The North Coast Wind Ensemble performs Saturday, Nov. 21, in the Fulkerson Recital Hall. /Submitted photos

Conducted by Kenneth Ayoob, the North Coast Wind Ensemble gathers some of the best wind and percussion players on the North Coast. The ensemble is “dedicated to performing the best of the wind band repertoire regardless of genre,” Ayoob asserts, “and strives to present entertaining and thought-provoking concerts to the North Coast.”

The Nov. 21 concert features adaptations of orchestral works: The Festive Overture by Dmitri Shostakovich, and La Procession Du Rocio by early 20th century Spanish composer Joaquin Turina.

Band music is a wind ensemble staple, so the program includes selections by two American and two British composers. Sinfonia No. 4 is by contemporary American Walter Hartley, and Symphonic Songs for Band is by Robert Russell Bennett, best known for his orchestrations of classic Broadway and Hollywood musicals.

First Suite for Military Band by Gustav Holst and Toccata Marziale by Ralph Vaughan Williams, both distinguished 20th century British composers, complete the evening.

The North Coast Wind Ensemble performs on Saturday Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $5 general, $2 students and seniors from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Kenneth Ayoob, conductor. http://HSUMusic.blogspot.com.

The lineup of pianists includes HSU Music professor Daniela Mineva and staff pianist John Chernoff, as well as students Emily Loeffler, Ellen Marie, Molly Newkirk, Robert Spencer, Jonathan Webster, Joe Welnick, Melanie Kuhnel, Biranne Gill and Valerie Reed.

The program includes the first movement of Beethoven’s “Emperior” Concerto, Bach’s Tocatta in E Minor and Prelude in E Major, Mozart’s Sonata in G Major, and Debussy’s “The Little Shepherd.” The pianists will also play compositions by Brahms, Grieg, Haydn and Scarlatti, with each selection introduced by student Jonathan Webster.

Proceeds from this event will benefit the HSU Music Department Guest Pianist Series, begun by Deborah Clasquin in 2002. The series not only sponsors public performances by renowned guest artists, but master classes offered without charge to HSU students and the community.

The Piano Extravaganza to benefit the Guest Pianist Series is a matinee concert on Sunday, November 15 at 2 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $8, $3 students and seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. http://HSUMusic.blogspot.com

The Bird Like Quintet Submitted Photo

For example, The Peanut Gallery Quartet (led by guitarist Clayton Bennet) will play the bop classic “Airegin” by Sonny Rollins, and The Austin Power Trio (led by guitarist Colin Gaddie) will offer “La Samba” by Ray Obiedo.

Led by drummer Brett Huska, The Slippery Society will do a set of New Orleans style early jazz. The Bird Like Quintet, a co-op band with two horns, performs the bluesy “Cornbread” by Lee Morgan, and the funk combo Watermelonperson plays the 70s hit, “Superfly.”

Composition student Adolpho Acuna / Submitted Photo

Describing the works to be presented for the first time in Fulkerson Hall on November 14, composition professor J. Brian Post said, “These works will contain influences from American Folk music, jazz, rock and roll, film scores and European Art music from Vivaldi’s time to the present.”

Composers experimenting with new and more established compositional techniques and instrumentation include James Puzey, Adolpho Acuna and John Garritano.

The Composers Concert, featuring new compositions by faculty as well as students, takes the Fulkerson Recital Hall stage on Saturday November 14 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. http://HSUMusic.blogspot.com.

HSU’s Department of World Languages and Cultures and Diversity Program Funding Committee will host musicians Rafael Manriquez and Ingrid Rubis, who will sing and play guitar, including charango, quena and zampoñas (from Bolivia), cuatro (from Venezuela), cajón (from Peru) and bombo (from Argentina) as well as many other folk instruments. Their music embodies Latin folk rhythms influenced by the Spanish, Native American and African cultures. Their lyrics dwell on the experiences of the peoples of Central and South America.

Samples of the music are available at http://www.rafaelmanriquez.com.

For details, contact Matthew Dean, Professor of Spanish, at 707-826-3134 or md93@humboldt.edu or Annalisa Rush, Administrative Assistant, 707-826-3711 and alr2@humboldt.edu.

The campus map is at http://www.humboldt.edu/humboldt/images/uploads/campusaccessmap.pdf.

Professor and director David Scheerer reviews a scene with actress Theresa Ireland, who plays Michelle, during the filming of “The Music Inside.” The film will be screened at HSU’s Van Duzer Theatre on Nov. 13 and 14. / Humboldt State University

The Music Inside is an independent feature film directed by HSU professor David Scheerer, which the public will see for the first time in two sneak preview screenings on Nov. 13 and 14 at the Van Duzer Theatre.

About a third of the movie was filmed at HSU and on the North Coast, and it was completed with the participation of HSU students and faculty. “These scenes comprise the part of the story that takes place in the present,” director Scheerer explained, “but like movies such as Slum Dog Millionaire, much of the story is told in flashbacks to the past.”

The flashback scenes star Amy Redford, daughter of Robert Redford, who has acted in a number of independent films as well as television series episodes. The scenes shot here star Theresa Ireland, known on the North Coast for community theatre and local commercials. Award-winning San Francisco actor Kurt Kroesche stars in both time periods as a young mental patient who becomes the middle-aged professor.

“Thematically, this film deals with the stigma and prejudice associated with mental illness,” Scheerer said, “and how love can be a source of strength in overcoming that stigma.”

The HSU Connection

When his HSU faculty colleagues in the Theatre, Film & Dance department said they wanted to include a film screening in the year’s production schedule, Scheerer saw it as a way to take care of some unfinished business, as well as to provide some unique opportunities for HSU students.

Theater, Film and Dance student Elizabeth Cruz, left, along with Professor David Scheerer and student Sandra Grimm review production notes before resuming filming on “The Music Inside.” / Humboldt State University

The unfinished business was a feature film, shot in 2005 when Scheerer taught film at Montana State University. Using professional actors, some of whom he’d met during his years working on what became the Sundance Film Festival, he directed the script of a former screenwriting student, Michael Van Wagenen. But test screenings revealed some problems, and the project was shelved.

Scheerer and Van Wagenen discussed a solution—a different way to frame the story of a mentally ill young man and his relationship with a young woman who was interning as a social worker. But the new version required a new character, and new scenes amounting to about a third of the complete film.

So Scheerer asked his HSU colleagues “if they would be willing to support me in shooting these new scenes. Much to my joy, the season selection committee agreed.”

So last fall, students who took a pre-production workshop became involved in making what essentially is a new movie. “They looked at the first cut, and helped me identify what worked and what didn’t work. They helped me in rewriting the script, casting the new scenes, and doing all the pre-production work.”

Students helped build the set, which eventually became something of a community effort. “Since our professor’s field is theology, we wanted to have artifacts from all religions in his office, so a lot of people across the campus helped to collect them,” Scheerer said. “These artifacts are important to the story, because part of his mental illness had been his belief that he was a prophet.”

Students returned between first and second semesters to work as the crew on the January shoot. Among guests on the set was HSU president Rollin Richmond, who “directed” a scene. “He called ‘Action!’” Scheerer said, “and ‘Cut!’”

“To do the shoot, I brought in Brian Wilcox, a professional cinematographer and a friend of mine,” Scheerer said. “And Panavision gave us the Super 16 film package, so our students got experience working with a high-end professional film package, and with a professional cinematographer.”

Other interior and exterior scenes were also shot on the HSU campus (“though we never say in the script what university it is”), and the crew journeyed up U.S. 101 to Trinidad to film a key sequence—in fact, the first scene of the movie.

“We were going to shoot the opening on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, because of its iconic quality,” Scheerer said. “But Luffenholtz Beach in Trinidad turned out to be so beautiful and so appropriate. We filmed at sunset on a gorgeous January day—it’s such a striking and impressive opening sequence that it won out over the bridge.”

HSU students then helped edit and finish the film in a post-production workshop last spring.

Theatre, Film & Dance faculty also participated in the new scenes: Jody Sekas designed the set, Rae Robison designed the costumes, and James McHugh worked on the lighting with cinematographer Wilcox.

Scheerer also enlisted Music Department professor J. Brian Post to write new score elements. Art Department Professor Wayne Knight created the storyboards for the new scenes, and designed the titles and poster elements. Knight died in October of complications from the H1N1 virus. “We’ve added a title to the film,” Scheerer said, “dedicating the screenings at HSU to Wayne.”

HSU Students Have a Piece of the Action

The participation of HSU students and faculty who worked on the film doesn’t necessarily end with the sneak preview screenings. While in Montana in 2005, Scheerer had created a cooperative ownership of The Music Inside, with the help of lawyer John Frohnmayer, former director of the National Endowment of the Arts. Essentially, everyone who worked on the film owns a piece of it, and shares in any future profits.

“The reason I’m pioneering the cooperative approach is because of my background at Sundance,” Scheerer said. “I really believed in the independent film movement in the 80s, and I could never find a way that the producers didn’t end up owning the work and making all the money. We’d rather divide the profits with the people who made the film.” Because of the North Coast shoot, HSU students are now among those people.

Profits could come from television and DVDs, perhaps after a tour of international film festivals. “If it works,” Scheerer said, “it could change the way independent films are made.”

The two sneak preview screenings at the Van Duzer Theatre are part of the process of getting The Music Inside ready for its future. “This is still a work in progress,” Scheerer said. “Since we are still able to change things, we are eager for audience feedback.” Those who attend the screenings will be asked to fill out questionnaires.

The Sneak Previews of The Music Inside are at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13 and Saturday, Nov. 14 in the Van Duzer Theatre on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $10, $8 students and seniors, with a limited number of free seats to HSU students for each performance, from the HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. http://HSUStage.blogspot.com.

“Them Basses” of HBBB/Humboldt Bay Brass Band.Back row, tubas: Damien Adams, Jerry Carter, Ryan Egan, Wilson Bowles, and Elizabeth Cruz.Middle, bass trombones: Kearney Vander Sal and Talon Nansel.Front, tenor tubas: Bill Evans and George Ritscher. Photo by Lig Enilc.

The Veterans Day tribute is a recent American composition called Images, which commemorates the World War II battles on Iwo Jima. Humboldt Bay Brass Band director and HSU Music professor Gilbert Cline describes it as “an intense, impressive composition.”

The evening’s program includes Handel’s rousing Hallelujah Chorus, Rossini’s famous Tancredi Overture and A Moorside Suite by Gustav Holst, composer of The Planets. Another familiar tune, Scarborough Fair, will feature a baritone horn solo by Phil Sams.

The audience will get its chance to participate in the world premiere of an interactive work, appropriately titled Reciprocity. It includes Gil Cline’s invention, “The Helicopter Doppler Trumpet.”

The Band will also premiere its version of Them Basses, by 20th century American composer Getty Herschel Huffine. “It’s one of the only pieces of music ever written in which the basses—the tubas—carry the melody from start to finish,” Cline said.

The Humboldt Bay Brass Band is a British-style brass band, comprised of 24 brass players and three percussionists. Members include HSU students and alumni, as well as community players from a wide area ranging from the Eel River Valley to northern Humboldt and southern Oregon. They include players for such other local ensembles as the Humboldt and Eureka symphonies, the Marching Lumberjacks, the Crabgrass Band, Bandemonium, and the Mel Bay Hotel Biscuit Band.

Most villages and towns in Great Britain have a brass band of this type, and many compete for national honors, often playing some of the selections the Humboldt Bay Brass Band performs in this concert.

Humboldt Bay Brass Band plays its only HSU concert of the year on Saturday Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. http://HSUMusic.blogspot.com.

Violinist Bin Huang / Submitted Photo

“We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful artist perform here,” Mineva said of Bin Huang. The opportunity for Bin Huang and Mineva to perform together made this event possible.

Bin Huang comes to Humboldt during her U.S. tour, after concerts in Italy and in the “Ten Most Celebrated Violinists” series in China. She has appeared at Lincoln Center in New York, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in Russia, Opera City in Tokyo and China’s National Grand Theater. The Baltimore Sun called her “a talent that leaves a listener flabbergasted.”

HSU Music faculty member Daniela Mineva / Submitted Photo

Since winning her first international violin competition at the age of 14, Bin Huang has added many other prestigious prizes, and has performed with such top ranked ensembles as the Julliard String Quartet, the Guarneri String Quartet and the Beaux Arts Trio, as well as major symphony orchestras in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Last year in Canada, she performed the world premiere of Robert Gauldin’s violin concerto, which is dedicated to her.

Her partner in this concert, pianist Daniela Mineva has won numerous international competitions and played major venues in the U.S. and Europe. The New York Times called her a “vibrant and expressive performer who could steal the show in every concert.”

Born in Bulgaria, Daniela Mineva began piano lessons at the age of five, with her mother as her first teacher. She studied at the Sofia Music Academy before earning advanced degrees in the U.S., including her Doctorate at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. She taught at the Eastman School, among other institutions, where she won an award for teaching excellence. She began teaching at HSU as Assistant Professor of Music this fall.

Bin Huang began studying the violin at the age of four in China, and entered the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing at age nine. She came to the U.S., and earned her Bachelor of Music degree at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, and her Masters at the Eastman School of Music.

Together at Fulkerson Hall, Mineva and Bin Huang will play sonatas for violin and piano by 20th century French Impressionist composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, late 19th century Belgian Romantic composer Cesar Franck, and late 20th century French composer Olivier Messiaen.

Violinist Bin Huang and pianist Daniela Mineva perform on Friday, Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $8/$3 from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. This is a Faculty Artists Series concert, produced by the HSU Department of Music. More information: http://HSUMusic.blogspot.com.

Untitled by Don Gregorio Anton

“The Annual Faculty and Staff Exhibition gives our students and the community the opportunity to see the high caliber work of the Art Department’s faculty and staff. For the students who have never seen their professors’ work, this exhibition informs the students about the concepts and ideas their professors are working on,” says Department Chair Joanne Berke.

Grisham Three Ways: Sanded, Sewn and Screwed (detail) by Sarah Whorf

Similarly, Printmaking Professor Sarah Whorf states, “The exhibition is a visual dialogue with the students, and engenders a verbal dialogue that migrates back into the classroom.” The exhibition displays a variety of works that encompass diverse visual media; including painting, photography, installations, sculpture, and printmaking. More than twenty artists will be exhibiting their work. “It’s great to show work that is very new, fresh, and possibly a bit experimental, and also to great see what the rest of the faculty and staff are pursuing year to year,” comments Photography Professor Nicole Jean Hill.

The Reese Bullen Gallery, named in honor of a founding professor of the Art Department, was established in 1970. The gallery is situated in the HSU Art Building, located directly across from the Van Duzer Theatre. The Reese Bullen Gallery is open Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday between the hours of 12 and 5 p.m.; Thursday 12-7 p.m.; Friday 12-5 p.m.; and Saturday 10-2 p.m. Parking is available payment at meters found throughout campus or a day permit. Day permits can be purchased at the dispensers on Harpst Street or just off of LK Wood Blvd. in the Library parking lot for $3.50.

Amanda Wilson / Submitted Photo

• The Karshner Lounge is displaying the works of Amanda Wilson. These small to large oil painting capture issues dealing with femininity and metaphysical aspects of humanity.

• The Foyer Gallery, located in HSU Art Department, features Heather M. Cruce’s
The Optimist. Her work a conceptual exhibition exploring states of mind that accompany optimism including, hope, humor, rejection and naivety. The exhibit includes photo-performance, domestic sculpture and a film.

• The Student Business Services Gallery shows the jewelry and small metals work of Lindsay Behr.