Everything Nac

Make plans to join Stephen F. Austin State University art education majors to create sculptures, paintings, collages, eco-art and more from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 21, at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, located at 2900 Raguet St.

“This is a new event at SFA Gardens, and we hope that adults and families with children will join us in the garden to create masterpieces and learn from SFA art students,” said Elyce Rodewald, education coordination at SFA Gardens. “This will be a fun and inspiring way to celebrate spring and Earth Day.”

Dr. Cala Coats, SFA assistant professor of art, has guided her art development students in choosing engaging activities for participants.

“SFA art education students have been studying contemporary art related to environmental issues while developing projects related to exploration and connectivity with nature,” Coats said.

Art in the Garden is a come-and-go event, and participants can register at the Brundrett Conservation Education Building when they arrive. There is no cost for the event, and all materials will be provided.

For more information, contact the SFA Gardens education office at (936) 468-1832 or sfagardens.sfasu.edu.

Works by composers John Mackey and Joseph Schwantner will be featured when the Wind Ensemble at Stephen F. Austin State University presents the program “Eventide” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

“The pieces on this concert share a nighttime theme,” said Fred J. Allen, director of bands at SFA.

The featured work is Mackey’s “The Night Garden.”

“The Wind Ensemble has played quite a few compositions by American composer John Mackey,” Allen said. “His pieces contain remarkable color in the orchestration.”

Also featured will be Schwantner’s “In Evening’s Stillness,” which will be conducted by Dr. David Campo, associate director of bands.

“This is the final piece in a trilogy of pieces Dr. Campo has conducted with the Wind Ensemble in the past few years,” Allen said. “He previously led the band in performances of ‘ … and the mountains rising nowhere’ and ‘From a Dark Millennium,’ the first two pieces in this set.”

The band will also perform pieces by Andrew Boss and Steve Danyew, both of whom are emerging American composers.

The concert is a joint presentation of the College of Fine Arts and School of Music. Turner Auditorium is located in the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive.

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 Percussion Ensemble at Stephen F. Austin State University will welcome international performer and master pedagogue Dr. Scott Herring when he performs with students in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 16, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

“We are extremely excited and fortunate to have Dr. Herring, who has trained some of the finest percussion performers and music educators in the country, perform and give several clinics at SFA,” according to Dr. Brad Meyer, director of percussion studies for the SFA School of Music.

Herring, professor of percussion at the University of South Carolina, will be the marimba soloist on Michael Burritt’s “Shadow Chasers.”

Of the work, Burritt wrote: “In his writing, the English author C.S. Lewis referred to our time on earth as the ‘Shadow Lands.’ Many implications can be drawn from this metaphor. I have always considered myself, and most people, to be someone who chases after the things of the Shadow Lands (a “Shadow Chaser”) rather than those of a higher calling. I, too, often look for rewards here instead of in my relationship with God. This is a battle I will constantly fight.”

Herring frequently appears as a guest artist with university percussion ensembles across the U.S. He has performed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and was a member of the Northwestern University Graduate Percussion Quartet, which performed in Germany and London. Herring also performs with USC saxophone professor Clifford Leaman as the RoseWind Duo. They have given numerous performances and clinics at universities across the country and have been invited to perform at many professional conferences. The duo has performed in France, Spain, Scotland and China. He is also member of the Shiraz Percussion Trio.

The program also includes performances of “Ogoun Badagris” by Christopher Rouse; “Furious Angels” by Jeffrey Peyton; “Vespertine Formations” by Christopher Deane; and “Identity Crisis” by Michael Aukofer.

“Ogoun Badagris” derives its inspiration from Haitian drumming patterns, particularly those of the Juba Dance, according to Rouse.

“Furious Angels” is a “scherzo diabolique” for seven percussionists, the composer explains. The work explores the many permutations of the scherzo, particularly the momentum and rhythmic energy inherent in 6/8 time.

Deane explains that “Vespertine Formations” was inspired by the chance observation of flock maneuvers performed by a huge number of birds over the University of North Texas campus on an October evening in 2001.

“The wing motions of so many birds suggested the texture of constant 16th notes. As the brilliant orange sunset diminished to dusk, the birds settled into trees around campus. The fantastic choreography created by this flock of birds and the natural chronology of events guided the structure and form of this piece,” Deane wrote.

The concert is a joint presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music. Cole Concert Hall is located in the Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Drive

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 voices and costumes of SFA Opera Theater’s production of “The Magic Flute” are equally stunning, and audiences won’t want to miss either when the schools of Music and Theatre present the classic opera at 7:30 nightly Thursday through Saturday, April 12 through 14, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus. Magnolia senior Brittnee Simone as Papagena reveals her true youth and beauty to San Antonio sophomore Greg Garcia as Papageno in W.A. Mozart’s fairy tale for all ages. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7.50 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 12, in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, located at 2900 Raguet St. Dr. Amanda McWhirt, assistant horticulture professor at the University of Arkansas, will present “I Have a Thorny Issue to Discuss: Blackberry Basics.”

McWhirt also serves as the state fruit and vegetable production extension specialist with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. She works with commercial fruit and vegetable producers to improve the efficiency and productivity of these cropping systems in Arkansas. Currently, she is conducting research on cover crops for vegetable production, high-tunnel fruit and vegetable production, strawberry fertility management, and alternative trellising methods for blackberries.

McWhirt holds a bachelor’s degree in horticulture from Tarleton State University, a master’s degree in soil science from Louisiana State University and a doctoral degree from North Carolina State University in crop science-agroecology. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 2008 to 2010, which is where she learned to drink coffee, speak Spanish and discovered a passion for working with farmers.

The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month and includes a rare-plant raffle after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series fund are always appreciated. Parking is available at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center and next door at Raguet Elementary School, located at 2428 Raguet St.

For more information, call (936) 468-4129, or email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.