Everything Nac

The Men’s Choir and Women’s Choir at Stephen F. Austin State University will present a concert featuring a variety of performers, including high school choirs from Nacogdoches and Lufkin, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 3, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

“Songs My Mother Taught Me” is a collection of folk songs, game songs and hymns from around the world, according to Dr. Tod Fish, associate director of choral activities at SFA and conductor of the choirs.

The Women’s Choir will perform Stephen Hatfield’s popular arrangement of the Brazilian folk song “O sapo” (The Toad). Dr. Kristin Lyman, assistant professor of music education at SFA, will play percussion on the song.

“This piece is highly rhythmic with lots of Portuguese that has served as a challenge for the choir,” Fish said. “There are many cool uses of alliteration from the lower three voices to serve as examples of the Tico Tico tradition.”

Herbert Midgley, music technology lecturer, will also join the Women’s Choir on the guitar for their performance of “Shady Grove.”

The Men’s Choir will perform Brian Tate’s arrangement of “Ehara,” which is a Maori folk song from the indigenous Polynesian culture of New Zealand.

“The song speaks to the ideals that love, life, faith and hope are nothing new, and they are handed down from our ancestors,” Fish explained.

The concert will conclude with SFA Men’s and Women’s choirs combining with the varsity mixed choirs from Lufkin and Nacogdoches high schools to perform Peter Wilhousky’s stirring arrangement of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

“We are excited to have these two choirs, directed by SFA alumnae Nicole Stewart and Jennifer Weems, respectively, joining us,” Fish said.

String students from the studios of Dr. Jennifer Dalmas, professor of violin and viola, and Dr. Evgeni Raychev, cello adjunct faculty, will accompany the choirs on various selections.

“I am also thankful for suggestions from Dr. Brad Meyer and members of his percussion studio for their stylistic suggestions,” Fish said.

The concert is a presentation of the College of Fine Arts and School of Music. Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

The Stephen F. Austin State University Department of Biology will host the 30th annual J.H. Burr Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Friday, April 26, in the Baker Pattillo Student Center Twilight Ballroom.

Dr. Beverly Burden, professor of biology at Louisiana State University at Shreveport, will present “Insects of the Home and Garden,” discussing the insects encountered on a daily basis, their unique biology and interesting facts about them.

Burden serves as the curator of the Museum of Life Sciences and interim director of the Red River Watershed Management Institute and is the featured expert on the monthly Red River Radio program “What’s Bugging You?” She was awarded the LSUS Outstanding Teaching Award in 2000 and 2018 and holds the Richard K. Speairs Professorship in Field Biology.

“People often ask me, ‘When are the insects going to take over the world?’” Burden said. “My answer is ‘They already have.’”

The series hosts speakers who discuss topics relating to biological research and was endowed in honor of Professor J.H. Burr who taught at SFA from 1951 to 1986.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Department of Biology at (936) 468-3601.

By Joanna Armstrong, marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University