February 4th, 2010

From John Napolitano, Sports Information:

The winter edition of SOAR is available online.

Special thanks to Charlie Beach for putting together the 40th Anniversary of Women’s Basketball Recap Video!

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The KSC Music Department welcomes the São Paulo State University Percussion Ensemble for a performance on Tuesday, January 19, at 7:45 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall.

The Brazilian São Paulo State University Percussion Ensemble Grupo PIAP was created by John Boudler in 1978 as vehicle for academic and artistic training, and to promote percussion repertoire in Brazil. Since then the group has produced 75 graduates who study, play, and/or teach in several states throughout Brazil and around the globe (read more here). For more information, contact the Music Department at 8-2177.

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From Therese Seibert, Sociology: On Thursday, December 10, Stephanie Hurley will present “Songs of Hope and Resistance from the Holocaust” in the Lantern Room of the Student Center from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m.

Music served many functions for those interned in concentration camps and ghettos during the Holocaust. These songs speak of the experiences and feelings of those persecuted during the Holocaust: the suffering and hope, shared experiences, daily news, resistance, unity, and entertainment. Supplemented by a PowerPoint slideshow, Stephanie will describe the historical context and personal stories behind each song. Stephanie’s clear and emotive voice expresses the pain as well as the hope of the victims and brings a deep sense of connection to another place and time.

Singer Stephanie Hurley is an accomplished vocalist in many genres of music. She graduated with honors from Keene State College in May 2003, receiving a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and a Bachelor of Arts in Music History. This performance is an extension of her research conducted at the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Keene State College, for which she was awarded the 2003 Hildebrandt Award.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The Keene State College Jazz Ensemble, conducted by KSC artist-in-residence Don Baldini, will perform “Music of the Silver Screen” on Wednesday, December 9, at 7:30 p.m. at the Redfern Arts Center. The Ensemble will perform tunes from famous movies over the decades. Guest artist and tenor saxophonist Frank Newton of Amherst, Mass., will be a featured soloist.

The concert will include “Somewhere Out There” from Stormy Weather, “Over the Rainbow” and “Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead” from The Wizard of Oz, “I Can’t Stop Loving You” from Blazing Saddles, the theme from The Pink Panther, and “Soul Bossa Nova” from Austin Powers, as well as many other movie tunes. Tickets are available through the box office at 8-2168 or online.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The KSC Concert Choir will perform their fall concert featuring British composers on Sunday, December 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center.

The KSC Concert Choir, conducted by music faculty member Diane Cushing, will celebrate the splendor of creation with songs by British composers. They will perform the U.S. premiere of “The Eternal Sun” by John Tavener, as well as his The Lamb. Also performed will be “For the Splendor of Creation” by Gustav Holst, “My Spirit Sang All Day” by Gerald Finzi, and the seven movements of John Rutter’s Magnificat. English folksongs by Ralph Vaughn Williams and “When She Loved Me” by Randy Newman, arranged by KSC student composer and music technology major Timothy Price ‘11 will also be performed. The choir will be accompanied by KSC faculty member Scott White. For tickets, call the box office at 8-2168.v

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The Keene State College Chamber Singers will perform songs from around the world during their fall concert on Sunday, November 22, at 3 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall.

Conducted by KSC music faculty member Elaine Broad Ginsberg, the KSC Chamber Singers will present works from the Renaissance and Baroque period, including Palestrina’s Hodie Christus Natus Est, sung in Latin by two choirs antiphonally, and Purcell’s In These Delightful Pleasant Groves. Also on the program are several of Ginsberg’s compositions and arrangements, including the well-known Irish Lullaby. Other highlights include In Dulci Jubilo; the traditional folk tune Shenandoah, conducted by KSC music education major Melinda Abodeely ‘10; So Close, arranged by KSC music technology major and composer Tim Price ‘11; an arrangement of a Bosnian folk melody; and a traditional song from South Africa. KSC music faculty member George Loring (piano and organ) will accompany several selections. For tickets, call the box office at 8-2168.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The Keene State College Chamber Orchestra, conducted by KSC artist-in-residence Don Baldini, will perform “Music from the Stage” on Wednesday, December 2, at 7:30 p.m. at the Redfern Arts Center

The KSC Chamber Orchestra will perform Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” and Beethoven’s Overture to the play Egmont by Goethe. Also performed will be the Intermezzo from the opera Cavalaria Rusticana by Mascagni, music from Bizet’s opera Carmen, and Grieg’s play Peer Gynt. The KSC Chamber Orchestra is comprised primarily of KSC students and includes several community members. Tickets are available through the box office at 8-2168 or online.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The KSC Guitar Orchestra and Latin American Ensemble will perform their fall recital, “Bach to Brazil,” on Wednesday, November 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall.

The KSC Guitar Orchestra, directed by José Lezcano, will perform Two Chorales by Bach, Concerto in D by Telemann, and Machado’s Dances from Northeast Brazil. Also on the program is Villa-Lobos’ aria from Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5, arranged by Roland Dyens for five guitars and featuring vocals by KSC senior music education major Melissa White (soprano). The KSC Guitar Orchestra is comprised of nine Keene State students and a few members from the community.

Under the direction of José Lezcano, the KSC Latin American Ensemble will perform music from Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. The ensemble features 28 members and includes panpipes, flutes, violin, and other instrumentation. For tickets, call the box office at 8-2168.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: Keene State faculty and guest artists will celebrate the music of Hector Villa-Lobos on Friday, November 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center. Often referred to as the Brazilian Bach, Villa-Lobos is one of the most significant Latin American composers of the 20th century. During his lifetime, he collected folk music from indigenous groups, organized and systematized his country’s public music education curriculum, and was a world ambassador for Brazil. Since his death in 1959, his popularity continues to increase, confirming his status as a seminal voice of the 20th century. The program will feature etudes for solo guitar, music for solo piano, sonatas for violin and saxophone, and a number of chamber music works, including the rarely-heard “Choros No. 7″ and “Sexteto Mistico.”

Keene State faculty members to perform are Joy Flemming, bassoon; Heather Gilligan, piano; Sussan Henkel, oboe; Marcia Lehninger, violin; José Lezcano, guitar; George Loring, piano; Robin Matathias, flute; David Runnion, cello; and Craig Sylvern, tenor saxophone. Guest artists will be Karen Bressett; clarinet, Franciska Huhn, harp; and Sabine Rhyne, cello. For tickets, call the box office at 603-358-2168.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The Keene State College Chamber Orchestra, conducted by KSC artist-in-residence Don Baldini, will perform a Celebration of American Composers on Friday, May 1, at 7:30 p.m. at the Redfern Arts Center.

In honor of Keene State’s Centennial Celebration, Aaron Copeland’s film score for Our Town, a piece with strong ties to the Monadnock Region, will be performed. Thornton Wilder wrote Our Town about a fictional town, Grover’s Corners, as a result of spending nine summers at Peterborough’s MacDowell Colony in the 1920s. The orchestra will also play “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Copeland’s musical tribute honoring those engaged in World War II. Also among the favorites being performed are John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes,” Leroy Anderson’s “The Syncopated Clock,” Richard Rogers’ “Victory at Sea,” Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, and Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns,” from the opera A Little Night Music.

The KSC Chamber Orchestra is comprised primarily of KSC students and includes some community members. Tickets are available through the box office at 8-2168 or online.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The Keene State College Jazz Ensemble, conducted by artist-in-residence Don Baldini, presents “My Favorite Tunes” on Wednesday, April 29, at 7:30 p.m. at the Redfern Arts Center.

Among Baldini’s favorites on the program are the Gershwins’ “Strike Up the Band,” Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes,” Jimmy Webb’s “MacArthur Park,” and “La Fiesta” by Chick Corea. Additional great tunes by Fats Waller, Gus Kahn, Chuck Mangione, Neil Hefti, and more will also be performed.

Pete Grimaldi of Amherst, Mass., will be a featured soloist on trumpet and flugelhorn. The KSC Jazz Ensemble is comprised primarily of KSC students and includes some community and faculty members. Tickets are available through the box office at 8-2168 or online.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: An afternoon of chamber music by several student ensembles will be performed on Sunday, April 26, at 3 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond at Keene State College. The concert is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served in the lobby following the performance.

The concert will showcase the Saxophone Ensemble, Flute Ensemble, Brass Ensemble, String Ensemble, Clarinet Ensemble, Jazz Combo, and Piano Ensembles. Music majors, non-music majors, and community members can participate in a chamber ensemble. For more information about the program, call 8-2177.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The Keene State College Chamber Singers will perform their spring recital on Sunday, April 19, at 3 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center.

Conducted by KSC music faculty member Elaine Broad Ginsberg, the KSC Chamber Singers will present a colorful bouquet of works from the Renaissance period to the 20th and 21st centuries, including Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei, a lyrical version of Barber’s renowned Adagio for Strings. The 33-member ensemble includes several small chamber groups. Keene State artist-in-residence George Loring will accompany the singers during some of the selections. (Read more about the program here.) For tickets, call the box office at 8-2168.

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From Mark Reynolds, College and Media Relations: At Tuesday night’s concert, An Evening of John Philip Sousa, renowned Sousa scholar and band director Dr. Keith Brion (left) got a special treat when KSC alumnus Tom Abert ’85 (right), the great grandson of the March King himself, showed up to catch the show. The concert was in honor of the College’s Centennial, featuring music that audiences would have heard 100 years ago when Sousa visited Keene. Photo by Jim Chesebrough.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The Department of Music faculty will present a spring recital featuring a variety of vocal and instrumental works on Friday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall.

Bach’s Wir eilen mit schwachen from Cantata Number 78, Selections from Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi, Sound the Trumpet by Henry Purcell, and Pie Jesu by Andrew Lloyd Webber will be performed, featuring Diane Cushing (soprano) and Pamela Stevens (mezzo soprano), accompanied by Maura Glennon. Scott White will play Felix Mendelssohn’s Organ Sonata Number 1. A newer work by Keene State Professor Emeritus William Pardus, Four Songs of the Coast, will feature Diane Cushing (soprano) and George Loring (piano). This will be the New Hampshire premiere of this work.

Pierre Sancan’s Sonatine, featuring Maura Glennon (piano) and Robin Matathias (flute), also will be performed. Josè Lezcano will perform Wainscott Pond by Toru Takemitsu, Num Pagode em Planaltina by Marco Pereira, and Sevilla by Isaac Albeniz. For tickets, please call the box office, 8-2168.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The KSC Guitar Orchestra and the KSC Latin Ensemble, both under the direction of music faculty member José Lezcano, will perform works spanning the centuries on Wednesday, April 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall.
More information about the program can be found here.

The KSC Latin Ensemble will be performing works from Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Cuba, with panpipes, charangos, guitars, bombos, and conga drums. For tickets, please call the box office, 8-2168.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: Step back in time to the famous beat of America’s March King in An Evening of John Philip Sousa on Tuesday, April 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Theatre of the Redfern. Dr. Keith Brion, guest conductor of the KSC Concert Band, will recreate a concert by one of the most famous and popular musical personalities of the 20th century in honor of Keene State’s Centennial Celebration. Sousa visited Keene with his band on six occasions between 1897 and 1912, performing at either the city’s Opera House or City Hall.

Brion, who portrays this American phenomenon, is considered the single greatest authority on Sousa and will prepare an historically accurate recreation of a Sousa Band concert. He will lead the KSC Concert Band in an evening of classical, dance, and popular music, exactly as it would have been heard 100 years ago. “Sousa’s concerts were rarely all-Sousa,” explained Brion, “but rather a mixture of light classics, novelties, and brilliant instrumental and vocal solos, with Sousa marches played as rapid-fire encores.”

Featured performers will be KSC music performance major Heather O’Connor ’09 (soprano) and music faculty members James Boccia (trumpet) and Dr. Craig Sylvern (saxophone).

Brion will be in week-long residence at the college, speaking to classes on music history, conducting, and the theatre craft involved in depicting the on-stage persona. He will also rehearse with the Concert Band to prepare for the April 7 performance.
Please call the box office (8-2168) for tickets.

Courtesy photo; Dr. Keith Brion

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From Bill Menezes, Redfern: One of the world’s outstanding chamber orchestras, I Musici de Montréal, will appear in a multimedia performance of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition on Wednesday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m. at the Redfern Arts Center. Earlier that day, I Musici’s conductor and artistic director, Yuli Turovsky, will lead a lecture/demonstration on the evening’s program at 2 p.m. at the Redfern. The lecture/demonstration is free and open to the public.

I Musici will perform Pictures with large-screen projections of choreographed paintings, which were inspired by the original Victor Hartmann paintings that inspired Mussorgsky’s timeless music (read more here). Tickets are available through the Redfern box office, 8-2168, or online.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The KSC Percussion Ensemble will be joined by the KSC Saxophone Ensemble for a spring performance on Thursday, April 2, at 7:45 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center.

The Percussion Ensemble will perform Edgar Varèse’s Ionisation (the first piece written for percussion ensemble) and Mouture, a piece influenced by Ionisation and written by Denmark’s Gunnar Berg. This will be one of the first times Mouture will be played in the United States. The concert will also premier Three Sketches for Bass Clarinet and Percussion, a new work by KSC Professor Emeritus William Pardus. Pardus’ work is commissioned by multi-woodwind musician, Richard Prior of Enfield, Conn., a guest soloist in the performance.

The Saxophone Ensemble will be performing a challenging transcription of J.S. Bach’s Finale from the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, as well as pieces by Edvard Grieg and Ronald Caravan. Additional works on the program include two pieces for saxophone and percussion by Mark Taggart and Bernhard Heiden. For tickets, call the box office at 8-2168.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The KSC Concert Band’s spring performance, “Happy Birthday Keene State!” will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Keene State College on Wednesday, March 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Theatre of the Redfern Arts Center.

The band will perform the Suite in Eb for Military Band by Gustav Holst, who wrote the piece in 1909, the year Keene Normal School was founded (and later renamed Keene State College). The band will also play several Keene-related compositions, including a new work, Rise and Fall, by KSC student and music major Brian Campbell. Also being performed is Black Granite III by James L. Hosay, who composed the work as a musical tribute for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our country. This piece will be performed as a tribute to the many veterans who have attended Keene State. The themes stated throughout Black Granite III are heroic and patriotic and lead to a solemn, reflective passage that ends with an energetic reprise of heroic glory.

The performance is the first of the semester. The band’s second concert on Tuesday, April 7, 2009, will also be in celebration of the College’s centennial, featuring John Philip Sousa scholar Keith Brion performing as America’s March King. Brion will direct the KSC Concert Band in a reconstructed performance of an actual Sousa concert from the days of the founding of Keene Normal School. For tickets, or to request accommodations for a disability, please call the box office at 8-2168.

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From Kathy Halverson, Mason Library: The KSC Brass Ensemble will perform in the Wood Reading Area of the library on Friday, March 6 at 6:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the community — come and be entertained by the music!

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From Bill Menezes, Redfern: Ain’t I a Woman!, celebrating the life and times of four illustrious African American women, will appear at the Redfern Arts Center on Wednesday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m.

Performed by the Core Ensemble, Woman! is a chamber music theatre work for actress and trio (cello, piano, and percussion). The production features a musical score drawn from the spirituals of the Deep South, the urban excitement of the Jazz Age, and contemporary concert music by African Americans. The African American women portrayed are ex-slave and abolitionist Sojouner Truth, novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, folk artist Clementine Hunter, and civil rights worker Fannie Lou Hamer.

A joyful exploration of the trials and triumphs of four passionate and accomplished women, Woman! is the latest in a series of multicultural and feminist performance pieces produced by the Ensemble over the past ten years. The production tours during Black History Month and Women’s History Month.

The Core Ensemble has toured in Australia, England, Russia, Ukraine, the Caribbean, and in every region of the U.S. Tickets are available through the Redfern box office, 8-2168, or online.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The KSC Faculty Composers Recital is becoming a popular and anticipated spring event. This year’s recital, on Thursday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Alumni Hall, will feature works by Flynn Cohen, Elaine Broad Ginsberg, José Lezcano, Christopher Swist, and Craig Sylvern. The program will also feature the KSC Percussion Ensemble and the KSC Chamber Singers, as well as faculty and guest artists. Read more here. For tickets, call the box office at 8-2168.

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From Joe Darby, Music: The music department hosted the 2009 New Hampshire Music Educators Association Solo & Ensemble Festival, on Saturday, February 14. Five hundred student musicians from across the state, their music teachers and accompanists, and hundreds of parents, friends, and relatives — about 1500 people — moved through the Redfern Arts Center throughout the day to enjoy the event.

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From Connie Lester, Redfern: The KSC Music Department presents a recital by past and present KSC faculty and several guest artists on Friday, February 20, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center.

Faculty emeritus William Pardus’ original works, Rain in Summer for voice, flute, oboe, bassoon, and piano and Three Motions for woodwind quartet, will be performed. JoAnne Mead (soprano) will perform in Rain in Summer. Adjunct faculty member Rebecca Krause-Hardie and guest artists Jean Jeffries, Christine Mortensen, and Margot Rowlands will play Sonata for Four French Horns by Paul Hindemith and Fripperies by Lowell Shaw. The Monadnock Trio (Joy Flemming, bassoon; Sussan Henkel, oboe; and KSC artist-in-residence George Loring, piano) will perform a piano trio by Mozart. For tickets, call the box office at 8-2168.

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