As visitors slowly filed into the ASU Kerr Cultural Center early Tuesday morning, they chatted amongst themselves, sharing jokes and Election Day experiences.
As they took their seats, the gentle sound of a harp drifted through the air and the concertgoers’ voices quickly fell to whispers as they looked down to the small stage.
Encircled by 250 seats, faculty harpist Lynne Aspnes and several students performed as a part of the Tuesday Morning Music concert series.
Concerts in the series this year will feature groups playing instruments in classical and jazz styles.
“We have such an eclectic programming to draw in different groups of people, not just the classical,” said Jane Samson, manager of Kerr center. “I want to open it everyone.”
Co-sponsored by the Herberger College School of Music, the Tuesday Morning Music Concerts are an ongoing series of free performances by faculty members and students in the music school.
“It’s a neat setting,” said Heidi Wright, a performance pedagogy graduate student.
The natural adobe Kerr center was built about 60 years ago as the home and studio of Louise Lincoln Kerr, an Arizona composer and musician. After her death in 1977, the property was donated to ASU.
Wright played the harp on Tuesday with Aspnes and fellow students, including performance senior Jessica Andersen.
“It’s a nice opportunity to play in a venue like this for people interested in this type of music,” Andersen said.
The concert series began about 10 years ago and is a part of the Kerr’s community outreach program. Samson said she receives a lot of positive feedback from guests.
“I feel that it opens people up to new things,” Samson said. “Not only to the Kerr Cultural Center, because it’s such a unique venue but because there is so much more to experience.”
Samson said many elementary schools shuttle children to the concerts.
“It is an important part of what we do [at Kerr] because we reach out to people that normally wouldn’t come,” she said.
In addition to the performances, free tea and refreshments are served prior to the concert, compliments of Souvia Tea Phoenix.
Milling around the refreshment table, Styrofoam cup in hand, music therapy graduate student Tom Geare waited patiently to enter the auditorium.
Geare said he believes there is a strong need to preserve traditional music, and all ASU students should attend concerts like these.
“Live music at a venue like this could perhaps put them in a place they have never been and make them appreciate music in a different way,” Geare said.
Although the concerts are free, attendees are required to RSVP to ensure a ticket. The next concert in the series will take place Dec. 9 and feature viola music. Reservations begin Nov. 25.
The Kerr Cultural Center is located at 6110 N. Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale. For more information, visit www.asukerr.com.
Reach the reporter at wclark4@asu.edu.
