Conway Alliance for the Arts' ninth annual ArtsFest, Conway's week-long celebration of performing and visual arts, creative writing and film, continues through Saturday at various Conway venues.
Among the festival highlights (except as noted, admission is free):
• Troika Entertainment's touring production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics and book by Tim Rice), 7:30 p.m. Monday at UCA's Reynolds Performance Hall. Tickets: $23-$40, $10 for children and students. Call (501) 450-3265 or visit uca.edu/publicappearances/tickets. The show is also the season opener for UCA's Public Appearances series.
• On Tuesday, the Conway Composer's Guild will host an hour-long noon Lunchtime Concert, featuring recent work by local composers, at First United Methodist Church, 1610 Prince St., Conway. The Ceruti String Quartet will perform at 1:40 p.m. in UCA's Snow Fine Arts Recital Hall. Area high school and college string quartets will perform at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the lobby of the Reynolds Performance Hall, preceding a full concert by the Ceruti Quartet at 7:30 p.m.
• Third Coast Percussion, ensemble-in-residence at the University of Notre Dame, will present its WAVES project (Wonder, Arts, Vibration, Energy and Science) and engage students in hands-on lessons about music, sound, engineering and design, 7:30 p.m. Friday at Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave. The ensemble will also lecture on "Entrepreneurship for Artists" at 1:40 p.m. Thursday in UCA's Snow Fine Arts Recital Hall.
• On Saturday, "Art in the Park" begins at 10 a.m. in Simon Park, Front and Main streets, downtown Conway, geared toward families and featuring hands-on art activities, performances, music, Art Marketplace vendors and food trucks. After 5 p.m., "Art in the Park" transforms into "Light up the Night," with more hands-on art activities, performances and an interactive artist projection on the Chris Allen stage.
A full downloadable schedule of events and more information are available at artsinconway.org; email beth.wilson.norwood@gmail.com.
Bluegrass quartet
Nashville, Tenn.-based bluegrass quartet the Farm Hands -- Tim Graves, dobro and vocals; Daryl Mosley, bass and vocals; Keith Tew, guitar; and Bennie Boling, banjo -- will perform at 7 p.m. Monday at the Collins Theatre, 120 W. Emerson St., Paragould, part of Jonesboro public radio station KASU-FM, 91.9's Bluegrass Monday concert series. The station will "pass the hat" to pay the group; suggested donation is $5 per person. Call (870) 972-2367, email mscarbro@astate.edu or visit the Bluegrass Monday Facebook page.
Faculty recital
Three Arkansas State University faculty members -- Chris Wilson, trumpet; Dale Clark, bassoon; and Lauren Schack Clark, piano -- will team up for the Double Concerto for Trumpet, Bassoon, and Piano by Mathieu Lussier in the first concert in the university's 2015-2016 Faculty Recital Series, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Riceland Hall, ASU's Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro.
Pianist Clark will also join Bruce Faske for Concerto for Trombone by Launy Grondahl, baritone Matthew Carey for three selections from Drum Taps by Richard Pearson Thomas with a text by Walt Whitman, and violinist Sarah Jones-Hayes for Suite Italienne by Igor Stravinsky. Admission is free. Call (870) 972-2094.
SoNa season
The Symphony of Northwest Arkansas will open its 2015-16 season at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7 in Baum Walker Hall at Fayetteville's Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St., with a concert titled "Looking Back, Looking Forward."
Principal cellist Kari Caldwell will solo in Gabriel Faure's Elegie for cello and orchestra; Music Director Paul Haas, who recently signed a three-year contract renewal, will also conduct the Variations on a Theme by Haydn by Johannes Brahms and the Symphony No. 9, "From the New World," by Antonin Dvorak.
The rest of the pops/masterworks lineup (except as noted, all concerts 7:30 p.m. in Baum Walker Hall):
• Dec. 5: "A Very SoNA Christmas," sacred and secular music celebrating Christmas, featuring the SoNA Singers and guest soloists
• Dec. 6: "The Snowman: A Family Concert," 2 p.m., screening of the animated film The Snowman with the orchestra performing the score
• Feb. 6: Valentines Pops: The American Songbook, with jazz singer Genine LaTrice Perez
• March 19: "Strings in the Spotlight." Edward Elgar: Serenade for Strings; Jacques Ibert: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, with principal flutist Virginia Broffitt-Kunzer as soloist; Franz Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 104, "London"
• April 30: "Glory and Grandeur." Francis Poulenc: Gloria with soprano soloist Tami Petty, the SoNA Singers and the John Brown University Cathedral Choir; Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4.
Season tickets are $115-$225. Single tickets are $28-$50, $10 for college students with valid ID, $5 for children 7-17 with the purchase of an adult ticket. All tickets for "The Snowman: A Family Concert" are $8. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit the website, sonamusic.org.
Festival Ballet lineup
Arkansas Festival Ballet will open its 2015-2016 season as part of the combined forces (with Praeclara) performing Dracula, billed as "a seductive and spooky balletic interpretation of the Halloween classic," 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29-31 at Wildwood Park for the Arts, 20919 Denny Road, Little Rock. Original choreography is by Arkansas Festival Ballet Artistic Director Rebecca M. Stalcup; Praeclara Artistic Director Bevan Keating is the musical director.
The rest of the lineup:
• 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5: "Holiday Highlights," segments of P.I. Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker with the Conway Symphony Orchestra and music director, Israel Getzov, Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway
• 7:30 p.m. May 19, 2 and 7:30 p.m. May 20, 2 p.m. May 21: Peter Pan, full-length storybook ballet, choreographed by Stalcup to a score by Carmon DeLeone, flying effects by ZFX Inc., Arkansas Arts Center Children's Theatre, MacArthur Park, East Ninth and Commerce streets, Little Rock. Auditions will take place Nov. 14; visit arkansasdance.org.
Call (501) 227-5320.
Style on 09/27/2015