ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120014
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Out & About
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS BANKS
The snow - oops! make that SHOW - must go on!
Clarity James, Radford University's own opera star, will present her annual recital Monday at 8 p.m. in Preston Auditorium. James came to teach in the university's music department in 1990 after a prominent stage career that included stints with the Santa Fe Opera and the New York City Opera.
The mezzo-soprano has worked with the likes of Gian Carlo Menotti and Leonard Bernstein and has performed all over the world.
She's also found a home in Radford.
"I'm here because it's a place where the trees outnumber the cars and people," she says.
Joining James for Monday's concert are Caryl Conger on piano and Doris Lederer on viola. Conger, a pianist and also a member of Radford University's music faculty, frequently accompanies the singer. This is the first time James has performed with Lederer, a member of Virginia Tech's acclaimed Audubon Quartet.
"Working with Doris Lederer is awesome," James said last week. "The sounds we make together are unbelievable. I'm so excited about it!"
Lederer and James will perform together on two songs by Brahms and a set of four poems by Charles Loeffle.
The program begins with a song cycle called "The House of Life" by British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Last - but by no means least - is the real treat, a "modern song sickle" by Gordon Myer.
"Gordon Myer does this thing called the art of belly canto," explained James. "It's a play on the Italian expression belle - beautiful - and canto - singing."
"He's kind of like the Victor Borge of composers," she added.
James will sing a series of Myer's one-liners, satirizing a cross section of celebrities from Ben Franklin to Phyllis Diller to Satchel Paige.
The songs poke fun at everyone from Gloria Steinem - "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle..." - to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant - "I know two tunes. One of them is 'Yankee Doodle Went to Town' and the other one...isn't!"
Admission to Monday's concert is $3 for adults, $1 for children and free with RU identification.
THE COWBOY COMEDIAN: Will Rogers entertained and enlightened America with his razor-sharp wit:
"Diplomats are nothing but high class lawyers - some ain't even high class."
"All I know is what I read in the papers."
"Liberty don't work as good in practice as it does in speeches."
He started out as a simple cowboy from Oklahoma and went on to become the biggest star of the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1920s. He was a writer, a philosopher and a heckuva whiz with a rope.
The most popular man of his time, all the world mourned when Will Rogers met his untimely death in a 1935 plane crash over Alaska.
After all, he never met a man he didn't like.
Here's your chance to see the story of Will Rogers' life in the lavish style of the original Ziegfeld Follies.
"The Will Rogers Follies" is the next Broadway Series show at Virginia Tech. The Troika Organization is bringing this version of the award-winning musical to Burruss Hall Wednesday for one show at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets, on sale now at the box office in Squires Student Center, are $16 for adults, $8 for kids under 12, $13 for Tech faculty and staff or $5 for Tech students. Call 231-5615 for information.
CABIN FEVER? The best cure is some frantic swingin'!
The Southwest Virginia Swing Dance Society is having a "swing swap" tonight from 7:30 to 10 at the Unitarian Fellowship Hall on Gladewood Drive in Blacksburg. It's an informal dance and chance to practice and learn new steps from other sufferers of cabin fever.
Try your hand (or foot, as the case may be) at the Lindy hop, jitterbug, shag and other swing dance styles. You don't even have to have a partner to participate.
Admission tonight is $2. The event is smoke-free and no alcohol is allowed. For more information, call Charlie or Lisa Cottingham at 381-5028.
NEW VISTAS: It's been said that this troupe has led contemporary dance to new vistas since arriving on the international dance scene in 1982.
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company has 10 dancers who combine athletic and artistic skills with multimedia presentations, pantomime and singing. They also put their hearts into their dancing.
Arnie Zane, one of the founding members, died of AIDS-related causes in 1988. Since then, Bill T. Jones has continued to choreograph for the group. Jones has been diagnosed with HIV.
Jones' recent works explore topics such as sexism, racism and AIDS. The troupe has received lots of attention for "Still/Here," a multimedia piece about survival in the face of the life-threatening illness.
The dancers will visit Radford University Wednesday for a performance at 8 p.m. in Preston Auditorium. They'll perform some shorter pieces with titles such as "Absence," "Havoc," "Just You," "Shared Distance" and "War Between the States."
Jones and his troupe have received many awards for performing arts, including two Bessie Awards and an Izzy Award. Jones was the winner of the 1993 Dance Magazine Award.
Admission to Wednesday's show is $12 for adults, $6 for children and free for Radford University students and staff.
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