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SFA's LaGraff to Present Vocal Recital
Sylvia Bierschenk - October 10, 2007
NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - Baritone Scott LaGraff, assistant professor of music at Stephen F. Austin State University, will present a faculty voice recital at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.
Andrew Hudson, member of the piano faculty at McLennan Community College in Waco, will provide piano accompaniment.
A highlight of the program will be the world premiere of "Songs of a Sourdough" by Stephen Lias, SFA professor of music. Written especially for LaGraff's upcoming compact disk of songs by contemporary American composers for Centaur Records, the songs are settings of texts by Canadian poet Robert Service.
"The songs deal with the lure of the Yukon and are at once adventuresome, touching, humorous and stirring," said LaGraff. "Steve did an outstanding job, and I am hopeful that the set will become a regular part of the bass/baritone repertoire."
Also included on the program are selections from Anton Dvorak's "Biblical Songs" and Lee Hoiby's "Last Letter Home," a musical setting of a letter from a soldier slain in the current Iraq conflict.
"The piece is incredibly moving," La Graff said. "Honestly, it took me a month of singing it before I could get through it without crying."
LaGraff , who joined the SFA faculty in 2004, is a veteran of the operatic, concert and recital stage. As a resident artist at Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, New York, he performed the title roles in "Don Giovanni" and "Le Nozze di Figaro," as well as The Villains in "Les Contes d'Hoffmann," Reverend Hale in "The Crucible" and Capulet in "Roméo et Juliette," among others.
He has also appeared with the Syracuse, Tulsa, Pensacola, Westchester Hudson and Ithaca opera companies. A selected list of his concert engagements includes performances of Gabriel Fauré's "Requiem" and George Frideric Handel's "Messiah" with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, Anton Bruckner's "Te Deum" at Carnegie Hall with MidAmerica Productions and solo appearances with the Ocean City Pops, the Binghamton Pops, and the Syracuse Oratorio Society.
The recital is a joint presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music.
Tickets are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for students. For tickets or more information, please call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.