Ke-Nekt chamber performances to display global influences in 2018-19 season

SUNY Oswego's signature chamber series, Ke-Nekt, will take audiences on a journey of music from around the world during the 2018-19 season's five performances.

The season starts this month with a concert paying homage to America's women composers and to the women's suffrage movement. It ends in late March as a virtuoso plays a traditional Japanese instrument. In between, performers will offer influences of South America, Russian opera, American jazz and classical music of Europe's greats.

Regional orchestra Symphoria opens the Ke-Nekt season, in combination with the Artswego Performing Artists Series, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, in Waterman Theatre. The orchestra will honor women composers, performing Caroline Shaw’s "Entre'Acte"; Jennifer Higdon’s "Concerto for Soprano Sax"; Amy Beach’s "Symphony in E-minor," the "Gaelic" movement; Missy Mazzoli's "Holy Roller"; and Joan Tower's "Made in America." SUNY Oswego music faculty member Trevor Jorgensen will host and play a saxophone solo.

"Bellas Artes: Adolfo Mejía Conservatory Collaboration" will showcase the talents of Colombian flutist Jesus Castro, other faculty from the conservatory and pianist Robert Auler of the Oswego music faculty. They will play a repertoire of national and famous classical music in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, in Sheldon Hall ballroom.

World-renowned alto saxophonist Dick Oatts and Oswego's faculty combo, the Oswego Jazz Project, will take the Sheldon Hall ballroom stage at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 5. Oatts has toured internationally, recorded and performed with top names in jazz, including Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and vocalists Sara Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald. Music faculty member Eric Schmitz will host and play percussion with OJP.

Tenor-soloist JR Fralick will make a presentation that traces the history of 19th century Russian opera -- including composers, productions, manuscript images and video segments -- and will sing representative arias. The lecture-recital will take place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20 in Sheldon Hall ballroom. The vocalist has performed with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Russian Philharmonic and has performed lieder recitals in Austria and South Africa. Juliet Forshaw of Oswego's music faculty will host Fralick.

Masayo Ishigure will play a six-foot-long zither-like instrument called the koto in concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 27. She has performed Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall-Weill Recital Hall, the Smithsonian Institution and many other distinguished venues. Ishigure recorded alongside Yitzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma on the Grammy Award-winning move soundtrack "Memories of a Geisha" by John Williams. Mihoko Tsutsumi, SUNY Oswego's director of choral activities, will host.

Most of the season's events feature a pre-concert talk at 7 p.m. and, in keeping with the stylized name Ke-Nekt, performers from all of the concerts will connect with students and perhaps other community members in classes and/or workshops.

Tickets for are "Achievements of Women in Music: Symphoria" are $20 ($18 for groups of 10 or more; $5 for students); for all other Ke-Nekt Chamber Music Series concerts, tickets cost $15 ($5 for students). Tickets are available at all SUNY Oswego box offices, online at tickets.oswego.edu or by calling 315-312-3073.

Parking is included in the price of a ticket. For Symphoria at Waterman Theatre, parking is available in the employee lot in front of Culkin Hall and the employee and commuter lots behind Hart and Funnelle residence halls. For performances at Sheldon Hall, parking is available in the employee and commuter lots adjacent to and across Washington Boulevard from the building. People with disabilities needing assistance to attend should call 315-312-3073 in advance of a performance.

For more on the performing and fine arts at SUNY Oswego, visit arts.oswego.edu. For information on all events happening on campus, go to oswego.edu/calendar.