Yesterday’s Architeaser featured one of the columns from the original 1910 Carnegie library which once stood in downtown. When it was torn down in the early 1960s, the columns were removed and ended up in private ownership. They were recently donated to the Central Arkansas Library System and now stand on the main campus in downtown.
Capital week concludes with the columns below.
The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Music Director/Conductor Philip Mann presents its final 2011-2012 MasterWorks concert this weekend. Entitled Desert & Sea it features performances of works by Wagner, Torke, and Debussy.
Gerassimez
The program will commence with the Overture to Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. Following that number will be the American premiere of Michael Torke’s Mojave Concerto for Marimba. Torke is the inaugural ASO Composer of the Year. The soloist on this selection is wunderkind marimbist Alexej Gerassimez. The program concludes with Debussey’s La Mer.
The concerts take place at 8pm on Saturday, April 14 and 3pm on Sunday, April 15 at Robinson Center Music Hall.
About Michael Torke
Michael Torke has practically defined post-Minimalism, a music which utilizes the repetitive structures of a previous generation to incorporate musical techniques from both the classical tradition and the contemporary pop world.
Highlights of his career include: Color Music (1985–89), a series of orchestral pieces that each explore a single, specific color; Javelin, recorded both for Argo and for John William’s Summon the Heroes, the official 1996 Olympics album; Four Seasons, a 65-minute oratorio commissioned by the Walt Disney Company to celebrate the millennium and premiered by Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic; Strawberry Fields, whose “Great Performances” broadcast was nominated for an Emmy Award; and two evening-length story ballets, The Contract, and An Italian Straw Hat, for James Kudelka and the National Ballet of Canada.
About Alexej Gerassimez
Alexej Gerassimez was born in Essen, Germany in 1987 and received his first piano lessons at the age of five. Two years later he began to play percussion. After various early successes in competitions, among others 1st awards in the International Marimba Competition in Nuremberg, the European Music Competition for Youth, the Southwest-German Chamber Music Competition, four 1st awards including the highest number of possible points in Jugend Musiziert (a renowned national music competition for youths) and he won the Deutscher Musikrat-Competition (a national competition in all instrument categories for young adults) in 2010. In the same year he received the 1st award, the Audience Award and the Press Award in the TROMP Percussion Competition in the Netherlands, one of the most renowned international competitions for solo percussion. Today Alexej Gerassimez is presumed to be one of the leading percussion soloists of his generation.
His vivid performance activities have lead him to a wide range of European countries as well as to Japan, where he gave solo performances in Tokyo and Yokohama in the context of the German Year in 2006.
The multi-faceted young artist dedicates himself to composition, too. First publications with the Danish publisher Edition Svitzer have already been performed in the USA, Canada, Japan, and Europe.
Yesterday’s Architeaser was from the front of the Old State House. Originally it was intended to have six columns on the front and six columns on the back. By the time it was built there were only four columns on the front and four on the back. During an expansion, the entrance on the Arkansas River side was closed off, so now all that remain are the four columns which face Markham Street.
Today’s column capital is featured below.
Tonight the QQA returns to their former headquarters, the Villa Marre, for a special event. The Quapaw Quarter Association’s 48th Spring Tour of Homes is just around the corner, May 12-13. We are so excited about this year’s tour that we’re having a preview party at the recently reopened Villa Marre. Join us for cocktails and hors d’oevres, a fun fashion show from Vintage Socialite, and learn more about the Spring Tour.
On Monday, April 16, as part of the monthly Preservation Conversations, the QQA will be screening the film The Greenest Building, a film by Wagging Tale Productions, Inc.
5:00-5:30 wine and beer
5:30-6:30 View the film
Preservation Conversations are free and open to the public.
The Quapaw Quarter Association’s mission is to promote the preservation of Little Rock’s architectural heritage through advocacy, marketing and education.
Incorporated in 1968, the QQA grew out of an effort to identify and protect significant historic structures in Little Rock during the urban renewal projects of the early 1960s. Throughout its existence, the QQA has been a driving force behind historic preservation in Greater Little Rock.
Visit www.Quapaw.com for more information.
Yesterday’s Architeaser featured an Ionic column at the Arkansas State Capitol building. There are columns along the facade of the building as well as on the dome. Yesterday’s Capitol capital was from the east face on the building.
Today’s Architeaser features a Doric column.
April 12 – 15The Arkansas Literary Festival, the premier gathering of readers and writers in Arkansas, has expanded to include more than 95 presenters in many locations on both sides of the river from April 12-15, 2012. The Central Arkansas Library System’s Main Library campus and other venues in the River Market and Argenta Arts districts are the sites for a stimulating mix of sessions, panels, special events, performances, workshops, presentations, opportunities to meet authors, book sales, and book signings. Most events are free and open to the public.
Festival authors include New York Times columnist Jason Zinoman, Bryan Borland, Kevin Brockmeier, Frank Thurmond, Roy Blount Jr., Diana Southwood Kennedy, George Dohrmann, Deborah Crombie, Trent Stewart, Mary Monroe, Justin Torres, Greil Marcus, and more. Festival authors include winners of such awards as the Pulitzer Prize, World Fantasy Award, James Beard Foundation Award for Cookbook of the Year, Critics Choice Award for Best Family Film, American Book Award, The Heartland Prize, Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism; Thomas Wolfe Award; National Association of Black Journalists Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, and a regional Emmy. One author was decorated with the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor given to foreigners by the Mexican Government; another was inducted into the French Legion of Honor, the highest honor bestowed on a French citizen. Many of the presenters’ works have been translated into multiple languages, optioned for television, and made into feature films.
Special events during the Festival include a cocktail reception with the authors, a book fiesta for children, cooking workshops, two films, and a street fair featuring area musicians. Panels and workshops will feature topics such as graphic novels, poetry, memoirs, romance, craft activism, electronic books and publishing trends, magazine editing, and pencil sharpening. Children’s special events include a storytime on the lawn of the Governor’s Mansion, a reading of a children’s story with illustrations and musical accompaniment at the Clinton Presidential Center, two plays, a magic show, a puppet show, and a concert by the Kinders.
Through the Writers In The Schools (WITS) initiative, the Festival will provide presentations by 17 authors for Pulaski county elementary, middle, and senior high schools and area colleges.
Author! Author!, a cocktail reception with the authors, will be Friday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m.; tickets are $25 in advance, and $40 at the door. Cooking workshop tickets are $20. All tickets go on sale at http://www.arkansasliteraryfestival.org beginning Thursday, March 1. Author! Author! tickets will also be available for purchase at all Central Arkansas Library System branches. All other Festival events are free and open to the public.
The Arkansas Literary Festival’s mission is to encourage the development of a more literate populace. A group of dedicated volunteers assists Festival Coordinator Brad Mooy with planning the Festival. Jay Jennings is the 2012 Festival Chair, with Laura Stanley serving as the Vice Chair. Other committee chairs include Katherine Whitworth, Talent Committee; Lisa Donovan & Darcy Pattison, Youth Programs; Martha Perry, Finance; and Amy Bradley-Hole, Moderators.
Yesterday’s Architeaser featured one of the painted Corinthian columns at the Capital Hotel.
Today’s Capital is another Ionic one.
Little Rock Culture Vulture 