This year's Vivian L. Smith Symposium takes a musical form celebrating John and Dominique de Menil's interest in avant-garde music. "Hearing Postwar Art" begins Friday evening with a performacnce on the museum's front lawn with "line upon line" percussion ensemble that will perform works by composers Steve Reich, Steve Snowdon and Iannis Xenakis.

The symposium continues Saturday in the Byzantine Fresco Chapel building with a series of talks with scholars whose work focuses on the intersection of postwar art, music and sound. Speakers include Liz Kotz, professor at UC Riverside, Leo Mazow, professor at the University of Arkansas and Simon Shaw-Miller, professor at the University of Bristol, UK. The evening's lectures will be punctuated by brief musical interludes performed by Da Camera and the Damon Smith ensemble.