Everything Nac

Dovetailing on its final day with Stephen F. Austin State University’s Showcase Saturday open-house event, the College of Sciences and Mathematics will host the 96th annual Mathematical Association of America – Texas Section conference on the campus this spring.

The annual meeting of MAA will take place Thursday, March 31, through Saturday, April 2. Faculty and staff members, students and the community, particularly K-12 teachers, are encouraged to attend.

Events of interest to teachers include a Math Circles gathering Friday, April 1, that focuses on problem-solving.

Student-oriented events include a student research talk from 8 to 11 a.m. and a graduate school fair from 5 to 6 p.m. in the math building, and keynote addresses both at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. in Kennedy Auditorium all occurring Friday, April 1. Other keynote addresses, including Becky Kamas, NASA activity manager, will take place from 8:30 to 11 a.m. Saturday, April 2, in Kennedy Auditorium.

Dr. Rob Beezer, professor with the University of Puget Sound, also will be a guest speaker discussing recent advances in open-source undergraduate mathematics textbooks, ways they integrate open-source software and how professors can best use them. He also will lead a hands-on workshop regarding basics of the open-source Sage mathematical software system.

Dr. Paul Zeitz of the University of San Francisco and Dr. Erica Flapan of Pomona College will speak as well.

Student and K-12 teacher registration is $5. Faculty member registration is $45. Registration can be completed onsite via cash or check.

For more information, visit http://www2.sfasu.edu/math/maa/index.html.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s College of Sciences and Mathematics will host the second annual Women in STEM Luncheon and Style Show in April as part of its ongoing effort to increase college enrollment among science, technology, education and mathematics disciplines.

“The purpose of this luncheon is to raise scholarship funds for female STEM majors at SFA,” said Vicki Shimer, special projects coordinator for the college. “It also is a way to raise awareness of the need to enroll more females in the STEM disciplines and encourage them to pursue STEM-related degrees.”

According to Change the Equation — an organization working to ensure all students are STEM literate through collaboration with schools, communities and states — female STEM students are 6 percent more likely to change their major. Also, only 30 percent of elementary school teachers feel well prepared to encourage girls to participate in science.

Girls also are more likely than boys to earn credits in algebra II, precalculus, advanced biology, chemistry and health science, Change the Equation reported. However, no improvement has been noted in the number of women enrolled in STEM disciplines since 2001.

SFA’s newly appointed Regent Nelda Luce Blair will be the event’s keynote speaker. Blair is president and owner of The Blair Law Firm. During the majority of her 30-year law career, she has shared a home and office in The Woodlands with her husband, retired attorney Jim Blair. Their daughter, Maris A. Blair, also is an attorney with the firm.

The luncheon and style show will begin at noon Thursday, April 7, in the Baker Pattillo Student Center Grand Ballroom. More than 225 attended the event in 2015.

The reservation deadline is Friday, April 1. Tickets are $40 each or $300 for a table of eight. Fashions will be provided by The Town House.

For information or to make a reservation, contact Shimer at (936) 468-5197 or shimervm@sfasu.edu.

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts, School of Music and School of Theatre will present “The Bartered Bride” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, April 7 through 9, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

The opera, considered Czech composer Bedřich Smetana’s most beloved and well-known comedic opera, will feature SFA’s outstanding student singers accompanied by an orchestra and staged with full set and costumes, according to Dr. Deborah Dalton, professor of voice at SFA and the opera’s director. She described the opera as “a brilliant lyric comedy with a strong nationalistic flavor.”

“Composer Bedřich Smetana wrote spirited, tuneful melodies that are firmly rooted in his Czech homeland, but his music has a universal appeal,” Dalton said. “Smetana’s operas truly established him as the father of Czech classical music.”

Dalton explained the synopsis of “The Bartered Bride” as taking place in a small Bohemian village. It is festival day. Mařenka is in love with Jeník, but her parents have engaged Kecal, a marriage broker, to marry her off to the son of Tobias Micha, a wealthy landowner. The son turns out to be a bumbling, stuttering simpleton – Vasek. It seems that Mařenka’s father owes Micha a long-standing debt. When Kecal bribes Jenik to renounce his claim on Mařenka, all seems to be lost, until Jenik reveals that he is the long lost son of Micha from a previous marriage.

“The music is beautiful and catchy enough to whistle tunes as you leave the theatre,” Dalton said. “The arias have sweeping, long melodic lines that carry the listener along with the emotions of the character singing it. The chorus of villagers and their music is a character unto itself, and the men sing one of the best drinking songs in the repertoire. There is also a traveling circus troupe that comes to entertain the villagers. We even have a bear!”

With approximately 150 people involved in the production, “The Bartered Bride” is a huge undertaking, Dalton said. There are 56 cast members, 42 musicians in the orchestra and many others working backstage.

“As always, our first concern is to provide an excellent learning experience for our voice students,” she said. “This opera has several leading and featured role for all voice types, and we have students with the needed voice types who are ready to sing these roles.”

“The Bartered Bride” is “the perfect opera for first-time opera-goers,” Dalton said.

“It is colorful, entertaining, funny and has an exceptional score that is beautifully sung and played,” she said. “The students are outstanding in their singing and acting of the comic and sometimes tragic plot turns.”

The set, designed by Richard Ellis, is a picturesque village street and the costumes by Angela Bacarisse are “colorful and fun,” Dalton said.

“People who come to see this opera will leave the theatre saying ‘I never knew that opera could be so fun,'” she added.

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 College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present bassoonist Scott Pool in a guest recital at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, in Cole Concert Hall in the Wright Music Building on the SFA campus.

Pool’s program, “The Romantic Bassoon,” will feature music from 19th century Romanticism, either from the era or in its spirit, Pool said.

“The bassoon has a lyrical voice of great expression, which is not often heard in the orchestral setting,” he said. “This solo recital seeks to exploit the melodic nature of the instrument.”

Composers represented on this program include Sergei Rachmaninoff, Robert Schumann and Carl Maria von Weber, who are ” all important composers of the 19th century,” Pool explained.

On the program are Rachmaninoff’s “Do Not Sing, My Beauty” and Weber’s Concerto for Bassoon, Op. 75. A highlight of the concert is a performance of Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces, Op. 73. “Originally for clarinet and piano, this piece embodies the essence of Romantic chamber music,” Pool said. “It appears as an international contest piece for bassoonists this year.”

Pool currently serves as the academy director of the Talis Music Festival and Academy in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. He also performs as contrabassoon/3rd bassoon with the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra and is on the chamber music faculty of the Orfeo International Music Festival in Italy. A resident of the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area, Pool is a frequent recitalist across the nation and abroad with appearances at numerous festivals and solo engagements. He has served as principal bassoon for a number of orchestras across the U.S.

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 College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present Dr. Evgeni Raychev in a faculty recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 29, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Titled “Cello Airs,” Raychev’s concert will feature cello favorites diversified with some violin transcriptions.

“Some works will be familiar to the audience members, while others may not be,” said Raychev, cello instructor in the School of Music. “Everything on the program, however, is taken from the music jewelry box, and I hope that the listener will leave the recital with a personal satisfaction and delight.

“From songs from the Jewish life, through gypsy airs, and all the way to ‘Intermezzo,’ (music from the famous film featuring Ingrid Bergman and Leslie Howard) this program will have something for everyone,” he said.

Pianists Dr. Andrew and Linda Parr will join Raychev “in this musical adventure,” he added.

The concert is part of the School of Music’s Cole Performing Arts Series. 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.

Several Stephen F. Austin State University students enrolled in the Department of Elementary Education and an international business student will study abroad for 18 days in Beijing and Nanjing, China, this May and June. Drs. Wynter Chauvin and Tingting Xu, SFA elementary education faculty members, are coordinating the trip and courses.

While overseas, the 12 participating students will observe and compare different systems of education at the elementary and middle school levels as well as visit the International School of Beijing. SFA students also will have the opportunity to develop their ESL skills by teaching English at the Nanjing University of Finance and Economics — something Chauvin said is unique to this trip.

In the morning, students will tutor university students in English, and in the afternoon, they will visit additional schools or participate in cultural events. Students will have a reflection and tutoring debriefing at NUFE in the evenings.

“We expect our students will be able to learn about different schools in China and accumulate some teaching experience, especially experience in teaching ESL students,” Xu said. “This trip also provides our students with insights into Chinese culture and history.”

Xu completed her undergraduate degree from NUFE, and her connection helped secure the university as a location for SFA students to practice their teaching. The university also will serve as the host school, and SFA students will live in dorms on campus.

“Living in the dorms and working with the NUFE students will help SFA students develop a better understanding of daily life in China,” Chauvin said. “Students will have a unique opportunity to be a part of a local community instead of just visiting and observing.”

The trip will include visits to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall of China, Ming tombs, Purple Mountain Park and more. To follow along, visit the class blog at http://SFAChina2016.wordpress.com.

For more information, contact SFA’s Department of Elementary Education at (936) 468-2904 or elementaryed@sfasu.edu.