Tonight at 7, Arkansas Sounds salutes composers Florence Price and William Grant Still at Ron Robinson Theater

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AR Sounds price_stillTwo of the leading American classical music composers in the first half of the 20th Century were from Arkansas and were African American.  Tonight (February 26) Arkansas Sounds pays tribute to Florence B. Price and William Grant Still in a program at 7pm at the Ron Robinson Theater.

Arkansas Sounds pays tribute to two of Arkansas’s most highly acclaimed African American classical composers with a screening of The Caged Bird: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price followed by performances of Price’s and Still’s compositions by members of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and the ASO Youth Orchestra. The film’s length is approximately 1 hour.

Little Rock native Florence Price (1887-1953) was the first African American female classical composer to have her composition played by a major American symphony orchestra. The Caged Bird: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price traces Price’s life, detailing her cultured childhood in an extraordinarily gifted family, her struggles and eventual departure from the South due to racial tension, and her great artistic impact and success. Her compositions were favored by famed soprano Marian Anderson, and in 1933, her “Symphony in E Minor” was performed at the Chicago World’s Fair by the Chicago Symphony.

Born in Woodville, Mississippi, and raised in Little Rock, William Grant Still (1895-1978) achieved national and international acclaim as a composer of symphonic and popular music and, as an African American, was hailed for breaking race barriers of his time. His Afro-American Symphony was the first symphony composed by an African American to be played by a major symphony orchestra and is still performed today. Still was a prolific composer whose work includes symphonies, ballets, operas, chamber music, and works for solo instruments, totaling nearly 200. He also received numerous honors and achievements such as the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1934, 1935, and 1938. He also received eight honorary degrees from institutions such as Oberlin College, the University of Arkansas, Pepperdine University, and the Peabody Conservatory of Music.

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (ASO) comprises the state’s most sought-after professional musicians and is celebrating its 50th season. The ASO Youth Orchestra comprises over 200 student musicians, ages 9-18, who travel from over thirty-seven communities throughout Arkansas.

Tonight at 9pm at South on Main After Hours – Siamese, Jacob Metcalf & Young Speilberg

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som jacobmetcalf.jpg.190x140_q60_cropSouth on Main After Hours welcomes Siamese, Jacob Metcalf & Young Speilberg to the stage, tonight.

Admission is $10. You may purchase a wristband beginning at 4:00 pm. The show begins at 9:00 pm. Call South on Main at 501-244-9660 to make a reservation.

ABOUT JACOB METCALF
North Texas musician Jacob Metcalf will be releasing his first full-length solo effort, Fjord, later this winter. And while fans of his two longtime groups, Fox and the Bird and Dallas Family Band, might expect a similar rootsy update on rural American music, the sparsely orchestrated cinematic folk that sweeps through these 11 tracks are sure to cover the listener in permafrost and thaw them back out again.

The material for the record was written over the last decade on five continents (Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America). It was during the last few years that Metcalf lived out of his car and inside a four foot crawl space between a vintage store and loft apartments in order to save enough from his bakery and music teaching jobs to make this album. Recorded in Austin, Ft. Worth and Dallas over the last two years with more than 20 talented musician friends, the singer-songwriter and band members would often use the streets to hone these songs before dressing up the arrangements in the studio.

The result is an often-breathtaking collection of indie-folk compositions that range from wistful, unhurried ballads to swirling, majestic orchestrations, sometimes within the same song, and all set to Metcalf’s warm, inviting vocals and non-linear story-telling.

ABOUT SIAMESE
Siamese is an avant glam art pop band from Dallas, TX, who utilize sets, costuming and lighting to create a sometimes ominous, always opulent live show. It is comprised of members Paul Alonzo (bass), Paul Grass (drums), Nicole Marxen-Myers (vocals, synth, guitar), and Teddy Georgia Waggy (vocals, guitar), each of whom brings skills in carpentry, sewing, painting and film production, respectively, to create their sets and costumes.

This winter Siamese premiered its second recording, Neon Lights, as well as its second set design, a futuristic visual brew inspired by ectoplasm-shilling charlatans and 2001: A Space Odyssey. For their previous set, a floral arrangement nightmare, the members made over 2,000 paper flowers by hand, which drove them crazy and ended up being good inspiration for their psychotic funeral director alter egos. The band is set to record their inaugural EP in February, to be released in spring 2016.

Marxen-Myers and Waggy started the project as a way to explore malleable identity, to blend music and visual art, and to face the vulnerability of live performance. In late 2014, they asked Alonzo and Grass to join them, two old friends of theirs with a like-minded love of creating other worlds. The band began writing its music together, with Nicole and Teddy adding lyrics that deal with their own modern apathy and colonial guilt; with the surreal fragility of our fleshy human bodies commingling with the cold clean space age; and sometimes, with the inner workings of their favorite sociopathic film characters.

In less than ten shows, they’ve already shared bills with the likes of Pinkish Black and Tele Novella, played the historic Texas Theater, received press coverage from Central Track, ANON Magazine and We Denton Do It, and their two releases are in regular rotation on The Local Ticket and Dallas’ NPR music station, KXT

Science After Dark: Wine & Chocolate – tonight at the Museum of Discovery

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How does the Museum of Discovery’s monthly Science After Dark top itself?  What do people love more than STAR WARS? The answer is, of course, Wine and Chocolate!

Tonight from 6pm until 9pm, Science After Dark focuses on Wine and Chocolate.

Explore fermentation, the science of making chocolate and discover the process of pairing the two!
You must be at least 21 years of age to attend.
Admission is $5
Bring cash for beer from Stone’s Throw Brewing and beer, cocktails and pizza from Damgoode Pies River Market.

Black History Month Spotlight – Pike-Fletcher-Terry Mansion

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IMG_5151The new Arkansas Civil Rights History Audio Tour was launched in November 2015. Produced by the City of Little Rock and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock allows the many places and stories of the City’s Civil Rights history to come to life an interactive tour.  This month, during Black History Month, the Culture Vulture looks at some of the stops on this tour which focus on African American history.

In 1958, in this stately antebellum home, seventy-six-year-old Adolphine Fletcher Terry helped to organize the Women’s Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools (WEC). Always involved in civic activities, she was dismayed that the four high schools in Little Rock remained closed rather than become integrated. Mrs. Terry told Arkansas Gazette editor Harry Ashmore that “It’s clear to me that the men are not going to take the lead in turning this thing around and so the women are going to have to.” She organized the Women’s Emergency Committee (WEC).

When segregationist school board members tried to fire forty-four teachers and administrators who supported integration in the public schools, the WEC worked with a group of businessmen who had organized a Stop This Outrageous Purge (STOP) campaign to elect new school board members who favored integration. High schools were reopened with token integration in August 1959. The WEC operated in secret because of concerns about harassment or worse. In 1998, on the fortieth anniversary of its founding, the names of WEC members were released for the first time. Those names are now etched in the window panes of the house.

Originally built in approximately 1840 by Albert Pike, it was purchased by Lou Krause from the Pike family in 1886. In 1889, she sold it to her brother-in-law, former Little Rock Mayor John Gould Fletcher. He was the father of Adolphine Fletcher Terry, who grew up in the house.  Since the 1970s, it has been property of the City of Little Rock for use by the Arkansas Arts Center.  This was stipulated in the wills of Mrs. Terry and her sister Mary Fletcher Drennan.

The app, funded by a generous grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council, was a collaboration among UALR’s Institute on Race and Ethnicity, the City of Little Rock, the Mayor’s Tourism Commission, and KUAR, UALR’s public radio station, with assistance from the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau.

 

The Honorable Timothy C. Evans delivers 2016 Arkansas Black Hall of Fame Laureate Lecture tonight at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center

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ABHOF TCE 2012The Arkansas Black Hall of Fame and the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center tonight present the The Honorable Timothy C. Evans as the Distinguished Laureate Lecture tonight (February 25) at 6pm.  Doors open at 5:30.

Native Arkansan, The Honorable Timothy C. Evans, is the Chief Judge of one of the largest circuit court systems in the world. He is the first African American to be elected to this position where he oversees 400 judges and more than 2,700 non-judicial employees. He is the recipient of the prestigious William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence, presented annually by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Judge Evans is returning to Arkansas to share his experiences as Chief Judge and his insight on:

  • Social and racial Justice in America
  • Alternative sentencing for juveniles and nonviolent offenders
  • Criminal justice system reform
  • Interpretations of the laws governing Grand Jury decisions

The discussion of these and other topics from the perspective of an award winning judge, tasked with leading one of the largest judicial systems in the world, will provide additional insight as Little Rock and Arkansas address similar challenges.   Chicago has garnered national media attention with increased incidences of crime, violence and police shooting incidents in minority communities. This discussion is sure to evoke community conversations that will allow Arkansas to seek solutions for social and racial justice issues in our state, cities and communities.

To RSVP, click here.

 

Darth Vader and Trombones tonight with the Little Rock Wind Symphony

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lrws darthA long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… there were trombones! Join the Little Rock Wind Symphony for the concert of the intergalactic kind!

Israel Getzov conducts the evening which features solisits Justin Cook, trombone.

The program includes:

Alfred Reed: Hounds of Spring
Richard Wagner: “Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral” from Lohengrin
Jacques Press: Wedding Dance
Meredith Wilson: 76 Trombones
Richard Peaslee: Arrows of Time
     Justin Cook, trombone
John Williams: Stars Wars Trilogy
7:30 p.m. Thursday, February 25th at Second Presbyterian Church, 600 Pleasant Valley Drive, Little Rock.

Tonight at South on Main – Charles Woods takes the stage

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som charleswoods.jpg.190x140_q60_cropTonight at South on Main, their next February Sessions, curated by Amy Garland.  The featured musician is Charles Woods who takes the stage at 8:30pm

We have a musical legend in our midst and many folks don’t even know it! Born in Little Rock in 1946 and raised in a musical household with a gospel and blues background, Charles Woods began playing the harmonica at the age of eight and started playing the electric guitar at the age of 12. Charles honed his musical talents in the gospel chorus on Sunday mornings. While in the choir, Charles Woods also developed his heartfelt and soulful voice reminiscent of such legends as Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, and Johnny Taylor. Charles’ impressive musical talents came to the forefront while playing electric guitar with such notable acts as the Staple Singers, Rufus Thomas, Little Johnny Taylor, Fenton Robinson, Larry Totsie Davis, and playing bass with Freddie King. Although Charles Woods has traveled the world and performed with a number of world-class entertainers, he has remained true to his roots, his heritage, and his hometown of Little Rock where he still entertains to this day and is known to his fans and his musical peers as the “Best Kept Secret in Arkansas.” Charles Woods is a musician’s musician.

Charles just released a brand new record, “Something In The Dark.” This record highlights some of the finest musicians in Arkansas; Tonya Leeks, Jess Hoggard. Eric Ware, Ivan Yarbough, Cecil Parker, and Tim Anthony, among others.