The Westport Arts Center offers a wide range of programs in the Performing arts that bring to our community many of the finest artists in music and theater, as well as probing conversations and explorations of the arts. You'll hear great chamber music ensembles; or the best of the great American songbook; or an insightful conversation between artists; or perhaps a talented local performer--all designed to bring you face to face with the arts.
ST. PETERSBURG QUARTET
with Peter Kolkay Sunday, 10/3/10 4:00pm $35, $10, $5
This
The St. Petersburg String Quartet, renowned for its authentically Russian style, will perform Tchaikovsky’s grand Third Quartet along with the sublimely lyrical Nocturne from Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2 and the Quintet for Bassoon and Strings. This Quintet was written by our own Russell Platt (featuring the extraordinary Peter Kolkay, Artist Member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the only bassoonist to win the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant.
The concert will begin with “Five Miniatures on Jewish Folk Tunes” by the distinguished Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze, programmed to complement our fall art exhibition, “Memory.”
This concert is sponsored by WAC Chamber Music Committee Members, Gloria and Michael Stashower.
Please join us after the concert for a 3-course prix fix dinner at Da Pietro's, 36 Riverside Avenue in Westport. $33 (tax, tip, and alcohol excluded).
Call Da Pietros to make your reservation at (203) 454-1213.
GYPSY JAZZ
Django, Grappelli, Gypsy Jazz and Beyond Saturday, 10/9/10 7:30pm $25, $10, $5
Gypsy Jazz: From Django to Hendrix
n introduction to the great fusion of gypsy music with jazz as epitomized by the work of guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli. Brian Torff, who performed with Grappelli, will assemble a band of two guitars, bass, and violin that will bring new life and energy to this timeless music. It is the 100th anniversary of Django’s birth and the 40th anniversary of the death of Jimi Hendrix. In this landmark year, the group will perform Django’s music alongside the music of guitar legend Hendrix in this acoustic configuration.
Featuring Zach Brock on violin, Ted Gottsegen and Paul Brady on guitars, and Brian Torff on bass.
Trio Solisti, one of the finest piano trios in the world, will perform Dvorak’s beloved “Dumky” Trio, Astor Piazzolla’s charming “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” (inspired by Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”), a work by Pulitzer Prize winner and former curator of the WAC chamber music series Paul Moravec, and the trio’s own unique arrangement of Mussorgsky’s thrilling “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
Edmar Castaneda, the amazing virtuoso harpist, has re-defined the instrument in jazz and latin music. In his hands a kaleidoscope of sounds have met with tremendous audience response at Tanglewood, Birdland and other international venues.
Edmar Castaneda was born in 1978, in the city of Bogotá, Colombia. Since his move to the United States in 1994, Edmar has quite literally taken New York and the world stage by storm with the sheer force of his virtuosic command of the harp—revolutionizing the way audiences and critics alike consider an instrument commonly relegated to the “unusual category”. A master at realizing beautiful complexities of time, while skillfully drawing out lush colors and dynamic spirit, Edmar has been characterized as “almost a world unto himself” (The New York Times).
BANG ON A DRUM
Latin Rhythms for Kids Sunday, 1/30/11 3:00pm $15, $10, $5
Bang on a Drum: Latin Rhythms for Kids
Join us for an educational seminar introducing children and their families to Latin rhythms and beats. Hands-on demonstrations, clapping and dancing will be a large part of this program. Audiences will not only hear these rhythms, but will feel and perform them as well.
The WAC expands into the early music field by engaging REBEL, a much-heralded group of baroque instrumentalists in residence at New York’s Trinity Church Wall Street. They will perform “Irregular Pearls”, an accessible, delightful program of music by beloved Baroque-era composers.
ARTURO O’FARRILL
Latin Jazz and Afro-Cuban Beats Sunday, 3/6/11 3:00pm $25, $10, $5
Arturo O'Farill: Latin Jazz and Afro-Cuban Beats
Arturo O'Farrill, pianist, composer, educator and winner of the Latin Jazz USA Outstanding Achievement Award for 2003, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. In 2002, Mr. O’Farrill created the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra for Jazz at Lincoln Center due in part to a large and very demanding body of substantial music in the genre of Latin and Afro Cuban Jazz that deserves to be much more widely appreciated and experienced by the general jazz audience. His debut album with the Orchestra “Una Noche Inolvidable” earned a GRAMMY award nomination in 2006. Arturo and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra won a GRAMMY in 2008 for Best Latin Jazz Album for "Song for Chico" on Zoho Records.
Clip below: The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. O'Farrill will be playing with a jazz quartet on March 6.
SIMON MULLIGAN
Sunday, 4/10/11 4:00pm $25, $10, $5
The season closes with an appearance by the exciting young British pianist Simon Mulligan, a Sony Classical recording artist. Mulligan will perform music by 2010-11 birthday boys Chopin and Samuel Barber (the Ballade and the Nocturne) along with a bit of jazz, which Mulligan plays with consummate flair.
