Enjoy the Arts at UTC

The UTC Fine Arts Center hosts Patten Performances, which brings the best in traveling arts entertainment to Chattanooga each year. Visit our Fine Arts calendar for a complete listing of arts offerings on campus.

This week at UTC, consume feasts for the ears and eyes: a tuba recital in the Roland Hayes Concert Hall and drawings and photographs in the galleries of the UTC Fine Arts Center.

In its first ever faculty recital for tuba on Monday, October 27 at 7 p.m., the UTC Music Department features Kenyon Wilson. This free event will be held in the UTC Fine Arts Center, on the corner of Vine and Palmetto Streets. Accompanying Wilson will be Dr. Alan Nichols of Chattanooga State and the UTC Tuba–Euphonium Ensemble under the direction of Dr. William R. Lee, professor of music at UTC.

"We are excited to have another season of low brass recitals and concerts at UTC, and particularly happy to participate with Dr. Wilson in recital," said Lee, a published composer, euphonium teacher and author of numerous publications in the field of music and music education. "Dr. Wilson’s grasp of the technical requirements of the instrument is fantastic and his knowledge of the literature for the instrument is truly inspiring."

Wilson currently performs as principal tubist with the Augusta Symphony Orchestra and with the Charleston-based Atlantic Southeast Ballet Orchestra. Wilson is a native of Tennessee, and he holds degrees from Tennessee Technological University, Baylor University, and the University of Georgia. In addition to performing throughout the United States, Wilson has performed solo recitals in Canada, Japan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. He has also soloed with the Waco Symphony Orchestra, the Augusta Symphony Orchestra, the University of Memphis Concert Band, and the Asahikawa Symphonic Band in Japan. Wilson serves as adjunct faculty at UTC.

Wilson will perform a great variety of American pieces for the tuba, from a jazz piece called "Chocolates" by James Grant to Neal Corwell’s "New England Reveries" for tuba and taped synthesizer. Jesse Ayers’ tuba piece, "The Dancing King," is a direct reference to the dancing of King David of ancient Israel mentioned in II Samuel 6:14. "Three Ludes for Tuba" was composed by Robert Jager, a well-known Tennessee composer who was a professor at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville. It has three movements, "Prelude," "Interlude," and "Postlude." Wilson has composed "Tubaku," a duet influenced by Azerbaijani scales and rhythms. Several pieces by Azerbaijani composers include "Motherland" by the early twentieth-century composer Asaf Zeynally, Gara Garyev’s "Don Kichote" and Dance from "Path of Thunder."

David Butler will be featured in a duet with Wilson. Butler teachers at the Chattanooga School of the Arts and Sciences where he is the band director. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University and has done graduate work at UTC.

For more information, please call 423/425-4601 or email William-Lee@utc.edu

Later in the week, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Cress Gallery of Art will host a public reception for the opening of two exhibitions Thursday October 23 from 5 - 7 p.m. Mary Carrithers: New Drawings in the main gallery consists of 26 large figurative color pastel and charcoal works completed in 2003 by Chattanooga based artist Mary Carrithers. Gallery II features Les Danseurs: Photographs by Andy Zaller. Based in Oklahoma, Zaller has selected 20 works from a larger portfolio of both traditional and manipulated photographs of members of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Ballet Company. Both exhibitions will run until Dec 01, 2003.

The Cress Gallery hours are 9:30 am - 5 pm M-F and it is also open to the public during all Patten Series Performances in the UTC Fine Arts Center, corner of Vine and Palmetto. For more information call (423) 425-4600.