Central Heights Elementary School Handbell Choir

The Stone Fort Museum will present the Handbell Choir from Central Heights Elementary School at 7 p.m. Dec. 1. The choir, led by director Gary Goss, will be perform traditional Christmas carols. Wassail and cookies created from historical recipes will be served.

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - The SFA Wind Ensemble will present "Timelines: a Contrast of Old and New" at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

"Through this concert we hope to show the connections between music of different time periods," said Fred J. Allen, SFA director of bands and the ensemble's conductor.

"We will play a march for winds written by W.A. Mozart in 1782 and follow it with a John Phillip Sousa march written in 1924 so that the audience can hear how marches evolved over 140 years," Allen continued.

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - The Stephen F. Austin State University jazz bands, The Swingin' Axes and Swingin' Aces, will present a joint concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The Swingin' Aces will open the concert with an eclectic program of swing, ballad and rock styles, according to Deb Scott, SFA assistant professor of trombone and the group's director.

Among the selections will be McCoy Tyner's "Atlantis," Kurt Weill's "Mack the Knife" and Joe Zawinul's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy."

Moscow Ballet's "Great Russian Nutcracker" will be presented by the SFA College of Fine Arts Thursday, Dec. 17, and Friday, Dec. 18, in W.M. Turner Auditorium. Tickets are currently on sale for all of the holiday events offered by the college in December.

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - Moscow Ballet's "Great Russian Nutcracker" and the Original Cast's "Christmas at the Movies" top the list of holiday events offered by the Stephen F.

Nacogdoches Naturally will sponsor a family educational program at Stephen F. Austin State University's Pineywoods Native Plant Center on Saturday, Nov. 14. "Meet the Creepy Crawlers" will allow families to meet some of the creatures of the woods in a safe, educational environment at the center, located at 2900 Raguet St.

U.S. Army Capts. Daniel Copeland, left, and Kwang Fricke, both SFA alumni, recently met for the first time while serving together on a 10-man military transition team in Iraq. Fricke graduated from SFA in 2000, and Copeland received his degree in 2005. This photo was taken last spring at the team's base camp, where the two officers served together for a year.

The Pineywoods Native Plant Center at Stephen F. Austin State University will host a two-part garden seminar "How to Identify and Attract a Flock of Backyard Birds" on Nov. 13 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. and Nov. 14 from 8 to 11 a.m.

On Friday evening, Cliff Shackelford, ornithologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, will present a lecture about bird identification and common local birds. On Saturday morning, he will lead a birding stroll through the plant center and to the Shackelford home nearby to visit their backyard that is "for the birds."

Members of the newly formed Nelson Rusche College of Business Advisory Council met recently on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University. A total of 24 high-ranking business executives from across Texas participated, with one member traveling from New Jersey. All members are SFA alumni, having graduated during the 1960s through the 1990s. The Advisory Council was created to provide counsel to the college's leadership, as well as generate innovative ideas and assist in developing appropriate resources for continued growth and progress of the college.

The public will have its first opportunity on Saturday, Nov. 14, to see the 20 ornaments to be sold during the SFA Friends of the Visual Arts' 2009 "Hooked on Art" fund-raiser. The exhibition of original works of art by local artists will be on display at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House through the event's closing reception on Friday, Dec. 4.

Cliff Shackelford, non-game ornithologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The Stephen F. Austin State University Pineywoods Native Plant Center will host a two-part garden seminar, "How to Identify and Attract a Flock of Backyard Birds," with a lecture from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, and hands-on, bird-watching activities from 7 to 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14.