A Busy Weekend for the Visual Performing Arts at California State University, Bakersfield

A lot happened this weekend in the Visual Performing Arts Community at CSU-Bakersfield. For Peggy Sears, it was the culmination her 22-year career  as Voice instructor  here at CSUB.  There was a gala held in her honor at the Albertsons room inside the theater. And of course after the gala, followed An Evening of Opera and Zarzuela Scenes. The next day, as Celebrate CSUB got underway, the ground breaking ceremony took place for the new Art Department that is going to be built behind the CSUB Music Department.

• Before, the opera scenes began, there was a gala held in honor of Peggy Sears 22 year-long career at CSUB. Students gave testimonials about how she has helped them grow as musicians and how she “has pushed” them to do things that they though that they could not do. One student expressed how their previous college experience was not what she had hoped for because of negative remarks and how Sears helped and pushed her to new heights.
  

  Sears takes time to pose for a picture with Elizabeth Provencio, a CSUB Alumna and one of Sears’ former students.

• CSUB Opera Theatre held “An Evening of Opera and Zarzuela Scenes” at the Dore Thetre. The evening open with a scene from The Magic Flute by W.A. Mozart. and closed with scenes from Help, Help, the Globolinks by Gian Carlo Menotti. The play itself is about an alien invasion that can only be fought off by the power of music. Madame Euterpova, music teacher, portrayed by Elizabeth Provencio, lead the other teachers and students into battle against the Globolinks by giving everyone an instrument and motivating everyone to keep playing. The scene ends with eerie music that indicates that the Globolinks have gone away in retreat.
  

  Madame Euterpova (Elizabeth Provencio) after her victory over the Globolinks.

• On April 27, 2013, during Celebrate CSUB, there was a ground breaking ceremony held behind the Music department building, where the new Art department building will be built. The Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities, Richard Collins opened by giving a brief history of how this project got started and how it hit many road blocks, many if not all financial. He as well as president Horace Mitchell, expressed their gratitude to the people who had something with making this construction happen.

  NOTE: As a matter of full disclosure, I received lessons from Professor Peggy Sears in the winter quarter of 2010 to prepare for the ACDA Western Division Collegiate Honor Choir .