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Roanoke College Events Information

Roanoke College announces several upcoming events. Roanoke’s theme for the year is “The Challenge of Intellectual Inquiry,” as the College is launching a new general education curriculum. Many events will focus, as does the curriculum, on what it means to study something deeply – to explore, inquire and examine. Happenings on the Salem campus over the next few weeks include the following:

Art Exhibit

Through December 11. Smoyer and Olin galleries.

Opening Reception: October 30, 6 p.m. Olin Gallery.
Tarbell’s artist’s lecture: Thursday, October 29, 5 p.m. Olin 231.

Evangeline’s artist’s lecture: Friday, October 30, 5:30 p.m. Olin 231.

In Smoyer Gallery, Rob Tarbell presents his work titled Diagnostics, a series concentrated on the effect of smoke on paper. While the smoke is controlled and manipulated, it is allowed to remain true to its nature and explores Tarbell’s interest in the manipulation of “traditional materials.” Diagnostics has evolved Generators, a series of “work that combines elements of the parlor game ‘Ghost of My Friends’ with the responses from the Rorschach Inkblot test.” Tarbell hopes his work will “both balance accident with control and give permanence to the ephemeral.”

Olin Gallery will present Margaret Evangeline’s Polychromatic Series from Roanoke College’s permanent collection. As a New York based and Louisiana-born artist, Evangeline explores different mediums that “deepen the immediacy of a moment.” Her gunshot Polychromatic Series shows a departure from the traditional concepts of art and embraces a charged aesthetic language. Evangeline’s video eXile also will be shown. eXile encompasses the dynamic world of fashion photo shoots through the eyes of an artist. It is an infusion of the process of Abstract Expressionism, coupled with the visual vibrancy of pop culture.

Poet

Monday, November 23, 2009, 6:30 p.m. Colket Center Pickle Lounge.

Poet Dorianne Laux will be hosted at a reception and book signing. Laux’s fourth book of poems, Facts About the Moon, received the Oregon Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2006 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for the most outstanding book of poems published in the United States in the previous year.  Her work has been included twice in the Best American Poetry annual anthologies.  She has received a Pushcart Prize, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship.  Laux

teaches at North Carolina State University. Sponsored by the D.L. Jordan Endowment for the Humanities and the Roanoke College Department of English.

Trumpet Recital

Monday, November 23, 7:30 p.m. Olin Recital Hall.

Trumpeter Matthew Kuhns will perform with Kandinsky Trio Pianist and Roanoke College Teaching Associate/Resident Artist Elizabeth Bachelder.  The program will feature modern compositions by Anthony Plog, Arthur Honegger and Arvo Pärt along with the world premiere of Alleluia Motets, a sonata for trumpet/flugelhorn and piano by Joseph Blaha, associate professor of music. Kuhns is a member of the Wisconsin Brass Quintet and a doctoral candidate in Trumpet Performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

College Choir Concert

Sunday, November 29, 3 and 5 p.m. St. Andrew’s Catholic Church. 631 Jefferson Street, Roanoke.

Join the acclaimed Roanoke College Choir for its 25th consecutive presentation of Lessons and Carols of Christmas. Beautiful Christmas music, old and new, congregational singing of the traditional carols and Scriptural readings combine to make this annual favorite “the unofficial opening of the Christmas season in the Valley.”  A free-will offering to support the work of Roanoke Area Ministries will be received.

Concert
Thursday, December 3, 7:30 p.m. Olin Theater.

The Roanoke College wind and jazz ensembles will present a joint concert under the direction of Dr. Joseph Blaha.

The Jazz Ensemble will perform contemporary works showing the influences of the Count Basie Orchestra, the Buddy Rich Band and the Charles Mingus Band on big band music.  Featured will be John LaBarbera’s arrangement of Miles Davis’ So What and Bob Brookmeyer’s arrangement of Eliane Elias, The Time Is Now.  Brynn Scozzari will once again appear as vocalist singing Jerome Kern’s Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man from the musical, Showboat.

The Wind Ensemble will present works juxtaposing American with Ukrainian and Russian cultures.  Clifton Williams’ Fanfare and Allegro, Robert W. Smith’s The Inferno and Blaha’s own The Grand Procession will represent music of the American culture. Russian Culture will be represented by works of Pavel Tschesnokoff and Vasily Kalinnikov.  The familiar Ukrainian folk song, Carol of the Bells will close the program.

Concert
Friday, December 4, 8 p.m. Olin Theater. $10. For tickets and more information, please call the Olin Hall Box Office at (540) 375-2333.

Jazz, Latin, funk and Afro-pop come together in the Inner Rhythm Band. Groove out with renowned drummer, composer and educator Robert Jospé and Afro-pop vocalist, percussionist and dancer Heather Maxwell, Jeff Decker on sax and percussion, Bob Hallahan on keyboards, Randall Pharr on bass and percussionist Kevin Davis.

Inner Rhythm brings to their audiences a vibrant mix of sound, fusing the buoyant grooves of salsa, samba, swing, funk and African rhythms with contemporary jazz. The band presents a performance full of passionate playing and tight, skillful arrangements.

Kandinsky Trio Concert Series

Saturday, December 5, 8 p.m. Olin Theater. $20/$12. For tickets and more information, please call the Olin Hall Box Office at (540) 375-2333.

Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A Minor bears the inscription “To the memory of a great artist” and was written after his friend, the great pianist Nicholas Rubinstein, passed away.  A masterwork of the Romantic era, the piece explores emotionally charged melodies with beautifully characteristic Russian folk elements.

“I not only like Mozart,” Tchaikovsky wrote, “I worship him.”  In keeping with this spirit, the Kandinskys will start the program with Mozart’s charming Trio in B Flat Major, K. 502.

Children’s Choir Concert

Sunday, December 13, 1:30 and 4 p.m. Jefferson Center, Shaftman Performance Hall. $18/$15/$12 ($3 discount for 12 and under).  Tickets are available at the Jefferson Center Box Office by calling (540) 345-2550 or online at www.jeffcenter.org.

Usher in the holiday season with the angelic sounds of the Roanoke College Children’s Choir.  The choir features 250 children ages 8-18 known for their dedication to excellence and musical artistry.  The Concert includes classical, folk and holiday favorites. Special guests The Roanoke Chamber Brass quintet will join the choir.

For additional information, call the Roanoke College Public Relations Office at (540) 375-2282.