Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
publicinfo@selu.edu
SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
Date: 10/20/00
Contact: Christina Chapple 52N
Editors: Photo accompanies release Please note local interest
FANFARE FINISHES WITH POPS PICNIC, GERSHWIN TRIO, PATSY CLINE, IRISH
FIDDLER, COPLAND TRIBUTE
HAMMOND -- Fanfare, Southeastern Louisiana University's fall festival of the arts,
humanities and sciences, enters its final days with a cultural line-up that includes a popular pops
"picnic," a dynamic Irish fiddler, a lively French trio, a spooky live radio show, a red-hot tribute
to a country music legend and a salute to one of America's greatest composers.
The week kicks off on Sunday, Oct. 29, with Fanfare's ever-popular Picnic 'n Pops, co-
sponsored by the Hammond Rotary Club. This year, the Fanfare favorite will offer a variety of
pops and classics to tables of picnickers seated on the floor of the Southeastern University Center
arena and to the audience in the arena's seats. The popular evening of food, socializing and
music, will feature the Louisiana Philharmonic Symphony with singers Phillip Manuel and Leah
Chase.
Chase and Manuel will join the symphony in tunes arranged by Bill Grimes. Manuel will
solo on a medley of Stevie Wonder tunes and in "Do You Know What It Means?," while Chase
will perform Gershwin's "Summertime" and "Where Do You Start." The singers will join their
voices in Grimes' arrangement of "Unforgettable."
The symphony also plans works by Mozart, Bernstein's "West Side Story" and John
Phillip Sousa's "Semper Fidelis."
Doors will open for picnickers who have obtained table seating from Hammond Rotary
Club members at 5 p.m. General admission arena tickets for the 7:30 p.m. performance are $5,
$3 for students age 13 and older. Children under 13 will be admitted free, if accompanied by an
adult.
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FANFARE WEEK FIVE Add One
Renowned French author, comedian and producer Pepito Mateo turns the art of
storytelling into a theatrical adventure. His program, which will be delivered in French, from 5 to
7 p.m., Oct. 28 and 29 in Room 102 of the Teacher Education Center. Mateo's performance is
part of a French story telling work shop for teachers, sponsored by Southeastern's foreign
languages and literatures department. For additional information, call 504-549-2152.
Christine Wiltz, author of "The Last Madam," a biography illustrating the life of Norma
Wallace, the politically savvy brothel madam from the French Quarter, will present a Fanfare
lecture at 2 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 31, in the Student Union Theatre. She also plans a book signing
prior to her lecture, which is free to the public.
Fanfare will pay tribute to October's spooky holiday Halloween with Forbidden
Theatre's Halloween Show, a dark comedy live radio show sponsored by KSLU, on Monday,
Oct. 30, and Tuesday, October 31, in the Student Union Theatre. The stage show, which includes
time travel, original ghost stories with "Hammond" themes, and--allegedly--zombie attacks on
the audience, is scheduled for 7 p.m., and admission is $3.
Forbidden Theatre, formed in 1997, is an offshoot of the SLU Creative Writers Group.
KSLU General Manager Wayne Cain said last year's show had to turn away several hundred
audience members because of its small venue in Twelve Oaks. This year's version has been
rewritten and updated and includes special lighting by Jonathan Majoue, sets by Woody
Stephens
and direction by Cheryl Frederick. The cast includes Phil Sevin, who also wrote some of the
ghost stories, Michael Libersat, and Corbett Mount.
Le Trio Gershwin, three classically trained Parisians who perform on piano, violin and
guitar, give the works of America's great composer, George Gershwin, the spirit, magic and
swing usually conveyed by an entire symphony orchestra. Their concert will take place at 7:30
p.m., Monday, Oct. 30, in Pottle Music Building Auditorium. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for
senior citizens, Southeastern faculty, staff and alumni and $5 for all students.
From her star musical turn in the Irish dance phenomenon "Riverdance" and her 30-plus
medals in the All-Ireland Championships, fiddler Eileen Ivers has established herself as the pre-
eminent exponent of the Irish fiddle in the world today.
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FANFARE WEEK FIVE Add Two
Ivers' Fanfare concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, November 1, in Pottle
Music Building Auditorium. Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, Southeastern
faculty, staff an alumni, and $8 for all students.
A founding member of the all-woman folk group Cherish the Ladies, Ivers has toured the
world to great acclaim, not only with "Riverdance" and Cherish the Ladies, but as a featured
player with such popular contemporary performers as the Hothouse Flowers, Luka Bloom, and
Patti Smith, as well as with her own band. Her recording credits include appearances on over 60
contemporary and traditional albums.
Ivers has toured throughout Europe, the United States, Russia, Japan, Australia, the
Philippines, Mexico, and the Caribbean, and has made numerous appearances on network
television both in the United States and elsewhere.
Born in the Irish community of the Bronx, New York, Eileen Ivers began playing fiddle at
the age of eight and eventually studied with famed Limerick-born fiddler Martin Mulvihill.
Along with her 30 medals, Ivers has also won seven All-Ireland fiddle titles and an eighth on the
tenor banjo.
Southeastern's Music Department faculty are always a hit as Fanfare's finale. This
year's program, scheduled for 7:30pm, Thursday, November 2, in Pottle Auditorium, is a tribute
to the 100th birthday of American composer Aaron Copland. Pianist David Evenson, head of the
Southeastern music and dramatic arts department, will perform "Piano Sonato," considered by
many to be one of the greatest piano sonatas of the 20th century. Soprano Emily Truckenbrod
and
pianist Henry Jones will collaborate on "12 Poems of Emily Dickenson" and Lisa Lalev, English
horn, and Bryan DePoy, trumpet, will join the Southeastern Chamber Orchestra, conducted by
Yakov Voldman, in "Quiet City." The concert is free.
One of the hottest stage shows in America, "A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline" will join
the Fanfare schedule on Thursday, November 2. The performance, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at
Ponchatoula High School, uses 21 of the late star's greatest hits to trace Patsy Cline's footsteps
from her early honky-tonk days and radio fame through her rise at the Grand Ole Opry and
triumphs at Carnegie Hall and Las Vegas.
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FANFARE WEEK FIVE Add Three
Written and conceived by Canadian Dean Regan, the musical reveals the emotional depth
and range of a singer who defined the term "crossover hit" by dominating country, blues, pop and
gospel charts in the 1950s and early 60s. The show won the Best New Show Award when it
premiered in Branson, Mo., in 1995, and has enjoyed universal praise on its 36-city North
American tour.
Tickets for "A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline" are $15 general admission.
One of America's leading cell biologists and author of "The Sacred Depths of Nature,"
Ursula Goodenough will present Fanfare's annual Matheny Lecture on Science and Religion at
7:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 6, in the Student Union Theatre. Using slides and music to accompany
her text, Goodenough will present the basis of a "religious naturalism" in which scientific
understanding of nature serves as the foundation for the three components of a religious quest --
the search for spiritual, communal and ultimate orientations.
Fanfare offers a special rate for groups of 10 or more. Prices are listed in the Fanfare 2000
brochure and are available online. For a Fanfare brochure and ticket order form or for additional
information, contact Southeastern Public Information, 504-549-2341, publicinfo@selu.edu.
Fanfare information is available online at www.selu.edu/fanfare. Tickets are on sale at Gate 1 of
the SLU University Center on University Ave., 504-549-2323, from 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.,
weekdays.
-SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu./NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsf00.htm