Cellist tours Arkansas; Streetcar arrives in NLR
Cellist Alexander Hersh, string division winner at the the National Federation of Music Clubs’ 2019 Young Artist Competition, kicks off on a six-recital Arkansas tour with pianist and Texarkana College faculty member Mary Scott Goode at 3 p.m. today in the Recital Hall, Fine Arts Center, Arkansas State University, 2412 Quapaw Way, Jonesboro. Admission is free.
The tour program: “Prelude” from the Suite No. 1 for solo cello by J.S. Bach; Cello Sonata by Samuel Barber; Cello Sonata by Claude Debussy; Two Pieces by Anton Webern; Romance by Gabriel Faure; and Lamentatio by Giovanni Sollima.
The rest of the tour lineup (except as noted, all performances at 7:30 p.m., free admission):
■ Monday, McBeth Recital Hall, Mabee Fine Arts Center, Ouachita Baptist University, 410 Ouachita St., Arkadelphia
■ Tuesday, Great Room, Truman Arnold Student Center, Texarkana College, 2500 N. Robinson Road, Texarkana, Texas
■ Thursday, Harris Recital Hall, Music Building, University of Arkansas at Monticello, 372 University Drive, Monticello
■ Friday, 11 a.m., for the Little Rock Musical Coterie, Pulaski Heights Methodist Church, 4823 Woodlawn Drive, Little Rock
■ Sept. 22, 2:30 p.m., White Lecture Hall, Robert Burns Building, Northwest Arkansas Community College, 1 College Drive, Bentonville
Call (870) 403-2951.
Memorial concert
Arkansas Symphony Orchestra musicians Kiril Laskarov, violin, and Stephen Feldman, cello, with pianist May Tsao-Lim and violist Christopher Hayward, pay tribute to late ASO violinist Eric Hayward with “In Loving Memory: A Concert in Honor of Eric Hayward,” 7 p.m. Tuesday at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 4106 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock.
The program will consist of the Piano Trio by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky and the world premiere of The Black Rose, a new piano quartet by Eric Hayward’s student, Dustin Yoder.
Eric Hayward, the orchestra’s long time principal second violin and a founding member of its Quapaw Quartet, died in July 2018. The concert opens the church’s Festival of the Senses’ 201920 performing arts season. A reception will follow in the church’s parish hall. Admission is free. Call (501) 753-4281 or email baxternan@aol.com.
Argenta Streetcar
The Argenta Community Theater, 405 Main St., North Little Rock, and Acansa Arts Festival of the South are staging Tennesee Williams’ 1948 Pulitzer Prize-winning A Streetcar Named Desire, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sept. 22 at the theater. Paige Martin Reynolds plays Blanche DuBois, with Laura Sessoms Grimes as her sister Stella and Jason Scott Morgan as Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski. Tickets are $15-$30; doors open one hour before curtain. Call (501) 663-2287 or visit acansa.org.
Architecture lecture
Jennifer Bonner, director of MALL, a “creative practice for art and architecture,” and a member of the architecture faculty at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, gives a talk titled “Before and After Haus Gables,” 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Windgate Center of Art + Design, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S University Ave, Little Rock. It opens the Architecture and Design Network’s 2019-20 June Freeman Lecture Series. A 5:30 reception precedes the lecture. Admission is free. Call (501) 952-7274 or (501) 840-6171 or email ArchDesignNetwork@gmail.com.
Holes in the Sky
Pianist Lara Downes, mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran and harpist Bridget Kibbey offer a program titled Holes in the Sky, centered on songs by Billie Holiday, Joni Mitchell and Nina
Simone, at 3 p.m. today in the Great
Hall, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art,600Museum Way, Bentonville.
It’s part of the museum’s Van Cliburn Concert Series. Tickets are $45, $36 for members, $10 for students. Call (479) 657-2335 or visit tinyurl.com/y657fcqu.
Jazz in the Park
Tonya Leeks performs for Jazz in the Park, 6 p.m. Wednesday at the History Pavilion in Little Rock’s Riverfront Park, just west of the First Security Amphitheater (enter from Ottenheimer Drive off President Clinton Avenue). Sponsors are Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau and Art Porter Music Education Inc. Admission is free. Lawn chairs and blankets are welcome, and there is some seating in the natural stone amphitheater at the History Pavilion. Beer, wine, soft drinks and water will be available for sale (no coolers are allowed). In case of rain, the performance moves to the West Pavilion behind the Ottenheimer Market Hall. Call (501) 375-2552 or visit rivermarket.info.
Sax quartet
The Arkansas Saxophone Quartet — Matthew Taylor, soprano saxophone; Caroline Taylor, alto saxophone; Brent Bristow, tenor saxophone; and Jackie Lamar, baritone saxophone — performs at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Arkansas State University-Beebe’s Owen Center Theater, 1102 W. College St., Beebe. The program includes works by Franz Liszt, Maurice Ravel, Jean Absil and Jonathan Leshnoff; it opens the college’s 2019-20 Lecture-Concert Series. Admission is by free ticket; visit ASUB.Ticketleap.com. For more information, call (501) 882-3600 or visit asub.edu.
Fort Smith bluegrass
John Jorgensen, fresh off a gig as lead guitarist for Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, and J2B2 — the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band (Jorgenson on guitar, mandolin and vocals; Herb Pedersen on banjo, guitar and vocals; Jon Randall on guitar and vocals; and Mark Fain on bass) — perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at 801 Media Center at 5 Star Productions, 801 N. A St., Fort Smith. It’s the opener for Artist, Audience & Community Live’s 2019-20 season. Tickets are $40; call (479) 7198931 or visit AACLive.com.
‘Moscow’ auditions
Moscow Ballet will hold auditions for area ballet students age 6-18 to fill children’s roles (including Party Children, Small Mice, Snowflakes and Snow Maidens) for its touring Great Russian Nutcracker, 9:30 a.m. Sept. 28 at Dancers’ Corner, 7509 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. Moscow Ballet danseur Yuriy Kuzo will preside. There is no fee to audition but there may be a “minimal” casting and/or rehearsal fee. Dancers will participate in a dress rehearsal on stage with the Russian company the day of the performances — 3 and 7 p.m. Dec. 26 at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall. Register at nutcracker.com/your-city/get-tickets/little-rock.