Baritone Robert Sims, associate professor of voice and diction in the NIU School of Music, will appear Sunday, March 8, at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in “HONOR! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy.”
Invited by festival curator Jessye Norman, Sims will be joined by pianist Paul Hamilton in a program of spirituals.
“From the drumbeats of Mother Africa to the work songs and spirituals created in a new land, a path is traced to the blues, gospel, jazz, rhythm and blues, soul and hip-hop expressions of African Americans that are celebrated throughout the world. The classical music performers have become icons of concert halls and opera stages everywhere,” Norman writes about the festival.
“In charting the story of this great cultural tradition, I invite you on a personal journey that honors the trailblazers and the courageous artists of the past through concerts, recitals, lectures, panel discussions and exhibitions.”
Other participants Sunday afternoon include Tania León, Toni Morrison, George Shirley and Anna Deavere Smith.
Physics Professor Roland Winkler has been invited to spend four weeks at the prestigious Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Beginning in mid-May, Winkler will participate in the institute’s program on “Low Dimensional Electron Systems.”
The trip to California will kick off a busy summer for Winkler, who will spend another four weeks conducting research with a colleague in New Zealand.