What's happening at local colleges
THURS 11.17 CURTIS SITTENFELD Reading, 7:30 p.m. Boston College, Gasson Hall, Room 100, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill. 617-552-3705. Free.
Writer Curtis Sittenfeld achieved early acclaim, winning the ‘‘Seventeen’’ magazine fiction writing contest at age 16 and the ‘‘Mississippi Review’’ annual fiction contest in 1998. But her debut novel, ‘‘Prep,’’ which she reads from tonight, was rejected by no less than 14 publishers before finding a home at Random House and becoming a bestseller.
FRI 11.18 ROBERT TURNER: RARE PLACES IN A RARE LIGHT Photography exhibition, Harvard University, Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge. 617-495-3045. $7.50.
This traveling exhibition of large-format images by celebrated landscape photographer Robert Turner captures breathtaking vistas from the Pacific Northwest to the Great Smoky Mountains in transitional moments — right before a storm, in the lingering minutes of light just after sunset — that find the landscape exuding an other-worldly quality. The show is open daily, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., through March 26.
SAT 11.19 AUROS GROUP FOR NEW MUSIC: A TRIBUTE TO ERIC CHASALOW Concert, 8 p.m. Brandeis University, Slosberg Recital Hall, 415 South St., Waltham. 781-736-3400. $20, $10 students and seniors.
Brandeis University professor and award-winning electro-acoustic composer Eric Chasalow receives a trip down memory lane for his 50th birthday, which is being feted with a show by the contemporary chamber music ensemble, Auros Group for New Music. The ensemble will perform Chasalow’s compositions written between 1984 and the present, as well as the world premiere of his new flute concerto.
MON 11.21 MICHAEL QUEENLAND Art exhibit, Massachusetts College of Art, Stephen D. Paine Gallery, 621 Huntington Ave., Boston. 617-879-7333. Free.
California conceptual artist Michael Queenland uses everyday items, from brooms to packing peanuts, to make sometimes stark — sometimes lovely — sculptures, installations, and photographs: work that examines issues of spirituality. Raised as a Davidian, an orthodox sect of Seventh-Day Adventism, he has also drawn on the Shakers for inspiration in work that examines how religious communities create their own domestic art. The show runs Mon-Fri, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat 11 a.m.-5 p.m., through January 10, 2006.
TUES 11.22 JIMMY HEATH Concert, 8:15 p.m. Berklee College of Music, Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass. Ave., Boston. 617-747-2261. $5, $2 seniors.
One of jazz’s old-guard greats, tenor saxophonist/composer/arranger Jimmy Heath has played with nearly all of the masters — Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker. He shows off his chops in this performance with the acclaimed Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra. Heath will also teach a free master class Nov. 21 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the David Friend Recital Hall, 921 Boylston St., Boston.
