Russian violinist in Le Petit Salon series
Music
WHAT A new intimate classical music series, Le Petit Salon de Musique, presents a recital by violinist Dina Nesterenko, who won two international competitions before age 17 and was a frequent soloist with orchestras in her native Russia before moving to New York. She will perform violin selections from Brahms, Bizet, Gershwin and William Bolcom. Nesterenko won top prizes at two competitions in Germany, Kloster Schontal (1995) and Classica Nova (1996). More recently, she won the Alexander & Buono International String Competition, which earned her a performance at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in 2009. She also won the 2010 Stony Brook Symphony Concerto Competition and was invited to perform at last summer's Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. A Juilliard graduate, Nesterenko is pursuing her doctorate at Stony Brook University.
WHEN | WHERE 2 p.m. Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Stony Brook, 380 Nicolls Rd., East Setauket
INFO $12, $15 at the door; lepetitsalon.org, 631-751-0297
Art
WHAT "Soweto Art: From the Collection of Violet and Les Payne" commemorates the 35th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising. The deadly protests by students in the black South African township were at first in peaceful reaction to a decree that all students be taught Afrikaans along with English. The young Sowetans did not want to learn Afrikaans because of its association with apartheid. The uprising resulted in hundreds of deaths, mostly of black South Africans. In the uprising's aftermath, the African National Congress emerged as a bulwark in the struggle for liberation. In turn, this led to the eventual fall of apartheid. ANC leader Nelson Mandela was subsequently released from prison and became South Africa's first black president in 1994. Les Payne, now retired, is a Pulitzer-winning journalist who covered South Africa for Newsday at the time of the uprising. The artists in the show, at Hofstra's Emily Lowe Gallery, lived through those intense and historic events. "Caught up in a global struggle against apartheid, these Soweto painters put aside bitter politics and devoted their lives to pure art," says Payne. The exhibition includes 33 paintings and works on paper by David Mbele, Velaphi Mzimba, Hargreaves Ntukwana and Winston Saoli.
WHEN | WHERE 1 to 5 p.m. weekends, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, through April 21, at Hofstra University Museum's Emily Lowe Gallery, Hempstead,
INFO Free; hofstra.edu/museum, 516-463-5672
Theater
WHAT "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," a 2005 Tony nominee for best musical, opens the first of two consecutive runs at BroadHollow theaters. Based on the 1988 movie about a pair of con men who find their match on the French Riviera, "Scoundrels" won a best actor Tony for Norbert Leo Butz in the role played by Steve Martin in the movie. Long Island theater favorites Matt Senese and Chris Dufrenoy play the lead scoundrels in BroadHollow's "Dirty Rotten."
WHEN | WHERE Opening Saturday night at 8, Sunday at 2:30 p.m., at BroadHollow's BayWay Arts Center, 265 E. Main St., East Islip, through March 13. Also March 19 to April 3 at BroadHollow Theatre at Elmont, 700 Hempstead Tpke.
INFO At BayWay: $20, $18 seniors and students, $14 children, $25 at the door. At Elmont: $14-$28; broadhollow.org, 631-581-2700
WHAT The 14th annual Festival of One-Act Plays presents six world premieres, including "Solitary" by Long Island's Frank Tangredi, his fourth entry to debut in the festival.
WHEN | WHERE 7 p.m. Sunday, through March 26 on a varied schedule, at the Ronald Peierls Theatre second stage at Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson
INFO $14; theatrethree.com, 631-928-9100
