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Spring arts events blossom at Sacramento State

Lose the winter blues and celebrate spring by attending the many arts events coming up at Sacramento State. Students, instructors and staff have put together a program highlighting the best the campus has to offer in theater, dance, music and the fine arts.

Spring dance

Theatre and Dance
A fundraiser for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival will be held at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 5, in Playwright’s Theatre at Shasta Hall. The event will feature performances by students selected to attend the Kennedy Center’s regional competition for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship. The department is taking 24 students to the competition. Admission is a requested donation with a $5 minimum.

Dance steps into the spotlight with a tribute to Linda Goodrich, department chair and founder and artistic director of Sacramento Black Art of Dance, the company that explores the movement culture of the African and African-American Diaspora with the concepts of modern dance. S-BAD’s spring concert will honor Goodrich – educator, mother, and artist – in a performance produced by S-BAD dancers. Performances are scheduled for Feb. 28 to March 2 and March 5-9 in Solano Hall 1010.

Up next is the story of a small town girl who makes it big in the Big Apple, tap dancing her way into your heart in 42nd Street. Set in the 1930s, the show is a celebration of Broadway, featuring legendary songs such as “We’re in the Money,” “Shuffle Off To Buffalo” and “Lullaby of Broadway.” 42nd Street is written by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, and directed by Ed Brazo. Performances are March 14-16, 19-23 and 26-30 in the University Theatre at Shasta Hall.

Choose from any one of two plays daily when the Theatre and Dance department presents its free One Acts Festival. Students will stage 20 plays April 7-26 at the Studio Theatre, between the Library and Capistrano Hall.

Journey into a surreal afterworld where dreams and memories mingle in Lorca in a Green Dress, presented May 1-4 and 7-11 in the Playwright’s Theatre at Shasta Hall. Written by Nilo Cruz and directed by Manuel Pickett, Lorca in a Green Dress tells the story of a writer who, after his death, attempts to re-create his own fated life using magic, mystery, dance and music.

The department concludes its season with the Senior Dance Concert. Graduating students will choreograph their own works under the direction of Lorelei Bayne. Performances are May 7-11 in Solano Hall 1010.

Tickets for performances are available at the Sacramento State Ticket office, 278-4323 or at www.tickets.com. For more information about the Theatre and Dance Department, visit www.csus.edu/dram/ or call 278-6368.

Jazz Ensemble

Music
The New Millennium Concert Series will bring some of the finest classical music to the campus again this year under the guidance of artistic director and professor Andrew Luchansky.

The Tokyo String Quartet kicks off the series at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 16 performing works by Beethoven, Schubert and Smetana. The group has garnered critical acclaim for more than 30 years.

The series takes a different musical turn with the Grammy award-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12. The group is celebrating its 27th year on the concert stage, playing a synthesis of world and contemporary music.

Some of the department’s finest faculty musicians will take the stage for the Faculty Gala, Wind and Brass Extravaganza at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 9.

The series concludes with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, performed as a piano duet by Gilbert Kalish and Christina Dahl at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, May 10. This is the first-ever Sacramento performance of the composer’s own arrangement for piano.

If jazz is your kind of music, the campus will swing throughout the spring. The Jazz Ensemble II and Latin Jazz group will perform at 7 p.m., Thursday March 6. The Jazz Ensemble I will perform with guest artist Dave Pietro on saxophone at 8 p.m., Thursday, March 13. In April, Jazz Ensembles I and II will perform at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 22. May will feature the Jazz Singers at 7 p.m., Friday, May 9; and C-Sus and Vox2 at 7 p.m., Friday, May 16.

Band and symphony music will fill the Music Recital Hall beginning 7:30 p.m., Feb. 27, with the Festivity of Bands featuring the Sac State Wind Ensemble, UC Davis Wind Ensemble and the Davis High School Symphonic Band. The Sacramento State Symphony Orchestra will perform at 8 p.m., Tuesday, March 18, with guest bassoonists John Miller Jr. and Lindsey Bartlett. The Sacramento State Concert Band performs at 7:30 p.m., Monday, April 14. The Sacramento State Symphonic Wind Ensemble takes the stage at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 16. And the Sacramento State Symphony Orchestra will present a concert at 8 p.m., Tuesday, May 13, followed the next day, Wednesday, May 14, with a concert by the Wind Ensemble and Concert Band at 7:30 p.m.

Sacred Heart Church, 39th and J streets, will serve as the setting for performances by the University’s three choral groups. “Music of the Spheres” is the title of the opening performance by Sacramento State choirs at 8 p.m., Saturday, March 8 and will feature the area premiere of “Incantatio maris aestuosi” (“Incantation for A Stormy Sea”) by Finnish composer Veljo Tormis. The closing concert, “Choralfest,” will be presented at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 17 and will showcase the chamber choirs from Christian Brothers High School and Oakridge High School.

The year-long Piano Series closes out with two concerts. Grammy award-winner Pascal Rogé will perform music by Satie, Ravel, Poulenc and Debussy at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 17. Natsuki Fukasawa, a Juilliard graduate and founding member of the Jalina Trio, will perform music by Schubert, Liszt, Chopin, Schumann and Rachmaninov at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 26.

May brings the return of opera to the campus with performances of the one-act opera The Village Singer, by Stephen Paulus, and excerpts from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Performances are at 8 p.m., Thursday, May 15 and at 3 p.m., Sunday, May 18 in the Playwright’s Theatre at Shasta Hall.

Two World Music concerts are also coming up in the spring. South Indian violinist Lalgudi Srimathi Brahmanandan will perform at 8 p.m., Saturday, March 15, and vocalists Sandeep Narayan and Mahesh Kale will perform at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 3.

Those are just the highlights of a spring schedule that also includes faculty recitals and student vocal and instrumental recitals throughout February, March, April and May.

Concerts are in the Music Recital Hall of Capistrano Hall except where noted. Tickets for all events are available at the Sacramento State Ticket office, 278-4323 or www.tickets.com. For more information about the Music Department or its spring schedule, visit www.csus.edu/music/ or call 278-5155.

Faculty art

Fine Art
Sacramento State’s schedule of fine arts presentations is already underway with “Hellenism and Orthodoxy: Sacred Images” in the University Library’s annex gallery through March 2. The exhibition looks at the relationship between Hellenism and Orthodoxy, offering an array of religious icons.

Next door in the Main Gallery, the “Field of Life” exhibition is still running through Feb. 29. Next up is the “Sacramento State Faculty Show,” a collection of works by University art faculty that will run March 14 through May 24.

An exhibit by Sacramento State’s Special Collections will run in the Annex Gallery from March 14 through April 19 followed by part of the “MA Student Show” May 1-24. The other part of that exhibition will be May 5-21 in the Witt Gallery of Kadema Hall.

The Library galleries are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Art Department will present its annual awards show in the Else Gallery of Kadema Hall Feb. 11-28. A reception will be held Friday, Feb. 22 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Three local high school teachers will be the jurors of this student show. Prizes will be announced at the reception.

Two major events will be held by the Art Department in March. Visiting artist and alumnus Richard Jackson will present a lecture at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 13, in Sequoia 301. And there will be an Art History Symposium titled “Visual><Verbal Border Crossings” featuring a keynote address by Latin American scholar Roberto Tejada from 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday, March 15, in Mariposa Hall 1000.

Students from Roger Vail’s pinhole Photography Class will present their work in the Witt Gallery of Kadema Hall, April 28 through May 2. There will be a closing reception from 4 to 7 p.m. on Friday, May 2.

The final shows of the academic year will be the annual exhibition of works by graduating studio art seniors. That will be in the Else Gallery of Kadema Hall May 5-21.

There also will be many exhibitions of student works in the Else and Witt galleries throughout the semester. The Else Gallery is open noon to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Hours at the Witt Gallery vary throughout the year.

The Art Department will celebrate all of its students and achievements with the annual Art Ball from 6 to 9 p.m., Friday, May 16. For more information about the Art Department, visit www.csus.edu/art/ or call 278-6166

Design Department
Architect Lawrence Scarpa, from the Santa Monica firm of Pugh+Scarpa Architects, will be a guest speaker on the subject of interior architecture. The lecture will be held at 6 p.m., Wednesday, March 12, in Hinde Auditorium.

An exhibition of Scarpa’s work will be held in the Design Gallery, Mariposa Hall 4000, March 10-21. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

For more information about the Design Department, visit www.csus.edu/design/ or call 278-3962.

All the art departments will feature their works during Sacramento State’s Festival of the Arts, a showcase of performances, exhibitions and lectures March 11-15. Watch for a full schedule of events, coming soon.