Fine Arts Week Preview

This week includes colloquium performances by piano faculty Yumiko Oshimaa-Ryan, organ faculty Chad Winterfeldt, and on-going art exhibition at the Hillstrom Museum of Art and the Schaefer Art Gallery.

Colloquium Concert: Music from Japan
6:00 p.m .
Wednesday, October 13
Streamed Virtually

Professor Yumiko Oshima-Ryan presents a lecture-recital on pieces from “Our Planet Earth”  by Karen Tanaka (b. 1961), one of the leading living composers from Japan. Karen Tanaka is an exceptionally versatile composer and pianist. She has composed extensively for concert music, film scores and electronic media. “Her music is delicate and emotive, beautifully crafted, showing a refined ear for both detail and large organic shapes…”, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.Her works have been performed by distinguished orchestras and ensembles worldwide including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Brodsky Quartet, BIT20 Ensemble, Gothic Voices, Anúna, among many others. Various choreographers and dance companies, including Wayne McGregor and Nederlands Dans Theater, have often featured her music.

Colloquium Concert: Chad Winterfeldt
7:30 p.m .
Friday, October 15
Christ Chapel

The Gustavus Adolphus College Department of Music presents professor Chad Winterfeldt in concert performing music from Calvin Fuller, J.S. Bach, and Charles Tournemire. A pre-concert lecture will start at 7:00 p.m.

This performance will be live streamed.

Colloquium Concert: Beethoven’s Last Piano Sonata
3:30 p.m .
Saturday, October 16
Streamed Virtually

Professor Yumiko Oshima-Ryan presents a music program featuring the final sonata, Op. 111, by Beethoven. Beethoven composed his final three sonatas between 1820 – 1822 after he had gone completely deaf. He died in 1827 at the age of 56.  These sonatas changed keyboard history and initiated the transition from the “classical period” to the “romantic period” by his pianism and artistry. This final sonata has only two sharply contrasting movements.The first movement conveys an intense feeling of life or death battle, while the second movement brings us to a peaceful place, full of light, past the struggle of suffering and death.

There will be a Pre-Recital talk at 3 pm via Zoom.Dr. Oshima-Ryan will discuss and demonstrate the pianism in Beethoven’s final piano sonata -his use of trills, complicated rhythms, and harmony, before performing the entire work.

Colloquium Concert: Franz Schubert’s Winterreise
5:30 p.m .
Saturday, October 16
Bjorling Recital Hall

The Department of Music presents baritone Cory J. Renbarger and pianist Stephen Carlson in concert. This performance is free and open to the public. Baritone Cory J. Renbarger currently serves as the coordinator of applied voice and director of opera theater at Bemidji State University, where he joined the faculty in 2012.  He holds degrees from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., as well as the Cincinnati College-Conservatory and the University of Minnesota, where he completed his doctoral studies. American pianist Stephen Carlson began his undergraduate studies as a political science major and Army ROTC Scholarship Cadet.  A member of the Bemidji State University Music Department since 2006, he is a versatile soloist and chamber musician who has performed at many colleges, universities, and festivals throughout much of the U.S. and Canada.

Art for All: the Swedish Experience in Mid-America
Monday – Friday – 9 a.m. to 4 p.m; 
Saturday – Sunday – 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Hillstrom Museum

The Hillstrom Museum of Art presents Art for All: The Swedish Experience in Mid-America, on view September 13 through November 7, 2021.  The exhibit, which was co-organized by the Museum with the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery in Lindsborg, Kansas, features 60 paintings, drawings, and prints by 20 prominent Swedish American artists working in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Putting Data Into Context, Arlene Birt
Monday – Friday – 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Schaefer Art Gallery

The Schaefer Art Gallery presents Putting Data Into Context, an exhibition in creative conjunction with Nobel Conference 57, Big Data Revolution. Arlene Birt, a twin Cities based artist and lead for the group Background Stories, is showing installation and participant based artworks which use data as a means of visual creativity.