Arty facts: News from the art world

A look at what's happening in the world of art.

Talks on human brain

Award-winning scientist Prof Richard Faull, director of Auckland University's Centre for Brain Research, is this year's Royal Society of New Zealand Distinguished Speaker.

Professor Faull will present a nationwide series of talks on "the challenge of the human brain".

Prof Faull will speak in Dunedin on September 9 at 6pm in the Hutton Theatre, Otago Museum.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

More information can be found at www.royalsociety.org.nz.

Art and law to the fore

A one-day symposium on art and the law will be held at the Dunedin School of Art on Friday, October 29.

Otago Polytechnic's Dunedin School of Art and Otago University's Faculty of Law invite interested artists, art theorists and administrators, lawyers and law makers, as well as members of the public to take part in the discussion on the complex history of, and current relationships between, art and the law.

Topics include: ownership, authenticity, copyright, intellectual property, forgery, art and censorship, culture and rights, heritage and values, art and the struggle for human rights, and art and law as world-making.

Art auction fundraiser

St Joseph's School Queenstown is auctioning art to buy computers.

More than 35 artists have work for sale at the auction at Memorial Hall on Saturday, September 11.

Public viewing is from 2pm-4pm, while the auction begins at 7.30pm.

More information is available on the school's website - www.stjosephsqt.school.nz.

Phone bidding is available.

Organ Month concert

The Otago and Southland Organists Association is celebrating National Organ Month with an organ concert in First Church on Friday, September 10 at 12.05pm.

Several Dunedin organists are to take part.

The programme is: Tim Gray: Prelude and Fugue in C BWV 553 from the Eight Short Preludes and Fugues - J. S. Bach; Resignation Op 104 No 4 - Marco Enrico Bossi.

Peter Stockwell: Choral Song - S. S. Wesley; When I am Laid in Earth from Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell; Praeludium and Fuga in G minor BuxWV 150 by Dietrich Buxtehude.

Graeme Kirk : Pomp and Circumstance March No 4 - Elgar; Trumpeter's Lullaby - Leroy Anderson; Highland Cathedral - U. Roever and M. Korb, arr Taylor.

Wedding March - Scotson Clark; Salut - Elgar.

Freebies

London-based Australian pianist Piers Lane and UK foursome the Doric String Quartet perform in Dunedin next week as part of Chamber Music New Zealand's 2010 season.

The Otago Daily Times has three double passes to give away.

To enter the draw for one, email your name, address and daytime phone number to playtime@odt.co.nz with Piers Lane in the subject line.

Piers Lane and the Doric String Quartet perform at the Glenroy Auditorium on Wednesday September 8.

In the Dunedin concert they will perform one of the giants of the Romantic repertoire, Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat, together with Britten's String Quartet No 2, Chopin's Nocturne in G and Ballade No 4 in F minor, and Haydn's String Quartet in A.

For more information, visit www.chambermusic.co.nz.

More freebies

Scottish percussionist Colin Currie will play as many as 20 instruments in his Soundscapes national tour with the NZSO this month.

The 33-year-old musician requires so much equipment that the orchestra needs an extra truck for its tour of Auckland, Napier, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

In Dunedin Town Hall, on Wednesday September 15, Currie will perform James Macmillan's Veni, Veni, Emmanuel - described as a "whip dance showpiece of gongs, bells, drums and woodblocks, played with white-hot speed and dexterity".

Thirty-year-old British guest conductor Alexander Shelley returns to the NZSO for Soundscapes.

He will lead the orchestra in some of the most emotional pieces written - including Death and Transfiguration, by Richard Strauss.

Soundscapes also features Beethoven's Symphony No.6 - Pastoral, and the world premiere of New Zealand composer Lyell Cresswell's work for strings, Landscapes of the Soul.

The Otago Daily Times has 10 double passes to the NZSO concert to give away.

To enter the draw for one, write your name, address and daytime phone number on the back of an envelope and send it to Soundscapes, ODT Editorial Features, Response Bag 500015 Dunedin, or email playtime@odt.co.nz with Soundscapes in the subject line, to arrive before next Wednesday.