Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
publicinfo@selu.edu
www.selu.edu/NewsEvents
Date: 9/5/97
Contact: Christina Chapple
Editors: photos accompany release
FANFARE 1997 -- SNEAK PREVIEW OF SLU FESTIVAL’S TWELFTH SEASON
HAMMOND -- Fanfare, Southeastern Louisiana University’s year's worth of culture and
entertainment wrapped into the month of October, is ready to swing into action for its twelfth
season.
The university’s annual festival of the arts, humanities and sciences will begin Friday,
Sept. 26 with it’s traditional kickoff, the Brown Bag Concert, at noon in Hammond’s
downtown
Cate Square. From that first Friday on, Fanfare 1997 will march quick-step across the entire
October calendar, offering more than 20 concerts and other music events, nine lectures, eight
films, five children’s events, three plays, three community-wide celebrations, two evenings of
dance and at least two booksignings.
This year’s cultural line-up includes two 1996 hits, back by popular demand -- The
Capital Steps, Oct. 17, the musical satire troupe that uses headlines and hot topics to create
hilariously irreverent new lyrics for familiar tunes, and the acclaimed 15-member New Century
Chamber Orchestra, Oct. 7.
Sharing the Fanfare lecture podiums will be inspiring and plain-spoken former Texas
governor Ann Richards, Oct. 8, and U.S. Army veterinarians Cols. Jerry and Nancy Jaax, Oct.
15. The Jaax's played major roles in the real life nightmare depicted in the New York Times
bestseller “The Hot Zone” and the move, “Outbreak.” Louisiana’s acclaimed
African-American
author Ernest Gaines also will be a special guest, reading from his award-winning “A Lesson
Before Dying” on Oct.27.
On Oct. 23 Fanfare will also spotlight former New York City Ballet star Patricia Wilde’s
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Philadelphia Ballet, whose program will include the George Balanchine classics “Rubies” and
“Stars and Stripes.”
Fanfare musical guests include young Metropolitan Opera mezzo soprano Margaret
Lattimore, Oct. 13; rock-and-roll’s early superstars -- and perennial favorites -- the Platters,
Oct.
22; the Spoleto/USA Chamber Music quintet, Oct. 20; the internationally acclaimed African-
American choir the Moses Hogan Chorale, Oct. 28, and pianist Tony Caramia, who will present
a solo salute to ragtime, then team up with Southeastern’s own outstanding pianist Willis
Delony
for a two-piano concert, Oct. 16.
Giving Fanfare music an international flavor will be Zhao Rongchun, who will introduce
audiences to his mastery of China’s 1000-year-old musical instrument, the “erhu,” Oct.9; the
Moscow Piano Trio, making their American debut, Oct. 29; and the Moscow Boys Choir, Oct.
21, whose young members combine heavenly soprano and rich bass and baritone voices in
renditions of American, Soviet, and European folk songs and classics. Renowned music educator
Mimi Zweig will offer a one-day workshop for young string players on Oct. 25 and Metropolitan
Opera soprano and prominent New York voice teacher Ruth Falcon will give a masterclass for
Southeastern students, open to the public, on Oct. 20.
The Fanfare “Music for a Sunday Afternoon Series” at area churches will return the
Louisiana Sinfonietta on Sept. 28 and the Centenary Choir on Oct. 5, and introduce the Louisiana
Vocal Arts Chorale on Oct. 19.
One of Fanfare’s most popular community events, the Art and All That Jazz weekend,
will be back, Oct. 11-12, with a Saturday night open-air jazz concert, Jazz Downtown, featuring
blues, jazz and pop greats Wanda Rouzan, Phillip Manuel, Astral Project and the Contemporary
Arts Center Jazz Orchestra. Sunday will feature the popular “Gallery Stroll,” in the city’s
historic
district. The city of Amite joins the Fanfare schedule this year with their own downtown
celebration of cultural displays and musical performances, “Downtown Debut,.” Oct. 11. And
the
Livingston Parish community of Hungarian Settlement will showcase their rich and colorful
heritage with the annual Hungarian Settlement Harvest Celebration and Dance, Oct. 4, and a
campus performance of the Hungarian folk music group, Eletfa, on Oct. 2.
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The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra will return to Fanfare with the popular “Picnic-n-
Pops” concert, featuring singers Phillip Manuel and Leah Chase and guest conductor Bill
Grimes, on Oct. 26.
On stage, Southeastern’s Opera-Music Theatre program will feature an outstanding
young professional cast in Mozart’s comic opera “Cosi fan tutte,” Oct. 2 and 4, while film and
television actor Ed Metzger will star in “Albert Einstein: the Practical Bohemian,” Oct. 6, a one-
man show that portrays the famous scientist as a man not a "monument." Southeastern Theatre
also will present Tennessee Williams’ classic “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Oct. 7-11.
Fanfare 1997 will salute the environment, one of the major inspirations of creativity since
the beginning of time. Louisiana artists against the destruction of the environment will present
their works in Clark Hall Gallery and Sims Memorial Library, Oct. 13-31, and The McLean Mix
will display the beauty and fragility of threatened rainforests through a multi-media exhibit
during Gallery Stroll, a concert on Oct. 14, and a special exhibit at Clark Hall Gallery, “Jambori
Rimba,” Oct. 6-10. Children will get a fun lesson in environmental awareness from “The Big
Bad Wolf and the Endangered Forest,” Oct. 24, and danceworks, Southeastern’s residence
dance
company, will tell in modern dance the legend of a Navajo earth goddess, Oct. 27.
Also back by popular demand will be the Missoula Children's Theatre, the unique theatre
troupe that casts local children in its performances. Missoula's 1997 offering is a musical version
of “The Pied Piper,” Oct. 10 and 11. Karen Plauche, children’s services coordinator for the
Tangipahoa Parish Library system, will present her annual stories, songs and films for children at
the Hammond branch, Oct. 4 and 18.
Southeastern faculty and students will also shine during Fanfare with performances by the
University’s Chamber Winds, Oct. 21, and, at Brown Bag, the SLU Jazz Ensemble. Music
department faculty will also get together for special music gala, Oct. 30. Award-winning faculty
authors will also take turns at the podium. English professor and acclaimed short story writer
Timothy Gautreaux will present a reading from his unpublished novel, “Black Bayou,” Oct. 1;
History professor Howard Nichols will talk about the history of the eastern Florida Parishes, Oct.
6, and his colleague and fellow author Sam Hyde will trace the emergence of the “myth of
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Southern backwardness,” Oct. 7.
Fanfare guest lecturers also include two New Orleanians -- professor Kenneth Holditch,
who will speak on the literary mystique of the Crescent City, Oct. 13, and Randolph Delahanty,
whose topic will be “Spirits, Signs and Souls in Southern Art,” Oct. 20. Local artist and teacher
Lucienne Simon will focus on the unique contributions teachers can make by being community
activists and arts advocates, Oct. 14.
The Fanfare Foreign Film Series will feature “Zentropa,” Oct. 7; “Manon des Sources,”
Oct. 14; “Il Postino,” Oct. 21, and “Carmen,” Oct. 28. The “special” film series will show
notable recent films, “The English Patient,” Oct. 1; “Sling Blade,” Oct. 15; “Shine,” Oct. 22;
and “Michael Collins,” Oct. 29.
For a Fanfare brochure and ticket order form, call the SLU Public Information Office,
504-549-2341, or send e-mail to publicinfo@selu.edu. Beginning Sept. 16, tickets can also be
purchased at the Fanfare box office, 504-549-2323, located at Gate 1 of the SLU University
Center on University Ave. Box office hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m., weekdays.
Fanfare information also is available on the World Wide Web at
www.selu.edu/fanfare/fan97.htm.
-SLU-
This press release is available on the World Wide Web:
www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsf97.htm