Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present Duo Karudan performing a program of contemporary music for clarinet and piano at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 25, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Duo Karudan features the husband-and-wife team of SFA clarinetist Christopher Ayer and Baylor University pianist Kae Hosoda-Ayer.

The recital will include the music of many contemporary composers, including a piece by Dr. Maria Grenfell, who is professor of composition at the Hobart Conservatorium in Tasmania. Grenfell spent a semester teaching composition and theory at SFA in the spring of 2013 as part of the SFA School of Music-Hobart Conservatorium musical exchange. One of Ayer’s clarinet students, Garrett Nichols, just returned from Tasmania after studying a semester there.

The program will also include the music of Jeff Scott, hornist with the Imani Wind Quintet, the Grammy-nominated ensemble based in New York City. The recital will end with the music of Paquito D’Rivera, the multiple Grammy-winning jazz clarinetist and composer.

“Even though only one or two of the pieces are explicitly inspired by urban themes, I feel that all of the works on the program reflect an urban or technological environment in one way or another,” Ayer said. “Two of the pieces are older than 20 years, but the rest have all been written in this century. It is a very diverse collection of music, but for me it has this urban/technology thread that connects all of the music.”

Cole Concert Hall is located in the Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building, located at 2210 Alumni Drive.

Tickets for this Cole Performing Arts Series event 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.

Cutline: The Duo Karudan will perform at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 25, in Cole Concert Hall on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present the Iktus Duo in concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus. The duo will also give a masterclass that is free and open to the public at 2 p.m. that same day in Room 124 of the Wright Music Building on campus.

The duo features Hristina Blagoeva, flute, and Chris Graham, percussion, who will perform the program “Adventurous Works for Flute and Percussion.”

First Concerto for Flute and Percussion by Lou Harrison, “Echi Dromo,” a duet for flute and dumbek by Joseph Pereira, and Duo for Flute and Percussion by Mark Engebretson will be performed.

With an active performance schedule, the Iktus Duo begins 2015 with performances, educational workshops and world premieres at the University of Texas-Tyler, Louisiana State University, Hardin Simmons University, Southeastern Louisiana University and SFA, and at venues throughout New York City. The ensemble also performed at the Versipel New Music Festival in New Orleans. Educational outreach and performances took place last fall at the Neighborhood Classics Series (a series dedicated to underprivileged students in New York) and Suffolk Community College in Long Island. Additionally, the ensemble was the 2014 Ackerman Chamber Music Competition winner. The Iktus Duo has performed at the Con Vivo New Music Series in New Jersey, Bulgarian Consulate in New York and Spectrum NYC.

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.

Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nellie McKay joins forces with the two-time Grammy award-winning Turtle Island Quartet to present a bold performance of chamber music at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

The concert, which features the program “A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing,” is part of the SFA College of Fine Arts’ 2014-2015 University Series, “Connect,” and is sponsored in part by Commercial Bank of Texas.

The night’s performance will feature a kaleidoscope of music, ranging from the jazz standards of Billie Holliday and Billy Strayhorn to the sounds of the Weimar cabaret era of the 1920s to the songs of Doris Day.

“Since its beginning in 1985, the Turtle Island Quartet has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings,” said John W. Goodall, associate dean of the SFA College of Fine Arts. “Turtle Island has a phenomenal international following, and this collaboration with the multi-talented Nellie McKay will no doubt guarantee a great night of music.”

Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma has proclaimed Turtle Island Quartet to be “a unified voice that truly breaks new ground – authentic and passionate – a reflection of some of the most creative music-making today.” Winner of the 2006 and 2008 Grammy Awards for Best Classical Crossover category, the group fuses the classical quartet esthetic with contemporary American musical styles.

Hailed by the New Yorker magazine as “funny and touching, ceaselessly clever and scarily talented,” McKay just completed an extended run in the off-Broadway hit “Old Hats.” Her music has been heard on the TV shows “Mad Men,” “Weeds,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “NCIS,” among others. She has appeared on “Late Show with David Letterman” (with the Brooklyn Philharmonic), “The View,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” “Live with Regis & Kelly” and “CBS Saturday Morning.”

Turtle Island features Mateusz Smoczynski on violin, David Balakrishnan on violin and baritone violin, Benjamin von Gutzeit on viola and Mark Summer on cello. McKay accompanies with vocals, marimba, piano and ukulele. Turtle Island Quartet is represented by Baylin Artists Management, and McKay is represented by Monterey International.

Prior to the concert, Jennifer Dalmas, associate professor of violin and viola at SFA, will present a 7 p.m. informative talk in Griffith Gallery about the artists and their music. The gallery is located across the hall from Turner Auditorium. 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, Commercial Bank of Texas.

Griffith Gallery and Turner Auditorium are located in the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive.

Tickets range from $20 to $40, with discounts available for seniors, SFA faculty/staff, students and youth. For tickets or more information, visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6406 or (888) 240-ARTS.

The SFA College of Fine Arts will present the Grammy award-winning Turtle Island Quartet performing with Nellie McKay at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

The East Texas Research Center at Stephen F. Austin State University will host a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, to unveil a new collection of historic Nacogdoches documents. The event is free and open to the public.

The center recently received $1,500 from Friends of Historic Nacogdoches Inc. to digitize and make available online the Nacogdoches Board of Aldermen minutes from 1851 to 1877 and the Nacogdoches City Minutes from 1910 to 1923.

The East Texas Research Center at SFA, located on the second floor of the Steen Library, collects, preserves and provides physical and virtual access to East Texas’ unique culture and history. It also is responsible for SFA’s Records Management Program and for caring for the university’s archives.

If you have photographs, journals or other memorabilia you would like to donate to the ETRC, call (936) 468-4100.