Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music will present faculty members Dr. Christina Guenther, flute, and Dr. Ron Petti, piano, performing the program “An Air of Mystery” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The recital is part of the Friends of Music Concert Series and will feature works by Aaron Jay Kernis, David Maslanka, Jake Heggie and Samuel Zyman.

“Air” by Kernis is songlike and melodic, and it is “the purest and sparest piece I’ve written in a few years,” the composer writes. It contains many hymn or chant-like elements, and though rooted in E-flat major, it “retains a kind of plaintive quality more reminiscent of minor or modal tonalities,” he added.

Guenther met composer Maslanka in March 2004 when she was performing at a Society of Composers Inc. conference at which he was a featured composer.

“We spoke briefly the day before I performed, but it was after my performance of a very challenging new work that he came up to me and said, ‘You’ve got the stuff!'” Guenther writes in her program notes. “What encouraging words for a young performer from one of the compositional legends of our time. Maslanka was a quiet, introspective man – tall, thin, unassuming, humble. We kept in touch and, in May 2004, he sent me his ‘Duo’ as a gift.

“At the time, I was playing a lot of new music, and even though this piece was written three years before I was born, I felt like it was written for me,” Guenther said. “It was just my style – challenging, intense, passionate and insistent, and with some of my favorite extended techniques. Regrettably, I did not get to perform it during Maslanka’s lifetime; I had to find a pianist whose arm I could twist to learn it, and my husband is the lucky soul who (probably reluctantly) agreed.”

Heggie’s “Soliloquy” for flute and piano is a setting by the composer of his song “Beyond” from “Pieces of 9/11: Memories from Houston,” which was written based on interviews with Houstonians and their stories regarding the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“Those of us who lived through the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks remember exactly where we were when we got the news,” Guenther writes. “I was in graduate school at Florida State University in Tallahassee taking care of flute studio-related business before attending Denise von Glahn’s 20th Century music history class. When the towers – and all the antennae on top of them – went down, so did communication to much of the northeast. I grew up 20 minutes outside New York City in a town from which many people commuted to NYC for work; my family still lived there. My mother later told me that she saw children – my siblings’ classmates – walking home from school that day with their parents – high school boys holding their fathers’ hands. Not all the kids in our town were so lucky – some lost a parent. We were fortunate – that was not one of the occasional days when my dad had a work meeting in Manhattan. Eventually, trying not to panic from so far away in Florida where we were helpless and, like the rest of the country, still didn’t really know what was going on, I was able to reach my dad on his cell phone.”

Zyman, a New York-based Juilliard faculty member, is one of the leading Mexican composers on the international scene. His Sonata for Flute and Piano is regarded as a major repertoire piece and is frequently performed worldwide. It was chosen to be one of the required repertoire works for the semifinal round of the Young Artist Competition for outstanding flutists at the National Flute Association Convention in New York City in August 2009.

Recital 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.

Audiences who watch Sarah DeLappe’s “The Wolves” come to life on W.M. Turner Auditorium stage on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus in October will likely be reminded of some of the challenges they encountered trying to navigate the adolescent angst of high school years.

A finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, “The Wolves” will be presented by the SFA School of Theatre Tuesday through Saturday, Oct. 1 through 5, at 7:30 each night. Directed by Professor Rick Jones, this coming-of-age play follows the daily routines and conversations of nine girls on a soccer team who deal with big problems and tiny battles in a portrait of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for kids who just want to score some goals.

Jones said one of the reasons he selected the play to include in this year’s Mainstage Series is because it contains “excellent roles for women.”

“I knew a lot of universities across the country were doing this play,” he said. “We ended up picking this play over others on my list because of the response of two students – both women – who were on the selection committee.

“Literally every young woman I’ve talked to is excited about the play,” he added. “It seemed to me when I read the script that the characters in the play and their conversations were pretty accurate representations of real people – of real high school girls. But, I’ve never been a girl, and it’s been a very long time since high school. The women in the show have been there, and not that long ago. The play speaks to them, and I am confident that it will speak to others, as well.”

Nine of the 10 characters are players in an elite indoor soccer league for high school girls; the remaining character is the mother of one of the players.

“We watch them form bonds, struggle with adolescence, exult in winning, and cope with losing … and some of the losses are permanent,” Jones said. “The play is about determination and endurance; whatever happens, these girls are going to face challenges together, and they’ll ultimately triumph, regardless of what the scoreboard might say.”

The play has something for everyone, but it will especially resonate with young women, Jones said. There is some potentially offensive language, and the characters discuss what most high school girls in the 21st century discuss: current events, sexual harassment, abortion, coping with menstruation. “So if that kind of thing bothers you, you might sit this one out,” he said. “But the play tells the truth, and that’s always a good thing.”

Jones said the play is “sometimes harrowing, but uplifting.”

“It’s all about figuring out what really matters,” he said, “and a little introspection in those terms could probably help us all.”

Single tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and non-SFA students and $7.50 for youth. Tickets for SFA students are $5. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.theatre.sfasu.edu.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s Janice A. Pattillo Early Childhood Research Center will hold its 10th anniversary celebration at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20, in front of the ECRC, located at 2428 Raguet St. in Nacogdoches. The dedication of the Baker Pattillo Memorial Flagpole will be included in the celebration.

The ECRC opened its doors July 19, 2009, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, children’s singing performances and public tours. Ten years later, guests at the anniversary celebration will be treated to cake, cookies and beverages, as members of the Lumberjack Marching Band, Spirit Teams and choir perform. The event is free, and the public is invited.

“Throughout its decade of existence, the ECRC’s faculty and staff members have worked to improve the quality of life for children and families in East Texas by integrating teaching, research and dissemination of information,” said Lori Harkness, director of the Early Childhood Lab and campus coordinator for the charter school.

The facility is named in honor of Dr. Janice A. Pattillo, who retired from SFA in 2011 as a professor and chair of the Department of Elementary Education, after serving 42 years at the university. She is the wife of Dr. Baker Pattillo, who served as the university’s president from 2006 until his death Dec. 29, 2018.

The $30.8 million, 120,000-square-foot center houses the nationally accredited Early Childhood Laboratory and the SFA Charter School, where approximately 230 children, ranging from infants to fifth grade, are enrolled in education programs. Each fall and spring semester, more than 430 SFA students use the lab and charter school for observation, participation and other education purposes as they prepare to enter the workforce as teachers.

“Almost a century ago, SFA began as a teachers college,” Harkness said. “The research center has helped us build on SFA’s strong tradition of teacher preparation while expanding its research capacity. We are blessed to have this facility in Nacogdoches. It offers outstanding opportunities for SFA students to work firsthand with children, and it provides a place where families can bring their children to learn and grow.”

The dedication of the Baker Pattillo Memorial Flagpole will take place toward the beginning of the anniversary celebration, with SFA’s ROTC members presenting the colors and Harkness dedicating the flagpole in Pattillo’s honor. Afterward, attendees will join under the alumni association tent, located at the corner of Raguet and Hayter streets, for refreshments.

For more information about the event or charter school, contact Harkness at (936) 468-4006.

Two events will take place on Saturday, Sept. 21, in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House, Stephen F. Austin State University’s historic downtown art gallery.

A reception for the exhibition “The Color of Grief” is at 3 p.m., followed by a gallery talk by Wesley Berg, assistant professor of drawing and painting in the School of Art, at 6 p.m.

“The Color of Grief” features art created by children who attended a youth grief camp through Hospice in the Pines. The small paintings on canvas, created by children ages 4 through 16, express the feelings each experienced in the loss of a loved one.

Berg will discuss his work in the exhibition “Shadow Plane: Works on Paper by Wesley Berg,” which is the featured faculty show in this year’s School of Art Faculty Exhibition. The faculty exhibition traditionally features a wide variety of artwork in ceramics, sculpture, photography, painting, prints, metal work and mixed media.

“The Color of Grief” runs through Oct. 12, and the faculty show and Berg’s exhibition run through Oct. 13. The Cole Art Center hours are 12:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Art exhibitions and receptions are free and are sponsored by William Arscott, the Flower Shop, Nacogdoches Junior Forum and the Friends of the Visual Arts. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.