The Lamarissimo! Concert Series will shine the spotlight on Lamar University faculty artists when the 20th Anniversary Season continues Thursday, Nov. 5, in the Julie Rogers Theatre.
To celebrate this milestone, the program will feature music of the Americas – a colorful sound portrait showcasing Lamar faculty talents in solo and ensemble performances. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m., sponsored by American Valve & Hydrant.
The audience will enjoy works by George Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim and other composers, with the repertoire running the musical gamut from classics to show tunes to jazz.
“This is a time when Lamar can really showcase the magnificent faculty we have here,” said Angela Pickering, instructor of voice, who is coordinating the concert along with Kerry Jennings, assistant professor of voice. “The impression you get in the classroom is that each teacher really connects with the students. We really have some top-notch performers who are here as teachers.”
Pickering has performed at Lamarissimo! for 16 of its 20 years – two years with the Cardinal Singers, five years with the A Cappella Choir and six years as a faculty member. Jennings, meanwhile, is making his Lamarissimo! debut this season, having come to Lamar from Old Dominion University in Norfold, Va.
“When I came for my interview last fall, everyone was talking about Lamarissimo!,” Jennings said. “Flyers about the concerts were ready to come out, so you knew it was important and something everyone really loved to do.
“The concert series gives us the opportunity to show that Lamar has a performing faculty. The community and students have the opportunity to see what it is that we do that got us these jobs in academia in the first place.”
It will be a program not to be missed, Jennings and Pickering agree.
“It’s going to be exciting, wonderful music for everyone to participate in,” Jennings said. “The music will envelope them. It’s not just something pretty to sit and listen to but to be involved in as well – fun and dramatic.”
Pickering adds: “It’s going to be a varied program and feature a wide variety of instruments and vocalists. The level of performance is something you don’t get to hear every day in Southeast Texas. We have some world-class performers in our own backyard.”
The “Music of the America” theme proved so popular with the faculty artists’ 2008-2009 audience that they decided to reprise the motif.
“We received a really good response because the music was so accessible. The program played well, and there were pieces that were very familiar,” Pickering said. “We’ll have a little bit of that and some things that are less familiar – so they’ll have a chance to hear something new.”
The program includes compositions from North, South and Central America – plus music written in Spain and brought to America and music written in France for America. “And we’ll have some Broadway and some jazz – just a little bit of everything,” Pickering said.
The audience is in for a rare treat as faculty members perform vocal and instrumental selections in solos and ensembles. They represent Southeast Texas’ finest talent, and all of them stay active in symphonies, bands, orchestras and in their studios when they’re not in the classroom.
For their solos, both Pickering, soprano, and Jennings, tenor, selected music from Kurt Weill’s operatic “Street Scene.” Pickering will perform “What Good Would the Moon Be?” and Jennings, “Lonely House.” Weill is an American “transplant” from Germany, Jennings noted. “We refer to ‘Street Scene’ as an opera sometimes, but it’s so heavily jazz influenced that it’s one of those cross-over works. It’s a musical drama – and music that I think everybody will enjoy listening to.”
President Jimmy Simmons, a Lamarissimo! founder and perennial series favorite, will perform on saxophone in a “surprise selection” with Betsy Hines on piano. Hines also will perform a Rio de Janeiro medley.
“That’ll Show Him” from Sondheim’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” will feature Debra Greschner, soprano, and Nick Rissman, piano. Gershwin will be represented by “The Man That Got Away” from “A Star is Born,” performed by soprano Noel Turner.
The concert will open with Sonata for Clarinet and Piano by Francis Poulenc, featuring Kim Ellis clarinet, and Arthur Stewart, piano. Stewart is an associate professor of English and modern languages at Lamar. Harpist Charlotte Mizener will perform “Alborada.”
“Sephardic Songs” will feature Isabelle Ganz on vocals, flute, shawm and dumbeck, and Marc Garvin, guitar. Garvin will return for “Verano Porteno.” Travis Fife will make his Lamarissimo! debut with “A Little Prayer” on marimba.
For the rousing finale, the Lamar Brass Quintet – and friends – will perform a lively rendition of “When the Saints Go Marchin’ In.” Faculty instrumentalists are Brian Shook, trumpet; Robert Culbertson, horn; Wayne Dyess, trombone; Fife, percussion; and Hines, keyboard.
Joining them are students Kerry Coleman of Beaumont, trumpet; Gannon Miller of Nederland, tuba; and Trevor Duell of Salina, Kan., trumpet.
Culbertson, who is interim chair of the Department of Music, said the Lamarissimo! experience is unique. “Our Lamarissimo! audience is the best audience in the world,” he said. “They come expecting to have a good time, and they do. It’s such a thrill, as a faculty member, to perform as an individual or with a small ensemble before such a large and receptive audience in the Julie Rogers Theatre. When I perform with the symphony, I’m at the back of the stage and not as in touch with the audience. At Lamarissimo!, I’m at the front of the stage, and I can look right into the faces of our audience members. When they enjoy it, I enjoy it.
The Nov. 5 performance is open to Lamarissimo! season-ticket holders as part of the concert series’ five-concert package, priced at $40 for adults and $20 for students. Individual tickets, $15 for adults and $10 for students, will be available in the theatre box office beginning at 6:45 p.m. before the performance. Admission is free to students of Lamar University in Beaumont, with valid LU identification.
The 2009-2010 season of Lamarissimo! will continue with the Holiday Choir Concert, Dec. 6; Jazz Bands, March 2, 2010; and Cardinal Singers and Lamar Dance Company, April 29, 2010. The holiday concert will be at 3 p.m. in the Jefferson Theatre and the others at 7:30 p.m. in the Julie Rogers Theatre. The Lamarissimo! Concert Series is presented by the Lamar University Department of Music. Call (409) 880-8144 for season tickets and other information.
