MUSIC
Board chair honored
Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Board chairwoman Jan Hundley is among Musical America magazine’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year. The list, available at tinyurl.com/ms5z9ms7, includes administrators and executives of musical organizations, academics, composers and performers.
“Most of the names in the following pages will not be familiar — but they are decidedly praiseworthy,” Susan Elliott, the publication’s editor for news and special reports, says in her introduction to the list. She describes them as “entrepreneurs, the worker bees, the creative minds that ensure the health of the art form and its essential value in our lives, now and for generations to come.”
Elliot highlights, among others, “a university presenter in New Jersey [and] an orchestra board chair in Little Rock, [AR], who recently completed an $11M campaign to build a new music center for her band.”
“We’ve been on a roll,” Hundley, who has been the board chair for five years, tells Musical America. “We have survived the pandemic, we hired a music director [Geoffrey Robson], and we’re building a new headquarters building.”
The publication references the August groundbreaking for the Stella Boyle Smith Music Center, a 20,000-square-foot facility in Little Rock’s East Village adjacent to the Clinton Presidential Center, projected to open in September, and Hundley’s spearheading of the five-year capital campaign that raised $11.7 million to cover the cost of the center. It also credits her steering the orchestra through the pandemic: “We didn’t lay anyone off, not full-time musicians, not staff. Our donors really stepped up.”
Corrado Rovaris conducts the Artosphere Festival Orchestra at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Farewell, symphony
Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center will continue to offer its annual Artosphere Festival, but is phasing out the Artosphere Festival Orchestra after the 2024 season.
Corrado Rovaris will conduct the 90-member orchestra, made up of musicians from around the world, in three final concerts:
◼️ May 14: “American Soundscapes,” in the arts center’s Baum Walker Hall, 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. Aaron Copland’s “Four Dance Episodes from ‘Rodeo'”; Nick DiBeradino’s Percussion Concerto, featuring percussionists Sijia Huang and Garrett Arney of arx duo; Antonín Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” Tickets: $10
◼️ May 18: Verdi’s Requiem, Baum Walker Hall, with 120 voices from the Tulsa Opera Chorus, members of the University of Arkansas’ Schola Cantorum, opera theater students led by Jonathan Stinson and members of Symphony of Northwest Arkansas’ SoNA Singers. Soloists to be announced. $15-50
◼️ May 22: Mozart in the Museum, Great Hall, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 600 Museum Way, Bentonville. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Serenade No. 6 in D major; Piano Concerto No. 20 in d minor (with soloist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko); Symphony No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter.” $54.
Festival Orchestra musicians will also take part in “Off the Grid” and “Chapel Music Series” performances.
A full schedule of Artosphere events and performances will be announced in early 2024. Call (479) 433-5600 or visit waltonartscenter.org.
VoiceJam auditions
Jan. 31 is the deadline for a cappella groups to submit video audition materials for Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center’s April 13 VoiceJam A Cappella Competition, online at waltonartscenter.org/voicejam. The competition is open to groups of two to 20 performers, no age limit or school affiliation required. Up to eight groups compete; those groups will be announced Feb. 5. The VoiceJam champion will receive a professionally produced video of their set; judges will also present awards for outstanding arrangement, vocal percussion, soloist and choreography. The April 12-13 VoiceJam Festival will also include workshops and masterclasses on a cappella arranging, vocal percussion, body percussion, rehearsal technique and solo singing.
ART
Ceramic carpeting
“Risa Hricovsky: Then Is Now,” ceramic “shag rug” wall sculptures by Knoxville-based artist Risa Hricovsky, including a site-specific painting and sculpture installation, goes on display Tuesday at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, 501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock. The exhibition is up through April 28. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Call (501) 372-4000 or visit arkmfa.org/art/exhibitions.
“Hopes of Harmony” and a detail from “Duality” by Risa Hricovsky are part of an exhibition going on display this week at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
DANCE
Ballet transitions
Melissa Schoenfeld is retiring after 36 years leading Western Arkansas Ballet. Jared Mesa will take over as artistic director at the end of the 2023-24 season. Brianna Mesa will become the associate artistic director. Amy Willadsen will become executive director and administrative assistant Kortney Marsden will become administrator. Visit waballet.org.
