Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 17, 1993 TAG: 9312160126
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Donna Alvis-Banks
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Voices in Harmony, the youth chorus sponsored by Radford University, will present a holiday concert tonight at 7:30 in Porterfield Theatre. The 18 singers, ages 8 to 15, have prepared arrangements of traditional English carols as well as 20th century songs.
Now in its sixth year, the chorus is directed by Radford University voice instructor Betty Turner. Turner started the group because she saw a need for helping children develop musicianship in their early years.
"As a voice teacher talking with other professionals," she says, "I discovered that many young adults come to high schools and colleges having developed habits and inhibitions that put a hold on their vocal development. We have to retrace steps, teaching basics and freeing up their voices. I wondered, `What can we do to begin earlier so we don't lose all those precious years?' "
Since Turner founded the group, Voices in Harmony has had several successful local performances. Last fall, the children spent two days in Richmond performing Milton Granger's opera, "Up From Slime," for the Virginia Association of Music Educators.
Guest musicians at tonight's performance are Radford University professors Jill Coggiola on clarinet and Caryl Conger on piano. Timothy Nelson, one of the young singers, also will perform a string composition.
The chorus is giving this concert as a gift to the community. Admission is free. BANJO MAN: The great Ralph Stanley will bring his band, The Clinch Mountain Boys, to the New River Valley Fairgrounds in Dublin Saturday. The event is a special jamboree put on by New River Community College's Fiddle, Banjo and Dance Club.
Stanley is legendary among banjo players for his three-finger picking and clawhammer techniques.
Also known for his "high lonesome tenor," Stanley shines on bluegrass standards such as "Sally Goodin," "John Hardy" and "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms."
Saturday's jamboree starts with jam sessions and recorded music from 5 to 6 p.m. Live performances run from 6 to 10 p.m. In addition to Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys, the lineup includes The Tom Barr Family Band and The Farmer's Daughters.
As always, there's a dance contest with cash prizes going to the winners.
Admission is free but donations are appreciated to help pay traveling expenses for the bands.
DON'T STAY HOME ALONE: Radford Plaza Cinemas has a deal you can't resist.
"Home Alone 2" is playing there Saturday and Sunday with showings at 2:45 and 5:15 p.m. both days. Admission is one can of food.
WRAD-AM and WRIQ-FM will help organize the food drive to benefit the Salvation Army. The food will be distributed to local families during the holiday season.
The theater is in the Radford Shopping Plaza on U.S. 11.
HOLIDAY TREAT: The Christiansburg High School Chorus, directed by Charlotte Smith, will present its winter concert Sunday at 3 p.m. in the school auditorium.
The program gets off to a running start with Smith & Company, the swing choir and band. Expect a lively, colorful musical segment concluding with "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."
The second segment features more serious seasonal music performed by the CHS Chorale.
The combined choirs will finish by singing "Gifts of Love" and the traditional "Silent Night."
The concert is open to everyone and admission is free.
SCULPTURE AND QUILTS: The unlikely combination is the current exhibit at the Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley.
The display features fun sculpture by Lawrence Bechtel and quilted wall hangings by Joyce Johnstone.
Bechtel's experience with art started when he was 11 years old. He says he and an "inventive friend" spent their afternoons drawing faces with big noses modeled after Mad Magazine cartoons and Dr. Seuss. When he was 13, he tried his hand at carving faces into sticks, following instructions from Boy's Life.
When he was 40, Bechtel took up sculpture.
He says he was carving an oak log with his grandfather's axe and a set of chisels when he found himself forming one of those long-lost noses.
"That was a powerful moment because, despite all the intervening years and varied experiences, my facility for cartoon noses came back to me in a rush, intact. And with those noses came an equally vivid sensation of knowing that my boyhood's awareness of the world was still present, too, and in just the same condition as when I had left it."
"A week later," Bechtel explains, "the oak log I had been carving was stolen. This shocked and then delighted me because the log weighed at least 2,150 pounds, which meant that its theft had probably required a truck and perhaps accomplices. Never before had I created anything that people liked well enough to steal, so I decided to stick with sculpture . . . ."
It was only five years ago that Joyce Johnstone took up quilting. She doesn't come from a long line of quilters, either.
"Unlike many quilters today, I do not know of any relatives who made quilts. I was taught to do embroidery before starting school and started sewing classes in school in the fourth grade."
Today, Johnstone uses a computer to help her design quilt patterns. She says her approach to making a quilt is "to treat the fabric as a design media."
"Sometimes the piece will be based on a traditional pattern with the addition of computer graphics applied to the pieces. Another will be a combination of original design with traditional elements. A third style is a totally original design with basic geometric elements."
The works by Bechtel and Johnstone will remain on display at the Fine Arts Center through Dec. 29. The center is at 21 West Main St. in Pulaski. Admission to the gallery is free.
by CNB