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The Contemporary Ensemble at Stephen F. Austin State University will perform selections from critically acclaimed musical performer Stevie Wonder’s “Natural Wonder” concert when the ensemble performs at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

“Natural Wonder” is a live album Wonder recorded in Osaka, Japan, and released in 1995. Contemporary Ensemble Director Andrew Sperandeo selected this theme because he wanted his students to be exposed to Wonder’s music “to ensure they internalize the elements that make up a great piece of music,” he said.

“Stevie Wonder is one of my favorite musicians,” Sperandeo said. “Not only is he a great songwriter and arranger, but also a great vocalist, keyboardist and drummer.”

The Rockin’ Axes will open the program with a couple of numbers from their “History of Rock” Concert.

The ensemble will perform Wonder’s “I Wish,” “Superstition,” “Higher Ground,” “Dancing to the Rhythm” and other favorites.

“‘I Wish,’ along with other songs on the program such as ‘Superstition’ and ‘Higher Ground,’ show the high level of groove and soul in Stevie’s writing and arranging,” Sperandeo said. “You can’t help but want to get up and dance and sing along with these iconic funk and rock tunes.”

“Dancing to the Rhythm” is the first song on the double CD set and will be the ensemble’s opening number.

“It was a lot of hard work transcribing note for note every instrument on this track and arrange it for our group, but I grew so much as an arranger/musician from the highly concentrated effort,” Sperandeo said. “This song, along with ‘Pastime Paradise,’ showcases Stevie Wonder’s Latin groove influence, which are so infectious and so much fun to play.”

The Contemporary Ensemble is comprised of Barry Martin of Arp, main vocals/piano; Julia Murad of Plano, background vocals/piano; Chase DeShazo of Abilene, background vocal/synthesized percussion; Tyler Hyndman of Leona, guitar; Ryan Lackey of Nacogdoches, guitar; Chance Forrest of Anna, guitar; Austin Gehring of Missouri City, bass; and Matt Coronado of Cypress, drums.

Sperandeo arranged the ballad “Ribbon in the Sky” to incorporate solos by the ensemble’s guitarists and to feature Martin on lead vocals and Murad on piano.

“We have quite a few amazing musicians in the band this semester, and they play some challenging yet really fun music,” Sperandeo said. “You are guaranteed to want to jump out of your seat and groove with us.”

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 (888) 240-ARTS or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre is taking on a big task. SFA Playwright-in-Residence Jack Heifner, his teaching colleagues and theatre students will present Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Skin Of Our Teeth” April 25 through 29 as part of this year’s Mainstage Series.

It’s a play that Heifner has always admired and wanted to direct, despite its large 20-member cast, extensive scenery and multiple costumes and props.

“It’s a huge play and is rarely done because of the size of the production,” Heifner said. “It is a comedy that is at the same time funny, touching, sensible and absurd. It is a study in how we move forward through the problems of life with optimism and courage.”

“The Skin Of Our Teeth” was first performed on Broadway in a 1942 production starring Tallulah Bankhead, Montgomery Cliff and Fredric March. Because of its large cast, making it costly to produce, it hadn’t been seen on Broadway since a 1975 revival that closed after seven performances … until now. A Theatre for a New Audience’s Brooklyn revival earlier this spring “reestablishes ‘The Skin of Our Teeth’ as “one of the finest American plays of the 20th century,” Terry Teachout recently wrote in a Wall Street Journal review.

“It seems to truly be the right play at the right time, but maybe it is, in fact, timeless,” Heifner said. “I’m thrilled we are presenting it here at SFA.”

Completed by the author less than a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, “The Skin of Our Teeth” broke from established theatrical conventions and walked off with the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama.

The Thornton Wilder Society uses the following description of the play on its website: “Time magazine called ‘The Skin of Our Teeth’ ‘a sort of ‘Hellzapoppin” with brains. Combining farce, burlesque and satire (among other styles), Thornton Wilder departs from his studied use of nostalgia and sentiment in ‘Our Town’ to have an Eternal Family narrowly escape one disaster after another, from ancient times to the present.”

Heading up the cast of characters are “George and Maggie Antrobus (married only 5,000 years); their two children, Gladys and Henry (perfect in every way!); and their maid, Sabina (the ageless vamp) as they overcome ice, flood and war – by the skin of their teeth,” the website explains.

“The show is a play within a play, and the actors are playing both characters in the production and characters putting on the production,” Heifner said. “It’s a big show, and there are many people on stage.”

The duality of the roles the student actors will portray – actors playing actors – and the fact that many of the actors are cast in multiple roles and many costume changes, will be a challenge for the director, the production staff and actors.

“One actor plays a cleaning woman, a dinosaur, a distraught woman in the audience, a dresser for the leading lady and Aristotle,” Heifner said. “Most of the actors, except the leads, are playing different characters in each act.”

The play is appropriate for anyone and all ages, Heifner said, but the subject matter may not interest someone younger than a teenager. He suggests the play would be rated PG13. There is no offensive language.

“I want the audience to have an enjoyable evening, to admire the work of the talented students and have an appreciation of Thornton Wilder’s thoughts and words,” he said.

“The Skin of Our Teeth” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, April 25 through 29, in W.M. Turner Auditorium in the Griffith Fine Arts Building on the SFA campus. Single tickets are $15 for adult, $10 for senior and $7.50 for student/youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.theatre.sfasu.edu.

Violist Yong-Ha Jung, a Flower Mound High School junior, won first place in the 2017 Schmidbauer Young Artist Competition at Stephen F. Austin State University. The strings and piano competition offers a unique performance opportunity for young musicians, offering prizes that include cash awards, scholarship incentives from the SFA School of Music and performance opportunities with orchestras. Pictured following this year’s event are, from left, Chloe Trevor and James Cho, adjudicators; Claire Wells, second prize; Yong-Ha Jung, first prize; Richard Lee, adjudicator; Jason Wang, finalist; Scott Shattuck, associate dean, SFA College of Fine Arts; Jiaming Zhang, finalist; Sai Sai Ding, third prize; Dr. Gary Wurtz, director, SFA School of Music; and Dr. Gene Moon, competition chairman and director of orchestras at SFA.