President's address

President David Skorton will deliver his annual address to staff Tuesday, Oct. 9, at noon in Bailey Hall. Lunch will be provided.

The talk is sponsored by the Employee Assembly, whose members will be conducting a poll at the event.

Waltz time

Jazz pianist-composer-arranger Dick Hyman and his daughter, violinist-composer Judy Hyman, will perform Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall Auditorium to celebrate the release of their first album together, "Late Last Summer."

The duo will play pieces from the album, a collection of original waltzes they recorded in Ithaca last summer. They also will perform live accompaniment to an episode of "Beatrice Fairfax," a 1916 silent film series made in Ithaca.

Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Advance tickets are available at Ithaca Guitar Works, Angry Mom Records and the Ticket Center on the Commons. See http://www.ticketcenterithaca.com.

Cited this year on National Public Radio as "a living, breathing, swinging encyclopedia of jazz," Dick Hyman began his career in the late 1940s in New York City, has recorded more than 100 albums under his own name and performed on countless others. He has accompanied or arranged music for Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Bette Midler, Aretha Franklin, Igor Stravinsky and others. Hyman was the composer, arranger, conductor and pianist on 12 Woody Allen films; he also scored the film "Moonstruck" and has two Emmy awards for original score and musical direction.

A former Cornell employee, Judy Hyman is a member of local bands The Horse Flies and Boy With a Fish and often performs in Natalie Merchant's band. Also an Emmy winner, she has composed music for feature films, documentaries and television shows, and has appeared on "MTV Unplugged," "A Prairie Home Companion," "All Things Considered," "eTown" and "Late Night With David Letterman."

The artists will sign copies of the album after the performance. The concert is presented by Aaron Pichel '85, J.D., LL.M. '98.

Asian art history

Martie Young will discuss the founding and early growth of the Asian art collection at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art in the inaugural Stoikov Lecture, Oct. 10 at 5:15 p.m. at the museum. Free and open to the public.

The Johnson Museum renovated its fifth-floor Asian art galleries in 2010-2011 and reinstalled the collection with 50 percent more exhibition space, a new gallery for modern Asian art and computer stations for the study of the Asian collection.

Young is an emerita professor of the history of art and former curator of Asian art at the museum. Her talk is the first in a series of annual lectures about Asian art, endowed by Judith Stoikov '63. In addition to the public lecture, Young will meet with students.

Also at the Johnson: Stephanie Wiles, the museum's Richard J. Schwartz Director, leads a tour of her favorite works in the museum collections, Oct. 11 from noon to 1 p.m.

Experimental films

British filmmaker Ben Rivers will introduce his recent 16mm experimental films "Slow Action" and "Sack Barrow" at Cornell Cinema Oct. 10 at 7:15 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre.

"Sack Barrow" (2011, 21 minutes) observes the environment and daily routines of the final month for the six workers at a small factory on the outskirts of London that went into liquidation last year.

"Slow Action" (2010, 45 minutes) is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film applying the idea of island biogeography -- the study of how species and ecosystems evolve when isolated and surrounded by unsuitable habitat -- to a conception of the Earth in a few hundred years. Information: http://lux.org.uk/collection/artists/ben-rivers.

Highland style

Fiddler Rebecca Lomnicky and bagpiper/multi-instrumentalist David Brewer perform Oct. 11, 12:30 p.m. in B20 Lincoln Hall for the Midday Music at Lincoln series.

Lomnicky plays in the Cornell Chamber Orchestra and was the 2009 winner of the prestigious Glenfiddich International Scottish Fiddle Championship. Brewer is a founding member of the Celtic band Molly's Revenge.

Also Oct. 11: Pianist Annie Lewandowsi and percussionist Tim Feeney will perform improvisations to the short films of professor of art Michael Ashkin at 8 p.m. in B20 Lincoln Hall; a Q&A will follow.

Both programs are presented by the Department of Music and are free and open to the public. Information: http://music.cornell.edu.

Physical plants

Karl J. Niklas, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Biology, will discuss his new book, "Plant Physics," Oct. 11 at 4 p.m. in Mann Library's Stern Seminar Room. Free and open to the public. A reception and book signing will follow.

The book, published by University of Chicago Press in April, is the result of a long-term collaboration between plant evolutionary biologist Niklas and physicist Hanns-Christof Spatz. It is unique in the field of biomechanics and a valuable reference for researchers interested in how plants work from a physical perspective -- and how physical forces and processes influence growth, development, reproduction, evolution and the environment.

Artistic Meier

"Richard Meier: Artistic Conscience," on view through Nov. 2 in John Hartell Gallery in Sibley Dome, explores the relationship between art and architecture as seen through the sensibility of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier '56, B.Arch. '57.

The exhibition offers a glimpse into the creative processes behind Meier's architecture through four media -- collage, sculpture, architectural drawings and scale models -- and integrates the abstract and seemingly chaotic nature of Meier's artwork with the order and geometry characterizing his architecture.

Examples of Meier's personal artistic explorations are presented alongside drawings and models of two unbuilt projects proposed for the Cornell campus: Cornell Undergraduate Housing (1974) and Alumni and Admissions Center (1988). The exhibition is organized by Richard Meier and Partners Architects and the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.