Arts & Entertainment

Remembering Babi Yar

Conductor Valery Gergiev — director of
the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg,
Russia, (home to the Kirov Opera and
Ballet) — and the theater's resident,
Kirov Orchestra, return to Ann Arbor's
Hill Auditorium this weekend for the
second installment of the Shostakovich
Centennial Festival, a two-part series

Valery Gergiev

of concerts presented by the University
Musical Society celebrating the 100th
birthday of Russian composer Dmitri
Shostakovich.
The orchestra will perform
Shostakovich Symphonies 11 and
6 at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, followed
by Symphonies 12 and 14 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 21. The Russian ensemble
will be joined by the men of the UMS
Choral Union and the U-M Men's Glee

About
11110

Club at 4 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 22, for
Symphonies 8 and
13.
Composed in
1962, Shostakovich's
Symphony No. 13
in b-flat major,
known as the "Babi
Yar," sets to music
the poems of Russian poet Yevgeny
Yevtushenko memorializing 33,771
Ukrainian Jews killed by the Germans at
Babi Yar during World War II.
Zvi Gitelman, the Preston R. Tisch
Professor of Judaic Studies and profes-
sor of political science at the University
of Michigan, attended the Leningrad
premiere of the "Babi Yar" symphony just
four years after its controversial world
premiere in Moscow. Prior to the concert,
at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22, in Rackham
Auditorium, 915 E. Washington Street
in Ann Arbor, he will give a free lecture,
"Mass Murder, Memorials and Music: Babi
Yar and Its Politics."
Tickets for the Kirov Orchestra con-
certs are $10-$75. (734) 764-2538 or
www.ums.org .

Benefit By Burstyn

Born in New York to a famed family of
actors, Jewish entertainer Mike Burstyn

has entertained audi-
ences, since age 3, on
stage, screen and tele-
vision, in nightclubs
and on concert stages
around the world. The
Komedient, a film
about Burstyn and his
family, won the Israeli
Oscar. He recently
completed a sold-out concert tour of
Israel — where he settled with his
parents and twin sister, Susan, in 1962
— celebrating his 50th year in show
business.
Burstyn comes to Motown to take the
stage at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, when he
performs in the benefit Balfour Concert
for the Zionist Organization of America
Michigan
Region at
Adat Shalom
Synagogue in
Farmington
Hills.
Tickets
for Balfour
Concert 73
begin at $50.
For reserva-
tions, call
(248) 282-
Mike Burstyn
0088.

Ancient Israel Live!

The traveling 40,000-square-foot exhibit
"From Abraham to Jesus," which is on dis-
play at Grand Rapids' DeVos Place through
Nov. 4 (the second stop on a 28-city
national tour), brings ancient Israel to life
with 340 sacred texts and artifacts from
the Holy Land. Five periods are detailed:
the time of the patriarchs; the shift from
nomadic tribes to monarchy; the time of
kings, priests and prophets; Israel's con-
frontation with Hellenism; and the power
of Rome and the birth of Christianity.
Highlights include the first U.S. visit
of the Isaiah Scroll (100 B.C.E.), one of
the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the ossuary, or
bone box, archeologists believe held the
remains of a son of Simon the Cyrene,
who carried the cross for Jesus.
Large-scale biblical scenes, both two-
and three-dimensional, animate each era.
A 3-D video shot in Israel's cities and wil-
derness, paintings by Thomas Kinkade, an
original musical score and a 5,000-square-
foot bazaar where you can buy Israeli
products and traditional Middle Eastern
foods are part of the mix.
"It's a unique exhibition, not the tradi-
tional presentation of artifacts," said Eliav
Nahlieli, founder of Programa 1 Design
Studio in Tel Aviv and exhibit designer.
"We've created a theatrical environment
in which the artifacts are taking part

FYI: For Arts related events that you wish to have considered for Out & About, please send the item, with a detailed description of the event, times, dates, place, ticket prices and publishable phone number, to: Gail Zimmerman, JN Out
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event. Photos are appreciated but cannot be returned. All events and dates listed in the Out & About column are subject to change.

ews

Ulm

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

Powerful And Kosher

Forbes magazine recently came
out with its annual "Most Powerful
Women in Business" list, and Irene
Rosenfeld, 53, the head of Kraft
Foods, is ranked No. 6.
Rosenfeld studied at Cornell
University, where she earned an
undergraduate degree in psychol-
ogy and a doctorate in
marketing and statistics.
Last year, when Rosenfeld
accepted a Masters in
Excellence Award from
the Center for Jewish
Living at Cornell, she said
her student experience
Irene Rosenfeld
at Cornell's kosher dining
hall was "a logical step
along the path of my lifelong love of
Judaism and played a key role in my

50

October 19 2006

decision to set up a kosher home."
After graduating, Rosenfeld worked
for an ad agency and then took a
position, in 1981, as a research man-
ager for Kraft. She stayed with Kraft
for 22 years, shining in each subse-
quent position she held and rising to
be head of Kraft's North American
Division in 2001. Along the way, she
married a nice Jewish guy (they are
still married) and raised two daugh-
ters, now 24 and 21. She also made
a concerted effort to expand Kraft's
kosher food line.
In 2003, she disagreed with the
direction Kraft Foods was going and
resigned. In 2004, Rosenfeld took the
top spot at Frito-Lay, and profits rose
despite a tough business climate. So,
it wasn't a huge surprise when Kraft,
which didn't do well in Rosenfeld's
absence, ousted its chief executive
officer and asked Rosenfeld to be its
CEO in July 2006.

Casting Notes

A few years ago, it looked like the
strikingly beautiful actress Rena
Sofer, 38, would follow up a suc-
cessful soap opera career with a
big primetime TV hit.
However, the two TV
series in which she co-
starred – Blind Justice
and Coupling – were
killed by the critics; nei-
ther lasted a full season.
Rena Sofer
Now there's news that
Sofer, the daughter of
an Orthodox rabbi, will be a recur-
ring guest star on two TV series this
season. She'll play the wife of Nathan
(Adrian Pasdar) on the new NBC
series Heroes, and she'll appear as
the wife of the shadowy figure known
as Graham on the long-running Fox
series 24.
Veteran character actor Dan
Hedaya, 66 and the son of Syrian

Jewish immigrants, is
scheduled to make his
first appearance next
Dan Hedaya
month as the father of
detective Adrian Monk
(Tony Shalhoub) on the hit USA cable
series Monk. Hedaya (in real life only
13 years older than Shalhoub, the son
of Lebanese-Christian immigrants)
is best known for playing Alicia
Silverstone's father in Clueless and
Nick Tortelli, the no-good ex-husband
of Carla the waitress, on Cheers.

At The Movies

Running with Scissors, a film based
on Augusten Burroughs' memoir of
his very unusual childhood, is sched-
uled to open in Detroit on Friday,
Oct. 27.
Burroughs was around 14 when his
mother went insane, and he was sent
to see a psychiatrist, called Dr. Finch
in the film. Not long after, he moved

