University at Buffalo: Reporter

Showcasing Arts: Center for Arts offers varied menu

The Center for the Arts will offer something for everyone in 1996-97 with a new season of performing arts ranging from family programs to an innovative dance and jazz collaboration.

In addition to bringing in a wide variety of famous, as well as little-known, performers, the center will continue showcasing the work of UB's gifted faculty and students. Local arts organizations also will present critically acclaimed works in UB's state-of-the-art facility.

Among the events scheduled for the 1996-97 season at the Center for the Arts:

Crystal Gayle, who many consider one of the biggest country music stars of all time, will bring her unmistakable voice to the Center for the Arts Mainstage at 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29. Gayle's debut, released while she was still in high school, was her first hit; almost three dozen hit records have followed, including "Wrong Road Again," "I'll Get Over You" and the Grammy-winning "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue."

In a special arrangement for faculty, staff and students, the Center for the Arts has a "buy-one-get-one-free ticket offer for the next two events, the Parsons Dance Company and The Billy Taylor Trio; and the London Chamber Orchestra. Tickets must be purchased at the Center for the Arts Box Office. The special offer will be given upon presentation of faculty, staff or student ID.

The Parsons Dance Company and The Billy Taylor Trio will bring their unique combination of modern dance and live jazz to the Center for the Arts Mainstage at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, when they present "Step Into My Dream" as part of UB's sesquicentennial celebration. Parsons, who left the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1987 to form his own modern dance company, has since built a hot company of nine dancers, who perform a repertoire of 40 of his works to freshly created scores. "Step Into My Dream" is just such a collaboration-set to live jazz by the Billy Taylor Trio. This event will be followed by a UB birthday party in the Atrium.

The London Chamber Orchestra, perhaps best known for bringing orchestral music into the 20th century, will perform at 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13 in the Center for the Arts Mainstage. Infusing works by Prokofiev and Stravinsky, as well as Philip Glass and Peter Gabriel, the LCO, with music director Christopher Warren-Green, draws audiences of all ages. The ensemble is one of the British music establishment's most respected. Billed as The Second Bernice Poss Memorial Concert, this event has been made possible through the generosity of the Poss family.

Two of today's chart-topping jazz artists will perform together on Friday, Nov. 8, as the Center for the Arts presents singer-songwriter Cassandra Wilson and saxophonist James Carter. Wilson, dubbed "the most accomplished jazz vocalist of her generation" by Time magazine, and Carter, who has performed with Wynton Marsalis, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Lester Bowie, will perform at 8 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Mainstage.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, in the Center for the Arts Mainstage. Already the No. 1 group in Africa when Paul Simon came calling, the group's appearance on his landmark Graceland album and tour brought it into full world view. The group became political emissaries in 1993, accompanying President-elect Nelson Mandela to his Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo.

The Center for the Arts 1996-97 season also will include a performance by Maynard Ferguson and His Big Bop Nouveau Band at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 1, in the Mainstage. An internationally famous trumpeter and big-band leader, Ferguson is now in his fourth decade as a leader of a multitude of bands. His Big Bop Nouveau boasts a nine-member, bebop-oriented, acoustic-jazz, big-band sound that initially established Ferguson in the '50s.

The Paul Taylor Dance Company will perform Thursday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m. in UB's Mainstage. Taylor's company has performed in more than 400 cities in 60 nations, the toast of every town it sets foot in. This project is made possible in part by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

A madcap evening is guaranteed when the Flying Karamazov Brothers bring their program, Sharps, Flats and Accidentals, to the UB Mainstage at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 8. Don't let the name fool you, this troupe is neither flying nor acrobatic, but they are fun. In fact, the Flying Karamazov Brothers will bet a standing ovation against a pie in the face that any patron can bring a "unjuggleable" item to the stage.

The Magic School Bus will present Arnold's Favorite Field Trip Friday, April 11, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, April 12, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in UB's Mainstage. This best-selling book series-cum-wildly popular animated television program is now a traveling stage show. Critics have said The Magic School Bus is the Sesame Street of the '90s and because of that, elementary-school science will never be the same.

Pick of the Crop Dance, one of Buffalo's foremost professional dance companies, will present Hansel and Gretel on Saturday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 27, at 2 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Mainstage. Choreographer Elaine Gardner and composer Curt Steinsor bring new life to this classic Grimm fairy tale. This event is co-sponsored by the Center for the Arts.

The International Artistic and Cultural Exchange Program (IACE) will welcome visiting artists from all over the world to the Center for the Arts in 1996-97. The fall 1996 schedule includes:

· Me Queda La Palabra (We Kept Their Language), 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27 and 28, Black Box Theatre.

· E-Motions, A Theater-Dance Performance, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 22 and 23, Black Box Theatre.

· The IACE International Theatre and Lecture Series: Programs will be held in the Screening Room; admission is free. The series includes Overview of Contemporary Argentine Theatre, 3 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27; Soul and Flesh of the Polish Theater, 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11; Ritual and Theater in Contemporary Maya-Chol and Chontal Cultures, 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8; Ten International Visual Artists on the Stage, 3 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13.

Tickets to Center for the Arts events are available at the UB Center for the Arts Box Office, by fax, by mail, and at all Ticket-master locations.

New information is added frequently to the Center for the Arts calendar. For late-breaking news, call 645-ARTS or access the web site at http://wings.buffalo.edu/news/ and click on "Center for the Arts."


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