Category: Performances

Wednesdays in Wiedemann’s annual Organ POPS concert will have a special title this year, “The Winds of Wiedemann,” at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, May 1 in Wiedemann Hall.

Braeden Held, a current grad student, Keysto Stotz and Bobby Kitchen, past graduates will join Lynne Davis in this concert featuring wind instruments: the great Marcussen organ, trumpet, tuba and saxophone. The program will include famous organ and trumpet tunes, a tuba sonata by Telemann and the famous Vocalise by Rachmaninov in a version for saxophone and organ.

The concert will be livestreamed on the School of Music’s YouTube page.

Wichita State’s French Division in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures presents “Chante la vie, chante,” a live event featuring classic French songs recorded during “The Golden Age of French Song 1950-1999” designed and directed by André Nerman, at 7 p.m. Monday, April 22 in the CAC Theater. The musical is free to attend.

It will feature songs by artists such as Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg and many more. Musicians from Paris will be singing and performing these classic French songs.

Wichita State’s French Division in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures presents “Chante la vie, chante,” a live event featuring classic French songs recorded during “The Golden Age of French Song 1950-1999” designed and directed by André Nerman, at 7 p.m. Monday, April 22 in the CAC Theater. The musical is free to attend.

It will feature songs by artists such as Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg and many more. Musicians from Paris will be singing and performing these classic French songs.

Wichita State’s School of Performing Arts proudly presents “Wichita Contemporary Dance Theatre” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 25 through Saturday, April 27, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 28. All performances will be in Wilner Auditorium.

“Wichita Contemporary Dance Theatre” is an evening of new and restaged dance works by WSU faculty and students, and the world premiere of “Clear Elevation” by guest artist Darrell Grand Moultrie (Connoisseur Series).

Tickets are free for students with a myWSU ID; $12 for children; $18 for faculty, staff, senior citizens and military; and $20 for adults.

Purchase tickets from the box office online or call 316-978-3233

The Wichita State Opera Theater will present Mozart’s comic masterpiece, “Le Nozze di Figaro” (The Marriage of Figaro) at 7:30 p.m. April 12 and 3 p.m. April 14 in Duerksen Fine Arts Center.

The production is directed by WSU Opera Theater Director Alan Held. The WSU Orchestra will be conducted by Dr. Mark Laycock. Long recognized as one of the pillars of operatic repertoire, the story features some of Mozart’s most famous arias and ensembles as it follows the troubles and antics of Figaro and his young bride, Susanna, on their wedding day.

The Rie Bloomfield Organ Series will present Distinguished Guest Artist, Alcee Chriss, in an organ recital on the Marcussen organ at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 9 in Wiedemann Hall.

Winner of the 2017 Canadian International Organ Competition, Dr. Chriss is widely regarded as one of the leading young organists of the modern times. He studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music for his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and received his doctorate from McGill University in Montreal. Dr. Chriss is also active as a church musician and guest lecturer, and he remains engaged with his lifelong love of gospel and jazz music, which he will demonstrate during the concert.

Tickets are available at the College of Fine Arts Box Office and at wichita.edu/organ.

The School of Music is excited to present “Welcome Spring!” to kickstart its Faculty Chamber Music Series at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 20 in Wiedemann Hall. There is no better way to celebrate the energy and beauty of this time of year than by playing and listening to the iconic and thrilling melodies of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring.

It will present the original 13-instrument version as a chamber offering. The one-hour concert is also a celebration of the musical excellence of the WSU School of Music faculty and alumni. Other selections will include riveting two piano repertoire and new works for piano and saxophone.

WSU students can present their Shocker ID and get a ticket at no additional charge in advance at the Fine Arts Box Office in Duerksen Fine Arts Center during operating hours.

Tickets can be purchased online through the Fine Arts Box Office or by phone at 316-978-3233. Online sales are suspended three hours before an event.

The box office opens one hour before the event at the performance venue. Doors open 30 minutes before start time.

Wednesdays in Wiedemann continues with Professor Lynne Davis at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 6 in Wiedemann Hall on the Marcussen organ.

Admission to the half hour recital is available at no additional charge, and the event will be livestreamed on the School of Music Facebook page.

The program includes transcriptions to two famous songs by Gabriel Fauré as well as variations on the old Flemish tune, “Est-ce Mars?” (“Is it the God of War, Mars?”) by Sweelinck.

Join the School of Performing Arts for performances of “Peter and the Starcatcher” from Feb. 29 to March 3 in WIlner Auditorium. The performances start at 7:30 p.m. from Feb. 29 to March 2 and 2 p.m. on March 3.

Tickets cost $20 for adults; $18 for seniors, military and faculty/staff; and $12 for children and students. Wichita State students can also receive one student ticket at no additional charge with their Shocker ID thanks to the Student Government Association.

Written by Rick Elice, the show is about a young orphan and their mates that are sent from Victorian England to a distant island ruled by the tyrant King Zarboff. Unbeknownst to them, the captain’s cabin holds an enigmatic trunk containing otherworldly and valuable cargo. Along their voyage, they meet the bright and astute Molly, who is training to become a Starcatcher. They quickly discover that the trunk’s precious contents are starstuff, a powerful celestial substance that must never fall into the wrong hands. Their adventure takes a dangerous turn when the ship is taken over by pirates, led by the fearsome Black Stache, a villain set on claiming the trunk and its riches for themselves. The group must work together to protect the starstuff from falling into the wrong hands as they navigate through treacherous waters and face perilous obstacles.

Purchase tickets from the online box office or call 316-978-3233.

Six student soloists will perform in concert with the WSU Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13 in Miller Concert Hall. The annual Concerto-Aria Concert will be led by Mark Laycock, director of orchestras.

The featured performers, selected by competitive audition, are among the finest upper division and graduate majors in the School of Music. The program will also include the world premiere of Labyrinth, a short work for chamber orchestra by retiring faculty composer Dean Roush.

Soloists Josephine Barstad, soprano; Aria Beert, violin; Luis Gomez, clarinet; Karla Lugo, cello; Grace Stringfellow, oboe; and Anne Yap I-Shyuen, piano, will perform works by Richard Strauss, Henryk Wieniawski, Edward Elgar, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Wolfgang Mozart and Oscar Navarro.

• Minnesota soprano Barstad is lauded for her “glorious and expressive” voice. Her authentic artistry has most recently been displayed in the title role of “Suor Angelica,” where she was described as “having a voice made for verismo.” Upcoming in the 2024 season she will perform La Contessa in “Le nozze di Figaro” and hold her Graduate Recital at Wichita State.
• Aria Beert, originally from Rockford, Illinois, has won numerous awards for her violin playing, including the Mendelssohn Performing Arts Scholarship competition, the Rockford Symphony Youth Orchestra, the American Federation of Musicians Scholarship Award, Rockford Area Music Industry Scholarship Award and Budding Artist Musician from the Kiwanis Club of Rockford.
• Luis Enrique Gomez is a graduate student at WSU completing his master’s in clarinet performance in the clarinet studio of Professor Rachelle Goter. He can currently be seen directing the WSU Shocker Sound Machine at various sporting events, as a student conductor of the WSU Symphonic Band under the direction of Dr. Timothy Shade, and playing clarinet and bass clarinet in the WSU Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra and Clarinet Quartet, as well as the Wichita Wind Symphony.
• Karla Lugo was born in Pachuca Hidalgo, Mexico, where she learned to play the cello at age 12 in the humanitarian project Sinfónica Azteca. She has won awards for second place in the National Cello Competition of La Superior de Musica y Danza de Monterrey and the scholarship Creadores Escénicos 2022 of the Support System for Cultural Creation and Projects in Mexico.
• Grace Stringfellow is an orchestral, chamber and solo performer based in Wichita. She joined the Boise Philharmonic as second oboe in September 2021 and the Wichita Symphony as second oboe in September 2022 and has been principal oboe of the Dad Village Symphony Orchestra (a virtual symphony) since March of 2020. In 2020, she won the Undergraduate Concerto Competition at the University of Colorado Boulder.
• Anne Yap I-Shyuen, a native of Malaysia, is a first-year graduate student pursuing a Master of Music in piano performance at WSU under the tutelage of Dr. Warren Kim. She earned her Bachelor of Music in piano performance and pedagogy in May 2023, having been guided by Dr. Julie Bees. Throughout this period, Anne garnered notable accolades, including the Outstanding Graduating Senior Award 2023 and the Thurlow Lieurance Outstanding 2023 Senior and 2022 Junior Awards.

Tickets are available at the Fine Arts Box Office or by calling 316-978-3233.