The Arts

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December 1, 2022

>>Please Note: All events hosted at SUNY Brockport must strictly adhere to the College’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.

>>The Labors of Love exhibition will be featured in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery through December 11. Curated by Dr. Alicia Chase, the show displays quilt squares that have been created during the past 20 years, as a project in Chase’s Women in Art course. The Gallery’s exhibitions are free and open to the public.

>>The Department of Theatre and Music Studies will present Ken Ludwig’s merry mystery The Game’s Afoot, which takes place at a Christmas celebration in the marvelous mansion belonging to William Gillette, the early 20th-century actor famous for playing Sherlock Holmes. As with any farcical murder-mystery, identities are confused, obscured, and revealed. Who knew Christmas could be so… fatal? Performances are December 2 – 4 and 8 – 10 at Tower Fine Arts Center. Tickets for the show are $17, $12, and $9 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>The Brockport College-Community Chorus will join forces with the Brockport High School Chorus, both under the direction of Elizabeth Banner, for Sounds of the Season, a holiday concert that will take place at Brockport High School on Sunday, December 4, at 7:30 pm. The concert will feature some ancient carols, religious pieces, songs celebrating various winter holidays, as well as some familiar Christmas favorites. All tickets for the concert are $5 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

November 3, 2o22

>>Please Note: All events hosted at SUNY Brockport must strictly adhere to the College’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.

>>The Monroe and Vicinity Biennial Exhibition will be featured in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery through November 20. The artists represented include Jappie King Black (Brockport), Aaron Delehanty (Spencerport), Heather Layton (Rochester), and Mary Taylor (Rochester), all presenting their most recent works. The Gallery’s exhibitions are free and open to the public.

>>The Department of Dance’s DANSCORE concerts will take place in Hartwell Dance Theater from November 17 – 19, featuring choreography by our nationally renowned faculty, performed by our brilliant dance students. Tickets for the show are $17 (General), $12 (Senior Citizens, Brockport Faculty, Staff, and Alumni), and $9 (Students) and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

October 6, 2022

>>Please Note: All events hosted at SUNY Brockport must strictly adhere to the College’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.

>>The Department of Art Faculty Exhibition will continue through October 9 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery. The faculty is presenting their most recent works which encompass a variety of media, including ceramics, sculpture, drawing, painting, graphic design, and mixed media. The Gallery’s exhibitions are free and open to the public.

>>An audience favorite returns during Homecoming weekend in early October - the Festival of Ten XIII. Nearly 25 years have flown by since the first Festival, and after putting out an international call to playwrights, 500 submissions were received for this year’s curated collection of ten 10-minute plays. As always, some are gut-bustingly funny, and some are tear-inducingly poignant. Which will be your favorite? Performances are October 7 – 9 and 20 – 22 in the Tower Fine Arts Center. Tickets for the show are $17 (General), $12 (Senior Citizens, Brockport Faculty, Staff, and Alumni), and $9 (Students) and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>The Monroe and Vicinity Biennial Exhibition will be featured in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery from October 25 through November 20. The artists represented include Jappie King Black (Brockport), Aaron Delehanty (Spencerport), Heather Layton (Rochester), and Mary Taylor (Rochester), all presenting their most recent works. The Gallery’s exhibitions are free and open to the public.

>>The Department of Dance’s DANCE/Hartwell will take up residence in Hartwell Dance Theater from October 27 – 29, featuring student choreography adjudicated by our nationally renowned faculty. Tickets for the show are $17, $12, and $9 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra will pay its annual visit to Tower Fine Arts Center on Friday, October 28, at 7:30 pm. The august ensemble will be playing an eclectic program that ranges from Beethoven to Verdi and beyond, including John Williams’ “Suite from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” A highlight will be Max Bruch’s “Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor,” featuring soloist Luke Pisani. Is Pisani’s name unfamiliar? That’s because he is currently still a student at Hilton High School, but talented enough to play with the RPO. Tickets for the show are $17 (General), $12 (Senior Citizens, Brockport Faculty, Staff, and Alumni), and $9 (Students) and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

September 1, 2022

>>Please Note: All events hosted at SUNY Brockport must strictly adhere to the College’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.

>>The Department of Art Faculty Exhibition will run from September 6 – October 9 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery. The faculty is presenting their most recent works which encompass a variety of media, including ceramics, sculpture, drawing, painting, graphic design, and mixed media. The Gallery’s exhibitions are free and open to the public.

>>The Brothers Blue will play a concert on Friday, September 9, at 7:30 pm at Tower Fine Arts Center. The trio includes Matthew Sperber (guitar, bass), Benny Haravitch (banjo, bass, guitar), and Charlie Coughlin (fiddle, mandolin), who flirt with bluegrass, Celtic, and swampy Cajun country sounds as they weave three-part harmonies over a tapestry of fiddle, banjo, and guitar virtuosity. Tickets for the show are $17 (General), $12 (Senior Citizens, Brockport Faculty, Staff, and Alumni), and $9 (Students) and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>The nationally-renowned Urban Bush Women will make a stop in Brockport on their tour of New York State. UBW’s Brockport performances will take place on September 16 and 17, and will feature Legacy + Lineage + Liberation. The program celebrates the power of Women(+) in an evening of classic works by founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and a new dance theater work by co-artistic directors Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra (Samantha) Speis. These iconic works give multiple dimensions of life that resonate in this time of reflection around equity and justice, and lift up Black lives in inspiring ways. Tickets for the show are $17, $12, and $9 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>An audience favorite returns during Homecoming weekend in early October: the Festival of Ten XIII. Nearly 25 years have flown by since the first Festival, and after putting out an international call to playwrights, 500 submissions were received for this year’s edition. As always, some are gut-bustingly funny, and some are tear-inducingly poignant. Which will be your favorite? Performances are October 7 – 9 and 20 – 22 in the Tower Fine Arts Center. Tickets for the show are $17, $12, and $9 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

May 5, 2022

>>Please Note: All events hosted a SUNY Brockport must strictly adhere to the College’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.

>>The Spring BFA Thesis Exhibition will be in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery through May 8. The Gallery’s exhibitions are free and open to the public.

>>The Fine Arts Series closes out its season with a concert by the Brockport College-Community Chorus, Light Sings! The program includes country-western music by Dolly Parton, some liturgical music, Broadway, and some music made famous by the likes of Ellie Goulding, Mumford & Sons, and The Voice winner, Jordan Smith. Tickets for the show are $17 (General), $12 (Senior Citizens, Brockport Faculty, Staff, and Alumni), and $9 (Students) and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

April 14, 2022

>>Please Note: All events hosted at SUNY Brockport must strictly adhere to the College’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.

>>The Spring BFA Thesis Exhibition will run from April 21 – May 8 in the Tower Fine Arts Gallery. The Gallery’s exhibitions are free and open to the public.

>>After an unplanned hiatus, the Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble returns to the Hartwell Dance Theater, from April 21 – 24. Aside from works created by Artistic Director Jenise Akilah Anthony and Music Director Mohamed Diaby, this year’s edition includes pieces set on Brockport dancers by guest choreographers Mouminatou Camara and Aviance Bain, along with the participation of the Atebavilla Drum and Dance troupe. Tickets for the show are $17 (General), $12 (Senior Citizens, Brockport Faculty, Staff, and Alumni), and $9 (Students) and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>Can you spell p-o-s-t-p-o-n-e-d? After foregoing Spring 2020 performances due to the health crisis, the gut-bustingly funny musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will finally be performed this month. Spelling Bee offers a rollicking ride as some very smart misfits—and audience members, too!—try to spell their way to championship. Performances are April 22 – 24 and 28 – 30 in the Tower Fine Arts Center. Tickets for the show are $17, $12, and $9 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>The Music Studies program will present two concerts in early May: Their Spotlight Showcase will take place on Monday, May 2, and the Brockport Concert Band and College-Community Orchestra will give a joint concert on Tuesday, May 3. Both concerts are in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage at 7:30 pm, and are $5 (at the door).

March 3, 2022

>>Please Note: All events hosted at SUNY Brockport must strictly adhere to the College’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.

>>At the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery, BIG/Bold is a national invitational exhibition in which the artists’ works are large, confrontational, and unapologetic. The show will run through March 6, 2022. The Gallery’s exhibitions are free and open to the public.

>>When an openly gay high school student is propositioned online by someone who turns out to be his school’s drama teacher, the student has got to decide how to handle the situation, and quickly. How he manages to do so is at the heart of Stephen Karam’s Speech & Debate, which will have its final performances on March 3 – 5 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage. Tickets for the show are also $17, $12, and $9 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>Due to inclement weather, the Fine Arts Series had to reschedule the Laura Dubin Trio to Friday, March 11 at 7:30 pm. According to City Newspaper, Laura Dubin “trades in straight-ahead jazz, playing with a bouncy synergy that emphasizes the rhythmic vitality of the arrangements.” Tickets are $17/General, $12/Seniors (60+), Brockport Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>It will have been nearly two-and-a-half years since the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra last appeared on the Fine Arts Series. So much has changed since then, including their music director. Andreas Delfs, their new maestro, will conduct the orchestra in a program of J.C. Bach, Mozart, and Shostakovich on Friday, March 25, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $17/General, $12/Seniors (60+), Brockport Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>The opening reception and awards ceremony for the Annual Student Arts Exhibition also takes place on Friday, March 25, from 5 – 7 pm. The exhibit, which celebrates our students’ artistic achievement for the year, will run through April 13 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery.

>>Our student and student/faculty ensembles continue to do terrific work. On Tuesday, March 8, they will present “Renaissance Impressions,” a program of works for the solo lute and lute duets in Tower Room 120, and on Wednesday, March 23, the Xylophone/Percussion and Guitar Ensembles (“Rock and Roll Edition) will perform in the Tower Mainstage. Tickets for both concerts are $5 each.

>>Finally, the Department of Dance will present DANCE/Strasser on March 31 – April 2 at 7:30 pm in the Rose L. Strasser Studio in Hartwell Hall. In these concerts, student dance-makers mesh their choreographic vocabulary with their personal style. Tickets are $17/General, $12/Seniors (60+), Brockport Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

February 3, 2022

>>Please Note: All events hosted at SUNY Brockport must strictly adhere to the College’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.

>>Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will showcase BIG/Bold, a national invitational exhibition in which the artists’ works are large, confrontational, and unapologetic. The show will run from February 1 through March 6, 2022. One of the featured artists, Christopher Troutman, says that he works in large formats to “exaggerate the scale of figures and environments, inspiring an overwhelming mood.” The Gallery’s exhibitions are free and open to the public, but strictly follows the College's COVID-19 prevention protocols.

>>On February 4, the Tower Fine Arts Center welcomes the Laura Dubin Trio. Having performed in their Virtual Jazz Club since the inception of the pandemic, this concert will be one of the first live performances Laura Dubin and her fellow musicians will perform in nearly two years. According to City Newspaper, Dubin “trades in straight-ahead jazz, playing with a bouncy synergy that emphasizes the rhythmic vitality of the arrangements.” Tickets are $17/General, $12/Seniors (60+), Brockport Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>When an openly gay high school student is propositioned online by someone who turns out to be his school’s drama teacher, the student has got to decide how to handle the situation, and quickly. How he manages to do so is at the heart of Stephen Karam’s Speech and Debate, which opens on February 25 and runs through March 5 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage. Tickets for the show are also $17, $12, and $9 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

December 2, 2021

>>Please Note: All events hosted at SUNY Brockport must strictly adhere to the College’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.

>>Sometimes, when it rains, it pours. While planning to install the Fall 2021 BFA Thesis Exhibition, Bones in the Ocean: An Illustrative Story on Fate, Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery Director Tim Massey found himself with a narrow window of opportunity to host a printmaking portfolio exchange, Strained/Separations: Reflections on a Pandemic, at virtually the same time. Why not combine the two, he reasoned. Sharing the Gallery space, both shows will run from December 1 – 12, 2021. The Gallery’s exhibitions, which are free and open to the public.

>>When the first ships arrived in Australia in the late 1780s, they were carrying felons, murderers, and prostitutes. When an officer discovers that these inmates regard the hangings of prisoners as entertainment, he is inspired to produce Australia’s first theatrical performances. Follow the production process in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s acclaimed Our Country’s Good. The play, which opens at the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage on December 3 and runs through December 11. Tickets are $17/General, $12/Seniors (60+), Brockport Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>The Brockport College-Community Chorus will present its annual holiday concert, Sounds of the Season on Sunday, December 5, at 7:30 pm in the Seymour College Union Ballroom. Featuring liturgical and secular music that celebrates any number of holidays – and winter, in general – the concert is always a crowd-pleaser. All tickets are $5, and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

November 4, 2021

>>The Department of Dance will present faculty choreography in DANSCORE on November 18 – 20. James Hansen is presenting a new work that explores two compositional elements: how a dancer's placement on stage affects the design of space and how gesture can evolve into full-bodied movement.

Also featured in the concert are works by Jenise Anthony, Nicolette Ferguson, and Mariah Maloney. Tickets are $17, $12, and $9 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>Through November 21, the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will be presenting Picture… Story… Purpose: Recent Work in Contemporary Illustration, which explores how – in the worlds of publishing, editorial, or advertising – an illustration provides a meaningful visual context to the words it accompanies.

>>When the first ships arrived in Australia in the late 1780s, they were carrying felons, murderers, and prostitutes. When an officer discovers that these inmates regard the hangings of prisoners as entertainment, he is inspired to produce Australia’s first theatrical performances. Follow the production process in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s acclaimed Our Country’s Good. The play opens at the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage on December 3 and runs through December 11. Tickets are $17/General, $12/Seniors (60+), Brockport Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>Please Note: All events hosted at SUNY Brockport must strictly adhere to the College’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.

October 7, 2021

>>Through October 10, the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will be presenting the Department of Art Alumni Exhibition, celebrating the continuing accomplishments of our former students. Beginning on October 21, the Gallery will feature Picture… Story… Purpose: Recent Work in Contemporary Illustration, which explores how – in the worlds of publishing, editorial, or advertising – an illustration provides a meaningful visual context to the words it accompanies.

>>The Department of Theatre and Music Studies is commemorating National Hispanic Heritage Month by collaborating with the Rochester Latino Theatre Company for its production of Quiara Alegría Hudes’ (In the Heights) Pulitzer Prize-winning Water by the Spoonful. The play follows Elliot Ortiz as he attempts to find his path through life after returning from Iraq and resolving conflicts with his estranged mother, a heroin addict. The production opens at the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage on October 8 and runs through October 23. Tickets are $17/General, $12/Seniors (60+), Brockport Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Box Office.

>>E-Na Song and Koki Tanaka (replacing the previously announced Lara Sipols) will present an evening of piano and violin repertoire on Wednesday, October 27. Featuring works by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, their program will also feature a world premiere by Tyler Kline. Tickets are $17, $12, and $9 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>DANCE/Hartwell will be performed on October 28 – 30. These concerts will feature student choreography by the Department of Dance’s upperclassmen. Tickets are $17, $12, and $9 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

Please Note: All events hosted at SUNY Brockport must strictly adhere to the College’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.

September 2, 2021

>>The Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will be presenting the Department of Art Alumni Exhibition, celebrating the continuing accomplishments of our former students. The exhibition is free and open to the public and is scheduled to run September 9 through October 10.

>>Want to take a magical mystery tour? Join us as Mr. Mustard, “Rochester’s premier Beatles cover band,” plays the first concert of the year. Their concert will take place on Friday, September 10, at 7:30 pm, at the Tower Fine Arts Center. Tickets are $17, $12, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

Please Note: All events hosted at SUNY Brockport must strictly adhere to the College’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.

May 6, 2021

>>The Department of Theatre and Music Studies is virtually presenting the Festival of Ten XII, which will premiere May 7 and stream on demand until May 14. Whittled down from an international call that netted more than 500 entries, the final 10-minute plays include one that arrived all the way from New Zealand. Purchase your tickets online ($10 for general audience/$5 for students).

>>This year’s Festival of Ten XII will be augmented with a Playwrights Symposium, featuring authors of several of this year’s entries, on May 8 at 5 pm. The symposium will be held on Zoom and is free to join.

>>The Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will be presenting the Annual Student Art Exhibition, celebrating the accomplishments of student artists running through May 11. Unfortunately, due to pandemic protocols, the Gallery will only be open to students and other on-campus faculty and staff.

>>The Department of Dance will be offering Virtual DANCE/Strasser, a collection of nine works made by both undergraduate and graduate choreographers, streaming through May 22. The concert is free, but online registration is required.

>>Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble, featuring guest artists Ballet Merveilles de Guinée, will feature virtual stagings of the pieces that rouse audiences out of their seats. The concert will start streaming on May 1 at 7:30 pm. Purchase your tickets online ($10 for general audience/$5 for students).

April 1, 2021

>>The Department of Theatre and Music Studies' Festival of Ten: Revisited, a collection of Zoom versions of several selections from past Festivals continues through April 16. Each week alumni from the Department will direct and perform in streamed readings, available on the department’s and Fine Arts Series’ Facebook pages. Check out our new Fine Arts Calendar for a look at the performances throughout April including “Horizons,” “Coffee Card," and “Defrost."

>>The Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will be showing the Spring BFA Thesis Exhibition featuring works from Ann Marie Hummel (photography) and Vanessa Rogers (sculpture), running from April 5 – 18. Due to pandemic protocols, the Gallery will only be open to students and on-campus faculty/staff.

>>The Department of Dance will be offering the MFA Thesis Concert from April 2 – 17, featuring works by Jocelyn Schimpf and Frankie Soldevere. The concert is free, but registration is required in order to obtain a link to the videos.

>>Virtual DANCE/Strasser will premiere on April 24 at 7:30 pm and will stream through May 22. This concert is also free and will also require registration at the link mentioned above.

>>Tickets will be available for Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble beginning April 5. The ensembles will begin streaming on May 1 through May 22. will begin streaming on May 1, and will be available through May 22. Purchase your tickets online, $10 for general audience and $5 for students.

>>This year’s Festival of Ten XII will stream May 7 – 14 and will be augmented with a Playwrights Symposium, featuring authors of several of this year’s entries, on May 8.

March 4, 2021

>>The Department of Theatre and Music Studies is whetting their audience’s appetites by presenting Festival of Ten: Revisited, a collection of Zoom versions of several selections from past Festivals. Each week through April 16, alumni from the Department will direct and perform in streamed readings, available on the department’s and Fine Arts Series’ Facebook pages. Check out our new Fine Arts Calendar for a look at the performances throughout March.

>>Festival of Ten XII will begin streaming on May 7 and will be augmented with a Playwrights Symposium, featuring authors of several of this year’s entries on May 8.

>>The Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will be showing Liberated from Storage, an exhibition featuring works from its collection made by alumni, faculty, regional, and national artists, running from March 8 – 28. The exhibition is dedicated to three emeriti faculty members who have recently passed away: Robert Marx, Mirko Pylyshenko, and Bill Stewart. Due to pandemic protocols, the Gallery will only be open to students and on-campus faculty/staff.

February 8, 2021

>>As the Fine Arts Series gears up for the spring semester, the Department of Theatre and Music Studies presents Zoom productions of several selections from past Festival of Ten performances. From February 16 – April 16, alumni will direct and perform streamed readings available on the department’s and Fine Arts Series Facebook pages. This year’s Festival of Ten XII will begin streaming on May 7 and augmented with a Playwrights Symposium, featuring authors of several of this year’s entries, on May 8.

>>The Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will host an exhibition featuring works from their own collection. The rest of the exhibit season will feature a BFA Thesis Exhibition, as well as the much-anticipated Annual Student Art Exhibit. Unfortunately, due to pandemic protocols, the Gallery will only be open to students and other on-campus faculty and staff.

>>The Department of Dance will offer three different concerts this spring — the MFA Thesis Concert, a Virtual DANCE/Strasser, and Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble.

December 3, 2020

>>The Department of Dance is currently streaming video versions of two concerts. Virtual DANCE/Hartwell, a compilation of undergraduate and graduate student works, and DANSCORE, featuring faculty and guest artist choreography. Both concerts are being presented for free, but patrons will have to register online in order to receive separate links to view each of the concerts. Once you receive the link, it can be used to watch the concert on an on-demand basis through December 26, when both concerts will suspend streaming.

November 5, 2020

>>Through November 18, the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will host the Fall 2020 BFA Thesis Exhibition, in which the accomplishments of our graduating BFA students will be celebrated. The show will feature the recent creative activity of ceramicist Margaret-Mary Gabalski, and prints made by Cemre Yildiz. The Gallery is only open to faculty, staff, and students at this time, and social distancing will be enforced. The Gallery’s hours have been altered and are now Monday – Friday from noon – 5 pm and Sunday from 1 – 4 pm. The exhibition is free for faculty, staff, and students.

>>Later this month, the Department of Dance will begin streaming video versions of two concerts. Virtual DANCE/Hartwell will premiere on Saturday, November 21, at 7:30 pm. The athleticism and dynamism presented in these breathtaking student works is the culmination of months of studio work and adjudication. DANSCORE features an internationally renowned faculty—and some guest artists—presenting choreography in a showcase of diverse talents and professional dance works. DANSCORE will begin streaming on Wednesday, November 25, at 7:30 pm.

Both virtual concerts will be presented for free, but patrons will have to register online in order to receive a link to view the concert through December 26.

October 1, 2020

>>The pandemic severely altered the plans the Department of Theatre and Music Studies had for their fall semester. The department has opted to present a video-streamed version of Voices of Freedom Summer, a documentary-style reader’s theatre piece composed of letters, meeting minutes, news articles, editorials, and songs from Freedom Summer, the summer of 1964 in Mississippi. During Freedom Summer, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee invited student volunteers from northern colleges to help register Black voters in Mississippi. The production will be presented for free, but patrons must register online in order to view the video which will premiere on Monday, October 26, at 7:30 pm, and will be available through Election Day, Tuesday, November 3. The event is co-produced by the Office of Community Development's Joey Jackson Intercultural Center.

>>Through October 25, the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will continue to host the Monroe and Vicinity Biennial. This exhibition highlights the rich talent and artists of Western New York who employ a variety of styles and media. Showing recent work will be four artists from our region: Bob Doyle (Perry), Dusty Herbig (Syracuse), Olivia Kim (Rochester), and Luvon Sheppard (Rochester). The Gallery is only open to faculty, staff, and students at this time, and social distancing will be enforced. The Gallery’s hours have been altered and are now Monday – Friday from noon – 5 pm and Sunday from 1 – 4 pm. The exhibition is free for faculty, staff, and students.

September 3, 2020

>>From September 21 through October 25, the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will be hosting the Monroe and Vicinity Biennial. This exhibition highlights the fact that Western New York is rich with talented, adventurous artists, who employ a variety of styles and media. Showing recent work will be four artists from our region: Bob Doyle, Dusty Herbig, Olivia Kim, and Luvon Sheppard. The Gallery is only open to faculty, staff, and students at this time, and social distancing will be enforced. The Gallery’s hours have been altered and are now Monday – Friday from noon – 5 pm and Sunday from 1 – 4 pm. The exhibition is free for faculty, staff, and students.

>>Information about the October online premiere of Voices of Freedom Summer, co-produced by the Department of Theatre and Music Studies and the Brockport Office of Community Development and Intercultural Center will be available soon. The Department of Dance will also be streaming upcoming concerts in November.

March 5, 2020

>>You don’t need much more than three sisters, a kitchen, and some outlandish actions (such as making a pitcher of lemonade immediately after shooting your husband) to populate a good ol’ Southern Gothic tragicomedy. Yet, in her Crimes of the Heart, playwright Beth Henley has included some truly heart-wrenching backstories in her Pulitzer Prize-winning play, all of which allow audiences to fall in love with the Magrath sisters of Hazlehurst, MS. The play’s final performances are March 5–7 at 7:30 pm. Tickets ($17, $12/Seniors, Faculty, Staff and Alumni, and $9/Students) are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>Due to some fairly inclement weather on their originally scheduled date, David Ying (one-quarter of the Grammy Award winning Ying Quartet) and his wife, Eastman School of Music professor Elinor Freer, will appear in concert in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage on Thursday, March 12, at 7:30 pm. The Ying-Freer Duo, playing cello and piano, will play a program entitled “di-ver-si-ty” which will feature works by composers from various cultures around the world. Tickets ($17, $12, $9) are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>Some things are so special that they only come around once every decade or so. When SUNY Brockport celebrated its 175th anniversary several years ago, a pARTy was thrown to celebrate the arts on campus. The College’s School of Arts and Sciences thinks it is time to remind the community how special their performers and visual artists are. On Friday, March 27, the College will be hosting pARTy 20/20: All Eyes on the Arts. This free celebration of the arts on the Brockport campus includes brief performances and exhibits staged throughout the Tower Fine Arts Center. Doors will open at 7 pm, with performances beginning at 7:30 pm and continuing throughout the evening. There will be food, fun, and door prizes. Though the event is free, tickets are required, and can be obtained by calling (585) 395-2787 or ordered online.

>>The Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery is hosting the Annual Student Art Exhibition, opening March 27 (during pARTy 20/20), and running through April 17. This exhibition is the pinnacle of the exhibition season, and the most anticipated by the students, who get to celebrate their artistic achievements for the year. The Gallery is free and open to the public.

Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday: 10 am–5 pm and Sunday: 1–4 pm

February 6, 2020

>>The Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery is now hosting the SUNY Design Invitational, running through March 6. In this exhibition, colleagues from across the State University of New York system are showing their recent work — graphic or otherwise — for a survey of contemporary design. From utilitarian saltshakers on a cafeteria table to the most luxe logos and letterheads, design is prevalent in our everyday lives, whether we realize it or not. The Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery is free and open to the public Monday – Friday from 10 am–5 pm and Sunday from 1–4 pm.

>>David Ying, one-quarter of the Grammy Award winning Ying Quartet, and his wife, Eastman School of Music professor Elinor Freer, will appear in concert in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage on Friday, February 7, at 7:30 pm. The Ying-Freer Duo, playing cello and piano, will play a program entitled “di-ver-si-ty” which will feature works by composers from various cultures around the world. Tickets ($17, $12/Seniors, Faculty, Staff and Alumni, and $9/Students) are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>You don’t need much more than three sisters, a kitchen, and some outlandish actions (such as making a pitcher of lemonade immediately after shooting your husband) to populate a good ol’ Southern Gothic tragicomedy. Yet, in her Crimes of the Heart, playwright Beth Henley has included some truly heart-wrenching backstories in her Pulitzer Prize-winning play, all of which allow audiences to fall in love with the Magrath sisters of Hazlehurst, MS. The play runs February 28 – March 1 and March 5 – 7. Tickets ($17, $12, $9) are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

December 5, 2019

>>The Department of Dance will present DANSCORE December 5 through 7 at 7:30 pm (with 100 seats available at $5 for a community preview on December 4 at 7:30 pm) in the Hartwell Dance Theater. Two of the pieces take a look at the immigrant experience from various viewpoints. One, “Ain’t Got No Time for HATE,” choreographed by Darwin Prioleau, is about “the history of immigration in this county." There will be text from authentic sources about Italian, Greek, and other groups of immigrants who were mistreated. Mariah Maloney has created “Éire” (Ireland), an ensemble work featuring 15 female dancers. She was inspired to create the piece in the midst of a walking tour with a local guide "Maloney found herself standing in the very street where her ancestors were reduced to famine, poverty, and eventually, death.” Tickets are $17, $12/Seniors, Faculty, Staff and Alumni, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>Concluding its run December 5 through 7 starting at 7:30 pm is the Department of Theatre and Music Studies’s production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Sharifa Elkady, a trans Egyptian-American, is a directing fellow at Geva Theatre Center and helmed the production as part of the department’s alliance with Geva. Her concept stresses “the magic that comes from a freedom of choice” in a play that is already known for its cross-dressing and gender-bending. Tickets ($17, $12, $9) are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>The Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will celebrate the accomplishments of the Department of Art’s graduating students with the BFA Thesis Art Exhibition running through December 8. Also on view in the gallery as a companion to the BFA Thesis Art Exhibition is "The State Of," a printmaking portfolio. This international invitational was organized by the CTRL Art Studios in Wroclaw, Poland, where the Department of Art's Kitty Hubbard was invited to participate. The Gallery is free and open to the public.

>>The Brockport College-Community Chorus will celebrate the holidays at the First Presbyterian Church with their annual Sounds of the Season concert on December 8, starting at 7:30 pm. Music director Liz Banner has programmed an evening of works by women, as well as many of your holiday favorites, including “Mary, Did You Know?,” “Sleigh Ride,” “Winter Wonderland,” and “Silent Night.” Tickets are $5 and will be sold at the door.

October 31, 2019

>>Tomorrow night: On November 1, at 7:30 pm, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra will perform under the baton of music director Ward Stare. The program is entitled “An Evening in Paris,” featuring works by Debussy, Ravel, and L. Boulanger, as well as Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. Tickets (if available) are $17; $12 for seniors, faculty, staff and alumni; or $9 for students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office. Please note that Parking Lot G (adjacent to the Tower Fine Arts Center) will only be available to musicians from the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Please allow a few extra minutes to find parking in Lots D-1, F, or H.

>>The Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery is currently showing Fred Burton/Steve Gerberich: A Shared Curiosity. Throughout Fred Burton's career, he has worked as a mixed media artist, world traveler, and an educator at the Memphis College of Art. Steve Gerberich builds entertaining contraptions and describes his work as "a mixture of one cup Duchamp, three teaspoons Calder, 2 tablespoons Kienholz, one cup Cornell, one pound Rauschenberg, and a sprinkle of Tinguely,” and there is definitely a dash of Rube Goldberg in there, as well. The Gallery is free and open to the public, and the exhibit runs through November 15.

>>The Department of Dance will present DANCE/Hartwell November 7–9 at 7:30 pm (with 100 seats available at $5 for a community preview on November 6 at 7:30 pm) in the Hartwell Dance Theater. The concert features “Introducing," a tap dance in which the dancers play with unison and counterpoint in spatially exciting ways. “In-between Spaces,” by Danish exchange student Nanna Ringbo, is a trio that explores a series of gestures in tight places and expansive terrain. In “La coeur de fleurine,” a solo ballerina performs inventive movements that bring a rich expressiveness to the ballet vocabulary. Tickets are $17; $12 for seniors, faculty, staff and alumni; or $9 for students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>On November 21, the Tower Gallery will celebrate the accomplishments of the Department of Art’s graduating Bachelor of Fine Arts students with the fall BFA Thesis Art Exhibition, through December 8.

>>The New Dancers Showcase will be on view in the Rose L. Strasser Studio in Hartwell Hall on November 22 and 23 at 7:30 pm. In this less formal concert, new dance majors will share their work. Tickets are $5 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>Opening on November 22 is the Department of Theatre and Music Studies’s production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Sharifa Elkady, a trans Egyptian-American, is a directing fellow at Geva Theatre Center and will be helming this production as part of the department’s alliance with Geva. Her concept stresses “the magic that comes from a freedom of choice” in a play that is already known for its cross-dressing and gender-bending. Performances are November 22–24 and December 5–7. Tickets are $17; $12 for seniors, faculty, staff and alumni; or $9 for students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

October 3, 2019

>>The Department of Theatre and Music Studies will present Aaron Posner’s Stupid F***ing Bird, a (sort of) adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull, on October 4 – 6 and 17 – 19 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage. This modernist take on a classic play takes on life’s age-old contradictions: old vs. new, truth vs. fiction, show-biz vs. reality, parents vs. children, life vs. death, and of course, LOVE. All the while learning about life, how to remain connected, and the passage of time. Tickets ($17, $12, $9) are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>The Department of Art Faculty Exhibition is a survey of the scholarly work made by our faculty who are all working artists across a variety of media including sculpture, painting, drawing, ceramics, and mixed media. The exhibit will be on display through October 11 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery and is free and open to the public.

>>Later this month, the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery will present Fred Burton/Steve Gerberich: A Shared Curiosity. Throughout Fred Burton's career he has worked as a mixed media artist, world traveler, and an educator at the Memphis College of Art. Steve Gerberich builds entertaining contraptions and describes his work as "a mixture of one cup Duchamp, three teaspoons Calder, 2 tablespoons Kienholz, one cup Cornell, one pound Rauschenberg, and a sprinkle of Tinguely” and there is definitely a dash of Rube Goldberg in there as well. The opening reception is on October 22 at 4 pm and runs through November 15.

>>On November 1 the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra will perform at the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage at 7:30 pm. Ward Stare, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra's music director, will be conducting a program entitled An Evening in Paris, featuring works by Debussy, Ravel, and L. Boulanger, and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. Tickets ($17, $12, $9) are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

September 5, 2019

>>The 2019-20 Fine Arts Series kicks off on Friday, September 6, at 7:30 pm with a concert in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage by Grammy Award-nominated Jimmie Highsmith, Jr. and Friends. City Newspaper says “[i]f you like your jazz smooth, with an extra helping of funk on the side, Jimmie Highsmith Jr. is the sax player for you.” Tickets are $17, $12/Seniors, Faculty, Staff and Alumni, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>Join faculty musicians for this semester's opener of chamber music featuring Tamara Wilcox on piano, Scott Horsington on clarinet, Nancy Washer on cello, plus special guests. The concert will be held on Friday, September 27, at 7:30 pm, and takes place in Tower Fine Arts Center, room 120. Tickets are $5 at the door.

>>The Department of Art Faculty Exhibition is a survey of the scholarly work made by faculty, who are all artists working in a variety of media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, ceramics, and mixed media. The exhibit will be on display through October 11 at the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery and is free and open to the public.

>>Early next month, the Department of Theatre and Music Studies will present Aaron Posner’s Stupid F***ing Bird, a (sort of) adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull, October 4 – 6 and 17 – 19 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage. This modernist take on a classic play takes on life’s age-old contradictions: old vs. new, truth vs. fiction, show-biz vs. reality, parents vs. children, life vs. death, and of course, LOVE. All the while learning about life, how to remain connected, and the passage of time. Tickets ($17, $12, $9) are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

May 2, 2019

>>The Department of Theatre and Music Studies is producing “one of the very best American plays of the past quarter-century” (Wall Street Journal), Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel. In the play, a spinster African-American seamstress is enduring a pen-pal romance with someone who lives more than 1,000 miles away, while a truer love lies nearer, though thousands of years of religious tradition and social mores keep them apart. While she toils away, sewing intimate apparel, intimacy eludes her. The final performances are May 2–4 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $17, $12/Seniors, Faculty, Staff, and Alumni, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>The Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble will give its annual series of concerts May 2–5. Under the artistic direction of Jenise Anthony, and the music direction of Khalid Saleem, these concerts remain audience favorites and typically sell out. Tickets are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>Music Week began on May 1, but continues on Wednesday, May 8, with the Brockport Ensembles concert, which will feature the Xylophone Ensemble playing a variety of pieces on “non-standard” instruments, such as household products, etc. The Brass Ensemble will also be performing, as will the Chamber Winds, which will play a portion of Charles Gounod’s Petite Symphonie. On Thursday, May 9, the Brockport Concert Band will play a side-by-side concert with the Genesee Valley Wind Ensemble. The concert will feature music by Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, John Williams, and others, and conclude with a combined-group performance of Gustav Holst’s First Suite (in E-flat). Both concerts will take place in the Tower Mainstage at 7:30 pm and will be offering tickets for $5, available at the door.

>>The Brockport College-Community Orchestra will join the College-Community Chorus for a concert on Saturday, May 11, in the Tower Mainstage, at which Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria will be the featured work, though both the chorus and the orchestra will also be performing other glorious music. Tickets are $17, $12, and $9 and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>Graduation Dances is the grand finale of the Fine Arts season and is a capstone for dance students whose time at the College has come to an end. The performance takes place on Friday, May 17, at 7:30 pm, in Hartwell Dance Theater. Donations will be accepted at the door.

April 4, 2019

>>The Department of Dance presents DANCE/Strasser, an evening of undergraduate and graduate choreography from Thursday through Saturday, April 4–6, at 7:30 pm in the Rose L. Strasser Studio in Hartwell Hall. Tickets are $17, $12, and $9/students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>The Annual Student Art Exhibition is the pinnacle of the exhibition season, celebrating students’ artistic achievements for the academic year. The exhibit will be on display April 12 – May 5. Visiting the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery is free and open to the public. The opening reception and awards ceremony will take place on Friday, April 12, from 6–8 pm, with the awards ceremony taking place at 6:45 pm.

>>The Department of Theatre and Music Studies is producing “one of the very best American plays of the past quarter-century” (Wall Street Journal), Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel. In the play, a spinster African-American seamstress is enduring a pen-pal romance with someone who lives more than 1,000 miles away. While a truer love lies nearer, thousands of years of religious tradition and social mores keep them apart. While she toils away, sewing intimate apparel, intimacy eludes her. Performances are April 26–28 and May 2–4. Tickets are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>The Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble will give its annual series of concerts May 2–5. Under the artistic direction of Jenise Anthony, and the music direction of Khalid Saleem, these concerts remain audience favorites, typically selling out. Tickets are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office. Tickets for a low-priced community preview on Wednesday, May 1, are also available online. Purchase yours today for just $5.

March 7, 2019

>>The Festival of Ten XI resumes performances tonight. Now in its third decade, this biennial evening of 10 ten-minute plays has become a Brockport tradition. Audiences can see fully-realized productions that run the gamut from dramas that tug at the heartstrings to comedies that make you double over with laughter. The final performances are March 7–9 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>This spring’s BFA Thesis Exhibition features photography, printmaking, and more from five talented young artists: Zane Davies, drawing; Sage Green, photography; Samuel Moe, photography; Amanda Spencer, photography; and Flore Tallarand, drawing. Several works have helped the artists to build up their self-confidence and to face traumatic childhood memories. The exhibit will be on display March 12–31. Visiting the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery is free and open to the public. (The Gallery will be closed from March 16–24 for spring break.)

>>The percussion and brass ensembles will perform during a Brockport Ensembles Concert on March 27 at 7:30 pm in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage. Tickets are $5 and will be available at the door.

>>Three of the best jazz musicians in the region — bassist Jeff Campbell, Clay Jenkins on trumpet, and Rich Thompson on drums — comprise Trio East. AllAboutJazz.com says that “you will not be disappointed” when you see these three Eastman School of Music faculty members. Their concert will take place on Friday, March 29, at 7:30 pm, at the Tower Fine Arts Center. Tickets are $17, $12, and $9/students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>The Department of Dance presents DANCE/Strasser, an evening of undergraduate choreography on Thursday through Saturday, April 4–6, at 7:30 pm in the Rose L. Strasser Studio in Hartwell Hall. Tickets are $17, $12, and $9/students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office. There is a low-priced community preview with tickets costing $5 on Wednesday, April 3, which are also available online.

February 7, 2019

>>Taiko drums can trace their roots to the sixth century and have been utilized in various manners, including communication, military action, theatrical accompaniment, and religious ceremonies. Hailing from the Buffalo/Niagara region, the Shibuki Taiko Drum Group will present a concert on Friday, February 8, at 7:30 pm, at the Tower Fine Arts Center. Tickets are $17, $12, and $9/students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>The graduate dance program at Brockport merges studio-centered dance technique and choreography with dance education, aesthetics, and production. As a capstone, two Master of Fine Arts candidates are presenting “Challenging Convention: An MFA Thesis Dance Concert.” While Kristin Dowdy’s piece concerns itself with gender, Zhongyuan Fa’s work combines poetry, dance, and technology to explore facial expressions of dancers. These studies balance the physical with the conceptual; this concert is the creative capstone for graduate students. Performances are at 7:30 pm on Friday and Saturday, February 15 and 16, in the Tower Fine Arts Center Black Box Theatre. Tickets are $17, $12, and $9/students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>Continuity to Change: A Recent History of American Abstraction is dedicated to the multi-generational group of American artists who have devoted their professional creative activities to Abstraction, which was established in a time when museums and galleries were more conservative in their offerings. The exhibit celebrates the central tenets the methodology: composition, color, content, and material, and will be on display through March 3. Visiting the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery is free and open to the public.

>>Coming at the beginning of March is the Festival of Ten XI. Now in its third decade, this biennial evening of 10 ten-minute plays has become a Brockport tradition. Audiences can see fully-realized productions that run the gamut from dramas that tug at the heartstrings to comedies that make you double over with laughter. Performances are March 1–3 and 7–9. Tickets are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

December 6, 2018

>>Final performances December 6–8: Prelude to a Kiss is a delightful comedy that premiered in the midst of a rash of movies about people somehow switching bodies, such as Big and Freaky Friday. In Craig Lucas’ play, an old man approaches a young bride at her wedding reception, gives her a kiss, and once they inhabit each other’s bodies, they give “for better or worse” a run for its money! Tickets are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

November 1, 2018

>>TOMORROW NIGHT ONLY — Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik returns to Brockport on November 2, at 7:30 pm, to lead the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in a centennial tribute to Leonard Bernstein. The program consists of several of Bernstein's Broadway compositions, as well as Tyzik's own "Jazz Violin Concerto." Tickets are $17, $12, and $9/students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>Did you know that the Tower Fine Arts Gallery has its own art collection? Though modest in size, the gallery houses fine examples of works by notable regional and national artists, as well as former faculty and alumni of the Department of Art, all in a wide range of media. Selections from the Permanent Collection will be on display through November 18. Join us for an extra-special First Friday opening reception (just prior to the RPO concert) on Friday, November 2, from 4–6 pm.

>>This year's edition of DANSCORE features choreography from three New York City-based choreographers, as well as works created by members of the College's internationally acclaimed dance faculty. Britt Falcon, an alumna of the Brockport dance department, and artistic director of Falcon Dance in NYC, created "Beauty Happening" on students during her residency at Brockport Summer Dance. Performances are at 7:30 pm Thursday, November 15, through Saturday, November 17, in Hartwell Dance Theater. Tickets are $17, $12, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office. There will also be a special preview performance on Wednesday, November 14, for which there are 100 $5 tickets available, via the usual means.

>>The 15th annual New Dancers Showcase takes place on Friday and Saturday, November 30 and December 1, at 7:30 pm, in the Rose L. Strasser Studio in Hartwell Hall. Taking an opportunity to introduce the community to first-year dance majors and minors, the showcase is also a chance for MFA and BFA candidates to set their choreography on new-to-Brockport dancers. Tickets are $5 and are available online.

>>Prelude to a Kiss is a delightful comedy that premiered in the midst of a rash of movies about people somehow switching bodies, such as Big or Freaky Friday. Craig Lucas' plays an old man who approaches a young bride at her wedding reception, gives her a kiss, and once they inhabit each other's bodies, they give "for better or worse" a run for its money! Performances are November 30 – December 2 and December 6–8. Tickets are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

October 4, 2018

>>Western New York is rich with talented and adventurous artists, employing a variety of styles and media. Now on view in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery, the Monroe and Vicinity Biennial art exhibit celebrates the accomplishments of four artists from our region: Meredith Davenport (Rochester, NY), Brian O’Neill (Rochester, NY), Katarina Riesing (Alfred, NY), and Mark Snyder (Buffalo, NY). The passion these artists feel is summed up by O’Neill, who feels that his “responsibility as an artist is one that asks me to create not because I want to but because I have to.” The exhibition runs through October 7.

>>In its time, it held the record for the fire with the most fatalities in New York City. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was a linchpin for workers’ rights and the unionization of factories and was a milestone in the women’s suffrage movement. The plight of the mostly immigrant women who perished is recalled in The Triangle Factory Fire Project. This documentary-style production, about the fire and its aftermath, runs October 5–7 and 18–20 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage. Tickets for all performances are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>DANCE/Hartwell presents innovative work by up-and-coming choreographers within the undergraduate and graduate programs in the Department of Dance. Performances are at 7:30 pm Thursday, October 25, through Saturday, October 27, in Hartwell Dance Theater. Tickets are $17, $12, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office. There also will be a special preview performance on Wednesday, October 24, for which there are 100 $5 tickets available, via the usual means.

>>Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik returns to Brockport on November 2, at 7:30 pm, to lead the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in a centennial tribute to Leonard Bernstein. The program consists of several of Bernstein’s Broadway compositions, as well as Tyzik’s own “Jazz Violin Concerto.” Tickets are $17, $12, and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

September 6, 2018

>>September 6 and 7 — TONIGHT and TOMORROW ONLY! Trisha Brown Dance Company is a post-modern dance company dedicated to the performance and preservation of the work of Founding Artistic Director and Choreographer Trisha Brown. After presenting a restaging of Brown’s “Set and Reset” in last season’s Danscore concert, the department is presenting an entire concert of her thrilling work. The Company will have two showings, on September 6 and 7, at 7:30 pm, in the Hartwell Dance Theater. Tickets, if there are any still available, are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>September 7 — TOMORROW ONLY! Trombone studies at the Eastman School of Music date back to the school’s founding in 1921. Former ESM Trombone Choir members occupy premiere positions in the world’s leading ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Houston Symphony. Current studio members regularly participate in the country’s top music festivals and perform in some of the most elite student ensembles found in the United States. The Choir will kick things off in Tower Fine Arts Center with a blare of brass on Friday, September 7, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>The “Stage Whispers” series reboots itself for the year on Thursday, September 27, at 10 am in the Tower Fine Arts Center Black Box Theatre. These “Conversations with Theatre Professionals” are part of the Department of Theatre and Music Studies’ alliance with Geva Theatre Center, in which interactive panels allow attendees to discover various aspects of making theatre. This first entry for the year — which is free and open to the public, as always — will feature one of the performers from Geva’s currently-running production of Hair.

May 3, 2018

>>Highlighting the accomplishments of a select group of the Department of Art’s graduating seniors — Anna Ciancio, drawing; Maria Kane, printmaking; and Audrey Miller, painting — the BFA Thesis Exhibition will feature a retrospective of their creative work from the past year. The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, continues through May 6 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery.

>>In what has become a bit of a tradition, the first week of May is “Spring Music Week” at the Tower Fine Arts Center. As students cement their grades in their year-end recitals, it is the public that benefits. The remaining schedule is as follows:

May 3: College-Community Orchestra (Mainstage, $5 at the door)
May 4: Jazz Ensemble (Black Box Theatre, $5 at the door)
May 5: College-Community Chorus (Mainstage, Tickets $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students. The Chorus will be performing a program entitled “Love in Bloom” featuring music by Brahms, DiLasso, Whitacre, and others, as well as some popular and Broadway love songs written by the Beatles, Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne, and Kander & Ebb.)

>>The Department of Dance’s seniors revel in the end of the academic year with Graduation Dances, featuring their own choreography while serving an altruistic purpose: Donations, taken at the door, will benefit the Friends of Brockport Dance scholarship fund. The showing takes place at 7:30 pm in Hartwell Dance Theater on Friday, May 11.

>>The 2018–19 Fine Arts Series promises to be an exciting one with the return of the Festival of Ten, a visit from Jeff Tyzik with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and new choreography in such favorites as Danscore and Sankofa. If you would like to receive a season brochure in order to get subscription discounts for the Series, please send your contact information to Stuart Ira Soloway, Fine Arts Series manager, at ssoloway@brockport.edu.

April 5, 2018

>>Each year, the Annual Student Art Exhibition is the most highly anticipated exhibit of the season, as it celebrates the students’ artistic achievements for the entire year. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will end its run in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery on April 17.

>>It’s snarky and sarcastic. According to The New York Times, it’s “sensational” and “hilarious.” It’s Urinetown: The Musical, and it opens on April 20 and runs through April 28. In Urinetown, one man — fed by corporate greed — controls all the water supply and therefore, all of the “public amenities,” having raised rates for water so high that toilets in private homes are unaffordable, forcing its residents to pay to pee. But with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek, and characters willing to stage an uprising, the show can even be construed as an object lesson in our current climate, in which student protests and activism can work. Tickets for all performances are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>Highlighting the accomplishments of a select group of the Department of Art’s graduating seniors, the BFA Thesis Exhibition will feature a retrospective of their creative work from the past year, in a variety of media. The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, runs from April 24 – May 6 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery. The opening reception will be held on April 24, from 4 – 6 pm.

>>This year, the Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble welcomes their new artistic director, Jenise Anthony. She and the company’s revered master drummer/music director, Khalid Abdul N’faly Saleem, will welcome their guest artist, Ivory Coast native Jean Claude Lessou, who has set a piece on Brockport dancers. Performances are April 26 – 28 at 7:30 pm and April 29 at 2 pm. Sankofa always sells out, so pick up your tickets without delay! Tickets for all performances are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>April brings a double dose of Stage Whispers: Conversations with Theatre Professionals. Due to an illness, the February 27 edition has been rescheduled to April 5, and will feature Jenni Werner, the literary manager at Geva Theatre Center, who will speak about Geva’s Hornet’s Nest Series, which encourages dialogue not just on stage, but amongst audience members at these one-night-only events. Then, on April 26, we will welcome a cast member from One House Over, a new comedy about boundaries, power, privilege, and anxiety in a single backyard. As always, the Stage Whispers series is free and open to the public.

>>In what has become a bit of a tradition, the first week of May is “Music Week” at the Tower Fine Arts Center. As students cement their grades in their year-end recitals, it is the public that benefits. The schedule is as follows:

May 2: Ensemble Recital (Mainstage, $5 at the door)
May 3: College-Community Orchestra (Mainstage, $5 at the door)
May 4: Jazz Ensemble (Black Box Theatre, $5 at the door)
May 5: College-Community Chorus (Mainstage, Tickets $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students. The Chorus will be performing a program entitled “Love in Bloom” featuring music by Brahms, DiLasso, Whitacre, and others.)

March 1, 2018

The first week of March is chock full of events and performances:

>>Lobby Hero concludes its run with five performances March 1–4 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Black Box Theatre. This comic drama takes place during the graveyard shift at a Manhattan apartment building, when the security guard/doorman has little to do but crack wise and try to make time with a rookie cop new to the beat. Things escalate when a murder case unfolds that embroils them. Tickets for all performances are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>This is the final weekend to catch Southern Sampler: Contemporary Artists of the New South. The exhibit focuses on artists from the South, whose works both perpetuate and dispel myths about the region while honoring their cultural heritage. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will end its run on March 4.

>>This year, the Department of Dance has gathered the works of their candidates for master’s degrees into one spectacular MFA Thesis Concert which will have two performances, on Friday and Saturday, March 2 and 3, at 7:30 pm. These works are limited only by the imaginations of these burgeoning choreographers. The performances take place in the Hartwell Dance Theater, and admission is $5, at the door.

>>Rescheduled from February 16, the Antara Winds, an all-female wind ensemble, will now be playing their “Across the Americas” program at the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage on Wednesday, March 7, at 7:30 pm. The concert will feature Dvorak’s “American” Quartet, transcribed for winds, as well as Argentinian tango-master Piazzolla’s “Libertango,” and more contemporary jazz-infused works by Jeff Scott and John Steinmetz. Tickets for the concert are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

After Spring Break, events are plentiful, as well:

>>The Student Music Ensembles (Xylophone, Brass, and Jazz) will appear in a recital on Wednesday, March 21, at 7:30 pm at the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage. Tickets are $5 and will be available at the door.

>>Making works for DANCE/Strasser excites our student choreographers due to the physical environment. With the audience surrounding dancers on three sides, the Strasser Performance Studio becomes a much more palpable and personal space. The concerts take place March 22–24 at 7:30 pm. Tickets can be purchased by clicking on the link. The Thursday and Saturday performances will be followed by an interesting and informative talkback with some of the choreographers.

>>Bringing their own brand of heat, the Mambo Kings will play a concert on Friday, March 23, in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage. The quintet, known for sharing their Latin rhythms when they appear with symphony orchestras across the country, have been playing together since 1996. Tickets for the concert are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>The Department of Art celebrates its students’ artistic achievements for the current year with its Annual Student Art Exhibition. The show, which is the pinnacle of the exhibition season, runs March 29 – April 17 and is free and open to the public.

February 1, 2018

>>The Antara Winds, an all-female wind ensemble, will be playing their “Across the Americas” program at the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage on Friday, February 16, at 7:30 pm. The concert will feature Dvorak’s “American” Quartet, transcribed for winds, as well as Argentinian tango-master Piazzolla’s “Libertango,” and more contemporary jazz-infused works by Jeff Scott and John Steinmetz. Tickets for the concert are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>Lobby Hero tells the tale of a graveyard shift at a nice middle-class apartment building in Manhattan, when the security guard/doorman has little to do but crack wise with his boss, and try to make time with a rookie cop new to the beat. Things escalate when a murder case unfolds that embroils them all. Performances, in the Tower Fine Arts Center Black Box Theatre, are February 23–25 and March 1–4. Tickets for all performances are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>For nearly 10 years, Geva Theatre Center has hosted a play-reading series, the Hornets’ Nest, which encourages dialogue not just on stage, but amongst audience members at these one-night-only events. To discuss the series and what they have learned — about theatre, and about human nature — Skip Greer, Geva’s Director of Education, will appear along with Jenni Werner, Geva’s resident dramaturg, at the Department of Theatre and Music Studies’ Stage Whispers panel on Tuesday, February 27, at 10 am in the Black Box Theatre. Admission is free and open to the public.

>>Regarding the new Southern Sampler: Contemporary Artists of the New South exhibition that he has curated, Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery director Tim Massey says that “In the Northeast, much of what is known about the American South exists as myth and stereotype. However, artists of the New South are as diverse as any other region. Their work both perpetuates and dispels myth, examines paradigms, honors cultural heritage and explores new realms.” The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will run through March 4.

>>In conjunction with the Southern Sampler exhibit, Masud Olufani, one of the artists represented in the show, will be on campus to give a lecture on Wednesday, February 21, at 7 pm in Tower Room 2203. About his work, Olufani says, “My objects aspire to be visual poems — works of art that reach beyond themselves to reveal something meaningful about the human experience. I attempt to create work which blends formal elegance, emotional integrity, and spiritual resonance.” The lecture is sponsored by the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery, a Promoting Excellence in Diversity grant, the Department of African and African American Studies, the Department of Anthropology, and the Department of Art.

December 7, 2017

>>DANCE/Hartwell presents innovative work by up-and-coming choreographers within the undergraduate and graduate programs in the Department of Dance, curated by artistic directors and faculty members Julia Burrer and Mariah Maloney. Performances are at 7:30 pm Thursday, December 7, through Saturday, December 9, in Hartwell Dance Theater. Ticket prices for all performances are $17/General; $12/Seniors, College at Brockport Alumni, Faculty, and Staff; and $9/Students and are available online, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

>>She Kills Monsters has its final performances December 7–9. See details in our November notes below.

November 2, 2017

>>The Harlequins Student Theatre Organization will present A Girl’s Guide to Coffee, Eric Coble’s romantic comedy, on November 2–5 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Black Box Theatre. In this delightful diversion, Alex and the rest of the denizens of the Steamed Bean Coffee House ruminate about life, love, parents, and everything else that makes the world go round. Especially Chris, the artist. Donations will gladly be accepted at the door.

>>The Department of Dance is proud to present the 14th annual New Dancers Showcase. The concerts will be held in the Rose L. Strasser Studio in Hartwell Hall, Kenyon Street, on Friday and Saturday, November 3 and 4, at 7:30 pm. There is no admission charge, but donations to the Friends of Brockport Dance scholarship fund will be gratefully accepted at the door. The concert will feature short choreographic works by members of the Brockport dance community.

>>The two stars of Geva Theatre Center’s production of The Agitators, Cedric Mays and Madeleine Lambert, will be featured at this installment of Stage Whispers on November 9 at 10 am. Portraying two champions of social causes who had a long-standing, occasionally volatile relationship, they will discuss “A Rochester Friendship Onstage,” including how it feels to appear in a world premiere of a new work. These informal, informative chats are free and open to the public.

>>The Brockport College-Community Orchestra will play its first concert of the year in the Seymour College Union Ballroom on Saturday, November 18, at 7:30 pm. The program will include works by Saint-Saëns, Shostakovich, Sibelius, and “Je veux vivre,” an aria from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, featuring soprano Hailey Cammilleri. Admission to the concert is $5 at the door.

>>A girl, searching to make sense of the death of her sister, symbolically reconnects with her in an epic game of Dungeons & Dragons in Qui Nguyen’s She Kills Monsters, which runs December 1-3 and 7-9. The girl learns that not everyone is who they appear to be, that sometimes the bad guys are the good guys (and vice versa), and that souls can be lost, but never forgotten. She Kills Monsters is a salute to all the nerds amongst us… and the badasses that live within them. The production will be staged at the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage, and tickets are currently on sale for $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>To Jim Morris, professor of art at SUNY Brockport, the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery is a wonderful place to take in an art exhibit, but it is also “a laboratory for thinking and learning. Drawing is often the first act of visual thinking by artists, architects, and designers. While methods and content vary widely — as attested to by this exhibition — the need to visualize one’s ideas remains constant.” He has curated Thinking About Drawing with an eye to presenting “ideas and processes related to drawing that are not yet familiar to our students.” The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, will run through December 8.

October 5, 2017

>>Broadway’s longest-running thriller is coming to Brockport. Playwright Sidney Bruhl is dying to have another big fat Broadway hit. In Ira Levin’s hugely popular Deathtrap, being presented by the Department of Theatre and Music Studies, Bruhl goes to all sorts of lengths to reclaim his fame and fortune. Performances, at the Tower Fine Arts Center, are on October 6-8 and 19-21. Tickets are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>It’s not too late to catch the Department of Art Alumni Exhibition, which continues through October 13. See details in our September notes below.

>>In the upcoming art exhibit Thinking About Drawing, technology takes its place alongside tradition in creating art. According to exhibit curator Jim Morris, several works have “been created with CNC (Computer Numerical Control) routers or industrial pumps to disperse inks, while one designer uses software to help scientists visualize medical processes. While methods and content vary widely — as attested to by this exhibition — the need to visualize one’s ideas remains constant.” The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, opens with a reception on Tuesday, October 24, at 4 pm, and runs through December 8.

>>When he makes his first appearance with the illustrious Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra on a Brockport stage on October 27, music director Ward Stare will lead an engaging program that focuses on individual sections of the orchestra. Featured are Erik Ewazen’s “Symphony for Brass,” Richard Strauss’s “Suite in B Flat Major” for woodwinds, and Antonín Dvořák’s popular “Serenade in E Major for String Orchestra.” The concert takes place at Tower Fine Arts Center, and tickets are currently on sale for $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

September 7, 2017

>>Juliana Athayde, concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, kicks off the new season with a recital on Friday, September 8, at 7:30 pm at the Tower Fine Arts Center. The program will include works by Brahms, Vivaldi, Poulenc, and Prokofiev. Tickets are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>Another highlight of this 50th anniversary season, the Department of Art is presenting an Alumni Exhibition. Those presenting works in this show are Trisha Koomen ’04, Christina Laurel ’09, Charity Henderson ’10, and Mary Jo Whitman ’11. Koomen, who is also a registered nurse, offered that “being a visual, conceptual artist is — I’ve come to realize — the closest I come to being myself. Being invited back here to exhibit my work feels like coming home in a way.” Most fittingly, in addition to her works in the show, Koomen’s sculpture, Vessel, constructed with glass medical vials, has been permanently installed in the lobby of Lathrop Hall on the Brockport campus, home to the Department of Nursing. The exhibit, which is free, will run through October 13 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery.

>>Everyone is dying to have a big fat Broadway hit. Especially playwright Sidney Bruhl. In Ira Levin’s Deathtrap, the hugely popular comic thriller being presented by the Department of Theatre and Music Studies, Bruhl goes to all sorts of lengths to reclaim his fame and fortune. Performances, at the Tower Fine Arts Center, are on October 6-8 and 19-21. Tickets are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>In celebration of 50 years of performing arts at SUNY Brockport, the “Take a Seat” campaign is a great way to celebrate your family’s name, honor or memorialize a loved one, or commemorate a special event. Create a lasting tribute by engraving a brass nameplate with your inscription of choice, which will be affixed to the arm of a theatre chair in the Hartwell Dance Theater or Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage. Your contribution will help ensure continued excellence in fine arts programming at Brockport. Visit alumni.brockport.edu/takeaseat or call Jamie Beers at (585) 395-2380.

>>SUNY Brockport is a proud sponsor of the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival, an eclectic visual and performing arts festival held throughout Rochester’s East End each fall. This year’s festival will be held September 14–23 and will feature multiple performances by Brockport’s own:

Associate Professor of Theatre David Bloom presents Wild Horses by Allison Gregory
Associate Professor of Art Kitty Hubbard and Assistant Professor of Dance Tammy Carrasco present The Structure of Us
Associate Professor of Dance James Hansen and dance alumna Heather Roffe ’08 present Merged 5
Professor of Theatre Frank Kuhn presents Two of Mee
Graduate student Igor Litvinchuk presents Discover India
Associate Professor of Dance Mariah Maloney presents Julia Burrer/Mariah Maloney Intimate Works

See details and ticketing information for these and the Fringe’s 500 other events.

May 4, 2017

>>For its 2017-18 season, the Fine Arts Series will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Tower Fine Arts Center and of the Departments of Art; Dance; and Theatre and Music Studies. The season will kick off with a recital by RPO Concertmaster Juliana Athayde on September 8. Additional season highlights include the acclaimed musical Urinetown and the ever-popular Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble. For more information, email Arts Events Manager Stuart Soloway.

>>Students graduating from the Department of Dance this month will present their final performances as Brockport students in a show known simply as Graduation Dances, Friday, May 12, at 7:30 pm in the Hartwell Dance Theater. A reception will follow in the lobby.

>>A reminder that the Brockport College-Community Chorus will present “Irish Spring” on Saturday, May 6, at 7:30 pm in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage. See details in our April notes below.

>>The annual student art show, this year entitled Susurrus, continues through Sunday, May 7, in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery. It is free and open to the public. See details in our April notes below.

April 6, 2017

>>The pinnacle of the exhibition season is the annual student art show, this year entitled Susurrus. A project of the Gallery Management class, the exhibit highlights the Department of Art’s students’ artistic successes throughout the current academic year. This year, they will welcome Sarah Sutton, assistant professor of art at Ithaca College, as its juror. The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, will run from April 16 through May 7, with an opening reception on Friday, April 14, from 7 to 9 pm. Gallery hours are: Monday – Friday 10 am – 5 pm and Sunday 1 – 4 pm.

>>David Lindsay-Abaire’s Wonder of the World brings the Department of Theatre and Music Studies’ season to an end. The wild and wacky comedy focuses on Cass, who runs away to examine what her life has become after discovering that her husband is doing strange things with the heads of Barbie® dolls. On her way to potentially throwing herself over Niagara Falls, she encounters a suicidal alcoholic, a lovelorn boat captain, inept private eyes, and a clown of a therapist. There are plenty of shenanigans in this play, which The New York Times called “exceedingly whimsical.” Performances of Wonder of the World will take place in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage on April 21, 22, 27, 28, and 29 at 7:30 pm. There is also a 2 pm matinee on Sunday, April 23, which will be ASL interpreted for the hearing impaired.

>>The always-popular Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble returns for four performances on Thursday, April 27, through Saturday, April 29, at 7:30 pm and Sunday, April 30, at 2 pm. Sarah Zehnder and Khalid Abdul N’Faly Saleem are co-artistic directors, and they promise a vibrant, energetic evening of Afro-Caribbean dance and music, enhanced with a piece set on Brockport dancers by guest artist M’Bemba Bangoura. The showings take place in the Hartwell Dance Theater. Tickets sell out early; act now!

>>The finale for the Fine Arts Series will be the Brockport College-Community Chorus’ concert entitled “Irish Spring,” a celebration of everything Irish. The concert will feature dances choreographed by MFA candidate Briana Kelly, and will be accompanied, in part, by members of the Rochester Irish Musicians Association. The Chorus will perform such favorites as “Auld Lang Syne,” “Danny Boy,” and “Red is the Rose,” and will conclude with the sentimental “The Parting Glass.” The concert takes place on Saturday, May 6, at 7:30 pm in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage.

Tickets for all the above performances are $17/General, $12/Senior Citizens, Brockport Alumni, Faculty and Staff, and $9/Students. They are available online at http://fineartstix.brockport.edu, by phone at (585) 395-2787.

March 2, 2017

>>DANCE/Strasser takes advantage of the College’s unique Rose L. Strasser Studio, in which the dancers are surrounded by the audience on three sides. A highlight of this spring’s concert is Jessica Moore’s MFA thesis, “We Are AmalgamNation,” which is inspired by Native American movement — as a means to honor her indigenous heritage — and is also a commentary on the culture’s erasure by western forces. Performances are March 2 – 4 at 7:30 pm in the Strasser Studio in Hartwell Hall. Tickets are $17/General, $12/Senior Citizens, Brockport Alumni, Faculty and Staff, and $9/Students. They are available online at http://fineartstix.brockport.edu, by phone at (585) 395-2787.

>>On March 30 – April 1, DANCE/Hartwell will share works from undergraduate choreographers, as well as MFA candidates. Their dances are drawn from the world in which we live, and their views on social issues can be a motivation to all of us. Catch these bodies in motion at 7:30 pm on all three evenings in Hartwell Dance Theater. Tickets are $17/General, $12/Senior Citizens, Brockport Alumni, Faculty and Staff, and $9/Students and are available online at http://fineartstix.brockport.edu, by phone at (585) 395-2787.

>>It has been marketed as a toy for more than half a century, but as a mathematical tool, the Spirograph® (or something very much like it) has been around since the 1880s. And now it is going to be celebrated by an international roster of artists invited to take part in The Great Spirograph® Challenge, the upcoming exhibition at the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery. Many of the artists have taken the familiar geometric shapes resulting from their work with their Spirograph® and incorporated them into their own imagery. The show will run from March 7 through April 2, 2017, and is free and open to the public, including the opening reception on March 7 at 4 pm. (The Gallery will be closed for academic break from March 11 through 19.)

>>Flute and guitar duos had their first appearances during the time of the ancient Greeks. As the 18th century gave way to the 19th, they gained even more popularity, especially as composers began writing pieces specifically for the small ensemble. On March 24, the Rubio Duo will favor audiences with classical favorites from centuries ago, as well as more contemporary sounds from the likes of jazz legend Chick Corea. Their concert, in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage, will begin at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $17/General, $12/Senior Citizens, Brockport Alumni, Faculty and Staff, and $9/Students and can be purchased online at http://fineartstix.brockport.edu, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office.

February 2, 2017

>>Did you know the Fine Arts Series is on Facebook? Like the page to stay apprised of the latest event news, ticket sales, and occasional discounts.

>>The tenth biennial Festival of Ten will be performed on February 24 – 26 and March 2 – 4 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage. This audience favorite includes 10 ten-minute plays culled from an international search. The March 4 performance will include a visit from eight* of the playwrights, many of whom will be seeing the first full productions of their plays, which run the gamut from emotional dramas to broad comedies. Yes, all that in just 10 minutes each. Tickets are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students. *Number of playwrights subject to change.

>>In the 17th and 18th centuries, when the royal courts of Europe employed court composers and musicians, they also had a sort of “Baroque Idol” in the form of keyboard duels. Edoardo Bellotti, associate professor of organ, harpsichord, and improvisation at the Eastman School of Music, will recreate some of the more famous duels, including music by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Scarlatti. The concert takes on Friday, February 3, 2017, at 7:30 pm in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage. Tickets are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>The faculty of the Department of Art at SUNY Brockport is comprised of practicing artists who exhibit nationally and internationally. In the current Faculty Exhibition, they are presenting their most recent works which encompass a variety of media. Jennifer Hecker, a longtime faculty member, will be exhibiting some of her works that involve glass, including “Water Fall.” Her fascination with working with glass has been going on for several years. To her, the transparency and fluidity that glass possesses “suggests water. Water is, of course, essential for life.” As is art. The exhibit, which is free, will run through February 26 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery.

December 1, 2016

>>On Sunday, December 4, at 7:30 pm, the Brockport College-Community Chorus will ring in the holiday season with a Handel’s Messiah Sing-In. Bring your score and join the fun at the First Presbyterian Church, 35 State Street. $5 at the door.

>>“Stage Whispers: Conversations with Theatre Professionals” is a series of interactive panels, allowing attendees to discover various aspects of making theatre. On December 8 at 10 am, we will welcome Christopher Mannelli, the new executive director of Geva Theatre Center, who will be discussing the ins and outs of running a regional theatre in a city that appreciates the arts as much as Rochester. The talk will take place in the Tower Fine Arts Center Black Box Theatre, and is free and open to the public.

>>The brothers in Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West are definitely more Cain and Abel than the Brady Bunch. Though it is darkly comic, “the play is nasty and earthy and gritty,” according to Richard St George, professor of theatre and director of the production. The brothers bicker about a variety of subjects, mostly mundane, but occasionally life-altering. The Department of Theatre and Music Studies’ production of this third entry in McDonagh’s Leenane trilogy runs from December 2–4 and 8–10 in the Tower Fine Arts Mainstage. Tickets are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

November 3, 2016

>>The Department of Theatre and Music Studies is proud of its participation in this year’s Farm Theater College Collaboration Project. Your Wings Have Eyes, by Micheline Auger, is the result of the playwright’s conversations with Brockport students, as well as with students at two other institutions. The drama takes place at a point in their lives when boys and girls mature into men and women. But as they grow up, they face the realities of a world that deals with each gender differently, sometimes with substantial consequences. The play will have its world premiere in three performances in the Tower Fine Arts Center Black Box Theatre, on November 11 at 7:30 pm, and on November 12 at 2 and 7:30 pm. Tickets are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>DANSCORE brings the finest in modern dance to Western New York, including works made by several New York City–based guest artists. Our nationally renowned faculty sets pieces on their talented students for three performances: two at Brockport (November 17 and 18) and one in Rochester, at Hochstein Performance Hall on November 19, all at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>The Red Creek Duo will give a lecture/demonstration on Monday, November 21, at 6:30 pm, in Room 120 in Tower Fine Arts Center, as part of the Music Appreciation class taught by RPO musician Margaret Leenhouts. The violin and guitar duo will present an eclectic program of tangos and classical duos, showing the many musical possibilities of arranging and composing for small ensembles. Admission is free.

>>In its current edition, the Monroe and Vicinity Biennial is hosting the 85th Anniversary Annual Exhibition of the Print Club of Rochester through December 9. This juried show will bring the diversity of styles, methodologies, and outstanding technical skills that are representative of the club’s membership to the fore. Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery Hours: Monday to Friday: 10 am to 5 pm; Sunday: 1 to 4 pm. (The Gallery will be closed from November 23 to 27.) Admission is free.

October 6, 2016

>>Continuing its longstanding partnership with the College, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra will perform in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage Friday, October 28, at 7:30 pm, presenting The Sounds of Shakespeare: Music Inspired by the Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon. Tickets are $17; $12 for senior citizens and Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff; or $9 for students.

>>The family of dance major Christina Gorman, who passed away in 2014, has raised funds to dedicate the Christina Gorman Dressing Room in Hartwell Hall at the DANCE/Hartwell performance on October 29.

>>This fall, the Department of Theatre and Music Studies presents two plays written specifically for college actors, with close collaboration between the playwrights and students. Naomi Iizuka’s Good Kids, which tackles sexual assault and the looming role of social media, runs October 7-9 and 20-22, and the world premiere of Micheline Auger’s Your Wings Have Eyes, a tale of youth, trust, betrayal, fear and self-realization, runs November 11-12.

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