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University Daily Kansan
Arts/Entertainment
Thursday, March 6, 1986
Exhibits to recreate the genius of da Vinci
By Monique O'Donnell
Staff writer
Bill Wahle, St. Louis senior, operates a prototype of a variable speed device designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Several of da Vinci's designs are on display at
More than 600 years ago Leonardo da Vinci designed dreams of scientific progress. Some of his ideas will be on display at several exhibitions at the University of Kansas in March and April.
the Kansas Union gallery, and his scientific manuscript, the Codex Hammer, is on display at the Spencer Museum of Art.
Leonardo lived during the High Renaissance from 1452 to 1519. Among many other interests, he was an inventor, painter, architect, musician and engineer. Many of his architectural and scientific designs were never built during his lifetime, but International Business Machine Corp. has reconstructed some of the designs according to his drawings.
The gallery is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
About 20 objects are on display. Many of the pieces can be rotated and shifted to investigate the great detail and precision once only captured in Leonardo's sketches.
Some of those objects are part of "Models of Leonardo da Vinci," an exhibit in the Kansas Union Art Gallery that opened Thursday and will be on display until April 3.
IBM had the models built according to Leonardo's sketches and notes in minute left-handed mirror writing. The company has gathered pieces from its larger collections for exhibits at museums, colleges and universities around the nation.
More than 600 students visited the exhibit Tuesday morning, said Rick Lindley, Overland Park senior and fine arts chairman of Student Union Activities.
Examples of the items on display at the SUA gallery include a hydraulic screw and a printing press. The hydraulic screw resembles the water turbine which was not invented until the 19th century. Leonardo also designed a printing press that could
be run by one man. It was more efficient than Gutenberg's press which required several men to operate. Parts of the printing press exhibit also are movable.
Lindley said it was fascinating to see Leonardo's parachute and tank military designs, which were sketched hundreds of years before they actually were invented.
Lindley said he had arranged the show through IBM when he heard about the coming Leonardo da Vinci exhibits and Central Renaissance Conference at the Spencer Museum of Art.
The Spencer Art Museum will open two exhibitions of Renaissance art on
The Codex Hammer
March 22 "The Codex Hammer" will be in the Central Court and "In Leonardo's Shadow" will be in the White Gallery, Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Edmund Eglinski, associate professor of art history, said the manuscript generally was very mechanical in it's content.
The Codex contains Leonardo's notes and more than 300 illustrations investigating the weight, nature and movement of water.
"These kind of manuscripts are extremely rare and precious." he said.
The manuscript is on loan from the Arm and Hammer Foundation and is the only da Vinci manuscript in a private collection.
Eglinski said the 72 pages of the Codex had been disassembled and would be displayed between glass so that both sides could be viewed.
The Codex originally was bound in leather but later was taken apart in a laboratory to make the individual pages visible to the audience.
Leonardo's Shadow
The exhibit will open with a symposium from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The symposium, open to the public, will focus on the creative energy that flourished in both art and science during the Renaissance.
Sally Hoffmann, coordinator of programs at the museum, said the exhibit should be of particular interest to scientists.
The second exhibit, "In Leonardo's Shadow," will be on display in the White Gallery at the museum. The show will feature 20 drawings by artists who either worked directly with Leonardo, or studied his work during his lifetime or shortly thereafter.
The conference will feature speeches by scholars on the subjects of religious history, history of science, Europe in the age of Catherine de Medici, Shakespeare, Puritanism and Armenianism, the poetry of Robert Crashaw, renascence of art and architecture Spenser and English drama.
The Renaissance displays have been scheduled throughout March and April because the Central Renaissance Conference will be April 3-5 at KU. The conference focuses on the German Renaissance, Reformation and Baroque Periods.
Hoffman said the conference would be attended by scholars who had selected certain topics for presentation at the conference.
KC Players to perform free concert
By Grant W. Butler
Syndicate brings performers to Midwest for less
Staff writer
Artistic fulfillment is the main benefit of playing in a small musical ensemble, a member of the Kansas City Chamber Players said recently.
"I enjoy playing with the groups because that's all I get out of it," said Eva Hradetzy, a cellist with the Chamber Players. "I don't get much money, but this is something I can do as an individual."
Hadratetzky and two other members of the Kansas City Chamber Players will perform a free concert at 8 tonight in Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall. The concert is part of the Visiting Artist Series sponsored by the department of music.
The trio members are Hradetzky, pianist Juan Francisco La Manna and clarinetist John Wiener.
"I want to make a difference between playing in an orchestra and in an ensemble," she said. "It really is a different type of playing.
Hadetkyk said she liked small ensembles because although an orchestral musician could be expressive with music, any individuality would be covered up by the large sound an orchestra produced.
"It's risky to play ensemble music because you're exposed, but it's worth it because you can be yourself."
But Hradetzyk also said that playing in a trio kept all of the musicians busy and that touring for performances took its toll on their energy levels.
Wiener, however, said members of the Chamber Players regrouped frequently in order to play different types of music and to perform a variety of concerts. One night he might perform with a trio, and the next with a quartet.
"This is crazy," she said. "I do shows, concerts and tours, and I'm doing one right after the other. This is horrible. I got so tired that I could just go to bed and faint."
The trio will perform Beethoven's "Trio in B-flat Major, Opus 11," D'Indy's "Trio in B-flat Major, Opus 29" and Brahms' "Trio in A-Minor, Opus 114."
Hradetzky said, "We're practically playing our entire repertoire. As a trio we have no future because there is virtually no music written for the instuments."
The trio combination that will perform tonight is a good one, he said, and although not much music has been written for a cello, piano and clarinet trio, what has been written is good.
"It's your basic violin, cello and piano trio with the clarinet replacing the violin," he said. "When the composers wrote the works, the clarinet was very new and the composers wrote for people they knew who played the clarinet."
By Grant W. Butler
Staff writer
Bringing performing arts groups to the Midwest for performances is expensive and often can be difficult because a group might only be able to perform once.
The Plains Presenters Syndicate is working to change that by booking performers into plains presenters.
"The benefit of block booking is it can bring a group into the region that otherwise might not come if they only had one date," said Jackie Davis, the director of the KU Concert and Chamber Music series and co-chairman of the syndicate.
Ron Bowlin, director of Kimball Hall at the University of Nebraska and the other cochairman of the syndicate, agreed that there was a need to work together for reduced fees.
"The other benefit is getting a reduced fee for those dates. So an orchestra might come into a region and say, 'We're charging $30,000, but because there's four of you we'll charge $22,000.'" she said.
"We're all in the business of losing money, so it helps us enormously if we can go to an organization as presenters and ask for fee considerations so we don't have to stretch our already humble budgets." he said.
"We've all saved ourselves enormous headaches, and we've found times when we've been taken advantage of. We've been able to stop that by working."
The syndicate was formally organized about a year and a half ago, Bowlin said, but some of the members had been getting together informally for more than five years.
The six original members are the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, the University of Nebraska, the University of Missouri at Columbia, the Folly Theater in Kansas City and William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo.
Davis said the original members had decided to form the syndicate because other presenters in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska were interested in getting together to discuss problems.
The organization has grown in the last year from six to 13 members.
"It's been exciting to watch it grow." Davis said. "For years a small group of people were getting together, and now it's beginning to expand.
"It's wonderful to meet people from all around and talk about things that are concerns and interests in booking groups."
Interest in membership has increased, Davis said. When the syndicate hears of an interested group, it sends out information about dues and requirements for membership.
The chance to get together informally three times a year helps each presenter in several ways, she said.
"It's making it possible for us to have dialogue about events that we want to bring to the region," Davis said. "More importantly, it gives us the opportunity to get together and discuss common problems that we're seeing."
One possible problem could be a decreased number of people attending an event, she said; The syndicate can bring in marketing experts to discuss how to promote events more successfully.
The group has spent time recently discussing the computerization of box offices and box office management.
Bowlin said the members of the syndicate had developed trust for each other, so that when troubles with scheduling or booking arose the members could work together to solve the problems.
The co-chairman of the organization need to do whatever is necessary to provide the leadership needed for the syndicate to move toward its goals, he said.
They also need to be concerned with getting new members of the organization actively involved in the exchange of ideas, and to consider problems that might arise due to large geographic distances between performances, he said.
Band plays 'hodgepodge' of tunes
Staff writer
By Monique O'Donnell
Camper Van Beethoven started playing something that sounded like folk music. But it came up with an absurd musical style by adding muddled Egyptian, Russian and Oriental sounds with punk and thrash.
Despite the small crowd at Monday night's free concert at the Burge Union, the six member band from Santa Cruz, Calif., had fun performing.
"Having fun is the main reason we're doing it," said David Lowery, guitar player and singer.
As Jonathan Segal exhorted the first tunes from his violin, about 150 people drew close to the stage. The group said their musical style was hard to define.
"We do have our own style which we superimpose on the diversity of things we're playing," Segal said. "We're a garage band. Our music is loud and not real polished."
Originality was a distinct element in everything the band played. It's not often that a band titles a love song "Take a Skinbow Headling." The lyrics, too, signify original thought. Many of Beethoven's songs told of bizarre parodies, and other songs contained psychedelic intonations because of the backward vocals.
Wilfredo Lee/KANSAN
Camper van Beethoven band members performed Monday night in the Burge Union. From: top Greg Lisher, guitar; Victor Krummacher, bass; Chris Pedersen, drums; Jonathan Segal, violin; keyboards, harmonica, guitar and mandolin; and David Lowery, guitar and vocals.
Playing original music, however,
doesn't guarantee a band's success,
and it certainly doesn't ensure
economical security. Lowery said
that without the profits made at the
KU concert, the band couldn't have
afforded the gas money to continue
its tour. SUA and KJHK-FM sponsored
the concert.
"Our music is a hodgepodge kind of thing," he said. "We try to come up with some imaginary melody, and it's sort of interesting because it might sound like Russian music."
The band started its tour in California about a week ago and is scheduled to perform in Lincoln, Neb., and eventually will perform on the East Coast.
"You can tell we've only been on the road for a week because we don't all hate each other yet," said Victor Krummenauer, bass player.
The band's notoriety in California has not yet pervaded the Midwest.
Lowerey said their last performance in Oklahoma was a disaster.
"That's were they claimed our music was a real culture shock." Lowry said. "We were paid well, but the people in Oklahoma were weired-out by our songs."
A lot of bands, Segal said, pretend they are better than the audience they play for. The band said they usually respected the audience unless the audience turned on them.
Once an audience heckled at them during a performance and the rest of the evening the band heckled back, Segal said.
But on Monday night the crowd was enthusiastic. Two students got on stage and danced to the bands tenacious songs. Students are usually more appreciative of the bands non-traditional approach, Krummenacher said.
Student musicians to travel to Costa Rica during break
By Grant W. Butler
Staff writer
A trip to Costa Rica during spring break to teach master classes and perform for Costa Rican music students is an important experience for a performing career, a graduate student participating in the trip said Tuesday.
"I've looked forward to the performances," said Mark Puckett, Oklahoma City graduate student. "I think the audiences will be really receptive. There will be a lot to learn, although I don't think it will help me with my doctorate. I'm going to get that this semester anyway."
Puckett, a pianist, is one of three doctoral students who will spend the spring break in Costa Rica as performers in the U.S. University Artists Series.
The other graduate students are Stefanie May Humes, Remington, Ind., soprano, and her accompaniist, Suzanna Puckett, Tulsa, Okla.
While in Costa Rica, the students will perform several concerts, and possibly will perform at the Costa Rican president's home for the president and the U.S. Ambassador.
They also will teach master classes for two hours; on four days at Costa Rican universities. The classes will be available later for rebroadcast later this spring.
The general musical experience of the trip and the opportunity to share with Costa Rican students will be new for all three KU students,
Puckett said. Learning how Costa Rican students view the differences between the state of the arts in their country and in the United States will be interesting, he said.
Stanley Shumway, chairman of the KU department of music, agreed that the trip would give each student a good learning experience and also would give them some performance exposure.
"They'll have a chance for a major performance in a major center," he said. "And they're interacting with students in a smaller situation."
The trip to Costa Rica will benefit KU as well as the students, Shumway said.
"It's important for us not only for the growth of the students, but also for the image of KU," he said. "We were chosen with some of the best schools in the country. We're in a privileged group to be asked to participate."
The Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano in San Jose, which sponsors the series, invites American colleges and universities to nominate students to participate in the series.
The other universities participating in the program are Florida State, Michigan, Illinois, Tulane, Texas, Alabama and Wesleyan and the Eastman School of Music.
The KU School of Fine Arts will finance travel expenditures for Mark Puckett and Suzanna Puckett, and the Centro Cultural in Costa Rica will finance Humes' trip.
Weekend Outlook
Dance in squares, contras, big circles and more during spring break when the Lawrence Barn Dance Association will sponsor a dance at 7:30 p.m. March 15 at the Lawrence Arts Center.
The dance will feature live string band music, and John Forbes will serve as the caller. Admission is $3.
Forbes, a Baldwin resident, is a prominent dance historian and musician. He also has a long-time association with Berea College and Christmas Dance School, Berea, Ky.
■ Junior Johnson at 9 p.m. today and tomorrow at the Jazzhaus, 9261
Massachusetts St. The Gary Foster Quintet will perform at 9 p.m.
Saturday.
■ Arnie Johnson, a country band, 9 tonight at Johnny's Tavern, 401 N. Second St.
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