Bill Evans Festival, guest artists highlight 'Encore!' 2009
Contact: Christina Chapple
1/9/09
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(1) Ellis Marsalis, (2) Chuck Israels, (3) Bill Evans
HAMMOND – Festivals celebrating the late, great jazz pianist Bill Evans and the art of the guitar highlight the 2009 edition of “Encore!,” Southeastern’s spring performing arts series.
Sponsored by the Department of Music and Dramatic Arts, Encore! 2009 will feature a host of guest artists and dozens of concerts, recitals, operas, plays and dance programs from January through May.
Moving this year to the month of April, the eighth annual Bill Evans Jazz Festival honors the seven-time Grammy Award winner and 1950 Southeastern graduate who was the most influential jazz pianist of his generation. Throughout his life, Evans fondly remembered his college years, calling his time at Southeastern the happiest period of his life. He returned to campus for a concert 30 years after his graduation, shortly before his death in 1980.
The 2009 festival will feature a special concert on April 23 at Southeastern’s Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts. Three world-renowned New Orleans-born musicians – pianist Ellis Marsalis, jazz bassist and composer Chuck Israels, and drummer Troy Davis -- will form the special Bill Evans Jazz Festival Trio to perform an evening of classic jazz standards.
Tickets – available at columbiatheatre.org and at the downtown Hammond theater’s box office (220 E. Thomas St., 985-543-4371) -- are $27, Orchestra 1 and Loge; $23, Orchestra 2 and Balcony 1; and $21, Balcony 2. The event is free to Southeastern students with their university I.D.
The festival will open on April 20 with a 7:30 p.m. performance by the Southeastern Alumni Jazz Ensemble at the Pottle Music Building Auditorium. On April 24, Israels will perform with two Southeastern jazz groups – the Southeastern Jazz Combos at 4 p.m. in the Recital Hall, and Southeastern Jazz Ensemble II at 7:30 p.m. in Pottle Auditorium. All events are free.
The spring performing arts series will also include the annual Southeastern Guitar Festival with five events during April that feature an eclectic mix of guitar programs, including Celtic guitar, music for guitar and voice, jazz, and traditional solo guitar and guitar ensembles. Artists include faculty guitarist David Bryan performing with soprano Jessica Davis Bryan, the Southeastern Guitar Quartet, the Southeastern Guitar Ensemble, and the talented performers of the popular All Styles Night.
The Southeastern Opera/Music Theatre Workshop will present Johann Strauss’s most celebrated and popular operetta, “Die Fledermaus.” Southeastern Theatre will join the schedule with a new adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s madcap farce “The Servant of Two Masters” and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet’s intense 1992 drama, “Oleanna.”
Most Encore! events are free. For an “Encore!” brochure or additional information, contact the Department of Music and Dramatic Arts at (985) 549-2184.
The 2009 Encore! schedule includes:
▪ Feb. 2 -- Faculty Trumpet recital: Logan Place, 7:30 p.m. Pottle Auditorium
▪ Feb. 5 -- Faculty Electronic Music Recital: Jeremy Sagala, 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall
▪ Feb. 12 -- Guest Artist Recital: Aubry Bryan, tenor, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium
▪ Feb. 15 -- Guest Artist Recital: Sandra Lunte, flute, and Richard Seiler, piano, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium
▪ Feb. 18-21 -- Southeastern Theatre: “The Servant of Two Masters” by Carlo Goldoni (new adaptation by Stuart and Anne Vaughan), Chad Winters, director (Rated PG), 7:30 p.m., Vonnie Borden Theatre. Tickets are $10, adults; $5, senior citizens/faculty/staff/non-Southeastern students; Southeastern students free with ID
▪ March 3 -- Guest Artist Recital: Edward Phillips, trumpet and Jessica McCormick, soprano, 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall
▪ March 7 -- Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Alissa Rowe, soprano soloist, 7:30 p.m., Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $39, Orchestra 1, Loge; $33, Orchestra 2, Balcony 1; $29, Balcony 2.
▪ March 18-21 -- Southeastern Opera/Music Theatre Workshop, “Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium. Tickets, available at the door, are $15, adults; $12, senior citizens, faculty/staff/alumni, non-Southeastern students; Southeastern students free with ID.
▪ March 25 -- Moxie Dance Project, 7:30 p.m., Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts
General admission tickets are $6, adults; $4, senior citizens, non-Southeastern students; Southeastern students free with ID.
▪ March 26 -- Marilyn Horne Guest Artist Recital: Richard Cox, tenor, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ March 27 -- Southeastern Concert Choir and Women’s Chorale, Alissa Rowe, director, 7:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 2200 Rue Denise, Hammond.
▪ March 28 -- Guest Artist Recital: Jill Felber, flute, and Dianne Frazer, piano, 7 p.m., Pottle Auditorium. Ticket prices will be announced. The concert is sponsored by the Louisiana Flute Society.
▪ April 1-4 -- Southeastern Theatre: “Oleanna” by David Mamet, Jim Winter, director (Rated PG-13 for mature themes), 7:30 p.m., Vonnie Borden Theatre. Tickets are $10, adults; $5, senior citizens/faculty/staff/non-Southeastern students; Southeastern students free with ID.
▪ April 2 -- Southeastern’s First Tap Concert, Martie Fellom, director, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ April 5 -- Faculty Recital: David Evenson, piano 2:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ April 6 -- Guest Artist Recital: Martin Cochran, euphonium, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ April 7 -- Southeastern Guitar Festival: Southeastern Guitar Quartet, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ April 8 -- Southeastern Guitar Festival: All-Styles Guitar Night, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Performance Circle.
▪ April 20 -- Bill Evans Jazz Festival: Southeastern Alumni Jazz Ensemble, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ April 21 -- Percussion Ensemble I, Kevin Estoque, director, 5 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ April 21 -- Southeastern Guitar Festival: Guest Artist Recital (TBA), 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ April 22 -- Faculty Recital: Andrew Larson, tuba, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ April 23 -- Percussion Ensemble II, Kevin Estoque, director, 5 p.m., Pottle Auditorium
▪ April 23 -- Bill Evans Jazz Festival Trio: Ellis Marsalis, piano, Chuck Israels, bass, and Troy Davis, percussion, 7:30 p.m., Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $27, Orchestra 1, Loge; $23, Orchestra 2, Balcony 1; $21, Balcony 2. Southeastern students free with ID.
▪ April 24 -- Bill Evans Jazz Festival: Chuck Israels with Southeastern Jazz Combos 4 p.m., Recital Hall.
▪ April 24 -- Bill Evans Jazz Festival: Chuck Israels with Southeastern Jazz Ensemble II, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ April 27 -- Southeastern Chamber Orchestra, Yakov Voldman, director, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ April 28 -- Southeastern Guitar Festival Faculty Recital: David and Jessica Bryan, guitar and soprano duet, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ April 28 -- Southeastern Jazz Ensemble I, Glen Hemberger, director, 7:30 p.m., Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts. General admission tickets are $6, adults; $4, senior citizens/alumni/faculty/staff; all students free.
▪ April 29 -- Southeastern Guitar Ensemble, Patrick Kerber, director, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ April 30 -- Southeastern Wind Symphony, Glen Hemberger, director, 7:30 p.m., Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts. General admission tickets are $6, adults; $4, senior citizens/alumni/faculty/staff; all students free.
▪ May 3 -- University Chorus, Women’s Chorale and Concert Choir, Alissa Rowe, director 3 p.m., St. Joseph’s Abbey, Covington.
▪ May 6 -- Southeastern Jazz Ensemble II, Richard Schwartz, director, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ May 7 -- Southeastern Symphonic Band, Paul Frechou, director, 7:30 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
▪ May 8 -- Concert of Classical Works by African-American Composers 5 p.m., Pottle Auditorium.
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