Yeshiva Students Ready for Arts Festival

Yeshiva's annual Arts Festival will open with a bang this Sunday, February 20th, as musicians from YU and Stern conduct a live concert in Weissberg Commons. The event will kick off two weeks of nightly events spotlighting student creative talent in all media, including literature, visual arts, drama and music. This year's festival features a new twist, with events downtown as well as uptown. Another innovation is the equal administrative and organizational collaboration from both schools.

"The festival is a celebration of the arts and creativity in both YU and Stern," explained Steven I. Weiss, this year's festival co-director. "Hopefully, it will provide a forum for student talent, while making this talent available to other students. Our ultimate goal is to nurture the artistic sector at YU and Stern. We want to develop a higher quality of religious artist, one who will have much to offer the Jewish as well as artistic communities."

The first showcase of student talent, the opening concert, will display 10 musical acts. "The star attraction is definitely Alex Reamer's jazz band," said Yakov Fleishman, one of the music committee members. "We're expecting over 250 people, and the music should be amazing. The concert should provide a great jump-start to the entire festival." Fleishman also added that the refreshments will be Mexican-themed, with lots of tortillas and salsa.

The next event, scheduled for Monday night at 8, will be a poetry reading held at Stern's Ivry Student Center. "We're envisioning a relaxed atmosphere," remarked Shira Kaufman, a member of the literature committee. "The event will consist of students reading their own poetry, which can often be extremely emotive and expressive. The event should be great for poets and non-poets alike. We're also serving sushi, which should be big draw as well as fit with the ambience of the event."

Tuesday's event will focus on the nascent Yeshiva University Film Society, whose first production, a movie produced and directed by Yoni Leitner, will air in Weissberg Commons. Leitner will follow the movie with a discussion of his work, and the event will conclude with a number of live dramatic monologues by various students.

In an innovative move, Wednesday's event, a concert starring female musicians and vocalists, will be open only to women, in an attempt to provide a stage for female vocal talent while avoiding the problems of kol isha, which have long been debated within the pages of this publication. The concert, to be held in Koch Auditorium, owes its existence to the vision of Rebecca Leicht festival co-director, and Ravital Kranzler, a member of the music committee.

The visual arts exhibit, a gallery of original student paintings, drawings and sculptures, will be open to public viewing in the YU Museum throughout the two weeks of the festival. On Sunday at 7PM, the action will shift back uptown for "Gallery Talks," where student artists will lead visitors on a tour of the exhibit while discussing their artwork. "A lot of the work is high-caliber, and is worthy of being displayed in any museum," noted Jon Kessler, a member of the visual arts committee. "Our gallery should be a phenomenal collection, and our discussion event should give the viewers an idea of what the artists intended when they created their work."

Orchestrated music will take the stage on Monday night on the Main Campus. The classical and jazz ensembles, under the adept leadership of YC music professor, Dr. Noyes Bartholomew, will display their virtuosity in Schottenstein Hall beginning at 8 p.m.

Tuesday night will provide another novelty, as the drama committee presents the first ever presentation of an original YC script as part of "A Night of One Acts." The event will feature four one-act plays written and performed by YU and Stern students, and will take place in Koch Auditorium at Stern. It also will be the first time in memory that YU will witness student acting produced independently of the YU Drama Societies.

Student writers will step into the spotlight again on Wednesday night, at an original short-story reading in Room 535 of Furst Hall. "We should have about twelve great writers, including Aaron Klein, reading their stories," predicted literature committee member Avi Gitler, "and if you think Times Square on New Year's Eve was crowded, wait until you see our event."

The Arts Festival will come to a close on Thusday night, with a multimedia presentation at Weissberg Commons. The event, entitled "150 Blocks/150 Shots," will present numerous perspectives of the six miles of New York City separating YU and Stern. "The event is a tribute to the University's connection with the City," explained Leicht, who originally proposed the idea. "But more importantly," she continued, "the project is a tangible illustration of the connection the two Yeshiva University campuses share; a connection that derives strength from the medium of the City, and the educational and cultural concept it provides."

The exhibition will be followed by a ceremony recognizing the contributing artists and organizers of the festival. Festival planners point out that the arts exhibition will not end with the closing event. The festival website (www.yu.edu/yeshivacollege/arts/index.html) will display much of the featured work on an archive page.