MOUNT VERNON — The Ames Piano Quartet, the resident chamber music ensemble at Iowa State University, performs as part of Cornell College’s Music Mondays series at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 19, in King Chapel.

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MOUNT VERNON — Seventy works on paper by internationally recognized American painter Ben Frank Moss will be exhibited at Cornell College’s Peter Paul Luce Gallery in McWethy Hall beginning Sunday, Nov. 4. A closing reception will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2, following a 2 p.m. lecture by the artist in Room 222 of McWethy Hall. Read More…

MOUNT VERNON - The college is deeply saddened to report that Paul Christiansen, professor emeritus of biology, died early this morning. Paul taught at Cornell for 29 years, retiring in 1996. He was known for his work on Iowa prairies. Read More…

MOUNT VERNON — A Chicago couple has committed $2 million to Cornell College, most of which will fund campus visits by speakers and performers who can inspire and energize students to make a difference in their lives and the lives of others. Read More…

MOUNT VERNON — Familiar stories from classical mythology are depicted through the lives of homeless street kids in “Polaroid Stories,” opening Thursday, Dec. 12, at Cornell College. Read More…

Jim McWethy, a Chicago-area businessman who rediscovered an affection for Cornell College some 25 years after graduation, has pledged $2 million toward the renovation of Cornell’s fine arts facilities if the college matches the gift 2-to-1 by Dec. 31, 2000. Fund raising for the $4 million balance has begun. Read More…

Launching an acting career at age 35 was a sure bet for Desmond Barrit. An accountant for 16 years, he wagered actor friends in London 5 pounds he could get a job as an actor. The next morning he scanned a theater newspaper for auditions, showed up at one and landed the role of a cat in a children’s theater production. His only previous acting experience was as Hamlet in a school play at age 14.
“I started at the top and went downhill from there,” jokes Barrit, a native of South Wales.

Now with the Royal Shakespeare Company, he has crossed the Atlantic this fall at the invitation of Cornell College English professor Stephen Lacey to direct a student production of Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” at Cornell’s Armstrong Theatre. Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 5-6 and 12-13, and at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7 and 14.

For 15 years, until 1993, Lacey had staged a Shakespeare play in conjunction with his Shakespearean comedy course. The plan fit well with Cornell’s One-Course-At-A-Time academic calendar, where students study a single subject for 3 ½ weeks, take a four-day break, then go on to another 3 ½-week term. Nine terms are offered each year.

This year Cornell is reviving the Shakespeare production and class, with plans to offer the course every three years. Students attend Lacey’s class in the morning, then work with distinguished visiting artist Barrit in afternoon and evening workshops, rehearsals, set building and costume production.

In the 20 years since he vowed to land an acting role, Barrit has amassed a handful of awards and dozens of credits in stage, film and television productions. He’s shared the spotlight with Peter O’Toole, Patrick Stewart, Kevin Cline, Jamie Lee Curtis and Natasha Richardson. Performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company he won the Helen Hayes Award for Best Actor as the character Bottom in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which toured the United States; and the Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance in the role of Antipholus in “The Comedy of Errors.”

Cornell’s production of “The Comedy of Errors” is set in contemporary Turkey. Characters include a beggar selling tissues, a shoeshine girl and people carrying worry beads -legitimate characters Barrit photographed during a visit to Istanbul. The music is provided by Turkish CDs he brought home. He’s thrown in some juggling and belly dancing to take advantage of skills unique to his Cornell actors. “Some of the lines (from Shakespeare) people don’t understand, so it’s open to all sorts of interpretation,” Barrit says. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for non-Cornell students and seniors. For tickets, call (319) 895-4293.

A performance Monday, Sept. 27, by pianist Kevin Kenner opens the second season of the Music Mondays concert series at Cornell College. Music

Mondays features four concerts from September to April. Concerts will be held at 8 p.m. in King Chapel on the Cornell campus. General admission is $8 at the door. The 1999-2000 performance schedule is:

• Sept. 27 - Kevin Kenner. Kenner is hailed as one of the finest American pianists to come along in years. In 1990 he won the top prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Other awards come from competitions including the Van Cliburn, the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition and the American National Chopin Competition. Kenner has soloed with the BBC Symphony, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony of Japan and the San Francisco Orchestra. He will perform a program of Chopin.

• Oct. 18 - The Janacek Chamber Orchestra. Founded in 1964, the orchestra comprises 12 leading string musicians from the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, led by violinist Zdenek Dejmek. In addition to the standard repertoire, the orchestra has championed many contemporary Czech compositions. The program at King Chapel will be “Sinfonia in A Major” by Myslivecek, “La Follia” by Corelli, J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Violin and Strings in a minor, BWV 1041, “St. Paul Suite” by Holst and Janacek’s “Suite for Strings.”

• Feb. 14, 2000 - Terence Blanchard. Since his days under the tutelage of Art Blakey, jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard has matured to one of the most important musician/composer/band leaders of this generation, bringing innovation and great emotion to the industry with such works as his Grammy-nominated CD, “The Heart Speaks.” “Few can match Blanchard’s precision and flair in evoking emotion. He has developed an expressive style reminiscent of the mid-1960s Miles Davis,” wrote Time magazine. Blanchard has written film and TV scores including “Mo Better Blues,” “Malcolm X” and “Eve’s Bayou.”

• April 3, 2000 - Tapestry. Tapestry is fast carving a reputation as one of North America’s most polished ensembles specializing in the performance of medieval and contemporary vocal music. From diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, the performers of Boston-based Tapestry have come together to create interpretations of medieval chant and collaborate with composers on new works. The group promises the theme-centered “drama” of a continual flow of pieces sung in different parts of the chapel and uninterrupted by applause. Tapestry will perform a concert version of its CD, “Song of Songs: Come Into My Garden.”