College of Arts + Architecture

UNC Charlotte will host a Women + Video Games Festival Monday through Sunday, Feb. 15-21. Through a series of workshops, lectures, panel discussions and video screenings, the festival will encourage women and girls to explore game design and programming and to promote a creative gaming culture that is inclusive of individuals, regardless of gender, race or creed.

The Department of Music will present a Faculty and Friends Concert on Monday, Feb. 8, featuring Associate Professor of Voice Brian Arreola. The program, which takes place on Chinese New Year’s Day, is a celebration of music by Asian and Asian-American composers, with songs sung in Chinese, Korean, Japanese and English.

Performing with Arreola, a tenor, will be guest artists Kelvin Chan, baritone; Wei-En Hsu, piano; Kari Giles, violin; and UNC Charlotte Associate Professor of Cello Mira Frisch.

Choreographer Christal Brown and a nine-member male ensemble will present “The Opulence of Integrity: A Movement Odyssey Exploring the Life and Legacy of Muhammad Ali” at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 29, in the Robinson Hall for the Performing Arts Belk Theater.

Brian Arreola, associate professor of voice and director of Opera Workshop, will sing the role of Tybalt in Opera Carolina’s production of Charles Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet.” The performances will be Jan. 24, 28 and 30 in the Belk Theater of the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.

Gounod’s treatment of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy was composed in 1867. The character of Tybalt, for tenor, is Juliet’s cousin who is slain by Romeo after killing Romeo’s friend, Mercutio.

The UNC Charlotte School of Architecture chapter of “Freedom by Design” earned two awards at the 2015 AIAS FORUM, the national conference of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), held Dec. 29-Jan. 2 in San Francisco. The UNC Charlotte team was recognized as the 2014-15 Chapter of the Year and received the 2014-15 Project of the Year award.

Rabbi Reuben Zellman will lead an open conversation about the challenges he faced as the first openly transgender rabbinical student and how his experiences have served his mission of LGBTQ acceptance and inclusion at 2 p.m., Friday, Jan. 15, in the Rowe Arts Building Auditorium.

The Music Department is hosting this free event, which is open to the campus community. Zellman is participating in a residency at UNC Charlotte Jan. 11-15 to educate the campus and community on gender identity, sexuality, Judaism and Jewish music.

Acclaimed experimental filmmaker Peter Hutton will speak at the opening reception for the film installation of his “New York Portraits: Chapter I, Chapter II and Chapter III” at 5:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 15, in the Storrs Gallery.

The Projective Eye Gallery at UNC Charlotte Center City will present artwork by Julianne Swartz and Laura McCarthy from Friday, Jan. 22, through Friday, March 4. These interdisciplinary artists are considered masters at facilitating the intimacy of the moment – dismantling the chaos of the outside world and encouraging presence from their audiences.

“Clarity,” the debut album by the Unhinged Sextet and featuring Associate Professor of Music Will Campbell on alto saxophone and three original tunes by him, was named a “Best Release of 2015” by All About Jazz. The review calls the album “smoking hot … a first-class collection of modern jazz, with strong playing and exciting, varied original compositions.”

Four faculty members in the College of Arts + Architecture have received 2016 regional artist project grants from the Arts & Science Council (ASC).

John Allemeier, associate professor of composition, received a $2,000 grant to support the professional recording of new music. Will Campbell, associate professor of saxophone and director of the jazz studies program, received a $1,716 award to study with the jazz saxophonist Tim Armacost in New York City.