ENTERTAINMENT NOTES

Chamber music, jazz events both boasting deep lineups

Violinists Joo Yun H. Preece (left) and Geoff Robson will teach and perform as part of the Faulkner Chamber Music Festival, Friday-Aug. 11 in Conway.
Violinists Joo Yun H. Preece (left) and Geoff Robson will teach and perform as part of the Faulkner Chamber Music Festival, Friday-Aug. 11 in Conway.

— The sixth season of the Faulkner Chamber Music Festival will feature more than a week of performances, master classes and lectures at two Conway institutions of higher learning.

The festival, which attracts students and faculty from a three-state region, gets under way with a master class with Trio Arkansas - Geoff Robson, violin; David Gerstein, cello; and Louis Menendez, piano - 1-3 p.m. Friday in the Recital Hall, Snow Fine Arts Building, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave.

Festival faculty members (Robson; Gerstein; Joo Yun H. Preece, violin; Ryan Mooney, viola; Will Preece, cello; and Kelly Estes Karamanov, piano) will perform the Piano Quintet in g minor, op.57, by Dmitri Shostakovich, works by Zoltan Kodaly and Krsysztof Penderecki in a recital at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Snow Fine Arts Recital Hall.

Violist, composer and musicologist Karen Griebling and festival faculty members will offer a lecture-recital titled “Haydn & Friends,” focusing on composer Franz Joseph Haydn and his contemporaries, 1-2 p.m. Aug. 6 in Reves Recital Hall, Trieschmann Fine Arts Building, Hendrix College, 1600 Washington Ave.

In a “Fellows Recital” at 7 p.m. Aug. 9 in Reves Recital Hall, the Meadowlark Piano Trio - Jennifer Nulsen, piano; Rachel Herman, violin; and Michael Stiritz, cello - will play piano trios by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert, and Karamanov and Nulsen will play the Piano Sonata for 4 Hands by Francis Poulenc. The program will also include the final movement of Schubert’s C major String Quintet .

Festival students will play works by Mozart, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin and Maurice Ravel in a recital at 3 p.m. Aug. 11 in Reves Recital Hall.

Admission is free. Call (773) 251-4719, e-mail info@FaulknerChamberMusicFestival.com or visit FaulknerChamberMusicFestival.com.

Jazzy benefit

Jazz composer and pianist Alex Bugnon and jazz/R&B singer Will Downing will be headliners for the second week-long “A Work of Art” jazz benefit, hosted by Art Porter Music Education, this week at various Little Rock venues, at some of which the nonprofit’s namesakes, the late Art Porter Sr. and Jr., performed.

The lineup also includes jazz violinist Lex Porter, a Porter scion; bassist James Leary, who toured with Count Basie; and several area musicians. The week of jazz performances is the music education organization’s primary scholarship fundraiser. The lineup:

noon Monday - Minors in Music, kickoff, Little Rock City Hall, featuring area music students, including first grade violinist Karson Bone. Free

noon Tuesday - Jazz concert with Minors in Music, Metropolitan Bank Towers Plaza, West Capitol Avenue and Broadway. Free

7 and 9 p.m. Wednesday - Jazz Reunion with James Leary at Club Sway, 412 Louisiana St., with special guest Central High all-region bassist Kaleb Greene. $20, $40 VIP

7 p.m. Thursday - Porter Players jam session, The Afterthought, 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. Free

6 p.m. Friday - “Keys on the River” with Alex Bugnon, Cajun’s Wharf, 2400 Cantrell Road. $25, $40 VIP

8 p.m. Saturday - “A Jazzy Affair” with Fingerprints Band, Lex Porter and Will Downing, Metroplex Event Center, 10800 Colonel Glenn Road. $35, $50 VIP

Call (501) 492-9120 or visit artporter.org.

‘Whiz of a Wiz’

The Ozark Arts Council Theatre Company Children’s Workshop will stage the musical The Wizard of Oz - John Kane’s stage adaptation for the Royal Shakespeare Company from the 1939 MGM classic, with the movie songs composed by Harold Arlen (music) and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg (lyrics) - at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Aug. 10-11 and 2 p.m. Aug. 5 and 12 at the Lyric Theater, 113 W. Rush St., Harrison.

Tickets for premium reserved seating (first five rows) are $18; for the rest of the house, $12, $10 for senior citizens and students, $8 for children 12 and under. Call (870) 391-3504 or visit the website, ozarkartscouncil.org.

Nutcracker auditions

Ballet Arkansas will hold auditions for its annual production of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker at 10 a.m. Aug. 11 in the studios of Shuffles & Ballet II, 1521 Merrill Drive, Little Rock.

Roles are available for children, teens and adults. The audition schedule: 10 a.m., children, age 6; 11:30 a.m., children 7-9; 1 p.m., children 10-12; 2 p.m., teens 13 and older; 3:30 p.m. adults (for the role of Drosselmeyer and party guests).

There is a $20 audition fee. Arrive at least 30 minutes before your audition time. Intermediate and advanced-level female dancers should bring pointe shoes.

Marla Edwards, the company’s ballet mistress, will direct. Saturday rehearsals start in September and continue until the company moves into Robinson Center Music Hall for evening rehearsals, starting Dec. 3. Production dates, including student matinees, are Dec. 6-9.

Call (501) 223-5150 or visit the website, balletarkansas.org.

Blues competition

Aug. 15 is the postmark deadline to sign up for the Arkansas River Blues Society Inc.’s Aug. 19 Blues Competition at the Parrot Beach Cafe, 9611 MacArthur Drive, North Little Rock.

Blues bands and solo/duo blues acts will compete for society sponsorship to The Blues Foundation’s 2013 International Blues Challenge, Jan. 29-Feb. 2 in Memphis’ Beale Street entertainment district.

Entry fee is $60 for a band, $20 for solo acts, $30 for duos. For applications, call Cheryl Angel at (501) 517-6868 or email ArkansasRiverBluesSociety@gmail.com. Mail entry packets by Aug. 15 to Arkansas River Blues Society, 52 Epernay Circle, Little Rock, Ark. 72223.

The society is also soliciting entries for the Blues Foundation’s “Best Self-Produced CD” competition. CDs released between Nov. 1, 2011, and Oct. 31, 2012, are eligible. Submit five copies of the CD to the same address by Oct. 15.

Puttin’ on at the Ritz

The Arts Council of Mississippi County’s 2012-13 Series at the Ritz Civic Center, 306 W. Main St., Blytheville, opens Aug. 18 with a touring show called The Best of Broadway. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 the night of the show.

The rest of the schedule:

Oct. 6: Actor/playwright Cedric Liqueur, one-man show on the life of Duke Ellington, $15.

Jan. 25: The Petar Jankovic Ensemble - classical guitarist Petar Jankovic with fellow Indiana University Jacobs School of Music faculty members Sophie Bird and Grace Kim, violins; Rose Wollman, viola; and Marie Martinez, cello. $15 in advance, $20 night of show.

March 15: Springer Theatricals’ The Marvelous Wonderettes. $15 in advance, $20 night of show.

April 16: Aesop’s Dinosaur Fable, Bits ’N Pieces Giant Puppet Theater, $10.

The council doesn’t sell season tickets, but patrons who pitch in $100 or more receive a complimentary ticket to each event. Call (870) 762-1744 or visit artsmissco.org.

Style, Pages 49 on 07/29/2012

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