Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 28, 1992 TAG: 9202270168
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Donna Alvis Banks
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
SWEET MUSIC TONIGHT IN BLACKSBURG
When Sweet Honey in the Rock performed recently in Washington, posters advertising the concert noted "No adults admitted without children."One fan arrived clutching the hands of two kids who lived down the street. "I borrowed them to come to your concert," she told members of the group.
Little people, big people, people of all shapes, sizes and colors find common ground in the music of Sweet Honey in the Rock. The five women in this group sing an a cappella repertoire that defies classification.
Gospel music is the foundation of their style, but it's spiced with elements of blues, jazz, soul, calypso and rap.
The Grammy-winning group has produced nine albums. The latest - their first for children - is called "All for Freedom" and features songs about the roots, history and future of African-American culture. Other albums include "Live at Carnegie Hall," "The Other Side" and "Breaths: Best of Sweet Honey in the Rock."
The quintet will perform in the Blacksburg High School auditorium tonight at 8. Tickets at the door are $10 or you may pick up advance discount tickets for $8 at Books, Strings & Things or The Record Exchange in Blacksburg.
The concert marks the beginning of a week of activities celebrating Virginia Tech's Women's Week 1992. Other events include a film festival, plays, poetry and fiction readings and the "Take Back the Night" rally and march, as well as art exhibits and discussions. For a complete listing, check out Current Events in Sunday's New River Current.
\ FOR GOODNESS SAX! The New River Valley Symphony will offer a concert featuring music for saxophone and orchestra Saturday at 8 p.m. in Burruss Hall on the Virginia Tech campus.
This is one of the highlights of the North American Saxophone Alliance's regional conference at Tech. It starts today and runs through Sunday. More than 150 saxophone players (students and professionals) are expected to blow through Blacksburg for the event.
David Jacobsen of Tech's music faculty is the featured artist in Saturday's concert. He will perform in Glazounov's Concerto for Alto Sax and String Orchestra.
Other works on the program include the "Arlesienne Suite" by Georges Bizet. This piece has several lyrical solos for alto sax. Tenor sax gets the spotlight in Prokofiev's "Lieutenant Kije," and both tenor and soprano saxophones have solo parts in Ravel's imposing "Bolero."
James Glazebrook will conduct the orchestra.
Admission to Saturday's concert is $5 for adults or $3 for students and senior citizens. Tickets will be available at the box office in Squires Student Center one hour before the performance. For information, call 231-5615.
Two free public performances featuring members of the North American Saxophone Alliance will be held today and Saturday in Squires Recital Salon. "Fanfare for Saxophone," a work by James Sochinski of Virginia Tech, will top tonight's opening concert. It starts at 8.
On Saturday, guest artist Frank Bongiorno of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and the United States Air Force Quartet, will give a recital at 11 a.m. in the salon. For more information about the free concerts, call 231-5200.
\ HOT TIME IN THE OLD COFFEEHOUSE TONIGHT: Spirited dancing and lively music await you at Gabriel's Psaltery, the coffeehouse at Blacksburg's Christ Episcopal Church. Tina Hicks and the Wilderness Trail Cloggers will show you some "reel dancing" when the Bow Shakers Band warms up at 7:30 tonight.
Assembled and directed by local dance instructor Tina Hicks, the Wilderness Trail Cloggers perform traditional team-style clogging and solo freestyle dancing. The group puts on a good show.
It's for a good cause, too. Proceeds from admission will benefit the Community Shelter of Montgomery County.
The cover charge is $3.50. Pastries, coffee and tea will be available at the coffeehouse. Christ Episcopal Church is on the corner of Church and Jackson streets.
\ GO FOR THE JUGGLER: The Virginia Technical Jugglers are hosting a "Leap Day Juggling Festival" this weekend at Virginia Tech. Workshops and competitions run from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday in the War Memorial gymnasium.
On Sunday, the jugglers will give a public performance from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in 100 McBryde Hall. The show begins with a "Crazy Juggle" where contestants try their hands at bouncing bizarre objects.
Several local and regional acts, including members of the Virginia Technical Jugglers, will entertain you. Best of all, admission is free.
For more information, call festival organizers Chris Long, 552-6073, or Brandt Braunschweig, 961-0314.
\ HEAVENLY: First United Methodist Church of Narrows is the place to be Sunday at 3 p.m. The Concert Choir of Emory and Henry College will perform a program of classical music, spirituals and other choral works spanning five centuries.
Charles Davis will lead the singers - as he has done for the past 34 years. Davis, who founded the Concert Choir in 1958, was himself a singer with the famous Westminster Choir at Princeton's Westminster College.
Two local singers, Liz Lambert of Pulaski and Maria Whitlock of Radford, are senior members of the choir.
The concert is open to the public. An offering will be accepted to help with the choir's traveling expenses.
\ FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE: Lucy Proctor Wiley visited South Africa in August 1989, one month before the first general elections were held. She recorded the events of that tumultuous time with her eyes and her heart.
When officials confiscated her camera, Wiley documented her experiences in charcoal drawings. The upshot of her journey is "South African Sojourn," a series of 114 photographs and drawings now on display in Radford University's Flossie Martin Gallery.
Wiley, who received her master's degree in art from Radford University in 1980, is also working on a book about South Africa.
Her exhibit at Flossie Martin Gallery will continue through March 6. The gallery, in the Silverman Fine Arts Center, will be open today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free.
\ OF COURSE, YOU COULD JUST SIT AT HOME THURSDAY NIGHT: Or you could come out for "Opera Tonight," the show students in Radford University's opera workshop are staging Thursday at 8 p.m. in Preston Auditorium.
Highlighting the production are scenes from Mozart's mischievous "Cosi Fan Tutte" or "Women Are Like That." Mezzo soprano Clarity James, a member of the music faculty, will direct nine singers and two pianists in these scenes.
Admission for the public is $3 and free for RU students.
Donna Alvis-Banks is an editorial assistant in the Roanoke Times & World-News' New River Valley bureau.