Everything Nac

    Faculty members of the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music will be the featured performers during the annual Pi Kappa Lambda Recital at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

    “This concert showcases our diverse faculty and their talent,” said Deborah Dalton, SFA associate professor of voice and president of the local chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda, the national music honor society.

    “In addition, all proceeds benefit the Pi Kappa Lambda scholarship we give each year to the sophomore music major with the highest grade point average,” Dalton continued. “For the past few years, awards were given to several sophomores with 4.0 grade-point averages.”

    The musicians have selected a wide range of musical styles and will perform in a variety of solo and ensemble settings.

    Faculty vocalists to perform include sopranos Debbie Berry and Charlotte Davis, mezzo-soprano Nita Hudson, tenors Richard Berry and Bruce Fowler and baritone Scott LaGraff. Guest mezzo-soprano Kimberly LaGraff will also appear on the program.

    Also performing will be pianists Mario Ajero, Mary Cooper, James Faucett, Geneva Fung, Gene H. Moon, Ron Petti and James Pitts; clarinetist Christopher Ayer; violinist Jennifer Dalmas; percussionist Scott Harris; cellist Evgeni Raychev; string bassist J.D. Salas and trumpeter Gary Wurtz.

    The recital is a joint presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music and is a part of the 2011-2012 Cole Performing Arts Series. Cole Concert Hall is located in the Wright Music Building at 2210 Alumni Drive.

    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.

    Charles Gavin, professor of horn at Stephen F. Austin State University, has invited eight of his colleagues to perform with him during his faculty recital, “Mozart Interrupted,” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

    Joining Gavin for W.A. Mozart’s “Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452” will be SFA faculty members James Pitts, piano; John W. Goodall, oboe; Christopher Ayer, clarinet; and Susan Nelson, bassoon.

    Melissa Nabb, viola instructor in the SFA Music Preparatory Division, and faculty members Jennifer Dalmas, violin; Gene H. Moon, viola; and Evgeni Raychev, cello, will join Gavin in the presenting Mozart’s “Quintet for Horn and Strings, K 407.”

    “These are both monumental chamber works featuring the horn,” said Gavin. “It will be a genuine pleasure to perform them with the artist faculty at SFA.”

    Gavin will also play two horn solos, Vitaly Buyanovsky’s “Espana” and Steven Winteregg’s “Blue Soliloquy.”

    “‘Espana’ features several styles of Spanish folk music, and even calls for the horn to imitate Flamenco-style guitar, while ‘Blue Soliloquy’ explores the world of blues and jazz,” Gavin explained.

    Gavin joined the SFA music faculty in 1984 where he teaches horn and chamber music and is a member of the SFA Faculty Brass Quintet.

    In addition to his teaching responsibilities at SFA, Gavin maintains an active performing schedule. He was a soloist at the 23rd International Horn Symposium and regularly performs at regional horn workshops.

    In April, Gavin was named the first recipient of the College of Fine Arts Faculty Dean’s Award.

    “Mozart Interrupted” is a joint presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music and a part of the 2011-2012 Cole Performing Arts Series. 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, please go to www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.

    More than 100 historians and students will make presentations on historical subjects of interest at the annual fall meeting of the East Texas Historical Association Sept. 22-24 at the Hotel Fredonia. The association is headquartered on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

    Among the session topics are “African Americans in East Texas,” “East Texas Religious Influences,” “Law and Order in East Texas,” “Literary Texas” and two sessions that will discuss the practice of public history in the region. Representatives from more than 20 colleges and universities and from throughout Texas and the South will participate.

    A Sept. 23 banquet will feature an address on the intersection of history and memory by association president Tom Crum of Granbury. It will be followed by a reception in the Old Town Center hosted by the Nacogdoches Convention and Visitors Bureau.

    The nominal registration charge allows for entry to all sessions for the entire length of the meeting; there also is a special one-day registration. Both may be purchased at the event.

    The East Texas Historical Association was founded on the campus of SFA in 1962 and is dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of East Texas’ unique heritage. The association encourages the preservation of historical buildings and, through its primary publication, The East Texas Historical Journal, strives to share 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 sosebeem@sfasu.edu.

    Paul Burka, senior executive editor of Texas Monthly, will present the Max and Georgiana Lale Lecture on Thursday, Sept. 22, in the Baker Pattillo Student Center Grand Ballroom. The lecture is presented by the East Texas Historical Association and begins at 8 pm.

    Burka, a native Texan who grew up in Galveston, holds a bachelor’s degree from Rice University and a law degree from the University of Texas. He worked for five years as an attorney in the Texas Senate before joining Texas Monthly in 1974, in the magazine’s second year of publication, and has worked there for 37 years, writing extensively about Texas history and politics.

    Burka is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and the Texas Philosophical Society. In addition to his articles in Texas Monthly, his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and other major newspapers. He has discussed politics on all of the major TV networks and lives in Austin with his wife, Sarah.

    The lecture series is named for Max and Georgiana Lale in honor of their support and beneficence. Max Simms Lale served as the publisher of the Marshall Herald-Banner and was a tireless advocate of print journalism. He wrote extensively on East Texas history and served as the president of the Texas State Historical Association and the East Texas Historical Association. Lale passed away in 2006. He was married to Georgiana Lale who volunteered and supported historic preservation efforts throughout Marshall and East Texas from 1938 until her death in 1982.

    There is no charge for the event, which is open to the public. For more information, contact the association at (936) 468-2407 or e-mail sosebeem@sfasu.edu.

    The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will introduce one of its newest faculty members, Jeremy Bruns, in a faculty organ recital at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19, at Christ Episcopal Church in Nacogdoches.

    In addition to works by Dieterich Buxtehude, J.S. Bach, Josef Rheinberger, W.A. Mozart and George Shearing, the program includes “Annum per annum” by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, who is known for his personal, minimalistic style, and “Sonata I in F minor, Op. 65” by Felix Mendelssohn.

    Bruns will also play Noel Rawsthorne’s “Hornpipe Humoresque (A Nautical Extravaganza for Organ),” which Bruns called “an amusing set of variations on the familiar Sailor’s Hornpipe in the style of (and with apologies to) Bach, Vivaldi, Arne and Widor.”

    Bruns, who serves as an SFA adjunct faculty member, is also the organist and director of music at St. Cyprians’ Episcopal Church in Lufkin.

    As a recitalist, Bruns has performed in venues throughout the United States and England, including St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London, Canterbury Cathedral, Washington National Cathedral, St. James’ Cathedral in Toronto and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

    He has worked as a church musician in Massachusetts and New York, including as associate organist at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. He has served as an executive committee member of the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and was a guest conductor for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

    Bruns received his Master of Music in performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music and was a prizewinner in the 2003 Dallas International Organ Competition and the 1993 International J.S. Bach Competition held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

    Christ Episcopal Church is located at 502 E. Starr Ave. in Nacogdoches.

    The recital is a part of the SFA School of Music’s 2011-2012 Cole Performing Arts Series. Tickets are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for students. For tickets or more information, please go to www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.