Arts notes: Fresno Pacific offers a choral/chamber music double-header. Plus: art museum exhibit reception, and Keyboard announces substitute artist
Some arts picks and notes to get your arts weekend started:
Pacific Artist Series
Fresno Pacific University this weekend is hosting the National Conference of the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers. The university is giving the public two chances to partake in all that creative energy.
The first is a Friday evening FPU Choir concert featuring selections by five of the national conference composers. For conductor Jeffrey Wilson, it’ll be a wonderful learning experience.
“Most of the performers are university students and most of them have never met a composer before,” Wilson tells me. “Singing pieces written by composers who are actually in the room, hearing them talk about their creative work, and observing their responses to our performance in real time ,has been a real blessing for our students. The fact that these composers take their faith seriously is also a significant part of the experience.”
The concert is at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 25, at Butler Church. Tickets are $15.
The second concert, featuring eight composers, is played by members of a woodwind quintet. One piece is performed by guest artist Richard Kravchak on treble shawm, oboe, and English horn.
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Christa Evans, a Fresno Pacific professor and coordinator of the woodwind quintet, says a highlight of the program is Jan Mittelstaedt’s “Amber Alert.”
“It is an incredible piece, with moments of beauty and suspense,” she says. “It is my personal favorite on the program. Jerry Casey’s “Harlequinade” is a fun and playful piece, in which our oboist joins the group on woodblock, representing a magic wand.
The concert is 3 p.m. Saturday, March 26, at Butler Church. Tickets are $15.
The concerts are considered the third and fourth installments of the 19th season of the university’s Pacific Artist Series.
Fresno Art Museum reception
The winter/spring lineup of exhibitions at the Fresno Art Museum has been attracting enthusiastic viewers for weeks now, but the official exhibition reception — the fun stuff with wine, beer and hors d’oeuvres — is 6-8 p.m. Friday, March 25.
A highlight will be an artist talk by Chester Arnold at 5 p.m.
The reception is free for members and $20 for non-members.
Keyboard Concerts change
The Philip Lorenz International Keyboard Concerts series features the American pianist Drew Petersen on Friday, April 1. This is a replacement for the Polish pianist Rafal Blechacz, who “was obliged to cancel his performance due to an unfortunate circumstance involving vaccines and quarantine deadlines,” says artistic director Andreas Werz. “We will reschedule Mr. Blechacz as soon as possible.”
Petersen is the recipient of the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2017 American Pianists Award.
