New Mexico State University will host numerous events at Research and Creativity Week Nov. 2-5. While some of the events will be virtual again this year, NMSU will host several live, in-person musical performances.

All of the shows will be held in Atkinson Recital Hall and are free and open to the public. COVID-19 guidelines will be followed, and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Performances will begin Nov. 3 when Eliza Gilkyson gives a talk and performance at 3:30 p.m. and a full performance at 7:30 p.m. A singer, songwriter and activist, Gilkyson has been nominated for two Grammy awards. She has appeared on NPR, Austin City Limits,  Mountain Stage, etown, Sirius/XM, Air America Radio and has toured  worldwide as a solo artist and in support of Richard Thompson, Patty Griffin, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Dan Fogelberg. Her songs have been covered by Joan Baez, Bob Geldof, Tom Rush and Rosanne Cash and have appeared in films, PBS specials and prime-time TV. She has been inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame and recognized with countless Austin Music and Folk Alliance awards. 

At 3 p.m. Nov. 4 Chris Reyman will give a presentation, “Creative Music Practices: Improvisation, Composition and Collaboration.” A jazz and improvising pianist and composer with a special interest in interdisciplinary collaboration, Reyman is an associate professor of piano at the University of Texas at El Paso. His most recent composition projects are “Cloud Bowling Suite,” a suite for tuba and jazz trio, and “We are Water,” an interdisciplinary performance installation centered on water scarcity issues in the Paso del Norte region. Reyman is the co-founder of the Institute for Improvisation and Social Action, an organization that empowers communities in the United States-Mexico border through improvisation and has been awarded Community Arts Project grants for the past five years from the El Paso Museum and Cultural Affairs Department.

At 7:30 p.m. Nov. 5, NMSU Regents Professor of Music Jim Shearer, tuba; UTEP Associate Professor of Music Erik Unsworth, bass; UTEP Director of Percussion Studies Andy Smith, percussion; and Reyman will perform the “Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio” and premiere “Cloud Bowling Suite,” which Reyman composed for Shearer.

To learn more about Research and Creativity Week visit https://research.nmsu.edu/RCW.html.