Calendar highlights

Brentano quartet to perform
The Brentano String Quartet will make its debut at the Wisconsin Union Theater Nov. 17 at 8 p.m. Since 1992, the Brentano has been singled out for technical brilliance, musical insight and stylistic elegance. The Quartet (Mark Steinberg, Serena Canin, violins; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Maria Lee, cello) is named after Antoine Brentano, whom many scholars believe to have been Beethoven’s mysterious “Immortal Beloved.”

The Brentano String Quartet maintains a strong interest in the music of our time and has had several works written for it. For the appearance at the Union Theater, the Brentano will perform Medelssohn’s String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op.12, and Bartok’s String Quartet Op. 7, No. 1. In addition, the Quartet will perform On All Fours, written by contemporary composer Steven Mackey.

Tickets: $27 ($26 Union members, $13 UW–Madison students), Union Theater Box Office, 262-2201.

‘Martin Guerre’ author to speak Nov. 29
Distinguished author and historian Natalie Zemon Davis will speak at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 29, at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St. as part of the “Humanities Without Boundaries” lecture series.

Davis is best known as the author of 1983 biography, “The Return of Martin Guerre,” her exploration of mistaken identity in a 16th-century French village.

Davis is currently adjunct professor of history and senior fellow in comparative literature at the University of Toronto. UW–Madison’s Center for the Humanities is sponsoring Davis’s free public lecture, “Jews, Africans, and Philosophes: The Suriname Stories of David Cohen Nassy.”

In her lecture, Davis will discuss how Nassy, a Jewish leader in the Dutch colony of Suriname in the late 18th century, moved between the world of the Enlightenment and the ferment of colonial thought. She also will talk about how Nassy – also a man of letters, physician and slaveowner – viewed slavery and how he related to the Africans and Indians of Suriname. Information: 263-3409.

Roundtable features dean of students
Alicia Fedelina Chávez, dean of students, is the featured speaker for the University Roundtable Thursday, Nov. 9.

Chávez will speak on “Living Authentic Lives: Balance and the Higher Education Professional.” The event begins at 11:45 a.m. in Tripp Commons at the Memorial Union. Chancellor David Ward will speak at the Dec. 14 Roundtable.