Category Archives: Music

Festival of the Senses presents Music for the Holidays on December 10 at St. Luke’s

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sheet music with holiday ornaments, ribbons and evergreen branchesOn Tuesday, December 10, at 7:00 p.m., Festival of the Senses will present a holiday concert of music by Sant-Saens, Brahms, Yon, and traditional carols played by May Tsao-Lim at the piano, Andrew Irvin on violin, and David Renfro on French horn.

The concert, which is free and open to the public, is the third in the 2019-20 season of the performing arts series sponsored by St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 4106 JFK Boulevard. A reception with holiday treats will be held in the church’s parish hall following the performance.

The program will be as follows:

  • Caprice in the Form of a Waltz, Opus 52, No. 6, for Violin & Piano by Camille Sant-Saens;
  • Trio for Horn, Violin & Piano, Opus 40, by Johannes Brahms;
  • Gesu Bambino, by Pietro Yon;
  • A selection of traditional carols to be sung by the audience.

Festival of the Senses is a performing arts series created in 2011 by St. Luke’s Episcopal Church as a gift of the arts to the community to entertain, enlighten, and inspire.

May Tsao-Lim, who played in the Eric Hayward memorial concert for Festival of the Senses in September, teaches applied piano and piano pedagogy at Henderson State University, where she is Assistant Chair of the music department and Director of International Music Festivals. She has also taught at Iowa State University and Malaysia’s University College Sedaya International

ASO concertmaster Andrew Irvin is well known to Festival audiences as a member of the duo ARmusica. He also plays in the Camino Trio and recently was heard as substitute concertmaster with the Omaha Symphony. He has concertized across America and throughout Europe on his 1765 Gagliano violin, and his recordings are available on the Potenza and Naxos labels.

Since 2005, David Renfro has been the ASO’s principal horn player and also serves as the orchestra’s chief development officer. He is a member of Etesian Winds, a woodwind quintet, and the ASO Brass Quintet, and has taught at Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University. He was previously the principal horn in the Texarkana and Missouri Symphony Orchestras.

Hear the Rodney Block Collective at South on Main tonight!

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Kick off the December with some music as sure to keep you warm regardless of the outdoor temperatures!

South on Main is turning up the heat with the Rodney Block Collective.

Led by musical favorite Rodney Block, this musical group alternates between various forms of jazz mixed in with gospel, Be-Bop, hip-hop, funk, and soul.

Show begins tonight (December) at 10 pm with a $15 cover. Purchasing a ticket does not guarantee you a seat.

Call (501) 244-9660 to reserve a table.

Blues legend Bobby Rush in concert at the Ron Robinson Theater tonight, presented by CALS Arkansas Sounds

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CALS Arkansas Sounds presents an intimate solo show with blues legend BOBBY RUSH!

Bobby Rush is a Grammy Award winner, a Blues Hall of Fame member, a 12-time Blues Music Award winner and B.B. King Entertainer of the Year.

Bobby Rush was actually born as Emmett Ellis, Jr. outside Homer, La. His daddy was a preacher and knew enough about a harmonica to pass along a few riffs to his progeny, who twanged a diddley bow before picking up a guitar around age 11. The senior Ellis relocated his family to Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1948. When young Bobby went professional as a blues musician, he changed his moniker to not disrespect his devout dad. And Bobby Rush was born.

Bobby started playing with Delta blues guitarists Boyd Gilmore and Elmore James in Arkansas during the early ’50s before migrating to Chicago. There he assembled a band with an equally young Freddie King on guitar and Arkansan Luther Allison came into the combo later. Rush gigged around the West Side and in the southern suburbs of the Windy City, but it took until 1964 for him to debut on record with the tough downbeat blues “Someday” for the Jerry-O label.

And now, jumping forward to 2019, after decades of tearing up the chitlin’ circuit on a nightly basis with his sweaty, no-holds-barred funk-fests, Bobby has thoroughly broken through to the mainstream. He won a long-overdue 2017 Grammy for his spectacular album Porcupine Meat and consistently tours the globe as a headliner. What’s more, Bobby’s brand-new album Sitting on Top of the Blues on his own Deep Rush imprint promises to further spread the news that this revered legend, well past his 85+ years of age even if his stratospheric energy level belies the calendar, is bigger, badder and bolder than ever.

Don’t miss this chance to see BOBBY RUSH perform a special SOLO SHOW on Friday, December 6 at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater in downtown Little Rock! That’s right, you’ll see and hear Bobby Rush singing, playing guitar and harmonica, and telling stories-all by himself!

Tickets are $30 for general admission seating. The doors open at 7:00 pm and the concert starts at 8:00 pm.

Welcome to the Fourth Floor with John Willis tonight at South on Main

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John Willis presents Welcome to the 4th Floor: 40th Birthday Show!Welcome to the 4th Floor: 40th Birthday Show!

December 7 is the birthday of singer-songwriter-troubadour-raconteur John Willis. In celebration of another trip around the sun, he is giving the gift of music to audiences on Friday, December 6.

The concert will be at South on Main.

As a performer and as a songwriter, John Willis is known for an eclectic sense of style, drawing elements of classical, jazz, r&b and soul into the sphere of his piano-pop oriented sets.

Expect an exemplary set of music at this show, on the evening before his 40th birthday, in which he will attempt to incorporate all of the elements that have inspired and influenced him as a musician in these first 40 years.

Help him make it to the “4th Floor” of the forties with a night of oldies, 90s, indie, folk, soul, Broadway, standards, and more.

Show kicks off at 8pm. $15. Call (501) 244-9660 for reservations.

Catherine Russell is next in OXFORD AMERICAN’s Archetypes & Troubadours series on South on Main stage

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Catherine Russell [ARCHETYPES & TROUBADOURS SERIES]

The Oxford American magazine is excited to welcome Catherine Russell to the South on Main stage, tonight (December 5).

This is the second show of their Archetypes & Troubadours Sub-Series. Doors open at 6:00 PM, with dinner and drinks available for purchase at that time. The series is made possible in part by presenting sponsors Chris & Jo Harkins and J. Mark & Christy Davis, as well as their season sponsor University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Alone Together, vocalist Catherine Russell’s seventh studio album as a leader, is a search for truth. Drawing on composers and lyricists of The Great American Songbook—Irving Berlin, Eddie de Lange, and Jimmy Van Heusen—along with songwriters from the Swing and Rhythm & Blues eras—Nat Cole, Louis Jordan, and Al Dubin, and Harry Warren—Russell invigorates their creations. At the center is Russell’s voice, and while comparisons to Ella, Billie, Sarah, and Dinah abound—while flattering—she has a sound all her own. “Blues infused jazz tunes are the ones I gravitate towards, because they enable me to freely express myself in the moment,” says Russell.

Catherine Russell is a native New Yorker, born into musical royalty. Her father, the late Luis Russell, was a legendary pianist/composer/bandleader and Louis Armstrong’s long-time musical director. Her mother, Carline Ray, was a pioneering vocalist/guitarist/bassist who performed with International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Mary Lou Williams, Sy Oliver, and countless others.

Catherine Russell combines a pedigree, where classic jazz & rhythm and blues run through her veins, with the sensibility of a lifetime in popular music. On Alone Together, an intoxicating brew emerges. The connections are real and natural, never forced, and always true.

Additional season partners include Stella Boyle Smith Trust, Cypress Properties, Inc., UCA College of Fine Arts & Communication, Margaret Ferguson Pope—Thank You Aunt Margaret!, EVO Business Environments, Jay Barth & Chuck Cliett, Stacy Hamilton of Desselle Real Estate, Downtown Little Rock Partnership, Arkansas Arts Council, Department of Arkansas Heritage, Rosen Music Company, and Steinway Piano Gallery Little Rock.

On #GivingTuesday – remember Little Rock’s cultural institutions

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Today is #GivingTuesday. Since most of the cultural institutions are non-profits, please remember them when considering a donation.

 

Nov 30, 1936 – City of Little Rock sets election for what is now Robinson Center Performance Hall

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On November 30, 1936, Little Rock Mayor R. E. Overman asked the City Council to call a special election for January 1937 for approval of the issuance of bonds for a municipal auditorium.  Prior to asking the aldermen to call the election, the mayor had been in Washington DC to visit with Public Works Administration (PWA) officials. The mayor was assured that the auditorium project would be approved for federal funds.

While the mayor was meeting with federal officials, architects Eugene Stern, George Wittenberg and Lawson Delony were meeting with local PWA officials in Little Rock.  They were reviewing the plans for the funding request.  Though there were still a few refinements to be completed in the documents, the local officials seemed satisfied.  With these assurances in hand, Mayor Overman moved forward with putting the request before the City Council.

Though there were many things discussed at length during the November 30 City Council meeting, there was virtually no conversation regarding the structure before the 15-0 vote by the City Council to refer the auditorium bonds to the voters.  There were three different bond programs to be put before the voters in January 1937: a municipal auditorium, expansion of the public library and creation of a park for African Americans.

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.  At the time of the initial auditorium application in 1935, the mayor had noted that if the PWA failed to approve funding for the entire project, it could be submitted to the voters for the issuance of municipal bonds.  This was ultimately the course of action that would come to pass.  The PWA grant would only cover a portion of the project.  The government did agree it would purchase the financing bonds if no other entity did.

The election would be held on January 26, 1937.