The Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents Colette Searls, who will discuss research for her forthcoming book, A Galaxy of Things: the Power of Puppets and Masks in Star Wars and Beyond (Routledge Press, 2022).
UMBC Theatre presents She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen, directed by Danielle Drakes. She Kills Monsters tells the story of Agnes Evans as she leaves her childhood home in Ohio following the death of her teenage sister, Tilly. When Agnes finds Tilly’s Dungeons & Dragons notebook, however, she finds herself catapulted into a journey of discovery and action-packed adventure in the imaginary world that was her sister’s refuge. In this high-octane dramatic comedy laden with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, and ’90s pop culture, acclaimed playwright Qui Nguyen offers a heart-pounding homage to the geek and warrior within us all.
The Humanities Forum presents Melody Jue, associate professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who will speak on Theory Underwater: Diving into Wild Blue Media. What would media and literary studies look like, underwater? In her recent book, Melody Jue shows how the ocean can be a science fictional environment for defamiliarizing concepts in media studies.
The Department of Music presents an evening of vocal duets, featuring soprano Seyoung Jeong and tenor Seungwon Choi, who will perform art songs, opera arias, and love duets.
The Department of Music presents the UMBC New Music Ensemble under the direction of Daniel Pesca in a program featuring works by Moondog, Daniel Pesca, Chris Benna, Freya Lily, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich.
Expanding dance with visually stunning and collaborative works, Baltimore Dance Project returns to the stage, and invites audiences to join its first in-person concert since the start of the pandemic. The event features a feast of new dances and works-in-progress by directors Ann Sofie Clemmensen, Shaness D. Kemp, and Sandra Lacy. Guest performances include a solo work by San Francisco-based artist Erin Yen, and a new piece choreographed by UMBC Dance alumnus Ryan Bailey and performed by dancers from Peabody Preparatory.
For the Spring 2022 semester, Amadou Kouyate has been the inaugural Maryland Traditions Artist-in-Residence at UMBC where he introduced music and dance students to the rich tradition of Manding culture, demonstrating the role the music and the practitioners, the Djeli, occupy in the cultural community. The results of this work will be shared with the public in two free performances. Performers will include Chris Benna, Alfredo Ruiz-Malca, Valarous Lingham, A’mon Griffin, Connor Fuerst, Gretta Zinski, and Gina Beck.
The Department of Music presents the UMBC Gamelan under the direction of Gina Beck.
The Department of Music is pleased to serve as host to the Handel Choir of Baltimore and its artistic director and conductor, Brian Bartoldus, for their program Charm City Goes Classical. The UMBC Camerata Chamber Choir, conducted by Stephen Caracciolo, joins the performance as collaborators in a program that includes Mozart's thrilling Mass in C, K. 317 ("Coronation") and Handel's eight-movement anthem My song shall be alway, HWV 252. The Handel Period Instrument Orchestra and vocal soloists will join the combined choirs on stage for this full-house performance.
The Department of Music presents the UMBC Symphony under the direction of Nell Flanders. The Symphony's program will feature Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor ("Unfinished"); a movement from Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, featuring Gaby Echiverri; Glow (2022) by Jeffrey Martin; Dances in the Canebrakes by Florence Price; and Great Is Thy Faithfulness by William M. Runyan, featuring the UMBC Gospel Choir and Jubilee Singers, directed by Janice Jackson.
The Humanities Forum presents the annual Daphne Harrison Lecture, featuring Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, president of UMBC, who will speak on "American Higher Education at the Crossroads: Reflections on Access and Student Success in the Past 60 years." Even before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, rapid and dramatic demographic and technological changes presented our nation’s colleges and universities with enormous challenges in educating students and preparing them for successful careers. In this lecture, President Hrabowski will discuss trends related to access to higher education and the success of students from all backgrounds, and he will emphasize lessons learned over a career in academic leadership, including three decades as UMBC's president.
The Social Sciences Forum presents Dána-Ain Davis, professor of urban studies and anthropology at the City University of New York (CUNY), where she is also director of the Center for the Study of Women and Society at the Graduate Center City University of New York. She will deliver the Health and Inequality Lecture on /ˈgramərs/ of Racism: Obstetrics and Black Anti Bodies.
The Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents Exploring Presence: African American Artists in the Upper South. This virtual program will include a screening of the short documentary film Exploring Presence: Ed Love, followed by a conversation with filmmaker and curator Angela N. Carroll and nia love and Scott Love about the legacy of their father, esteemed sculptor Ed Love.
The Department of Music presents the UMBC Percussion Ensemble under the direction of Tom Goldstein in a program of music by John Cage, Linda Dusman, Robert Carl, Alex Armbruster, Eric Shuster, Marilyn Bliss, Paul Hindemith, and Vinko Globokar.
The Department of Music presents the Collegium Musicum under the direction of Lindsay Johnson.
