May 27-29, 2005
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MUELLER PLANETARIUM, SAT, SUN 2PM, 3PM
Mueller Planetarium Hosts "Point Of No Return"
Journey with Mueller Planetarium into a universe of bizarre monsters as the planetarium explores quasars and supermassive black holes in a new show: "Point of No Return." The feature delves into the story of quasars, the most powerful steady sources of energy in the universe. Quasars are powered by supermassive black holes with masses millions to billions of times the mass of our sun. It is only within the last few years that astronomers have been acquiring a more complete picture of quasars. "Point of No Return" uses powerful graphics to represent some of the newest discoveries.
The new show, which will be in shown in planetariums around the country, was created by Mueller Planetarium and produced with financial support from the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute. It is a collaborative effort between members of the Mueller Planetarium staff, and UNL quasar research group members Martin Gaskell, Mary Hiller, and Elizabeth Klimek. The late Thomas Gehringer, director of the Burke High School planetarium in Omaha, served as the educational consultant to the show. The show is dedicated to his memory. The music is by award-winning composer Mark Petersen. The new program is the first produced entirely digitally by Mueller Planetarium.
The Mueller Planetarium showings of "Point of No Return" are preceded by an introduction to the current night sky's constellations and planets. The entire presentation lasts approximately 35 minutes.
Admission to Planetarium Astronomy Shows is $6 for Adults and $4 for all Children and UNL students. This price includes museum admission. All tickets are sold at the front desk of the Museum once the Museum opens for the day. Mueller Planetarium is located in the University of Nebraska State Museum (Morrill Hall) at 14th and U. Streets on the UNL City Campus.
MUELLER PLANETARIUM
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JUST ANNOUNCED
Chiara String Quartet to be UNL's Chamber String Quartet in Residence
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music has announced the hiring of the Chiara String Quartet as its artists-in-residence for a three-year residency beginning in August. "Chiara" (key-ARE-uh) is an Italian word, meaning clear, pure or light. "UNL is delighted with the extraordinary opportunity to have the Chiara String Quartet in residence on our campus," said Barbara Couture, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. "We know that their dynamic contributions to contemporary classical art music will inspire our students and faculty. This is a premiere opportunity for UNL students and all Nebraskans to enjoy the finest in live classical musical performance. It will be a wonderful three years."
The quartet (Rebecca Fischer and Julie Yoon, violins; Jonah Sirota, viola; and Gregory Beaver, cello) occupies the Lisa Arnhold residency in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. They were the Meadowlark Chamber Music Festival's artists-in-residence in Lincoln last summer in collaboration with the UNL School of Music's Chamber Music Institute.
John W. Richmond, professor and director of the School of Music, said this opportunity will bring UNL to a new level of prominence and visibility in the worlds of chamber music, string performance and orchestral music. "There are very few schools in the U.S. that have both a fine resident string faculty and a separate, internationally renowned resident string quartet." Richmond said. "The presence of the Chiara Quartet in our School of Music will position UNL with the University of Texas-Austin School of Music and the University of Colorado-Boulder College of Music in this regard. At UT-Austin, the resident quartet there is the Miro Quartet, predecessors to the Chiara in the Arnhold residency at Juilliard. It's a very special community of professional music schools that take this step."
The quartet's assignment in the School of Music will include teaching and coaching graduate students and experienced undergraduate students in the area of chamber music, along with their continued performance schedule statewide, nationally and internationally. "One of the truly exciting aspects of this collaboration is the opportunity to advance chamber music education for our students," Richmond said. "The faculty recently revised the master's and doctoral degree requirements for our performance majors to mandate chamber music experiences (string quartets and quintets, piano trios and quartets, woodwind quintets, brass quintets, etc.) for all graduate students. The creation of this residency aligns artistically and pedagogically with the initiatives of our faculty."
The Chiara String Quartet is at the forefront of a new generation of exceptional American quartets. Its recent accomplishments include winning first prize at the 2002 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and also winning the Astral Artistic Services' National Auditions, thus placing the quartet on the Astral roster of outstanding young artists.
SCHOOL OF MUSIC | CHIARA STRING QUARTET
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MARY RIEPMA ROSS MEDIA ARTS CENTER
Opening This Week at the Ross: Palindromes, Off The Map.
UNL's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center
presents Palindromes, the newest film from Director Todd Solondz and
Off The Map, the third feature-film from Actor/Director Campbell Scott.
Writer / director Todd Solondz has made his reputation by creating a gallery
of suburban icons of ostracism: think Dawn Wiener from Welcome To The Dollhouse, Dr.
Maplewood from Happiness, and Consuelo from Storytelling. In
his latest film Palindromes, we find the work of a more mature artist
who is clearly savoring the profound flavor of moral complexity. Palindromes is
a fable of innocence: 13-year-old Aviva Victor wants to be a Mom. She does all
she can to make this happen, and comes very close to succeeding, but in the
end her plan is thwarted by her sensible parents (Ellen Barkin and Richard Masur).
So she runs away, still determined to get pregnant one way or another, but instead
finds herself lost in another world, a less sensible one, perhaps, but one pregnant
itself with all sorts of strange possibility. Like so many trips, this one is
round-trip, and it's hard to say in the end if she can ever be quite the same
again, or if she can ever be anything but the same again.
In Off The Map, the year is 1974 and the harshly beautiful wilds of Taos are home to 11-year-old Bo Groden (Valentina de Angelis) and her free-thinking family. While constantly yearning for escape from her sparse environment, Bo passes the time with flair and imagination. She's a crack shot with a rifle and a bow and arrow, an artful plunderer of wallets and briefcases. Bo's home is an entrancing, challenging place that she will one day transcend to become the woman she was destined to be. Arlene (Joan Allen), Bo's warm, earthy, and eccentric mother, raises most of the family's food in her vegetable garden -- which she prefers to tend in the nude. Meanwhile, Bo's father, Charley (Sam Elliott), the embodiment of Old West masculinity, is losing the battle with his inner demons. When William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost) arrives, a hapless IRS agent with demons of his own, he soon proves to be a catalyst in the lives of the family during this watershed summer as he dips a brush in paint and pours his feelings out on canvas, discovering a long hidden talent for artistic expression. The Grodens, too, make their own discoveries over the course of this memorable season -- the mysteries of love and loss, the power of family unity, and the eternal truth that in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, anything is possible.
More information is available at the Ross website.
MRRMAC | PALINDROMES | OFF THE MAP |
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