Category Archives: Music

Pops on the River

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Pops on the River, presented by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is the state’s largest Fourth of July celebration and takes place this year on Wednesday July 4th in downtown Little Rock.

Bale Chevrolet, Honda and Kia of Little Rock sponsor the event.

Pops on the River, in it’s 29th year, is FREE to the public and will begin at noon outside the main gates of the Riverfest Amphitheater in the River Market Pavilions with a Kid’s Pavilion and Car Pavilion.

The event will also have a marketplace with shopping, food trucks, a classic car show and other activities below the River Market Pavilions.

Pops on the River activities inside the Riverfest Amphitheater gates will begin at 5:30. The Oh Say! Can You Sing? Top 5 finalists will perform in addition to the Happy Tymes Jazz Band. The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will close out the night with a beautiful performance. Fireworks will be finale at 9:30 p.m.

Please remember:
-No Coolers
-No Pets
-No Outside Food or Drink
-No Fireworks
-No Smoking

Tales from the South tomorrow

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Starving Artist Café

Dinner 5pm-6:30pm
Show starts at 7pm
Admission is $5

You MUST purchase your ticket before the show

This week’s program is “ The Last Time I…” featuring Nathan McKinney II, Marcia Williams and Donna Dillahunty. Bonnie Montgomery and blues guitarist Mark Simpson will provide musical entertainment.

Tales From the South” is a radio show created and produced by Paula Martin Morell, who is also the show’s host. The show is taped live on Tuesday. The night is a cross between a house concert and a reading/show, with incredible food and great company. Tickets must be purchased before the show, as shows are usually standing-room only.

“Tales from the South” is a showcase of writers reading their own true stories. While the show itself is unrehearsed, the literary memoirs have been worked on for weeks leading up to the readings. Stories range from funny to touching, from everyday occurrences to life-altering tragedies.

Tales from the South airs on KUAR Public Radio on Thursdays at 7pm.

Browning’s Presents….Live Music Tonight

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This evening at 7:30 pm, Browning’s Mexican Restaurant is presenting live music on its stage.

Featured tonight will be four outstanding singer-songwriters.  Elise Davis, Matt Stell, Amy Garland-Angel and Audrey Dean Kelley will take the stage.  There is no cover charge, but tips for the musicians will be accepted.

Brownings features live music many nights throughout the week.

Stars and Stripes — LR Wind Symphony Flag Day Concert

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The Little Rock Wind Symphony’s annual Flag Day concert will take place this evening in MacArthur Park.  Sponsored, in part by the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, the concert is the LRWS’s annual salute to the red, white, and blue.  Picnics are encouraged. There will also be free ice cream and free American flags to wave throughout the concert.

Under the baton of Music Director, Karen Fannin, the musicians of the Little Rock Wind Symphony will perform the following selections:

George Gershwin / Barker: Strike up the Band
Scott Joplin / arr. Frackenpohl: Maple Leaf Rag
Scott Joplin / arr. Bourgeois: Sunflower Slow Drag
Thomas Allen / Cramer: Whip and Spur Galop
Jerry Bilik: American Civil War Fantasy
John Philip Sousa: The Thunderer
Henry Fillmore: Rolling Thunder
Irving Berlin: God Bless America
Bob Lowden: Armed Forces Salute
Samuel Ward / Carmen Dragon: America the Beautiful
John Philip Sousa: The Stars and Stripes Forever

Organ Recital Friday Night – David Baskeyfield

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The Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Guild of Organists presents the ninth annual recital celebrating the life of Robert Young Ellis this Friday at 8pm at First Presbyterian Church.  The featured organist is David Baskeyfield.

David Baskeyfield is the winner of the first prize and audience prize at the St Albans International Organ Competition, 2011. Following success in a number earlier competitions (1st prize, audience prize, Miami International Organ Competition 2010; 1st prize, Mader Memorial Organ Competition, LA, 2010; 2nd prize, Dublin International Organ Competition 2011, 1st prize, Rodland 2011; and 1st prize and audience prize, AGO National Competition in Organ Improvisation 2011) he has launched a performing career encompassing both interpretation and improvisation.

Currently a doctoral student at the Eastman School of Music under David Higgs and William Porter, David read Law at Oxford as organ scholar at St John’s College, studying with John Wellingham and David Sanger. Between Oxford and Eastman he spent a year as organ scholar of Christ Church Cathedral and St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

Aside from solo performance David is active as an accompanist, continuo player and occasional cocktail pianist. As an outgrowth of his interest in classical organ improvisation, he has taken to accompanying silent movies; recent engagements have featured The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and Nosferatu (1922). He also enjoys occasional access to the large Wurlitzer organ in the Auditorium Theatre in downtown Rochester, and has gone some way to legitimising this private indulgence in being elected as a director on the Board of the Rochester Theatre Organ Society. He has been broadcast a number of times on American Public Media’s Pipedreams, playing repertoire and improvisations.

He is enthusiastic about food, red wine, microbrews, and Malawi cichlids. He is represented in the USA by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists.

Quapaw Quartet at Capital Hotel

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The Quapaw Quartet of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will perform a free concert at the Capital Hotel this afternoon from 5 pm to 6:30 pm.

Come listen to a selection of short, accessible pieces along with commentary from the musicians.

Guests are invited to mingle with the musicians and Music Director Philip Mann before and after the performance.

Programming is subject to change.
Prokofiev Quartet No. 2, Op. 92
I. Allegro sostenuto
Borodin Quartet No. 2 in D Major
III. Nocturne
Beethoven String Quartet, Op. 130
IV. Allegro assai
Ives String Quartet No. 1
IV. Allegro marziale
Schubert String Quintet in C Major
I. Allegro ma non troppo

RIVERFEST 2012 – 35 years of Letting the Good Times Flow

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For 35 years, Riverfest has been showcasing outstanding musicians and visual artists along the Arkansas River.

Among the artists highlighted this year from Friday through Sunday are Boyz II Men, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Little Big Town, Joe Walsh, Gov’t Mule, Staind, Mutemath, Chevelle, Third Eye Blind, EKG, B.o.B., Snoop Dogg, Sleeper Agent, Rodney Block & The Real Music Lovers, Archnemesis, and Trout Fishing in America.  As the event has for years, Sunday night will be punctuated by a fireworks display. This year’s display is in memory of longtime sponsor Jennings Osborne.

Riverfest is proud to announce “Ruff on the River”, our new Pooch Parade! The first annual Ruff on the River Parade will be held Saturday, May 26th at 3:00 p.m. in the River Market District in downtown Little Rock. The theme for the 2012 event is “Let the Good Times Flow!” Register your four-legged friend today, then dress your pooch in costume and let the judges decide who has the most creative costume. Each pooch registration includes one human escort.

Angie Staley Johnson is the Chairman of the Riverfest committee, Jordan P. Johnson, Sr., is the Chairman of the Riverfest Board of Directors (and husband to Angie), and DeAnna Korte is the Executive Director of Riverfest.