University of Arkansas at Little Rock

UALR will honor philanthropists Karen and John Flake at Finale, the University’s premier fundraising event, at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25, 2009, at the Jack Stephens Center.

Reservations to the gala are $150 per person. To make a reservation or to inquire about purchasing a table, call (501) 569-3296.

Karen is vice chair of Market Strategies International. She received a master’s degree in Interpersonal and Organizational Communications from UALR. John is the chairman and partner of the firm Flake and Kelley Commercial in Little Rock.

“Karen and John have made incredible investments on our community,” said Rosemary Arnold, who will co-chair the 2009 event with Dr. Jay Raphael, chair of the Theatre Arts and Dance Department. “Their involvement in Finale will assist us in bringing community support to these programs.”

The Flakes are well-known throughout Arkansas for their volunteerism and dedication to community improvement. In 2006, the Flakes donated $1 million each to Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock and to Arkansas Children’s Hospital for its expansion in Northwest Arkansas.

Karen served as the chair of the Centers for Youth and Families, a $14 million, non-profit, mental health agency and is a founding member of the Arkansas Women’s Leadership Forum. The Arkansas Business Publishing Group has lauded her as one of the Top 100 Women in Arkansas.

John has served as president on the boards of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, St. Vincent Infirmary Development Foundation, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Pulaski County, and the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce.

KTHV’s Craig O’Neill will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the second year in a row.

Finale, also known as the performing arts dinner, is the premier fundraising event for UALR’s fine arts programs. The evening’s event will feature UALR students performing selections from Carmen by George Bizet.

In the Stephens rotunda, a gallery especially built for Finale will exhibit original student artwork, with many pieces for sale. Proceeds from Finale go toward student scholarships and resources in those programs.

Sponsors of the event include Glazer’s Distributors of Arkansas, Simmons First National Bank and Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield. UALR will be joined by other arts organizations in this gala to support the arts. Arts partners for the 2009 event include Accademia Dell’Arte, Arkansas Arts Center, Arkansas Chamber Singers, Arkansas Festival Ballet, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and Wildwood Park for the Arts.

UALR’s Opera Theatre presents La Tragédie de Carmen, Peter Brook’s adaptation of the famous opera Carmen, for two performances– 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 17 and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 19 – at the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the UALR Fine Arts Building.

“Our version preserves all the gypsy melodies and passionate love songs that have made Carmen a timeless favorite of audiences around the world,” said director Edward Crafts, associate professor of music. The original Carmen by George Bizet premiered in 1875 in Paris.

Crafts said he was pleased to be able to present to central Arkansas audiences a mainstay of the operatic repertoire.

“University opera programs seldom are able to perform the major 19th-century operas because the vocal and production requirements are too demanding,” he said. “However, we are very fortunate to have a cast of vocally mature singers who can do justice to this exciting music.”

The production features Satia Spencer of De Witt as the gypsy Carmen; Matthew Tatus of Jacksonville as the volatile renegade José; Shaina Erwin of Little Rock as Jose’s former sweetheart Micaela; Beau Humble of Little Rock and Lewis Heard III of Little Rock alternating as Escamillo, a toreador and José’s rival; Jansen Goodwin of Little Rock as Captain Zuniga; Phillip Murray of Benton Harbor, Mich., as Lillas Pastia; Jeremy Kinchen of Pine Bluff as Garcia, and Steven Armstrong of Little Rock as a gypsy.

Music Director Dr. Bevan Keating will conduct the orchestra for these performances.

“This arrangement of Carmen is scored for a chamber orchestra which makes it perfect for the intimate performing space of the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall,” Crafts said. Currently, UALR is the only opera program in Arkansas to offer two productions with orchestra each year.

The opera will be performed in French, with subtitles and dialogue in English.

General admission is $15; UALR students may reserve free tickets. For reservations, please call the Music Department Box Office at (501) 569-8993.

The UALR Opera Theatre will present La Tragédie de Carmen, Peter Brook’s adaptation of the famous opera Carmen, on Friday, April 17 at 7:30 pm and on Sunday, April 19 at 3:00 pm in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the UALR Fine Arts Building.

The original Carmen by George Bizet premiered in 1875 in Paris. “Our version preserves all the gypsy melodies and passionate love songs that have made Carmen a timeless favorite of audiences around the world,” said director Edward Crafts.

Crafts remarked that he is pleased to present a mainstay of the operatic repertoire. “University opera programs seldom are able to perform the major 19th-century operas because the vocal and production requirements are too demanding,” he said. “However, we are very fortunate to have a cast of vocally mature singers who can do justice to this exciting music.”

The production features Satia Spencer of De Witt as the gypsy Carmen; Matthew Tatus of Jacksonville as the volatile renegade Jose; Shaina Erwin of Little Rock as Jose’s former sweetheart; Beau Humble of Little Rock and Lewis Heard II of Little Rock alternating as Esamillo, a toreador and Jose’s rival; Jansen Goodwin of Little Rock as Captain Zuniga; Phillip Murray of Benton Harbor, MI, as Lillas Pastia; Jeremy Kinchen as Garcia of Pine Bluff, and Steven Armstrong of Little Rock as a gypsy.

Music Director Dr. Bevan Keating will conduct the orchestra for these performances. “This arrangement of Carmen is scored for a chamber orchestra which makes it perfect for the intimate performing space of the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall,” said Keating. Currently, UALR is the only opera program in Arkansas to offer two productions with orchestra each year.

The opera will be performed in French, with surtitles and dialogue in English.

General admission tickets are $15; UALR students may reserve free tickets. For reservations, please call the Music Department Box Office at (501) 569-8993.

UALR’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance will present its annual spring dance concert beginning Thursday, April 16, through Sunday, April 19, at the UALR Center for the Performing Arts.

This year the program will feature a company of UALR dancers performing in six pieces choreographed by resident and guest artists. The concert will also include dancers from the Arkansas Festival Ballet.

Performances will be at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $7 for general admission and $5 for students and senior citizens. All performances will be in the UALR Center for Performing Arts. The box office opens on Thursday, April 9. For ticket reservations and more information, call 569.3456.

UALR will host the ensemble Cleveland Duo and James Umble at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9, 2009, in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Building. The concert is part of UALR’s Artspree Performing Arts Series.

Admission is $20 for the main floor and $17 for balcony seats. UALR students are admitted for free; other students may attend for $10.

For tickets, contact the Artspree office at 501.569.3288. For more information, visit the Artspree website at www.ualr.edu/artspree/.

The Cleveland Duo – Stephen Warner, violin, and Carolyn Gadiel Warner, piano – and Umble, classical saxophonist, have performed together to the major acclaim of audiences and critics for more than 15 years.

The ensemble has been heard throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in major chamber music venues, festival sites, universities and of conservatories of music, temples, in special informative presentations for school children and over the airwaves of both National Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Their unusual combination of violin, piano, and saxophone affords them a unique programming style which features a repertoire ranging from the traditional and familiar classical to folk, ethnic, avant-garde, and even jazz.

UALR will present “The Moral Equivalent of War: Energy Rhetoric During the Carter Years,” a lecture about former President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 National Energy Plan, by Lee Honeycutt, associate professor of English at Iowa State University on Thursday, April 9, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm in SUA 102-C. The lecture, sponsored by the Rhetoric and Writing Department, is free and open to the public.

Honeycutt, who serves on the board of directors of the Iowa Renewable Energy Association, contends that Carter’s policy was an initiative ahead of its time. “The policy failed largely because of opposition from entrenched corporate power, but the plan’s fate can also be traced to the administration’s failure to recognize the increasing rhetorical role of the American presidency,” said Honeycutt. “From his early fireside chat on energy to the ‘moral malaise’ speech late in his term, Carter seemed unable to reconcile traditional policy tasks with the rising importance of the bully pulpit in shaping public opinion.”
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For more information about the lecture, contact the Rhetoric and Writing Department at (501) 569-3160.

The University History Institute will continue its “Evenings with History” series of talks in Spring 2009 with three lectures, listed below. These lectures are open to members of the University History Institute. To learn about becoming a member, please visit the Institute’s website.

“Who Thought of Silver Patterns Anyway? The History and Mysteries of Silver in American Life” Johanna Miller Lewis
February 3, 2009

Modern historical scholarship increasingly uses material culture to throw light onto aspects of American life that written documents do not fully illuminate. This lecture examines the use of silverware in America. Examining a group of patterns as an example, it reveals how objects can be read as documents and shows what they can teach us not only about how Americans lived in the past but about their history in general.

“The Underground Railroad: On Track, Derailed, and Back on Track Again” S. Charles Bolton
March 3, 2009

Most Americans know the Underground Railroad as a network of individuals who helped slaves escape from the South and reach freedom in Canada. Contemporaries believed it existed, with abolitionists praising its “conductors” and Southerners denouncing them. Historians have not been so sure of its significance though. Through time they have played it up, then played down. Today there is new interest in the Underground Railroad, the National Park Service is preserving sites connected to it, and historians are considering its role once again. How important was the Underground Railroad? How has its history been used? These are the questions considered in this talk.

“‘Once Upon a Time,’ But Really, When?” Edward M. Anson
April 7, 2009

The dating, or more factually the attempted dating, of events in Classical antiquity is often the subject of intense debate. Disagreements are not over time of day, day of the week, month of the year, but quite often over the year in which the event occurred. This talk exposes the complexities of determining ancient chronology in general, examines a current controversy concerning the early years of the Hellenistic Age, and shows how issues of dating can critically change our understanding of the past.

UALR will host pianists Norman Boehm and John Krebs on Saturday, April 4 at 8:00 pm in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Building. The performance is free and open to the public.

The concert will feature the famous Variations on a Theme of Haydn by Johannes Brahms.

Norman Boehm, native of Michigan, holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, and a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music. His teachers have included Charles Fisher, Eugene Bossart, Clark Eastham, Benning Dexter and David Burge.

Boehm has performed in Europe and South Africa as well as in the U.S. and specializes in music from the late 19th/early 20th centuries. In addition to performing as soloist and chamber musician, he is also a composer, arranger and conductor. He is the Professor of Piano and Music Theory at Hendrix College in Conway.

A native of Iowa, John Krebs holds degrees in piano performance from Northwestern University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Maryland. He has taught at Central Missouri State University, Prince George’s Community College, and Luther College.

An avid collaborative pianist, Krebs has performed as an official accompanist for divisional and national MTNA competitions. He currently serves as the Humanities Area Chair at Hendrix.

For more information about the Boehm-Krebs performance, call (501) 569-3295.