Everything Nac

The School of Music at Stephen F. Austin State University will present an evening of festive music featuring various student ensembles in a Holiday Celebration Concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, in W.M. Turner Auditorium, Griffith Fine Arts Building, on the SFA campus.

The fundraising concert ushers in the holiday season while benefiting students in the School of Music, according to Dr. J.D. Salas, professor in the School of Music and concert organizer.

“The Holiday Celebration Concert will be an exciting addition to the local events in Nacogdoches,” Salas said. “The concert is organized as a prism concert, named for the prism which reveals varied colors of light. The format presents the many facets of musical experience in as pure a form as possible, without applause, gaps between performances or visual distraction. Using the prism format with holiday music will create a truly special event for the audience.”

The concert will feature several holiday favorites. The SFA Symphony Orchestra will perform a rendition of “Carol of the Bells” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” featuring SFA Professor of Violin Dr. Jennifer Dalmas.

The SFA Wind Ensemble will present the world premiere of “Geyser” composed by former SFA Director of Bands Dr. David Campo. The Swingin’ Axes will perform a movement from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite” set in a jazz style by Billy Strayhorn and first performed by the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

The Commercial Music Ensemble will delight the audience with “Jingle Bell Rock” and a rendition of “Please Come Home For Christmas” originally performed by The Eagles. SFA’s A Cappella Choir will perform “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and “Silent Night.”

The concert also features performances by the SFA Horn Choir and Trombone Choir staged in various areas of the newly remodeled Turner Auditorium.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $5 for students. To purchase tickets, visit sfasu.edu/boxoffice, or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and the Friends of the Visual Arts will present a free, one-night screening of “Bubba Ho-Tep,” based on the novella by Nacogdoches author Joe R. Lansdale and adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House.

The story is about residents of a nursing home who begin dying of “dubious causes,” and an aged Elvis and a Black senior who claims to be President John F. Kennedy, both residents, discover that the perpetrator is an Egyptian mummy with murderous intentions, according to IMDb. Directed by Coscarelli, it stars Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley/Sabastian Haff, Ossie Davis as Jack, and Bob Ivy as Bubba Ho-Tep.

Champion storyteller Lansdale, an East Texas native, is the author of more than 40 novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers and internet sites. He has received the Edgar Award, eleven Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. In addition to the film success of “Bubba Ho-Tep,” his story “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road” was adapted to film for Showtime’s “Masters of Horror,” and he also adapted his short story “Christmas with the Dead” for film. The film adaptation of his novel “Cold in July” was nominated for the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Sundance Channel has adapted his Hap and Leonard novels for television. He is currently co-producing several films.

Lansdale will be present to answer audience questions and sign books following the screening.

The School of Art’s Friday Night Film Series is sponsored in part by filmmaking Professor William Arscott. The Cole Art Center, SFA’s historic downtown gallery, is located at 329 E. Main St. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.