Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music and the Friends of Music Concert Series will present members of the Texas New Music Ensemble performing at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The Houston-based ensemble’s program will focus solely on music written by composers who live and work in Texas, according to Chad Robinson, the ensemble’s artistic director and founder.

The nonprofit Texas New Music Ensemble is “dedicated to the enrichment of Texas communities through the performance of contemporary art music created by Texas composers and performed by Texas musicians,” according to its website at https://tnme.org

Among the works to be showcased is “Whitewater,” composed by Dr. Stephen Lias, professor of composition in the SFA School of Music.

Of his piece, Lias says, “Although I had no extra-musical idea in mind while writing this challenging piano solo, after finishing it, it seemed to evoke the many states of running water – from serene flowing brooks, to foaming rivers rushing over boulders.”

Other works on the program, to be performed by Joanna Becker, violin, and Andrew Schneider, piano, include “Souvenir D’une Fee” by Mei-Fang Lin; “Rhapsody for Violin and Piano” by Peter Lieuwen; the world premiere of Dmitri Shostakovitch’s “Songs by Captain Lebyadkin,” with arrangement by Yevgeniy Sharlat; and Robinson’s own “Violin Sonata.”

In addition to its Nacogdoches concert, the ensemble will perform in Arlington, Dallas and North Richland Hills on this spring’s Texas tour. This is the second consecutive year for the ensemble to perform at SFA.

“We’re thrilled to be returning,” Robinson said.

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 Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music will present a vocal faculty-guest recital featuring Dr. Chris Turner and Dr. Garry Leonberger at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, in the Music Recital Hall on the university campus.

Turner is assistant professor of voice at SFA, and Leonberger is a former SFA music faculty member who is now on the voice faculty at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Dr. Ron Petti, director of collaborative piano at SFA, will accompany.

The tenor-baritone recital will feature “beloved standards from vocal literature in each of the genres,” Turner explained. The program includes songs by Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), Robert Schumann (1810-1856), Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) and Roger Quilter (1877-1953).

“The Schumann songs will be selections from his song cycle ‘Liederkreis’ based on the poems of one his favorite poets – Joseph Eichendorff,” Turner said. “Schumann credited his wife Clara for his inspiration, as he did for many of his song compositions, and said of these particular songs that they were his ‘most Romantic music ever.’ The theme is basically nature and seasons. It’s a staple of German repertoire.”

Songs performed include the first five of the cycle – “In der Fremde,” “Intermezzo,” “Waldesgespräch,” “Die Stille,” and “Mondnacht.”

“Fauré is considered to be one of the greatest, mélodie composers of all time,” Turner said. “The songs to be performed are all by the poet Paul-Armand Silvestre, who is considered one of the Parnassian poets who composed between the late romantic poets and the symbolists. They strove for exactitude and ‘faultless workmanship’ and wanted a certain level of emotional detachment to allow the ‘art,’ or song in this case, to speak for itself without undue influence.”

The Quilter songs on the program are among his most popular, Turner said.

“Quilter was known for his beautiful melodies and rich harmonies, making him a favorite song composer among singers in English repertoire,” he said. “He was a major influence on other composers as well.” English composer Peter Warlock is quoted as saying “if it were not for the songs of Roger Quilter, there would have been no Peter Warlock.”

“Probably his most famous song, which has also been arranged for choir and is often performed in its own right, is his ‘Go, Lovely Rose’ from the poet Edmund Waller,” Turner said. “It has been called one of his ‘song masterpieces’ and shows his ‘fluid gift of melody.'”

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

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.

In conjunction with an exhibition of Caddo Nation artists showing through March 24 in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House, SFA Art Galleries will host internationally renowned storyteller Kricket Rhoads-Connywerdy in a special programming event from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17, in Cole Art Center.

The program, which will include Caddo stories and children’s activities, is a continuation of the celebration surrounding “Caddo Contemporary: Present and Relevant,” an exhibition of ceramics, paintings, beadwork, stonework and drawings by seven living Caddo artists. The exhibition is a collaborative presentation of the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and Art Galleries and the Caddo Mounds State Historic Site in Alto.

Rhoads-Connywerdy is an enrolled member of the Caddo and Kiowa tribes of Oklahoma. She has been telling Kiowa and Caddo stories in Oklahoma, across the United States and internationally for more than two decades.

Dancing in her traditional Caddo dress and Kiowa buckskin, Rhoads-Connywerdy toured extensively with the legendary Charles Chibitty, the last Comanche code talker, and was Gulhei descendent princess (family princess) for 1999-2000. She has won awards for her lead movie roles, which included “The Legend of Billy Fail,” “The Alamo,” “Chasing the Wind,” “Last of the Mohicans” and “UHF.”

She has an associate’s degree from Tulsa Community College and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in Native American studies. She is the former executive director of the Historic Jacobson House Native Art Center and currently works with the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma’s Kiowa Language and Culture Revitalization Program.

Additionally, for the monthly Friday Film Series, the SFA School of Art and Friends of the Visual Arts will present the documentary “Koo-Hoot Kiwat: The Caddo Grass House” in a free screening at 7 p.m. Friday, March 1, at Cole Art Center. In the film, a Caddo tribal elder and his apprentice return to their ancestral homeland in East Texas to direct the construction of a traditional grass house.

“Caddo Contemporary: Present and Relevant” is sponsored in part by William Arscott, The Flower Shop, Nacogdoches Junior Forum, Humanities Texas and Friends of the Visual Arts. Admission is free.

SFA’s historic downtown art gallery, Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. For additional information, call (936) 468-1131.