The new semester has begun at Emory University, and while the weather may be the coldest yet, opportunities to experience the arts on campus are just beginning. Emory University hosts several arts festivals in February centered on jazz, music composition, and new theater productions. There are also a variety of concerts, lectures, readings, and film screenings for you to enjoy, so see what Emory has to offer this month.
Groove Jazz Festival and CompFest
Emory hosts two annual campus music festivals this month. Jazz Fest, a three-day festival hosted by the Emory Jazz Studies Program, kicks off the month with events from Thursday, February 1 to Saturday, February 3.
Guitarist Bobby Broom will give a talk and demonstration on Thursday, February 1, at 2:30 pm in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts’ Emerson Hall. No registration or tickets required. Then return to Emerson Hall for a concert by Bloom and the Gary Motley Trio on Friday, February 2 at 8 p.m. Tickets are required for this event.
Join us for a Jazz Clinic on Saturday, February 3rd, in the Tharp Rehearsal Hall of the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. The clinic includes pianist Gary Motley, bassist Kenny Davis and drummer Kobe Watkins.No tickets required, free event starts at 11:30am
The Jazz Festival will conclude with a concert by the Emory Big Band on Saturday, February 3 at 8 pm at Emerson Hall. The event is free, but tickets are required.
The following weekend, the Music Composition Project will host CompFest, a composition festival featuring legendary composer Annea Lockwood, from Thursday, February 8th to Sunday, February 11th.
On Thursday, February 8, head to the Ackerman Hall of the Michael C. Carlos Museum for a creative conversation with composer and sound artist Annea Lockwood, pianist Laura Barger, and Emory University composer Katherine Young. The event starts at 5pm and is free and open to the public.
Then, witness the topics discussed through a sound ecology concert on Saturday, February 10, starting at 7:30 pm in the Performing Arts Studio. This event is free and open to the public. For a complete list of CompFest events and to learn more about visiting artists, visit the CompFest website.
Get a new perspective from the Carlos Museum
The Michael C. Carlos Museum is hosting a variety of lectures and artist talks this February that you won’t want to miss.
On Wednesday, February 7, at 7:30 p.m., the museum will host the Knicksman Endowed Lecture, “Voices Wild and Broken: Listening Beyond the Surface,” presented by David Haskell, professor of biology and environmental studies at the university Haskell). The lecture, held in conjunction with Emory University’s CompFest Music Festival and “Songs from the Compost: Mutating Bodies, Imploding Stars,” February 3-May 19, focuses on how listening can inform our understanding of what life is made of. interconnected.
Join Ruth Allen, Curator of Greek and Roman Art, for a gallery talk on “Recasting Antiquity: Whistler, Tanagra and the Female Form” on Tuesday, February 13 at 7pm“ exhibition.
The museum hosts an artist talk and reception with Eglė Budvytytė on Thursday, February 22 at 7:30 pm, in which Budvytytė discusses her video installation “Compost Song,” in which she combines dance, composition, music, and video .
Finally, the Carlos Museum ends the month with two lectures. First, “harness the power”“ Tuesday, February 27 at 7:30 pm, spotlights Nāgārjuna, a second-century Indian Buddhist monk best known for his philosophical treatise on emptiness. The program is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Make the most of February’s bonus day and attend the “London Models: Whistler and Miss Pettigrew” lecture on Thursday, February 29, at 7:30 pm in Ackerman Hall. The three Pettigrew sisters were professional London models. The program is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Examining Artificial Intelligence through Film with the Emory Film Center
Emory’s Department of Film and Media returns this semester to host a new series of film screenings for the Emory Film Center. The spring screening will focus on “Artificial Intelligence and Film,” curated by Associate Professor Gregory Zinman.
The use of artificial intelligence was a central negotiating point in Hollywood’s recent Writers and Screen Actors Guild strike and remains a hotly contested topic.This series explores the provocative ways in which artificial intelligence is depicted in film — This is a question the film industry has grappled with for decades, dating back to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927).
Artificial intelligence takes many forms in movies: crazy supercomputers, killer robots, confused replicants and invisible lovers. These sentient beings are not only intelligent machines, but often fully embodied humanoids such as replicants, androids, replicas, and androids. The artificial intelligence in the movie is intentionally similar to humans in some way. Their appearance and behavior only complicate their identities as “others.”
All Cinematheque screenings are held every Wednesday at 7:30 pm in Room 208 of the White House, followed by a post-screening Q&A.
Movies released in February include “Ex Machina” on February 7, “Her” on February 14, “Momentum” and “Demon Seed” on February 21, and “Another Body” on February 28.
For more information, including a complete list of films screening this spring, visit the Emory Film Center website.
Enjoy a range of other concerts
If Jazz Fest or CompFest doesn’t fit your schedule, there are many other concerts happening around campus.
The Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts will present two concerts this month as part of the 2023-24 Flora Glenn Candler Concert Series. On Thursday, February 8, the nationally renowned St. Olaf Chorale will perform at Emerson Hall as part of its winter tour. The concert starts at 8pm, tickets must be purchased in advance.
The Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta (ECMSA) presents several concerts, including two on Friday, February 9: Cook performs at noon in Emerson Hall at the Schwartz Center, featuring The Three Graces ) show, 7 p.m., a pajamas concert celebrating Chinese New Year Located in the Ackerman Hall of the Michael C. Carlos Museum.
ECMSA’s popular annual Bach Bowl returns on Sunday, February 11 at 4 p.m. .
On Wednesday, February 14, the Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra will present a free concert featuring the area’s best high school musicians. No tickets are required and the event begins at 8pm at Emerson Hall.
On Friday, February 16, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine will perform at 8 p.m. in Emerson Hall at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.
On Sunday, February 18 at 2 p.m., Theodosia Roussos, a 2023-24 Emory Arts Fellow, will perform “Building the Temple.” Performed by Performing Arts Studio. A talk session will be held after the performance.
The Emory Wind Ensemble will present its first concert of 2024 on Friday, February 23 at 8 p.m.
On Saturday, February 24, Emory University-affiliated artist Alexandra Shatalova Prior joins a group of musicians in an oboe recital at Emerson Hall at 8 p.m.
On Sunday, February 25, ECMSA hosts another family performance series in conjunction with Atlanta Young Artists Concerts, showcasing some of the best pre-college musicians in the area. The event is free and begins at 4 p.m. in the Ackerman Hall of the Michael Carlos Museum.
Finally, on February 27, the Merian Ensemble performs “Listen: Works by Women 2024,” a chamber concert featuring Gipps, Beach, Schwob ) and other works by historical and modern female composers.The event is free and open to the public and takes place at Emerson Hall at 8 p.m.
See cutting-edge performances at the Brave New Works Festival
This February, the Emory Theater Playwriting Center will host the biennial Brave New Works festival, dedicated to the development of new works in theatre, from Saturday, February 17 to Saturday, March 2.
On Saturday, February 17, the festival kicked off with a panel discussion on the new play development process moderated by “Shoot a Duck” playwright Moses H. McGavin. Amber Bradshaw, playwright; and directors Samantha Provenzano and Adai Moon. The event takes place in the Theater Lab at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts at 5 p.m. The event is free, but tickets must be reserved in advance.
Then, on Saturday, February 24, at 5 p.m., the Emory Theater Playwriting Center produces a stage reading of “Felicity“ By Dylan Malloy, a junior at Emory University. Readings at the Theater Lab are free, but tickets must be reserved in advance.
Learn more about dance and creative writing
On Tuesday, February 13, at 7:30 p.m., the Friends of Emory Dance present their annual lecture, “Dancing Around Race—Cultivating Racial Equity and Absolute Belonging.” The lecture, presented by dance artist, equity advocate and anti-racist educator Gerald Casel, is free and open to the public. The event, which requires no admission, is held in the dance studio of the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.
Later this month, the Emory Creative Writing Program invites guest poets Jennifer Grosz and Michael Dumanis, who will appear together at two public events. Enjoy a poetry reading on Wednesday, February 21 at 6:30 pm. Then, there will be a panel discussion on Thursday, February 22 at 1 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.
