Upcoming Central and East European cultural events over the next few weeks include performances by an award-winning Polish theater group and a US tour of the Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic, as well as other Polish, Czech and Ukrainian exhibits and events.
For more information, e-mail Liana at the Embassy of Latvia.
Attention classical music lovers! The Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic is touring the US from mid-February through early April. See below for dates and locations. For information on time and venue, call (212) 581-8478.
20 Naples, FL; 21 Titusville, FL; 22 Vero Beach, FL; Fort Myers, FL; 25 Daytona Beach, FL; 26 Brunswick, GA; 27 Niceville, FL; 28 Panama City, FL; 29 Americus, GA.
1 Columbia, SC; 2 Atlanta, GA; 5 Danville, VA; 6 Elon College, NC; 10 Wabash, IND; 16 Rock Island, IL; 18 Houghton, IL; 19 Green Bay, WI; 20 Rockford, IL; 26 Indianapolis, IN; 27 Tiffin, OH; 28 Detroit, MI; 29 Pittsburgh, PA; 30 Washington, PA; 31 Lancaster, PA.
1 Carlisle, PA; 2 Winchester, VA; 4 Williamsport, PA; 5 South Orange, NJ; 8 Merrick, NY.
The Leica Gallery in SoHo is presenting an exhibit of photographs by Bohdan Holomíček, born in 1943 in Sienkiewiczowka, a Czech village in Ukraine, under German control at the time. He began taking photos as early as age six, documenting his family and the simple farming life in his community. It was not until 1994 that Holomíček took up photography full-time, still presenting everyday Czech life in an almost mystical, fairy-tale way, combined with tones of melancholy. This exhibit can be seen Tuesday through Friday, 11 am to 6 pm, and Saturday, noon to 6 pm.
Projekt Praha 2000, a unique exhibit by Washington-based photographer Chad Wyatt, presents portraits of remarkable personalities in the Czech Republic's art scene over the last decade. While many remarkable works of art have left their marks on history, we often have little information on the artists who created them. Wyatt's photographs map an entire generation active on the contemporary Czech art scene, creating a first-of-its-kind historical marker. The exhibit opening is at 7:30 pm at the Czech Embassy and features Karel Růžička on saxophone. It will be open through August, weekdays 9 am to 5 pm and during events.
The Czech Center New York has been presenting a traveling retrospective of Czech New Wave director Jiří Menzel's greatest films to audiences across the country since September 1999. So far, the Jiří Menzel Film Retrospective has made stops in Montreal, Cleveland, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland and Santa Fe. Featuring Menzel's best films over the last thirty years, the retrospective gives film lovers a rare glimpse of the body of work of one of Europe's foremost filmmakers. In February, film-goers can catch such films as the famous Closely Watched Trains, My Sweet Little Village and Larks on a String, which was banned by the Communist authorities for 21 years.
For more information about Jiří Menzel, Video Thursdays and other films presented by the Czech Center, visit their website.
Teatr Provisorium and Kompania "Teatr" of Lublin, Poland, will begin their first American tour in Philadelphia with the North American premiere of their award-winning stage adaptation of Witold Gombrowicz's satirical masterpiece Ferdydurke. The companies' co-production of Ferdydurke was recently voted best production by an alternative theater in Poland in 1999. The group will be giving performances in both English and Polish and will subsequently perform the work in New York City and Los Angeles before beginning a European tour.
Also well-known for his novels and diaries, Gombrowicz's satirical first novel Ferdydurke (1937) has become an underground classic with a passionate cult following in many parts of the world. The play begins with an absurd variation on the Faust story: the narrator (a young writer in his 30s) is transformed by a demonic professor of literature into an adolescent and sent back to school "to learn how to do it right." This "education" of the narrator reveals the conventional and coercive nature of not only education and cultural life but also of gender, sexuality and class - and his presence consistently produces a crisis wherever he appears.
Both Swarthmore performances will be in English and will be FREE and open to the public. Reservations are strongly recommended. Call (610) 328-8200 starting 21 February.
The Friday performance will be in English, the Saturday performance will be in Polish. Tickets for the performances at the Arts Bank will be $10 ($5 for students and senior citizens). For reservations, call the theater at (215) 925-7686 starting 14 February.
If you're in the New York area, be sure to visit the Permanent Exhibition at the Ukrainian Museum. The newest addition is the Children's Exhibition. On display are traditional children's folk costumes - shirts, sheepskin jackets, footwear and headdresses - in various regional styles. The exhibition also features toys, among them clay whistles in the shape of rams from the Poltava Region and dolls in folk costumes from various regions of Ukraine.
An addition to the Permanent Folk Art exhibition is a collection of rushnyky (woven or embroidered ritual cloths) and wedding trees, which are made from actual tree branches, covered in dough and decorated with dough birds, ribbons and periwinkle.
The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday 1 pm to 5 pm.
For more information on exhibits and events at the Ukrainian Museum, contact them via e-mail or visit their website.
For more information on this exhibit e-mail the Ukrainian Institute or visit their website.
The Washington Group Cultural Fund presents the prize-winning violinist from Lviv, Solomiya Soroka, accompanied by pianist Oksana Lassowsky featuring works by Chausson, Franck, Hubay, Lysenko, Skoryk and Stankovych. Admission is free, with donations welcomed, and there will be free parking behind club.
For more information, please visit the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences web site.