February Highlights

University of Chicago Folklore Society
45th Annual University of Chicago Folk Festival
Friday, Feb. 4 through Sunday, Feb. 6
All concerts will be held in Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St., while daytime activities, which run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, will be in Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th St.
Concert tickets range from $7 to $40; daytime activities are free. For tickets, call (773) 702-7300. Call (773) 702-9793 or visit http://folklore-society.cs.uchicago.edu/html/movabletype/folklore for more information.

The annual University of Chicago Folk Festival, the longest-running traditional music festival in North America, will return to campus this year with lively concerts, dancing and jam sessions. In the evening, three concerts of folk and traditional music will be held in Mandel Hall, with musicians of various styles, including jazz, blues, Celtic, gospel and bluegrass. Highlights include Irish fiddler John Daly; Creole accordion and fiddle player Edward Poullard; Rev. Geraldine Gay, a gifted gospel piano pioneer; the Chicago Klezmer Ensemble and more. In the daytime, jam sessions, dancing and workshops will take place. Highlights include fiddle-making workshops, blues guitar and banjo workshops, and dance sessions in various styles, such as Cajun, contra, Scandinavian, Middle Eastern and Irish.

The Smart Museum of Art
“Paper Museums: The Reproductive Print in Europe, 1500-1800”
Thursday, Feb. 3 through Sunday, May 15
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday; and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
5550 S. Greenwood Ave. 702-0200. http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu. Free.

As relatively inexpensive, transportable and storable objects, prints had an important place in the culture of Renaissance and Baroque Europe. This exhibition of reproductive prints—prints that reproduce other works of art—shows how these prints helped printmakers earn reputations for truthfulness, promoted certain artists or collectors and increased familiarity with original works of art. Far from being “merely” reproductive, the prints are often themselves objects of exquisite beauty. There will be an opening reception for the exhibition from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, which will feature a talk by exhibition curators. In addition, there will be a “Paper Museums” Family Day on Sunday, Feb. 13, with free, hands-on art activities from 1 to 4 p.m. For information, call 834-1066.

Court Theatre
Heiner Müller’s Quartet
Thursday, Feb. 3 through Sunday, Feb. 27
Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave. 753-4472. http://courttheatre.uchicago.edu. $26-50. Student and senior discounts available.

Court Theatre will continue its 50th anniversary season with nationally acclaimed director JoAnne Akalaitis’ staging of Heiner Müller’s Quartet. Based on Choderlos de Laclos’ novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Quartet brings a startling new dimension to this classic story of lust, scheming and seduction. The play explores the ultimate emptiness of lives given over to sexual conquest. Müller, a disciple of Bertolt Brecht, helped pioneer the European avant-garde theatre movement. Akalaitis, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Edwin Booth Award and a Pew Charitable Trust grant, will return to Court Theatre for the sixth time.

The University of Chicago Presents
Netherlands Wind Ensemble
8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11
Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St. 702-8068. http://chicagopresents.uchicago.edu. $30 general, $11 students.

The Netherlands Wind Ensemble will perform a program titled “Mail from Mozart,” featuring Mozart’s Serenade for Winds, the “Gran Partita.” Between the seven movements of the Serenade, oboist Bart Schneemann will read letters by the composer to his father, in a concert that explores the many facets of the composer’s life and work.