FEATURES – APRIL 2009

Festival Fever

VAF's 13th season brings a schedule that's hot and heavy with arts and entertainment.

By Montague Gammon III

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Luck has favored the Virginia Arts Festival's 13th year. Big names, new works and rising stars are headed for Hampton Roads. (The Festival's richness is largely due to the international reputation and name recognition it has built over the past 12 years, but strokes of what Festival Director Rob Cross did term "blind luck" have certainly favored it for 2009.)

Liza Minelli tops this year's celebrity list (April 24). Cross terms her "an icon—one of the greatest performers who does that repertoire." (His "blind luck" comment was occasioned by an extension of her Broadway show that got her to Virginia this year.)

Patti Lupone (May 24)—whom Cross calls "one of the great musical theater voices of our generation"—is another of the international stars who make up the Festival's BB&T Vocal Series.

Talking about 12 Grammy Award-winner Emmy Lou Harris, and the top notch group she is bringing from Nashville (May 30), Cross says he's "been trying to get her for years." The Festival has always "had good success with traditional folk music," he adds.

Cross says that the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (May 16 & 17) "just fell into our lap." A board member caught one of their concerts in Israel and recommended them to Cross as "fantastic."

This Festival's SunTrust Dance Series is especially choice. Topping the list is MacArthur "genius grant" winner Mark Morris and his company. Their new Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare ballet is set to Sergei Prokoviev's original score (May 8–10), recently unearthed from Russian state archives.

The Czech National Theatre Ballet (May 2 & 3), 126 years old, brings two fresh works by contemporary composer and dancer Jiri Kylian—almost certainly the only Knight of the French Legion of Honor to be part of this Arts Festival.

The Richmond Ballet, the official State Ballet of Virginia, visits, too (May 29 & 30). Ballroom with a Twist, directed and choreographed by Dancing with the Stars' Louis van Amstel, adds a dimension to television's featured performers (April 29).

The Norfolk Southern Classical Series and the Festival's Chamber Concerts mix internationally established performers like The Tokyoe String Quartet (May 3) and the famous piano quintet The 5 Browns (May 7) with rising artists such as Montero.

A look toward the future traditionally closes the Classical Series. Masterworks in the Making: A Concert of Premieres by the Fellows of the John Duffy Composers Institute showcases new works (May 31).

Last year's mid-morning Coffee Concerts caught on with school groups and adults. Cross speaks especially highly of23-year-old pianist Ji Chen, an up-and-coming artist whom he likens to the now famous Lang Lang (May 22, Williamsburg).

Outdoor events include the 8th Annual Virginia Beer Festival, at Nauticus Park (April 25–26), the U.S. Army Band and Soldiers' Chorus at n'Telos Pavilion (May 31), and the 7th Annual PANorama Caribbean Music Fest (May 9 & 10).

Local students reap the benefits of the WorldClass Education Programs. Some 200,000 students have taken part in such events since the Festival started.

Lots of Arts Festival events are family friendly, but the most popular is the Virginia International Tattoo (May 1–3). This annually refreshed pageant of massed military bands and a myriad of international entertainers draws performers and audiences from all over the globe.

On a smaller scale, The Festival's Organ Recital Series is presented by the Tidewater Chapter of the American Guild of Organists at churches across Hampton Roads. Each recital includes a brief presentation about the stained glass surrounding the audience, keyed to the Festival's Art of Glass 2.

Art of Glass 2—a sequel to the first Art of Glass events of 1999—is a co-operative effort with the Chrysler Museum of Art (April 8–July 19) and the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia (April 24–July 19).

The series includes exhibitions at both museums, concerts, and demonstrations of glass blowing and artistry.

Those Hot Shops demos take place in the hour before and after selected performances, at Chrysler Hall Plaza (May 1–3), Sandler Center for the Performing Arts (May 16–7), and the Ferguson Center for the Performing Arts (May 29–0).

It's a hot festival overall, and it' the good fortune—or luck— of Hampton Raods to have it.

Events take place at venues across Hampton Roads. For times, details and prices, please call the Virginia Arts Festival at 757-282-2800, or go to their web site, www.virginiaartsfest.com.

 

For the rest of Festival Fever, pickup our April 2009 issue wherever magazines are sold.

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