A trio, a string quartet and a brass quintet take the Fulkerson Recital Hall stage on the HSU campus in Arcata, for the third in a series of concerts featuring community chamber music groups.

These groups are composed of North Coast citizens, most of them with jobs and careers unrelated to music, who rehearse and perform for the love of music.

For example, the members of TriMusica are a retired English/French teacher, a physician who is the principal oboist for the Eureka Symphony, and a truck driver and former principal cellist for the Eureka Symphony.

And while the idea of community chamber music groups may suggest programs dominated by safe and familiar music, this concert highlights seldom-performed works and composers.

The TriMuisica trio is oboist (and physician) Ellen Weiss, pianist (and retired teacher) Betty Creaghe, and cellist (and truck driver) Mark Creaghe. They will perform a sonata composed by the “soldier-king” of 18th century Prussia, known as Frederick the Great. Novelist and composer Rupert Hughes called him a “flute player and composer of remarkable skill — for a king.” He wrote some 100 sonatas, though they are rarely heard today.

TriMusica will also perform a sonata by Johann Gottlieb Graun, who was Frederick the Great’s court composer when he was still a crown prince, as well as a rare work by English composer John Rutter, “Tango” by Issac Albeniz and an Etude by Frederic Chopin.

The Meadowood Quartet makes its second appearance in the community chamber music series: they played in the first one last spring. Members of the string quartet are Betty Bliss (violin) from Redway; Marilyn Page (violin) from Arcata; Stefan Vaughan (viola) from Eureka, and Eric Jones (cello) from McKinleyville. They will perform one of Beethoven’s celebrated early Quartets (Opus 18, Number 4 in C minor), in four movements.

The third group in this concert, the Northcoast Brass Ensemble, is a little different in that all its members are music teachers. Chris Cox (trumpet) teaches at Eureka High; Burt Codispoti (trumpet) at Triple Junction High School in Petrolia; Ronite Gluck (French horn) for the Freshwater School District; while Dan Aldag (trombone) and Fred Tempas (tuba) teach at HSU.

Four of the works the Ensemble will play are contemporary compositions or arrangements with a regional connection. “Fanfre for Open Spaces” us a 1988 composition by HSU alumna Katherine Ann Murdock, who teaches music theory and composition at Wichita State University. “Mamanita” by pioneer jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton, is arranged for brass quintet by Northcoast Brass Ensemble trombonist and HSU Music professor Dan Aldag. “Italian Postcards” by Ray Burkhart was commissioned by the Humboldt Brass Chamber Music Workshop. “Dance” is by Wilke Renwick, a French horn player who retired to Oregon from the Colorado Symphony.

This Community Chamber Music concert on Friday, June 6 will begin at 7:30 p.m., which is a half hour earlier than concerts in Fulkerson Recital Hall usually start. Tickets are $8 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. http://HSUMusic.blogspot.com. An HSU Music Department production.

You might think this Taiwanese child prodigy was glued to the ivory keys because they were the love of her life.

Just the opposite: “Until I got to college, I hated playing the piano!”

Why?

“I wasn’t doing it for myself, I was doing it to be the best in my class. More than anything I wanted to impress and please the people around me. I just didn’t enjoy playing the instrument.” Metaphorically, she had nailed herself to the cross of perfection.

Today, her outlook is transformed. She plays and practices because she wants to, not because she has to.

With her first year of teaching under her belt at Humboldt State, Dr. Ching-Ming Cheng thoroughly enjoys performing and gave her first concert this spring in the Music Department’s Faculty Artist Series. She received a standing ovation from the Fulkerson Recital Hall audience.

In the classroom, her rookie year was both a charm and a challenge. She found her faculty colleagues unusually supportive, models of the Humboldt State tradition of treating everyone, even newcomers, like family. She prizes the Music Department’s culture and heartily seconds the avowal of Interim Chair Eugene Novotney: “I have been given total artistic freedom here; as a musician, that is all you can hope for your whole life!”

Ching-Ming puts it this way: “I feel I can be myself here. This is only my first year, but I feel I can do what I want and know that I will have the support I need.”

She hailed a number of colleagues by name. “I received tremendous help and encouragement from Deborah Clasquin, the professor of piano, who gave me extra opportunities in the piano area right from the start last fall,” she said in an interview. “And Cindy Moyer, the professor in charge of theory, helped me with ear training to teach that course.”

When fire struck the Old Music Building second semester, Ching-Ming felt homeless—she lost her office for two weeks—but her teaching wasn’t disrupted because Ken Ayoob, ex-Music Chair and Interim Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, swooped into action and produced a new schedule overnight. “I was really surprised and very impressed,” she recalled.

What was more, the fire proved to be a boon. Faculty “refugees” gathered between classes in the Music conference room. Suddenly they had time for more than “Hi, how are you?” and could share real conversations. A renewed spirit of camaraderie arose, reinforced by fellow professors who readily made their intact offices available to their stranded counterparts. Adversity reinforced the department’s solidarity.

Ching-Ming taught piano privately for many years, but found the group settings in the University an entirely different experience. The American classroom and the Taiwanese classroom are a world apart. American students are noisy, Taiwanese students obedient, she says. Her HSU undergraduates challenged her teaching style and she moved with alacrity to adjust.

She had not taught piano literature—music history—and she was cast into the deep end on that score, too. Although her doctoral studies at the University of Miami prepared her to be a piano professor, she discovered through her teaching at HSU that learning is a never-ending journey. “There is a lot of preparation in teaching, especially history, and I felt like I was also a student who had to study and research constantly to give a full-hour presentation every week,” she said.

Ching-Ming is looking forward to her next recital and to next semester, when she plans to push her charges “to be pianists rather than piano students.” Her hard won self-confidence will be an asset on both counts. When she plays now, she shares the music with people instead of trying to impress them. Though she still regards stage fright as every musician’s biggest challenge—“when you step on the stage you just never know what’s going to happen”—Ching-Ming recognizes she is in the concert hall to be heard and enjoyed, not criticized.

The feeling is mutual. “I’ve changed my mentality to enjoy the performance. I had a good time in Fulkerson!” she exclaims with a smile.

With a rubber-cement flow halfway between Slug’s and Slim Shady’s, and the ability to count himself as the planet’s foremost albino Muslim rapper, Brother Ali is certainly a rare persona in the hip-hop universe.

Politically aware and on topic Ali is a force to be reckoned with. Scarub, LuckyIam and Eligh are founding members of the influential Living Legends crew. Tickets are $25 general and $12.50 HSU students. Tickets are available at the University Ticket Office at HSU.

For more information and credit card orders call CenterArts at 826-3928.

Note: This event is restricted to those who are at least 18 years old or a current HSU student with ID.

For this concert, collaboration is the key.  In addition to dances choreographed by students and by HSU dance faculty members Sharon Butcher and Deborah Ketelson, there is a dance created by a faculty member Jeff O’Connor together with a student Marisol Elizarraras.
 
Other collaborations involve dance choreographers and musical composers. HSU Music professor J. Brian Post composed the score for student Lela Annotto-Pemberton’s  “Permutations.”  Lela Annotto-Pemberton and Tara Lihn perform a duet, “Head and Heart,” that was inspired by an original vocal composition by music student Calista Labolle. 
 
One student turned out to be a triple threat: music major and dance minor Jesse Franzen choreographed “First Pulse”, wrote the piano score for Edana Gentry’s “Origin” and accompanies several more dances on the program as a musical performer. 
 
The musical collaboration didn’t end with the choreography — it will be present on stage. “We’re very excited by the number of live musicians who will be part of the performance,” said Sharon Butcher, HSU Assistant Professor and artistic director for this event. 

Those musicians include a student jazz quartet for her own piece, “2nd Impression,” and drummers from the Arcata community creating Congolese rhythms for “Bokila-Elanga (Hunting-Harvesting),” choreographed by Deborah Ketelsen.
 
The collaboration even included a mathematician. “Lela Annotto-Pemberton’s ‘Permutations’ was created as a result of an interdisciplinary seminar, with Kyle Falbo, a student math major.  The dance uses math equations and concepts to make decisions about how to space and move the dancers, ” Butcher said. 
 
“Permutations” was selected to represent HSU at this year’s American College Dance Festival Conference in Salt Lake City, where it received high praise from internationally renowned dance professionals serving as the conference adjudicators.
 
Butcher’s interdisciplinary seminar encouraging collaboration led to this dance, and two more featured in the show: the 1960s spoof “Gosh It’s Fun: How to be Fruggin’ Groovy!” by Tara Lihn, and  “Body Speaks” by Erin Reed and Sarah Cory. 
 
“Body Speaks” involved several kinds of collaboration.   “Erin Reed and Sarah Cory, worked with a photographer, Courtney Brown, to create a dance theatre piece.” Butcher said. “They have a multi-generational cast—the youngest is around eight and the oldest is 70 or so.  There’s a spoken text written by the performers as well as the choreographers, about their own body images.

And not only does Sarah Cory perform, but so does her mother and her niece.” The music was composed by Jacqueline Dandenau, a well-known music and theatre artist from the Arcata community.  “It’s such a lovely piece,” Butcher said, “so mature and tender and funny.”   
 
PURE ABSTRACTION involves 30 HSU dance majors and 20 dance minors, as well as students from other HSU programs and dancers from the community.
 
In conjunction with the concert, HSU will hold its first annual high school dance festival called “Dance Day,” which provides a full day of dance classes, campus tours, advising sessions and informal performance in which students share their creative work.

The festival will have more than 120 students from Northern California and Southern Oregon. Dance Day is hosted by dance faculty and students from Interdisciplinary Studies: Dance Studies; Theatre, Film and Dance; and Kinesiology and Recreation Administration.
 
A silent auction fundraiser will be held in the lobby on Saturday April 19. Proceeds benefit the Dance Studies Program. 
  
PURE ABSTRACTIONS, the HSU spring dance concert, plays for three nights only: Thursday through Saturday, April 17-19 at 7:30 pm in the Van Duzer Theatre on the HSU campus in Arcata.  Tickets $10 general $8 students and seniors from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door.  HSU students free with ID.  A production of HSU Theatre, Film & Dance department; Sharon Butcher, artistic director.  More information: http://HSUStage.blogspot.com

Arcata & Mad River Railroad Engine House Circa 1893. Photographer unknown.

Agent and Keegan restored works by an array of photographers, including A.W. Ericson (1848-1927), a native of Sweden who tracked the community’s history from 1880 to the 1920s on glass plate negatives, and Merle Shuster (1921-2006), well-known for his aerial archives of post-World War II Arcata. Ericson settled in Arcata in 1876 and was a retailer in several businesses whose photographs were published widely in his lifetime and documented timberlands and logging technology as well as street scenes. Shuster’s pictures compassed Humboldt Bay’s littorals and post-war lumber industry, as well as towns, farmsteads, country roads and landscapes.

The Humboldt State Library is caretaker of the historic illustrations, which are available to the public online and in the Humboldt Room that houses and preserves Special Collections, including extensive Humboldt County historical records.

Arcata was incorporated in 1858 and will mark its sesquicentennial the weekend of September 12-13-14 with Arts!Alive, a Plaza Festival and a Summer Concert Series, all geared to historical themes.

Meridian Fine Art Gallery will host an opening reception Friday, April 11, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. as part of Arts! Arcata. The exhibit continues throughout the month at 833 Ninth Street, just off the Humboldt State Sculpture Courtyard.

The gallery is open weekdays 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Dial 826-7184 or click on http://www.meridianfineart.net.

This year’s juror, Jamie Brunson, received her MFA at Mills’ College in 1983 and is an accomplished artist with work in private and public collections worldwide from Qatar to Korea.

As a professional artist, curator and art educator, Brunson has an extensive contemporary art background and has shown pieces in numerous solo and group exhibits throughout California and the United States.

As the co-founder of Art Primer of the Bay Area, Brunson offers individual coaching, classes, and workshops on professional practices for artists.

A wide variety of student created artworks, which include drawings, paintings, photography, jewelry, printmaking, graphic design, ceramics and sculpture will be on display.

A series of prizes and scholarships, acknowledging the best efforts of Humboldt State’s art students will be presented during the opening reception and awards ceremony on April 17th at 5 p.m. The public is invited to attend this event.

The Reese Bullen Gallery, named in honor of a founding professor of the Art Department, was established in 1970. The gallery is situated in Humboldt State’s Art Building directly across from the Van Duzer Theater.

The 2008 Annual Juried Student Exhibition runs April 17 to May 17.

The gallery is open 12-5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, on Thursday from 12-7, Friday 12-5, Saturday from 10-2 p.m.

$3 all day parking permits available on Harpst Street just off of L.K. Wood Blvd. For more information, please contact our gallery staff at 707.826.5814 or rbg@humboldt.edu.

So begins “Helen,” a unique comedy about Helen of Troy by Ellen McLaughlin, who has adapted a play by Euripides and riddled it with modern questions about celebrity, destiny, beauty, womanhood and war.

It will be performed at HSU for two weekends, Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 PM, March 27-29 and April 3-5, in the Gist Hall Theatre.

During the play, Helen is visited by other victims of the gods, and one of the goddesses herself, while carrying on a seesaw relationship with the only person she knows here, an enigmatic Egyptian servant, who is also a storyteller.

By play’s end, Helen discovers the truth about her situation, her husband, her “lover,” herself and the Trojan War. She learns how separate she is from her own image, and how rescue can’t come from anyone else.

The HSU production is directed by Margaret Thomas Kelso, professor in the Theatre, Film and Dance department. She is also a playwright — her play “Relative Captivity” was produced at HSU last semester. She selected “Helen” for her directorial debut at HSU because “I was looking at plays that dealt with war, and I was also looking at plays that dealt with women’s issues, and when I found “Helen”, it dealt with both. And as a bonus, it’s a comedy!”

Helen is played by Darcy Daughtry in her first appearance at HSU, though she is familiar to local audiences from productions at North Coast Repertory Theatre, Ferndale Repertory Theatre, Vagabond Players, Shake the Bard Company and College of the Redwoods.

The other four characters are played by HSU students.

Missy Hopper plays Io, the unfortunate victim of a run-in with Zeus, who is recovering from being turned into a cow. Johanna Hembry is the goddess Athena, cynical and superior towards Helen. Erik Rhea is Menelaus, Helen’s Greek husband, disillusioned by the Trojan War. Leslie Ostrom is Helen’s enigmatic Egyptian servant.

“Helen” is by contemporary American playwright Ellen McLaughlin, who teaches at Barnard College and is also an actor — she was the original Angel in the Broadway production of “Angels in America” by Tony Kushner. Kushner directed the New York production of “Helen”.

Tickets are $10 general, $8 seniors and students from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928), with limited free seating for HSU students. More information: http://HSUStage.blogspot.com

As a student in the composition program, Joanne Rand will perform two of the songs she’s written as part of the annual Composers Concert at HSU on Friday, February 29.

HSU faculty and students will also perform compositions by three other HSU students.

Pianist and faculty member Ching Ming Cheng will play a sonata by Dustin Littlefield, a student ensemble will perform a chamber work by Joe Morf called “Trail to the Top,” and a chamber group will play a work for brass quintet by Mark Jensen.

Joanne Rand will sing and play guitar on her song, “Into the Wild.” She will be joined by vocalists Melody Walker and Lorenza Simmons for “Broken Open,” an arrangement of songs written as prayers.

“This concert promises to provide a unique and eclectic blend of compositional styles and instrumentation,” said J. Brian Post, HSU music professor who teaches composition. “These works contain influences from African rhythms and American folk music, as well as from European art music from Mozart’s time to the present.”

The Composers Concert begins at 8 p.m. on Friday, February 29 in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7, $3 seniors and non-HSU students, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. More information: http://HSUMusic.blogspot.com.

Scale for Determining the Weight of a Soul, 2005 / 16” x 14” x 5” / Apothecary scale, brass bells, lead.

“The Scale for Determining the Weight of a Soul,” and other works by local artist and Humboldt State University alumnus Mark Allen Soderstrom, will be on display as part of his exhibit, Parallax, at the Reese Bullen Gallery at HSU. The public is encouraged to attend the opening reception on Thursday, February 21 2008, from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibit runs from February 22 – March 25 with the exception of being closed during spring break, March 15 -23.

While earning his BA from Humboldt State University, Soderstrom focused on photography, printmaking, and exhibition management. His work turned to more sculptural and experience-oriented projects while completing his Masters of Fine Arts studies at Mills College. Today, the artist lives in Humboldt County where he owns and operates Southstream Art Services in Arcata, Calif.

Flying Belt, 2001 / 28” x 18” x 13” / Cork, dew, glass, leather, steel.

The word “parallax” means the shift in apparent position of something being observed based on different vantage viewpoints. Through his art, Soderstrom presents the viewer with multiple means of looking at the world and in the end leads the viewer to evaluate their own point of view. These are presented through theological, literary, philosophical, cultural, and historical perspectives, as well as those rooted in his own experiential beliefs. One example is “Flying Belt,” which has been associated with Cyrano De Bergerac and Baron Von Munchausen, great storytellers (and notorious exaggerators) from real or imaginary history. During the Middle Ages there was an enlightened man sitting in a field at dawn, so the story goes. As the sun rose and spread its warmth upon field, the dew began to release itself from the grass and float upward. “What miracle do I see,” thought the man? He came to the conclusion that dew is a substance that when illuminated by sunlight, becomes lighter than air. He deduced that if he could fashion a belt affixed with bottles of dew, then he could use it to fly.

The “Scale for Determining the Weight of a Soul” is another example of such inspiration. This sculpture is based on the early Germanic belief that because bells have “voices” they must also have souls; therefore these souls could be possessed or ensnared. Thus, many of the town bells as well as their church bells were baptized. This piece asks, what is the difference in weight of a soul that has been baptized and a soul that has not? Both of the bells in the artwork are of English origin and take the form of young women. The only difference is that one of the bells has been formally baptized.

• The Reese Bullen Gallery is open Monday through Wednesday and Fridays 12 to 5 p.m., Thursdays 12 to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 10 to 2 p.m. Admission is free. Parking permits are available on Harpst Street, just off L.K. Wood Blvd for $3.00 per day. For more information, please contact our staff at 707-826-5814 or rbg@humboldt.edu.

• Visit Mark Allen Soderstrom’s web site to learn more about the artist.

It’s just before dawn, and the fireflies are darting and glowing in the dark. Ominous sounds frighten them away, and as the sun rises, two armies of ants confront each other.

So begins “Insectia…the ant war,” an action-packed physical theatre show for family and school audiences that plays for two weekends, February 21-24, and February 28-March l, in the Van Duzer Theatre.

Before the day that’s portrayed is over, ants will do martial arts battle, a sweet-faced ladybug with super powers will fly onto the stage to intervene, and the ants will chase her. Bored ant soldiers will goad a caterpillar into racing a banana slug, a black widow spider will swing into action and menace the ants with her web-darts and giant spider web.

But for all the stage fighting and thrilling effects, “there’s no blood spilled, and nobody gets killed in this show, not even bugs,” said director Jyl Hewston. Instead there’s music and dancing, surprises and at least one transformation, and “there are happy endings all around.”

The story of “Insectia” was created by cast members Rachel Brink and Julia Chase, together with the rest if the cast: Jojo Bradfield, Mackenzie Cox, Natasha Harrell, Johanna Hembry, Stephanie Misiura, Katie Pratt, Andre Schnell, Claire Smith and Erin Voudy. Though the theme of an ant war was selected partly to demonstrate stage-fighting skills, the increasing incursion of combative fire ants into new territories because of climate change prompted the idea, Hewston said.

The very colorful costumes designed by Rae Robison, assisted by Erin Voudy, suggest the insect (and arachnid) characters using the popular Japanese animation style called anime, familiar to college students as well as children.

Though there’s no dialogue in the show, there is plenty of sound—not only the strange chirping of the ant languages and the black widow’s hypnotic song, but the original music of a live band, led by Gregg Moore. “Gregg and I met years ago when we were students together at Arcata High,” said Hewston, who teaches physical theatre and stage combat among other courses for the HSU Department of Theatre, Film and Dance. “When Gregg studied music in college he got so interested in theatre that he went to Europe with a mime troupe. He’s been creating original music for theatre in Europe for decades, and now he’s back finally finishing his music degree at HSU.” Moore is probably best known locally for his work with Dell’Arte.

“Insectia” got started partly due to the success several years ago of an earlier physical theatre show primarily for children. “We did something called ‘Mars Mayhem,’ about the Mars Rover,” Hewston said. “CenterArts brought in bus loads of school kids for that, and they’ve been wanting us to another show like it ever since.”

This year the cast will do four already sold-out matinees for school children. But there are also six evening shows — Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 21-23 and Feb. 28-March 1 — and one matinee on Feb. 24 at 2 p.m. for the general public. The show is under an hour in length, and the special family-friendly ticket prices are $5 general, and $3 for children, seniors and non-HSU students. HSU students are admitted free.

Tickets: HSU Ticket Office (826-3928.)
Information: http://HSUStage.blogspot.com.