Everything Nac

Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. May 9 in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center.

Greg Grant, award-winning horticulturist, writer, conservationist, bulb farmer and seventh-generation East Texan, will present “Pines, Pawpaws and Pocket Prairies.”

Grant authored the books “In Greg’s Garden: A Pineywoods Perspective on Gardening, Nature, and Family” and “Texas Fruit and Vegetable Gardening,” as well as co-authored “Heirloom Gardening in the South, Texas Home Landscaping, The Southern Heirloom Garden,” and “The Rose Rustlers.” He also writes the popular “In Greg’s Garden” column for Texas Gardener magazine, a weekly garden column in the Tyler Morning Telegraph, and writes a monthly “Greg’s Ramblings” blog. He is the Smith County horticulturist for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in Tyler, where he is coordinator of the Smith County Master Gardener volunteer program and director of the Tyler Botanical Garden.

Grant has degrees in floriculture and horticulture, both from Texas A&M University, and attended postgraduate classes at Louisiana State University, North Carolina State University and SFA, where he is currently working on a doctoral degree in forestry. He has previous experience as a horticulturist with SFA Gardens, Mercer Arboretum and San Antonio Botanical Gardens, and as an instructor at SFA and LSU.

Grant has introduced several successful plants to the Southern nursery industry, including dwarf pink Mexican petunia, Gold Star speranza, Laura Bush petunia, John Fanick phlox, Stars and Stripes pentas, Pam’s Pink honeysuckle, Lecompte vitex, Henry and Augusta Duelberg sages, Big Momma and Pam Puryear Turk’s Cap, Peppermint Flare hibiscus, the Marie Daly and Nacogdoches (Grandma’s Yellow) roses.

He was presented the lifetime membership award from the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association, the county agent award from the Turfgrass Producers of Texas, the Superior Service Award by the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, the Lynn Lowrey Memorial Award by the Native Plant Society of Texas, and the Lone Star Land Steward Award by Texas Parks and Wildlife. His book “Heirloom Gardening in the South” was a Garden Writers Association Silver Award recipient.

He has traveled extensively to hundreds of botanical gardens throughout the United States and Europe and has given over 2,000 entertaining, story-filled lectures. He is a graduate of the Benz School of Floral Design and a lifetime member of the Native Plant Society of Texas, the Southern Garden History Society and the Texas Bluebird Society. His work has been featured in many magazines and newspapers, including Southern Living, Woman’s Day, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, and The San Antonio Express News.

Grant and his wife live in deep East Texas in his grandparents’ old farmhouse, where he tends the Rebel Eloy Emanis Pine Savanna and Bird Sanctuary, a bluebird trail, an heirloom bulb farm, a dozen chickens, two cats and a Jack Russell terrier.

The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is the second Thursday of each month and includes a rare plant raffle after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the lecture series fund are appreciated.

Parking is available at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, 2900 Raguet St., or Raguet Elementary School, 2708 Raguet St.

For more information, email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.

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.

The Trombone Choir at Stephen F. Austin State University will present an eclectic program of works composed in the last 50 years when the student ensemble performs at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Dr. Deb Scott, professor of trombone in the SFA School of Music, directs the 24-piece Trombone Choir, which will perform Irv Wagner’s arrangement of “Every Time I Feel the Spirit,” a Black spiritual dating to before the Civil War. Wagner was a long-time professor of trombone at the University of Oklahoma and Scott’s friend. Wagner passed away last September.

“He was a terrific composer and arranger for trombone choir,” Scott said. “The trombone choir will perform his arrangement of ‘Every Time I Feel the Spirit’ and his composition ‘Royal Music’ as a tribute to his influence and contributions to the trombone.”

The concert will also feature Jack Wild’s “Leviathan,” which Scott describes as “beautifully composed for trombone choir, building to a rambunctious, fulfilling finish.”

SFA’s professor of composition Dr. Stephen Lias wrote a piece for the SFA Trombone Choir’s feature concert at the 2010 International Trombone Festival. “Sequoia” will again be performed on this concert.

“Diversion for Six Trombones” by Fisher Tull will be performed by the full choir and is a standard of the repertoire due to its “beautiful harmonies and rhythmic challenges,” Scott said.

The concert will close with “Trombocueca,” composed by Ernesto Cortés for the Trombonanza Festival that is held each year in Santa Fe, Argentina. It features South American rhythms and melodies.

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

A world premiere of “Meet Your Maker” by David Reeves will be a highlight of a concert by the Stephen F. Austin State University Wind Symphony when the student ensemble performs at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 28, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

Directed by Dr. Dan Haddad, associate director of bands at SFA, the Wind Symphony will also perform standard pieces in the wind band repertoire in addition to newer works.

Reeves’ “Meet Your Maker” includes the following sections: Troublemaker, Haymaker, Dealmaker and Peacemaker. The SFA Wind Symphony led the consortium for this new work.

“This piece is in no way a percussion concerto, but I’m very interested in getting the percussion section’s sound represented in the clearest, best possible light,” the composer said of the work. “This can be hard to achieve, whether due to a ‘boomy’ concert hall, compositional choices regarding the range or instrumentation, tuning, etc. This piece physically integrates the percussion section with the wind section. As the piece progresses, the percussionists travel through the wind arcs, stopping at small percussion ‘stations’ along the way.”

Reeves has written extensively for percussion and has also composed works for orchestra, wind band, chamber ensembles, instrumental solos and voice. His works draw from jazz, funk, world music, minimalism and electronica. He has also collaborated with contemporary choreographers as a composer and percussionist.

His works have been frequently performed throughout the U.S. and have also been performed in the U.K., Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Russia. His works have been awarded or recognized by Percussive Arts Society, World Percussion Group, Aries Composer Festival, International Percussion Institute, Great Plains Marimba Festival and more. He is a Pearl/Adams and Innovative Percussion artist and has worked as an arranger for more than 30 years nationally and internationally.

The Wind Symphony will also perform a newer piece, “Febris Ver” (Spring Fever) by Nancy Galbraith, along with one of the foundations of wind band repertoire, Second Suite in F by Gustav Holst, and another older work by notable composer Charles Ives, “Old Home Days.”

Graduate student Amanda Bruner of Little Rock, Arkansas, will conduct “Rhosymedre” by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

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