Arts And Entertainment

The Humboldt Bay Brass Band has established itself as Humboldt County’s only all-brass ensemble in the traditional configuration of 27 brass and three percussion players. But the concert on Saturday, April 10 in Fulkerson Recital Hall marks the premiere of the new band within the band: the Humboldt Bay Brass Quintet.

Humboldt State University’s First Street Gallery will present Mimi LaPlant: My Life as an Artist, a survey comprising different subjects and mediums spanning her art 1973-2010, from Saturday, April 3 to Sunday, May 16.

Don’t call it a children’s show. Like “The Princess Bride” or even the classic Warner Brothers cartoons, “Stefanie Hero” by Mark Medoff (whose award-winning “Children of a Lesser God” was decidedly adult) engages and entertains on several levels, for audiences of all ages.

The North Coast Wind Ensemble welcomes spring with a symphony, a song, a couple of marches and some famous variations, in its Fulkerson Recital Hall concert on Saturday, April 3.

Students pursuing a degree in Composition at HSU face the music of a live audience on Friday, April 2 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

Join Humboldt State University English professor Janet Winston and Arcata sculptor Marilyn Andrews as they present their work on the English writer Virginia Woolf on Wednesday, March 24 in HSU’s Green and Gold Room (Founders Hall 166) at noon.

Including a piece that features “among the most exciting moments in the 20th century guitar repertoire,” Nicholas Lambson performs solo guitar works from his forthcoming CD, as well as several duets with flutist Laura Snodgrass, on Friday, March 26 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

Pianist Rika Uchida plays Debussy’s famous “Claire de Lune” and selections from his Preludes and Images, to illustrate the transition from Romantic to modern in classical music, in a concert and commentary on Saturday, March 27 at the Fulkerson Recital Hall.

The Humboldt Symphony presents an airy early-spring program filled with folk melodies and jazz, but in compositions displaying the rich and varied sounds of the symphonic orchestra.

Harold Pinter’s _The Homecoming_ was a theatrical earthquake when it was first performed in the mid-1960s. Shocking, controversial and hotly debated, its Broadway run won the Tony Award. It became an instant classic.

The HSU Symphonic Band goes tandem with the Jazz Orchestra on a program of American tunes. The Band plays “Variations on America” by the “American original” Charles Ives, and the “Americans We” March by Ohioan Henry Fillmore, who toured the U.S. with his band and his wife, the exotic dancer Mabel May Jones.

It was after the Humboldt Light Opera Company production of _The Music Man_ that several cast members decided to stick together awhile longer—and sing together, to raise money for HLOC as well as have some fun.

Humboldt State University has received a $40,000 gift from the estate of artist Brian Sproul, along with a significant collection of Sproul’s artwork.

If you like favorites of the violin sonata repertoire, you couldn’t do better than two selections played by violinist Cindy Moyer and pianist Daniela Mineva, in concert at HSU on Saturday, Feb. 13.

It’s a concert in two parts. The HSU Jazz Orchestra begins with a suite of compositions by jazz bassist, pianist, band leader and composer, the legendary Charles Mingus. His long career stretched from the 1940s into the 1970s. “These are social-political pieces from the 1950s,” said Jazz Orchestra director Shao Way Wu. “They showcase his unique approach and his highly personalized sound.”

In what’s becoming a holiday tradition, the Humboldt Symphony, Humboldt Chorale and University Singers perform a work for voice and orchestra that celebrates the season.

Beginning with the _Fanfare For Christmas Day_ by English composer Martin Shaw, the HSU Madrigal Singers and Mad River Transit celebrate the season with their patented mixture of 16th century tradition and 20th century jazz in their annual holiday concert on Sunday, Dec. 6.

A cult classic by HSU alumnus Trey Spruance brings star power to the HSU Percussion Ensemble portion of the annual percussion concert in the Van Duzer Theatre on Saturday Dec. 5.

The HSU Symphonic Band’s bright and bracing winter concert includes a Sousa march, Armenian Dances and a tribute to classic Warner Brothers cartoon chases, but the most novel work may involve 16 different percussion instruments played by one musician.

As a dark comedy about an extreme yet all-too-familiar family, it may be an early-December antidote to sentimental holiday overkill: _The Marriage of Bette and Boo_ by Christopher Durang takes the Gist Hall stage beginning Dec. 3.

The North Coast Wind Ensemble begins its second year with a concert of festive orchestral music and wind band classics at Fulkerson Hall on Saturday, Nov. 21.

What do you get when eleven pianists play selections from eight composers in a single concert? A Piano Extravaganza, of course— on Sunday afternoon, November 15 in the Fulkerson Recital Hall, to benefit the HSU Guest Pianist Series.

“The program is diverse and true to the mercurial nature of jazz,” said Shao Way Wu, director of this year’s Jazz Combos. Five small ensembles will perform tunes in a range of styles, including swing, Latin, hard bop, funk and both early and modern jazz, as well as original compositions.

Composing music alone in a room is only part of the process that HSU composition students experience—they also hear their compositions performed in public. That public in turn gets to hear something completely new.

Arcata – Humboldt State University will host a special music performance celebrating Latin American heritage on Monday, Nov. 9, from 6-9 p.m. in the Behavioral and Social Sciences Native Forum, Room 162. It is free and open to the public.