Category Archives: Music

A Grand Finale for ACANSA Arts Festival

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Tacansahe inaugural ACANSA Arts Festival concludes today with dance and song at Wildwood Park, in addition to a repeat performance downtown of Phillip Huber and his marionettes.

A POINT OF CHORUS
12:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Wildwood Park for the Arts
$20 to $50

Acansa BalletBallet Arkansas and Arkansas Festival Ballet perform at the Lucy Cabe Theatre during a festival picnic on the ground of Wildwood Park, with a musical performance by Finger Food between the ballet performances

12:00       Doors Open – Box Lunch available
2:00        Ballet Arkansas Performs
3:00        Finger Food Performs
4:00        Festival Ballet Performs
5:00        VIP champagne reception and festival overview

The mission of Ballet Arkansas is to provide Arkansas and the region with the highest quality dance performance and education.  Each season, Ballet Arkansas offers a choreographic competition, a regional touring production, educational programming, an annual production of The Nutcracker, and a mixed repertory concert that features world premieres of newly commissioned choreography Arkansas

Finger Food is American Fingerstyle guitar at its best featuring three of Arkansas’ finest guitarists. Danny Dozier from Batesville and Steve Davison and Micky Rigby from Little Rock. Their performances are an eclectic mix from Chet Atkins to Merle Travis to Leo Kotke to gut bucket blues and original compositions. They perform in the round playing solo, duets and trio work that features the many voices of the guitar and showcases the many styles that make the guitar the worlds most popular instrument

Festival Ballet is a repertory dance company dedicated to classical ballet training and performance. Their seasonal programming includes enchanting storybook ballets and mixed-bill productions with new choreography and excerpts from ballet classics.  They will perform a short Neo Classical ballet based on the writings of an 18th century Suffolk poet.

 

Acansa PuppetSUSPENDED ANIMATION
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Scottish Rite Masonic Temple
$10 to $20

In a cabaret presentation distinctly adult in its sophistication and artistry, internationally acclaimed marionette artist Phillip Huber is in full view of the audience as he controls incredibly compelling characters through a series of variety vignettes revealing humor, pathos, drama and grace.

Phillip Huber is most widely known for his work in the 3-time Academy Award nominated film “Being John Malkovich” and his work in the Disney film “Oz the Great and Powerful,” starring James Franco, Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis. Shimmering with nuance, sophistication and imagination, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to experience a world of sophisticated puppetry designed for entertaining discerning tastes.

Tonight at Ron Robinson Theatre: Suzy Bogguss presented by Arkansas Sounds

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Tonight at 7pm on the stage of the CALS Ron Robinson Theatre, Arkansas Sounds features Suzy Bogguss.

A frequent guest on A Prairie Home Companion, she is a singer and songwriter who has received awards from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. She has recorded platinum gold albums and has been nominated for a Grammy Award. Bogguss has collaborated with such artists as Chet Atkins, Alison Krauss, Kathy Mattea, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. In her latest album, Lucky, Bogguss shares her interpretations of songs by Merle Haggard.

Tickets are $25, general admission, and are available online, using the button above, and from Butler Center Galleries, 401 President Clinton Avenue. The theater’s entrance may be accessed from the Main Library’s parking lot, 100 Rock Street. Tickets purchased online will not be mailed. They will be available for pick up in the lobby of the Ron Robinson Theater one hour prior to showtime.

The Arkansas Symphony’s first Masterworks Concert of 2014-15 is this weekend with Rachmaninoff, Corigliano, Brahams and pianist Andrew Staupe

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aso staupeASO_2-colorThe Arkansas Symphony Orchestra launches into 2014-2015 with its first Masterworks Concert of the season. Tonight at a new time (7:30pm) and a new, temporary location (Maumelle Performing Arts Center), the evening consists of Corigiliano’s Promenade Overture, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Brahms Symphony No. 2.   Guest artist Andrew Staupe will be featured on the Rachmaninoff piece.

Andrew Staupe is emerging as one of the distinctive voices of a new generation of pianists. In 2012 Andrew made his Carnegie Hall debut to critical acclaim, for which New York Concert Review raved “Staupe gave a brilliant performance, handling the virtuosic demands with apparent ease… I was stunned- this was one of the most incredible performances… A once in a lifetime performance!”

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra is under the direction of Music Director Philip Mann.  Tonight’s concert will be repeated tomorrow afternoon at 3pm, also at the Maumelle location.

 

 

Arts in Park and on Stages with ACANSA today

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acansaThe ACANSA Arts Festival moves into the weekend with a full day of activities.

ARTISTS IN THE PARK
12:00pm to 6:00 pm
MacArthur Park
FREE

The Arkansas Arts Center will host a visual artist day at MacArthur Park from noon to 6:00 p.m.   This event is free and open to the public.  The first two hours are dedicated to children with a variety of art activities, and entertainment by Brian Kinder, a singer/ songwriter who performs rollicking goodtime concerts for kids.

Family entertainment by a variety of musical groups will begin at 2 p.m. Bands include the Clark Family Trio, the Greasy Greens, and SOULution.  Local food trucks will offer refreshments for purchase.

Artists will produce and sell art throughout the afternoon and will have the option to participate in a friendly Quick Draw Competition during the event.  Artists will be paired off to draw each other and the winner will receive a $500 prize!

The Quick Draw competition is open to anyone.  Know an artist who would like to participate?   Please have them contact Linda Newbern at lnewbern@ACANSAartsFestival.org.

Sponsored by: Arkansas Children’s Hospital, City of Little Rock & Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau

 

Acansa PuppetSUSPENDED ANIMATION
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Scottish Rite Masonic Temple
$20 to $50

In a cabaret presentation distinctly adult in its sophistication and artistry, internationally acclaimed marionette artist Phillip Huber is in full view of the audience as he controls incredibly compelling characters through a series of variety vignettes revealing humor, pathos, drama and grace.

Phillip Huber is most widely known for his work in the 3-time Academy Award nominated film “Being John Malkovich” and his work in the Disney film “Oz the Great and Powerful,” starring James Franco, Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis. Shimmering with nuance, sophistication and imagination, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to experience a world of sophisticated puppetry designed for entertaining discerning tastes.

 

Acansa DallasDALLAS BLACK DANCE THEATRE
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
NLR High School East Campus Auditorium
$10 to $50

Dallas Black Dance Theatre celebrates its 36th season as the oldest, continuously operating professional dance company out of Dallas, Texas. The ensemble, a contemporary modern dance company, consists of 12 professional, full-time dancers performing a mixed repertory of modern jazz, ethnic and spiritual works by nationally and internationally known choreographers.

Sponsored by: Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, City of North Little Rock, North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, North Little Rock Economic Development Corporation, North Little Rock Visitors Bureau

 

acansa Mike Disfarmer 3DISFARMER
8:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Argenta Community Theatre
$30

Don’t miss this production of Disfarmer, written by award-winning Arkansas playwright Werner Trieschmann and directed by Bob Hupp of The Rep.  Disfarmer is a comedic portrait which tells the story of Mike Disfarmer, an eccentric photographer from Heber Springs, Arkansas who charged townsfolk and visitors a quarter to have their picture taken in the early forties—and caused a minor speculative mania decades later as New York gallery owners “discovered” his work and descended on the small Arkansas town.

Nothing speaks louder about Mike Disfarmer than his photographs.  Before the play, stop by  Argenta Gallery at 413 Main Street to enjoy an exhibit of Disfarmer photographs. In 1974, Peter Miller purchased the collection of Disfarmer glass negatives from Joe Albright. The Disfarmer prints in this exhibit have been archivally printed from the original Disfarmer glass negatives

Sponsored by: Peter Miller

 

Acansa St PaulACANSA Late Night II – St. Paul and the Broken Bones
9:00 pm to 11:00 pm
South on Main
SOLD OUT

This Birmingham, Alabama based soul band harkens back to the region’s classic soul roots while extending the form with electrifying potency.  Lead singer, Paul Janeway, takes the soul revival to an equally outrageous place with a voice that hovers between sexy sweet and flat-out dirty.  The horn-fueled Broken Bones re-create one funky groove after another, sounding more like the truth than any band since the Seventies.

Sponsored by:  DOWNSTREAM Casino Resort with staff provided by Oxford American

Tonight at the Undercroft – the one the only – the Bonnie Montgomery

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Bonnie MBonnie Montgomery plays at one of Little Rock’s newest music venues when they perform tonight at The Undercroft. It is located on Capital Avenue just east of Scott Street, in the undercroft of Christ Church.

​Arkansas born and bred Bonnie Montgomery is a classically trained composer and opera singer by day and country queen by night. Bringing her raucous spin on traditional southern music to honky-tonks throughout the U.S. and Europe, Bonnie’s catalog hails from a place where outlaw country saddles up with Americana and folk.

The concert starts at 7 p.m. The cover charge is $5 at the door. The space is on the campus of Christ Church; the entrance is through the sidewalk-level red door on Capitol Avenue east of Scott Street.

For information about the new performance space The Undercroft, contact Rev. Scott Walters at Christ Church at swalters@christchurchlr.org or 501-375-2342.

 

Fun on Friday with ACANSA

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acansaLUNCH AND LEARN
12:00 pm to 1:00pm
William F. Laman Library
Free

Thomas E. Kaiser, Professor of History at UALR, will discuss the exhibit: “The Wartime Escape: Margret and H.A. Rey’s Journey from France.” This exhibit tells the story of the Rey’s (creators of Curious George) journey to escape the Nazi invasion of Paris at the start of World War II.

Sponsored by: Anita Davis, Delta Trust and Bank, and JPMS Cox, PLLC

 

acansa Mike Disfarmer 3DISFARMER
8:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Argenta Community Theatre
$30 to $50

Don’t miss this production of Disfarmer, written by award-winning Arkansas playwright Werner Trieschmann and directed by Bob Hupp of The Rep.  Disfarmer is a comedic portrait which tells the story of Mike Disfarmer, an eccentric photographer from Heber Springs, Arkansas who charged townsfolk and visitors a quarter to have their picture taken in the early forties—and caused a minor speculative mania decades later as New York gallery owners “discovered” his work and descended on the small Arkansas town.

Head over to Argenta Theatre before the play and pick up a signed copy of Kim O. Davis’ Disfarmer biography titled Disfarmer:  The Man Behind the Camera.

Nothing speaks louder about Mike Disfarmer than his photographs.  Before the play, stop by  Argenta Gallery at 413 Main Street to enjoy an exhibit of Disfarmer photographs. In 1974, Peter Miller purchased the collection of Disfarmer glass negatives from Joe Albright. The Disfarmer prints in this exhibit have been archivally printed from the original Disfarmer glass negatives

Sponsored by: Peter Miller

 

Acansa StreetSTREETCORNER SYMPHONY
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Connor Performing Arts Center, Pulaski Academy Campus
$10 to $20

Street Corner Symphony is an internationally known a cappella group based out of Nashville, Tennessee. These six southern gents were contestants on the second season of NBC’s reality show The Sing-Off, claiming the second place title. They have a unique, laid-back-yet-dynamic style of a cappella, with expertise in a wide variety of music ranging from gospel and barbershop to rock and pop. 

Sponsored by: Arkansas Health and Wellness Solutions

 

Acansa BatorkaloACANSA Late Night I – Bat-or-KALO Trio
9:00 pm to 11:00 pm
Vinos
$20

Bat-or-Kalo Trio is a rock and R&B tinged blues band fronted by singer/songwriter/guitarist Bat-Or Kalo with bassist Mack McKinney (from Little Rock, Arkansas) and drummer Erick Worrell.  The lead singer Bat-Or Kalo was born/raised in Haifa, Israel, and came to the U.S. to further her studies in classical and jazz music.  Kalo’s music has been compared to the sounds of Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash and the White Stripes.

Sponsored by:  Richard F. Tripodi/Jane E. McKinney

Perks, Missives, & Lux Melancholia tonight at CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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As part of Banned Books Week, two divisions of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies are coming together to celebrate books and music.

This collaboration of the Arkansas Literary Festival and Arkansas Sounds will feature a screening of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and a concert by Scoop Slone and the Infinite, Thursday, September 25, beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the CALS Ron Robinson Theater. The winner of the Banned Books Perks Letter Writing Contest will also be announced.

Sponsored by the Fred Darragh Jr. Foundation, this event event is free and open to the public.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a 2012 film written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, based on his own novel.  It stars Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller.  Dylan McDermott, Kate Walsh, Paul Rudd and Joan Cusack are also in the cast.