera, surrendering fully to the Cuban son in her most traditional album to date.
Two concerts Mar. 21
Hosted by Stanford Live
JERRY CHANG
Cellists Peter Gelfand, Robert Howard, Jerry Chang, David Goldblatt and Stephen Harrison perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas accompanied by Gwendolyn Mok, fortepiano.
Concert Mar. 8
Hosted by Department of Music
LAN SAMANTHA CHANG
Lan Samantha Chang was born and raised in Wisconsin and educated at Yale University and the University of Iowa. Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic and The Best American Short Stories and her novel Inheritance won the PEN Open Book Award. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford, she now lives with her husband and daughter in Iowa City, Iowa, where she is Elizabeth M. Stanley Professor of the Arts and director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her reading and colloquium are part of the Lane Lecture Series.
Reading Feb. 24
Colloquium Feb. 25
Hosted by Creative Writing Program
CHOIR OF TRINITY COLLEGE
The Choir of Trinity College, Melbourne, presents an exciting and diverse program of choral artistry featuring Frank Ferko’s American Folksongs and other works. The Stanford Chamber Chorale joins them to present two works collaboratively.
Concert Jan. 29
Hosted by Department of Music
JOHN CHURCHWELL
David Pershall, baritone, and John Churchwell, piano, perform an intimate recital as part of the Shenson Recital Series.
Concert Feb. 23
Hosted by Department of Music
CATHERINE COHEN
Catherine Cohen is a comedian and actress living in Brooklyn, New York. She hosts a weekly show at Alan Cumming’s new East Village cabaret, Club Cumming, as well as the monthly variety show It’s A Guy Thing, which was listed as one of Paste Magazine’s “10 Best Alt Comedy Shows in New York City.”
Two performances Feb. 13
Hosted by Stanford Live
COMMON
Academy Award, Golden Globe, Emmy and Grammy-winning artist, actor and activist, Common continues to break down barriers with a multitude of critically acclaimed, diverse roles and continued success at the box office. Following his 2011 memoir One Day It’ll All Make Sense, Common’s latest book Let Love Have the Last Word was released in May 2019. It shares Common’s own unique, personal stories of the people and experiences that have led to a greater understanding of love and all it has to offer.
Conversation Mar. 3
Hosted by Stanford Live
ANDREW "ENDIKA" CURRIER
Double bassist and composer Andrew “Endika” Currier has 20 years of performance experience in orchestral music and a variety of jazz and popular music contexts. He has performed with Larry Vuckovich, Taylor Eigsti, the Santa Cruz and Monterey symphonies, Jeff Sanford and Jeff Sanford’s Jazz Orchestra, Panthelion, Brother Grand and Doug Ellington, among others.
Concert Feb. 9
Hosted by Stanford Continuing Studies
CUT CIRCLE
Founded in 2003 by Jesse Rodin, director, Cut Circle specializes in the music of Guillaume Du Fay, Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin des Prez and their late-medieval and Renaissance contemporaries. In 2010 the ensemble received the Noah Greenberg Award (American Musicological Society), which recognizes outstanding contributions to historical performing practices. Cut Circle has also received the Prix Olivier Messiaen, Editor’s Choice (Gramophone) and a Diapason d’Or.
Concert Jan. 15
Hosted by Department of Music, Stanford Libraries
JASON DANIELEY
Critically acclaimed Broadway star Jason Danieley (The Full Monty, Next to Normal, South Pacific, Floyd Collins, Pretty Woman) always sings from the heart. In this special “heart to heart,” Danieley shares stories and songs from that deep well, honoring his late wife Marin Mazzie, and quite simply, the beauty of love and partnership.
Concert Jan. 18
Hosted by Stanford Live
DJ LYNNÉE DENISE
Lynnée Denise was shaped as a DJ by her parent’s record collection. She’s an artist, scholar and writer whose work reflects on underground cultural movements, the 1980s, migration studies, theories of escape and electronic music of the African Diaspora. Lynnée Denise coined the phrase ‘DJ Scholarship’ to reposition the role of the DJ from a party purveyor to an archivist, cultural custodian and information specialist of music with critical value. She is on campus for an artist talk for students, a public performative lecture and a conversation with Fredara Hadley, visiting assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Oberlin.
Talk Jan. 17
Performative lecture Jan. 30
Conversation Mar. 5
Hosted by Institute for Diversity in the Arts
DORRANCE DANCE
Michelle Dorrance began dancing at age four and hasn’t stopped. She tapped with STOMP and Savion Glover, then became a solo artist, winning accolades from top critics around the world before forming her own company in 2011. Dorrance’s shows are known to pack a house – and her SOUNDspace troupe will bring 11 impressive tappers, a pianist and a stage full of innovative excitement to Bing Concert Hall.
Performance Mar. 10
Hosted by Stanford Live
DREAMERS' CIRCUS
Since 2009 the three Danes of Dreamers’ Circus have had a busy life of concerts, tours and album releases. In 2013 they dropped their first album, A Little Symphony, with guest artists including the Danish String Quartet and a big brass band. With Nikolaj Busk on piano and accordion, the Dreamers swept up the awards for Talent, Album and Artist Of The Year at the Danish Folk Music Awards.
Concert Mar. 12
Hosted by Stanford Live
JILLON STOPPELS DUPREE
Guest artist Jillon Stoppels Dupree and Stanford’s Elaine Thornburgh, the Dueling Harpsichords, perform works by Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi and Couperin.
Concert Mar. 2
Hosted by Department of Music
JEWLIA EISENBERG
Stanford’s Celia Dropkin Symposium will include a reading by Jerome Rothenberg of the Yiddish poet Celia Dropkin’s poems, along with his own original interpretive translations; a round table discussion of Dropkin’s work and its reception by three scholars, moderated by Gabriella Safran; and a recital of new songs on Dropkin poems by Jeremiah Lockwood with Jewlia Eisenberg.
Symposium and recital Mar. 10
Hosted by Department of Music
NATHAN ENGLANDER
Nathan Englander is the author of the novels Dinner at the Center of the Earth and The Ministry of Special Cases, and the story collections For the Relief of Unbearable Urges and What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank – winner of the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His short fiction has been widely anthologized, most recently in 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories. Englander’s play, The Twenty-Seventh Man, premiered at The Public Theater in 2012. He translated the New American Haggadah and co-translated Etgar Keret’s Suddenly a Knock on the Door. He is Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at New York University and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and daughter.
Reading Feb. 6
Hosted by Department of Comparative Literature, Taube Center for Jewish Studies
VLADIMIR FELTSMAN
Russian pianist Vladimir Feltsman, born in 1952, made his professional debut with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra at 11. Beginning in 1979, as he fought for eight years for an exit visa from the Soviet Union, he was banned from public performance. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1987. In The Russian Experiment, Feltsman plays works by dissident composers of his homeland, from Alexander Scriabin to the forgotten composers that Scriabin influenced.
Concert Feb. 5
Hosted by Stanford Live
KATHARINA FRITSCH
Artist Katharina Fritsch (Germany, b. 1956), part of a select group of prominent female sculptors working today, draws on iconography from many different sources for her work. These include religion, folklore, art history, and most importantly, personal experiences from her native Germany. Her sculptures are both playful, due to vibrant monochromatic matte colors, and disorienting, due to the larger-than-life scale she utilizes.
Talk Feb. 14
Hosted by Cantor Arts Center
RODNEY GEHRKE
Rodney Gehrke, director of music at All Saint’s Episcopal Church, Palo Alto, and organist at Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco, performs Louis Vierne’s Symphony No. 3.
Concert Jan. 22
Hosted by Department of Music, Office for Religious Life
PETER GELFAND
Cellists Peter Gelfand, Robert Howard, Jerry Chang, David Goldblatt and Stephen Harrison perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas accompanied by Gwendolyn Mok, fortepiano.
Concert Mar. 8
Hosted by Department of Music
RHIANNON GIDDENS
Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi deliver the 15th Annual Anne and Loren Kieve Distinguished Lecture followed the next night by a concert at Bing. Multi-instrumentalist and musicologist, Giddens is a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning American roots band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a 2017 MacArthur Genius Award recipient and a regular on CMT’s Nashville.
Lecture and demonstration Feb. 6
Concert Feb. 7
Hosted by Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford Live
LOUISE GLÜCK
Louise Glück is one of America’s most honored contemporary poets. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, she is a former poet laureate of the United States and the author of a dozen widely acclaimed books. Glück is currently Stanford’s Mohr Visiting Poet and the Rosenkranz writer-in-residence at Yale University. She was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1999 – 2005, and she is currently a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Reading Jan. 27
Hosted by Creative Writing Program
DAVID GOLDBLATT
Cellists Peter Gelfand, Robert Howard, Jerry Chang, David Goldblatt and Stephen Harrison perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas accompanied by Gwendolyn Mok, fortepiano.
Concert Mar. 8
Hosted by Department of Music
WYCLIFFE GORDON
Stanford’s Michael Galisatus directs the Stanford Jazz Orchestra’s winter program featuring guest renowned musician, composer, conductor and arranger Wycliffe Gordon.
Concert Feb. 28
Hosted by Department of Music
BRADON JAMES GWINN
A crowd favorite at New York City’s famous piano bar Marie’s Crisis, Brandon James Gwinn is a singer-pianist, composer-lyricist and producer lauded as “one hell of an entertainer” by the Bistro Awards. For one night only, Gwinn brings his unforgettable piano bar experience to the Bing Studio.
Concert Feb. 15
Hosted by Stanford Live
HARLEM QUARTET
Harlem Quartet has moved rapidly forward since its 2006 Carnegie Hall debut, touring worldwide. Departing from the classical string quartet, it embraces jazz, Latin and contemporary works, particularly by minority composers. The quartet has collaborated with a wide range of musicians including Chick Corea, Misha Dichter and Carter Brey. Its members are violinist Ilmar Gavilan of Havana, American violinist Melissa White, violist Jaime Amador of Puerto Rico and American cellist Felix Umansky. At the Bing, the quartet will perform works by Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Strayhorn, Wynton Marsalis and more.
Concert Feb. 9
Hosted by Stanford Live
FREDERICK HARRIS
Pianist, composer and music educator Frederick Harris has broad performance experience in both classical and jazz music as a soloist and an accompanist. He has performed with such jazz luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Regina Carter, Kurt Elling and Chico Freeman. He is also a music instructor at the City College of San Francisco and previously taught at Stanford.
Concert Feb. 9
Hosted by Stanford Continuing Studies
STEPHEN HARRISON
David Pershall, baritone, and John Churchwell, piano, perform an intimate recital as part of the Shenson Recital Series.
Concert Feb. 23
Hosted by Department of Music
HIDEAKI BUNNO GAGAKU ENSEMBLE
Maestro Hideaki Bunno, former director of the Gagaku Orchestra at the Tokyo Imperial Palace and living national treasure of Japan, brings his new Gagaku ensemble, composed of former directors of the Imperial Palace Orchestra as lead instrumentalists as well as major Gagaku musicians from all over Japan. Bunno is the 36th generation of a family that has transmitted the art of the shō (a type of mouth organ, an instrument unique to Gagaku) for more than 1300 years. In 2009 he received the prestigious prize of the Japanese Academy of the Arts.
Performance Mar. 3
Hosted by Center for East Asian Studies, Department of Asian Languages, Department of Music, Department of Religious Studies, Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford, Humanities Center, Office for Religious Life
ROBERT HOWARD
Cellists Peter Gelfand, Robert Howard, Jerry Chang, David Goldblatt and Stephen Harrison perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas accompanied by Gwendolyn Mok, fortepiano.
Concert Mar. 8
Hosted by Department of Music
OBI KAUFMANN
Artist, poet and naturalist Obi Kaufmann grew up in the East Bay of California as the son of an astrophysicist and a psychologist and spent most of his high school years practicing calculus and breaking away on weekends to scramble around Mount Diablo and map its creeks, oak forests and sage mazes. Into adulthood, he would regularly journey into the mountains, spending more summer nights without a roof than with one. For Kaufmann, the epic narrative of the California backcountry holds enough art, science, mythology and language for a hundred field atlases to come.
Talk Mar. 4
Hosted by Stanford Continuing Studies
BOMSORI KIM
Acclaimed violin virtuoso Bomsori Kim joins Poland’s NFM (National Forum of Music) Wroclaw Philharmonic under the baton of Giancarlo Guerrero.
Concert Jan. 31
Hosted by Stanford Live
KRONOS QUARTET
At the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, Mahalia Jackson’s shout to her close friend Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. changed his speech: “Tell them about the Dream! Tell them about the Dream!” It’s said that her plea inspired Dr. King to stray off-script in his immortal speech. That passage, captured in notes made by King speechwriter and Stanford Scholar in Residence Dr. Clarence B. Jones, is central to composer Zachary James Watkins’ Peace Be Till. See it performed by the groundbreaking Kronos Quartet in a concert that includes music from a decade that changed the nation.
Concert Jan. 15
Hosted by Stanford Live
Kronos photographed in San Francisco, CA March 26, 2013©Jay Blakesberg
SEUNGHEE LEE
Seunghee Lee, haegeum (a traditional Korean string instrument), plays new Korean music by Hyo-shin Na, old Korean music (traditional works), and Haegeum Sanjo.
Concert Feb. 7
Hosted by Department of Music
YANG LIPING
Chinese dance legend and renowned choreographer Yang Liping – a 2018 judge on So You Think You Can Dance: China – brings her stunning reimagining of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring to Stanford. A product of her native Chinese culture intermingled with the Tibetan concept of nature and life, Liping’s Rite of Spring spins an abstract legend of the path of salvation embodied by the sacrificial peacock.
Performances Feb. 21 & 22 have been postponed
Hosted by Stanford Live
JEREMIAH LOCKWOOD
Stanford’s Celia Dropkin Symposium will include a reading by Jerome Rothenberg of the Yiddish poet Celia Dropkin’s poems, along with his own original interpretive translations; a round table discussion of Dropkin’s work and its reception by three scholars, moderated by Gabriella Safran; and a recital of new songs on Dropkin poems by Jeremiah Lockwood with Jewlia Eisenberg.
Symposium and recital Mar. 10
Hosted by Department of Music
RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA
Acclaimed co-musical directors Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto saxophone) and Terri Lyne Carrington (drums) celebrate one of the most innovative and influential artists in modern musical history and examine his impact in pop, hip-hop, rap, rock and jazz. Joined by a superb lineup including Charenée Wade (vocals), Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), Kris Davis (piano), Larry Grenadier (bass) and Kassa Overall (dj), Mahanthappa and Carrington honor Charlie Parker’s centennial year by showcasing “Bird’s” uncompromising musical joy, humor and beauty by mining his deep repertoire and showcasing new, modern compositions.
Concert Mar. 28
Hosted by Stanford Live
MANUAL CINEMA
The Emmy-award winning shadow puppetry masters of Manual Cinema present No Blue Memories, a work about celebrated Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000). She was an icon, a poet laureate and a Pulitzer Prize winner – but she was also a treasured educator and mentor to the countless writers and children who knew her as their very own “Miss Brooks.” Weaving together poetry, storytelling and striking visuals, No Blue Memories is an exploration of Brooks’s beloved city of Chicago and a story of how she navigated identity, craft and politics over the course of one of the most remarkable careers in American literary history. The performance combines over 600 paper puppets, live actors working in shadow and an original score performed by live musicians.
Performances Jan. 17 & 18
Hosted by Stanford Live
MAQUEQUE
Canadian soprano-sax/flutist Jane Bunnett showcases the best young female artists from Cuba. Drummer Yissy Garcia is the heartbeat and power that propels Maqueque. The collective also includes pianist Danae Olano and new members Mary Paz on percussion, bassist Tailin Marrero and the soulful vocalist Joanna Majoko.
Concerts Feb. 28 & 29
Hosted by Stanford Live
PEDRITO MARTINEZ
Alfredo Rodríguez and Pedrito Martinez both discovered their gifts for music in Havana and headed to the States, where they melded the music of their homeland with a wide variety of influences, each in his own deeply personal way. Martinez honed his craft on the streets of Havana, learning the deeply-rooted percussion and vocal style of Afro-Cuban folkloric and religious music.
Two concerts Mar. 22
Hosted by Stanford Live
GWENDOLYN MOK
David Pershall, baritone, and John Churchwell, piano, perform an intimate recital as part of the Shenson Recital Series.
Concert Feb. 23
Hosted by Department of Music
ALI AKBAR MORADI
Ali Akbar Moradi began playing the tanbour at the age of seven and learned not only the music but the Kurdish maqam repertoire. He has won awards, recorded several albums, and performed in Europe, the United States and Canada with singers like Shahram Nazeri and at the Royal Festival Hall in London. In addition to teaching the tanbour in Tehran and his hometown of Kermanshah, Moradi is a dedicated scholar of the tanbour and continues to develop the legacy of the instrument and the regional Kurdish music. He will be joined in concert by his sons Arash and Kourosh as well as Mehdi Bagheri as part of the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts.
Concert Jan. 31
Hosted by Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies
JASON MORAN
Composer and pianist Jason Moran, artistic director of the Kennedy Center Jazz program and a MacArthur fellow, presents a meditation on the life, combat service and legacy of American musician and jazz composer James Reese Europe, who created the band of World War I’s African-American 369th regiment, the Harlem Hellfighters, and helped popularize jazz throughout France.
Concert Jan. 22
Hosted by Stanford Live
MOHSEN NAMJOO
Mohsen Namjoo and Yahya Alkhansa conduct a workshop focusing on the technical aspects of the language and the concept of rhythm in the formation of early Persian poetry known as the Khorasani School. Namjoo was born in 1976 in Khorasan province, one of the epicenters of poetry and music northeast of Iran. He is a singer, songwriter, music scholar and setar (traditional Persian lute) player currently based in New York City. The workshop is part of the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts.
Workshop in Persian/Farsi Feb. 6
Hosted by Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies
NFM WROCLAW PHILHARMONIC
Founded in 1945, the internationally acclaimed NFM Wrocław Philharmonic makes its Bing Concert Hall debut in a thrilling program under the baton of maestro Giancarlo Guerrero – a six-time Grammy Award-winner. Joining the orchestra will be violin virtuoso Bomsori Kim.
Concert Jan. 31
Hosted by Stanford Live
DANAE OLANO
Danae Olano was born in Havana, Cuba in 1992 and currently tours as pianist for Maqueque. She obtained a Best Bachelor of Arts at the Conservatory of Music Roldan in Havana, then finalized her studies in the Superior Institute of Arts graduating cum laude. She captured a Juno award in 2015 in the Best Jazz Album category with Maqueque. She joins June Bunnett in a conversation moderated by Ned Sublette.
Conversation Feb. 27
Hosted by Stanford Live
ORLANDO CONSORT
Carl Dreyer’s 1928 silent movie masterpiece La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc has had many musical accompaniments, from its original score by Victor Alix and Leo Pouget to Nick Cave and Johann Sebastian Bach. Now comes the superb Orlando Consort, the early-music British quartet, singing Guillaume Dufay’s chanson with lyrics by Christine de Pizan, whose poem about Joan of Arc (1412-1431) dates to 1429. Like the voices counseling the French saint, it is a cappella – without musical accompaniment.
Concert Feb. 1
Hosted by Stanford Live
DAVID PARSHALL
David Pershall, baritone, and John Churchwell, piano, perform an intimate recital as part of the Shenson Recital Series.
Concert Feb. 23
Hosted by Department of Music
PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA
Imagine being in Leipzig, in Zimmermann’s Coffeehouse, and watching Bach himself perform the “Coffee Cantata” while enjoying your favorite latte. In February, Richard Egarr, conducting the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, pairs this lighthearted vocal work with some of Bach’s grandest instrumental music. Joined by the extraordinary talents of Nola Richardson, James Reese and Cody Quattlebaum – all rising stars out of Yale or Juilliard voice programs – Eggar concocts another powerful brew of Bach’s brilliant music from the bench of the harpsichord. On March 10, Francesco Spagnolo – Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s Jews & Music Scholar – joins forces with Nicholas McGegan once again, this time on a journey to the world of Mendelssohn and 19th-century Germany, a period in history rife with sociopolitical tensions, rich musical splendor and religious conflict. On March 11, Vivaldi virtuoso Alana Youssefian joins PBO for a romantic whirl with Mendelssohn’s impassioned concerto, lushly cushioned by the rousing overture to Cherubini’s first Parisian opera and the expansive optimism of Schubert’s last completed symphony, considered to be his finest piece for orchestra.
Concerts Feb. 12, Mar. 10 & 11
Hosted by Stanford Live
QUASAR SAX QUARTET
Montreal’s Quasar Sax Quartet performs new works by Stanford graduate composers. Known for their energy and bold innovation, the four members of Quasar have been exploring the innumerable facets of musical creation since the group’s founding in 1994. The group’s ventures include instrumental music, improvisation and electronics.
Concert Feb. 29
Hosted by Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Department of Music
COLIN QUINN
Colin Quinn is a stand-up comedian from Brooklyn, New York. From MTV’s Remote Control to SNL to Comedy Central’s Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, Quinn is not one to take a hint and bow out gracefully. He’s been on Broadway with Colin Quinn: An Irish Wake and Colin Quinn: Long Story Short (also an HBO special) and off-Broadway with his show Colin Quinn: Unconstitutional (available on Netflix) and Colin Quinn: The New York Story, directed by Jerry Seinfeld (also available on Netflix). In January 2019, Quinn’s one-man show Red State Blue State premiered to rave reviews at The Minetta Lane Theatre in New York and was adapted into CNN’s first comedy special in May 2019 and started streaming on Netflix in August 2019.
Two performances Mar. 13
Hosted by Stanford Live
OMAR QURESHI
Omar Qureshi, a Stanford alum, is based in Los Angeles, California but hails from rural Missouri. In addition to being a Moth Grand Slam Champion, Omar tours around the country with The Moth. His one-man show Omar Qureshi: Mad Metaphysical has played to sold-out audiences in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston. He was the 2016 San Francisco Funny Fest champion, beating out over a hundred other comics. Opening for Qureshi are San Francisco locals Ryan Goodcase (2019 World Series of Comedy Champion), Emily Van Dyke (Cobb’s Comedy Club), Mark Smalls (Comedy Central Clusterfest) and Julie Ash (SF Punchline).
Performance Feb. 14
Hosted by Stanford Concert Network, Stanford Live
ALFREDO RODRÍGUEZ
Alfredo Rodríguez and Pedrito Martinez both discovered their gifts for music in Havana and headed to the States, where they melded the music of their homeland with a wide variety of influences, each in his own deeply personal way. Rodriguez was born into a musical family, his father a popular singer and TV host, and studied classical piano at the prestigious Conservatorio Amadeo Roldán and Instituto Superior de Arte.
Two concerts Mar. 22
Hosted by Stanford Live
JEROME ROTHENBERG
Stanford’s Celia Dropkin Symposium will include a reading by poet Jerome Rothenberg of the Yiddish poet Celia Dropkin’s poems, along with his own original interpretive translations; a round table discussion of Dropkin’s work and its reception by three scholars, moderated by Gabriella Safran; and a recital of new songs on Dropkin poems by Jeremiah Lockwood with Jewlia Eisenberg.
Symposium and reading Mar. 10
Hosted by Department of Music
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT
Renowned jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant’s Ogresse, an original concert concept arranged and conducted by jazz luminary Darcy James Argue, uses Salvant’s eclectic choices, from hip-hop to Cuban to baroque idioms, coupled with her exquisite vocal gifts, for a one-of-a-kind audience experience. Touching on social themes such as the status of women and race relations today, the work is part of Renée Fleming’s VOICES series, co-commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum, New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Kennedy Center.
Concert Mar. 13
Hosted by Stanford Live
SAN FRANCISCO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA ALL-STARS
In celebration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 264th birthday, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra All-Stars present a program of chamber music masterpieces by the “Salzburg Scribbler” himself.
Concert Jan. 18
Hosted by Stanford Continuing Studies
JOE SEGURA
Joseph Segura, Stanford’s Holt Visiting Artist and Lecturer, is a dedicated collaborative artist and educator. In the course of obtaining his MFA degree in painting and drawing from Southern Illinois University, he became conscious of a separation between the various art disciplines. His enthusiasm for learning led him to create opportunities to explore other mediums, including design and printmaking. Upon receiving his degree, Segura was accepted into the prestigious Master Printer Program at the Tamarind Institute in New Mexico. While working on his certification he learned about the value of the collaborative process between printer and artist.
Winter quarter residency
Hosted by Department of Art & Art History
SLAVS AND TATARS
Founded in 2006, Slavs and Tatars mine the complexities and unexpected affinities across cultures through publications, lecture-performances and installations. Originally set up as an informal book-club, the collective explores a literary and political geography known as Eurasia, defined by themselves as “east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China.” The artists work across cycles, where extended periods of research give life to an eco-system of installations, sculptures, lectures and printed matter that question our understanding of language, ritual and identity.
January residency
Lecture Jan. 29
Hosted by the Office of the Vice President for the Arts
DAMIEN SNEED
Musical director, pianist and multi-talented producer Damien Sneed’s concert celebration of the life, times and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. includes a chorale and star soloists. The performance features an array of gospel, spirituals and inspirational popular standards immortalized by the likes of Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Duke Ellington, Tina Turner and many others.
Concert Feb. 21
Hosted by Stanford Live
JENNIFER STEINKAMP
Jennifer Steinkamp participates in a symposium that explores the challenges, opportunities and limitations that the emergence of virtual and augmented reality offers artists and museums based in the American West. Steinkamp is a Los Angeles based media and installation artist whose video animations explore nature, architecture, contemporary social issues and the passage of time.
Symposium Feb. 27
Hosted by Bill Lane Center for the American West, Cantor Arts Center
NED SUBLETTE
Ned Sublette is a co-founder of Qbadisc and a producer with Afropop Worldwide. He created the cowboy rumba style, a fusion of rumba and country and western. He is a University of New Mexico graduate and a 2003-2004 fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, as well as a 2004-2005 Tulane Rockefeller Humanities Fellow in New Orleans. Sublette has led a number of music and culture seminars for Americans in Cuba and is the producer of the 18-part Cuba Connection series on PRI’s Afropop Worldwide as well as the co-creator of the current APWW “Hip Deep” series. He moderates a conversation with musicians Jane Bunnett and Danae Olano.
Conversation Feb. 27
Hosted by Stanford Live
TENDER BUTTONS
Tender Buttons taps sound worlds of complexity and lush emptiness, using grand piano framed by modular electronics. At times evoking sound worlds reminiscent of early Stockhausen, Cage/Tudor and new wave bands of the 1980s, the trio interplays compatibly with an intensity wrought from focused concentration – sometimes evoking a meditative “composed” sound world, at other moments setting up impossible music in side-by-side coexistence, shimmering and translucent.
Concert Feb. 13
Hosted by Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Department of Music
FRANCISCO TORRES
The Stanford Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble, directed by Murray Low, welcomes special guest Francisco Torres for their winter concert. Torres is a trombonist, arranger, composer and educator who from Sonora, Mexico.
Concert Feb. 26
Hosted by Department of Music
FRANCESCO TURRISI
Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi deliver the 15th Annual Anne and Loren Kieve Distinguished Lecture followed the next night by a concert at Bing. Francesco Turrisi is an Italian pianist and percussionist well versed in jazz, early music and Mediterranean music. He researches Southern Italian tamburello (tambourine) traditions and paths of music between the Middle East and Europe.
Lecture and demonstration Feb. 6
Concerts Feb. 7
Hosted by Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford Live
SARA WALSH
The Stanford Mohr Visiting Artist for winter quarter is Sara Walsh, hosted by the Department of Theater and Performance Studies. Walsh is a New York-based artist, designer and teacher. Her work investigates boundaries and rules, transformation and surprise, and the shifting expectations of audience and performer. In addition to teaching “Performance of Design: Instinct, Analysis and the Elusive Creative Idea,” Walsh is also designing sets for the TAPS winter main stage production Everybody.
Winter quarter residency
Hosted by Department of Theater and Performance Studies
HANZI WANG
Praised for her captivating stage presence and performances that are technically and musically masterful, the groundbreaking young musician Hanzhi Wang is the only accordionist to ever win a place on the roster of Young Concert Artists in its 59-year history.
Concert Feb. 16
Hosted by Stanford Live
WEST-EASTERN DIVAN ENSEMBLE
The West-Eastern Divan Ensemble, led by the orchestra’s concertmaster Michael Barenboim, draws upon players of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Founded in 1999, the origins of the orchestra lie in the conversations between its founders, Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim. Over the course of their great friendship, the Palestinian author/scholar and Israeli conductor/pianist discussed ideas on music, culture and humanity. In their exchanges, they realized the urgent need for an alternative way to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This evolved into the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra that global audiences know today. The group is comprised of Arab and Israeli musicians, defying fierce political divides in the Middle East and globally. Through its work and existence, they demonstrate that bridges can be built to encourage people to listen to the narrative of the other.
Concert Feb. 8
Hosted by Department of Music
SAM VAN AKEN
Sam Van Aken is a contemporary artist who works beyond traditional modes of art-making, crossing artistic genres and disciplines to develop new perspectives on such themes as communication, botany, agriculture, climatology and the ever-increasing impact of technology. His interventions in the natural and public realm are seen as metaphors that serve as the basis of narrative, sites of placemaking, and in some cases even become the basis of scientific research. His Tree of 40 Fruit is planted near the Rodin Sculpture Garden outside of the Cantor Arts Center.
Student workshop Feb. 10
Hosted by Office of the Vice President for the Arts
WOODEN FISH ENSEMBLE
The Wooden Fish Ensemble presents concerts of music and musicians from a variety of cultural and national backgrounds working together in a collaborative way. The ensemble performs the music of Frederic Rzewski and Hyo-shin Na, as well as Korean folk songs.
Concert Feb. 8
Hosted by Department of Music
WORDLESS MUSIC ORCHESTRA
Jazz pianist Jason Moran joins the Wordless Music Orchestra to provide the film Selma with a live score. Wordless Music is devoted to the idea that the sound worlds of classical and contemporary instrumental music – in genres such as indie rock and electronic music – share more in common than conventional thinking might suggest. To illustrate the continuity between these worlds, the series pairs rock and electronic musicians in an intimate concert setting with more traditionally understood classical music performers.
Concert Jan. 25
Hosted by Stanford Live
ALANA YOUSSEFIAN
Vivaldi virtuoso Alana Youssefian joins Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for a romantic whirl with Mendelssohn’s impassioned concerto, lushly cushioned by the rousing overture to Cherubini’s first Parisian opera, and the expansive optimism of Schubert’s last completed symphony, considered to be his finest piece for orchestra.
Concert Mar. 11
Hosted by Stanford Live
AMY ZANROSSO
Musician Amy Zanrosso has worked within a wide range of musical genres – classical, contemporary, musical theater, German cabaret and tango. She and Lori Lack, Stanford staff accompanist, perform works for two pianos.
Concert Mar. 1
Hosted by Department of Music