Dr. Jonathan Sokasits, Hastings College professor of piano, will be featured on Nebraska Public Media’s “Friday LIVE,” a weekly arts and humanities radio show, for a special program recording on Thursday, June 2 in Red Cloud.
Along with Sokasits, there will be a performance inspired by the words of Willa Cather with two Nebraska Chamber Players and more. The public is invited to be a part of this free event starting at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, June 2 at the National Willa Cather Center’s Red Cloud Opera House (413 N. Webster St., Red Cloud).
During the recording, Sokasits will perform two solos and a duet with Taylor Wilson, who recently completed high school through ABeka Academy’s accredited online program. Wilson plans to study animal science at the University of Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis.
Nebraska Chamber Player Chris Ellenwood will premiere a new composition, “Children of the Moon,” based on Cather’s novel “One of Ours,” with Nebraska’s own Brian Leeper on voice.
“Friday LIVE” host Genevieve Randall will also give audience members the latest news about music, arts, literature and events happening around the state, including the 67th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference, which is June 2-4 in Red Cloud.
After the live recording on Thursday, the program will be broadcast on the Nebraska Public Media’s News/Classical radio channel and at NebraskaPublicMedia.org beginning at 9:59 a.m., Friday, June 3. For more information, including archived programs of “Friday LIVE,” visit NebraskaPublicMedia.org/fridaylive.
Sokasits teaches studio piano and class piano, piano literature, piano pedagogy and chamber music at Hastings College. Sokasits holds Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was a student of Howard Karp and three-time recipient of prestigious Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Graduate Fellowships. He holds the Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Applied Music from Ithaca College.
Hastings College is a four-year residential college that focuses on student academic and extracurricular achievement. Hastings’ student-centered initiatives include providing books, an iPad and a two-week study away experience at no additional cost. A block-style semester schedule allows professors and students to focus on fewer classes at a time and promotes hands-on experiences. Discover more at hastings.edu.
