Everything Nac

Student vocalists at Stephen F. Austin State University will present “Magical, Mystical and Merry: An Evening of Opera Scenes” in a virtual concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, that can be accessed free of charge through livestreaming at music.sfasu.edu.

Works by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein, Frank Loesser, Giuseppe Verdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Gian Carlo Menotti and other celebrated composers will be featured, according to Dr. Deborah Dalton, associate professor of voice and opera in the SFA School of Music.

For voice students enrolled in opera and singing classes at SFA, performing during the COVID era has presented many new challenges, Dalton said. Scenes are usually chosen to fit the voices enrolled in the respective classes.

“For this program, choosing scenes that could be staged while masked and observing social distancing proved to be much more of a challenge,” Dalton said. “These constraints actually opened up more creative possibilities and fun solutions, particularly with a love duet that had the singers separated by 10-to-12 feet!”

Opera workshop class, directed by Dalton, will present scenes from standard operatic repertoire. Opera ensemble class, with Professor James Held directing, will perform favorites from musical theatre.

Opera workshop scenes performed will be from “Falstaff,” “The Magic Flute,” “Der Freischütz,” “The Medium,” “The Marriage of Figaro” and “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” The program also features ensemble-performed scenes from “The Sound of Music,” “Spamalot,” “The Most Happy Fella,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” and the American opera “Susannah” by Carlisle Floyd.

“‘Falstaff’ is the only comedic opera Verdi wrote and is considered his masterpiece,” Dalton said.

SFA lecturer Nita Hudson will conduct several scenes. Bora Cho, graduate assistant in collaborative piano (accompanying), will provide the accompaniment for the entire program.

“Bora has been a joy to work with throughout this unusual semester,” Dalton added.

For more information about the School of Music, call (936) 468-4602.

Art education students at Stephen F. Austin State University are continuing to explore new and innovative ways to teach art to members of the Boys and Girls Club of Deep East Texas.

In another collaborative effort, the SFA School of Art, the Boys and Girls Club and the Community Arts Center of East Texas helped students create a colorful mural completely online.

“In weekly Zoom meetings, art education students conducted one-on-one tutorial painting sessions with Boys and Girls Club participants in which each student painted a square of a graphed image,” explained Dr. Maggie Leysath, professor of art education at SFA.

Boys and Girls Club children discussed the meaning of “intercultural harmony” and created images that reflected their ideas. Art education students took those ideas and created a central image of helping hands.

“The final result is a collaborative image that highlights the individuals who created it,” Leysath said, “and, it was completely done from remote locations.

“Well done future art educators,” she added, “and a big, huge thank you to everyone at the Boys and Girls Club and the awesome Community Arts Center of East Texas.”

The mural is being installed for viewing at the Judy B. McDonald Public Library in Nacogdoches.

For more information about the School of Art, call (936) 468-4804 or visit art.sfasu.edu.

Five graduating students showcase artwork

An exhibition showcasing the work of five graduating students in the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art is showing now through Dec. 1 in the Art Building just off of Wilson Drive and adjacent to the SFA Mast Arboretum on campus.

Works exhibited in the front gallery include solargraphs by Joshua Mokry of Houston; digital and watercolor tattoo flashes by Ericka Bates of Rionegro, Antioquia, Colombia; paintings by Ethan Donart of Sugar Land; and paintings and projection artworks by Charles Oliveri of Lufkin The photography by Ariana Sessoms of Mansfield is exhibited in exit hall gallery.

Artworks in The BFA Group Exhibition reflect a culmination of time spent and learned at SFA with the help and guidance of faculty in the art program. The show marks the students’ final exhibit as undergraduates and is one of the last steps for the School of Art class of 2020.

One of the series, titled “8 Months,” showcases “solargraphs” which are long-duration images of the sun’s path captured by pinhole cameras made out of paint cans. As the paper in the cameras age, mold starts to grow over its surface. The artist, Joshua Mokry, said, “I wanted to create something during this pandemic about this pandemic. It’s an anxious and trying time for everyone, and I want to convey that feeling with this series. It’s about my time spent during the early stages of 2020 and that anxious growth that built up as the days passed by.”

Social distancing of at least six feet apart by patrons will be required when viewing artwork. Admission is free.

For more information about the SFA School of Art, call (936) 468-4804.

Graduate and undergraduate singers at Stephen F. Austin State University will present a virtual concert that will feature recitatives and arias from Part 1 of George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah.”

Dr. Ron Petti, coordinator of collaborative piano at SFA will accompany soloists at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, in the free online concert that will be accessible at music.sfasu.edu on the day of the performance.

Citing safety concerns related to COVID-19, Dr. Michael Murphy, director of choral activities, said that “the annual performance of movements from Handel’s Messiah will look a little different this year.”

“While there will be no choral movements performed, you can watch and hear a few of the many talented singers at SFA perform some of the most beloved and well-known movements from Handel’s masterpiece, ‘Messiah,'” Murphy said. “The movements are taken from Part 1 of the work that tells of the prophecy and promise of the Messiah.”

Graduate and undergraduate student soloists include Aaron Dominguez, Cole Jones, Isaiah Collazo, Emily Boyland, Victoria Cole, William Murphy, Sarah Thee, Gracie Palmore, Brianna Glaze and Emily LeBlanc.

For more information about the School of Music, contact (936) 468-4602.