Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present acclaimed jazz great Wayne Bergeron performing with SFA’s Swingin’ Axes jazz band at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24, in W.M. Turner Auditorium.

The performance is a feature of the College of Fine Arts’ 2013-2014 University Series, “Live Out Loud.”

A much sought-after trumpeter, Bergeron is one of the most active musicians in the world with studio dates, international touring, jazz concerts and guest solo appearances, according to John W. Goodall, associate dean of the College of Fine Arts.

“As a sideman, Bergeron’s list of CD credits reads like a who’s who in contemporary jazz and pop, running the stylistic gamut from Ray Charles to Green Day,” Goodall said. “It’s going to be exciting to see him perform with our jazz band students, and it will be a memorable experience for them.”

According to his website at waynebergeron.com/home.html, Bergeron landed the lead trumpet position with the Maynard Ferguson Band in 1986 and can be heard on such recordings as “Body & Soul,” “Big Bop Nouveau,” “Brass Attitude” and “The One & Only Maynard Ferguson.”
Among his other CD sideman credits are Beyoncé, Michael Buble, Josh Groban, Celine Dion, Seal, Christina Aguilera, Michael Bolton, Gwen Stefani, Earth Wind & Fire, Chicago, Rosemary Clooney, Lee Ann Womack and Lou Rawls.
Bergeron has worked on more than 300 TV and motion picture soundtracks. A partial list of film credits includes “Toy Story 3,” “Despicable Me,” “Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” “Star Trek,” “National Treasure,” “Marley & Me,” “Superman Returns,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Dreamgirls” and “Hairspray.” His featured trumpet solos can be heard on the motion pictures “The Green Hornet,” “Duplicity,” “Rocky Balboa,” “The Incredibles” and many others.
After being behind the scenes for many years, Bergeron stepped out on his own with his first solo effort “You Call This a Living?” This debut project earned him a Grammy nomination in 2004 for Best Large Jazz Ensemble as well as rave reviews from fans and press worldwide. His latest recording, “Plays Well With Others,” was released in 2007 and is being met with the same acclaim, according to the website.
Dr. Gary Wurtz, professor of trumpet and jazz studies at SFA, directs the Swingin’ Axes. The show will open with a performance of SFA’s Swingin’ Aces, directed by Dr. Deb Scott, professor of trombone and jazz studies.
Among Bergeron’s signature tunes to be performed with the Swingin’ Axes are “High Clouds and a Good Chance of Wayne Tonight,” arranged by Tom Kubis, and “Maynard and Waynard” by Gordon Goodwin.
Prior to the concert, there will be a 7 p.m. informative talk about the artist and his music in Griffith Gallery located across the hall from Turner Auditorium. The audience is invited back to the gallery for a post-performance reception.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and $7.50 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 Stone Fort Wind Quintet at Stephen F. Austin State University will present music never before performed by the School of Music faculty ensemble in a recital at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The quintet includes Christina Guenther-Scott, flute; John W. Goodall, oboe; Christopher Ayer, clarinet; Staci Spring, bassoon; and Charles Gavin, horn.

The concert will feature “a great variety of music that is challenging and enjoyable to perform,” said Gavin, professor of horn and chamber music at SFA.

A highlight of the concert will be the performance of “Rhapsody for Nine Instruments” by Texas native Kerry Turner, which will feature other music faculty members Jennifer Dalmas, violin; Melissa Nabb, viola; Evgeni Rachev, cello; and Carlos Gavaria, bass; with Tamey Anglley, assistant director of bands, as guest conductor. A native of Kingsville, Turner is principal horn with the Luxembourg Symphony.

“His music has a definite Southwestern flavor to it,” Gavin said.

The program will also include two works with Latin/South American roots, including “Oblivion” by Astor Piazzola, which displays “the slow, sultry style of the Argentine tango,” Gavin said. The other is “Dos Tropicos” by Canadian composer Mathieu Lussier.

“This work has its roots in the popular dance form, the Habanera,” he said.

Another work, “A Journey,” a five-movement work by British composer Alun Cook, has “intriguing” titles, Gavin said, such as “… with a Swagger.” “:don’t Cry” and “Road to Recovery.”

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. Della Connor, Stephen F. Austin State University associate professor of community nursing, is as passionate about her career in the medical field as she ever was. But lately, a long-buried interest has become another big part of her life, and it’s something she’s waited to see happen for years.

Connor first had the idea to write a book when she was working toward her bachelor’s degree in nursing at SFA. After many years with the story’s plot hanging around in the back of her mind, “Spirit Warriors: The Concealing” is finally in print and receiving rave reviews from bloggers, readers and critics in the U.S. and abroad.

When she was a student, Connor took the idea to a literature professor at the university, but was told it the subject matter was just too dark for a children’s novel. The advent of a young-adult genre of books that takes on complex and serious topics – in the vein of “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games” – made Connor realize something. “This isn’t too dark anymore,” she said.

It took two weeks in the summer of 2011 for her to put “The Concealing” together. That was the quick part.

Connor spent the better part of two years trying to get the book published, sending out between three and five letters and copies of the book to publishers a week during that time. The response was always the same, she said: a “horribly discouraging” rejection letter, sometimes indicating that the publishers hadn’t even looked at the manuscript.

By chance, Connor’s daughter ran into a former SFA student who happened to know someone at a publishing company. Within days after sending the manuscript to the company, the professor was signing a contract for a five-book “Spirit Warriors” series.

The series is based on the exploits of five young adults, described by Connor as “misfits in their own ways,” who have the ability to morph their spirits into five different animals. While the characters are gearing up for battle against an evil spirit plaguing a Native American tribe, they also confront wide-ranging topics that children and adults face in real life.

A lot of the inspiration for the challenges her characters face comes from Connor’s work in the medical field, she said.

“(Patients’) parents bring them to us when they’re harming themselves” or are otherwise suffering because they feel ostracized for being different, Connor said. “Hopefully the books bring some solace to kids facing the same problems as the characters in the book.”

Children are responding to the book well, Connor said. During a recent tour of bookstores and schools around the state, kids who have read the book flooded her with questions about the story.

The second book in the series, “The Scarring,” is expected to be published later this spring, and Connor already is hard at work on the third installment, “The Burning.” Now that she’s finally broken into the publishing world, the SFA professor says she has no plans to leave it anytime soon.

Once the “Spirit Warriors” series is complete, Connor said she plans to turn to another idea from her past. When her daughter was young, the two had a tradition of making up stories about the life of birds who lived in a birdhouse on their property. Each day they would check on them and construct elaborate fantasies about what the feathered residents did that day. Connor promised her daughter that someday she would turn those stories into a series of children’s books. That’s a promise she said she plans to keep.