Category: Performances

The School of Performing Arts proudly presents “Move on Litwin: Dance Up Close,” a diverse evening of dance works, at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 26-28 in the Litwin Theatre of the Heskett Dance Studio.

Tickets are $15, but Wichita State students can receive one ticket to the performance at no additional charge with their Shocker ID thanks to the support of the WSU Student Government for College of Fine Arts performances.

Call the College of Fine Arts Box Office at 316-978-3233 for tickets, or purchase them online.

The School of Performing Arts in the College of Fine Arts invites the Wichita community to its 2023-24 season of productions.

This year’s season is centered around “Building Community.”

Fall 2023:

• Move on Litwin: Dance Up Close – 7:30 p.m. Oct. 26-28 in Litwin Theatre, Heskett Dance Studios
• A Chorus Line – 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2-4; 2 p.m. Nov. 5 in the Wilner Auditorium
• Senior Capstone Celebration – 6 p.m. Dec. 2; 2 p.m. Dec. 3 in Wilner Auditorium

Spring 2024:

• Wichita Children’s Dance Festival – 2 p.m. Jan. 28 in Wilner Auditorium
• Peter and the Starcatcher – 7:30 p.m. Feb. 29-March 2; 2 p.m. March 3 in Wilner Auditorium
• Christmas Dish – 7:30 p.m. April 5-6 in the Welsbacher Black Box Theatre, Hughes Metropolitan Complex
• Wichita Contemporary Dance Theatre – 7 p.m. April 25-27; 2 p.m. April 28 in Wilner Auditorium

Tickets can be purchased online from the College of Fine Arts Box Office. Find a complete list of productions on the School of Performing Arts website.

On the great Marcussen organ in Wiedemann Hall, Lynne Davis, the Robert L. Town Distinguished Professor of Organ, presents another Wednesdays in Wiedemann recital at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11. It will also be livestreamed on the School of Music Facebook page.

Enjoy works by J.S. Bach, entitled “Back to Bach 2,” and more music by the celebrated Cantor of Leipzig in the setting of Wiedemann Hall with Bach’s own transcription of a Vivaldi concerto and his dramatic Fantasy and Fugue in G minor.

The School of Performing Arts presents “Mama Bushwick is Dead” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5 through Oct. 7 in the Welsbacher Theatre in the Eugene M Hughes Metropolitan Complex.

Ticket prices are $15, and Wichita State students receive one ticket at no additional charge with their Shocker ID thanks to the support of the Student Government Association.

Written by Elizabeth Shannon, the show is about five estranged siblings, Bard, Joyce, Robin, Scott, and Jo, who return to their recently deceased mother’s home. They must prepare for her funeral, clean her duplex, and decide who will give her eulogy. Filled with grief, trauma, childhood memories, and dolls, “Mama Bushwick is Dead,” explores the complex family dynamics present regardless of place and time. This show is rated PG-13 for language and adult themes that may not be suited for children under 13.

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

Hilary Jones, assistant professor of flute, and Dean Roush, professor of music theory and composition, will be featured in the first concert of the season by the WSU Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21 in Miller Concert Hall. The program will be led by Mark Laycock.

Jones, principal flute of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, will perform “Carmen Fantasy” by Francois Borne. Beginning her first full year on the WSU faculty, Jones maintains an active career performing and teaching throughout the US.

Roush’s composition “Ars Poetica” dates from 2011 and is based upon a poem by Tom Andrews, a cousin of the composer. Retiring at the end of this academic year, Roush is area coordinator of musicology and composition.

The concert also includes Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. Composed in 1937, ostensibly as an apology to Soviet authorities for his controversial opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District,” the work remains an unrepentant and bold testimony of an artist’s courage in the face of oppression and censure.

As an orchestral musician, Jones also holds the position of second flute with the Greater Bridgeport Symphony and regularly performs with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Riverside Symphony’s Lincoln Center series, New England Symphonic Ensemble’s residency at Carnegie Hall, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra, Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra and she is a substitute musician for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and New Haven Symphony. She was twice a fellow at the National Orchestral Institute and was also awarded a fellowship with the Talis Festival in Switzerland.

Roush earned his BFA from Ohio University, his MM from Bowling Green State University and his DMA from Ohio State University. Roush is a former National Science Foundation research associate in computer music and a former instructor of theory and composition at Bowling Green State University. He has several published research articles, compositions and arrangements. His works for solo harp have been performed throughout the United States, Europe and Israel and are recorded on the Orion label. A compact disc of his “The Dove Descending” for flute and organ has been released on the Summit Records label.

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

The Rie Bloomfield Organ Series 2023-24 season presents its first distinguished guest artist at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19 in Wiedemann Hall on the great Marcussen organ.

Bradley Hunter Welch from Dallas will present an eclectic program including audience favorites and will participate in the popular “Conversation with the Artist” immediately following the intermission, an onstage interview with Lynne Davis, professor and series producer.

Tickets, with special student rates, can be purchased online, and the event will be livestreamed on the School of Music’s Facebook page.

The first Wednesdays in Wiedemann with Lynne Davis organ recital in the Rie Bloomfield Organ Series 23-24 season is scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 6 in Wiedemann Hall.

Performing on the great Marcussen organ in Wiedemann Hall, Davis will present a program of works by J.S. Bach: “Back to Bach”.  Admission is free and the event will be livestreamed on the WSU School of Music Facebook page.

The School of Performing Arts’ dance program will presents the Wichita Contemporary Dance Theatre (WCDT) concert at the Wilner Auditorium at the following times and dates:

• 7:30 p.m.: Friday, April 28-April 29
• 2 p.m.: Sunday, April 30

Tickets are available at no additional charge to Wichita State students with a Shocker ID, $18 for seniors, military and WSU faculty and staff, $20 for adults, and $10 for children and students.

WCDT’s repertoire concert includes the works of faculty members Cheyla Clawson Chandler, Denise Celestin, Nick Johnson, Sabrina Vasquez and international guest artist Charlotte Boye-Christensen. Chandler will restage the work, “Logged in and Buffering,” an abstraction of the challenges of relationship and community-building in the age of social media and technology. Johnson will present his mime ensemble, “Angels Rising,” that explores the often lethal competitive nature of humanity from the beginning of times until after death in “Angel’s Rising.” Celestin’s work, “Prelude,” is a poetic and heartfelt tribute to her late mother Lynn Celestin. Vasquez will present her new work, “seenUnseen,” an abstract exploration of being seen by others and oneself. Charlotte Boye-Christensen’s dance film, “The Wanderer,” was inspired by poetic and sometime strange visits to Prairie pines and Field of Screams. “The Wanderer” is in collaboration with Shocker Studios and musician Dr. Kevin Harrison.

Come one and all to hear the great Marcussen organ at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, May 3 in Wiedemann Hall.

In addition to solo organ works by Widor and Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, there will be a jazz band of students from Skiatook, Oklahoma High School performing the selections: “Girl from Ipanema,” “Feelin’ Good” and “In the Stone.”

WSU alums, Keysto Stotz and Bobby Kitchen will be directing the trombones, trumpets, saxophones drums, organ and piano.

Admission is available at no additional charge, and the event is livestreamed on the WSU School of Music Facebook page.

Musical selections by Anton Bruckner and John Williams highlight the annual Oratorio Concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 30 in Miller Concert Hall. The program, featuring Concert Chorale, WSU Choir, Shocker Choir and the WSU Symphony Orchestra, will be led by Mark Laycock.

Composed in 1884, Bruckner’s “Te Deum” is a song of praise featuring an ancient Latin text. Bruckner labored for three years on the piece, eventually completing his sixth and seventh symphonies before finishing the choral work. In the dozen remaining years of Bruckner’s lifetime, the piece received nearly 30 performances.

The program will also include four selections by renowned film composer John Williams: “Flight to Neverland” from Hook, “Call of the Champions” from the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, “Hymn to the Fallen” from Saving Private Ryan and “Duel of the Fates” from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.