The inaugural Hixson-Lied Professorship Lectures will be Thursday, April 16 at 5 p.m. in the Sheldon Museum of Art Auditorium at 12th and R streets, with a reception to follow in the Great Hall. The lectures and reception are free and open to the public.
Two lectures will be presented:
Hans Sturm, Hixson-Lied Professor of Double Bass and Jazz Studies, will present “What do Pablo Picasso, Gene Hackman, Edith Piaf, Quincy Jones, Philippe Petit and the Paris Opera have in common?”
Alison Stewart, Hixson-Lied Professor of Art History, will present “What’s a bad boy artist to do when work dries up? Albrecht Dürer, Sebald Beham and the German Reformation.”
Sturm has performed as soloist, chamber, orchestral, jazz and improvisational musician throughout Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, Africa and the United States. He received his doctorate from Northwestern University.
Sturm has contributed performances and compositions to more than 40 recordings with artists including the Pro Arte String Quartet, soprano Mimmi Fulmer, vocalist Jackie Allen, synthesist/composer Joan Wildman, guitarists Scott Fields, Rolf Sturm, Dave Baney, Jeff Parker, and Jack Grassel, trumpeters Bob Levy and David Young, and pianists Jane Reynolds, and Marilyn Crispell. He has recorded for Blue Note (EMI), Centaur, A440, Innova, Red Mark, Music and Arts, CRI, Big Chicago, and Cadence labels among others.
Inspired by his work with international artist-teacher François Rabbath, Sturm developed, designed, and produced two state-of-the-art DVD projects, “The Art of the Bow” (2005) and “The Art of the Left Hand” (2010). Both DVDs employ the same advanced technology found in films such as Avatar and Lord of the Rings to create a pedagogical method, incorporating 3D biomechanics animations with user-selectable camera angles, live performances, interviews and lecture demonstrations.
Sturm is a past president of the International Society of Bassists and has served on the organization's board of directors for more than 12 years. He served for six years as New Music Editor for the ISB's journal “Bass World.”
Stewart has taught art history at Nebraska since 1989. She received her Bachelor of Arts in art history and journalism from Syracuse University, her Master of Arts in art history from Queens College of the City University of New York, and her Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University.
In 1981 as a graduate student, she received a Fulbright grant to study in Munich. In 2014, she received a Fulbright Senior Lecturing/Research Award to teach and complete research at the University of Trier in Germany.
Her research, centered around secular imagery of the 15th and 16th centuries in Germany and the Netherlands, has been supported by Fulbright, National Endowment for the Humanities, Getty Research Institute and International Fine Print Dealers Association fellowships and grants.
Her recent books include “Media Revolution: Early Prints from the Sheldon Museum of Art,” edited by Stewart and Gregory Nosan in 2012; “Before Bruegel: Sebald Beham and the Origin of Peasant Festival” in 2008; and “Saints, Sinners and Sisters: Gender and Visual Art in Medieval and Early Modern Northern Europe,” co-edited with Jane Carroll, in 2003.
In 2015, she contributed a chapter titled “Man’s Best Friend? Dogs and Pigs in Early Modern Germany” in the book “Animals and Early Modern Identity,” edited by Pia F. Cuneo and published by Ashgate.
The Hixson-Lied Professorship program recognizes the work of our most outstanding faculty. Hixson-Lied Professorships are awarded for a three-year term, which can be renewed once.
In addition to Sturm and Stewart, Professor of Art Dana Fritz and Professor of Piano Mark Clinton also hold Hixson-Lied Professorships.