Summer offers no time off for the arts at Fort Lewis College. Members of the art, music and theatre departments are busy, and the Community Concert Hall at FLC produces events in June and July.
Art faculty are literally traveling around the world. Teaching, taking students on tours and exhibiting work is a common summer activity for the very busy Department of Art and Design, as well as very important professional development benefiting students throughout their education.
Faculty members in the Department of Music are also busy. Marc Reed is participating in the Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar at Dartmouth College, featuring some of the top performers and teachers in the world for a 12-day intensive learning experience. Cellist Katherine Jetter is taking an intensive workshop with the Manhattan String Quartet, focusing on Beethoven’s String Quartet, Opus 135. The event is limited to 20 quartets from applicants across the country. Jetter is also playing with Music in the Mountains and playing chamber music in Telluride this summer.
Mark Walters, conductor and director of Southwest Civic Winds, will be conducting concerts in Farmington and Durango on July 19 and 20. Both are outdoor concerts and feature local veteran performers, Fort Lewis College music faculty members and high school educators.
Theatre Department Chairman Dennis Elkins is an accomplished actor as well as an outstanding educator. In May and June, he performed in Thingamajig Theatre Company’s performance of the John Logan play “RED.” Performing at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts, Elkins played artist John Rothko after receiving the largest commission in the history of modern art.
The Community Concert Hall stays busy with the June 13 performance of Steve Earle and the Dukes. A profound storyteller and songwriter, Earle found early success writing songs for big-name artists including Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Emmy Lou Harris. With his first album, “Guitar Town,” in 1986, he combined twanging, tuneful country rock material with tough, unsentimental song writing that had more in common with Bruce Springsteen than Nashville. Special guests The Mastersons promote themselves as “husband and wife, singing and playing together.” Accomplished instrumentalists, they spent years playing in others’ bands before coming together as a unit. Bound by music and an uncommon depth of companionship, The Mastersons are said to be good enough to make Steve Earle swoon.
Concert Hall @ The Park, presented by Alpine Bank and the Community Concert Hall, returns on July 3. The Tyller Gummersall Band kicks of the four-week season with country music. On July 10, Groove Factor Four brings energetic funk followed by Eldergrown on July 17, who wowed audiences last summer. Closing the free summer shows in Buckley Park is Sneaky Pete and The Secret Weapons. All shows are free and will run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Leslie_c@fortlewis.edu. Charles Leslie is the Director of the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.
If You Go
The Durango Barbershoppers’ annual fundraising concert, “Chordbusters” will take place Saturday at 7:01 p.m. at Smiley Auditorium. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors, and are available at the door. Call 247-5073 for more information.
