September 11, 2023
ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Ouachita Baptist University’s School of Performing Arts presents the Muses Creative Artistry Project in concert Thursday, Sept. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in Mabee Fine Arts Center’s McBeth Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.
The performance is part of Ouachita’s 2023-24 Guest Artist Series and is sponsored in part by the Floyd E. and Dorothy G. Henley Fine Arts Endowment and the Arkadelphia Philharmonic Club.
The Muses Creative Artistry Project is based in Hot Springs and frequently tours throughout the region. For their current tour, “Broken Standards,” they perform a mix of baroque and jazz standards hoping to make classical music accessible to a new generation of listeners.
“It’s not every day that an audience gets to hear both Handel and Gershwin performed on the same program,” said Caroline Taylor, dean of the School of Performing Arts and professor of music. “We’re thrilled to welcome the Muses Creative Artistry Project to our campus and grateful for the generous support of the Floyd E. and Dorothy G. Henley Fine Arts Endowment and the Arkadelphia Philharmonic Club, who helped make this special concert possible.”
The Muses Creative Artistry Project will perform three pieces by George Frederic Handel. They’ll open the program with “And the Glory of the Lord” and close with “Hallelujah Chorus,”both selections are from The Messiah. They’ll also perform “Thanks Be to Thee,” part of the arrangement of “Largo” from Handel’s opera Xerxes.
Their program will also include Henry Purcell’s “Hail! Bright Cecilia” and “Thou Turn’st this World;" Cole Porter’s “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To;” “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” by Johann Sebastian Bach; Russell Robinson’s arrangement of “Mack the Knife,” by Kurt Weill; and Mac Huff’s arrangement of “Fascinating Rhythm/I Got Rhythm,” by George and Ira Gershwin.
For more information about the Guest Artist Series or Ouachita’s School of Performing Arts, contact Dr. Caroline Taylor at (870) 245-5139 or [email protected].