HPU Welcomes Community to Artistic, Cultural and Inspirational Events
HIGH POINT, N.C., Sept. 4, 2023 – High Point University invites the community to campus for a variety of cultural events. The fall schedule includes a variety of art, music and theater performances, as well as special speakers who will visit campus.
Triad residents can sign up to receive email updates about community events at HPU throughout the year by visiting this website.
Complimentary tickets for each event can be found at www.highpoint.edu/music/concerts or www.highpoint.edu/theater/tickets
Start with Art
The Sechrest Art Gallery at HPU will feature the work by conceptual artist Paul Travis Phillips, who systematically deconstructs the logics of language to access the moments when knowledge and insights are conceived. The exhibition opened Aug. 28 and runs through Sept. 29. The reception and opportunity to talk with the artist will be Wednesday, Sept. 6 from 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Phillips’ latest work, ā ˈkwī–ət ˈläf, centers books as both objects and symbols to explore the nature of language as it relates to the search for knowledge and meaning. Phillips’ art takes inspiration from a quote in Bohumil Hrabal’s novel “Too Loud a Solitude,” which explores the idea that inquisitors burn books in vain. “If a book has anything to say, it burns with a quiet laugh, because any book worth its salt points up and out of itself.”
Plays with Purpose
“Lone Star” and “Laundry and Bourbon” are one-act plays to be presented at Empty Space Theatre on Sept. 28-30 at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 1 at 2 p.m.
Originally presented in New York in 1979, James McLure’s “Lone Star” is paired with its curtain raiser, “Laundry and Bourbon,” which was added in 1980. Together the two one-act plays give a picture of life in the one-horse town of Maynard, Texas. These dark comedies depict the effects of the Vietnam War on those who went and those who stayed home.
Photos Worth Many Words
“Tears of Wollega” is an exhibition that opens Oct. 16-Nov. 17 at Sechrest Art Gallery to feature the images of Jemal Countess, an internationally recognized photojournalist who has spent the past several years covering the conflict in Ethiopia’s Oromia region.
Countess will be available Oct. 25 from 4:30-6 p.m. to discuss his work, which focuses on the human toll and suffering of Ethiopian civilian populations and those who have been internally displaced and forced to relocate to other regions due to war and ethnic cleansing. “Tears of Wollega” exhibits Countess’s photos alongside personal narratives that illuminate the plight of survivors of this ongoing genocide.
The Addams Family Musical
“The Addams Family,” a new musical by Brickman, Elice, and Lippa, will be presented at Pauline Theatre Oct. 26-28 at 7:30 p.m., Oct. 29 at 2 p.m., and Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m.
The musical is a comical feast that embraces the wackiness in every family, features an original story and every father’s nightmare. Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family–a man her parents have never met. If that wasn’t upsetting enough, she confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he’s never done before–keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday’s “normal” boyfriend and his parents.
Homecoming Concert
The High Point University Wind Ensemble, under the direction of music professor Dr. Brian Meixner, will present a Homecoming weekend concert, “Into the Light.” This performance on Nov. 4, at 3 p.m. at Pauline Theatre will feature music inspired by light – ranging from aural imagery of the aurora borealis to manmade light creations. Celebrate Homecoming with HPU’s premiere ensemble for winds and percussion.
More Fall Concerts
HPU’s Department of Music will present a concert on Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Charles E. Hayworth Sr. Memorial Chapel. Join us for an intimate concert featuring the instrumental chamber ensembles, including the string quartet, brass quartet, clarinet ensemble, percussion ensemble, flute ensemble and more!
HPU’s fall dance concert will be presented Nov. 16-18 at 7:30 p.m. at Pauline Theatre. The dance concert, Reflections, features new works by faculty and guest artist choreographers.
HPU’s jazz ensemble will be held Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Empty Space Theatre. Come immerse yourself in the sounds of jazz, performed by the Jazz Ensemble and spanning a wide array of composers and styles.
HPU’s Community Orchestra, under Meixner’s direction, will present “Sounds of Water” on Nov. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Pauline Theatre. For centuries, composers have been writing music that explores the properties of water and its connection to sound. This performance includes two of the finest examples–Bedřich Smetana’s “The Moldau” and “Mississippi River Suite” by American composer Florence Price. Featured on the program is HPU Instructor of Percussion Louis Raymond-Kolker, as steel pan soloist on his own composition, “Summer Springs.” Also featured is the winner of 2023-24 HPU Student Concerto Competition.
