Calendar highlights

Chauncey to deliver gay history presentation
George Chauncey will deliver the first Mosse Lecture in Gay and Lesbian History at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Monday, April 23, at 4:30 p.m.

In “The History of the Closet,” Chauncey will discuss how the gay liberation movement of the early 1970s argued that “coming out of the closet” was both a moral imperative and a key to personal integrity and psychological health in ways that were as shocking at the time as they are familiar today. But the very success of the movement has made us forget how many gay people at the time rejected the demand to come out and the very idea that they inhabited a “closet” fraught with shame and dishonesty, Chauncey says.

Chauncey, professor of history at the University of Chicago, is the first presenter in a series sponsored by the George L. Mosse bequest for gay and lesbian history. Information: James Steakley, 262-9750, or John Tortorice, 265-2505.

Russian Folk Orchestra plans spring performance
A concert of Russian and East European folk music will be presented by the university Russian Folk Orchestra Friday, May 4, at 7:30 p.m. in Music Hall. Admission: $5 general public, $4 students and senior citizens, with tickets at the door.

The orchestra will be joined by the Luther College Balalaika Ensemble from Decorah, Iowa, and the Narodno! International Dancers from Madison. Vocal soloists will be soprano Christine Buckstead and bass-baritone Lennart Bäckström. The 17-member Russian Folk Orchestra was founded at UW–Madison in 1997 and is led by music director Victor Gorodinsky. It includes two groups of authentic Russian stringed instruments.

Masks of the Madrigals
Masks, like this Manticore, will be key props in the School of Music’s Madrigal Singers production directed by Bruce Gladstone. The group will perform “The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore” by Gian Carlo Menotti, for chorus, four masked dancers and nine instruments, and “La Pazzia Senile” by Adriano Banchieri, at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 22, Music Hall. Information: 263-9485.