Everything Nac

The Orchestra of the Pines at Stephen F. Austin State University will present the program “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The concert will feature winners of the SFA School of Music’s 2015 Concerto/Aria Competition, including Ryan Brewer, SFA graduate student from North Richland Hills and guest trumpeter, and the Ethereal Quartet, a group of undergraduate saxophone students.

Brewer will perform Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Concerto for trumpet and orchestra.

“While I consider this work something old, written in 1803, Ryan’s playing is new, refreshing and technically brilliant,” said Dr. Gene Moon, director of orchestras at SFA.

For “something new,” the program moves forward nearly 200 years when American composer William Bolcom completed his Concerto Grosso for saxophone quartet and orchestra in 2001.

“Borrowing a compositional form from the Baroque period, Bolcom infused new elements to the old by using a saxophone quartet for the concertino, which will be performed by the Ethereal Quartet,” Moon said.

The members of the Ethereal Quartet are Oswaldo Garza of Houston, soprano saxophone; Scott Augustine of Humble, alto saxophone; Rene Luna of Dallas, tenor saxophone; and Michael Chapa of The Colony, baritone saxophone.

“Bolcom’s work infuses the styles of jazz and rhythm and blues into a tapestry of musical interludes and idioms,” Moon explained. “The quartet captivated the audience in the final round of the competition back in April and will do the same in the October concert.”

Nestled in between the two solos, the orchestra will present “Vltava” from Má Vlast by Bedrich Smetana. The work is one of six movements from Smetana’s tone poem suite and portrays two streams of water originating in the Bohemian Forest, Moon said. The musical narration describes the flow of water as the streams merge, grow larger and pass through various landscapes as well as a peasant wedding and the Vysehrad Castle.

The concert 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.

Dr. Tali Morgulis, associate professor of piano at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, will present a guest recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, in Cole Concert Hall on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

The performance is part of the SFA School of Music’s Cole Performing Arts Series. The program is subtitled “Autumn Song for Piano A Cappella” and features works by noted composers Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Sofia Gubaidulina and Frédéric Chopin.

First on the program are three pieces from Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons, Op. 37a,” including September: The Hunt, October: Autumn Song, and November: Troika (Russian Dance). The second work is Gubaidulina’s contemporary sonata, composed in 1965, which involves some playing inside the piano on the strings, according to Dr. Andrew Parr, professor of piano at SFA.

“The final work is the Sonata in B Minor, Op. 58 by Frederic Chopin, written late in his life,” he said. “This is a staple of the piano repertoire.”

Israeli-American pianist Morgulis has been described as a “pianistic firecracker,” who is hailed for performances that are “full of power and emotion,” Parr said.

“She delivers vivid, imaginative programs to an ever-growing international audience,” Parr said. “Her love of the standard repertoire and passion for chamber music and contemporary works have led to a variety of engagements with many of the world’s leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists in the finest concert halls.”

Morgulis studied at the Samuel Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv and the New England Conservatory of Music. Her playing can be heard in music by Rachmaninov, Lutosławski, Janáček and Shostakovich on IPA Classics, and her second solo album featuring music by South American composers was released by Delos in 2013.

The artist will give a master class for SFA student pianists at 2 p.m. the same day in Cole Concert Hall.

Recital 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.

Dr. Deb Scott, professor of trombone at Stephen F. Austin State University, will present an eclectic program of virtuosic solo trombone music in a recital at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The performance is a feature of the SFA School of Music’s Cole Performing Arts Series.

“Each piece is uniquely different,” Scott said of the program, “particularly the ‘Sequenza V’ by Luciano Berio, which is one of the most difficult solos ever composed for trombone.”

The program will also feature “Colloquy” by William Goldstein, which is a one-movement piece composed for wind ensemble and solo trombone using elements of jazz to balance sections of lyrical melodies with exciting technique, Scott said.

“There will be a special appearance of the famous European clown, Grock,” she added, “performing the somewhat controversial piece ‘Sequenza V.’ This musical theater piece by Berio uses ‘extended techniques’ for trombone, including circular breathing and multiphonics to create sound imagery.”

The recital will end with the well known “Flight of the Bumblebee” composed by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1899 and arranged for trombone by Christian Lindberg.

SFA piano accompanist Ron Petti will also perform.

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 School of Art and the Friends of the Visual Arts will present a free, one-night screening of “Samsara” at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

Filmed over five years in 25 countries, “Samsara” is the non-verbal 2011 documentary from filmmakers Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson, the creators of “Baraka.” It is one of only a handful of films shot on 70mm in the past 40 years, according to information at barakasamsara.com.

Samsara is a Sanskrit word that means “the ever turning wheel of life” and is the point of departure for the filmmakers as they search for the elusive current of interconnection that runs through our lives, the website said. “Samsara” transports audiences to sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial sites and natural wonders. By dispensing with dialogue and descriptive text, “Samsara” subverts expectations of a traditional documentary, instead encouraging the viewer’s own inner interpretations inspired by images and music that infuses the ancient with the modern.

This screening is part of the School of Art’s monthly First Friday Film Series and is sponsored in part by the Nacogdoches Film Festival, William Arscott, The Liberty Bell, Nacogdoches Junior Forum, Karon Gillespie, Mike Mollot, Main Street Nacogdoches, David Kulhavy, John and Kristen Heath, Brad Maule, Galleria Z, Jill Carrington, Jean Stephens and Jim and Mary Neal.

The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.

The East Texas Historical Association will present the 19th Georgiana and Max S. Lale Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, in the Baker Pattillo Student Center Grand Ballroom at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Dr. Robert (Bob) Krueger of Texas Tech University will be the guest speaker. This event is free and open to the public.

Krueger, a native of New Braunfels, has been a university professor and dean, businessman, and chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, as well as a U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, U.S. ambassador on three occasions, and special representative of the U.S. secretary of state.

Krueger graduated from Southern Methodist University and received a Master of Arts from Duke University. He then earned a Master of Letters and a doctoral degree in English literature from Oxford University.

In 1961, he began teaching at Duke University, and after nine years as a professor, he became Duke’s vice provost and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Krueger returned to Texas in 1973 to take over the family businesses. In 1974, he won the election to be the U.S. representative from the 21st District. Following two successful terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, Krueger became the Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1978, an election he lost to John Tower. He next became U.S. ambassador-at-large and co-coordinator for Mexican affairs in 1979.

In 1993, Texas Gov. Ann Richards appointed Krueger to serve out the unexpired term of U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen. When Krueger lost a special election to that seat in 1993, he became and still remains the last Democrat to serve as a U.S. senator from Texas.

Following his Senate tenure, President Bill Clinton appointed Krueger ambassador to Burundi, which began a defining point in Krueger’s life. His experiences witnessing the Rwandan genocide, and his outspoken defense of human rights led to an attempt on life in 1995. His book, co-authored with his wife Kathleen, titled “From Bloodshed to Hope in Burandi: Our Embassy Years During Genocide” details his involvement in this historic event.

The lecture series is named for Max and Georgiana Lale in honor of their support and beneficence. The couple married in 1938. Max served as the publisher of the Marshall Herald-Banner and was a tireless advocate of print journalism. He also wrote extensively on East Texas history and served as the president of the Texas State Historical Association and the East Texas Historical Association.

Max passed away in 2006. Georgiana volunteered and supported historic preservation efforts throughout Marshall and East Texas. She died in 1982.

For more information, contact Dr. Scott Sosebee, executive director of the East Texas Historical Association, at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or (936) 468-2407.

A historian and a medical doctor will give presentations during the opening reception of an exhibit on epidemic diseases of the 19th and early 20th centuries from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, at the Stone Fort Museum on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

“Misery and Remedy: The Rise and Eradication of Epidemic Diseases in East Texas” features more than 150 artifacts from 23 institutional and private lenders from throughout East Texas, which will remain on display through Dec. 20.

Dr. Robert Carroll, a retired Nacogdoches physician, who loaned many artifacts to the exhibit, will present a collector’s walkthrough of the items, which include furniture, tools and early pharmaceuticals.

Carroll has amassed more than 1,000 pieces of historical medical equipment and more than 250 medical books, and the artifacts on loan illustrate the medical advancements made during the past 150 years.

Historian Melissa Prycer, executive director of the Dallas Heritage Village, will present “The Hectic Flush: The Fiction and Reality of Consumption.”

Consumption, which is now known as tuberculosis, was the leading cause of death in the 19th century. The slow disease process captured imaginations, and it often was the subject of art and literature.

Prycer will focus on author L.M. Montgomery, best known for “Anne of Green Gables,” and she will discuss the gradual change of perception of the disease.

“The ‘Misery and Remedy’ exhibit is an example of the museum’s dedication to telling regional stories that connect to national themes,” said museum director Carolyn Spears. “An epidemic is a big story that plays out in small places and connects everyone through personal struggle, scientific breakthroughs and homegrown innovations.”

In addition to tuberculosis, the exhibit also examines the early treatments and remedies of the epidemics of small pox, cholera, yellow fever, Spanish influenza and polio through the mid-20th century.

The exhibit will remain on display from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday and closed on university holidays. Admission is free.

For information on the reception, presentations or exhibit, call (936) 468-2408, email stonefort@sfasu.edu or visit www.sfasu.edu/stonefort.