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NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS – Stephen F. Austin State University will host a live broadcast featuring multi-platinum, Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan performing her beautifully crafted songs for Yamaha Disklavier RemoteLive viewers from her studio in Vancouver, Canada, at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, in the Music Recital Hall on the SFA campus.

“Through the technology of RemoteLive, audience members can view the live video and audio of McLachlan in perfect synchronization with every keystroke on the Yamaha Disklavier Player Piano as if she was playing the piano in person in Nacogdoches,” according to Mario Ajero, associate professor of piano at SFA.

Much of this technology was made possible through successful beta tests Ajero conducted last spring.

The event is free to the public, but seating will be limited. The 6 p.m. broadcast will be preceded by a lecture at 5:30 p.m. in which Ajero will explain the technology that makes it possible for the artist to “play the piano for a live audience over 2,000 miles away,” he said.

The Music Recital Hall is located in the Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Drive.

For more information, go to http://www.yamaha.com/usa/RemoteLive/about.html.

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS – The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and the Cole Performing Arts Series will present “Musical Liaisons,” a program featuring impassioned Spanish compositions, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30, in the Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The performance will spotlight Evgeni Raychev, an SFA adjunct cello professor, performing an exotic program of popular music from the cello repertoire in collaboration with pianist Martha de Luna, SFA graduate student.

“Martha is a promising young artist who won the SFA Concerto competition last year,” Raychev said. “This kind of collaboration is one of a kind, and I am very much looking forward to that special evening.”

The program will feature compositions by J.S. Bach, Gaspar Cassado, David Popper, Maurice Ravel, Manuel de Falla and others.

Cole Concert Hall is located in the Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Drive.

Tickets are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for students. For tickets or more information, go to www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS – The Stephen F. Austin State University’s School of Music and the Cole Performing Arts Series will present Chris Combest in a solo recital at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, in Cole Concert Hall as the opening concert of SFA’s seventh annual Octubafest.

Octubafest is national event designed to highlight the tuba and euphonium as a solo and small chamber music instrument, according to J.D. Salas, assistant professor of tuba and euphonium at SFA.

“Many universities and conservatories present several different recitals and concerts featuring the tuba and euphonium during this month,” Salas said.

Combest, the newest principal tubist for the Louisville Symphony, has recently moved from a teaching position at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and he performs with the UTSA Faculty Brass Quintet. He has presented recitals and masterclasses as a guest artist and clinician at various universities throughout the United States. Combest’s recital at SFA will feature music for tuba and piano by the popular film composer John Williams of “Star Wars,” “Return of the Jedi” and “Superman” fame. Williams’ “Tuba Concert” will be performed.

“This composition by John Williams has been added to tuba repertoire with great excitement,” Salas said. “Premiered by Chester Schmitz of the Boston Pops Symphony, the piece includes several different nods to the film score compositions of John Williams.”

“Jabba the Hut,” also by Williams, was originally a small section of the movie score for “Star Wars” in which the tuba is used to portray the character of Jabba The Hut, Salas said. The composer expanded the section into a full work at the request of James Self, who has recorded the tuba music in several of Williams’ movie scores.

Combest’s recital is the first of four events associated with Octubafest. There will be two studio recitals and the final event – Tubaween – which will feature the SFA Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 31, Halloween night, in Cole Concert Hall.

Tickets are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for students. For tickets or more information, call (936) 468-6407.

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS – Two Stephen F. Austin State University faculty members will present a recital of works by American composers at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2, in the Cole Concert Hall.

“Americana” features Christina Guenther, flute, and Geneva Fung, piano, performing a program they will take on tour Oct. 6 though 14 when they visit three universities in Ohio.

The program highlights the works of American composers Eldin Burton, Alan Scott, Dan Welcher, Robert Muczynski and Stephen Lias. Scott is the webmaster for the SFA College of Fine Arts, and Lias is professor of theory and composition at SFA.

Burton’s “Sonatina” won the New York Flute Club composition contest in 1948 and has become a standard in the flute repertoire.

“It is in three movements with lush and lyrical lines and a strong French influence,” Guenther said.

Scott’s “Duo for Flute and Piano” is in three-part form with a slow middle section and active, mixed-meter outer sections. It was written for Guenther and Gustavo Bianchi, piano.

Welcher’s “All the Words to all the Songs” is “a fun duo for flute and piano influenced by the music of Elvis Presley,” according to Guenther. Welcher writes: “This little piece for flute and piano was commissioned by flutist Nancy Andrew, in memory of Vinson Hammond. Vinson, a pianist with a stellar career as an accompanist, died in 1992 of complications from the AIDS virus. He was an avid believer in contemporary music, primitive Southern churches, and Elvis – and did a mean impersonation of the latter, if one can imagine ‘The King’ singing at the piano.”

Muczynski’s “Moments” is a piece in three movements.

“This technically challenging work has typical Muczynski rhythmic and intervallic patterns,” Guenther said, “and the second movement goes directly into the third without pause.”

Lias’ “Sonata for Flute and Piano” is a programmatic work in three movements. According to Guenther, the movement titles “aptly describe” what the piece is about — “Wide Blue Run,” “Memory Dance” and “Kludge March.”

“Americana” is a presentation of the SFA School of Music’s Cole Performing Arts Series. The Cole Concert Hall is located in the Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Drive.

Tickets are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for students. For tickets or more information, visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – In conjunction with its 50th anniversary celebration, the East Texas Historical Association will host Houston Mayor Annise Parker as the keynote speaker at the upcoming 2012 Georgiana and Max Lale Lecture.

The lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, in the Grand Ballroom of the Baker Pattillo Student Center on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

Parker is a second-generation native Houstonian and a graduate of Rice University. She worked for 20 years in the oil and gas industry, the last 18 with Mosbacher Energy Company.

She is the 61st mayor of Houston and one of only two women to hold the city’s highest elected office. As Houston’s chief executive officer, she is responsible for all aspects of the general management of the city and for the enforcement of all laws and ordinances. She has spent many years in service to the people of Houston, with six years as a city council member and six years as city controller. She is the only person in the city’s history to hold the offices of council member, controller and mayor.

Parker has been the recipient of numerous awards during her career, including the 2011 Guardian of the Bay Award from the Galveston Bay Foundation, Scenic Houston’s 2010 Scenic Visionary Award and the 2010 Guardian of the Human Spirit Award from the Holocaust Museum Houston. Along with her duties as mayor, Parker remains active in the community, currently serving on the boards of the Texas Environmental Research Consortium and Houston-Galveston Area Council. She also is an advisory board member of the Holocaust Museum, the Center for Houston’s Future and the Montrose Counseling Center.

The Georgiana and Max Lale Lecture series was endowed through the beneficence of Max Sims Lale, an ardent participant in historical and preservation activities in East Texas. Lale was a World War II veteran who began a newspaper career after the war. He eventually became the publisher of the Marshall Herald-Banner, and later served as the manager of communications and publication for Thiokol Corporation. He was a fellow and past president of the East Texas Historical Association and a past president of the Texas State Historical Association. His historical pieces have appeared in publications such as “Southwestern Historical Quarterly,” “East Texas Historical Journal” and “Red River Valley Historical Review.”

Lale passed away in 2006, but the lecture series, established the following year, continues to honor his rich legacy.

The lecture is free to the public. For more information, contact the association at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or (936) 468-2407.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The East Texas Historical Association, headquartered on the campus of Stephen F. Austin University, will hold its annual fall meeting Sept. 27-29 at Hotel Fredonia in Nacogdoches.

The gathering will mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the association in 1962, and a number of special events are planned. The program will feature more than 100 historians making presentations on historical subjects of interest to East Texans.

Among the planned session topics are: “African-American Dallas Fifty Years Ago,” “East Texas Women’s History,” “Tracking the Texas Rangers – 19th Century,” “The Neches: East Texas’ Wild and Scenic River” and “The Texas Right: The Radical Roots of Texas Conservatism.” There also will be a reception on Friday evening honoring past presidents of the association and a “birthday party” on Saturday highlighting the association’s special relationship with its host institution, SFA.

A plated banquet on Friday evening will feature an address by association President Cynthia Beeman titled “The Evolution of Memory in a Small Texas Town: Janis Joplin and Port Arthur.” During the Saturday luncheon, the association will toast all its members, and SFA president Baker Pattillo will blow out the birthday candles.

The East Texas Historical Association was founded on the SFA campus in 1962 and is dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of East Texas’ historical heritage. The association actively encourages the preservation of historical buildings, and its primary publication, “The East Texas Historical Journal,” strives to publish and make known the rich history with which this section of Texas is endowed.

For additional information concerning the meeting or the association, call (936) 468-2407 or e-mail at sosebeem@sfasu.edu.