High Energy, Exquisite Details and Milestone Anniversaries: This is Spring 2020

Join us this spring to celebrate the 50^th Rowan Jazz Festival, explore femininity and standards of normalcy & propriety through sculpture, honor Beethoven’s 250^th birthday, and enjoy original choreography, musical theatre satire, and the diversity and accessibility of the arts available across the Rowan campus.

This Spring in Performance

"This new season promises to be inspiring, with a great mix of world-class guest artists and outstanding student performances," notes Rick Dammers, Dean of the College of Performing Arts, "so you can experience the best artists of today, and tomorrow."

Marie Rader Presenting Series

We invite you to be electrified by internationally acclaimed hip-hop street dance for the concert stage and delighted by the extraordinary beauty of the ordinary world as revealed through expertly hand-crafted puppetry. 

Rennie Harris - hailed as "the most profound choreographer of his idiom" by The New York Times - matches street dance with unexpected beats to challenge the boundaries and definitions of hip-hop in Nuttin’ But A Word on February 22. Nuttin’ But A Word was taken from a cultural phrase used in the black community in the United States. The full phrase is, "You ain’t said nothing but a word"; loosely translated it means "Your words mean nothing — pay close attention, because what I do next will trump anything you have to say." In other words, in the hip-hop community action is valued more than words. By changing the texture of street dance vocabulary, this piece exposes the essence of Street dance and the culture that bore it. 

Unmatched in artistry, grace, and refinement of movement, the Cashore Marionettes redefine the art of puppetry. Life in Motion, coming to Pfleeger Concert Hall on March 28, is a celebration of life and introduces audiences of all ages to a series of scenes taken from the everyday set to beautiful music by composers such as Beethoven, Vivaldi, Strauss, and Copland. The moving and humorous performance has astounded audiences in Europe, the Far East, and across North America including stops at the Kennedy Center, Annenberg Center, and many others. 

Theatre

A classic Greek myth gets a contemporary spin in playwright Sarah Ruhl’s reimagining of the story of Orpheus when the Department of Theatre & Dance continues its mainstage season with this new production of Eurydice February 27 – March 1. 

Then, satire and musical theatre join forces to send up corporate greed, public protests, government regulation, populism, and public bathrooms in a cautionary tale of life after an apocalyptic drought with Urinetown, The Musical April 3 – 11. 

Dance

A tradition each spring, advanced students in the Dance program at Rowan come together to create original work and a collaborative evening that requires them to examine their own ideas and the world around them in the Student Choreography Showcase April 24 - 26. 

Music

The Rowan Jazz Festival commemorates its 50^th Anniversary on February 14 with a celebration of the Samba, an energetic evening of music that features guest artist and Rowan’s new percussion professor Fabio Oliveira from Brazil. Details and tickets can be found here. 

This Spring’s FREE faculty spotlight series is filled with extraordinary musicians and kicks off at the start of the semester in Boyd Recital Hall, including Bryan Appleby-Wineberg & George Rabbai on January 29; the Brass Faculty on February 5; the Percussion and Drum-set faculty on February 17; the Composition faculty (Denis DiBlasio, Roberto Pace, and Bruce Yurko) on February 19; pianist Alexei Ulitin on February 20; pianist Alexander Timofeev on April 8; and violinist Lenuta Ciulei Atanasiu on April 15. 

You can join Rowan piano students past and present to honor Ludwig van Beethoven during his 250^th birthday year February 28 – March 1 with a series of seven free recitals across three days in Boyd Recital Hall that present the composer’s complete piano sontatas, 32 in all. More details can be found here. 

The Rowan University Orchestra showcases the first place winners from the annual Rowan Student Concerto Competition on February 25 and the Concert Choir previews its by-invitation appearance at the American Choral Directors Association conference with a performance on February 29. 

Whether it’s the early music program from Collegium Musicum on April 6, the Percussion Ensemble on April 20, or an evening of vocal music from the University Chorus, Cantati Tutti and Voces on April 29, there are numerous opportunities to enjoy a concert in Wilson Hall this semester. 

View the full season calendar and purchase tickets for the College of Performing Arts events here and on Facebook.

This Spring in Visual Art

The Department of Art’s 2019-20 Artist-in-Residence Misty Gamble starts Rowan University Art Gallery’s new year off with Accoutrement and Consumption, a showcase of life-size ceramic sculptures confronting conventional standards of womanhood, beauty, and power. An opening reception and artist talk is set for Thursday, January 30 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. for the exhibition running now through March 7 in the downtown Glassboro gallery at 301 High Street. 

"As a social satirist I confront the most material aspects of cultural traditions forcing the viewer to rethink concepts of body, adornment, social status, personal worth, and the roles of both sexes," Gamble says. 

From March 23 to June 6, a group exhibit fills the space with the work of Claes Gabriel, Colette Fu, and Hiro Sakaguchi, three diverse and multi-dimensional artists from New Jersey & Pennsylvania. 

While their work is on display, Gabriel and Fu will contribute to a new arts-in-education program through the recently-established Center for Art and Social Engagement in Westby Hall. The visiting artists are set to lead arts-based and STEAM-related projects with Rowan Art students and participants from schools in the region. 

"Starting in February we are producing a project called #Monumental Selfies@Sister Chapel which will transform the Center for Art and Social Engagement at Westby into an immersive and experiential activity for students," according to Mary Salvante, Gallery and Exhibitions Program Director. 

Through a collaboration with the university’s Radio/TV/Film, Earth and Environment, 3D Illustration, Theatre, and Women’s Studies programs, the permanent Sister Chapel installation becomes an interactive public art adventure with greenscreen selfie backgrounds, sound recordings, and images projected onto the gallery windows. A talk by Paul Farber, curator for Monuments Lab, a public art project in Philadelphia, augments the endeavor on March 26 at 3:30 p.m. in Westby Hall Room 111. 

Find out more about gallery events, hours, directions, and programs here or on Facebook.