Center for the Arts

Arts in Healthcare Initiative in the Buffalo News

The Arts in Healthcare program was the cover story in Sunday's Buffalo News
"Spotlight" section.

You can read the story here:
http://www.buffalonews.com/185/story/467772.html

The News also put together a nice audio slideshow:
http://www.buffalonews.com/webextras/story/467945.html

Readers are also leaving comments on the ArtsBeat Blog:
http://buffalonews.typepad.com/artsbeat/2008/10/the-healing-pow.html

Hot flamenco with Jose Porcel and company

Check out the great review by The Buffalo News.

Susan Tedeschi brings the blues

Susan Tedeschi, the young blues singer & songwriter, performed to an appreciative audience at the Center last night.
Click here for the review by The Buffalo News.

Joe Satriani rocks the house

A brilliant review by Jeff Miers at the Buffalo News:
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/buffaloerie/story/462294.html

Frank Warren shares secrets

Review of Frank Warren's visit by the Buffalo News:
http://www.buffalonews.com/lifearts/next/story/463981.html

Flecktones holiday album released

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones released Jingle All the Way, their first-ever holiday album on September 30.  Here's what they say:

“We always imagined we would do a holiday album,” says Béla.  “When the Flecktones first got together, we worked out a Christmas medley – it was really fun.  People loved it, and we continued to play it every year.”
    Produced by Béla, "Jingle All The Way" – in the true spirit of the Flecktones - morphs traditional music and standards into expressive, often highly composed soundscapes.   A major collaborative effort between Béla, bassist Victor Wooten, Future Man (drumitar and acoustic percussion) and Jeff Coffin (woodwinds), the album features everything from the sparkling banjo-harmonic arrangements of “Christmas Time Is Here” and “River” (Blue is one of Béla’s favorite albums; this is  the first Joni Mitc hell song he’s ever recorded) and a Tuvan-inspired, worldbeat performance of “What Child Is This / Dyngyladai” to fiery, virtuosic renditions of “Sleigh Ride” and “Danse of the Sugar Plum Fairies.”
    J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio #41 features the Flecktones with world-renowned bassist Edgar Meyer delivering “four minutes of intense counterpoint,” adds Béla.   Friend and clarinetist Andy Statman “unearths the soul of Jewish music” (New York Times), widening the album’s concept with “The Hanukkah Waltz,” and chamber arrangements of “O Come All Ye Faithful,” with Meyer and Fleck.

You may hear selections from this album when the Flecktones perform at the Center on December 10.  For tickets, visit the Center for the Arts Box Office or any ticketmaster outlet, or ticketmaster.com  .

Experience West African Music and Dance Next Thursday

 This extraordinary group of traditional West African musicians is directed by Bamaba Dembele, a big star of the Super Rail Band of Bamako as well as the percussionist in the Super Djata band Karkar. Comprised of singers, dancers and musicians from the various cultures of West Africa, this company combines the traditional rhythms, instruments, folklore and mythology of nations such as Togo, Senegal, Guinea, Ghana, Benin, The Ivory Coast and Mauritania. Through this they paint a colorful and exciting picture of the oral and musical rites of these... more diverse peoples.

The ensemble was formed in 1970 in West Africa under the support of the government to revive folkloric music forms, fostering the arts and culture of the indigenous people. The group proved strong as it carried on these traditions, surviving defections, the rivalries of other musical ensembles by rival factions in the region, and even the unfortunate deaths of some founding members. What has allowed the group to carry on so successfully is their unique blending of traditional West African melodies and musical styles with the musical stylizations of the Western World. In the words of Artistic Director Bamaba Dembele, “We play Mandingo music, it’s part Mali, part Guinea, part Cote d’Ivoire; in short, it is West African music.”

The Song and Dance Ensemble of West Africa has gained great notoriety around the world and in their respective home countries for their unique fusion of contemporary themes with traditional folklore, song, and dance. In Europe, the Song and Dance Ensemble of West Africa has become known to lovers of Sahel music. The Ensemble has performed many concerts in France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and the Antilles. The famous singer Oumou Sangare started her professional career with this ensemble, as did Toumany Diabate, the prince of Kora. "Now it's the young who have come with new inspiration for the music," says artistic director Dembele, "we used to always play praise songs and ballads. Now we leave out the praise songs and add music that makes people move, that's how we conquered Europe and the US."

Their music now combines various African music styles—Congolese soukous nudges West African Mandingo, reggae meets latin. Overall an explosion of sound greets dancers and music lovers. While many have heard and followed the success of various ensembles from this area of the world, the Song and Dance Ensemble of West Africa sets themselves apart with their unique style, which has an authentic yet contemporary edge that makes them as hip as any international big band.

"Fantastic! Never before has such a rich and colorful ensemble visited the UK from the shores of Africa." - London Times

Get your tickets at the Center for the Arts Box Office!  Show your student ID of any school for $10 student tickets.  Or, visit www.ticketmaster.com.  More info: www.ubcfa.org

David Byrne: The Music of David Byrne & Brian Eno

Announcing David Byrne in concert on Friday, November 28 at 8pm.  The tour promotes Byrne and Brian Eno's new album, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.  David Byrne was one of the founding members of the Talking Heads, and has since done much solo music and artwork.  Eno produced three Talking Heads albums and has since worked with David Bowie and U2 among others.  Tickets go on sale Friday, September 26 at 10am at the Center Box Office and Ticketmaster locations, including ticketmaster.com. 

Check out the Rolling Stone review of the tour: http://www.davidbyrne.com/tours/reviews/db_on_tour_08-09/2008_09_17_rolling_stone.php

Cirque du Soleil professionals visit UB theater class

Adam Miller (Artistic Director), Pierre Luc (Sound Technician), and Alain Gauthier (Asst. Production Director) of Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco visited a tech theatre class at the UB Center for the Arts today.  The gentlemen spoke about what it is like to work for Cirque du Soleil, what they do in their jobs, and how Cirque grew from 125 employees in 1990 to nearly 5,000 today.  

Miller has been a dancer and choreographer for 20 years before joining Cirque du Soleil for this tour of Saltimbanco.  Pierre started as a technical intern, helped the company in an emergency, and was hired shortly thereafter.  Returning to Montreal after playing hockey in Europe, Alain began as an usher for the show in Montreal at its beginning.

Saltimbanco continues this weekend at HSBC Arena. 

Visit with Cirque du Soleil's Artistic Director and Asst. Production Director

Cirque du Soleil’s Artistic Director Adam Miller and Alain Gauthier of the Production Direction team will be conducting a seminar and discussion in the Center for the Arts tomorrow (Friday) at 1pm, for students in the Department of Theatre & Dance and anyone who wishes to attend. Both gentlemen are currently traveling with Saltimbanco, which is being performed at HSBC arena this week.

  

This event is open to anyone who would like to join us on the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts. 

Adam Miller trained on scholarship at the School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre School and graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts. As a child, he had the opportunity to perform with The Bolshoi Ballet, The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Australian Ballet and Joffrey Ballet. Mr. Miller began his professional career at Pennsylvania Ballet, and has been a principal dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Hartford Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. He has danced in the works of over 40 choreographers including Rudi Van Danzig, Lew Christensen, James Kudelka, Michael Smuin, Lucinda Childs, Paul Taylor, Victoria Marks, Choo San Goh, and 20 works by George Balanchine. He has danced major roles in most of the full-length classical ballets, including The Nutcracker, Coppelia, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and A Midsummer’s Night Dream. 

Mr. Miller has performed as a guest artist in the USA, Asia and South America, including tours with Cynthia Gregory and Mikhail Baryshnikov, and has collaborated on special projects with Pilobolus, National Theatre of the Deaf and Christopher D’Amboise’s Off-Center Ballet. As Director of the Ballet Project, he spent two years at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Mr. Miller has served as Associate Artistic Director for Garden State Ballet and Artistic Director of Ballet South in Savannah, Georgia. In 1999, Adam was appointed ballet master and later associate artistic director of Dance Connecticut where he was responsible for setting repertory and choreographing for the company. 

After founding Adam Miller Dance Project in 2003, Mr. Miller’s work was one of eight chosen for the Connecticut Dance Alliance’s Choreographic Preludes Project and he was a recipient of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts 2003 Artist Fellowship Award. Additional choreographic credits include works created for Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Carlisle Project, Montgomery Ballet, Ballet Pensacola, The Garden State Ballet, Cynthia Gregory’s Ballet USA, Boston Dance Company, Vassar Repertory Dance Theater and BalletNY in New York City. 

Mr. Miller was invited to teach and choreograph a new ballet for the Veronezh Ballet while in Russia in 1993 and was an artist-in-residence at Duke University in 1995. He choreographed the full-length ballet, Dracula, for Carolina Ballet Theater, and The Nutcracker for Ballet South in Savannah, Georgia. Teaching credits include guest and resident positions at Boston Ballet, Garden State Ballet, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Princeton Ballet, Duke University, Lyon Opera Ballet, Vassar College, Basel Ballet, The North Carolina School of the Arts, school of Dance CT, and the Hartt School of the University of Hartford. Adam is also the artistic director for Eastern Connecticut Ballet in East Lyme, CT. Eastern Connecticut Ballet performs his full-length Nutcracker at the Garde Performing Arts Center in New London, CT, with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra. He serves on the faculty of the Hartt School, is on the board of directors of the Connecticut Dance Alliance and is Artistic Director of the Provincetown Dance Festival. Since July 2008, Adam Miller is the artistic Director on Saltimbanco from Cirque du Soleil