Everything Nac

Huffman junior theatre student Sidney Lowell plays the role of Babette in the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre’s presentation of Max Frisch’s play “(Biedermann and) The Firebugs.” Curtain goes up at 7:30 nightly through Saturday, March 3, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.theatre.sfasu.edu. Single tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7.50 for students/youth.

The Friends of the Visual Arts at Stephen F. Austin State University will award a newly established $1,000 scholarship this spring in honor of longtime art and filmmaking professor William E. Arscott.

Arscott, who recently turned 83, is SFA’s longest-tenured faculty member with more than 54 years teaching at the university. This scholarship is one of many the FVA has established to honor retiring art instructors. However, Arscott has no plans to retire soon.

“Normally, the FVA Board only awards scholarships for a retired professor,” FVA scholarship chair Linda Mock explained. “But we decided that Bill may never retire, and we want to honor him now. He has been generous in providing financial assistance to the gallery and supporting all our FVA scholarship fundraising efforts.”

The Arscott scholarship will be awarded on an annual basis to a junior, senior or graduate level student who is working toward an art degree with a major area of study in filmmaking.

Arscott has worked in many artistic fields, including ceramics, painting, printmaking, sculpture and cinematography. For many years, while teaching cinematography, he also taught huge sections of art appreciation, and his lectures for these have been aptly described as “legendary,” according to a Faculty Spotlight feature.

Arscott established the cinematography program in 1980. His primary artist activity is that of a movie producer, though he also does some work in painting and printmaking, the Spotlight article explained. Distinguished both as an artist and educator, Arscott has been recognized and awarded many honors, including Texas Senate Resolution No. 514, Outstanding Educator of America, Alumni Distinguished Professor and Regents Professor.

Among his proudest moments was when Dr. Baker Pattillo, SFA president, recognized Arscott in August 2013 for his 50 years of service to SFA. Pattillo presented Arscott with a plaque proclaiming Aug. 22, 2013, ‘William E. Arscott Day’ at SFA.

Today, Arscott spends most of his time teaching alongside one of his most famous former students, two-time Emmy-Award nominee Brad Maule, who portrayed Dr. Tony Jones on the daytime soap opera General Hospital for 20 years. Together, the two colleagues spend hundreds of hours a year teaching undergraduate and graduate students filmmaking, cinematography and production design.

A testament to the program’s commitment to graduating “camera-ready” professionals, Arscott said about 90 percent of the program’s graduates are employed in the industry. “They leave us with the skills they need to excel,” Arscott said in the Spotlight article.

The FVA has established scholarships in the name of retiring SFA School of Art professors who were employed in the School of Art for a minimum of 10 years before retirement and who contributed in a significant way to the mission of the Friends of the Visual Arts board and its fundraising activities, such as consistently donating art for fundraisers, by providing monetary assistance, or by serving on FVA committees or board.

The SFA Friends of the Visual Arts is made up of community members who support the arts in East Texas and provide monetary assistance to students enrolled in the School of Art to assist them with expenses incurred in producing the required exhibition for earning a B.A. or M.F.A. in art. The FVA also assists students with expenses related to attending educational trips planned by the School of Art or to attending conferences/workshops related to their primary area of study.

The A Cappella Choir at Stephen F. Austin State University will present “Where Everything is Music” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 8, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The program theme will examine the many ways in which music permeates and affects our everyday life, according to Dr. Michael Murphy, associate professor and director of choral activities in the SFA School of Music.

The A Cappella Choir will perform the North American premiere of Swedish composer Bo Hansson’s original composition “Where Everything is Music” for choir and cello. The 900-year-old text from Persian poet Rumi talks about removing barriers and boundaries in life. Dr. Evgeni Raychev, cello instructor at SFA, will collaborate with the choir.

The choir will also perform southwest premieres of two unaccompanied choral selections by composer Andrew Smith, who was born in Liverpool, England, and has lived in Norway since 1984.

Other works performed will feature “Reggel” (“Morning”) by the Hungarian-Austrian avant-garde composer György Ligeti. The rhythmic Haitian folk song “Peze Kafe” by Swedish arranger Sten Källman, along with the melancholy “Nächtens” (“In the Night”) by Johannes Brahms and other selections will complete the program.

The concert is a joint presentation of the College of Fine Arts and School of Music. Cole Concert Hall is located in the 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 Choral Union and Women’s Choir at Stephen F. Austin State University will present the program “The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Bernstein Celebration” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The concert’s music celebrates the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein, who is “arguably the greatest, and most diverse, musical mind in our country’s history,” according to Dr. Tod Fish, associate director of choral activities for the SFA School of Music.

“The concert will be a display of Bernstein’s skillful fusing of styles over the course of his compositional life,” Fish said.

Bernstein’s style has been described as both “urban” and “urbane,” as he was able to incorporate all the musical attributes laid before him as a conductor, performer, pedagogue and scholar, Fish explained.

“Bernstein was able to masterfully combine the forms and styles of European composers with the driving rhythmic impetus of urban America to create a style he described as ‘unashamedly diverse,’ consequently ‘the best of all possible worlds,'” Fish said.

Members of the SFA voice faculty will join the ensembles to sing a choral setting of an arrangement by Robert Page of “Make Our Garden Grow” from “Candide.”

Dr. Kristin Lyman, assistant professor of music education, will accompany as percussionist the Women’s Choir and Choral Union’s performance of “Chichester Psalms.”

“This work was important to Bernstein,” Fish said. “He took a 15-month sabbatical from his conducting duties with the New York Philharmonic from 1964 to 1965, using the time for soul-searching and reflection to see whether or not he was out of touch with modern trends and to decide in what direction contemporary music, particularly his own, was heading. In the end, he decided he still had something to say and would achieve it through tonality, which bucked the trends of the time. ‘Chichester Psalms’ is the result of this decision and was premiered in 1965.”

Other guests joining in the performance of “Chichester Psalms” are music faculty member Dr. Christina Harmon and her student, Polina Golubkova, who will accompany the combined choirs on the organ. Harpist Rachel Clark, student of faculty member Emily Mitchell, as well as percussionist Briley Patterson, student of Dr. Bradley Meyer, director of percussion studies at SFA, will also perform.

The ensembles will combine to perform “Sanctus” from “Mass” as the concert’s finale.

“With this, Bernstein created a work that combined the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Mass, passages from The Book of Genesis, Hebrew benedictions, and Buddhists texts to create a work that focused upon ecumenism, human dignity and human rights,” Fish said. “‘Sanctus’ serves as a strong example of the work’s musical and ecumenical spirit, as it uses driving rhythms within different combinations of meter through the incorporation of both Latin and Hebrew texts.”

The Women’s Choir will perform arrangements of “America” and “One Hand, One Heart” from “West Side Story.”

“‘America’ is going to be a dramatic display that will be blocked by Nita Hudson, a member of our voice faculty,” Fish said. “‘One Hand, One Heart’ will also have Shelby Slacalek joining us for an interpretive dance.”

Voice faculty performers include Debbie Berry, Emily Milius, Debbie Dalton, Nita Hudson, Ric Berry, Garry Leonberger, Scott LaGraff and Chris Turner, accompanied by collaborative pianist Hyun Ji Oh.

“This is going to be an exciting celebration of Leonard Bernstein,” Fish said. “This music will display his gift for fusing styles together to create a voice of his own.”

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.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 8, in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, located at 2900 Raguet St. Dr. Franta Majs, director of SFA’s Soil, Plant and Water Analysis Laboratory, will present “For Better Fruits, Vegetables and Landscapes, Test Your Soil.”

Majs took the reins of the Soil, Plant and Water Analysis Laboratory in September 2017. Professional training in soil science and environmental chemistry has allowed him to study soils from the Southeast, Midwest and Alaska. Along with being lab director, he also teaches courses in soil science, composting and related subjects.

Through scientific support and implementation of new analytical methods, Majs hopes to strengthen the laboratory’s mission, which is to meet the testing needs of the East Texas area and surrounding region. Majs appreciates the diversity of East Texas soils and the intricacies that come with managing this critical natural resource.

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 Raguet Elementary School, located at 2428 Raguet St.

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