In Brief

A trio of preeminent acoustic musicians _ bassist Edgar Meyer, banjoist Bela Fleck and guitarist/mandolinist Mike Marshall _ will perform in concert at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, in Langford Auditorium.

The concert will include a mix of bluegrass, jazz and classical-influenced music featured on the trio's most recent album, "Uncommon Ritual."

Tickets are $22; $10 for Vanderbilt students. They may be purchased at Sarratt Box Office and at all TicketMaster outlets or by calling TicketMaster at 255-9600.

Blair hosts holiday performance

The Blair School of Music will host a holiday performance by The Vanderbilt Symphonic Choir at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, at the Blair Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

The choir, directed by David Cassel, will perform sacred and secular works including Daniel Pinkham's "Christmas Cantata," Robert Young's "There Is No Rose" and "Personent Hodie," featuring guitarist David Katahn.

Blair vocal and music majors form the backbone of the 61-member ensemble. The choir is also open by audition to all members of the Vanderbilt community.

`Pasta' benefits Vanderbilt scholarships

The Vanderbilt University School of Nursing will host the 9th Annual Pasta Premier Saturday, Jan. 24, in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Nashville Hotel. Cocktails will be served at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:30. The event will benefit scholarships at the School of Nursing.

WTVF News Channel 5 anchor Vicki Yates will be the master of ceremonies. Celebrity chefs _ including WTVF News Channel 5 reporter/anchor Amy Marsalis, Mary Hance ("Ms. Cheap" of the Nashville Banner) and Bill Hance, director of Medical Center News and Public Affairs _ will share their favorite pasta recipes and compete against each other for culinary awards decided by honorary judges (last year's chefs). Sam Levine and the City Lights Orchestra will furnish music for dancing. Silent auction items include vacations to the Bahamas and Colorado, jewelry from Cindi Earl and Ward Potts, artwork from Joanna, Jenneen Laughbaum and Alan LeQuire, and a Vera Wang wedding gown.

Tickets for Pasta Premier are $75 per person. Beer, wine, antipasto, salad and dessert are included with the all-you-can-eat pasta dinner. For more information, call Betsey Usher, publicity chair, at 343-7235; or Noelle Coleman, Pasta Premier coordinator, at 343-3304.

Chairing this year's event are Beth Meador and Kathy Gibson. Parke-Davis is the major underwriter of Pasta Premier.

Women's Center to award prizes

The Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center is accepting nominations for The Muliebrity Prize and The Mentoring Prize in recognition of achievements by and in support of women on campus.

The Muliebrity Prize is awarded annually to an undergraduate student exhibiting exceptional leadership supporting the achievements, interests and goals of women and girls while promoting gender equity.

The Mentoring Prize is awarded for outstanding contributions to the professional and intellectual development of Vanderbilt women.

Nomination forms are available at the Sarratt desk or the Women's Center. A curriculum vitae of the nominee is also welcomed. Deadline for submitting nominations for both awards is Jan. 30.

For more information, call the Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center at 322-4843.

International math conference Jan. 3-6

More than 250 mathematicians from around the world are scheduled to attend the Ninth International Conference on Approximation Theory at Loews Vanderbilt Plaza Jan. 3-6.

Co-chairs for the event are Larry L. Schumaker, Stevenson Professor of Mathematics, and Charles Chui of Texas A&M University. Assistant Professors of Mathematics Tom Hogan, Kirill Kopotun and Mike Neamtu are also on the organizing committee.

Approximation theory deals with ways of representing complicated functions through simpler ones, often for the purpose of solving mathematical problems using a digital computer. The subject has applications in many branches of science and engineering and, despite more than a century of development, remains an active and vital part of modern mathematics research.

Topics to be discussed at the meeting include abstract approximation, complex approximation, radial basis functions, rational and Pad‚ approximation, univariate and multivariate splines, wavelets and a variety of applications.

The conference will include eight one-hour invited lectures by leaders in the field and more than 130 shorter presentations.

The full program of the conference can be viewed on the Internet at http://www.math.vanderbilt.edu/events/approx.html.

For more information, contact Schumaker at s@mars.cas.vanderbilt.edu or at 98@math.vanderbilt.edu.