Everything Nac

    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.

    The Piney Woods Camerata, a conductorless string ensemble led by Stephen F. Austin State University music faculty Drs. Jennifer Dalmas and Evgeni Raychev, will present its fall concert, “Baroque Serenade,” at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

    “We will be performing music from the second half of the baroque period, including Arcangelo Corelli’s Concerto Grosso No. 9 and a symphony by William Boyce, in honor of the 300th anniversary of the composer’s birth,” explained Raychev.

    The program also includes “Nymphs Singing” and “Evening Serenade” by romantic composer Hermann Thadewaldt.

    The concert, which is a joint presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music, is a part of the 2011-2012 Cole Performing Arts Series. Cole Concert Hall is located in the Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Dr.

    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.