Happenings

Concerts

Renew, Ion Sound Project’s environmentally themed program dedicated to works about renewal and rebirth, 7 p.m. Dec. 14, Bellefield Hall Auditorium, Ion Sound Project 2009-10 Season: Reduce, Renew, Recycle series, www.proartstickets.org.

B.E. Taylor Christmas Concert, nationally recognized recording and performing artist, 7:30 p.m. Dec. 14-15, Heinz Hall, 600 Penn Ave., Downtown, 412-392-4900, www.pittsburghsymphony.org.

Highmark Holiday Pops With Marvin! Marvin Hamlisch, conductor, Dec. 17-20, Heinz Hall, 600 Penn Ave., Downtown, PNC Symphony Pops, 412-392-4900, www.pittsburghsymphony.org.

Bells Are Ringing, McKeesport Symphony Pops Holiday Concert, 2:30 p.m. Dec. 20, McKeesport Area Senior High School, 1960 Eden Park Boulevard, 412-664-2854, www.mckeesportsymphony.org.

Dreamgirls, rags-to-riches story of 1960s Motown group, Dec. 29-Jan.3, Heinz Hall, 600 Penn Ave., Downtown, 412-392-4900, www.pittsburghsymphony.org.

Auld Lang Syne, classic New Year’s Eve celebration featuring dinner, concert, dessert, and dancing, 7 p.m. Dec. 31, Carnegie Music Hall, 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland, Pittsburgh Opera, 412-281-0912, www.pittsburghopera.org.

Exhibitions

Hillman Library, Selected Prints Exhibition From the Barry Rosensteel Japanese Prints Collection, through Dec. 19, Special Collections Department, third floor; Historical Exhibition of African American Progress at Pitt, ongoing, ground floor; “The Palm Warbler,” Audubon/Havell print no. 164, Dec. 15-22, Audubon Exhibit Case, ground floor, www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/

Wood Street Galleries, Matter and Memory, U.S. debut of French installation artist Julien Marie, through Dec. 31, 601 Wood St., Downtown, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, www.woodstreetgalleries.org.

Frick Art & Historical Center, Icons of American Photography, A Century of Photographs From the Cleveland Museum of Art and Children’s Hospital 1951, through Jan. 3, 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze, 412-371-0600, www.frickarts.org.

Mattress Factory Museum, Gestures: An Exhibition of Small Site-specific Works, through Jan. 10, 500 Sampsonia Way, North Side, 412-231-3169, www.mattress.org.

Senator John Heinz History Center, Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War and Lincoln Slept Here, through Jan. 15, 1212 Smallman St., Strip District, 412-454-6000, www.heinzhistorycenter.org.

Pittsburgh Glass Center, Sheila Klein’s The Return, through Jan. 20, 5472 Penn Ave., Garfield, 412-365-2145, www.pittsburghglasscenter.org.

Falk Library, Opening Doors: Contemporary African American Academic Surgeons, through Jan. 28, 200 Scaife Hall, Pitt Health Sciences Library System, www.hsls.pitt.edu, 412-648-8866.

Andy Warhol Museum, Unnatural Rubber; Super Trash; and Shepard Fairey: Supply & Demand, through Jan. 31, 117 Sandusky St., North Side, 412-237-8300, www.warhol.org.

Carnegie Museum of Art, Digital to Daguerreotype: Photographs of People, through Jan. 31, 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland, 412-622-3309, www.cmoa.org.

Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Botanicals: Environmental Expressions in Art, the Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection, art exhibition, through June 30, Carnegie Mellon University, 5th floor, Hunt Library, 4909 Frew St., Oakland, 412-268-2434, http://.huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu.

Opera/Theater/Dance

The Second City–50th Anniversary Tour, Chicago-based improvisational troupe, Dec. 17- 19, O’Reilly Theater, 621 Penn Ave., Downtown, Pittsburgh Public Theater, 412-316-1600, www.ppt.org.

A Lyrical Christmas Carol, musical theater, Dec. 17-20, New Hazlett Theater, Allegheny Square East, North Side, Pittsburgh Musical Theater, 412-539-0900, www.pittsburghmusicals.com.

Nativity: A Christmas Gift, featuring Pitt’s Shona Sharif
African Dance and Drum Ensemble,
Dec. 18-20, 4227 Alumni Hall, Pitt Department of Africana Studies, tickets and information available at Dorsey’s Records, 412-731-6607.

Beggar’s Holiday, opera by Dale Wasserman, music by Duke Ellington, Dec. 18-20, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild Theater, 1815 Metropolitan St., Manchester, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, 412-621-1499, www.operatheaterpittsburgh.org.

The Bench, theatrical performance, Dec. 18-20, Pittsburgh Playhouse, 222 Craft Ave., Oakland, Point Park University, 412-621-4445, www.pittsburghplayhouse.com.

A Child’s Christmas in Wales, theatrical performance, through Dec. 20, Pittsburgh Playhouse, 222 Craft Ave., Oakland, Point Park University, 412-621-4445, www.pittsburghplayhouse.com.

Jane Eyre, theatrical performance, through Dec. 20, Charity Randall Theatre in the Stephen Foster Memorial, Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, 412-624-7529, www.pict.org.

A Musical Christmas Carol, theatrical performance, through Dec. 23, Byham Theater, 101 Sixth St., Downtown, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, 412-456-6666, www.pgharts.org.

A Kodachrome Christmas, one-woman play, through Dec. 27, City Theatre, 1300 Bingham St., South Side, 412-431-2489, www.citytheatrecompany.org.

The Nutcracker, ballet, music by Tchaikovsky, through Dec. 27, Benedum Center, 719 Liberty Ave., Downtown, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, 412-456-6666, www.pgharts.org.

Cirque Dreams Illumination, cirque theatrical production extraordinaire, Jan. 5-10, Heinz Hall, 600 Penn Ave., Downtown, 412-392-4900, www.pittsburghsymphony.org.

The Chief, theatrical performance, Jan. 6-10, O’Reilly Theatre, 621 Penn Ave., Downtown, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, 412-316-1600, www.ppt.org.

Art Song Recital, hosted by Pittsburgh Opera Guilds, 2 p.m. Jan. 10, Pittsburgh Opera, 2425 Liberty Ave., Strip District, 412-281-0912, www.pittsburghopera.org.

Forever Plaid, musical theater, through March 28, Theater Square Cabaret, 655 Penn Ave., Downtown, CLO Cabaret, 412-456-6666, www.pgharts.org.

Pitt PhD Dissertation Defenses

Chenbo Wang, School of Art and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry, “Synthetic Studies on Haouamine A,” 2 p.m. Dec. 16, 325 Eberly Hall.

Kalpesh Upadhye, Swanson School of Engineering, “Developing Instrumentation for Multi-parametric Investigation of Mechanisms of Mechanosensitivity in Ion Channels,” 2 p.m. Dec. 18, 306 Bridgepoint Building 2, 400 Technology Dr., South Oakland.