Concerts, lectures part of final week of SLU’s Fanfare

A ghoulish chamber concert, readings in prose and poetry and a holiday lecture favorite highlight the final week of Fanfare, Southeastern Louisiana University’s annual October-long arts festival.

“Fanfare is entering its final week, but there is no shortage of great events to experience,” Columbia Theatre and Fanfare interim Director C. Roy Blackwood said. “Aside from the always terrific lectures and readings, everyone can anticipate a concert by the Southeastern Louisiana University Chamber Orchestra, featuring magnificent music, as well as a Halloween costume contest.”

Fanfare’s fourth week begins at 7:30 p.m. Monday, when the Chamber Orchestra will present a Halloween concert at the Columbia Theatre. Under the baton of Yakov Voldman, the concert will feature a ghoulish concoction of classical favorites and fun, including a Halloween costume contest and candy. Attendees are encouraged to come in costume.

General admission is $10, $5 for SLU faculty and staff, senior citizens and patrons younger than 18. Children younger than 12 accompanied by an adult will be admitted at no charge. College students with a university ID also are admitted free.

“Louisiana Connections: Fiction and Poetry Readings from the English Department Faculty” continues at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday with Bev Marshall. The free event will take place in the Contemporary Art Gallery. A department of English writer-in-residence, Marshall is the author of “Walking through Shadows,” “Right as Rain” and “Hot Fudge Sundae Blues.”

A second reading will be at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday with Tim Gautreaux, department of English writer-in-residence, in the Contemporary Art Gallery. Gautreaux is the author of the novels “The Next Step in the Dance,” “The Clearing” and “The Missing.”

Fanfare’s Then and Now Lecture series concludes Wednesday with the “More-or-Less Annual Halloween Lecture” by History and Political Science Department head William Robison. He will present “Battling, Bedding, Burning and Beheading: True Tales of Terror from Tudor Times” at 1 p.m. in Pottle Music Building Auditorium. Through film clips and discussion, Robison will illustrate the most terrifying true tales from Tudor times, organizers said.

Also during Fanfare’s final week:

• The Foreign Film Festival concludes at 5 p.m. Tuesday with the German film “Rosentrasse” in the Student Union Theatre. While countless Jews were being sent to concentration camps for execution, Jewish husbands of Aryan wives suffered a different fate: They were separated from their families and imprisoned in a factory on a street named Rosentrasse. On that street their wives stood in protest in the name of love until they were reunited with their men. The free film is rated PG-13 and is approximately 136 minutes.
• At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Department of Fine and Performing Arts’ Guest Artist Recital Series will present Craig Hultgren, cello, at Pottle Annex Recital Hall. Hultgren will play a solo program of recent compositions for cello. The free concert features works by living composers and includes works with amplification, audio soundfile playback and a computer score-reading tablet.
• At 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1, the SLU Concert Choir and Women’s Chorale will present “Nocturnes,” a free concert at First United Methodist Church, 2200 Rue Denise, in Hammond. Featuring a work by Dan Forrest, “Nocturnes,” is three movements for chorus and percussion ensemble. The movements are titled “Stars,” “Lightly Stepped a Yellow Star” and “… Thou Motive of the Stars.” Conducted by Alissa Mercurio Rowe, the group will also perform “Sure on This Shining Night” by Morten Lauridsen and Gustav Holst’s “I Love My Love.”

Fanfare tickets are on sale at the Columbia/Fanfare box office, 220 E. Thomas St., (985) 543-4371. Some tickets can be purchased online at http://columbiatheatre.org. The box office is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and one hour prior to the Columbia performances. For a complete schedule, contact the Columbia/Fanfare office at (985) 543-4366 or visit http://columbiatheatre.org.