Everything Nac

The School of Theatre at Stephen F. Austin State University will present “Clybourne Park” by Bruce Norris at 7:30 nightly through Saturday, Feb. 27, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus. Among the student performers in this 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama are, from left, Jonee Lewis as Francine, Karen Rush as Bev and Bobby Britton as Russ. Single tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7.50 for students/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 will present “In Praise of Women” when the ensembles perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, in Cole Concert Hall in the Wright Music Building on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University.

The concert program is based on works by female composers and poets, and on female centered themes, according to Dr. Tod W. Fish, assistant professor and associate director of choral activities in the SFA School of Music.

“Female composers are grossly under-performed, in particular, those from earlier time periods,” Fish said. “This concert will display the works of female composers and poets from five different historical periods.”

The concert features a collaboration with SFA music faculty members Christina Guenther, flute; Staci Spring, bassoon; and Scott LaGraff, Chris Turner and Gennard Lombardozzi, voice. Graduate student violinists will also perform.

The Women’s Choir will perform “The Snow” by Edward Elgar. “It is a mainstay in the treble repertoire,” Fish said. “It features a virtuosic violin duet and the text by his wife, Alice, a poet and novelist.

The Choral Union will perform Domine ad adiuvandum by the early Baroque composer Isabella Leonarda, who Fish describes as “a fairly unknown composer to modern audiences.”

“But she was quite popular during her lifetime,” he said. “This piece shows influence of (Claudio) Monteverdi and is accompanied by two C instruments and basso continuo.”

The Choral Union will also perform Lili Boulanger’s “Pour les Funérailles d’un Soldat,” a highly dramatic work that will feature LaGraff, Turner and Lombardozzi as soloists and in a vocal trio.

Graduate conducting students Elaina Nordin of Angleton will conduct the Women’s Choir, and Andrew Trites of Overland Park, Kansas, and Robert Boren of Gun Barrel City will conduct the Choral Union men and women, respectively. The graduate conductors will each interpret three selections by contemporary female composers, Fish said.

The recital is a joint presentation of the SFA 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.

Music streams inside the Culinary Café kitchen at Stephen F. Austin State University as seniors Anna Smith and Amanda Powers prepare a dish for a local event. Peeling pears, they read over the recipe, planning out the cooking time, temperature and method for creating the dish. On the stove, a rosemary-red-wine-muscadine sauce simmers. After a taste test proves the sauce is the right consistency, Smith and Powers soak the pears in the sauce for flavoring.

Working in the kitchen comes natural to Smith of Thicket, Texas, and Powers of Cedar Park, Texas, who are both SFA hospitality majors. In May, the women will join an elite group of students who will work in France at the American Pavilion at the Cannes International Film Festival Culinary Program.

The Cannes International Film Festival celebrates cinematographic art with various red carpet events, workshops, seminars, film screenings and more. The American Pavilion is the center of activity during the festival for the American film community. It is a membership-based communications and hospitality center for journalists, publicists, celebrities, filmmakers and motion picture executives working at the festival, and it provides students with a variety of immersive program offerings.

Smith and Powers were introduced to the Cannes Culinary Program when a representative visited the SFA campus and discussed the many opportunities the Cannes International Film Festival offers students.

“When he talked about the culinary program, it got me so excited for the opportunity to cook in France, go to farmer’s markets, meet French chefs, and make more than a thousand meals a day for festival workers and guests,” Powers said. “It is truly a dream come true to have been accepted into this culinary program.”

Smith agrees the presentation sparked her interest in applying.

“I’ve always known I wanted to travel to gain experience like this. During my internship, I traveled to Colorado and spent my summer learning what it is like working in a large-scale bakery,” Smith said. “Experience, adventure and passion for what I do led me to apply to this competitive program, where only 20 students out of the whole country were accepted.”

The Cannes Culinary Program is unique and competitive. Students submit an application, answer essay questions, and send their résumés, transcripts and letters of recommendations to a selection committee.

While at the festival, Smith and Powers will cook and prepare meals for special banquets and events that host celebrities and others. The students’ training also will include visiting French kitchens, wineries and farmer’s markets.

“Most people have asked, ‘Aren’t you excited to see celebrities?’ And while there is some excitement at the prospect of an Anne Hathaway or Ryan Reynolds sighting, I’m more excited to experience a new place, culture and ultimately, learn more about how to cook some great cuisine,” Smith said.

The pair feel they are ready for their adventure in France and said they credit SFA’s culinary program with preparing them for the journey.

“My courses at SFA have taught me how to cook for a large number of people, how to plan and what to expect,” Powers said. “Chef Todd Barrios has been an amazing professor and has helped teach us what to add to complement flavors, how to prepare and make so many varieties of foods, and so much more.”

After graduation, Powers plans to work for Cakes Rock, an in-house bakery in Austin, while Smith hopes to become a pastry chef.

“Baking is a lot different than cooking. There’s a science and everything has to be exact or things don’t come out quite right. There’s something therapeutic about baking,” Smith said. “I love the idea that it is both a science and an art — that you can take something so exact and still find ways to make it your own.”

This year’s Schmidbauer Young Artist Competition winner Ethan Le will be among the guest artists who perform when the Orchestra of the Pines presents “Vim and Virtuosity” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 7, in Cole Concert Hall on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University.

“The evening is a potpourri of music selections – a melting pot of variable delights,” said Dr. Gene H. Moon, director of orchestras at SFA. “We have two guest artists joining us, both of whom are full of vim and virtuosity.”

Le, a senior at Cinco Ranch High School in Katy, will perform the first movement of Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major. Le made his orchestral debut at the age of 14 with the Houston Civic Symphony as its winner of the Young Artist Concerto Competition Junior String Division. In that same year, he also won the Clear Lake Symphony Youth Concerto Competition, Junior String Division, and performed with the orchestra. Le won first place at the 2014 Clear Lake Symphony Youth Concerto Competition and at the 2015 Houston Civic Symphony Young Artist Concerto Competition.

Also performing with the orchestra will be John Ma, violin professor at the University of Macau, Hong Kong. As a musical exchange, Moon will travel to Hong Kong to join Ma and two of his students in a collaborative performance.

With the Orchestra of the Pines, Ma, who is an active violinist with symphonies and orchestras throughout Hong Kong and China, will perform “Estaciones Portenas,” or “Four Seasons,” by Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla.

Also on the program is a performance of this year’s winning entry in the orchestra’s annual composition competition. SFA “prides itself in having a thriving composition studio” led by Dr. Stephen Lias, professor of composition in the School of Music, according to Moon.

“I have always championed new music and strive to introduce my orchestras to such contemporaries,” Moon said “This year, we have a unique ‘first time,’ not only in the work being performed, but also by the composer, who is our first freshman winner.”

Freshman composition major and talented pianist Jesse Edwards composed “Shipwreck,” a full orchestra work inspired by the painting “A Shipwreck Off a Rocky Coast” (c. 1760) by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, a French painter made famous for his renditions of landscapes and battles. Edwards has had works premiered in concerts, theaters and films.

The program is bookended by two popular concert works. Jeff Leung, SFA graduate conductor from Hong Kong, will open the program by taking the orchestra through Felix Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides Overture,” a work that “helped establish the genre of the concert overture,” Moon explained. The program ends with the “Dance Bacchanale” from “Samson and Delilah,” an opera by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.

“The sultry melodies and driving rhythmic forces are sure to give the audience the ride of their lives,” Moon said.

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.