Journal & Courier (Lafayette, Ind., Nov. 20) -- After months of rehearsals, interviews and 90-minute drives from Champaign, Ill., to West Lafayette, Ind., the Zachary Carrettin era at the Wabash Valley Youth Symphony begins this weekend. And the 36-year-old conductor and graduate student at the U. of I. is not pulling any repertoire punches. His 70 mostly teen musicians will perform one of the group’s toughest works to date – Brahms’ Second Symphony. U. of I. music professor Ian Hobson will be guest pianist for a Mozart concerto.
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Chicago Tribune (Nov. 17) -- It isn’t often that a recording debut stands as one of the strongest CDs of the year, but that’s unmistakably the case with Chicago drummer Dana Hall’s newly released “Into the Light” (Origin Records). Hall, who also teaches at the U. of I. School of Music, has appeared prolifically on CDs of other artists, but he makes his boldest statement to date in his recording bow as bandleader.

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The New York Times (Nov. 17) -- In a review of “Superior Donuts,” starring U. of I. alumnus Jon Michael Hill, the reviewer mentions Hill’s first major outing in New York theater was in 2007, as Puck in a Shakespeare in the Park production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The director, U. of I. theater professor Daniel Sullivan, had done a workshop of “Midsummer” months earlier at Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he cast Hill in the role during his senior year. The reviewer states that New York Times Charles Isherwood credited Mr. Hill with “boundless, buoyant charm.” more

Related article:
Broadway World (New York City, Nov. 17)
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News-Gazette.com, November 15, 2009 - University of Illinois opera students will perform pieces from Robert Picklesheimer's "1787: We, the People" at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The musical is a work in progress with contributions by co-writer Lucinda Lawrence, assistant to the director of UI Bands, Dawn Harris, instructor of dance and participating opera students. Excerpts from the musical are being directed and choreographed by Harris. more

News-Gazette.com, November 15, 2009 - Works by the late David Bushman, professor in Art & Design, will be one of the last exhibitions in the College of Fine and Applied Arts' i space Gallery in Chicago. Bushman taught from 1969 until his retirement in 2004. The other final exhibition is "Architecture of Crisis" featuring work by Illinois professors Roger Hubeli and Julie Larsen. The i space opened in 1992 funded by grants from a private foundation. The last day for the gallery is Dec. 19. more