A busy winter, arts fans.

Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard

A solo concert by a world-class composer of contemporary music, a musical birthday party for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the display of a seldom-seen painting by Vincent Van Gogh are among the highlights in Eugene's fine arts world this winter.

Add to that shows such as Willamette Rep's ``Cyrano,'' Eugene Opera's ``Hansel and Gretel,'' Eugene Ballet's ``The Princess and the Pea'' and Eugene Symphony's Brahms Requiem - not to mention the winter openings at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland - and there's hardly an excuse to be found for staying home the next three months.

Here are a few of the best reasons to get out of the house this winter:

Music

Philip Glass, America's most famous living classical composer, comes to Eugene on Feb. 15 for a single solo piano concert at the Shedd Institute, which is also hosting jazz legend Chick Corea and his new band, Touchstone, on Feb. 4.

Eugene Opera brings the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" to the Hult Center stage on Feb. 3 and 4 in collaboration with Eugene Ballet and the Oregon Festival Choir.

The Eugene Concert Choir's big blowout for the year will take place March 11, when the Grammy Award-winning Paul Winter Consort joins the choir for a performance of Missa Gaia.

Mozart's 250th birthday will be the occasion for the Oregon Mozart Players to whoop it up at a Hult Center concert on Jan. 27. The all-Mozart program will also feature the Eugene Concert Choir.

The symphony, which is doing Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" on Jan. 19, comes back with the Brahms Requiem on Feb. 9. Giancarlo Guerrero conducts both performances.

The UO School of Music will host violist Marcus Thompson on Jan. 26 with the Oregon String Quartet and pianist Victor Steinhardt at Beall Hall. The music school also will present the Imani Winds in its chamber music series Jan. 29 at Beall and will do Mozart's comic opera "Marriage of Figaro" at the Lane Community College Auditorium, March 3-5.

Dance

The Martha Graham Dance Company comes to Eugene for the first time ever for a Hult Center dance performance Jan. 22. On Jan. 21, a multimedia presentation at the Hult will explore the legendary collaboration between Graham and composer Aaron Copland on "Appalachian Spring."

Eugene Ballet brings "The Princess and the Pea" to the Hult Center Feb. 25 and 26, with choreography by Daniel Pelzig.

Dance Theatre of Oregon presents "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" on March 10-12 at the Hult Center.

Theater

The classic love story "Cyrano," in a contemporary version played by just three actors, opens at Willamette Repertory Theatre on Jan. 25.

Lord Leebrick Theatre Company will put on 2005 Nobel prize-winner Harold Pinter's "Betrayal " on Jan. 13.

"I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!" - a musical comedy looking at life and love - opens at Actors Cabaret of Eugene on Jan. 27; the company also opens the musical ``1776'' on March 17.

University Theatre will present "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail" opening Feb. 8; the play examines Henry David Thoreau's act of civil disobedience. The theater comes back with "After Mrs. Rochester," which chronicles the life of novelist Jean Rhys, on March 3.

Very Little Theatre will also celebrate Mozart's 250th birthday this winter with "Amadeus," which will open Jan. 20.

Cottage Theatre opens "The Diary of Anne Frank" on Feb. 3, followed by "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" on March 31.

Down the road in Ashland, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's winter openings include "The Winter's Tale" on Feb. 17, "The Diary of Anne Frank" on Feb. 18, "The Importance of Being Earnest" on Feb. 19 and "UP" on Feb. 23.

Visual art

The 800-pound gorilla on Eugene's visual art scene this winter is, of course, the Vincent Van Gogh painting "Femme Dans un Jardin," which is on loan through June 30 from an anonymous owner to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon.

The painting sold at Sotheby's in London last June for more than $5 million and has been exhibited only rarely since it was painted in 1887. The Schnitzer also has the UO art faculty show from Jan. 27 to April 16.

At the Jacobs Gallery, which is on the lower level at the Hult Center downtown, look for "Marquee Massacres: Native Americans in One Hundred Years of Movie Graphics from Oregon Passage to the Battle of Rogue River," which opens Jan. 27 and runs through March 4. Curated by UO law professor Rennard Strickland, the show examines movie images of Native Americans.

Karin Clarke Gallery will have an exhibit of paintings by Corvallis artist Nelson Sandgren in January. This is the second show the gallery has held for Sandgren, a retired Oregon State University art professor.

Around the corner, Opus6ix will have a show in March of four ceramics artists - John Glick, Susanne Stephenson, Matt Metz and Katrina Chaytor - in connection with a ceramics conference at Lane Community College.

DIVA's second annual OpenLens Festival runs Jan. 13-15 and features the Northwest premier of Susan Emshwiller's new feature comedy, "In the Land of Milk and Money."

DIVA also will have a varied collection of shows at its downtown galleries, including monoprints by Dick Reid, prints by Chad Tolley and photography by Brizz Meddings in January and February.

In March, DIVA will open a two-month retrospective of the painting of Madeliene Liepe.

Speaking of retrospectives, Maude Kerns Art Center will hold a retrospective on the installations and assemblages of Mike Walsh. The show, which includes seven installations on AIDS, runs from Feb. 24 through March 30 and will fill all of the art center's galleries.

New Zone Gallery will show "Nudes and Erotica" in February. At the same time, work by 30 members of the Eugene art collective will be featured in a show at the First Congregational Church, across from the Portland Art Museum in downtown Portland.

The Springfield Museum will have an exhibit of artistic manhole covers from across the United States - and even two covers from Japan - as well as fiber art inspired by manhole cover art. It all happens from March 22 to April 29.

In Coburg, the Alder Gallery is planning a group show from February to April of works on ``Rivers, Streams and Lakes of Oregon,'' along with new works by Eugene glass artist Jason Harris.

In Salem, the Hallie Ford Museum at Willamette University will have "Ancient Bronzes From the Asian Grasslands" from Jan. 21 to April 1 and "Tom Foolery: Miniature Environments" from Jan. 7 to March 11.

And farther north, the Portland Art Museum continues its fabulous "Hesse: A Princely German Collection," which features art and exquisite objects from the German family, through March 19.

CAPTION(S):

Composer Philip Glass will play a solo piano concert at the Shedd. and this is light text and this is more light text John Deane Virginie Mecene dances the part of the bride in Martha Graham Dance Company's ``Appalachian Spring,'' which uses the music of Aaron Copland. John Deane Above: In February, Eugene Ballet will stage the comic ``Princess and the Pea.'' Left: In the visual arts, an exhibit by Corvallis artist Nelson Sandgren is likely to be a highlight. Below: Jan. 27 is the 250th anniversary of the birth of W.A. Mozart. The Oregon Mozart Players plan a concert to mark the occasion.