WHAT’S
happening
This weekend, the Eugene Glass School puts on its
sixth annual Art Glass Auction and Benefit Dinner,
a fund-raiser that helps finance the operations of the
nonprofit school. On Friday night, meet the artists at
the Auction Preview, where featured artist Karen
Willenbrink-Johnsen speaks and shows slides of her
work. On Saturday, stop in at the afternoon artist
demo at the Glass School before heading out to the
Valley River Inn for the dinner and auction (both
silent and live). More than 130 donated
works of glass art will be auctioned
over the course of the evening, so
there’s sure to be something
that strikes your fancy.
See Calendar.
The Oregon Mozart Players’ season-opening concerts on Oct. 1 and 2 feature music
that conjures images in your mind. Shostakovich’s music of the 1930s often
accompanied opera and other stage works, and his brilliant Piano Concerto No.
1 (featuring pianist Lisa Leonard, pictured above) is an especially delightful
romp for piano and trumpet. We seldom think of Russian music as fun, but in
this period, at least, Shostakovich (along with Prokofiev) definitely provoked
smiles. Aaron Copland didn’t intend his 1925 Music for the Theater to
accompany a particular dramatic production, but rather
wanted to evoke the moods and images of works that
appear on stage. Anyone who thinks of Copland as merely
a purveyor of classical cowboy tunes should give this one a go.
The third major work on this terrific program, Benjamin Britten’s Suite on English
Folk Tunes “A Time There Was,” finds a more melancholy vein, yet still carries the
rhythmic bounce of the old English dance tunes Britten transformed. The opener,
Mozart’s overture to his opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, vividly paints a pic-
ture of a Turkish harem, using instruments associated with that then-exotic culture.
See Saturday Calendar. — Brett Campbell
As September
draws to a close, it’s once
again time for the Last Friday ArtWalk,
the monthly self-guided tour of galleries, stu-
dios and sometimes living rooms around
Eugene. This month there are 23 stops rang-
ing from the Fire House Studio, where work
by Don Rich (including 333X, above) ends its
run, to the Owl and Moon Gallery, where a
new exhibit by Halo Jones opens. At Shady
Pines, collaborated yard installations and indi-
vudual works by Grant Hoddle, Collin Janke
and Julie Hoffener are on display. Stop by
Colette to catch Marilyn Kent giving away
pieces of an art dress that’s on exhibit. For a
full listing, go to www.lastfridayartwalk.org
See Friday Calendar.
SEPTEMBER 29, 2005 13