Four-hand piano scholars

The four-hand piano transcription was the choice medium of musical reproduction in 19th-century middle-class households, and has in recent years gained critical attention as a precursor to LPs, cassettes, CDs, streaming and other formats. The Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies explores four-hand piano music in a symposium Feb. 3, 1-7 p.m. in Barnes Hall, “Four-Hand Keyboarding in the Long 19th Century.” It is free and open to the public.

Participants will include Cornell graduate students, Department of Music faculty members Annette Richards, Roger Moseley, David Yearsley and Ariana Kim, and guest four-hand expert Thomas Christensen of the University of Chicago.

Eight pairings of performer-scholars will each discuss a four-hand piece, composer and critical theme, and then perform four-hand music on Cornell’s collection of historical keyboard instruments. Topics include Charles Burney’s piano duos, Wagnerian operatic transcription and Franz Joseph Haydn’s teaching techniques.

For more information, email info@westfield.org or call 607-255-3065. 

Where the birds are

David Bonter, director of citizen science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, will discuss Appledore Island and the Isles of Shoals archipelago as the ideal immersive learning and research setting for students studying birds, in a talk Feb. 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the lab, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road.

His talk, “Of Islands and Undergrads: A Decade of Bird Study in the Isles of Shoals,” is free and open to the public.

Bonter teaches field ornithology and mentors students researching the eiders, swallows, gulls and warblers that invade the islands in the Gulf of Maine during the breeding season.

History and violence

Cornell Cinema is showing three Best Documentary Feature Oscar contenders, including one nominee, this week in Willard Straight Theatre. All three films explore key events in late 20th-century American history.

“Tower,” Feb. 6 at 7 p.m., is a you-are-there account of America’s first mass school shooting. Using rotoscope animation, archival footage and sound, and contemporary interviews with witnesses, the film reconstructs the 1966 shooting on the University of Texas campus in Austin that left 16 dead and 33 wounded.

Magnolia Pictures/Provided

An anti-integration rally in Little Rock, Arkansas, from ”I Am Not Your Negro,” screening with a panel discussion Feb. 8 at Cornell Cinema.

Professor of linguistics Wales Brown introduces a free screening of “Command and Control,” Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. Based on Eric Schlosser’s book about a deadly 1980 accident at a Titan II missile complex in Arkansas, the story is interwoven with a history of the U.S. nuclear weapons program, largely based on recently declassified documents.

Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the Oscar-nominated “I Am Not Your Negro,” Feb. 8 at 7 p.m., draws from James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript “Remember This House,” giving testimony to the assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., and addressing race in America. A panel discussion follows the screening with faculty members Kevin Gaines, Africana studies; Russell Rickford, history; Samantha Sheppard, performing and media arts; and Dagmawi Woubshet, English.

More Oscar nominees: An “Oscar Shorts: Animation” program screens Feb. 9-12, live-action shorts will be shown Feb. 10 and 12, and short documentaries screen Feb. 21.

Meet the new dean of students

Students are invited to a free dinner and discussion with new Dean of Students Vijay Pendakur, Feb. 7 at 5 p.m. in the Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room. The event is sponsored by the Student Assembly and Cornell Minds Matter.

Pendakur will speak about his path to a career in student affairs and his passion for it, and the role of the dean of students as it relates to diversity, inclusion and well-being. Members of student organizations are encouraged to attend.

For more information, contact studentassembly@cornell.edu

Funding for creative projects

The Cornell Council for the Arts (CCA) hosts an information session on applying for a 2017-18 CCA grant, Feb. 8, 5-6 p.m. in B1 Sibley Hall.

The CCA Individual Grant Program supports the development of new, experimental and exceptional arts projects by Cornell students, student organizations, faculty, departments and programs. The application deadline is April 14. Additional sessions this semester will be announced.

For more information, contact the CCA office at cca@cornell.edu or 607-255-7274.

Disability and employers

Nearly one in five people report some form of disability, and they are only half as likely to be employed as those without disabilities.

Professor of disability studies Susanne M. Bruyère discusses better ways to address continuing employment disparities and research on employer practices affecting people with disabilities in a Chats in the Stacks book talk, Feb. 8 at 4:30 p.m. in the Catherwood Library Kheel Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Bruyère is editor of “Disability and Employer Practices: Research Across the Disciplines” (2016) and director of the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at the ILR School. Nine Cornell experts in economics, education, environmental design and analysis, human resource studies, psychology and public health are among the book’s contributing authors. Their research documents workplace policies and practices in the United States that result in successful recruitment and advancement of individuals with disabilities.

How museums work

A new free series goes behind the scenes at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, starting with an interactive gallery walk Thursday, Feb. 9, at 6 p.m., exploring how museums get started and how they run.

The monthly series “Have You Ever Wondered?” is designed to show visitors what makes a museum come alive. The next program, on March 2, is “How Do Museums Get Their Art?” – including how some works came to Cornell, how the art market shifts over time, and legal and ethical concerns.

A new family series, for parents and caregivers of infants and children to age 4, offers a thematic tour with a museum educator, a kids’ snack and hands-on activity. “Lets Look, Baby!” is free for museum members, $5 per family for nonmembers.

The monthly series is all about looking, and starts Feb. 16 from 10-11 a.m., with a tour focusing on reflective surfaces in contemporary art. Future programs are March 16, April 20 and May 18. To reserve a place, email Julie McLean at jzm6@cornell.edu by the Wednesday before the tour.

The museum is open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursdays until 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. 

Winning scripts

The winning plays and screenplays from the 2016 Heermans-McCalmon writing competition will be presented Feb. 10 at 4:30 p.m. at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, 430 College Ave.

Sponsored by the Department of Performing and Media Arts, the reading in the Class of ’56 Dance Theatre is free and open to the public.