MUSIC
River Rhapsodies
The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra is moving its River Rhapsodies Chamber Series to its new Stella Boyle Smith Music Center, 1101 E. Third St., Little Rock, and doubling the number of most concerts in the series, opening the 2024-25 season with a concert called “Intimate Letters,” 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in the center’s Susie and Charles Morgan Hall.
The orchestra’s Rockefeller Quartet — Linnaea Brophy and Trisha McGovern Freeney, violins; Katherine Reynolds, viola; and Jacob Wunsch, cello — performs the String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters,” by Leoš Janácek; the Quapaw Quartet — Meredith Maddox Hicks and Charlotte Crosmer, violins; Tim MacDuff, viola; and Travis Scharer, cello — plays the String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, op.74, “Harp,” by Ludwig van Beethoven.
In between, Andrew Stadler and Carl Mason, trumpets; David Renfro, horn; Michael Underwood, trombone; Ed Owen, tuba; and Alisa Coffey, harp, play “Variations on the Vysehrad Theme” by Jan Koetsier.
Tickets are $30 (subject to change, increasing on a sliding scale depending on availability), $15 for students and military with a valid ID. Call (501) 666-1761, Extension 1, or visit arkansassymphony.org.
Mountain Home lineup
“Arrival from Sweden: The Music of ABBA,” billed as the world’s most popular and bestselling ABBA production, is the next event in the 13th annual Performing Arts Season, 7 p.m. Nov. 3 in the Vada Sheid Community Development Center at Arkansas State University-Mountain Home, 1600 College St., Mountain Home. Tickets are $45, $22.50 for students.
The remainder of the lineup (except as noted, all performances at 7 p.m.; all ticket prices are plus fees):
◼️ 2 p.m. Dec. 14: “Grand Ol’ Christmas,” Will Hearn’s Grand Ol’ Christmas Show, “broadcasting live from the Grand Ol’ Radio Network on 1225 AM, N-O-E-L Radio” with a cast of Texas entertainers including Dalton Flake, the Dirty River Jazz Band and Blue Water Highway, plus the NOEL Radio Orchestra and Gospel Singers. $40, $20 for students.
◼️ March 11: “Forever Young,” jukebox musical following “one unforgettable group of friends as they discover the greatest hits of all time,” featuring songs by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Huey Lewis & The News, Styx, Queen, Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Brooks & Dunn, The Black Crows and Bon Jovi. $40, $20.
◼️ 6 p.m. April 10: Grammy winner Suzy Bogguss. Free.
◼️ May 15: “Michael Cavanaugh: The Music of Billy Joel and Elton John.” $45, $22.50.
Call (870) 508-6280 or visit TheSheid.com.
Tuba player Jim Self is in residence this week at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Tuba legend at UCA
Tuba player Jim Self is in residence at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Tuesday-Friday. Self will join the Natural State Brass Band, the UCA Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble for a concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Concert Hall of the Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts, Donaghey Avenue and Bruce Street, Conway. The UCA Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band will play music by Self in a 7:30 p.m. Thursday concert at the Windgate Concert Hall.
The residency will also include an open rehearsal at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. And Self and a group of Central Arkansas musicians that includes Tom Richeson (trumpet/flugelhorn), Ted Ludwig (guitar), Brian Brown (drums), David Higginbotham (double bass) and Gail Robertson (euphonium) will perform for “Neighbors, An Art Show,” 6-6:30 p.m. and 7-7:30 p.m. Friday at The Brick Room, 1020 Front St., Conway.
Admission to all events is free. Visit uca.edu/cahss/artists-in-residence.
Self, a professor of tuba and chamber music at the University of South Carolina’s Thornton School of Music, has played on the soundtracks of more than 1,500 films, most notably providing the “Voice of the Mothership” in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
ON THE PODIUM
Playwright at Hendrix
Arkansas native Candrice Jones, the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Visiting Playwright at Hendrix College, will discuss her work at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Reves Recital Hall at Hendrix, 1600 Washington Ave., Conway. A reception will follow in the nearby Trieschmann Gallery. Admission is free. Email [email protected] or visit hendrixmurphy.org.
Novelist’s lecture
Lauren Belfer, the author of four novels, the most recent of which is “Ashton Hall,” gives a lecture at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Vada Sheid Community Development Center at Arkansas State University-Mountain Home. It’s part of the university’s Terre Ware Author Lecture Series. Admission is free. A book signing will follow the lecture. Visit asumh.edu.
History lectures
Roy Ritchie, W.M. Keck Foundation Director of Research Emeritus at Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif., explores the flourishing cultures in America prior to European colonization in a talk titled “Medieval America,” 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Ottenheimer Auditorium at the Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. Third St., Little Rock. The talk kicks off the University of Arkansas at Little Rock University History Institute’s 2024-25 Evenings with History lecture series. Admission is free; support the Evenings with History series by buying a subscription online via ualr.edu/history/evenings-with-history-subscriptions.
The rest of the series lineup (all lectures at 7:30 at the museum with light refreshments served at 7 p.m.):
◼️ Nov. 12: Johanna Miller Lewis, recently retired associate dean of the UALR College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education, speaks on “The Federal Government Must Prevail: Eisenhower, the 101st Airborne, and the 1957 Central High Crisis.”
◼️ Dec. 3: Hannah Anderson, UALR faculty, covers “Plant Talk in Early America: Exchanges of Botanical Knowledge Among Settlers and Indigenous People in the Seventeenth-Century Northeast.”
◼️ Feb. 4: Katrina Yeaw discusses “Finding Girls in the Archives: The Case of Fekiriyeh and Renghi Sefa.”
◼️ March 4: Charles Romney, Kris McAbee and Larry Smith explore “Playing with History: Community and the Contemporary Stage.”
◼️ April 1: Kyungsun Lee looks at “The Arkansas River: Navigating the Impact of Climate Change.”
Visit ualr.edu/history/history-institute or email [email protected].
ETC.
Geneology workshop
The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System hosts genealogist Bessida Cauthorne White for its annual genealogy workshop, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday at the Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave., Little Rock. The workshop will be divided into two sessions:
“Recognizing and Sharing Family Treasures,” including how to identify, inventory and document family treasures and establish their provenance.
“How to Create a Family Heritage Cookbook,” including suggestions for re-creating lost family recipes.
A video will be available on the CALS YouTube channel after the workshop is complete. Admission is free, but registration is required, via events.cals.org/event/11583947. Register before Wednesday and get the option of adding a free box lunch.
Fashion designer Korto Momolu will lecture and head up a fashion show as part of a residence at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Designing woman
Fashion designer Korto Momolu will be in residence Monday-Oct. 11 at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. As part of her residency, “Sustainable, Empower, Work (S.E.W.) Dope,” she will give a public lecture, titled “An Evening with Fashion Designer Korto Momolu,” at 7 p.m. Oct. 9 in the Concert Hall of the Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts, Donaghey and Bruce streets.
Momolu, featured on season five of “Project Runway” and two seasons of “Project Runway All Stars,” will also moderate and host a fashion show in collaboration with Conway Fashion Week, 7-10 p.m. Oct. 11 in the Windgate Center Atrium and on its Keystone Steps. Tickets are $25. Visit tinyurl.com/43cbx6se.
Jonathan Appell, founder of Atlas Preservation, leads an Arkansas Historic Preservation Program workshop on the basics of cemetery preservation Saturday at Huntsville Cemetery in Huntsville. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Cemetery preservation
The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program hosts a free workshop on the basics of cemetery preservation, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday at Huntsville Cemetery, Missouri and Cemetery streets, Huntsville.
Jonathan Appell, founder of Atlas Preservation, will provide hands-on training in the techniques of maintaining and preserving historic burying grounds.
Participants will engage in cleaning, make basic repairs and level and straighten gravestones. Lunch will be provided. Register (required) by calling (501) 324-9148 or emailing [email protected].
