Category Archives: Music

Brass Blaze at this Weekend’s Arkansas Symphony Orchestra concerts

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Photo by Kelly Hicks

Photo by Kelly Hicks

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (ASO), Philip Mann, Music Director and Conductor, presents the second concert in the 2014-2015 Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series: Blazing Brass. Arkansas Symphony Orchestra‘s Principal Trumpet Richard Jorgensen performs the classic Trumpet Concerto in E-Flat Major by Haydn, and Bruckner’s colossal Symphony No. 7 in E Major completes the program. The Masterworks Series is sponsored by the Stella Boyle Smith Trust. The concert is sponsored by Aristotle, Inc.

The concert takes place at the Maumelle Performing Arts Center, 100 Victory Lane, Maumelle, AR, Saturday, October 18 at 7:30, 2014 p.m., & Sunday, October 19 at 3:00, 2014 p.m.

American Airlines Concert Conversations – All concert ticket holders are invited to a pre-concert lecture an hour before each Masterworks concert.  These talks feature insights from the Maestro and guest artists, and feature musical examples to enrich the concert experience.

Tickets are $19, $35, $49, and $58; active duty military and student tickets are $10 are can be purchased online at www.ArkansasSymphony.org; at the Maumelle Performing Arts Center box office beginning 90 minutes prior to a concert; or by phone at 501-666-1761, ext. 100. All Arkansas students grades K-12 are admitted to Sunday’s matinee free of charge with the purchase of an adult ticket using the Entergy Kids’ Ticket, downloadable at the ASO website.

ARTISTS
Richard Jorgensen, trumpet
Philip Mann, conductor

PROGRAM:
HAYDN: Trumpet Concerto in E-Flat Major
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7 in E Major

PROGRAM NOTES:
Anton Weidinger, a trumpeter with the Vienna Court Orchestra, sought a new concerto to show off his new, more versatile type of trumpet. Several composers responded to his request, and Weidinger was delighted to hear of Haydn’s desire to compose the Trumpet Concerto.

The ecstatic reception of the premiere of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 – including 15 minutes of applause – marked the greatest success of Bruckner’s life. The work presents all of Bruckner’s principal characteristics: rich spacious themes, rustic dance rhythms in the scherzo, and the extra degree of exaltation which was his alone.

www.arkansassymphony.org/concerts/blazing-brass

About the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra
The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 49th season in 2014-2015, under the leadership of Music Director Philip Mann. ASO is the resident orchestra of Robinson Center Music Hall, and performs more than sixty concerts each year for more than 165,000 people through its Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series, ACXIOM Pops LIVE! Series, River Rhapsodies Chamber Music Series, and numerous concerts performed around the state of Arkansas, in addition to serving central Arkansas through numerous community outreach programs and bringing live symphonic music education to over 26,000 school children and over 200 schools.

Tonight at South on Main – The Easy Leaves presented by the Oxford American! (With thanks to Ben E. Keith)

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the_easy_leaveshirescropped.jpg.1000x250_q80_crop_upscaleTonight at 7:30 PM—The Oxford American magazine is proud to present California-based Americana duo The Easy Leaves at South on Main! The event is free and open to the public due to the generous underwriting of Ben E. Keith Foods Mid-South. Seating is limited, so call ahead at 501-244-9660 to ensure your place at a table.

The Easy Leaves, songwriters Kevin Carducci and Sage Fifield, formed in 2008 immersed in a diverse set of flailing rockers, gospel skeptics, and country outlaws. Their initial intent was to establish an old-time string band. However, in love with too many disparate genres, The Easy Leaves’ sound was born as a modern acoustic duo. The pair keeps its roots close to the chest while tirelessly sprawling out in new directions that stretch the borders of the Americana genre in exciting ways. They headline large rooms in the Bay Area, including Great American Music Hall, and have appeared on the Outside Lands Music Festival several times.

Their new record, American Times (Omega Records), spans the breadth of American roots music from grassland stomps, minor swings and Honky Tonk grinds, to personal spirituals, and Rhythm and Blues. In addition to their new album, The Easy Leaves were recently a part of The 78 Project, a documentary by Alex Steyermark and Lavinia Wright that recreates Alan Lomax’s journey to capture important American Folk music on its home porches. The Easy Leaves were featured in the film (alongside Rosanne Cash, Sid Selvidge, John Doe of X, Loudon Wainwright III, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Justin Townes Earl, Richard Thompson, and other great talents). NPR, Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times have featured it, and The Smithsonian, Library of Congress, and the Alan Lomax estate are active advisors.

LR Cultural Touchstone: Dr. Sybil Jordan Hampton

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sybilDr. Sybil Jordan Hampton made history as the first African American student to attend each high school year at and graduate from Little Rock Central High School.  But her impact on history exceeds that and extends into classrooms throughout Arkansas.

After a career which took her from elementary classrooms to corporate boardrooms, Dr. Hampton returned to Little Rock in 1996 to become the Executive Director of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.  In that capacity, she oversaw many opportunities to broaden the ways the arts and humanities were used in classrooms and outside of classrooms.  Dr. Hampton led the WRF until her retirement in 2006.  Through her vision and leadership, many tens of thousands of dollars of support went to cultural institutions and organizations during her decade at the helm.

Following the untimely death of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s executive director, Dr. Hampton served as acting executive director of the ASO while a national search could be conducted.  She had long been a supporter of the ASO and other cultural institutions as a patron.

Currently serving on the State Ethics Commission and the LR CENT Committee, Dr. Hampton continues to be involved with Little Rock’s cultural life through her involvement in the Mount Holly Cemetery Association. She is a tireless advocate for this living museum of Little Rock’s past.

LR Cultural Touchstone: Jeane M. Hamilton

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Photo taken for SOIREE

Photo taken for SOIREE

Jeane M. Hamilton is not a native Arkansan. But it was Little Rock and Arkansas’ good fortune that she married a Little Rock native and came here.

Arriving in Little Rock a young wife in 1952, she immediately set about to become involved in her new community as she and her husband James set up a household.  In the mid-1950s, the Junior League of Little Rock tapped her to chair the initiative to create a new art museum for Little Rock.  The two decades old Museum of Fine Arts was threadbare through years of neglect and unfocused programming and collecting.

Hamilton, along with Junior League President Carrie Remmel Dickinson and Vice President Martha McHaney, approached Winthrop Rockefeller (then a relatively new resident) to lead the fundraising effort for the new museum.  He agreed on a few conditions: one was that a base amount had to be raised in Little Rock first, and second that the museum would be for the entire State of Arkansas and not just Little Rock.

Hamilton and her colleagues set about to raise the funds. They raised $645,000 at the same time Little Rock’s business climate was stymied by the aftereffects of the Central High crisis.

Now a lifetime honorary member of the Arkansas Arts Center Board, Hamilton has spent much of her life working on Arkansas Arts Center projects since that visit in 1959.  She has served on the Board, chaired committees, chaired special events, served hot dogs, helped kids paint and danced the night away at countless fundraisers.  She was on the committee which hired Townsend Wolfe as executive director and chief curator.  Jeane has led art tours for the Arts Center to a number of countries over the years.

When she is not at the Arts Center, she is often seen at the Rep, the Symphony or any number of other cultural institutions.  While she enjoys seeing old friends at these events, she also loves to see a room full of strangers – because that means that new people have become engaged in the cultural life of Little Rock.

LR Cultural Touchstone: Charlotte Gadberry

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charlotte-gadberryCharlotte Gadberry has long been a supporter of Little Rock’s various cultural institutions. She has both served on boards and consulted with boards in strategic planning.  She is a Cultural Touchstone, however, because of her vision to found ACANSA Arts Festival.

A trip to Charleston, South Carolina, amid it’s Spoleto USA arts festival inspired her to dream that Little Rock could play host to a similar endeavor.  Using her fundraising prowess and connections, she started to raise funds, friends and awareness for this idea.

In September 2013, the inaugural ACANSA Arts Festival was announced for September 2014.  Under her leadership, ACANSA (a name derived from an early Native American variation of what is now called Arkansas) incorporated both local cultural institutions as well as performers brought in for the event.

It kicked off on a Tuesday with a reception at the Governor’s Mansion and concluded the following Sunday with a reception at Wildwood Park for the Arts.  In between there was theatre, dance, mime, puppetry, instrumental music, choral music, opera, jazz, painting, photography, history, lectures, and gallery tours.

Under her leadership as founder, plans are already underway for the next edition.  ACANSA Arts Festival 2015 is scheduled for September 16-20. Tickets go on sale next spring.

LR Cultural Touchstone: Mrs. H. H. Foster

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Foster BandshellElizabeth Wallin Foster, known better as Mrs. H. H. Foster, became very active in Little Rock’s music scene when she and her husband arrived from Wisconsin in 1901.  She was a driving force of the Little Rock Music Festival which took place annually during the 1910s.

Though at the time she had been unable to exercise her vote, since this was prior to the passage of the 19th Amendment, Mrs. Foster was not afraid to exercise her voice and address the City Council to work for the City to support cultural life.  Mrs. Foster was very involved with the National Federation of Music Clubs serving in leadership positions and establishing an Arkansas affiliate.  She also organized the Little Rock Festival Chorus (during World War I) and the Little Rock Song Leaders (after the war).

Mrs. Foster appeared before the City Council in June 1926 to speak about the need for entertainment in City Park.  The matter was referred to the Council’s Parks Committee.  The following year the City Council appropriated money for construction of a Bandshell in City Park.  The City Park Bandshell was located in the southwestern corner of the park nearly in line with 13th Street.  The structure was positioned at a diagonal so that the music would be projected out toward the park and away from neighboring houses.  The City agreed to pay $1,500 toward the erection of the structure.  The stipulation was that the members of the Federation of Music Clubs would raise the remaining money.

Mrs. Foster purportedly donated one third of the cost of the bandshell. From 1928 through 1958 the bandshell would be the site of a variety of outdoor events including concerts and speeches.  Three 1952 presidential candidates spoke at the bandshell: Little Rock native General Douglas MacArthur (City Park had been renamed in his honor ten years earlier), General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson.  Following Mrs. Foster’s death in 1929, the bandshell was renamed in her memory by the City Council.

The bandshell was torn down in the early 1960s.  Today, the Foster Pavilion in MacArthur Park is named in her memory.

LR Cultural Touchstone: Mimi Dortch

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Mimi DortchMadalyn “Mimi” Breitzke Dortch, was known for getting worthwhile projects off the ground.

She was a founder along with dear friend Cliff Baker, of the Arkansas Repertory Theater; hosted the first Arkansas Opera Theatre outdoor perforomance at her home Marlsgate, was a founder along with Helen Walton of Arkansas Committee of National Museum of Women in the Arts, and was the Director of AIC Choir Camp at Subiaco for 22 years.

When Baker had the idea for the Rep, she made use of her personal connections and helped form the first Board of Directors.  She served as an ambassador for the Rep and theatre in general.   Throughout the rest of her life, she would be a stalwart supporter of the Rep.  Her interest in theatre had been nurtured while she was in college.  Her interest in founding community endeavors had been inherited from her father who founded the North Little Rock Boys Club.

The AIC Choir Camp was originally founded by Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.  She oversaw the transition to it being under the auspices of the Arkansas Interfaith Conference of Churches and Synagogues, which she led.

There were few art forms or art organizations in Little Rock and Arkansas that Mimi Dortch did not attend or support.