Category Archives: Music

Purple Moon Dance Project performs in gallery of Arkansas Arts Center

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purple-moonThe Arkansas Arts Center presents a one-of-a-kind experience today at 2pm in the Townsend Wolfe Gallery which is currently displaying the exhibit Wendy Maruyama: Executive Order 9066.

In a special collaboration, emerging within the gallery installation, Purple Moon Dance Project and Artistic Director Jill Togawa will present When Dreams Are Interrupted, a riveting site-specific performance that uncovers the profound imprint left on a neighborhood by the forced removal and mass evacuation of Japanese American communities in 1942.

Dancers Jill Togawa, Ruth Ichinaga and Sharon Sato will explore and infuse with the “Tag Project” to draw out the stories and memories amassed by artist Wendy Maruyama and to highlight local history and stories.

This production captures the painful experiences of hundreds of thousands of Americans of Japanese ancestry forced into concentration camps during World War II through a poignant and stunning combination of original choreography, music, visual art and poetry. It is through artistic and historically authentic expressions such as these that we remember, pay tribute to and honor those who suffered this unspeakable injustice, in hopes that we may prevent such a dark episode in America’s history from ever happening again.

Ellis Marsalis in Concert at Wildwood tomorrow

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EllisphotoEllis Marsalis, the Father of America’s First Family of Jazz, & his Quartet will be in concert at Wildwood Park for the Arts on Friday, April 19 at 8:00pm.

Tickets range from $15 for students to $100 VIP tickets.

Ellis Marsalis is an internationally known jazz pianist, and a figurehead of the rich and storied New Orleans jazz scene. Marsalis, who has received honorary doctorates from The Julliard School, Tulane University, Dillard University (his alma mater), Ball State University and Virginia Commonwealth University for his contributions to jazz and musical education, served as the Director and Chair of Jazz Studies at the University of New Orleans.

Wildwood-Park-for-the-Arts-e1352227810968Marsalis has also led the jazz department at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, influencing the careers of countless musicians, including film composer Terence Blanchard, Grammy Award-winners Harry Connick Jr. and Nicholas Payton; as well as four of Marsalis’ and wife Dolores’ six sons. Wynton Marsalis (trumpet) and Branford Marsalis (soprano saxophone) have become major players with international reputations. Wynton is the leader of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in New York. Sons Delfeayo (trombone) and Jason (drums) are also outstanding jazz performers. Delfeayo has produced recordings for his father and his brothers.

ASO River Rhapsodies concludes 2012-2013 with APPALACHIAN SPRING

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20121020-054530.jpgThe Arkansas Symphony Orchestra River Rhapsodies concert series concludes the 2012-2013 season tonight.  With spring weather upon us, it is appropriate that tonight’s program is entitled Appalachian Spring.

The evening will include Crumb’s Voice of the Whale, Debussy’s Sonate en trio for Flute, Viola and Harp; ASO composer of the year Higdon’s Amazing Grace and Copland’s Appalachian Spring.  

Performing these selections will be Carl Anthony, piano; Carolyn Brown, flute; Daniel Cline, cello; Alisa Coffey, harp; Leanne Day-Simpson, violin; David Gerstein, cello; Eric Hayward, violin; Andrew Irvin, violin; Kelly Johnson, clarinet; Kiril Laskarov, violin; Susan Bell León, bassoon; Ryan Mooney, viola; Katherine Reynolds, viola and Barron Weir, contrabass.

The concert takes place at 7pm at the Clinton Presidential Center. A limited number of tickets are available at the door. But the concerts usually sell out.

Philip Mann is the music director of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.

 

Artspree closes 2012-13 with Triple Play

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tp-without tastyUALR’s Artspree series concludes the 2012-2013 season today with a performance at UALR at 3pm.

Triple Play is the name given to three outstanding and versatile musicians, Peter Madcat Ruth (on harmonica, guitar, jaw harp, percussion & vocals), Joel Brown, (folk and classical acoustic guitar and vocals) and Chris Brubeck (electric bass, bass trombone, piano & vocals).

Collectively they bring a rare level of joy, virtuosity, and American spirit to the folk, blues, jazz and classical music they perform. Triple Play’s musical roots go way back (nearly 40 years!) in each member’s history. Chris and Madcat have toured and recorded together in different settings since 1969, first as young rock musicians in the group “New Heavenly Blue” (with albums on RCA and Atlantic Records), “Sky King”(on Columbia), and then as jazz musicians touring the world with Dave Brubeck

With an ever-expanding repertoire, the Trio continues to play in concert halls, clubs and festivals all over the country, including performing many of Chris’ symphonic arrangements with orchestras across the U.S. Recently they played a set at the Monterey Jazz Festival and later that evening were featured in the premiere of Dave Brubeck’s Cannery Row Suite.

Paul deBarros, writer for the Seattle Times and Downbeat, commented: “Triple Play is what jazz always was and always should be about: good-time rhythm, unbridled joy and the sweet release but bittersweet aftertaste of the blues. If there’s a better old-time blues and jazz harmonica player out there than Madcat Ruth, I’d sure love to know where he lives.”

ASO features Midori, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Brahms

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midori_playingWorld famous violinist Midori joins forces with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (under the baton of music director Philip Mann) to close the ASO Masterworks season in unforgettable fashion.

Midori performs Tchaikovsky’s celebrated Violin Concerto in a pairing of two inimitable favorites which also connects with the season’s opener, in that it was inspired by Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole. Adding to the festive feel of the program is Mozart’s frothy and iconic overture to the Marriage of Figaro, which defies any listener not to smile.

Closing the program is Brahms’s final and incredible 4th symphony– a work of stunning beauty and depth that grows out of the most simple of gestures, a falling then rising line. A sense of yearning and urgency underlie the work as counterpoint adds flavor and intensity to sublime lyricism. An almost overwhelming final movement harkens back to an earlier time in music in a masterstroke combination of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic.

The opportunity to hear Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Brahms in one program is a special treat.  These three are certainly among the top favorite of classical composers for most listeners.  The concerts are tonight at 8pm and tomorrow at 3pm at Robinson Center Music Hall.

Mixing Music, Drinks and Art at 2nd Friday Art Night

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2FAN logo Font sm2April showers us with another opportunity to enjoy 2nd Friday Art Night downtown in Little Rock from 5pm to 8pm.  Included in the various participating venues are Historic Arkansas Museum and Old State House Museum.  (For those who want to attend City Year’s Red Jacket Ball tonight honoring Rep. Darrin Williams, this works out perfectly because 2nd Friday Art Night starts at 5pm, so you can still enjoy it before RJB starts.)

At Historic Arkansas Museum, Capital Hotel Bar and Grill mixologist—and two-time Nog-off winner—David Burnette will mix and muddle, and show you how to make the perfect mint julep just in time for derby season. Ozark-inspired, funky-folk band Mockingbird will set the whole splendid night to music.

At the Old State House Museum, Tim Anthony will play jazz music.

The Arkansas Studies Institute has several exhibits including: Clinton for Arkansas, Arkansas Society of Printmakers, From the Vault: Works from the CALS Permanent Collection and No I’m Not, He Is: “A Flying Snake and Oyyo” Comic Retropsective.

Midori, ASYO and CALS collaborate this weekend

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asoyoWorld-famous violinist Midori will accompany the Arkansas Youth Symphony String Quartet for two separate events at the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS). The events will be on Friday, April 12, 3:45 p.m. at the Children’s Library and Learning Center, 4800 W. 10th Street, and Saturday, April 13, 3:30 p.m. at the Terry Library, 2015 Napa Valley Drive.

The Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra (ASYO) was chosen as one of two recipients for Midori’s Orchestra Residency Programs for the 2012-2013 season.  The programs are designed to support and encourage youth orchestras in the United States. Through the week-long residency, Midori collaborates in a wide range of activities with both the youth orchestras and their partner professional organizations.

calsIn the 2012-2013 season, violinist Midori will celebrate the 30th anniversary of her performing career.

She made her debut at age 11 as a surprise guest soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta in 1982. Today, Midori is recognized as an extraordinary performer, a devoted and gifted educator, and an innovative community engagement activist.

The ASYO began as a dream of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s founders in the 1960s and today continues to attract Arkansas’s leading student-musicians. Ranging in age from 9-18 years and traveling from over thirty-seven communities throughout the state, the ASYO has grown to over 200 members. The Arkansas Youth Symphony String Quartet formed eight years ago in 2005.