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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 1994)
Daily Nebraskan Thursday* January 27,1994 ArtsiKentertainment Blowing onto the scene Woodwind ensemble plays its own melody beyond classroom Normally, a college musical group would bring to mind thrashing guitars, thundering drums and a lead singer shouting about the fourth time his girlfriend cheated on him. Then there’s the not-so-typical garage band, the Nouveau Woodwind Quintet, com posed of five University of Nebraska-Lin coln music majors. Flutist Genevieve Randall, oboist Susan Mausolf and bassoonist Susan Sail teamed up with Cristina Moore on hom and Todd Alva on clarinet to form the quintet. The quintet was a product of a chamber ensemble class. The five musicians were brought together by their instructors and decided to stay together. “We’re a little bit more serious,” Moore said. “For some of the other groups it’s more of a fun thing.” The quintet derived its name from the variety of French-style music the members play and also from their first coach, Allen French. “We had to chose a name," Alva said. “We couldn’t just be The Quintet.” All the musicians have some musical family ties, and each have a different reason for pursuing a career in music. Alva, a former accounting major, said he switched to music because he knew it was the focus of his talents. For Moore, a passion for music was the result of nostalgia. “Music has always been a big part of my life,” she said. “I remember when I was very young, I listened to my grandmother’s records. My entire family was musical.” Sail’s mother’s encouragement and early music lessons put her on the musical path. Jeff Haller/DN Genevieve Randall (far left), a junior music performance major, shares a laugh with members of the Nouveau Quintet as they pack instruments after practicing Tuesday evening at Kimball Recital Hall. Other quintet members are, from left, Susan Mausolf, a senior music performance major; Susan Sail, a senior music education major; Cristina Moore, a junior music performance major; and Todd Alva, a junior music education major. Mausolf said music was just “something I needed to do.” Randall, whose first instrument was a recorder, said because her parents were both English majors, she had to bring back the musical heritage of her grandfather. “I couldn’t do anything else,” she said. “If I did anything else, I would miss music.” The musicians said encouragement from their instructors gave them an added dose of confidence. “They’ve always been very supportive,” Moore said. She said because the quintet was the first university chamber music group to branch out, the professors motivated their progress. Sail said they looked up to their profes sore, who showed them how a good quintet should function. The quintet soon evolved from playing in the classroom to performing on stage. “We played at a few churches, and we played at the senior citizens center as part of these sociology students’ project,” Mausolf said. “We played at local hospitals over the holidays. “The old people loved us,” she said. “They said 'keep on playing’ when we asked them if they wanted us to stop.” Randall said she was delighted by the response of a little boy at the hospital. “He kept dancing,and he’d clap for every song,” she said. Audience response has been motivating for the musicians. “Generally people are very happy and very responsive,” Alva said. The quintet’s popularity began to rise as they were presented with more lucrative offers. “We played at a fund-raiser for the Lin coln Symphony,” Mausolf said. “Then we started getting calls for various university functions.” Mausolf said this exposure brought the quintet into the public eye. The quintet is considering a statewide tour if individual conflicts can be worked out. The quintet, which plays a variety of classical and more modem selections, is available for all occasions. Architect evaluates life choices before meeting certain death Intersection By Joel Strauch Senior Reporter The solid plot of “Intersection” isn’t enough to save it from the wreck of its bad acting. The story begins with architect V incent Eastman (Richard Gere) slid ing toward a rather nasty crash with a semi. While he’s approaching certain death, he flashes back on the more significant points in his life. He has recently divorced his wife Sally (Sharon Stone) and taken up with a new lover, Olivia (Lolita Davidovich). He is caught between continuing his new relationship with Olivia ana returning to Sally, his wife of 16 years, and their daughter Meaghan (Jenny Morrison). Vincent’s flashbacks are of crucial moments in the deterioration of his marriage, as well as fond memories of meeting Olivia and spending time with his wife and Meaghan. He finally comes to a decision and is rush ing off to the woman with whom he wants to spend the rest of his life when he runs into a 16-wheeler. The crash is shown first in slow motion and then in real speed, letting the audience see exactly what hap pened and then how fast it happened. The plot of the movie is sound, but the acting can’t live up to it. Stone and Davidovich portray tne rival women with fairly decent performances, but Gere doesn’t hold up his end. It isn’t Vincent Eastman being played by Ri chard Gere; it is Richard Gere strug gling to convince the audience that he is Vincent Eastman. The film is entertaining, highlight ed by a sex scene between Vincent and his wife — which lasts all of 30 sec onds from start to finish — and the well-filmed car crash that makes your head hurt. But the mediocre acting really makes it a letdown. Arizona writer to speak at Wesleyan From Staff Report* Arizona writer Alberto Rios will address the Nebraska Wesleyan University Forum scries Friday. Rios’ presentation, “Living in a language,” will be held at 10 a.m. in McDonald Theater, located in the Elder Memorial Speech and The ater Center. Rios’ presentation, which will include readings of some of his latest work, will examine how “his Mexican-American heritage in forms his poetry and prose.’ Rios is the author of 9 volumes Of poetry and fiction, including his most recent, ‘Teodoro Luna’s Two Kisses.” He is a resident of Chan dler, Ariz., and a professor of En glish at Arizona State University, James Mehsling/DN Science fiction novel a ‘virtual’ cliche “Chimera” Mary Rosenblum Del Rey Discovery Books Mary Roscnblum’s first book, “Drylands,”appeared in 1993. Itpaint ed a gritty, realistic picture of a parched, drought-stricken Pacific Northwest, where water was more precious than gold. Her second effort, l4Chimera," delves into the world of virtual reality and unfortunately comes up way short. Rosenblum’s mistake is falling into what have by now become the cliches of cyberpunk. The protagonists (you can’t call them heroes) are street youth who perform various tasks, legal and illegal, on what is always called “The Net ” Inevitably, one of these deals goes wrong, someone gets in trouble, someone gets killed, and the ending is more often than not depressing and inconclusive. And there never seems to be anything approaching what you’d call a normal, loving monogamous relationship in these books. It’s all people using and abusing one anoth er. So it is here. Jewel Martina is an ex-street kid from a broken home who works as a medical technician in a billionaire’s enclave in Antarctica. She also freelances as a sort of deal broker over the Virtual Reality Net, but she has little success. Jewel meets up with David Chen, an artist con tracted to do work for the billionaire, Hannon Alcourt. An attempt is made to kill Chen’s male lover. The attempt is seemingly motivated by his extrale gal Net work. The solution, when you get to it in the last 10 pages, is so ridiculously weak that you feel cheated. “Three hundred pages for this?” was my first reaction. “Chimera” does not live up to Rosenblum’s full potential as a writer, and readers will have to wait for her third book for satisfaction. Sam Kepfield