Category Archives: Music

Rock the Oscars: Marvin Hamlisch

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Composer-conductor-arranger-pianist Marvin Hamlisch was a multi-hyphenate.  He also was an early EGOT winner (back when it was more difficult to accomplish this feat because there were fewer categories in all four awards).

Hamlisch visited Little Rock numerous times throughout his careers.  In 1996, he performed at Wildwood Park during the first season of the Lucy Lockett Cabe Festival Theatre.  He soloed with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in January 2000 performing many of his works for film and a few for stage.

In 2006, he returned to the ASO to perform with Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz and the latter duo recreated their roles from the Hamlisch-Neil Simon-Carole Bayer Sager musical They’re Playing Our Song.  His final visit to Little Rock was in 2011. He was performing in Conway but shopped in Little Rock for clothes when his luggage stayed in Chicago.

Over his career, Hamlisch was nominated for twelve Oscars.  He won three at the 1974 ceremony. They were Best Song for “The Way We Were” from the film of the same name (shared with Alan and Marilyn Bergman), Best Score for The Way We Were and Best Adaptation Score for The Sting.  The latter heavily featured music by former Little Rock resident Scott Joplin.

ELIJAH by Mendelssohn this evening at Trinity Cathedral

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Manuscript of Mendelssohn's Oratorio 'Elijah'.jpgThe Trinity Episcopal Cathedral choir presents excerpts from Mendelssohn’s ELIJAH today at 5pm.

Accompanied on the newly restored organ by New York City Organist Daniel Beckwith, the oratorio will be included in a service of Evensong. British bass Peter Hine will sing the title role. Victoria Mathis Harden, Music Director, will conduct. A gala reception will follow in Morrison Hall. A nursery will be available.

Premiering in 1846 at the Birmingham Festival, it depicts events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah.  This piece was composed in the spirit of Mendelssohn’s Baroque predecessors Bach and Handel, whose music he loved.

Festival of Hymns tonight at Christ Church

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Image may contain: 1 personRichard Webster is a leading American composer of church music, especially of brass arrangements for congregational hymns.

Webster will lead the Christ Church Choir and the congregation in “Blow Ye the Trumpet in Zion: A Festival of Hymns for the Church Year,” singing your favorite hymns set to dazzling arrangements for brass. The hymn festival is free and open to the public (so bring a friend!), and a festive reception will follow.

The program starts at 7pm at Christ Church, located at the corner of Scott and Capitol Streets.

The Oxford American Jazz Series presents Sarah Elizabeth Charles & SCOPE tonight

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Sarah Elizabeth Charles & SCOPE [Jazz Series]The Oxford American welcomes Sarah Elizabeth Charles & SCOPE to Little Rock! This is the second show in their 2018-19 Jazz Series. Doors open at 6:00 PM at South on Main, with dinner and drinks available for purchase at that time. The series is made possible in part by presenting sponsor UCA College of Fine Arts & Communication.

Additional season partners include Stella Boyle Smith Trust, Chris & Jo Harkins, J. Mark & Christy Davis, EVO Business Environments, Downtown Little Rock Partnership, Stacy Hamilton of Pulaski Heights Realty, Margaret Ferguson Pope, Arkansas Arts Council, Department of Arkansas Heritage, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, Capital Hotel, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Rosen Music Company, and Steinway Piano Gallery of Little Rock.

Tickets are $35 (General Admission), $42 (Reserved), and $44 (Premium Reserved). Please take a look at this very important ticketing and seating information before purchasing your tickets (view reserved seating chart). Full season ticket pricing and options are also available in a consolidated format, here.

Sarah Elizabeth Charles is a rising vocalist/composer based in New York City. She has worked and studied with artists such as George Cables, Geri Allen, Nicholas Payton, Sheila Jordan, Jimmy Owens, and Carmen Lundy and released her debut record, Red in September of 2012 with her band SCOPE. As the active vocalist in a number of bands (including SCOPE, AJOYO, Manner Effect, Transient Beings, Enoch Smith Jr., and Benjamin Rando), Charles has performed at many venues throughout her career. These have included The White House, Carnegie Hall, the first annual Culture Summit in Abu Dhabi, The Kennedy Center, the Bern International Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the Port-au-Prince International Jazz Festival, the Sicca Jazz Festival in Tunisia, the Blue Note in New York City, Gillette Stadium as a National Anthem singer for the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh JazzLive International Festival, the Burlington Jazz Festival, the Apollo Music Café, Le Poisson Rouge, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, the Rose Theatre with Jazz at Lincoln Center, and many more.

In addition to her performances, Charles is also an active educator. She works as a teaching artist with Carnegie Hall’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Lullaby, and Future Music Project Youth workshops, has a private lessons studio in New York City, and is developing an early childhood music education program with Rise2Shine, a non-profit organization based in Fond Parisien, Haiti.

Charles’s musical output has been described as a “genre of one” (DownBeat Magazine), “soulfully articulate,” (New York Times) and “an unmatched sound” (Jay Z’s Life+Times). Her critically acclaimed sophomore project, Inner Dialogue, released in 2015 on Truth Revolution Records, features her band along with co-producer/special guest Christian Scott. Her third album, Free of Form, was released in the fall of 2017 on Ropeadope/Stretch Music, and featured SCOPE as well as Scott as co-producer and special guest. One can only look to the future for more unique and boundary-pushing music from this one-of-a-kind artist.

The ASO River Rhapsodies tonight features Artist of Distinction: Andrew von Oeyen

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Andrew von Oeyen, pianoThe Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Philip Mann, Music Director and Conductor, presents the third concert of the 2018-2019 River Rhapsodies Chamber Music season with Artist of Distinction: Andrew von Oeyen, Tuesday, Jan. 29th at 7:00 p.m. at the Clinton Presidential Center. The program opens with Haydn’s String Quartet, Op. 20, No. 4, featuring ASO’s Quapaw String Quartet. Von Oeyen then performs a solo rendition of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, and the concert closes with the pianist joining ASO’s Rockefeller String Quartet and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor.

The Richard Sheppard Arnold Artist of Distinction is a musician with an exemplary international career as a soloist and chamber musician, widely sought after by leading performing arts organizations.

River Rhapsodies Chamber Music Concerts are held in the intimate setting of the Clinton Presidential Center’s Great Hall. A cash bar is open before the concert and at intermission, and patrons are invited to carry drinks into the concert. The Media Sponsor for the River Rhapsodies Chamber Music Series is UA Little Rock Public Radio.

General Admission tickets are $23; active duty military and student tickets are $10 and can be purchased online at www.ArkansasSymphony.org; at the Clinton Presidential Center beginning 60 minutes prior to a concert; or by phone at 501-666-1761, ext. 1.

Artists

Andrew von Oeyen, piano, 2018-2019 Richard Sheppard Arnold Artist of Distinction

Quapaw String Quartet
Meredith Maddox Hicks, violin
Charlotte Crosmer, violin
Ryan Mooney, viola
David Gerstein, cello

Rockefeller String Quartet
Trisha McGovern Freeney, violin
Katherine Williamson, violin
Katherine Reynolds, viola
Ethan Young, cello

Program
HAYDN – String Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, No. 4
RAVEL – Le Tombeau de Couperin
SHOSTAKOVICH – Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57

Little Rock Look Back: A Municipal Auditorium approved by LR Voters in 1937

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On January 26, 1937, Little Rock voters went to the polls to vote on three different municipal bond issues.  One of them was the construction of a municipal auditorium.

The bonds for the auditorium would be $468,000 in general obligation bonds which would be paid off between 1940 and 1971. This was toward a total cost of $760,000 for the entire project.

The official campaign for the auditorium was sponsored by the Little Rock Forward Committee which was led by W. H. Williams. In campaign advertisements it showed the value of conventions in New York City which was estimated at $100 per convention attendee. Little Rock organizers were estimating a $10 a day expenditure by visitors, which the committee stressed was very conservative. The campaign committee emphasized the importance of acting at that time due to the federal government money involved.

Various committees and organizations endorsed the auditorium project including the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, Little Rock Federation of Women’s Clubs, and the Young Business Men’s Association.

The thrust of the campaign focused on the economic benefit to Little Rock as well as the fact that the auditorium would be for all citizens. This message was picked up in editorials by both the Democrat and Gazette. In editorials on January 23 and 25, the Democratopined that the benefits of the auditorium would be distributed among all classes of the citizenry. The next day, both papers ran editorials which touted the economic boon an auditorium would bring through conventions and meetings.

The Democrat’s approach broke down the current value of conventions to Little Rock with, what it termed, the city’s “existing inadequate” facilities. The paper emphasized a conservative estimate of what the added value to Little Rock’s economy would be with the new auditorium.

In expressing support for the auditorium the Gazette stressed the values for local, statewide and national groups. “An auditorium would provide a more convenient and better adapted community center for all kinds of local gathering,” and continued that it would make Little Rock “the logical meeting place for state conventions of every sort.” In discussing the value of state, regional and national meetings the paper stressed that the outside money spent by convention attendees has an impact beyond stores, hotels and restaurants.

Both papers also echoed the importance of the federal government financing to make this possible. The Democrat noted that the Public Works Administration grant and federal low cost loan made this an ideal time.

On January 26, 1937, Little Rock voters approved the auditorium bond by a vote of 1,518 to 519. It passed in each of the city’s 23 precincts. Little Rock Mayor R. E. Overman expressed his pleasure at the outcome of the vote and extended his thanks to the voters.

After the election, a Gazette editorial commented on the low turnout for the special election by commenting that the weather had been nice and there were no other barriers to voting. The editorial writer opined that those not voting in the election must not have been opposed to the endeavor.

Chopin and Mendelssohn on tap with Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Artist of Distinction Andrew von Oeyen this weekend

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Chopin & Mendelssohn | JAN 26-27

This weekend, Philip Mann and the ASO welcome 2018-2019 Richard Sheppard Arnold Artist of Distinction Andrew von Oeyen!

Andrew takes the stage with ASO on January 26 & 27 to perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor on a program also featuring Verdi’s Overture to La forza del destino and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.3 “Scottish.”

Hailed worldwide for his elegant and insightful interpretations, balanced artistry and brilliant technique, Andrew Von Oeyen has established himself as one of the most captivating pianists of his generation.

The Saturday evening concert starts at 7:30pm, and the Sunday afternoon concert starts at 3pm.  The concerts are at Robinson Center Performance Hall.