APSU’s 52nd annual Mid-South Jazz Festival April 3rd-6th
March 28, 2013
Clarksville, TN – In 2011, the New York Times published a review of a new jazz album, “Dawn of Goodbye,” by a trumpeter named Dominick Farinacci. The album cover, printed with the article, showed a black and white image of a handsome, but very young-looking, 28-year-old musician. That picture caused some jazz aficionados to assume the album was the work of a novice. The Times review intended to correct that misconception.
“Mr. Farinacci plays beautifully, with expressive control, throughout a program of love-haunted standards and compatible originals, including his yearning title track,” the review stated. “His phrasing attests to some close study of Miles Davis and Clifford Brown, but avoids outright imitation.”
Jazz Trumpeter Dominick Farinacci
Popular American humorist Blount to speak at Austin Peay State University March 26th
March 14, 2013
Clarksville, TN – Roy Blount Jr. is a hard man to classify. Is he a sports writer, an essayist or one of America’s leading humorists?
The Washington Post called his first book, “About Three Bricks Shy…And the Load Filled Up,” one of the 10 best sports books ever written. Time magazine puts him “in the tradition of the great curmudgeons like H.L. Mencken and W.C. Fields.”
Roy Blount Jr. to speak at APSU
APSU concert to showcase beauty and versatility of the cello in Britten Suites
March 3, 2013
Clarksville, TN – In the early 1960s, the famed English composer Benjamin Britten attended a London concert featuring a young Russian cellist named Mstislav Rostropovich. According to the Colorado Britten Society, the English composer bobbed “up and down like a school boy” as he listened to Rostropovich.
That concert was a fortuitous event in the development of modern classical music. The two men became friends, and Britten went on to write three stunningly beautiful cello suites for Rostropovich.
Eli Lara, APSU cello professor.
Black History Bowl at APSU rescheduled for February 1st
January 27, 2013
Austin Peay State University
Clarksville, TN – The Eighth Annual Black History Bowl at Austin Peay State University has been rescheduled for 5:00pm, February 1st, in the Music/Mass Communication Building’s Mabry Concert Hall. The event, a scholastic competition open to teams from local schools, was originally scheduled for January 25th, but inclement weather and local school closings made it necessary to reschedule.
“The purpose of the bowl is to build a sense of collegiality among students,” Dr. Barbara Peterson, associate professor of education, said. “It gives them an opportunity to have a high command of knowledge and to apply that knowledge.”
Gateway Chamber Orchestra to hold “Heavenly Strings” Concert February 11th
January 25, 2013
Clarksville, TN – In the late 1930s, the American composer Samuel Barber created a work for string quartet with a slow, hauntingly beautiful second movement.
That section of the composition proved to be so powerful that Barber soon arranged that movement as a complete work for an expanded string orchestra.
Gateway Chamber Orchestra
Christmas Down Home returns to Clarksville
December 12, 2012
Clarksville, TN – This Holiday season David Alford and Paul Carrol Binkley bring their much-loved heartwarming rendition of Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” in Christmas Down Home back to APSU.
The show is a collection of Holiday stories, memories, and music from a simpler time born out of a previous show Alford and Binkley helped create called A Southern Christmas Sampler which was performed 1995-1999 in Nashville, TN.
Christmas Down Home
Gateway Chamber Orchestra recognized on 55th Annual Grammy Awards nominees list
December 10, 2012
Clarksville, TN – On Wednesday night, following a nationally televised concert in Nashville, the nominees for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards were announced.
Near the very bottom of that list of nominees, available online at www.grammy.com/nominees, was the category for “Producer of the Year, Classical,” and the name Blanton Alspaugh.
Gateway Chamber Orchestra – “Chamber Symphonies”
“My Favorite Things” A Christmas Concert at Austin Peay State University December 7th
December 1, 2012
Clarksville, TN – “My Favorite Things” is the title of this season’s holiday concert put together by David Steinquest at Austin Peay State University. The performance is Friday, December 7th, 2012 at 7:30pm in the George and Sharon Mabry Concert Hall.
The band is comprised of some of Steinquest’s favorite musicians. Paul Carrol Binkley is the guitarist and foundation of the band’s sound. [Read more]
APSU renaming concert hall after George and Sharon Mabry
October 22, 2012
Clarksville, TN – In 2010, a group of Clarksville residents, led by local lawyer Evans Harvill, set out on a mission to rename the state-of-the-art concert hall in Austin Peay State University’s Music/Mass Communication Building.
For more than 30 years, these individuals had enjoyed world-class musical performances presented by Drs. George and Sharon Mabry, and they thought it a shame that the two long-time APSU music faculty members didn’t have something properly honoring their service to the community.
Drs. George and Sharon Mabry
