Category Archives: Music

LR native William Grant Still’s opera TROUBLED ISLAND produced by Opera in the Rock this weekend

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Little Rock native William Grant Still was the leading African American composer of classical music throughout most of the 20th century.  In 1949, his composition, Troubled Island became the first grand opera written by an African American to be produced by a major company.  It premiered with the New York City Opera in 1949.

This weekend, Opera in the Rock is presenting a rare fully-staged production of Troubled Island.  It will be at the UA Pulaski Tech’s Center for Humanities and Arts on the evening of May 4 (7:30pm) and afternoon of May 6 (3:00pm).  The work is being performed by a cast of local and regional operatic talent.

The libretto for the opera was written by Langston Hughes and Verna Arvey.  The story is set in Haiti in 1791.  Jean Jacques Dessalines declares himself emperor of an independent Haiti. Corruption, revolution and assassination ensue.

Ronald Jensen-McDaniel is singing the role of Dessalines.  Others in the cast include Jordan Murdock, Jannette Robinson, Charles Moore, Nisheedah Golden, Anthony K. Valley,  and Chris Straw.

Arlene Biebesheimer is the artistic director of Opera in the Rock.

DanceWorks today from 10a-4p at Ballet Arkansas

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BallArk DanceWorks2018Ballet Arkansas presents DanceWorks today from 10am to 4pm at the studio on Main Street.

DanceWorks is a free event that celebrates the impact of dance and the arts in the Little Rock community.

Join them for open dance classes in a variety of disciplines, stop in for an open rehearsal and chat with the Artistic Directors, and enjoy a preview of Ballet Arkansas In Concert: With Drew Mays and a new work by Company Artist Paul Tillman to conclude the event. Visit balletarkansas.org to learn more!

  • Open Dance Classes 10 am- 3 pm
  • Open Rehearsal and Informal Chat with the Artistic Directors 3-4pm
  • LIVE Performance 3:30pm!

*Colonial Wine & Spirits will be generously providing celebratory libations at the performance preview!

It is time for the 15th Annual Arkansas Literary Festival

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The Arkansas Literary Festival puts the LIT in Little Rock.  (Or does Little Rock put the LIT in the Literary Festival?)

Notable authors, including Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winners, filmmakers, singers, and artists are among the diverse roster of presenters who will be providing sessions at the Central Arkansas Library System’s (CALS) fifteenth annual Arkansas Literary Festival, continuing through April 29, 2018.

Events will be held at CALS Main Library campus and many other Little Rock venues. Most events are free and open to the public. More information »

The premier gathering of readers and writers in Arkansas, the Festival offers a mix of sessions, panels, special events, performances, workshops, book signings, and opportunities to meet authors. More than 70 authors, essayists, and illustrators—who have achieved national and international acclaim—represent an array of genres and will discuss topics such as science fiction, fantasy, crime, southern life, social commentary, science, women’s history, young adult and children’s books. Presenters come from a variety of backgrounds ranging from professors at New York University and Yale University to former NBA All Stars. The full list of authors is available at www.ArkansasLiteraryFestival.org.

Special events include:

 

Author! Author!, Friday, April 27, at 7:00 p.m.

A cocktail reception with the authors. Tickets are $40 at the door. Special rates are available for students and groups.

An Evening with Sebastian Junger, Saturday, April 28, at 7:00 p.m.

Renowned author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker Sebastian Junger (Tribe, War, The Perfect Storm, Restrepo) will discuss his coverage of multiple wars along with his literary and film work, as he gives the CALS J. N. Heiskell Distinguished Lecture for journalism. An Evening with Sebastion Junger is free, but reservations are required. Tickets are available at www.ArkansasLiteraryFestival.org

Festival sessions for children will take place in Youth Services and Level 4 at the Main Library, 100 Rock Street, and at the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library and Learning Center, 4800 W. 10th Street. Events at Children’s Library are hosted in partnership with Junior League of Little Rock/Little Readers Rock.

In addition to programming at CALS locations, the Festival provides presentations by several authors for Pulaski county elementary, middle and senior high schools, and area colleges through the Writers in the Schools (WITS) initiative.

This year’s Festival authors have won an impressive number and variety of distinguished awards and fellowships such as the Pulitzer Prize, Grammy Award, Coretta Scott King Honor, NAACP Image Award, National Magazine Award, SAIS Novartis Prize for Journalism, National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, Wizard World Hall of Legends,  Eisner Award for editing,  National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, CantoMundo Poetry Prize, Dzanc Books ILP International Literature Award, Bard Fiction Prize, Autumn House Fiction Prize, Guggenheim, Cullman Center, FONCA, DAAD, Michener Copernicus Society, Callaloo Creative Writing, The Francis Writer-in-Residence at Yale, artist in residence at the University of Pennsylvania, Breadloaf Writer’s Conference, the MacDowell Colony, Capote, Mississippi Arts Commission, Bronx Council on the Arts, Tennessee Arts Commission, and Iowa Writers Workshop.

The work of this year’s Festival authors has been featured in notable publications including:

  • New York Times
  • The Los Angeles Times
  • Psychology Today
  • USA Today
  • The Atlantic
  • Parade
  • The Wall Street Journal
  • Esquire
  • Grantland
  • TIME
  • The New York Daily News
  • New York magazine
  • ELLE
  • Rolling Stone
  • Vanity Fair
  • The New Yorker
  • Entertainment Weekly
  • Harper’s
  • National Geographic Adventure
  • Outside
  • Men’s Journal
  • Slate
  • Travel + Leisure
  • Newsday
  • San Francisco Chronicle
  • Smithsonian
  • Best New American Voices
  • Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy
  • VICE
  • The New York Times Book Review
  • New York Review of Books
  • Wimmin’s Comix
  • Yale Review
  • Best American Nonrequired Reading
  • The Guardian
  • Backstage
  • McSweeney’s
  • Huffington Post
  • Granta
  • Best New Poets
  • com
  • Texas Monthly
  • Tin House
  • Oxford American
  • Southwest Brewing News

Support for the Arkansas Literary Festival is provided by sponsors including the Arkansas Humanities Council, National Endowment for the Humanities, Friends of Central Arkansas Libraries, Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau, Rebsamen Fund, Department of Arkansas Heritage,  ProSmartPrinting.com, KUAR FM 89.1, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Clinton Presidential Center, UA Little Rock Department of English, Windstream, Wright Lindsey & Jennings LLP, Whole Foods, Museum of Discovery, Capital Hotel, O’Looney’s Wine and Liquor, Oxford American, McMath Woods P.A., Hall High School, Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School, Mabelvale Elementary School, Terry Elementary School, ESSE Purse Museum, Historic Arkansas Museum, Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, Mick Wiggins, Christ Episcopal Church, Literacy Action of Central Arkansas, Celebrate! Maya Project, Hampton Inn Downtown Little Rock, Residence Inn Downtown Little Rock, Argenta Reading Series, University of Arkansas for Medical Science, Pyramid Books/Hearne Fine Art, Arkansas Times, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, The Root Café, Humane Society of Pulaski County, Bob Razer, Mollie Savage Memorial, Four Quarter Bar, and partner Junior League of Little Rock/Little Readers Rock.

New Titles and Old Favorites Mark Celebrity Attractions 2018-2019 season in Little Rock

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The 2018-2019 season marks 20 years that Celebrity Attractions has been bringing touring Broadway shows to Little Rock.  Next season’s lineup consists of five musicals including the return of some old favorites and two shows which are new to Little Rock but bring familiar characters.

CA1819JBUp first is JERSEY BOYS, the 2006 Tony winner for Best Musical.  Telling the story of the rise of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, it makes a return visit to Little Rock from October 12 to 14.

Go behind the music and inside the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons in the Tony Award®-winning true-life musical phenomenon, JERSEY BOYS. From the streets of New Jersey to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this is the musical that’s just too good to be true.

CA1819LNDNext is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s LOVE NEVER DIES.  This is the long-anticipated sequel to The Phantom of the Opera.  It will be on stage at Robinson Center from November 20 to 25, 2018.

Ten years after disappearing from the Paris Opera House, The Phantom has a new life in New York where he lives amongst the joy rides and freak shows of Coney Island. Christine Daaé, now one of the world’s finest sopranos, is coming to perform in New York. In a final bid to win back Christine’s love, The Phantom lures her, Raoul, and their young son to the glittering and glorious world of Coney Island… not knowing what is in store for them….

CA1819FNAnother familiar character returns to Robinson in a new show when Peter Pan comes back. This time, it is FINDING NEVERLAND which explores the origins of the Peter Pan story.  It will be at Robinson on December 22 and 23.

Playwright J.M. Barrie struggles to find inspiration until he meets four young brothers and their beautiful widowed mother. Spellbound by the boys’ enchanting make-believe adventures, he sets out to write a play that will astound London theatergoers. With a little bit of pixie dust and a lot of faith, Barrie takes this monumental leap, leaving his old world behind for Neverland, where nothing is impossible and the wonder of childhood lasts forever. The magic of Barrie’s classic tale springs spectacularly to life in this heartwarming theatrical event.

CA1819EThe music of Andrew Lloyd Webber returns to Robinson for the second time in the season with EVITA.  Winner of the 1980 Tony for Best Musical, this show (with book and lyrics by Tim Rice) will be at Robinson from March 15 to 17, 2019.

Eva Perón used her beauty and charisma to rise meteorically from the slums of Argentina to the presidential mansion as First Lady. Adored by her people as a champion for the poor, she became one of the most powerful women in the world—while her greed, outsized ambition and fragile health made her one of the most tragic. Evita tells Eva’s passionate and unforgettable true story, and features some of theater’s most beautiful songs, including “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” “Another Suitcase in Another Hall” and “High Flying, Adored.”

TCA1819SOMhe last show of the Celebrity Attractions season at Robinson Center is the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II classic THE SOUND OF MUSIC.  Winner of the 1960 Tony for Best Musical, it will be at Robinson Center from May 24 to 26, 2019.

This classic musical is 59 going on 60 in the year 2019.  With a book by Pulitzer winners Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Robinson Center will truly be alive with the sound of music.  The spirited, romantic and beloved musical story of Maria and the von Trapp Family will once again thrill audiences with its Tony®, Grammy® and Academy Award®-winning Best Score, including My Favorite Things, Do-Re-Mi, Climb Ev’ry Mountain, Edelweiss and the title song.

Tickets will go on sale first to current subscribers and then to new subscribers.  Individual tickets will go on sale closer to each show’s arrival in Little Rock.  Information is available at the Celebrity Attractions website.

LR Women Making History – Florence Price

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Florence-PriceFlorence Price was the first African-American female composer to have a symphonic composition performed by a major American symphony orchestra.  In 2016, when Robinson Center reopened, a new atrium was named in her honor. It is adjacent to the ballroom named after her childhood friend Dr. William Grant Still.  Having a space named after Price at Robinson is especially appropriate since one of the first concerts given there in 1940, by contralto Marian Anderson, featured songs written by Price.

Florence Price was born in Little Rock on April 9, 1887, to James H. Smith and Florence Gulliver Smith. Her father was a dentist in Little Rock, while her mother taught piano and worked as a schoolteacher and a businesswoman.

As a child, Florence received musical instruction from her mother, and she published musical pieces while in high school. She attended Capitol Hill School in Little Rock, graduating as valedictorian in 1903. Florence then studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, In 1907, she received degrees as an organist and as a piano teacher.

After graduation, Florence returned to Arkansas to teach music. After stints in Cotton Plant, North Little Rock and Atlanta, GA, Smith returned to Little Rock in 1912 to marry attorney Thomas Jewell Price on September 25, 1912. Her husband worked with Scipio Jones.

While in Little Rock, Price established a music studio, taught piano lessons, and wrote short pieces for piano. Despite her credentials, she was denied membership into the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association because of her race.

The Prices moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1927. There, Price seemed to have more professional opportunity for growth despite the breakdown and eventual dissolution of her marriage. She pursued further musical studies at the American Conservatory of Music and Chicago Musical College and established herself in the Chicago area as a teacher, pianist, and organist. In 1928, G. Schirmer, a major publishing firm, accepted for publication Price’s “At the Cotton Gin.” In 1932, Price won multiple awards in competitions sponsored by the Rodman Wanamaker Foundation for her Piano Sonata in E Minor, a large-scale work in four movements, and her more important work, Symphony in E Minor.

The latter work premiered with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on June 15, 1933, and the orchestras of Detroit, Michigan; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Brooklyn, New York, performed subsequent symphonic works by Price. This was the first time a black woman had presented her work on such a stage. In this regard,

Price’s art songs and spiritual arrangements were frequently performed by well-known artists of the day. For example, contralto Marian Anderson featured Price’s spiritual arrangement “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord” in her famous performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939. European orchestras later played Price’s works.

This national and international recognition made her more popular back home, and in 1935, the Alumni Association of Philander Smith College in Little Rock sponsored Price’s return to Arkansas, billing her as “noted musician of Chicago” and presenting her in a concert of her own compositions at Dunbar High School.

In her lifetime, Price composed more than 300 works, ranging from small teaching pieces for piano to large-scale compositions such as symphonies and concertos, as well as instrumental chamber music, vocal compositions, and music for radio. Price died in Chicago on June 3, 1953, while planning a trip to Europe.

Little Rock Look Back: OKLAHOMA! first comes to LR

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OkLRbill

Program cover from OKLAHOMA!’s February 1948 visit to Little Rock. From the collection of Mary and Booker Worthen.

On March 31, 1943, Alfred Drake sauntered on the stage of Broadway’s St. James Theatre and sang “Oh, what a beautiful mornin'” to launch OKLAHOMA! into not only theatrical history but popular culture as well.

In February 1948, as the original Broadway run was about to mark five years on Broadway, the national tour of Oklahoma! made its way to Little Rock for eight performances. The week-long stay it had in Little Rock at Robinson Center was a record for that building that would last until Wicked came in 2010.  (Hello, Dolly! in 1966 and Beauty and the Beast in 2002 had both equalled the record.)

By the time Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s first show made it to Little Rock, they were working on their fourth stage show, South Pacific, which had a leading character from Little Rock.

To get Robinson Auditorium ready for Oklahoma!, the Auditorium Commission had to spend $2,000 on upgrades.  That would be the equivalent of just under $21,000 today.

Oklahoma! opened at Robinson on Monday, February 9, 1948.  With eight performances, approximately 24,000 tickets were on sale during the run of the show.  There was a cast of 67 actors and 28 musicians.  The cast was led by Ridge Bond, Carolyn Adair, Alfred Cibelli Jr., Patricia Englund, and David Morris.  Mr. Bond had relatives who lived in Little Rock.  He was a native of Claremore, Oklahoma, which was the town in which the story took place.

OkAdLR

Ad in ARKANSAS GAZETTE on February 8, 1948.

While they were in Little Rock, the stars of the show made an appearance at Reed Music on February 10.  The music store (located at 112 and 114 East 7th Street–across the street from the Donaghey Building) was promoting the sale of the Oklahoma! cast albums, sheet music, and recordings of songs from Oklahoma! by other singers.

Both the Arkansas Gazette and Arkansas Democrat carried reviews of the show.  Another item, which appeared in the paper that week was a syndicated column which noted that the film rights for the show had been sold. It was speculated that the star would be Bing Crosby.  It would actually be 1955 before the film was made, and Mr. Crosby had no connection to that movie.  By the time it was made, the stars were Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones.  Mr. MacRae would appear in Little Rock for the 1963 opening of the Arkansas Arts Center.  Ms. Jones has made several concert appearances in Little Rock over the years.

Little Rock had seen its fair share of top Broadway shows on tour.  Prior to Robinson’s opening and since then, many well-known actors and popular shows had played Little Rock.  But just as it had been on Broadway, Oklahoma! in Little Rock was more than a show — it was an event!

Over the years, Oklahoma! has been performed by schools, churches, community theatres, dinner theatres, and colleges.  National tours have come through Arkansas again.  People have become jaded or dismissive of it, because they have seen it performed so often — and sometimes badly.  So it is hard to understand the excitement that was felt by Little Rock audiences in 1948 when they first saw it on the stage of Robinson Center.

But 75 years later (and 25 years after it was commemorated by the US Postal Service with its own stamp), Oklahoma! is still doing fine.  Countless new generations sing the songs and say the lines.

Two upcoming cultural events in Little Rock are a testament to the genius that helped create Oklahoma!  In May, Ballet Arkansas will present a dance piece which was the final dance created by Agnes de Mille.  Before choreographing Oklahoma!, Miss de Mille was already making her mark in the world of ballet.  She alternated between the two for decades.  At the 1993 Tony Awards, Miss de Mille accepted a special Tony upon the show’s 50th anniversary milestone.

The second connection to Oklahoma! will take place in February 2019.  The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra is bringing Oscar “Andy” Hammerstein III, grandson of the beloved librettist and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, to host a celebration of some of America’s most cherished music from the stage.

LR Women Making History – Betty Fowler

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Photo courtesy of the Arkansas Jazz Heritage Foundation

The word “Entertainer” seemed to have been invented for Betty Fowler.

Born in Wynne, her love for music began at age 9, when she started taking piano lessons. Betty began her illustrious career at age 18 after winning a talent contest, which gave her the push she needed to pursue her life’s passion. Betty graduated from Little Rock Jr. College in 1944. She spent most of her life in Little Rock as a popular musician and television entertainer.

Betty began her musical career on a statewide radio show. She moved on to become a television performer in the early 1950’s in Little Rock with what is now known as Channel 7. She was best known for her children’s TV show, “Betty’s Little Rascals”, which began in 1955.

She went on to co-host the “Little Rock Today Show” on Channel 4 with Bud Campbell, where she did live commercials, played the piano and interviewed celebrities who came to town, such as Liberace, Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, Red Buttons and Robert Goulet.

Through the years, Betty maintained a vigorous schedule with her band, “The Betty Fowler Four”, which produced a record album of her music. She was also musical director for The Miss Arkansas Pageant (1960-84), Musical Director for Broadway musicals produced by the Community Theater, Musical Director for the Farkleberry Follies and The Gridiron.

For many years, Betty taught piano and had a recording studio in her home, where she gave voice coaching lessons and made accompany tapes for many aspiring performers.  Betty Fowler will forever be remembered and treasured for her lifetime love and devotion to the world of music, both in performing and in the teaching of music to others.