University of Arkansas at Little Rock

The Department of Music will present the UALR Trojan Pep Band and the UALR Percussion Ensemble with special guests the Pangolins Steel Drum Band coming together all on one stage to present a concert of holiday music, as well as selections from each group’s wide repertoire of music at 7 p.m. December 10.

The concert will be held in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Building. It is free and open to the public.

The UALR Trojan Pep band will be presenting selections from their high energy collection of funk and blues including Moon Glow, Brick House , and Soul Finger. The UALR Percussion Ensemble will be presenting works from Bela Fleck and Dave Grusin as well as the popular rock group Tool. Popular Bela Fleck tunes such as The Sinister Minister and Hurricane Camille will be presented.

The Pangolins Steel Drum band will be presenting works by Jimmy Buffett and special holiday arrangements of music specifically for steel drum band. In addition to holiday favorites the group will present the popular work Bring Him Home from Le Miserables. All the groups will come together to finish the concert with A Big Band Christmas by Carl Strommen. Celebrating over ten plus years the UALR Percussion Ensemble is a high energy group that has performed throughout the Midwest and the South presenting concerts and clinics for students of all ages. Past performances at the University of Missouri, University of Georgia, University of New Orleans, Mobile Alabama Concerts in the Park, The Chicago Public Schools, Silver Dollar City, and Little Rock’s World Fest are only a few of the events the group has appeared at. For the past three years the group has been honored to work with the International House of Blues Foundation in New Orleans performing for inner city and at risk youth as well at the House of Blues Club itself.

The UALR Trojan Pep Band supports the men’s basketball team at UALR and represents the university at numerous functions during the year. This high energy group is comprised of 19 UALR students that represent a wide range of degrees. The group has presented concerts in Little Rock, and is the host band for the Sunbelt Basketball Tournament held in Hot Springs in the spring.

The Pangolins Steel Drum Band is a professional steel drum group that is an outreach of the UALR Percussion Ensemble. This group has performed together for over ten years. The group has performed in New Orleans working with the House of Blues and the City of New Orleans as well as all over the Natural State. The group has also performed children’s concerts with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. The group performs a wide variety of music from classical to contemporary rock and roll. The group is led by Charles Law.

For more information, contact the Music Department at 501-569-3294.

UALR’s Community Orchestra will present its 12th annual holiday concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec.15 in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Building, with a program that will include seasonal selections and three compositions by Beethoven.

Admission is free and open to the public.

The seasonal compositions include “The Fading Light of Autumn” by Ralph Ford and “A Most Wonderful Christmas,” a medley of holiday songs arranged by Robert Sheldon.

Conducted by Dr. Victor Ellsworth, founder of the ensemble, the 53 member ensemble is made up of University students, faculty, staff and community members. For more information about the concert, contact UALR’s Music Department at 501-569-3294.

The UALR Community Orchestra is unique ensemble in which no audition is required and was created to provide a once-a-week musical experience and environment for amateur musicians. Attendance is not kept except for those members who are taking the orchestra for university credit. For information about becoming a member of the orchestra, contact Ellsworth at 501-569-3294.

UALR’s Concert and Chamber Choirs will be joined by the Women’s Ensemble to present their winter concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 7, in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Building. Admission is free and open to the public.

Composition to be performed include Hebert Howells’ “Sing Lullaby,” Mendelssohn’s “Psalm 43 Richte mich Gott,” and PDQ Bach’s “Good King Kong.”

The Women’s Chorus will be performing “Dancing Day” by John Rutter with accompaniment by harpist Elisabeth Chardonnet.

For more information, contact UALR’s Music Department at 501-569-3294.

UALR’s Community Chorus and the Second Presbyterian Church Choirs will present selected movements of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 11, at Second Presbyterian Church at 600 Pleasant Valley Drive in Little Rock.

Conducted by UALR music professor Bevan Keating, the performance features the 120 voices of the combined choirs and orchestral accompaniment. The concert will offer a unique opportunity for Arkansans not only to appreciate Handel’s masterpiece live, but also to be part of the experience.

The audience will be encouraged to sing the major choruses, including “The Hallelujah Chorus,” along with the choirs. Audience members may bring their own Messiah scores to the concert or rent a copy when entering the lobby.

General admission is $10. UALR students, faculty, and staff are admitted free of charge, but must present a valid University ID when picking up tickets in Room 151 in the Fine Arts Building. For more information, contact the UALR Music Department box office at 501-569-8993.

Founded by Dr. Keating in 2004, the UALR Community Chorus is comprised of more than 90 members drawn from UALR students, faculty, and staff, as well as members of the greater Little Rock community. The chorus is open to singers at all levels of musical ability who wish to participate in choral masterpieces accompanied by professional musicians.

The UALR Community Chorus season will conclude on April 3 with a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Second Presbyterian Church.

For more information about UALR’s choral ensembles, visit 

Sculptor Michael Warrick, professor of art at UALR’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, has received the Southeastern College Art Conference’s Award for Excellence of Artistic Achievement.The award of achievement is given to recognize, encourage, and reward individuals who have been particularly successful in their creative work as demonstrated through regional, national, or international exhibitions or presentations.

A juror reviewing Warrick’s work said it “reveals an artist who has never stopped developing his ideas or his approach to space and form.” Another judge noted Warrick’s “consistent, quality work.”

The Southeastern College Art Conference is a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote the visual arts in higher education. SECAC facilitates cooperation and fosters ongoing dialogue about pertinent creative, scholarly, and educational issues among teachers and administrators in universities, community colleges, professional art schools, and museums.

The organization represents art institutions in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, but its membership comes from across the United States and abroad.

UALR history professor Clea E. Bunch will present “Attack at Samu: A New Perspective on Hussein’s Reconciliation with Nasser” as part of the Evenings with History series at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1, at the Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. 3rd St. in Little Rock.

In 1967,  King Hussein of Jordan abandoned his traditional moderation and sought a military alliance with Egypt’s Nasser. This presentation will re-examine Hussein’s decision based on examination of recently declassified correspondence from the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and concludes that rather than a rash or abrupt move, the alliance with Nasser represented a repositioning forced by the Israeli attack on the Jordanian village of Samu in November, 1967.

The king ultimately concluded the Israeli government betrayed him, and when the United States refused to provide security guarantees, he turned to Egypt as the only viable solution to ensuring the security of the Jordanian State.

The Evenings with History series is sponsored by The University History Institute, which is a nonprofit organization of private citizens interested in history and supporting UALR.

An individual can subscribe to the series for $50 annually, which includes admission to all six lectures. A joint subscription to the series, at $90 annually, offers savings of $10 to couples and friends.

At $250 annually, a Fellow of the Institute receives the previous benefits, plus an invitation to special presentations for fellows exclusively, including private evenings with noted authors. The institute also offers a life membership at $1,000 that can be paid in installments. Subscriptions and donations to the institute are tax deductible as allowed by law.

Subscribers to the series help support historical research. Presenters donate their time, and the University History Institute uses all proceeds from the series to encourage research at UALR. In recent years, annual institute grants, made possible by the Evenings with History series, have made major purchases of historical research materials for UALR.

For more information, contact the UALR History Department at 501-569-3235.

UALR’s Guitar Ensemble will present its fall concert Monday, Nov. 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall.  The program will begin with a classical guitar duo performing works from the English Renaissance, followed by two pieces by Spain’s most celebrated composers, Isaac Albeniz and Enrique Granados. Then a trio will perform two of J.S. Bach’s Sinfonias.The second half of the concert will be performed by the student jazz guitar ensemble, with the addition of electric bass and percussion accompaniment. This ensemble will perform three compositions by UALR professor and director of guitar studies Michael Carenbauer.

UALR’s Gospel Chorale will hold a concert Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 7:30 in Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall.

This concert will feature contemporary and traditional gospel repertoire:  “O How Precious” by Kathy Taylor, “Let Everything That Hath Breath” by Florida A&M, and “Total Praise” by Richard Smallwood, along many other selections. The choir is under the direction of Dr. Sharon Young and is accompanied by an instrumental ensemble.
Admission to all three concerts is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the music department at 569-3294.

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UALR’s Department of Music will host the Central Arkansas Choral Directors Association’s All-Region Choir Clinic on Saturday, Nov. 21 providing a day of choral workshops that will culminate in a 6p.m. free public performance at Robinson Auditorium with members of the Arkansas Symphony.

An estimated 520 of Central Arkansas’ best young singers previously selected by audition from 77 junior and senior high schools will be on the UALR campus from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. rehearsing in four different choirs – junior treble and mixed choirs and senior treble and mixed choirs. They move to Robinson Auditorium for on-stage rehearsals from 3 to 5 p.m. to prepare for the public performance at 6 p.m.

Directing the choirs will be Bevan Keating and Kira Keating from UALR in Little Rock, Gaye McClure from Southside High School in Fort Smith and Angela Weaver from Southside Senior High School in Batesville.

Performance selections will be challenging and varied, ranging from Joseph Haydn’s Te Deum, accompanied by Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and Leonard Bernstein’s Candide to spirituals and folk tunes such as Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho and Home on the Range.

Students performing in these All-Region Choirs are now eligible to audition for the All-State Choir on Feb. 5, 2010 in Jonesboro.

For more information, contact Susan Belcher of the UALR Music Department at 501-569-3294 or sbbelcher@ualr.edu.

UALR’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance inaugurates a new annual arts series this season with “Dance Harvest” featuring original student choreography at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 19 to 22, at the University Theatre in the Center for Performing Arts.

Tickets to the “Dance Harvest” are $7 for general admission and $5 for students and seniors. For reservations, call 501-569-3456.

Scheduled as the first in an annual series, the works in progress created and performed by UALR students include all styles of dance and music.

“The production is a product of the new bachelor’s of fine arts degree in dance performance launched this semester,” said Jay Raphael, chair of the Theatre Arts and Dance Department.

UALR is the only institution of higher education in the state of Arkansas offering this program. In addition, a full range of dance technique and choreography classes are available in the department to all University students. For more information, visit the department Web site at www.ualr.edu/theatre/dance.