Everything Nac

The Trombone Choir at Stephen F. Austin State University will present a diverse program ranging from a fanfare for brass instruments to works of jazz when students perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Dr. Deb Scott, professor of trombone in the SFA School of Music, will conduct the Trombone choir in its performance of “Fanfare for the Vienna Philharmonic” by Richard Strauss and arranged by Dr. Bruce D. Tychinski, professor of trombone at the University of Delaware.

Scott will also conduct a performance of “Torque” by Justin Writer, composition professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “It is one of my favorites,” she said. “This composition is perfect for trombone choir. It has so many exciting and surprising rhythms and harmonies as well as beautiful chorale sections. It has been really fun to put together.”

Also on the program, conducted by adjunct trombone Professor Luke Vacca, are two jazz pieces. The first is an arrangement of Henry Mancini’s “Dreamsville,” arranged by Charles Vernon, and also “Gopher Serenade” by Tommy Pederson.

Several student quartets will join the program.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. To purchase tickets, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit sfasu.edu/boxoffice. For additional information, contact the SFA School of Music at (936) 468-4602.

Pianist Dr. Daniel Milan will present a solo guest recital featuring works by Franz Josef Haydn, Frédéric Chopin, Dinu Lipatti and Alexander Scriabin when he performs at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 13, in Cole Concert Hall on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

Milan describes the program as containing a number of “personal bucket-list pieces.”

“That said, there is some symmetry in the way that the first half and second half of the recital both end in pieces of similar length in F-sharp major,” Milan explains. “What’s more, the program heavily features the compositions of Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti.”

Although famously known for his outstanding career as a concert pianist and recording artist, Lipatti’s untimely death at age 33 of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in tandem with his fame as a performer overshadowed his prolific compositional output, according to Milan.

Also connected to the F-sharp symmetry is Lipatti’s “Nocturne” in F-sharp minor, following shortly after Chopin’s “Barcarolle” in F-sharp major. Chopin is a composer of whom Lipatti was well known to perform and record. Milan’s program also features a variety of different keyboard sonatas and character pieces. Works include Lipatti’s Sonatina for Left Hand; Haydn’s Sonata in C minor; and Scriabin’s Sonata No. 4 in F-sharp major.

Haydn’s sonata features “some of the first obvious innovations of the new pianoforte instrument that Haydn utilizes in his frequent and distinctive dynamic markings,” according to Milan.

In Sonatina for Left Hand, Lipatti “follows the very traditional fast-slow-fast movement scheme like that found in the Haydn, but with a diverse and even folk-like tonal language that includes both functional and non-functional harmonies and progressions,” Milan explains.

Milan is assistant professor of piano and piano pedagogy at Texas Woman’s University in Denton. He has performed in venues across the world including Maccagno, Italy; the Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria; the University of Transylvania in Brașov, România; the George Enescu Museum in Bucharest, România; and he was featured in a competition showcase recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Milan has performed in masterclasses with esteemed artist faculty of the Eastman School of Music, the Juilliard School of Music and Berklee College of Music. During his undergraduate studies at Kent State University, he also opened for the Count Basie Band at Elmhurst College in Illinois with the Kent State Jazz Ensemble.

In addition to his career as a classical musician, Milan is also an independent pop recording artist and composer. Since 2007, he has written, recorded and independently released eight original albums of music: five alternative pop albums, one live acoustic album, and a classical album of original compositions for solo piano, additionally including one work for small orchestra.

Cole Concert Hall is located in the Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Drive. Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. To purchase tickets, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit sfasu.edu/boxoffice. For additional information, contact the SFA School of Music at (936) 468-4602.

Four Stephen F. Austin State University alumni from the Rusche College of Business sports business program are supporting the Texas Rangers during the team’s World Series run as part of the organization’s business development and ticketing operations staff.

Bryana Novegil ’21 & ’23, Aaron Rangel ’20, Isaiah Schreiber ’20 and Isaiah Yates ’18 hope to see their team take home its first World Series title in its 62-year history.

“Being a part of a World Series-contending team is an awesome accomplishment and experience,” said Novegil, a Houston native, who has been an account executive for new business development with the Rangers for two seasons. “I grew up playing softball and having a passion for a ball and a bat. I always wanted to make it to the big leagues, and I knew my only way to do that would be working in the front office.”

Rangel, a Tyler native, is in his third season of serving as an account executive for season tickets.

“This is what each front office employee dreams of, and it has been a rollercoaster of emotions,” Rangel said. “After coming off losing seasons my first years, it is awesome to witness the turnaround and reap the benefits of a winning team.”

In his third season with the Rangers as a new business development representative, Schreiber said his SFA connections were key to his joining the team right after college.

“The faculty at SFA supported my career path and provided me with the early networking opportunities that helped me enter the Rangers organization shortly after I graduated,” he said.

Yates, another Tyler native, has served the Rangers for five seasons as an account executive in group sales. His team’s journey to the World Series this year is still sinking in.

“It is surreal,” Yates said. “This is truly what I dreamed of when I first decided to work in sports.”

He knows that this dream would not be possible without the preparation he received at SFA.

“If not for the things that I learned and the connections that I made as in intern with SFA Athletics, I would not be in the position that I am today,” Yates said.

Dr. Jason Reese, associate dean of the Rusche College of Business and an associate professor of sports marketing, said these alumni’s achievements are a testament to the experiential learning opportunities provided by SFA’s sports business program.

“We are so excited to see our former SFA sports business students be successful so soon after graduating,” Reese said. “It makes us very proud.”

He said Novegil, Rangel, Schreiber and Yates all took advantage of the opportunity to engage in real-world sales interactions while at SFA.

“Through our partnership with SFA Athletics and with Lone Star Sports & Entertainment, these students were able to participate in the whole sales process for sporting event tickets before they left SFA,” Reese added. “They learned what it was like to make a sales call, overcome objections and make a sale.”

For more information about SFA’s sports business program, visit sfasu.edu/mgtmkt.

ABOUT STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY

Stephen F. Austin State University, the newest member of The University of Texas System, began a century ago as a teachers’ college in Texas’ oldest town, Nacogdoches. Today, it has grown into a regional institution comprising six colleges — business, education, fine arts, forestry and agriculture, liberal and applied arts, and sciences and mathematics. Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, SFA enrolls approximately 11,000 students while providing the academic breadth of a state university with the personalized attention of a private school. The main campus encompasses 421 acres that include 37 academic facilities, nine residence halls, and 68 acres of recreational trails that wind through its six gardens. The university offers more than 80 bachelor’s degrees, more than 40 master’s degrees and four doctoral degrees covering more than 120 areas of study. Learn more at sfasu.edu.

By University Marketing Communications