Monthly Archives: May 2012

FOURTE – Youth Quartet of Arkansas Symphony performs tonight

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Fourté, the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra’s String Quartet, will perform a free recital on Monday, May 14 at 7 p.m. in Byrne Hall on the campus of St. John’s Catholic Center in the Heights. Fourté is comprised of violinist Abby Gschwend, violinist Kevin Li, violist Olivia Richardson, and cellist Michael Warrick. These high school students are coached by Arkansas Symphony violinist Eric Hayward.

Program:

Giacomo Puccini – Crisantemi; Karl Stamitz – String Quartet No. 2, Allegro con spirito; Brian Crain, arr. Eric Hayward –      Song for Rome; Rolf Lowland and Brendan Graham, arr. Eric Hayward – You Raise Me Up; Ed Roland – Tremble for My Beloved from “Twilight”; Antonin Dvorák – Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96 “The American”, Lent, Allegro ma non troppo.

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 46th season in 2011-2012 under the leadership of Music Director Philip Mann. ASO is the resident orchestra of Robinson Center Music Hall, and performs more than thirty concerts each year through its Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series, ACXIOM Pops LIVE! Series and River Rhapsodies Chamber Series, in addition to serving central Arkansas through numerous community outreach programs and bringing live symphonic music education to over 20,000 school children and over 200 schools.

 

Architeaser – May 13

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Yesterday’s Architeaser was a gas lamp on the Capital Hotel property. Though there are still a few gaslights still in use, they are certainly rarer than they once were.

Today’s Architeaser is below.

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Sculpture Vulture: George Rose Smith

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Continuing with the Sculpture Vulture focus on famous Arkansans during Arkansas Heritage Month, today’s feature is George Rose Smith.  This sculptural plaque is located in the garden at the main building of the Central Arkansas Library System downtown campus.

Created by John Deering, it showcases Justice Smith sitting in his judges robe with pen in hand. In the background is a large crossword puzzle grid.  This sculpture pays homage to the fact that Justice Smith was both a respected member of the bar as well as an author of crossword puzzles.

In his final opinion from the Arkansas Supreme Court before he retired, he embedded a message using the first letter of each paragraph to spell out his farewell.  A masterful puzzle constructor, he authored puzzles which appeared in The New York Times.  Little Rock District Judge Vic Fleming carries on this tradition of being a published puzzle author as well as judge in Arkansas.

Justice Smith was the scion of a family of Arkansas attorneys. His grandfather Uriah Rose, a longtime partner at the law firm which now bears his name, was a delegate to the Hague.

Below the sculpture is this inscription:

Judge George Rose Smith

1911-1992

Wordsmith Extraordinaire

New York Times Crossword Puzzle Author

Arkansas Supreme Court Justice 1949-1987

Architeaser May 12

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Yesterday’s Architeaser was one of the lamps which adorn the Spanish revival building at 6th and Broadway. This building, built to house the YMCA is now being redeveloped as a mixed used property. Tonight it is the site of the Quapaw Quarter Association spring tour dinner.

Today’s Architeaser is below. While it is not the only gas light left in Little Rock, it is certainly a much more rare sight than it once was.

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Ark. Symphony welcomes WICKED Divas

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The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra closes out the 2011-2012 Pops season with a program entitled “Wicked Divas.”

Under the baton of Associate Conductor Geoffrey Robson, the ASO will be joined by Eden Espinosa and Emily Rozek for an evening of Broadway power songs.  Both actors have Broadway credits and have appeared in productions of Wicked.

Among  the numbers which will be performed are:

The Overture to Gypsy (Jule Styne); selections from Carmen (Bizet); selections from Chicago (John Kander), “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe); “Back to Before” from Ragtime (Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens); “Think of Me” from The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber); “Ring Them Bells” (John Kander and Fred Ebb); and “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz (Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg);.

From Wicked, they will perform “Popular,” “Defying Gravity” and “For Good.”

The concert is being presented tonight at 8pm and tomorrow at 3pm at Robinson Center Music Hall.

Architeaser – May 11

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The dragon lamp featured in yesterday’s Architeaser is one of two which adorns the Tripp Building on the south side of Second Street (between Louisiana and Center Streets) in downtown Little Rock.  There are two other lamps which feature the same simple globes but they are held by scalloped iron instead of dragons.

Today’s Architeaser is below.  It features both a copper shield to deflect and focus the light as well as a wrought iron cage.

Second Friday Art Night

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Tonight is the monthly Second Friday Art Night.  Among the many stops on the way is Historic Arkansas Museum, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

In keeping the May being Heritage Month, HAM is opening an exhibit tonight which showcases three Arkansas artists who celebrate Arkansas’ history. In the Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists the exhibit is called Creating the Elements of Discovery: Tim Imhauser, Jason Powers and Emily Wood.

The exhibit will run through August 5. Each artist’s approach makes way for a subtle discovery, into object, person and place.

Little Rock sculptor Tim Imhauser’s wood pieces reveal the nature of the wood’s grain as he, through sculpting, enhances those patterns to tell its story. Ozark artist Jason Powers’ graphite drawings capture the small expressions of human emotion, while he continues to pursue diversity in the subject matter and media of his art. Little Rock artist Emily Wood expresses a sense of a place in her landscapes, drawing inspiration from her southern Arkansas upbringing.

Down the street from HAM at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, two exhibits will be highlighted:  Arkansas Arts Educators State Youth Art Show 2012 plus Small Town: Portraits of a Disappearing America.

The Arkansas Art Educators State Youth Art Show 2012 includes the Best of Show winners from art competitions held in seven different regions in the state: Northwest, Northeast, Central, Eastern, Southwest, Southeastern, and Western. The artwork was created by talented students from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

The photographic exhibition Small Town: Portraits of a Disappearing America will also be opening.