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The Granbury Saxophone Quartet performs a benefit concert for Tarleton State University’s Dora Lee Langdon Cultural & Educational Center on Saturday, November 14 at 7:30 p.m.

GRANBURY, TX - The concert is set Tarleton’s Langdon Center Concert Hall at the corner of East Bridge and Brazos Streets in Granbury.

Ted Dolan, Earl Haberkamp, Hainds Laird and David Talmage make up the Granbury Saxophone Quartet.
“This ensemble is playing music literature that rarely gets played,” states lead alto saxophonist Ted Dolan.

“We’re playing music performed by the New York Sax Quartet and the Paris Saxophone Quartet – a full range of genres.”

Included the evenings diverse program are such tunes as Amazing Grace, an arrangement by Paul R. Coats which opens with a solo statement by each of the quartet voices resolving into a funeral dirge. Poor Butterfly is a nice jazzy take on the popular song inspired by Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly".

The Albinoni Adagio is a wonderful piece of early baroque music that uses tension and release throughout and is very challenging for the quartet to perform.

Milonga de mis Amores is an authentic Argentine tango by Pedro Laurenzi and offers a nice contrast in the program to one of the quartet's favorites, Lennie Neihaus’ arrangement of Polkadots and Moonbeams originally written for the famous Hollywood Saxophone Quartet.

No quartet program is complete without a Scott Joplin rag, and the quartet performs two: a fine arrangement of Maple Leaf Rag and Pan Am Rag, a piano rag for the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901.

Ted Dolan originally hails from Chicago, received his Bachelors in Music Education from Northwestern University. His day time jobs were in the retail music business, but Ted made time to free-lance with such great bandleaders as Tex Beneke, Les Elgart and Stan Kenton.

Earl Haberkamp joined the American Federation of Musicians at age 16. He’s played everything from Big Band to Medieval and Renaissance early music and received a BS in Music Education from Bowling Green University and an MS in Music Education from SMU.

Hainds Laird received his Music Education degree from the University of Houston. He went on to receive his Masters in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Doctorate of Ministry from Denver Seminary.

David Talmage retired from directing bands after 32 years. He studied music at North Texas State University where he was a member of the Lab Band and later at Sul Russ State University.

All are members of the saxophone section of the Langdon Center Big Band.

The exceptionally wonderful and acoustically live Langdon Center Concert Hall is a perfect setting for this quartet that likes to rehears as much as they like to perform.

“It’s great to be able to enjoy preparing for a rehearsal and then have the opportunity to perform,” states Haberkamp. “I’m playing more now than in I have in thirty years.”

Talmage adds, “Quartet rehearsals improve my reading skills and technique tremendously.”

The Partners for Enrichment Society will host a reception in Tarleton’s Langdon Center Historic A.P. Gordon House prior to the concert in conjunction with the opening of the Vickie Guthrie Art Exhibit, “Roads Traveled” from 4pm to 7pm. For more information and to secure reservations, please contact Tarleton’s Langdon Center staff at 817-279-1164 or e-mail langdoncenter@sbcglobal.net.

Paluxy artist, Vickie Guthrie, exhibits “Roads Traveled” at Tarleton’s Langdon Center in Granbury

GRANBURY, TEXAS — Artist Vickie Guthrie takes you along the roads she has traveled in the newest art exhibition at Tarleton State University’s Dora Lee Langdon Cultural & Educational Center. Her multi-media recreations depict scenes she has viewed along diverse road trips in and around Hood and Somervell Counties in her native Texas, as well as France, Italy, and Spain.

“Roads Traveled: the Art of Vickie Guthrie” opens November 13 and runs through December 18 in the A.P. Gordon House at Tarleton’s Langdon Center in Granbury’s Historic District.

Guthrie’s art adventures were first evidenced when as a child she broke open a brand new box of crayons, and at once she selected the pink and green crayons, placing them side by side.

“I remember feeling a stirring sense of wonder at the beauty of the two colors together,” states the artist. “I was completely unaware that I had instinctively chosen two of Mother Nature’s true complimentary colors from that box. An artist was awakened.”

Constantly honing her artistic skills, Guthrie has studied with numerous noted oil artists. These include John Pototschnik, Kaye Franklin, Betty Carr, and Cecy Turner. While recently participating in a plein air workshop with pastel artist Dina Gregory, her love of pastels was reignited. To further her art education, she attends selected workshops. Vickie finds it valuable to study works of such contemporary artists Daniel Greene, Albert Handell, and Kevin McPherson. She gleans worthy information and perspective visiting museums to view masterworks both locally and when abroad.

Guthrie’s painting objective is simple:

“I hope the viewer will see my work as an invitation to leave today’s hectic world behind and enter with me into a world of peaceful tranquility that I have attempted to create. If for but one brief moment, to be provided a mental resting place in my work,” says the artist.

Vickie selects subject matter that appeals to her with a subtle beauty that she can translate to canvas.

Retired in 2000 from a fulfilling career in sales and marketing, Guthrie now values the time she is able to spend focusing on her art. Her studio is perched at the tip top of the Hill Country near Paluxy, Texas. Vickie contributes to her community as the Postmaster Relief person for Paluxy. She and husband George have three children and delight in their eight grandchildren.  

The show hours for “Roads Traveled: the Art of Vickie Guthrie” are Monday through Friday, 9am to 6pm and Saturdays 10am to 2pm. Tarleton’s Langdon Center Gordon House is located at 308 East Pearl Street in Granbury.

Visitors over the Thanksgiving holiday may set an appointment for viewing by calling 817.279.1164. For more information on this and other events at Tarleton’s Langdon Center visit www.tarleton.edu/langdoncenter.


Musician and Dulcimer-Maker, Howard Hayre, joins John Pelham for “An Evening of Country & Cowboy Poetry” at Tarleton’s Langdon Center in Granbury


 
GRANBURY, TX - Tarleton State University’s Dora Lee Langdon Cultural & Educational Center will be the setting for “An Evening with Country & Cowboy Poet John Pelham” on Thursday, November 12. Pelham will be reading from his newest book, "Clotheslines, Front Porches, and Barbed Wire Fences" beginning at 7:30pm in the Concert Hall at the corner of East Bridge & Brazos Streets.

Pelham’s program will be a presentation of the book, his identity, in which he says he isn’t a real cowboy, but always had dreams of being one, and his poems, which are based on his own background, personal experiences and real stories he has encountered on life’s journey.

The poet/author believes that anyone who grew up in “the country” or has now moved to “the country” – no matter in what region of the United States - have a mutual understanding of a desire to be set apart from a more urban, hectic lifestyle.

“Readers (and listeners) of my book are invited to notice the similarities and differences – fewer than one might expect - in lifestyles as they go from reflections of life in rural New Jersey, to Missouri, to Arkansas and Texas,” Pelham states.

Joining Pelham in the program will be Granbury’s own Dulcimer maker and musician, Howard Hayre. Hayre leads the Brazos Country Strings and recently performed in concert during Passing Down the Music dulcimer festival on Granbury’s Historic Square.

Hayre grew up in rural Arkansas in the 1920s and 1930s. Like Pelham, this rural, country setting made an impression on Hayre’s life. He relates to those days as hard and austere.

“It is interesting to note that many of his (Hayre’s) experiences mirror those of others of his generation, regardless of the ‘country’ in which they grew up,” states Pelham in his introduction to an exerpt of Hayre’s autobiography.

Pelham, who attended Tarleton State University, Texas A&M and Mississippi State University, currently serves as president of the Tarleton Alumni Association.  Pelham says he would like to see more former students involved with the Association and discover the advantages and unique opportunities it presents.

“An Evening with Country & Cowboy Poet John Pelham” is presented by Tarleton Alumni Relations and Tarleton’s Langdon Center’s Partners for Enrichment Society. No admission will be charged and books will be available for purchase.

An Evening with Country & Cowboy Poet John Pelham
Thursday, November 12
7:30pm
Langdon Center Concert Hall
Presented by the Langdon Center Partners for Enrichment Society
& Tarleton Alumni Relations

Langdon offers new monthly Art Adventure through Texas


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 2009

GRANBURY, TEXAS—Tarleton State University is offering the Cross Timbers area a monthly adventure.  Led by retired schoolteacher Kathi Sale, Tarleton’s Dora Lee Langdon Cultural and Educational Center will guide art lovers or novices on an Artful Adventure through Texas. Designed as a day trip with lunch included, the adventures are the perfect opportunity for a quick getaway.

“I am very involved in the Langdon Center activities. As a teacher, I involved music and art in education,” Sale said. “We feel like this is a great opportunity for people who are interested in art, but might not drive to a museum by themselves.”

The first artful adventure will be on Sept. 23 when the group will travel to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. The featured exhibit is “Butchers, Dragons, Gods & Skeletons,” film installations by Philip Haas.  Commissioned by the Kimbell, Haas’ film installations interpret and elaborate upon selected works in the Museum’s permanent collection. Between seven and 20 minutes in length and running continuously, they are projected on screens of various unconventional formats and configurations.

Tentative dates for other art adventures are:

• Oct. 28 — Masterworks of American Photography exhibit at Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth

• Nov. 18 — Old Jail Art Center in Albany featuring an exhibit of Asian art and works from Klee, Picasso, Matisse, Grant Wood, Renoir and George Braque. Also a stop at Grace Museum in Abilene

• Dec. 5 — Home Tour and Christmas Arts and Crafts in Clifton, the Norwegian Capital of Texas featuring a day of German and Norwegian homemade sweets and treats and entertainment by folk dancers.

• Jan. 20 — Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth featuring 100 of the most important European paintings and sculptures ever held in private collections in Texas. More than 40 collectors will be represented and artists featured include Guercino, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Monet and Renoir.

• Feb. 17 — Texas Woman’s University exhibit on “First Ladies Historic Costume” collection

Space is limited for the artful adventures. Cost per trip is $50, which includes lunch and transportation.

 Tarleton's Langdon Center has a full lineup of Community Education Personal Computer classes as well as artisan craft courses scheduled for the fall. For a list and detail of these click on the following link: www.tarleton.edu/langdoncenter/community.html.

 For more information, contact the Langdon Center at langdoncenter@sbcglobal.net or (817) 279-1164 or reply to this e-mail.