Opera star returns the favor
OK, this is my all Conway, all Column, um, column. First up …
Lewis is the thirtysomething Little Rock native who made it to Vienna belting out the title role of Guiseppe Verdi’s famous opera (most recently at La Scala in Milan). Some short time ago Lewis surveyed all she had accomplished — and, folks, if this Arkansas soprano’s still working from Vienna and closing curtain calls in Italy, she has accomplished a great deal — and had that pang that all high-profile artists have, that uneasy what’s-my-legacy pang.
“She’s singing in the top echelon of performances and for the top conductors in the world and has been for several years now,” says professor Martha Antolik, Lewis’ first voice teacher at the University of Central Arkansas in — ta-da! — Conway.
Lewis started a foundation (KristinLewisFoundation.com) that aims to cultivate some local talent and shine a light on her alma mater. In December, she gave a concert at Sec--
ond Presbyterian Church and raised $10,000. She wanted to have a gala event, friend and confidante Barbara Hawes told me, but “there’s no way, no way we could get big-time donors who are already doing” all the established big galas this time of year to rally to this on short notice.
Instead, Lewis will have to host a concert and maybe bring a couple of her big opera contemporaries.
Anyway, look for some announcement later this year.
Right now, though, the first crop of collegiate singers has been invited to a showcase March 28 and 29 at the Snow Fine Arts Recital Hall. They are Lois Hegarty of Searcy, Tori Clark of Bonnerdale, Hayley Coughlin of Vilonia, Veena Akama-Makia of Little Rock, Judd Caleb Burns of Beebe, Sarah Cain of Jonesboro, Kyle Forehand of Maumelle, Tressa Renee Tiner of North Little Rock, Paige Chastain of Benton, and three more out-of-state competitors.
The dozen selected for competition were asked to prepare five different arias in different languages. In Conway (ta-da!) they will perform two of these for a panel of judges of national or international stature.
One of these singers will leave with an expenses-paid invitation to Vienna for a week for personal lessons with Lewis’ coach, Carol Byers, and other opportunities under Lewis’ guidance. The second-, third-, fourthand fifth-place singers will get $2,000, $1,500, $1,000 and $750, respectively.
For central Arkansans, the real treat is this — all of the competition is open to the public and free. Antolik says the ideal date for viewing is March 29, beginning at 2 p.m. A reception will follow.
For more information, call UCA’s music department, (501) 450-3163, or email Antolik, marthaa@uca.edu.
“When Kristin sang with our church choir, she was a teenager” and alto section leader, Hawes recalled recently. Once, Hawes asked her to house sit, and Lewis said yes before Hawes offered to pay her for her trouble. “This was a kid just trying to make it on her own. She’s so engaging.”
GOJIRA, WILLIAM TSUTSUI
On April 18 the state’s most esteemed liberal arts college, Hendrix, in — ta-da! — Conway, will inaugurate just its 11th president in 139 years on the west lawn of Ellis and Fausett halls. There are several events surrounding the investiture, including a poetry reading by Carolyn Forche in the Trieschmann Fine Arts Building on April 16, but the reason I know about any of this is that word came to the office in the form of an elaborately enveloped cardstock news release featuring a Godzilla cut-out in black and orange (Hendrix’s and Godzilla’s colors, conveniently). Why? Because Hendrix’s new president is perhaps the world’s foremost academician on the subject of Godzilla, the Japanese exported sea monster who beached in Ishiro Honda’s 1954 picture of the same title.
Bill Tsutsui has earned degrees from Harvard (bachelor’s), Oxford (master’s), and Princeton (master’s and doctorate). His book credits begin with Banking Policy in Japan: American Efforts at Reform During the Occupation (1988) and continue with Manufacturing Ideology: Scientific Management in Twentieth-Century Japan (1998) and then carom violently — Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters (2004), and In Godzilla’s Footsteps: Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage (2006).
It’s not uncommon for seriously brilliant people to plait gossamer. One of the last century’s most famous lepidopterists, Vladimir Nabokov, also published fanciful stories. Of course, the early wireless communications pioneer Hedy Lamarr dabbled in drama.
Anyway, I mention all of this really just to applaud the effort to get people out to Conway. Frankly, with electronic communications, a memorable invitation is increasingly hard to find. Rob O’Conner over at the college tells me Ephraim McNair deserves the credit.
“Our design ninja is Ephraim McNair of Little Rock.”
So, like Tsutsui, Nabokov, and Lamarr, McNair leads a double life, graphic designer by day, ninja by night.
Or did I read that wrong?