MUSIC
Gonna need a bigger bassoon
The Conway Symphony Orchestra and Israel Getzov performs John Williams’ score while the movie screens behind them for “JAWS in Concert,” 7 p.m. Saturday in Reynolds Performance Hall at the University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. It’s part of the UCA Public Appearances series. The film contains adult themes and mature content. Tickets are $34.50-$57.50, $11.50 for students. Call (501) 450-3265 or (866) 810-0012 or visit uca.edu/publicappearances.
Band season begins
The North Little Rock Community Concert Band opens its 2026 concert season at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Patrick Henry Hays Center, 401 W. Pershing Blvd., North Little Rock.
Music Director Rico Belotti is calling the program “Songs in the Key of Life”; it includes a medley of tunes from the 1976 Stevie Wonder album of that title, arranged by Jack Bullock and conducted by the band’s Associate Director Bill Spainhour. Spainhour returns to the podium to conduct a novelty number by Paul Yoder titled “Rumbalita.” Belotti conducts arrangements of “Summertime” from the musical “Porgy and Bess” and “The Syncopated Clock” by Leroy Anderson, a Karl King Ragtime selection “Ragged Rozey” arranged for concert band by John Boyd and Jay Bocook’s arrangement of Meredith Willson’s “76 Trombones” from “The Music Man.”
Admission is free. Call (501) 920-2539 or visit nlrcommunityband.com.
Scholarship winners
Coloratura soprano Katie Griffin, winner of the Christine Wang Coterie Award, and pianist Ty Harper perform for the Little Rock Musical Coterie’s annual scholarship recital, 2 p.m. Sunday at Highland Valley United Methodist Church, 15524 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock. Their program includes “Nacht und Träume” by Franz Schubert; “Be Thou My Vision,” an Irish Christian hymn attributed to St. Dallas Forgaill; and “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” from the musical “Les Miserables.” Griffin is a senior at Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood and plans to major in music education focusing on vocal and band at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
Pianist Abigail Herr, winner of the Coterie Award, performs the first movement of the Sonata in D major, Hob. XVI:37, by Franz Joseph Haydn; Intermezzo in A major, op.118 No. 2, by Johannes Brahms; “The Cat and Mouse” by Aaron Copland; and “Hunting Song” from “Songs Without Words,” op.19 No. 3, by Felix Mendelssohn. Herr, from Boles, attends Harding University in Searcy.
And pianist Stephen Graham, winner of the Virginia Queen Piano Award, will play two op.67 Mazurkas by Frederic Chopin — No. 2 in g minor and No. 3 in C major — and “Danzas Argentinas,” op. 2, by Alberto Ginastera. Graham, from Benton, studies with Naoki Hakutani at University of Arkansas Little Rock.
The three scholarships are worth $1,000 each.
Admission is free. Call (501) 422-8355.
Symphony Guild concert
The Hot Springs/Hot Springs Village Symphony Guild’s 2025-26 Classic Concert Series continues with “Dances and Songs for Strings, Wood and Winds: Colorful Voices in Concert,” featuring Arkansas Symphony Orchestra principal harpist Alisa Bekebrede alongside Little Rock Wind Symphony musicians Susan Antonetti, flute; Jonathan Tomasello, marimba and snare drum; Gabriel Womack, alto saxophone; Janice Bengston, clarinet; and Jason Brannon, bassoon, 3 p.m. Sunday at Presbyterian Kirk in the Pines, 275 Asturias Drive, Hot Springs Village.
On the program: “Charanga Salada” for flute and marimba by Sergei Golovko; “Sicilienne Variée” for harp by Jean-Michel Damase; “Entr’acte” for flute and harp by Jacques Ibert; “Stop Speaking” for snare drum and digital playback by Andy Akiho; “Rumble Strips” for marimba by Gordon Stout; “Song Book” for alto saxophone and marimba by David Maslanka; “Spider Suite” for flute, clarinet and bassoon by Jenni Brandon; and “Exit,” from “Fragments,” by Robert Muczynski.
Tickets are $10. Visit symphonyguild.org.
Lyon College concert
The Lyon College Chamber Choir and the Lyon College Symphonic Wind Ensemble will perform at 2 p.m. Sunday in Sloan Auditorium in the Brown Fine Arts Building at the college, 2300 Highland Road, Batesville.
The choir’s program includes “Tantum Ergo,” music by George Tucker with a text by Thomas Aquinas; “Dona Nobis Pacem” from the Mass in C major, K.337, “Missa Solemnis,” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; and selections from “The Phantom of the Opera” by Andrew Lloyd Webber with soloist Mary Evangeline Karns. Bethany Neese conducts.
The wind ensemble will perform “Ardita” by Donald Furlano, “La Caracola” by Philip Sparke and arrangements of “Aria” by George Frideric Handel and selections from “The Sound of Music” by Richard Rodgers. John Christian conducts.
Admission is free. Visit lyon.edu.
THEATER
Pulitzer winner
A middle-class family prepares for a birthday dinner party … before it transforms into something entirely unexpected in “Fairview,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Jackie Sibblies Drury. The University of Arkansas Little Rock Theatre Arts stages the Arkansas premiere, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Haislip Theatre, Center for Performing Arts, UALR, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock campus. Admission is free; parking is available in Lot 4 next to eStem High School and the Greg L. Hatcher Wrestling Center. Reserve tickets online at ualr.edu/theatre.
Elephant and PiggIe at AMFA
The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Children’s Theatre stages “Elephant & Piggie’s ‘We Are in a Play!’,” 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through March 28 with additional 10:30 a.m. spring break shows March 24-27 in the Performing Arts Theater at the museum. 501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock.
The 50-minute musical follows best friends Gerald and Piggie through the ups and downs of friendship. Music is by Deborah Wicks La Puma; Mo Willems wrote the script and lyrics based on her series of children’s books.
The museum is recommending the show for for ages 3 and up. Tickets are $15, $12 for AMFA members, free for children 2 and younger if seated in an adult’s lap. Visit arkmfa.org.
The 10:30 a.m. show March 14 features audio description; the 2 p.m. show that day offers ASL interpretation. The 2 p.m. performance on March 15 is sensory-friendly, with reduced sound and lighting effects and a separate quiet room for guest use. Special activities in partnership with local libraries will be available between the 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. shows on March 14. Attendees of both performances on March 28 can dress up, wear costumes and enter a ticket raffle for future Children’s Theatre productions.
‘Nuts’ to you
A high-priced call girl, incarcerated on a charge for killing a violent john, must prove she isn’t, as the state claims, mentally unfit to stand trial in “Nuts” by Tom Topor, onstage 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday through March 22 at the Weekend Theater, 1001 W. Seventh St. at Chester St., Little Rock. The theater is rating the show R for graphic language and discussion of sexual content. Tickets are $20, $18 for students, senior citizens and active military. Visit centralarkansastickets.com.
ART
Hot Springs gallery
Works by Sammy Peters, Steven Wise and Kathryn Sixbey headline the March exhibit at Justus Fine Art Gallery, 827A Central Ave., Hot Springs, which opens with a 5-9 p.m. Hot Springs Gallery Walk reception Friday. The exhibition remains up through March 31. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and by appointment. Call (501) 321-2335 or visit justusfineart.com.
ETC.
‘AR Reads Leopold’
The North Little Rock Public Library System, in partnership with Paper Hearts Bookstore, is hosting “AR Reads Leopold: Community Reading and Nature Journaling,” 10 a.m.-noon Saturday at the William F. Laman Public Library, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock. It’s part of a statewide celebration honoring Aldo Leopold, author of “A Sand County Almanac” and a pioneer of the modern environmental movement. Attendees will take part in a shared reading of excerpts from “A Sand County Almanac” and other Leopold environmental writings. Artist Jennie Promack will also lead a hands-on nature journaling workshop. Admission is free. Registration is optional but recommended, via programs.nlrlibrary.org/event/15752164.
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