Invasion of the Amazing Colossal Artists

Having major figures in the arts visit Austin is no longer the rarity it once was, but having three show up here the same week still feels like an uncommon event, and when those three are bona fide arts titans and the week includes Halloween, well, it feels like we're in some Bravo Channel version of a Fifties B-movie, where the mall-sized tarantulas and scorpions are replaced with gargantuan Nobel laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners. If the concept of that doesn't give you the culture-vulture heebie-jeebies, then take note: In the final days of October, Central Texas will be playing host to the winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature; the winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Music and the 2000 Academy Award for Film Score; and a two-time finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner award. All three are guests of area universities, and all three can be seen for free.

The Nobel laureate is poet and playwright Derek Walcott, author of In a Green Night, Omeros, and The Bounty. He will speak at St. Edward's University on Friday, October 26 at 8pm in the Jones Auditorium. Admission is free. Call 416-5809 for more info.

The Pulitzer and PEN/Faulkner finalist is writer Russell Banks, author of the novels Continental Drift, Affliction, Cloudsplitter, and The Sweet Hereafter and the recent short story collection The Angel on the Roof. Southwestern University in Georgetown is bringing Banks to campus on Tuesday, October 30 at 7:30pm in the Alma Thomas Theater. Admission is free, but reservations are required. Call 512/863-1561.

The prize-winning composer is John Corigliano, whose score for The Red Violin netted him an Oscar last year and whose Symphony No. 2 earned him the Pulitzer this year. Closer to home, Corigliano is this year's recipient of the $25,000 Eddie Medora King Prize for Musical Composition given by UT Austin, and that may be why the UT School of Music is honoring the composer with a whole week with his name on it. During that time, Corigliano will be in residence on the Forty Acres and three UT music ensembles will perform works by him in concerts on three consecutive nights. All concerts are in Bates Recital Hall. Call 475-8195 for more info.

On Monday, October 29, at 8pm, the UT Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Kevin Noe, will perform Corigliano's guitar concerto "Troubadors," with faculty guitarist Adam Holzman. Admission is $3 at the door.

On Tuesday, October 30, at 8pm, the New Music Ensemble presents faculty guest pianist Timothy Lovelace and guest soprano Hila Plitmann performing "Mr. Tambourine Man," a cycle of seven songs based on text by Bob Dylan; professors of piano Anton Nel and Gregory Allen performing (with apologies to head piano technician Charles Ball) "Chiaroscuro," a piece for two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart (yow!); and the NME itself, directed by Dan Welcher, and students from the UT Opera Theatre, performing "O God of Love," a sextet from Corigliano's breakthrough opera The Ghosts of Versailles. Admission is free.

On Wednesday, October 31, at 8pm, the UT Wind Ensemble, directed by Jerry Junkin, performs two new arrangements of Corigliano's "Tarantella" from his Symphony No. 1 and "DC Fanfare." Admission is $3 at the door.