The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts

"Growing up Gheens" - Program's positive impact is exemplified by cellist's journey from student to mentor

Photo: Anne Richardson (center) age 7 at a Gheens chamber music soirée

Written by Jeffrey Jamner, Senior Director, Education & Community Arts, The Kentucky Center

In February, cellist Anne Richardson returned to her hometown of Louisville from her studies at the Juilliard School to perform on the stage of The Kentucky Center's Whitney Hall as this year's soloist with the Louisville Orchestra in the 2019 Gheens Great Expectations concert. Performing as a Gheens Artist was coming full circle for Anne: she grew up being inspired by world-class young artists in the Gheens Great Expectations program. You might say that “growing up Gheens” was an important part of her artistic journey.

The entire classical music community in Louisville has known about the astonishing talent of Anne Richardson since she was in elementary school. By the time she was nine, she could play a single phrase with such unique and penetrating soulfulness that it could take your breath away.  I first heard her when she was seven.  She performed in a trio in a chamber music soirée where she encountered our very first Gheens Artist, pianist Euntaek Kim from South Korea.  She sat on the floor just a few feet in front of Euntaek as he performed Shostakovich Trio with two talented young musicians from Louisville. Click here to see a KET Profile on Euntaek as our first Gheens Artist.

The Gheens Great Expectations program presents world-class young musicians on our stages and in our community. Its goals are twofold: to inspire our youth with artistic role models, and to help launch Gheens Artists’ careers with high profile performances and customized community residencies. Throughout her childhood, Anne has heard Gheens Artists, such as Mihai Marica, Jinjoo Cho, Caroline Goulding, and Conrad Tao, all of whom have gone on to have very distinguished international careers as performers. 

Unlike many young artist concert series, The Kentucky Center’s Gheens Great Expectations program features extensive community residencies that include performances in schools, workshops in community centers, and opportunities for local young musicians to perform with Gheens Artists as members of the Louisville Youth Orchestra or in chamber music soirées.  As a teenager, Anne was coached by and performed with several Gheens Artists, some of whom also offered helpful career advice.  She later encountered them in New York and at the Aspen Music Festival.

Photo: Anne Richardson (cello) mentoring students during her Gheens residency

In the same room where Anne played in our first Gheens chamber soiree fifteen years ago, I recently witnessed her coaching, rehearsing and performing as a Gheens Artist herself with two very talented high school students. After so many years of seeing her at the receiving end of Gheens residencies, it was moving to see Anne step so comfortably into the role of mentor.

Anne’s Gheens residency also included performances at Lincoln Performing Arts School and Western Middle School for the Arts, and it concluded with her joining her first cello teacher, Wayne Krigger, in an entirely new experience for her. Wayne Krigger has been one of The Kentucky Center’s longtime artists in our Arts in Healing program. He has shared his music with hundreds of patients receiving chemotherapy at the UofL James Graham Brown Cancer Center.  Arts in Healing Director Kristen Hughes captured a special moment in this short video filmed as they played together for patients at the Brown Cancer Center. The beauty of their music and the joy they exuded in playing together was uplifting to everyone in the hospital unit. 

Photo: Kristen Hughes (Kentucky Center), Anne Richardson, Wayne Krigger at Brown Cancer Center

Following the Arts in Healing component of her residency, Anne shared the following with me: “Playing at the Brown Cancer Center was an incredibly special experience. Playing with my very first teacher, Wayne Krigger added to the meaningfulness created by communicating warmth through the cello." 

With generous support from the Gheens Foundation, The Kentucky Center has been able to come full circle with an amazing local talent who “grew up Gheens.”  This is just one of the many stories of how The Kentucky Center impacts lives through the arts both on and beyond our stages.

Celebrating Dance Theatre of Harlem's 50th Anniversary

As part of our nonprofit mission, The Kentucky Center works diligently to share the talents of our Kentucky Center Presents performing artists with groups of all ages in our community by facilitating workshops, master classes, lecture-demonstrations, etc.

Dance Theatre of Harlem, touring the country in celebration of their 50^th anniversary, performed in Whitney Hall on the evening of November 9. In addition to the public performance, our Community Engagement and Programming departments coordinated the  local activities listed below.

View photos from the public performance

View photos from Community Engagement activities

October 29

Panel discussion #1 with local dancers and student journalists from Arts Bureau Edge. Local dancers highlighted their personal journey’s as artists of color and shared thoughts regarding the future of dance as a performance genre and industry.

November 5

Panel discussion #2 with dancers in Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) and student journalists from Arts Bureau Edge. Same discussion topics as #1.

November 8

DTH company class and warm-up at Louisville Ballet School studios in St. Matthews with Louisville Ballet School director participating in company class.

DTH dancers conduct Movement workshops at Lincoln Performing Arts School & Western Middle School for the Arts.

DTH dancers conduct two masterclasses at Youth Performing Arts School.

DTH Open rehearsal attended by Arts Bureau Edge student journalists and Kentucky Center Members, with remarks by DTH artistic director Virginia Johnson.

November 9

Lecture & Demonstration public school matinee in Whitney Hall for audience of 1700 students and chaperones.

Community Discussion, “From Louisville to Harlem: Creating Community Through Dance”, pre-show event open to DTH ticket holders with panel moderated by Elizabeth Kramer, arts journalist.

November 10

Movement workshop and discussion with DTH artistic director Virginia Johnson and students representing The Kentucky Center ArtsReach Our Voices Dance Collective, La’Nita Rocknette School of Dance, and Louisville Ballet School.

Special thanks to our sponsor Brown-Forman Midnite Ramble for supporting this event and community outreach.

If you'd like to receive a monthly update about our Community Engagement activities, please create a Kentucky Center eClub account  and select EDUCATION as one of your Interests. 

Jinjoo Cho: From Prodigy to Mature Artist

This is the story of a journey I have witnessed of a prodigy growing into a fully mature artist over a 12-year period. I chose to write this now, because I just heard former Gheens Artist Jinjoo Cho perform as the 2014 Gold Medal Laureate at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (ICVI) just before the finals of the 2018 competition.  The picture below shows Jinjoo and me together after her stunning performance last week.

 

I first learned about Jinjoo from conductor Jason Seber when she was 17 years old.  She had won the concerto competition of the Cleveland Institute of Music as a high school student in which her competition included college, graduate, and even Doctoral music performance majors.  Following up on this lead, I called her teacher at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Paul Kantor, and told him that I wanted to talk with him about the possibility of engaging Jinjoo to perform at The Kentucky Center’s Gheens Great Expectations series. I could hear the excitement in his voice as he said to me, “Boy have you found yourself a violinist!”  Indeed, I had.  Later that year she went on to win the Gold Medal at the Montreal International Violin Competition.

We arranged for Jinjoo to give a recital and a community residency.  The next fall I recognized her in the audience at the finals of the IVCI and introduced myself, saying that we are excited about her upcoming performance and residency in Louisville. And with a delightfully informal spunk, she looked right into my eyes and asked me, “is it Loueyville, or Louissville, or Louavull? Which one is it?” Over the years I came to expect this kind of playfulness from Jinjoo which you can also hear in her playing.

Jinjoo’s first recital in Louisville at The Kentucky Center’s Bomhard Theatre received a rave review from the Courier-Journal’s Andrew Adler including the following quote: “I think I’m going to start referring to Jinjoo Cho as the ‘it’ girl of this season’s classical recital scene. ‘It’ as in pay attention to her every gesture, her every note. Because she has lots of what may be called the ‘wow’ factor.” He later went on to include this performance as one of his top ten concerts of the decade.

In her residencies in schools and in the community, Jinjoo has proven to be a natural at connecting with and inspiring young people. I will never forget when she played the first violin part in the Mendelssohn Octet with seven string students at the Youth Performing Arts School. After being introduced to the group – most of whom were just a few years younger than her – she jumped right into rehearsal with energy, enthusiasm and immediately helped raise the ensemble’s level of playing.

The outreach opportunities in the Gheens Great Expectations program have helped to broaden Jinjoo’s understanding of the power and importance of education and outreach.  And this has helped shape her trajectory as an artist, teacher, and entrepreneur.  A couple of years ago she made her vision of reviving the Encore Chamber Music festival and school a reality, bringing high level musical training to hundreds of very gifted young artists.

How did Jinjoo Cho become the only three-time Gheens Artist? In 2013, Glen Kwok, the Executive Director of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (IVCI), met with me for coffee while he was in Louisville for a conference. He proposed a discount artist fee if we would agree to engage the 2014 Gold Medalist as a Gheens Artist in 2014 – without knowing who it would be in advance. Jinjoo won the Gold Medal and returned to Louisville a third time, performing in the Gheens Great Expectations concert and performing at WUOL’s Lunchtime Classics as well as working with violinists in The Kentucky Center’s ArtsReach Violin Studio (see photo below).

In the WUOL performance, which you can listen to online, I had the honor of performing the Mozart Sonata in E minor with her, and it was one of the finest chamber music collaborations of my career as a pianist. In performance we responded to the slightest suggestions in each other’s playing resulting in interpretive choices we did not practice or discuss in our rehearsal.  After the performance we both spoke about how this brought a freshness and spontaneity to our collaboration.

Nearly four years later, sitting in the audience at the IVCI Donor Appreciation Recital reserved for the previous Gold Medalist, I marveled at Jinjoo’s performance. You can see and hear her performance online. She has grown from a young phenom, playing with a level of mastery and musical sophistication well beyond her years, to a fully mature artist of the highest level. Her program of works by Britten, Previn, Chausson, and Faure were very challenging to play and not the kind of program that most violinists would choose.  But here she was, no longer restricted by the choices offered by a competition and playing what she wanted to share – and it was magnificent.  She had a wonderful partner in pianist Hyun Soo Kim, who played with joy, a superb ear for ensemble, and a great variety of pianistic touches.  Jinjoo’s playing was big and also intimate, very personal and without a hint of excess even when taking us to the edge with her bold interpretations.

After such a difficult program, Jinjoo returned to the stage with her pianist for one encore. She announced to the audience her gratitude to the IVCI competition, one of the most important competitions in the world and one she dreamed of competing in since she was fourteen. She then played an arrangement of “Over the Rainbow” as if to say that sometimes dreams really do come true.

With generous support from the Gheens Foundation, The Kentucky Center has discovered, presented, and help to nurture the artistic and career growth of dozens of Gheens Artists since 2004. 

Appalachian singer-songwriter Martha Redbone brings Roots music to Western Middle School

On Friday, February 2, 2018, 400 students from Western Middle School for the Arts had a visit from the Martha Redbone Trio, comprised of critically-acclaimed singer, storyteller and Harlan County, KY native Martha Redbone; Aaron Whitby, Martha’s husband, musical partner and pianist; and Alan “A.B.” Burroughs on resonator guitar and vocals.

The trio took the students on a musical adventure featuring songs rooted in the group’s blend of funk, Piedmont blues, Appalachian folk, and signature elements from Martha’s upbringing in Native American Cherokee, Shawnee, and Choctaw culture.

View Photos

The students responded enthusiastically to this interactive assembly, participating in group sing-a-longs in the Cherokee language, and joining the band onstage to play Native American percussion instruments.

The Martha Redbone Trio performs at The Kentucky Center March 10 as part of the Speed Museum Concert Series. The evening also features Ben Sollee and Kentucky Native. 

Gheens Great Expectations concert, art contest, and residency celebrate Arts Education

On February 7, Whitney Hall was filled to capacity for the Gheens Great Expectations Concert, an eagerly anticipated free public event celebrating the power of arts education. Performances during the event included the Louisville Orchestra and Louisville Youth Orchestra performing side-by-side, and Youth Performing Arts School trumpeter Nicholas Recktenwald and his jazz ensemble, Spur of the Moment. This year’s event highlighted the visual arts as well by projecting images of winning entries from a statewide art contest inspired by Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. This concert also serves as the opening event in the Kentucky Music Educators Association’s (KMEA) annual conference.

In January, Gheens artists Nicholas Recktenwald and Spur of the Moment also performed for students at Jefferson County arts magnet schools, Lincoln Elementary and Western Middle School.

VIEW PHOTOS

READ 89.3 WFPL ARTICLE

Visit our website to learn more about our programs that enrich the lives of teachers and students in Kentucky’s public schools.

"Reading the Music": Kentucky Center Arts Integration Academies provide creative professional development for teachers

Kentucky Center Arts Academies, statewide professional development opportunities for educators, were recently featured in Kentucky Teacher, a publication of the Kentucky Department of Education.

From the article:

The hip hop beat of the song “My Shot” from the Broadway musical HAMILTON was transformed with the twang of a Bluegrass tune and teachers strumming guitars. The witches’ chant from Shakespeare’s Macbeth took on the beat of a bongo drum while teachers called out in unison: “Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.” 

These exercises were just two of the many ways 24 teachers explored the connections between music and literacy during the weeklong Arts Integration Academy in Danville. The academy was one of five arts academies held this summer by the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts and the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). The other academies focused on school-based leadership, assessing student work with artistic criteria and integrating arts and world languages.

“We really wanted something this year for the high school music teachers and high school English teachers to connect,” said Jeffery Jamner, Kentucky Center senior director of education and community arts. “We’re looking at the musicality of language and the linguistic characteristics of music and how both are languages of emotion and human experience.”

Read the full article

Learn more about Kentucky Center statewide Education & Community Arts programs

Raising the bar in Education: Teachers engage in advanced studies at statewide Arts Integration Academies

RAISING THE BAR IN EDUCATION

Teachers engage in advanced studies at The Kentucky Center’s statewide Arts Integration Academies

The Kentucky Center is presenting five Arts Integration Academies throughout Kentucky this summer. More than 100 teachers will participate.  

The Academies, which have been presented in partnership with The Kentucky Department of Education since 2000, provide hands-on, active learning experiences that teachers can bring back to their classes, schools, and districts.

The Academies this summer include: Louisville (leadership and the arts), Danville (music and literacy), Hopkinsville (arts assessment), Ashland & Hazard (arts, Spanish language and cultural studies).

Read more about Academies in this article in Danville's The Advocate-Messenger.

Learn more about The Kentucky Center's robust Education and Community Arts programs by visiting our website.

Teachers engaged in story-boarding at The Kentucky Center Academy for Arts Assessment in Hopkinsville.

Teachers giving feedback on each other's stories.

 

 Teachers involved in the reflection process. 

Kentucky Center shares the talents of Wendy Whelan, Brian Brooks, and Brooklyn Rider with students at Newburg Middle School, YPAS, and The Brown School

On March 8, The Kentucky Center presented Some of a Thousand Words, a new work by Wendy Whelan, Brian Brooks, and Brooklyn Rider, that the Center had co-commissioned. 

As part of our statewide mission and goal of nurturing lifelong relationships with the arts, we also contracted with these artists to go into the community and share their amazing talent with students at several locations.

On March 7, we accompanied Wendy Whelan on a visit to speak with students at The J. Graham Brown School, her former high school.

Wendy began her visit by leading a "wiggle break" in a kindergarten class. She then shared stories with 200 middle and high school students during an hour-long assembly. Although she only attended Brown for one year before heading to New York, Wendy told the students her time at the Brown School shaped who is she is today and prepared her for her move to "the big city." Wendy took public transit to school in downtown Louisville and said she is still in touch with many of the friends she made while riding the bus 35 years ago. Questions from the students ranged from “What is your favorite food?” to “Has your ability always matched your ambition?” Wendy answered questions, signed autographs, and took photos with some students after the discussion. 

On March 8, both Wendy Whelan and Brian Brooks taught masterclasses at Louisville's Youth Performing Arts School. Wendy delivered a ballet-centric class to an ensemble of juniors and seniors, while Brian worked with the sophomore group on choreography and movement. Both classes consisted of 20 students, most at the intermediate and advanced levels. Wendy’s childhood ballet teacher and her mother attended the class she taught while other YPAS students observed. All students in both classes attended the performance later that evening at the Brown Theatre.

See more Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts photos on Flickr.

On March 8 we also took musical quartet Brooklyn Rider to Newburg Middle School for a lecture-demonstration with 60 string students participating in the AMPED Academy of Music Production Education and Development youth program. Brooklyn Rider performed classical and nontraditional pieces, sharing stories and answering questions for over an hour. 

 

The Kentucky Center’s nationally recognized Education and Community Arts programs include Arts in Healing, ArtsReach, School Programs and the Governor’s School for the Arts. Each year, these programs positively impact the lives of more than 25,000 patrons and provide over 10,000 youth with hands-on arts instruction, performance opportunities, and ticket subsidies, benefiting constituents in more than 100 of Kentucky's 150 counties. 

To receive our monthly statewide mission e-newsletter including our top "success stories", create your Kentucky Center eClub profile and select "Education" or "Governor's School for the Arts" as Interests.

Gheens Great Expectations Concert, Strings Workshop, and Artist Residency engage KMEA teachers and local students

 

With the support of the Gheens Foundation, The Kentucky Center and Kentucky Music Educators Association hosted the annual Gheens Great Expectations Concert on February 8 in Whitney Hall, featuring a side-by-side performance by the Louisville Orchestra and Louisville Youth Orchestra, conducted by Deanna Tham. 

View Additional Concert Photos

The following day, violin soloist Melissa White and other members of the Harlem Quartet, provided instruction to students in the orchestra at Western Middle School, and led a workshop at The Kentucky Center for String teachers participating in the KMEA conference. 

View Additional Residency Photos

Learn more about The Kentucky Center Education and Community Arts programs, including the profound impact of our School Programs throughout our state on teaching and learning about the arts and connecting the arts across the curriculum.

Kentucky Center's "Anne Frank Bearing Witness Project" program to expand with increased support from the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence

 

This information appeared originally on the JCC Community website:

The Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence (JHFE) has increased its support for the Anne Frank Bearing Witness Project by 50 percent. This is an education program of The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts that applies teaching strategies developed by Brown University’s ArtsLiteracy Project to provide arts-integrated learning experiences about the history and literature of the Holocaust. JHFE previously contributed $50,000 for each of the last two years of the project. The increased contribution will be used for the 2016-17 school year.

The impact of the increased funding will be noticeable, allowing The Kentucky Center to increase the number of partner schools from eight to 12 and expand the geographic service area of this program to statewide.

In addition, teachers eligible to apply include those who have been in the Bearing Witness program for one year, and teachers who have attended the 2015 or 2016 Arts-Literacy Academy presented by The Kentucky Center in partnership with the Kentucky Department of Education.

The funding will enable the program to establish and introduce an important new component: training descendants of Holocaust survivors to begin sharing their family stories with students. As the numbers of Holocaust survivors are dwindling and their ages advancing, it is now falling on the shoulders of the next generation to keep their stories alive, and to connect with students through living testimony.

The Anne Frank Bearing Witness Project (AFBW) provides teachers with extensive training in strategies designed to connect students more deeply and more empathetically with history by involving them in creating artistic responses to the history and literature. Research and evaluation by professors at the University of Louisville College of Education & Human Development and by Dr. Alan Yaffe, have demonstrated the success of this program in attaining these goals.

The Kentucky Center’s commitment to providing quality arts education programs began with a statewide needs assessment and the hiring of an education director before opening their doors in 1984. Since that time, The Kentucky Center has gained national attention for its Education and Community Arts programs including: ArtsReach, Arts in Healing, School Programs, and Governor’s School for the Arts.

Read other posts and articles related to the Anne Frank Bearing Witness Project:

Project Launch (October 2014)

"Holocaust Survivor to Talk at Remembrance Event", Courier-Journal (April 2015)

Exploring Compassion Through the Arts (April 2015)