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Mixed Media

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Saturday, Oct. 19, at the Seligman
Performing Arts Center in Beverly
Hills, will feature Schubert's Piano Trio
in B flat major and Tchaikovsky's

Piano Trio in A minor.
Unlike Bronfman and Shaham, who
have lived and studied in Israel, Mork
traces his musical background to
Norway, where he is founder and artis-
tic director of the International
Chamber Music Festival in Stavanger.
He also has toured Europe with the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which
has featured the other two internation-
ally acclaimed performers and record-
ing artists separately at Orchestra Hall.
Mork has told the Internet Cello
Society that his instrument keeps him
closer to the audience than the instru-
ments of the other two musicians.
"We cellists must face the audience,
and there's no escape," he has said.
"Pianists don't face the audience, and
violinists can always turn if they feel
like it. There are times when I want to
concentrate solely on the music, but
no - matter how hard I try, I can't help
but be influenced by the crowd."
— Suzanne Chessler

Harry Ahn's "Old Rabbi" at the Birmingham Community House show

Our Town Art

A painting entitled "Old Rabbi" is one
of the many works to be shown at the
17th annual Our Town Art Exhibition
and Sale Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 17-
19, at the Community House in
Birmingham. Completed by Harry
Ahn of Berrien Springs, the piece
recalls a person he met while
employed as a nurse at a Toronto care
center for Jewish seniors.
Ahn, a Seventh-day Adventist who
now teaches drawing and painting at
Andrews University near his home,
studied art with a Jewish teacher in
Canada and that experience added to
his interest in Jewish people.
"I have given up nursing for art,"
says Ahn, who was born in Korea.
"When I went from North Korea to
South Korea, I was homeless, and now
most of my subject matter has to do
with•the homeless. In Canada, the
older people used to talk about the
Holocaust, and I had some very simi-
lar experiences in Korea."
Ahn, who learned nursing through a
Seventh-day Adventist program in his
native country, has another religious-
based painting at Our Town, "A
Woman Reading Bible."
Two Jewish artists will be doing
demonstrations as part of the special
Our Town programs. Julie
Langensiepen will be working with
fiber, while Patti Tapper will be featur-
ing paper and thread.

10/18
2002

86

Our Town, which supports educa-
tional and social programs at the
Community House, draws artists from
across the Country and is showcasing
275 pieces ranging in media and price
from $125-$18,000. The event, which
began with Michigan artists using their
towns as the focus and expanded to
include more artists and additional
subjects, will be having a discussion on
collecting Thursday, Oct. 17, and a
gallery tour of Pontiac Friday, Oct. 18.

The Bronfman-Shaham-Mork concert
begins 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, at the
Seligman Performing Arts Center,
22305 W 13 Mile, Beverly Hills. $32-
$67. (248) 737-9980.

— Suzanne Chessler

Mark Twain

Our Town Art Exhibition and Sale runs
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday,
Oct. 17-19, at the Birmingham
Community House, 380 S. Bates.
Admission is free for the general show.
The gala preview, running 6-9 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 16, costs $100-$200.
A discussion on collecting begins at 7
p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, and costs $15.
A Gallery Crawl in Pontiac begins at
9:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 18, and costs
$30. (248) 594-6403.

Chamber Music

The Chamber Music Society of
Detroit presented pianist Yefim
Bronfman as a soloist four years ago,
as half of a piano duo with Emanuel
Ax last year and now in a trio that
includes violinist Gil Shaham and cel-
list Truls Mork-.
The program, to be performed on

Top to bottom: Gil Shaham, Yelim
Bronfman and Truls Mork

When Hal Holbrook takes the stage
at the Fisher Theatre to portray leg-
endary author Mark Twain (Samuel
Clemens), he will not be very far from
the venue built at the insistence of
Twain's son-in-law, a music legend of
Russian-Jewish heritage.
Ossip Gabrilowitsch, who married
Clara Clemens in 1909, insisted on a
new hall before accepting responsibili-
ties as the first director of the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra. Within six
months, Orchestra Hall was complet-
ed and remains one of the world's few
acoustically perfect concert facilities.
Mark Twain Tonight!, in town for
two performances only, stars the actor
who created the one-man production
and has toured it at least part of each
year since 1954. The character of
Twain, visiting Detroit Friday and
Saturday, Oct. 25 and 26, is shown as
journalist, author, raconteur, essayist