Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University Office of Multicultural Affairs will host its annual Homecoming Step Show at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, in the Johnson Coliseum on campus.

Although the step show has been hosted for several years at SFA, this is the second year it will take place alongside Homecoming festivities.

“The purpose of the step show is to display multiple organizations coming together,” said Veronica Beavers, OMA director. “Each organization is completely different, and we want to recognize the diversity of each organization while also celebrating the unity of all the organizations to create the show.”

This is the first year the step show will be held in Johnson Coliseum to fit the growing crowd. In previous years, it was held in the Baker Pattillo Student Center Grand Ballroom. The show begins with a brief history of stepping.

“Attendees should expect a great show! We will have plenty of teams presenting their performances that they have prepared months for,” Beavers said. “In addition, Nick Banks, aka Mr. Bankshot, will host the show. He is very popular on social media, and we are excited to have him here to keep the crowd laughing.”

Approximately five to seven teams are slated to perform. Dance groups will be competing for a $1,000 grand prize.

“Stepping originated with the National Panhellenic sororities and fraternities and African culture, although as you will see at the show, it has spread to other organizations and cultures,” Beavers said. “This show celebrates unity while also providing entertainment.”

Pre-sale tickets are $5 and will be sold through Oct. 14. From Oct. 15 through 18, tickets will be $8 for students and $10 for faculty, staff and community members. Tickets purchased at the door will be $15. Tickets can be purchased at the SFA information desk in the BPSC.

By Christine Broussard, senior marketing communications specialist for Stephen F. Austin State University.

The dynamic and creative Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet will present “A Broken Anthology of Western Music” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18, in Cole Concert Hall on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University.

The quartet is an artist-run creative project by bassoonists Brittany Harrington-Smith, Yuki Katayama, Kara LaMoure and Lauren Yu Ziemba. Their repertoire disregards genre, with favorites from the worlds of classical, pop, jazz, soundtrack and folk music adapted for the ensemble by its members, according to Lee Goodhew, assistant professor of bassoon in the SFA School of Music.

“Each member is a well-respected performer and musician in her own right,” Goodhew said, “and besides being a lot of fun, the quartet’s show displays the broad artistic range of the bassoon.”

Known for their stage antics, the quartet uses choreography, accessory instruments, props and skits to add theatrical elements to their performances, Goodhew explained.

According to member LaMoure, Breaking Winds “hijacks chestnuts of the repertoire and restores the bassoon to its rightful place in each.”

“All music in the period between Biber and Bieber is fair game, now presented in arrangements for bassoon quartet with enhancements like kazoo virtuosity, marching band-style choreography, reed squeaks and pop progressions,” LaMoure said. “Over the course of this whirlwind tour, the listener gains a new appreciation for the bassoon and a new view of classical music history. Even better, they may go home with confetti in their hair.”

Among the program selections are “Piece en forme de habanero” by Maurice Ravel, arranged by LaMoure; Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture;” and The Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet’s own medley, “2017 Overture.”

“This medley of recent popular songs is performed ‘BWBQ style,’ with the quartet members performing choreographed dances and getting up close and personal with the audience,” LaMoure 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.

Cutline: The Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet, featuring bassoonists Brittany Harrington-Smith, Yuki Katayama, Kara LaMoure and Lauren Yu Ziemba, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The Wind Ensemble at Stephen F. Austin State University will perform a concert featuring the music of American composer Michael Daugherty at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

A Grammy Award winner, Daugherty is professor of composition at the University of Michigan.

“He will be at SFA for the concert and to speak to our classes,” said Fred J. Allen, director of bands and the conductor for the Wind Ensemble. “We will perform three of his compositions on this concert.”

Daugherty’s “Dead Elvis” will feature SFA School of Music faculty member Lee Goodhew, assistant professor of bassoon, and other music faculty.

“This piece is written for a group of six performers who accompany the solo bassoon,” Allen said.

Joining Goodhew will be music faculty members Chris Ayer, clarinet; Jennifer Dalmas, violin; Carlos Gaviria, bass; Jacob Walburn, trumpet; Deb Scott, trombone; and Brad Meyer, drums.

“Elvis fans will not want to miss this homage to the King of Rock and Roll,” Allen said.

Daugherty is one of the most commissioned, performed and recorded composers on the American concert music scene today. He has been hailed by London’s The Times as “a master icon maker” with “maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear.”

Daugherty has received numerous awards, distinctions and fellowships for his music, including a Fulbright Fellowship, the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, among others.

Daugherty’s “Rio Grande” and “Of War and Peace” are also on the program.

“SFA was part of the commission that produced ‘Of War and Peace,'” Allen said.

The band will also perform the John Philip Sousa march “Boy Scouts of America.”

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.