ENTERTAINMENT NOTES : Young Artist pianist starts tour; Muses play mansion
Posted on Sunday, September 7, 2008
Pianist Nathan Knutson, winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs 2007 Young Artist competition, will kick off a statewide tour with a performance for the Little Rock Musical Coterie at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 1101 N. Mississippi St.
Knutson’s program will include “La Ricordanza,” Variations on a Theme by Rode, op. 33, by Carl Czerny; Dzirani Dzar (The Apricot Tree ) and Garoun A — “Spring” by Robert Andriasian; Suite Napoli by Francis Poulenc; Etude, op. 25 No. 12, by Frederic Chopin; and “Or Like a... an Engine” from Suite “No Longer Very Clear” by Joan Tower.
The remainder of Knutson’s tour 7: 30 p.m. Thursday, University of Arkansas at Monticello 2: 30 p.m. Sept. 14, White Hall, Northwest Arkansas Community College, Bentonville 7: 30 p.m. Sept. 16, McBeth Recital Hall, Mabee Fine Arts Center, Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia 7: 30 p.m. Sept. 18, Stillwell Humanities Building, Texarkana College, Texarkana Admission to all concerts is free. Call (870 ) 245-5145. Muses at mansion The Muses Creative Artistry Project will have a reception, dinner and concert at 6 p.m. Monday at the Governor’s Mansion on Center Street.
The Muses include sopranos Deleen Davidson, Kathy Cronin, Gay Strackshus and Michelle Pretto; Louis Menendez, piano; Steve Suter, trombone; Shelly Martin, flute; dancer Cindee Zerr Franklin; Stacy Murdock, bass; Beau Humble, baritone; Matt Tatus, tenor; and actor Paul Sheirhorn. Their program will include readings from Shakespeare and arias based on Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets; Claude Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (for flute and dancer ); and selections from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.
The Muses Creative Artistry Project is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to preserving classical art and music through performance and education.
Tickets are $ 150. Call (501 ) 463-4514 or visit the Web site, www. themusesproject. org. Messiah rehearsals The Arkansas Choral Society will begin rehearsals Monday for its 78 th performance of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah at First Baptist Church, 62 Pleasant Valley Drive.
Rehearsal begins at 7 p.m. following a 6: 30 reception and registration.
Rehearsals will be at 7 p.m. Mondays at the church leading up to a Nov. 30 performance of portions of the oratorio with choristers from Little Rock Central High School. Kent Skinner is the director.
Society members pay annual dues — $ 25 individual, $ 35 family. Bring your own Messiah score or purchase one for $ 8. Call (501 ) 376-8484. Show tunes recital Members of the faculty of Ouachita Baptist University’s School of Fine Arts will put on “I Do, I Do,” a musical theater recital with a marriage theme, at 7: 30 p.m. Tuesday in the McBeth Recital Hall, Mabee Fine Arts Center, OBU, Arkadelphia.
Cindy Fuller, instructor of voice and music education; Scott Holsclaw, dean of the school of fine arts and professor of theater; Caitlin Secrest, a junior at Arkadelphia High School; Glenda Secrest, associate professor of music; and Jon Secrest, chairman of OBU’s applied music department, coordinator of vocal studies and director of opera and musical theater workshops, will perform selections from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s Carousel, Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years and Jerome Kern and Hammerstein’s Show Boat.
A reception will follow in Hammons Gallery. Admission is free. Call (870 ) 245-5134 or e-mail secrestj@obu. edu. West meets West The Texarkana Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Marc-Andre Bougie will open the orchestra’s third season with a concert called “The American West” at 7: 30 p.m. Tuesday at the Perot Theater, 219 Main St., Texarkana.
The program will include Western classics — Ennio Morricone’s music from the film Once Upon a Time in the West; Old California by William Grant Still; Fiddle Faddle by Leroy Anderson; overture to John Williams’ music for the film The Cowboys; Rodeo by Aaron Copland; Ghost Riders in the Sky by Stan Jones; and the Overture to William Tell (The Lone Ranger theme ) by Gioacchino Rossini. Actor Frank Oden will read Western poems between musical selections.
Bougie will give a concert preview at 6: 45 p.m.
Tickets are $ 36, $ 29, $ 22, $ 15 and $ 5. Call (903 ) 792-4992 or visit the Web site, texar kanasymphony. org. Fishburne one-act Hooker Cat Productions will stage Riff Raff by Laurence Fishburne at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday at the Public Theatre, 616 Center St.
Brandon McClinton, Jason Willey and Sidney Williams play characters caught up in a drug deal gone wrong in the one-act play. Lesley Dancer is the director-producer. The show is recommended for mature audiences.
Tickets are $ 10. Call (501 ) 374-7529 or visit the Web site, www. thepublictheatre. com. Clarinetist in residence Clarinetist and composer Eric Mandat, who teaches clarinet and music analysis at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, will perform and lecture as an artist in residence Thursday and Friday at the University of Central Arkansas at Conway.
He will give a master class at 1: 40 p.m. Thursday in the Snow Fine Arts Center Recital Hall at UCA, 201 Donaghey Ave., and a recital in the same hall at 7: 30 p.m.
He will lecture at the composer’s forum at 10 a.m. Friday in Room 312 of Snow Fine Arts Center.
Admission to all events are free and open to the public. Call (501 ) 450-3293. ‘Off the Beaten Path’ A group of Mountain Viewarea artists are putting together the seventh annual “Off the Beaten Path” Studio Tour, a free self-guided driving tour of artists’ studios in Mountain View, Calico Rock, Pineville and Fox, Friday through Sept. 14.
More than 30 artists will open private working studios to the public 9 a. m.-6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a. m.-4 p.m. Sept. 14.
An artists catalog and tour guidebook is available at the Mountain View and Calico Rock chambers of commerce, various Mountain View venues and Don Quixote’s Restaurant in Calico Rock, or visit the Web site, www. offthebeatenpath studiotour. com, where you can also register for the tour online.
Citizens Bank in Mountain View, 511 Sylamore Ave., will host an artists reception and exhibit 7-9 p.m. Friday.
Admission is free. Call the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce at (870 ) 269-8068 or, toll-free, (888 ) 679-2859; Calico Rock Chamber of Commerce at (870 ) 297-4129; or visit the Web site, www. offthebeatenpath studiotour. com. Rogers auditions Rogers Little Theater will hold auditions for You Can’t Take It With You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart at 7 p.m. Sept. 22 and 23 at the Victory Theater, 116 S. Second St., Rogers.
Parts are available for 12 men and seven women, teens to 70 s; some characters have foreign accents.
Production dates are Nov. 7-8, 14-16 and 20-23. Audition packets and information are available at the theater, or call (479 ) 631-8988. Tuna does Texarkana ? The Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council’s 2008-09 Perot Theatre season of touring shows begins with Tuna Does Vegas, the fourth of Joe Sears and Jaston Williams’ Greater Tuna shows, set in the “third smallest town in Texas,” Oct. 3-5 at the Perot Theatre, 219 Main St., Texarkana. The rest of the lineup: Nov. 2: Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd Dec. 9: A Rita Coolidge Christmas Jan. 29: Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy Feb. 14: Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers Feb. 23: Family special: Bob the Builder March 6: To Kill a Mockingbird by Christopher Sergel, based on the Harper Lee classic, Montana Repertory Theatre April 4: Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble. For ticket information, call (903 ) 792-4992 or visit the Web site, trahc. org.
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