Dunedin bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu sings in "Project San Francisco - El Nino" next week, in the city of the title. The concert in San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall spotlights the work of American composer and conductor John Adams. It runs for three nights, from December 2-4.
• Writers' fellowships
Creative New Zealand is calling for applications for the Michael King Fellowship and the Berlin Writers' Residency, which aim to provide writers with the chance to spend a dedicated period of time working on specific projects.
The Michael King Fellowship, valued at $100,000, will be awarded for a project that will take two years or more to complete and is open to established authors of any literary genre who have already published a significant body of work.
The $40,000 Berlin residency offers a New Zealand writer the opportunity to live and write in Berlin for a period of up to 11 months.
Applications close at 5pm on Friday, February 25, 2011. For further information, check the website www.creativenz.govt.nz.
A hair-raising art experience will play out at Dunedin's Rocda Gallery when artist Andy McCready's 2-D bouffants come alive.
McCready and fellow Dunedin artist Sam Ovens are staging the exhibition "Belligerence and Bubblegum" from Monday to Saturday next week, showing their prints and paintings.
"I have a series of works called `Habitat Hairdos' which depict girls with animals living in their hair," explains McCready. "I thought it would be fun to bring some of these images to life, so I approached Aart on St Andrew hair salon, who have been really enthusiastic and will be creating masterpieces on the heads of my three lovely models."
The models will include two familiar faces - Nellie and Elza Jenkins, the Dunedin twins from television show New Zealand's Next Top Model.
• Christmas vignettes
The Southern Consort of Voices' Christmas concert next Friday, December 3, will include three Christmas settings by John Ritchie.
For 50 years, Mr Ritchie sent a new Christmas composition with his Christmas cards to friends all over the world. The consort will perform three snippets from 1955, 1983 and 1993.
Music director Daniel Kelly says Ritchie has a playful style in these little Christmas vignettes.
"There's something in each of the pieces that makes me smile."
Two other New Zealand composers feature in the programme, Jack Body's People Look East and David Childs' Salve Regina.
German composers Mendelssohn, Rheinberger, Brahms and Bruckner also feature.
The concert is at at 12.15pm in St Paul's Cathedral and will be repeated at Holy Cross Chapel in Mosgiel on Saturday, December 4 at 3pm.
• Inspiring obsessions
A 20-year collection of hair and hundreds of paper boats feature in an exhibition starting next Wednesday at Dunedin's Blue Oyster Art Project Space, looking at obsession as a driving force of creativity.
The allure of the special object, repetition as an act fuelling creativity, and unusual collections that inspire artists are all part of the "Museum of Obsessions", curated by Jodie Dalgleish.
"The term 'obsession' does suggest an off-kilter kind of balance, but I wanted to recast it so that it could be seen as generative and constructive as well, and fundamental to artists' ideas and creative output.
Many artists are intensely concerned with exploring certain ideas with specific and highly personal materials," she said in a statement.
Fourteen artists feature in "Museum of Obsessions".
Dunedin School of Art studio co-ordinator Michael Morley has kept hair he has had cut off during the past 20 years and displays it in a glass dome. Jeweller Victoria McIntosh has made a collection of "hair nozzles" using antique icing nozzles and her hair. Other contributors reveal obsessions with Elvis Presley and paper boats.
From outside Dunedin, US artist Peter Wegner returns to the city following his Big Wall work at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 2008.
"Museum of Obsessions" is at the Blue Oyster from December 1-24.
• Auditions soon
The Taieri Musical Society will soon hold auditions for its 2011 production, My Fair Lady, to be staged at Coronation Hall in June and July. The director and choreographer is Denise Henderson and musical director is Bridget Telfer.
Auditions will be held December 4 and 5. For further information and an audition time, email auditions@taierimusical.org.nz
