Copyright Arkansas Online
Your browser does not support the audio element. MUSIC Steinway Series The Close Up! Steinway Salon Chamber Series season opens with a program titled “Elegy,” 3 p.m. Saturday at Steinway Gallery Fayetteville, 4155 N, Steele Blvd., Fayetteville, and 3 p.m. Sunday at Steinway Gallery Little Rock, 657 Arkansas 365, Mayflower. Meredith Hicks, violin; Jacob Wunsch, cello; and Tim Smith, piano, will play the “Elegy” for Piano Trio, op.23, by Josef Suk and the Piano Trio No. 1 in d minor, op.32, by Anton Arensky. Phoebe Robertson, flute; David Gerstein, cello; and Naoki Hakutani, piano, play the Trio in g minor for flute, cello and piano, op.63, by Carl Maria von Weber. Tickets are $25, $10 for students. Call (501) 940-1562 or visit steinwaylr.com/close-up. ‘Voices of Liberty’ The Conway Symphony and conductor Israel Getzov open the orchestra’s 41st season with a program titled “Voices of Liberty,” 4 p.m. Sunday in the University of Central Arkansas’ Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts, 2150 Bruce St. at Donaghey Avenue, Conway. Clarinetist Tyus Diaz, winner of the UCA Concerto Competition in January, solos in the Clarinet Concerto by Katherine Hoover; the program also includes the the “William Tell” Overture by Giacchino Rossini and the Symphony No. 2 by Jean Sibelius. Tickets are $34.50-$69; visit ci.ovationtix.com/36631/production/1247970. Texarkana Ninth The Texarkana Symphony Orchestra kicks off its 20th anniversary season with a Masterworks performance of the Symphony No. 9 in d minor, op.125, “Choral,” by Ludwig van Beethoven, 7 p.m. Saturday at the Perot Theatre, 221 Main St., Texarkana. Joining the orchestra and conductor Philip Mann: soloists Nancy Curtis, soprano; Davis Bouley, contralto; Timothy Culver, tenor; and Richard Paul Fink, baritone, plus the Louisiana Tech Singers, the Ouachita Baptist University Choir, the Ouachita Singers and members of the Harding University Chorus. A concert preview is set for 6:10 p.m. Tickets are $42-$62, $15 for children 6-12, $10 for children 5 and younger. Call (903) 793-4993 or visit perottheatre.org. Violin and trumpet Duo Nuovo — Arkansas Symphony Orchestra musicians Andrew Stadler, trumpet, and Ariya Tai, violin and piano — offers a program titled “Echoes and Dialogues: Music in Conversation,” 3 p.m. Sunday at Presbyterian Kirk in the Pines, 275 Asturias Drive, Hot Springs Village. It’s the opening concert in the Hot Springs/Hot Springs Village Symphony Guild’s 2025-26 Classic Concert Series. Tickets are $10. Visit symphonyguild.org. Tai will perform “Caprice Variations for Solo Violin” (variations 5, 7, 18, 19, 25, 42, 45, 50 and 51) by George Rochberg; the Sonata No. 4 for solo violin, op.27, by Eugène Ysaÿe; and “Das Vögelchen” from “Li-Na im Garten” by Isang Yun. Stadler will play “Paths” by Toru Takemitsu. Together they will play “Three Duets for Trumpet and Violin” by James D’Arcy; “Sun Songs,” op.794, by Carson Cooman; “Trois Pièces Concertantes” by Makoto Shinohara; and Four Songs from “The Weary Blues” by Florence Price. Stadler is also on the faculty at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and a member of the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas. Tai is also a player with the Mercury Chamber Orchestra and Apollo Chamber Players in Houston, where she’s based. Lyon College concerts The Lyon College Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Lyon College Chamber Choir perform at 2 p.m. Sunday in Sloan Auditorium, Brown Fine Arts Building, at the college, 2300 Highland Road, Batesville. And the Diamond Wind Ensemble, consisting of college musicians and local and regional performers, performs at 7 p.m. Monday, also in Sloan Auditorium. Admission to both concerts is free. Email Bethany.Neese@Lyon.edu. THEATER Show of the century Lyon College’s Harlequin Theatre marks its 100th anniversary with a production of “Miss Lulu Bett” by Zona Gale, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the Holloway Theatre at the college, 2300 Highland Road, Batesville. Tickets, available at the door, are $5 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and any non-Lyon student (college, high school, whatever age), free for everyone with a Lyon College ID. “Miss Lulu Bett,” written in 1920, was the first play by a woman to win the Pulitzer Prize. A woman struggles to find her place in the world after living as a virtual servant to her sister and brother-in-law. Pine Bluff ‘Razzle Dazzle’ Pine Bluff’s ARTx3 Campus will present “Razzle Dazzle: A Night at the Movies,” 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday in the Catherine M. Bellamy Theater at The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 701 S. Main St. The revue, this year focusing on favorite songs from movies, is a biennial fundraiser to support theater and educational programming. Sponsor is Simmons Bank. Tickets are $20. Call (870) 536-3375 or visit artx3.org/razzle-dazzle. Shakespeare in the park Texas Shakespeare Festival of Kilgore stages its abridged Roadshow Tour production William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” 7:30 p.m. Friday in the 1940 WPA Gym at Historic Washington State Park, 103 Franklin St., Washington (Hempstead County). Doors open at 7 p.m. Sponsors are the Patterson/Troike Foundation, the Arkansas Community Foundation (Texarkana Area) and the Hempstead County Historical Society. Tickets are $10, $5 for children 12 and younger. Call (870) 983-2684 or visit historicwashington@arkansas.com. The park is also holding Washington After Dark, 7-9 p.m. Saturday, with an interpretive guide through selected sites “that have some ‘unexplained’ happenings in their history,” according to a news release. Cost is $15 per person. Registration is required — call (870) 983-2684. ART & EXHIBITS ‘Pale Blue Dot’ “Our Pale Blue Dot,” recent paintings by Benton artist Kae Barron inspired by “the famous ‘Pale Blue Dot’ photo of Earth from space (taken by Voyager spacecraft, as it exited the solar system in 1990),” according to the artist, goes on display with a 6-8 p.m. reception Friday at Cantrell Gallery, 8202 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. The exhibition remains up through Jan. 17. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday or by appointment. Admission to the reception and the gallery is free. Call (501) 224-1335 or visit cantrellgallery.com. ‘Henry and Nolan’ “Henry and Nolan,” photographs by Rita Henry and Nancy Nolan along with their collections of cameras, photography tools and materials, as well as a special art installation, is on display through Feb. 1 at ESSE Purse Museum & Store, 1510 Main St., Little Rock. The “Arkansas Women Behind the Camera” retrospective celebrates the careers of two women “in a male-dominated field … forced to navigate stereotypes and prejudices despite so often being recognized for their artistic perspectives,” according to a news release. Admission is $10, $8 for students, senior citizens and military. Call (501) 916-9022 or email info@essepursemuseum.com. ETC. Floral designer at AMFA Floral designer Shane Connolly is making a flying two-day visit this weekend to Little Rock and the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, 501 E. Ninth St., including: ◼️ A cocktail reception, 5-7 p.m. Friday, in partnership with P. Allen Smith’s Moss Mountain Farm and the Little Rock Garden Club, featuring a series of arrangements created by local floral designers; attendees will get to take home a signed copy of Connolly’s book, “Discovering the Meaning of Flowers,” in which he explores the lost art of Floriography and ways to articulate feelings through flowers. Cost is $80; visit events.arkmfa.org/event/ cocktail-reception-with-shane- connolly. ◼️ Connolly will demonstrate floral arrangement “inspired by the natural beauty of Arkansas,” according to a news release, “(u)sing seasonal flowers and foliage from local woods and gardens,” 10:30 a.m.-noon Saturday in the museum’s Amerine/Calhoun Glass Box. A breakfast reception starts at 10 a.m. in the atrium. Cost is $100. Visit events.arkmfa.org/event/from-the-woods-and-gardens-of-arkansas-a-conversation-and-demonstration-with-shane-connolly. ◼️ He will hold a seasonal floral design masterclass, 2-5 p.m. Saturday, that has sold out. Connolly is perhaps best known for his public work for the British royal family, most recently a commission for the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Westminster Abbey in 2023. He also designed the flowers for their marriage at Windsor Castle in 2005 and for the wedding of the prince and princess of Wales in 2011.
