ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 12, 1996 TAG: 9604120039
SECTION: NRV-3 CURRENT EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: out & about
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS BANKS
Let's give credit where credit's due. Today's Out & About is brought to you by Virginia Tech professor Kenneth Rystrom's advanced reporting students. This week's writers include Chris Lang, Wendy Pagonis, Karen Sisak, Sharon S. Williams, Katy Sinclair, Tatum Hoffer, Tara Tuckwiller and Lisa Vernon Fassari. Next week's column will feature other student reporters.
Don't expect a dark and stormy night.
It should be a hot and steamy night when Edwin Meese and Nadine Strossen come face to face.
Meese, a Republican and former U.S. attorney general, and Strossen, current president of the American Civil Liberties Union, will participate in a debate on pornography at 7:30 p.m. Monday in Virginia Tech's Donaldson Brown Auditorium. Morality and First Amendment rights will be high on the agenda. Virginia Tech political science professor Charles Walcott is the moderator.
Strossen, a professor at the New York Law School, was elected ACLU president in 1991. She's the first woman to hold the top position in the nation's oldest and largest civil liberties organization. She's also the author of two recent books: "Defending Pornography - Free Speech, Sex and the Fight for Women's Rights" and "Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex - Hate Speech, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties."
Meese was considered President Reagan's top domestic affairs adviser in his 31/2-year stint as attorney general. He now writes a nationally syndicated newspaper column and is the author of "With Reagan," a best seller based on his inside look at the Reagan administration.
Admission to Monday's debate is free. Doors open at 7 p.m.
KEY PLAYERS: Pianists from all over the world will compete for a grand prize of $5,000 Saturday at Radford University.
The 16th annual Bartok-Kabalevsky International Piano Competition is expected to draw 80 contestants - of all ages and nationalities. Ludmilla Chudinova, a 17-year-old student at the Moscow Conservatory will be there, along with Maurico Nader, an award-winning pianist from Mexico City, and Orazio Natale Giunto, an Italian pianist and teacher now living in Oslo, Norway.
The final competition begins at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Preston Auditorium. It's free and open to the public.
International concert pianist Gyorgy Sandor is the judge. A former student of composer Bela Bartok, Sandor will begin today's events by conducting a free master class at 3:30 p.m. in 101 Powell Hall.
Sergei Pavlow, the Russian pianist who won last year's competition, will present a recital at 8 tonight in Preston Auditorium. Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for children and free with Radford University identification.
On Sunday, Sandor will crown the weekend with a solo concert at 2 p.m. in Preston Auditorium. The program features Sandor's arrangement of Bartok's Solo Violin Sonata, as well as piano arrangements from works by Bach, Beethoven, Rossi and others. Costs are the same as for Pavlow's recital.
GOOD COUNTRY FUN FOR A GOOD CAUSE: It's sure to be a heel-tappin', foot-stompin', partner-swingin' night when Broken Reins rattles Floyd County High School on Saturday. The country band, featuring Floyd's own Sheila Gallimore, performs from 7:30 to 11 in a fund-raiser for Toby Marshall, a leukemia patient who needs a bone marrow transplant.
Gallimore is the band's lead vocalist. Broken Reins also features Raymond Howell of Radford, Bill Memitt of Christiansburg, Richard Wallace of Blacksburg and Shannon Wickline of Roanoke.
Admission Saturday is $4. Dance organizers are inviting everyone to come out for an evening of good country fun for a good cause.
EVERY DAY IS MARDI GRAS: The Dixie Power Trio is New Orleans. The band has a sound like spicy gumbo, playing a menagerie of tunes as colorful as a Mardi Gras parade.
The musicians whip up musical combinations on the washboard, voodoo drums and harmonica. They play tuba, banjo, cornet and a variety of other instruments.
Raucous. Original. Zany. Fresh. Cutting edge. Bluesy.
That's how music lovers describe this band. You can decide for yourself Saturday when the Dixie Power Trio performs at the Cafe at Champs in Blacksburg. The music starts at 9 p.m.
WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HOOTIE: Hootie and the Blowfish took Edwin McCain under a fin, so to speak.
The popular rockers have helped make Edwin McCain a national act, but don't tell Edwin's father.
When McCain promised his father he would not try to make music his living, he wasn't lying. At the time, he thought he would go to college and get a "real job."
Still, he couldn't ignore the yearning he felt "to go for it."
Since releasing his debut album, "Honor Among Thieves," McCain has found a following for his music, a mix of rock, soul, folk and jazz. He and his band even managed to snag a few guest appearances for the album: Greg Adams from Tower of Power and Darius Rucker and Mark Bryan from Hootie and the Blowfish.
You'll hear why these power players contributed to the album Monday when McCain and his band come to Virginia Tech's Burruss Auditorium. The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets, $5 for students and $7 for the public, are on sale at the ticket office in Squires Student Center. Call 231-5615.
APPALACHIAN SPRING: Self-proclaimed "child of the mountains" Anndrena Belcher travels throughout Virginia and has even visited New Zealand to tell of the magical Appalachian summers and holidays of her youth.
Belcher, a native of Pike County, Ky., will spin tales at 2 p.m. Saturday on the front porch of Solitude near the Virginia Tech Duck Pond. She joins other storytellers for "Storytelling at Solitude," an event sponsored in part by the Appalachian Way student organization.
The event begins at noon with David Workman of Christiansburg performing "Jack Tales." A bring-your-own picnic lunch precedes Belcher's performance, which will be followed by Pulaski storytellers Cat White and Heather Spradley at 4 p.m. White and Spradley will perform "Quilted Memories," featuring Appalachian and Celtic stories and music.
If it rains, the festival will move indoors to nearby Litton Reaves Auditorium on West Campus Drive.
Admission is free and open to the public.
CHARM OF THE BRITISH STAGE: Henry Purcells's epitaph reads, "Here lyes Henry Purcell, Esq.; who left this life, and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded."
Purcell, one of England's finest composers, will be remembered at Virginia Tech when the concert choir harmonizes this week. The choir will present "The Charm of the British Stage" at 3 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. Monday in Squires Recital Salon.
In addition to pieces by Purcell, the singers will perform works by other British composers. Selections from Gilbert and Sullivan include "Modern Major General," featuring Tom Springer and the men of the choir, and "Three Little Maids from School," featuring Carrie Houser, Vicki Garrison, Mary Rolka and the women of the choir.
The finale is from Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Gondoliers."
Admission is $2. For more information, call 231-5200.
LENGTH: Long : 130 linesby CNB