Everything Nac

    Dr. Andrew and Linda Parr will present a duo piano recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14, in Cole Concert Hall as part of the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music’s Cole Performing Arts Series.

Pianists Dr. Andrew, SFA professor of music, and Linda Parr, member of the Music Preparatory faculty, will present a duo piano recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

    For the Valentine’s Day recital, the couple has chosen to “dedicate the program to the love of music, performing music we love to play,” explained Andrew. “We hope our audience will find it a fitting way to celebrate the holiday.”

    Major works on the program are W.A. Mozart’s “Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos, K. 448,” which Andrew described as “flashy, yet with considerable emotional depth,” and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos, Op. 17.”

    “Besides the movement appropriately entitled ‘Romance,’ which recalls emotional qualities of Rachmaninoff’s famous second piano concerto, the suite features a March, a Waltz and a Tarantella,” said Andrew. “The pianos together reach almost orchestral effects.”

    Works by Edvard Grieg and Maurice Ravel round out the program.

    Andrew Parr, who joined the SFA faculty in 1983, has performed extensively in solo, chamber and concerto settings. Highlights include a performance of Aaron Copland’s “Piano Concerto” with the Belgrade Philharmonic in the former Yugoslavia, Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 4” with the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, Chopin’s “Concerto No. 2 in F minor” with the San Antonio Symphony and the Orchestra of the Pines, Prokofiev’s “Piano Concerto No. 3 in C” with the Orchestra of the Pines and Longview Symphony, and Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy” with the Orchestra of the Pines.

    He began studying piano at the age of 5. He furthered his education at Kent State University, at the Hochschule fur Musik and Darstellende Kunst in Vienna as a Fulbright Scholar, and at Yale University where he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees.

    Linda Parr, who served on the SFA piano faculty from 1986 to 2010, has participated in numerous Chamber Music in the Pines Festivals and has been on the Music Preparatory faculty since 1983. She is a founding member of the Sylvan Chamber Ensemble, pianist in a duo-piano team with her husband, Andrew Parr, and an active recitalist.

    Linda earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from Kent State University and also studied at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria.

    Tickets are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for students. For tickets or more information, please visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS. Cole Concert Hall is located in the Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Drive.

    A class of advanced photography students at Stephen F. Austin State University recently had the opportunity to practice their professional skills by photographing a current exhibit at the Stone Fort Museum located on campus.

SFA advanced photography students produced panoramic photos of the “Cornerstones of the Community: African American History in Eastern Texas,” exhibit at the Stone Fort Museum. The images will allow visitors with disabilities to view photos of the second-floor exhibits downstairs.

    The exhibit, “Cornerstones of the Community: African American History in Eastern Texas,” showcases five years of research and effort gathering information concerning the African American community in Nacogdoches prior to 1900. Artifacts, collections and identifying objects such as quilts and tools are showcased throughout the museum on both the first and second floors.

    The exhibit is designed to further visitors’ understanding of African American roles in the development of the East Texas region by exemplifying the universal desire for freedom, faith and family.

    To make the exhibit accessible to all museum visitors, including those with disabilities who may not be able to view the historic structure’s second-floor displays, the advanced photography class documented the exhibit to help create an informative multimedia presentation. The presentation comprises a digital images and panoramic views of each room containing exhibit installations. Displayed on a large flat-screen TV located in the entry room of the museum, the visual presentation is about five minutes long and provides a virtual tour of each room.

    A notebook containing detailed written descriptions also is provided, giving museum visitors access to the same information available for viewing on the second floor.

    Carolyn Spears, museum director, said the presentation created by the students helped present the exhibit in a new way.

    “The students’ contributions have provided me, for the first time, panoramic images that present each room as a whole unit,” Spears said, adding she is pleased the museum helped provide SFA students experience in their designated fields of study.

    “We really have a lot of things we need to accomplish. To do that takes time, energy and talent. Our students are a great fit for that.”

    The project allowed the students involved a break from typical classroom instruction, as the assignment took about four class meetings to complete.

    Josh Hart, a senior photojournalism major, was one of the students who photographed the various rooms of the exhibit.

    “It was a great experience,” Hart said. “It helped us grow professionally as students because we were working with a real deadline. It was different from anything we’d done before.”

    Greg Patterson, instructor of the participating photography class and lecturer in the SFA Department of Mass Communication, said he was pleased to lead his students in a new direction of learning.

    “It’s great for our students to realize that the skills they have are important and can add value to other people’s lives,” Patterson said. “This project allowed them to use their skills for a great purpose outside the classroom.”

    The exhibit, as well as the multimedia presentation, will be available for viewing through the end of May.

    The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.

    Further information can be found online at www.sfasu.edu/stonefort.