Of Note with Katy Henriksen

Women composers and performers united to create art from the human condition with pianist Lara Downes’ latest album “Holes in the Sky,” named for a poem by Georgia O’Keeffe. In addition to representing women in music, “Holes in the Sky” also served to support human welfare efforts, including PLAN International to support impoverished children.

The University of Arkansas recently welcomed Gerry Snyder as the School of Art's first ever executive director. He will play an instrumental role in cultivating the newly minted School of Art's role at the university and beyond following the $120 million gift from the the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation and $40 million gift from the Windgate Foundation to develop an art and design district.

Violinist Itamar Zorman navigated exotic Israeli scales and modes to release his newest album “Evocation,” which highlights distinctive works by German-born Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim.

“There is a really delicate but wonderful balance between the emotional content and the technical form of the piece, and the analytical part of it,” Zorman explains about reflecting Ben-Haim’s multi-cultural influenced compositions.

The possibilities of artistic expression are limitless with every piece of music, but composer and pianist Craig Swanson took it to another level with the release of his album “The French Suite Kit.”

Swanson was inspired by pianist Glenn Gould to create multiple unique variations of Bach’s French Suite No. 4 in Eb Major, giving listeners more control over how they prefer to hear Bach expressed.

The Fort Smith Symphony’s upcoming season promises film scores and more, but it’s not your average John Williams programming. Music Director John Jeter picked film scores of Hans Zimmer and Bernard Herrmann to take center stage.

“Now, there is a whole series of composers who have kind of taken over that mantel, and we wanted to kind of celebrate that different approach to film scoring,” Jeter says.