Tag Archives: Arkansas Symphony Orchestra

RobinsoNovember: Aretha Franklin with the ASO for the Clinton Library opening

Posted on by

wjc-arethaTwelve years ago today, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center officially opened.  While that day was cold and wet, two days earlier, inside Robinson Center Music Hall, patrons were warmed by the musical talents of Aretha Franklin.

She shared the Robinson stage with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.  The ASO brough Miss Franklin to town as part of the festivities surrounding the opening of the presidential library.  Long a favorite of the Clintons, Miss Franklin sang at his 1993 inaugural festivities the night before he took the oath of office.

Resplendent in a series of white dresses, Miss Franklin was in top form feeding off the love from the audience.  While backstage she may have been dealing with back and knee issues (which the Culture Vulture saw first hand), when she stepped on to the stage she was giving her all as she rolled through hit after hit from her starry career.  She sang, she played the piano, she entertained!

It was a sold out house and her voice and energy reached the last row of the balcony.

Prior to her appearance, the ASO played a few selections including variations on “Hail to the Chief” and “America.”

 

Explore Robinson Center with SHARP- Arkansas Symphony’s Young Professionals

Posted on by

Robinson IntermissionThis Wednesday at 5:30pm (November 16), the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s young professionals (also known as SHARP) will be exploring the ASO’s new performance space when they tour Robinson Center.

This sneak-peek party will include a tour, as well as live entertainment, hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar, and the opportunity to sit-in as the orchestra rehearses for their first concert in Robinson in over two years. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door

SHARP is a group of young professionals enjoying contemporary social experiences that provide networking opportunities, enlightening programs, and community connection while promoting audience growth and sustainability for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. SHARP membership includes a free ticket (upon request) to all ASO subscription concerts along with special social events,  and volunteer opportunities.

RobinsoNovember: Dr. William Grant Still

Posted on by

bhm StillLast night, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Opus Ball was the first public event in the William Grant Still Ballroom of Robinson Center.  This afternoon at 3pm, the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra is playing a Still composition in a performance with Ballet Arkansas at the Albert Pike Memorial Temple on Scott Street.

Dr. William Grant Still was a legend in his own lifetime.  Dr. Still, who wrote more than 150 compositions ranging from operas to arrangements of folk themes, is best known as a pioneer. He was the first African-American in the United States to have a symphonic composition performed by a major orchestra. He was the first to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the US; the first to conduct a major symphony in the south; first to conduct a white radio orchestra in New York City; first to have an opera produced by a major company. Dr. Still was also the first African-American to have an opera televised over a national network

Dr. Still was born May 11, 1895 in Woodville, Mississippi to parents who were teachers and musicians. When Dr. Still was only a few months old, his father died and his mother took him to Little Rock. Inspired by RCA Red Seal operatic recordings, his musical education began with violin lessons.

After his studies at Wilberforce University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he played in orchestras and orchestrated for various employers including the great W. C. Handy. For several years he arranged and conducted the “Deep River Hour” over CBS and WOR.

In the 1920’s, Still made his first appearances as a serious composer in New York. Several fellowships and commissions followed. In 1994, his “Festive Overture” captured the Jubilee prize of the Cincinnati Symphony orchestra. In 1953, he won a Freedoms Foundation Award for “To You, America!” which honored West Point’s Sesquicentennial Celebration. In 1961, he received honors for this orchestral work, “The Peaceful Land”. Dr. Still also received numerous honorary degrees from various colleges and universities, as well as various awards and a citation from Arkansas Governor Dale Bumpers in 1972.

In 1939, Dr. Still married journalist and concert pianist Verna Avery, who became his principal collaborator. They remained together until Dr. Still’s death in 1978.  In a proclamation marking the centennial of Dr. Still’s birth, President Bill Clinton praised the composer for creating “works of such beauty and passion that they pierced the artificial barriers of race, nationality and time.”

In 1995, Dr. Still was posthumously inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.

RobinsoNovember: First Dance at Robinson Center

Posted on by
RC-dance-orchestra

Jan Garber and his orchestra

Tonight the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra hosts its annual Opus Ball inside the new William Grant Still Ballroom at Robinson Center.  That the first public event in this space will be a dance is only appropriate.  The first public event in the original Robinson was also a dance.  It was held four months before the building even opened.

On October 4, 1939, the convention hall on the lower level was the site of a preview dance.  The pecan block flooring had been installed just the week before.

The first four people to enter the building as paying guests were Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Wilheim, Frances Frazier and Bill Christian.  Reports estimated 3,200 people attended and danced to the music of Jan Garber and His Orchestra.  By happenstance, Garber and his musicians had also played in Little Rock on January 26, 1937, the date of the election which approved the auditorium bonds.  Since Little Rock then did not have a suitable space, that appearance had been on the stage of the high school auditorium.

 

Get FREE tickets to Ark Symphony concert

Posted on by

aso-nov-30On Tuesday, November 1, starting at 10am, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will be giving away FREE tickets to their November 30 “Thank You to Little Rock” concert.

The tickets will be available on the front steps of Robinson from 10am until 6pm. If they run out of tickets earlier than 6pm, they will end it earlier.  So don’t wait until evening Rush Hour!

This November 30 concert will be presented to thank Little Rock voters for their support of the Restore Robinson project. It is also in appreciation of continued patronage by audiences as the Symphony has been performing in other venues.

Don’t miss on this opportunity to attend a historic event in the restored Robinson Center Music Hall!

 

Creative Class 2016: Tatiana Roitman Mann

Posted on by

cc16-roitmanPianist Tatiana Roitman Mann has appeared as a soloist and recitalist across North America and Europe.  Last night she appeared with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra at their River Rhapsodies Chamber Series.  On Friday, October 28, she will be one of the performers at Trinity Cathedral in “A Schubertiade” as part of their Chamber Music Series.

The BBC hailed her performance of  Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with Oxford Pops Orchestra as “formidable…both accurate and with rarely seen joy.” Mann’s radio broadcasts include H.Villa-Lobos’ Mystic Sextet, on NPR’s Performance Today , and B.Bartok’s Contrasts  on New York’s classical music station, WQXR, G. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on Little Rock’s KLRE.  Tatiana’s recording of the original, big band version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was released on Naxos in the album Jazz Nocturne – American Concertos of the Jazz Age.

As a performer of contemporary works, she premiered Speak No Evil by E. McKinley at the American Composer’s Forum, and performed For Don by M. Babbitt, with the composer in attendance, in celebration of his 90th birthday at Tanglewood’s Contemporary Music Festival.  As the recipient of the Peggy Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship at Tanglewood, she worked with James Levine, Dawn Upshaw, Yo-Yo Ma, Charles Rosen and Claude Frank.

Tatiana’s interpretations of solo, concerto and chamber repertoire are characterized by their warmth and emotional intensity. As a versatile artist whose engagements range from concerto, solo and chamber performances to I. Stravinsky’s Petrushka with the San Diego Symphony and the Mainly Mozart education series Joyful Noise, she strongly believes the only way that “art” music can remain pertinent in the 21st century is by conveying and elevating its emotional quintessence.

Tatiana’s recent concerto performances include L. van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #4 op.58, C. Saint-Saens Concerto #4 op.44 in San Diego, CA, G. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with Bismarck-Mandan Symphony in ND, L. van Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy in Sydney, Australia, as well as Rhapsody in Blue with the Arkansas Symphony. During the 2016-2017 concert season Mann will return to River Rhapsodies for performances of works by F. Schubert and M. Ravel. Additional engagements include a solo recital in the “Arts and Life” series at Harding University, M. de Falla’s Evenings in the Gardens of Spain with Venice Symphony, FL under the baton of Maestro Imre Pallo, and other performances as a soloist and collaborator with various chamber music groups throughout the US.

Tatiana holds graduate degrees from Manhattan School of Music, the Royal Academy of Music in London and a DMA from University of Minnesota.   

Creative Class 2016: David Renfro

Posted on by

cc16-renfroWhile David Renfro may be known for his soaring horn playing with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, he also serves the ASO as a staff member.  In recognition of these dual talents, earlier this year David was selected to be one of only nine participants in the League of American Orchestras’ Emerging Leaders Program. 

A native of Kingsport, Tennessee, David is the Director of Operations for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.  He received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Horn Performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.  In 2005, he moved to Little Rock when he became the Principal Horn of the ASO, a position he continues to hold. 

In addition to performing, David taught horn and chamber music at Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University through 2009, when he was hired to be the ASO’s Orchestra Personnel Manager.  In 2010, he became the Orchestra Personnel and Operations Manager and in 2016, the Director of Operations for the ASO.  

As a musician, David has also performed with the Memphis, Illinois, Missouri, Owensboro, Greenville, and Texarkana Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic.  In addition to his work as an orchestra musician, David maintains an active teaching studio and performs regularly as a chamber musician and soloist.  

David is a member of the woodwind quintet, Etesian Winds, as well as the ASO brass quintet.  David also gave the Arkansas premiere of American composer James Beckel’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated concerto for horn, “The Glass Bead Game,” with the Henderson State University Wind Ensemble.  Other recent solo engagements have included Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, K. 297b with the Missouri Symphony Orchestra and Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4, K. 495 with both the Arkansas and Missouri Symphony Orchestras.