Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present Dr. Brad Meyer performing a faculty percussion recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The performance is part of the School of Music’s Cole Performing Arts Series and will feature the world premiere of Alexis Bacon’s “Ojibwe Song” as well as premiere performances of Steven Snowden’s “The Taos Hum” and Francisco Perez’s “Pulsar.”

“Ojibwe Song” is a nine-minute electroacoustic piece for percussion and fixed media. The percussion and a recording of an interview with Alphonse Pitawanakwat, a First Nations Ojibwe speaker who has been contributing to the rebirth of the Ojibwe language, intertwine to create an atmosphere that carries the listener on an emotional journey, according to Bacon.

“The percussionist acts as the protagonist while the audience is surrounded by evocative atmospheric sounds that portray the drama of the story suggested by the recordings,” Bacon wrote in describing the piece. “My goal with this and with my other electroacoustic works is to explore ways in which some of the complex tapestry of American voices can be heard through my work.”

The Taos Hum is an audio phenomenon reported by a small but sizable portion of people living in and around Taos, New Mexico. It is commonly heard as a persistent low frequency humming, rumbling or droning, according to Snowden.

“So many wild stories have been concocted to explain the Taos Hum, and I wanted to explore that particular aspect of this phenomenon in this piece,” he said. “From a distant rumble, a diverse landscape of timbres and textures emerge and envelope the sonic landscape only to retreat back into their origins of cryptic obscurity.”

Named after the rhythmically static astronomical entity, “Pulsar” is the result the composer’s exploitation of a reoccurring rhythmic and melodic motif.

“Sonically mimicking the massive density of the neutron star, the active interplay between the live performer and playback is inspired by the electronic music of Moderat (a three-piece electronic music project) and the rudimental style of Mike McIntosh (a percussion specialist),” Perez wrote in describing the work.

The program also includes a performance of Perez’s “Tesseract.”

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 (888) 240-ARTS or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

Works from private Nacogdoches art collections will be featured in an exhibition that opens Jan. 17 in Griffith Gallery on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

“The Collector Collects: Art from Private Nacogdoches Collections” draws from local collections and will feature a variety of mostly works on paper, such as prints, drawings and pastels, and includes artists ranging from Francisco Goya to Mark Tobey, according to John Handley, director of galleries for the SFA School of Art.

“Part of the fun in pulling together a show like this is to see the diversity of artists, styles, dates and mediums that can be found in a small regional area like Nacogdoches,” Handley said. “There are examples from the 19th and 20th centuries, both European and American artists, many quite notable.”

Before Handley became director of galleries at SFA, SFA galleries featured similar exhibitions that showcased local art collections.

“I have been reminded several times from visitors to the galleries that these exhibitions were very popular,” he said. “So we thought, why not do one again?”

The exhibition is sponsored in part by the SFA Friends of the Visual Arts and the Nacogdoches Junior Forum. A reception will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28, which is also the opening night of the SFA School of Theatre’s production of Lynn Nottage’s play “Intimate Apparel” as part of the school’s Mainstage Series. The play opens at 7:30 p.m. in W.M. Turner Auditorium. Griffith Gallery is located across the hallway from the auditorium.

Admission to SFA art exhibitions and receptions is free.

Griffith Gallery is located in Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive. For additional information, call (936) 468-1131.

America’s top female brass players will take the stage in a Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts’ University Series performance at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

A dynamic quintet, Seraph Brass is renowned for engaging audiences with captivating music, according to Scott Shattuck, associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and director of the series.

“Seraph Brass presents a diverse body of work that includes new compositions written specifically for the group in addition to well-known classics,” Shattuck said.

Members have performed with such acclaimed ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony, and international orchestras from Switzerland, Korea, Scotland and New Zealand. They hold positions in the Richmond Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, Sarasota Opera Orchestra, the Artosphere Orchestra, New Chicago Brass, Tennessee Tech University and the University of Virginia. Two members have performed and/or toured with Grammy Award-winning artist Adele.

The ensemble will present a master class for SFA music students while the group is on campus.

This performance is sponsored in part by Cataract, Glaucoma and Retina Specialists of East Texas/Benchmark Optical and Medical Arts Surgery Center.

Prior to the performance, Dr. Charles Gavin, professor in the SFA School of Music, will present an informative talk about the quintet at 7 p.m. in Griffith Gallery. The gallery is located across the hall from Turner Auditorium, which is located in the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive. The audience is invited back to the gallery for a post-performance reception to meet the performers and to honor the event’s corporate sponsor.

Single event ticket prices are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and $10 for non-SFA students/youth. Tickets for SFA students are $3.

This season’s final University Series performance will feature Olga Vocal Ensemble on Feb. 2.

For tickets or more information, visit finearts.sfasu.edu, stop by the Box Office in Room 211 of the Griffith Fine Arts Building, or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.