The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts

Save the date(s): SESAME STREET LIVE, When Elmo Grows Up, Mar. 26-28

Yum! Family Series

Sesame Street Live! "When Elmo Grows Up" 

Friday March 26, 7 p.m.

Saturday, March 27, 10:30 a.m., 2 p.m., 5:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 28, 1 p.m., 4:30 p.m.

The Brown Theatre on Broadway

Ticketing link: http://www.kentuckycenter.org/ticketing/tickets/production.aspx?performanceNumber=5215

Join Elmo and his Sesame Street Live friends as they dream about growing up. Adults will hear music they'll recognize and enjoy sharing with children, such as "Home on the Range," "Down on the Corner", and "Give a Little Love." When Elmo Grows Up features nearly two dozen songs, including classics that children will love to sing along with such as "I Love Trash" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

Save the date! "From Africa to Appalachia" with Jayme Stone, April 15

The Kentucky Center presents

FROM AFRICA TO APPALACHIA

Jayme Stone (banjo) and Yacouba Sissoko (Kora)

Thursday, April 15, 8 p.m.

The Kentucky Center, Bomhard Theatre

"A brilliant synthesis of music from two different cultures in which you can hear echoes and resonances of the journey that the banjo has made in its crossing of the Atlantic." - BBC RADIO 2

Video playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=CD6CDCE0431781C3

www.jaymestone.com

Ticketing link: http://www.kentuckycenter.org/ticketing/tickets/production.aspx?performanceNumber=5489

Winner of two JUNO awards, banjo player and composer Jayme Stone is a musical disciple of Béla Fleck and Bill Frissell.  

In the past four years, Stone spent considerable time in West Africa, researching the origins of the banjo. He became particularly curious about the music that may not have made it across the ocean on slave ships headed west from Senegal and Mali in the 1700- 1800’s.

During an eight-week trip to Mali was supported by a prestigious Chalmers Arts Fellowship, Stone sat in with Toumani Diabate and the Symmetric Orchestra in downtown Bamako, lost in circles of Wassoulou polyrhythms and in a rural Dogon village with no electricity where he inadvertently discovered a banjo predecessor unheard of in the West, the Kora.

The resulting album, Africa to Appalachia, is a boundary-crossing musical collaboration which won the 2009 Juno Award for World Music Album of the Year.

Stone will share the stage in Louisville with Malian Master Kora player Yacouba Sissoko, http://www.myspace.com/sissokoyacouba. Yacouba has travelled the globe, playing with African, Latin and R&B groups.

 

Kentucky Center Arts-in-Healing program brings Squallis Puppeteers to Gilda's Club

 

Squallis Puppeteers performed at Gilda's Club in Louisville on January 23 as part of The Kentucky Center's Arts-in-Healing program.  This performance/workshop was made possible by grants from the Kentucky Arts Council and the Humana Foundation.

Click here to watch a series of short videos taken during the workshop.

The Kentucky Center's Arts-in-Healing program brings teaching artists and peformers into traditional healthcare settings to provide stimulating and inspirational creative experiences for patients, family members and friends, caregivers and healthcare staff. We believe this shared creative experience is beneficial to the healing process. For more information, contact Debbie Pennell,  dpenell@kentuckycenter.org.

Kentucky Center ArtsReach Studio helps celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

ArtsReach is dedicated to taking the arts and arts instruction into our community, training young people in neighborhoods throughout Louisville and other Kentucky cities to make the arts a part of their lives.  So it's especially rewarding when those young artists are given the opportunity to give back to their communities.  That's exactly what some ArtsReach students did recently to help celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King.

ArtsReach Dance and Violin Studios from Louisville Central Community Center, Lighthouse and WESTEC performed Sunday, January 17, as part of the Community Arts Collaboration "Celebrate Your Dream, a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration." The event took place at St. Stephen Church and was free and open to the public. Other performers included River City Drum Corps, Walden Theatre, VOICES, Louisville Youth Orchestra and Kentucky Opera's Studio Artists presenting A Chorus of Hope, a commissioned piece by Harry Pickens. The participation of ArtsReach groups was noted in this article and these photos from the Courier-Journal. 

Learn more about ArtsReach by visiting The Kentucky Center website.

Louisville's Brigid Kaelin provides pre-show entertainment, February 12, The Kentucky Center

Alt-country cabaret performer Brigid Kaelin will provide free pre-show entertainment this Friday night, February 12, from 7 - 8 p.m., at The Kentucky Center Bar/East Room.

Recently voted "Best Singer-Songwriter" in the LEO Readers' Choice Awards (again), this feisty redhead has performed her original tunes on NPR's A Prairie Home Companion; played accordion and musical saw with Elvis Costello; and entertained audiences all over the world in support of her latest album, West 28th Street.

Brigid is currently at work on a new solo release and will be touring Europe this summer. She'll be joined by band mates Scott Lankford and Peter Searcy. 

Make a night of it and check out Terrance Simien & The Zydeco Experience, starting at 8 p.m. in The Kentucky Center's Bomhard Theater. Ticketing information for the Zydeco show can be found here.

 

Video Guitar lesson with Rodrigo y Gabriela. See them live March 7, Brown Theatre.

You don't have to be a guitarist to appreciate the amazing musicianship displayed by Rodrigo y Gabriela in this "how to" video.

Rodrigo says "it's not jazz, not flamenco, not thrash metal." Whatever the label, it's ASTOUNDING!

The duo plays live in Louisville on March 7 at The Brown Theatre on Broadway.

Find ticketing information here.

 

Kentucky Center shares renowned pianist with community via residency, free concert

 
Photo above: Joyce Yang 

This update comes from Jeff Jamner, director of School Programs, The Kentucky Center, and programming coordinator for the Gheens Great Expectations concert series:

"This week, The Kentucky Center presented renowned concert pianist Joyce Yang in a young artist community residency.  Ms. Yang began performing professionally at age 14.  At age 19, she was the youngest silver medalist in the history of the Van Cliburn Competition. "

This video provides a sample of Ms. Yang's amazing musicianship - 
 

 "Although she has performed with some of the world’s great orchestras and chamber musicians, The Kentucky Center provided Ms. Yang with her first community residency opportunity. Joyce is a natural communicator and loves meeting people and talking about her art. 

"At Louisville's Youth Performing Arts School, Ms. Yang talked about how she is compelled to solve the mysteries of a piece of music – what it means, what it means to her, and how many possibilities it offers for the audience.  She told students she can become obsessive in her preparation – even color coding notes because her mind is so visually oriented. 

Ben Sollee show moves to Brown Theatre due to brisk sales

 
Due to the popularity of this performance, The Kentucky Center is moving this concert from the Bomhard Theater to the Brown Theatre (315 W. Broadway):

WFPK Presents

The "Dear Companion" Tour Featuring

Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore

Friday, February 26, 8:30 p.m.

The Brown Theatre on Broadway

Ticket sales have been temporarily halted while Kentucky Center box office staff call existing ticket holders to personally notify them of seating changes and move them into Brown Theatre seats.

Once current ticket holders have been seated, tickets for the remaining seats in the Brown Theatre will go on sale to the public on Friday, February 5, at 10 a.m.

Tickets will be available online, by phone (502.584.7777, 502.562.0730 TTY) and in-person at The Kentucky Center box office.

Standard ticket price: $25, reserved seating, fees apply.

 

 

Kentucky Center Arts in Healing program brings Hip Hop dance workshop to Home of the Innocents

 
Safiyyah Rasool is a dancer and artist/educator who performs and teaches in Kentucky. She recently led a dance workshop at The Home of the Innocents (Louisville, KY) on behalf of The Kentucky Center's Arts In Healing program. In her workshop, she helped teenage residents to understand that dance is not only an avenue of self-expression and a way to have fun, but also a way to learn to trust yourself.

Safiyyah had this to say about her experience working with teenagers at HOTI:

"I went into this workshop very nervous and excited! I got to meet some of these teenagers prior to the workshop, which is rare. When I met them, I was wearing my corporate work gear! The teen girls looked at me, judging me by my appearance, as if I wasn't a dancer. Working with traumatized and troubled kids can be challenging. You must meet them at their level, not above, not below. The way I was dressed seemed to intimidate the girls. I represented someone with authority. From their perspective, "authority" carries a negative connotation. So our initial meeting was not very inviting.

"I came back for the workshop as "me," a dancer. As I was setting up for my performance, a young girl came up and introduced herself out of the blue. She told me she was also a dancer, that she loves to dance. Then she hugged me goodbye and went on her way. Her hug was so sweet and innocent! That hug relaxed me and reminded me why I love working with kids. They just want to be loved and respected...that is all! I can give them that all day, every day!

Kentucky Center hosts Mayoral Forum on Arts & Culture, February 8, 6 p.m.

The region's arts and culture community is organizing a debate among candidates for Metro Mayor on Monday, February 8, from 6 - 8 p.m., at The Kentucky Center, in the Bomhard Theater. The event will be moderated by David Cupps, Executive Director of Arts Kentucky. The event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. A Meet and Greet with the candidates will follow in The Kentucky Center's East Room.

 

Louisville is defined in large part by its vital and thriving arts and cultural communities. Collectively, these organizations are one of the region's largest employers, one of its most consistent producers of tourist revenue, and a significant factor in Louisville's economic health.

 

The purpose of the Mayoral Forum on Arts and Culture is to focus attention on this critical aspect of our city in all of its facets - social, economic and cultural - as well as its importance to the growth and diversity of the region.

 

Media contact: David Holland, dholland@kentuckycenter.org, (502) 562-0157

 

This event is co-sponsored by the Kentucky School of Art, the Arts and Cultural Attractions Council, Arts Kentucky, the Fund for the arts and the University of Louisville.