Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music will present opera and musical theater scenes featuring themes of love when students present “It’s Complicated” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Directed by James Held, adjunct professor of opera, the performance tackles the “timeless and complex theme of love in its many forms,” explored through opera and musical theater from the Classical period to the 2000s, according to Held. Pianists Rachel Clark and Dr. Thomas Nixon will accompany.

“There are selections from 1790 to 2001 – from Mozart to Sondheim and beyond,” Held added.

Among the program selections are scenes from “Der Rosenkavalier” by Richard Strauss. Held describes the opera as “one of the most enduring” from Austrian Romantic repertoire. “The music is nothing short of resplendent and pulls at the heartstrings,” he said.

Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Old Maid and the Thief” will also be performed. “Menotti was a Pulitzer Prize-winning operatic composer during the rise of television, and in fact wrote several operas specifically for TV,” Held said. “The Old Maid and the Thief “was originally commissioned by NBC as a radio drama and included narration. This performance uses action instead of narration to tell the story.

The program features Georges Bizet’s “Carmen,” which is “perhaps the most beloved French opera ever written,” Held said. “It’s a timeless tale of the dangers of love gone awry. The drama is brilliantly driven by Bizet’s near-perfect score.”

There will be several scenes from the musical theater repertoire, from shows such as “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim; “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” by Frank Loesser; “Anything Goes” by Cole Porter; and “Urinetown” by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis.

Other scenes from operas include “Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss II; “Così fan tutte” and “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; and “La Cenerentola” by Gioachino Rossini.

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.

The Vienna Boys Choir, renowned as one the finest vocal ensembles in the world for more than five centuries, will perform “Journey Through the Americas” in concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University.

A special Encore Event presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts, the concert is sponsored in part by Commercial Bank of Texas.

“On their last visit to Nacogdoches in 2012, the Vienna Boys Choir sold out Turner Auditorium,” said Scott Shattuck, associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and director of the University Series and Encore Events. “So it’s especially important for music-lovers to order their tickets well in advance for this very special event. It’s truly a thrill to have such an internationally renowned choral group visit SFA again.”

“Journey Through the Americas” includes favorite Strauss waltzes, classical masterpieces by Verdi and Beethoven, modern-era works by Bernstein and Gershwin and folk songs from around the world. The program includes a performance of “Amazing Grace” arranged by John Coates.

The Vienna Boys Choir can trace its history as far back as the 13th century, but it was formally established at Vienna Imperial Chapel in 1498 by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The many incarnations of the group have been performing continuously ever since.

Today’s Vienna Boys Choir is comprised of talented young singers from all over the world who are admitted by audition. One-hundred choristers between the ages of 10 and 14 are divided into four touring groups. Each spends 11 weeks of the year on tour. Between them, the choirs give around 300 concerts each year, attended by almost half a million spectators around the globe.

The choir currently on tour in the U.S. includes boys from Austria, Germany, Japan, Korea, Poland, Czech Republic, Mongolia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The choir’s conductor, Manuel Huber, the most recent addition to the ranks of choirmaster of the Vienna Boys Choir, is from Italy and has extensive experience as a voice coach, choir director and music educator in a variety of positions throughout Europe. Prior to his appointment with the Vienna Boys Choir, he was musical director of the Youth Project at the Gut Immling Opera Festival, a voice coach with the highly regarded Tölzer Knabenchor, and guest conductor of Kammerphilharmonie Budweis, Bad Reichenhaller Philharmonie, and Salzburg’s Mozarteum University Symphony Orchestra.

The POK Pühringer Privatstiftung, based in Vienna’s Palais Coburg, is the choir’s general sponsor. Exclusive tour management is provided by Opus 3 Artists, New York, New York.

Prior to the SFA performance, Dr. Tod Fish, assistant professor and associate director of choral activities in the SFA School of Music, will present an informative talk at 7 p.m. in Griffith Gallery. The gallery is located across the hall from Turner Auditorium, which is inside the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive. The audience is invited back to the gallery for a post-performance reception to honor the show’s corporate sponsor.

On the night of the concert, the College of Fine Arts will team up with the SFA Office of Student Engagement to collect non-perishable food items for The Pantry at SFA, which is the food pantry designed to assist SFA students in need. Any non-perishable food item will be accepted, but current special needs are canned fruit, variety boxes of oatmeal packets and canned entrees, such as Chef Boyardee ravioli, spaghetti, etc.

Encore Event tickets are $45 for Section A seating; $36 for Section B seating; and $27 for Section C seating. Discounts are available for seniors, students, children and SFA faculty and staff members, ranging from $3 (for SFA students) to $36 tickets, depending on discount type. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit finearts.sfasu.edu, stop by the Box Office in Room 211 of the Griffith Fine Arts Building, or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.

The Chamber Singers at Stephen F Austin State University will present “The Tapestry of Sound” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The diverse program will feature a wide range of music, from J.S. Bach to Cyndi Lauper, spanning more than 375 years, according to Dr. Michael Murphy, director of choral activities for the SFA School of Music and director of the choir.

“The rich threads of different music – classical, folk, popular and religious – create a rich tapestry of sounds presented by the 24-voice SFA Chamber Singers,” Murphy said.

Formerly the Madrigal Singers, the Chamber Singers will be accompanied by Davidson Reyes of San Pedro de Marcorís, Dominican Republic, piano, with Jacob Rivas of The Colony assisting as graduate conductor.

Among the program selections is Bach’s double choir “Komm, Jesu, Komm,” believed to have been composed before 1732 for a funeral.

“The most personal of all of Bach’s motets, this masterpiece opens with alternating pleas that give way to statements of assurance and dance rhythms,” Murphy said.

Just last year, American composer Dan Forrest set Daniel Landinsky’s Hafiz-inspired poetry “The Sun Never Say” to a new composition that was recorded this year by the popular British vocal ensemble Voces8.

“Forrest’s lush setting matches the poetry about the beauty of unconditional love,” Murphy said.

The Chamber Singers will also perform Cyndi Lauper’s 1986 “True Colors,” which spent two weeks in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. “True Colors” has recently become popular again through several choral arrangements.

Concert 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.

Though they never met, Amy Rose, a senior in the orientation and mobility program at Stephen F. Austin State University, and Christopher J. Snyder, the namesake for the scholarship Rose received, found the program the same way — through an intensive internet search.

As a junior at Tarrant County Community College in Fort Worth last fall, Rose said she was still struggling to find her passion. “I didn’t even know orientation and mobility was a thing.” Then she visited the SFA Department of Human Services website. “It was a sign and a blessing from God,” she said. “The decision to transfer to SFA and all the hard work have felt right the whole time.”

Rose connects to her studies on a personal level because she’s been visually impaired since birth. “I’ve had to deal with this my entire life, so I can relate not only to the material we cover in our lecture courses, but also to the blindfold lessons we do out in the field and the work we do with our peers who are blind or visually impaired,” she said.

Rose’s leadership and stewardship impressed her classmates so much that they soon started calling her “Mama Amy.” These characteristics and her high GPA earned Rose the honor of being the third recipient of the Christopher J. Snyder Memorial Scholarship.

Established in 2017 shortly after Snyder’s death from cancer, the permanently endowed scholarship “means so much to keep Chris’ memory alive,” said Nacogdoches native Kim Luna, who married Snyder in 2001.

Snyder moved from Chicago to Nacogdoches and entered the SFA orientation and mobility program in 1997 after discovering it online. At the time, there were only two orientation and mobility undergraduate programs in the U.S. Today, SFA’s is the only one in the country, and it requires undergraduates to take the same certification exam as students in graduate-level orientation and mobility programs.

Upon graduating in 1999, Snyder returned to Chicago to help students with visual impairments, but he dedicated his summers to SFA. In 2000, he began teaching a six-week course at the university that helped teachers learn orientation and mobility skills to better assist their students with visual impairments. In 2004, he and Luna returned to Nacogdoches.

After earning his Master of Education in special education with an emphasis in emotional disorders and autism from SFA in 2005, Snyder began working for Nacogdoches ISD as the district’s assistive technology manager and orientation and mobility specialist. And every summer, he continued to work with SFA graduate students.

“I just wish I could’ve met him and worked with him because you don’t come across people who have the spirit he did,” Rose said, adding that she quickly heard about Snyder’s contributions to SFA’s orientation and mobility program when she arrived last spring.

Luna said she sees the same passion in Rose that she saw in Snyder.

“Chris loved what he did, and he was good at it. That passion is there in Amy, too. Teaching students with visual impairments is a special profession. Amy will make a difference in others’ lives.”

Luna, who married Snyder in 2001, said she sees the same passion for orientation and mobility in Rose that Snyder, who was a two-time graduate of the program, held. Snyder passed away from cancer in 2017. His family, students and friends established this permanently endowed scholarship in his memory. Rose is the third recipient.

By Jo Gilmore, marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.