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CLASSICAL
NOTES

••

About

Characterized by
its youth, brilliant
playing and soul-
ful interpretations,
the Arid Quartet,
formed in Israel and
now based in the
U.S., has earned a
glowing international reputation in just a
few years on the professional circuit. The
ensemble makes its University Musical
Society debut at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Feb. 5, at Ann Arbor's Rackham
Auditorium, in a program including
works by Wolf, Boccherini and Schubert.
The group will be joined by 31-year-old
American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, who
grew up in Cleveland's Jewish commu-
nity, and in 2011 received a MacArthur
Foundation "Genius Grant': $24-$46.
(734) 764-2538; ums.org.
Born in Latvia and now based in
Germany, violinist Gidon Kremer
(his Jewish father was a Holocaust
survivor) returns to UMS with his
chamber ensemble, Kremerata Baltica,
at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, at Hill
Auditorium in Ann Arbor. The program
commemorates, in part, the centen-
nial of Benjamin Britten's birth and
also includes Mieczyslaw (Moishe)
Weinberg's Symphony No. 10. Weinberg
(1919-1996), a composer of Polish-
Jewish origin who escaped to the former
Soviet Union in 1939, lost most of his
family in the Holocaust. Weinberg has
been identified by some critics as the
source of prominent Soviet composer
Dmitri Shostakovich's (1906-1975) own
increased interest in Jewish themes. $10-
$60. (734) 764-2538; ums.org.

ON THE STAGE

The national tour of the Broadway
hit American Idiot, the story of three
boyhood friends searching for mean-
ing in a post 9-11 world, returns to
Detroit at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m.
Saturday, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday,
Jan. 31-Feb 2, at the Detroit Opera
House. The show features the music
of Green Day, with lyrics by Billie Joe
Armstrong, book by Armstrong and
Michael Mayer, direction by Mayer,
and orchestrations and arrangements
by Tom Kitt. $34-$69. (800) 982-2787;
broadwayindetroit.com.

THE BIG SCREEN

The Detroit Film Theatre at the
Detroit Institute of Arts once again
hosts its most popular annual program:
its screenings of this year's Academy
Award-nominated shorts — both
the live action and animated catego-
ries — at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday,

and 1 and 6 p.m. Sunday,
Jan. 31-Feb. 2; 7 p.m.
Wednesday-Saturday,
Feb. 5-8, and 1 and 6 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 9; 7 p.m.
Friday and Saturday, Feb.
14-15, and 1 and 6 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 16; and 7 p.m.
Wednesday and Thursday,
Feb. 19-20. The nominated
documentary shorts will be shown in
separate programs at 1 p.m. Saturday,
Feb. 8, and 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13.
The live-action nominations include
first-time director Jason Cohen's Facing
Fear, about a teenager who becomes
homeless when his family finds out he
is gay. On the streets, he barely survives
a savage beating by a group of neo-Nazi
skinheads, and 25 years later he meets
one of his attackers, which challenges
both men to confront their fears. Among
the documentary shorts is The Lady in
Number 6: Music Saved My Life, about
109-year-old Holocaust survivor Alice
Herz-Sommer, who shares her remark-
able secrets to longevity and happiness.
$6.50-$8.50; reservations recommended.
(313) 833-4005; dia.org .
Also at the DFT, pianist David
Drazin provides live accompaniment
to the silent films of Alfred Hitchcock,
restored by the British Film Institute
and presented for the first time in
decades, at 3 p.m. Saturdays, Feb. 1 and
15, and March 1; and 4 p.m. Saturday,
March 8. (Note: An incomplete 1945
Hitchcock documentary, Memory
of the Camps, is now being finished
and restored by London's Imperial
War Museum. The doc, along with a
making-of documentary, Night Will
Fall, will be released in 2015, the 70th
anniversary of the liberation of Europe
during World War II.) $8.50. Schedule
and tickets: (313) 833-4005; dia.org.
Screening at 7:30 p.m. Thursday,
Feb. 6, at the Berman Center in West
Bloomfield is Fields of Ash: The
George Zeff Story, a documentary film
by Dane Gussin. Holocaust survivor
George Zeff tells his story of Nazi
occupation, work camps and surviving
as a child during this time in history.
$10. (248) 661-1900; theberman.org .

THE SMALL SCREEN

Local real estate agent Jason Abrams
brings his brand of celebrity sports
house-hunting to the second season of
Scoring the Deal, premiering at 11 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 4, on HGTV (check your
local listings). This year's season will
include athletes from the four major
sports and take Abrams to cities such
as Boston, Nashville, San Francisco,
San Diego, Scottsdale and Los Angeles.
There also will be an episode on Feb. 25
with Red Wing Kyle Quincey. ❑

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January 30 • 2014

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