Our Town briefs: Musicians to perform in Art Force Piano Series at Amarillo College

Accomplished musicians to perform in Art Force Piano Series at Amarillo College

Amarillo College recently announced scheduling for the 2021-22 Art Force Piano Series – a celebration of iconic music to be alternately performed by accomplished visiting pianists and AC faculty musicians.

According to a news release, the Piano Series is sponsored by Art Force Amarillo, and all five concerts to be featured over a seven-month span are free and open to the public. The series, which begins on Oct. 5, will be conducted entirely at the Concert Hall Theater on AC’s Washington Street Campus.

“We are excited to be able to present great, free music on our Washington Street Campus,” Dr. Bruce Lin, artistic director for the concert series and director of piano at AC, said. “We have some outstanding guest performers lined up over the next several months, and I am confident that our audiences will be pleased.”

The seven-month Art Force Piano Series features the following five installments at the Concert Hall Theater:

Tuesday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m.: “Thirty Dirty Fingers” – Dr. Bruce Lin and Dr. Nathaniel Fryml of the AC faculty, and Dr. James Rauscher, former chair of the AC Music Department (retired). The trio will compete for keyboard space on the same piano to synchronously present works from Debussy, Rachmainoff, Sousa and more. Acquired from a news release, Fryml is director of choral activities at AC and serves as artistic director of the Amarillo Master Chorale. Lin is both a soloist and an active chamber musician. He formerly served on the music faculty at Texas Lutheran University and University of the Incarnate Word. Rauscher spent 35 years teaching piano at AC. He has served as principal keyboardist for the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra since 1981, and he also is a frequent guest soloist with the orchestra.

Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m.: – “Dances and Romances” – Alex McDonald and Rachel Li McDonald. The husband-wife duo will perform their arrangement of five movements from the Nutcracker, Piazzolla’s Grand Tango, Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne, and more. Rachel Li McDonald has actively performed and taught throughout North America and Japan since her debut chamber performance at Carnegie Hall was broadcast on PBS. She holds a bachelor’s degree from The Julliard School, as well as a master’s degree from Rice University. Pianist Alex McDonald, since his orchestral debut at age 11, has soloed with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de Mexico, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and the Utah Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Feb. 1, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.:  – “2022 Jam with Love!” – AC Music Faculty. The AC Music Department faculty assembles to share music of love that nurtures the Valentine spirit. This is a chance for everyone who is feeling cooped up by winter’s inclemency to get out and hear spirited strains of optimism and hope.

March 1, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.: “Forgotten Masterpieces of Central European Piano Music” – Slawomir Dobrzanski. Pianist Slawomir Dobrzanski presents a program featuring the music of three long-forgotten romantic composers from Eastern and Central Europe: Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831), the first woman in history to become a professional virtuoso pianist and composer; Anton de Kontski (1816-1899), a noted friend of Frédéric Chopin who undertook a grand concert tour around the world; and Karoly Agghazy (1855-1918), considered the most accomplished Hungarian student of Franz Liszt.

April 5, 2022: – “Beethoven 250” – David Palmer, artistic director of Chamber Music Amarillo, who is a great fan of Beethoven, whose 250th birthday in 2020 was celebrated the world over despite the pandemic. Palmer, a pianist, has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe since the early 1990s, as both a soloist and chamber musician. Chamber Music Amarillo was awarded second place in the 2017-18 Professional Division of the nationally recognized American Prize competition, which celebrates excellence in the arts. He also founded and served as artistic director of the Quartz Mountain Music Festival in Oklahoma from 2006-2011.

The AC Music Department also is excited to announce that, thanks to sponsorship by the David D. and Nona S. Payne Foundation, three performances from the Piano Series will be presented encore-style in the Panhandle communities of Canadian, Pampa and Wellington. These community concerts will commence in Wellington when the AC faculty trio presents “Thirty Dirty Fingers” at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 10 at the Ritz Theater.

Details for the remaining presentations (both will occur in 2022) will be announced at a later date.

Amarillo Public Library resumes curbside service 

In an effort to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, Amarillo Public Library has resumed offering curbside service at all five library locations beginning Aug. 23. Hours of operation have not changed and all locations remain open to the public. However, operating hours vary among library locations, so curbside service will be available on the following schedule:

Downtown Library and Southwest Branch Library: Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

East, North, and Northwest Branch Libraries: Monday and Tuesday: 1-5 p.m.; Wednesday and Thursday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Amarillo Public Library operates with a reduced staff on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Curbside service will not be available on those days.

To take advantage of curbside service, patrons may call any library during regular hours to request materials or place materials on hold through amarillolibrary.org. Please note that the computer system generates a new hold list each morning, so patrons hoping to receive same-day service should call the library. Library staff will contact patrons by phone or email when materials are ready to be picked up. Patrons with a long distance phone number need to supply a working email address for communication.

Patrons should call when they get to the library to tell staff what kind of vehicle they’re driving. In the case of a patron arriving at the library on foot or bicycle, staff will have a drop off space and a waiting space marked so that materials can be placed for pick-up while maintaining a safe distance.

Amarillo Public Library offers a wide variety of online options for downloading reading material, conducting research and online education, and even watching movies and documentaries. People wishing to learn more about these resources can contact any library location.

Donations to Friends of the Amarillo Public Library remain suspended until further notice.

For more information, please contact Library PR Coordinator Stacy Clopton.

Texas Beef Council hosts first Beef Loving Chefs summit

SAN ANTONIO – Beef Loving Chefs, a program of the Texas Beef Council (TBC), hosted the inaugural Beef Loving Chefs Summit at the Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio on Aug. 12-13, 2021. During the two-day event, 40 chefs from across Texas learned about the beef life cycle from pasture to plate from speakers who shared their valuable beef industry knowledge.

“The goal of the Summit was to bring Texas chefs from different sectors of the foodservice industry together and take a deep dive into the beef production process,” said Chef Robert Hale, manager of culinary and foodservice for TBC. “These chefs were able to hear from industry experts and share their own unique experiences as well. When they left the Summit, we wanted them to feel good about choosing beef and including it in more of their dishes, which has the potential to put beef on more consumer’s plates.”

Presenters at the Beef Loving Chefs Summit included Dr. Davey Griffin, professor and extension meat specialist at Texas A&M University; Dr. Travis Tennant, assistant professor of animal science at West Texas A&M University; Dr. David Anderson, professor and extension economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University; and Dr. Jason Sawyer, associate professor and research scientist at the King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management.

Attendees included healthcare chefs, broadline center-of-the-plate specialists, high school and post-secondary chef instructors, independent restaurant chefs, college foodservice chefs and hotel executive chefs. Each of these specialists are largely tasked with educating their culinary staff or students about beef, while also developing menus and finding new ways to prepare beef that increase demand for the protein at their establishments.

To learn more about Beef Loving Chefs, visit BeefLovingTexans.com. For more information about the Texas Beef Council and the Texas Beef Checkoff, or to sign up for the Cattle Talk e-newsletter, visit TexasBeefCheckoff.com.