Winners of a prestigious international music competition have embarked on a week-long performance tour of Arkansas this week, beginning in Little Rock.
The group, referred to as the "world's best of the best," performed in Lake Village, and has performances scheduled for Springdale and North Little Rock.
The group's members are winners of the 2014 IBLA Foundation grand prize. The foundation, based in New York City, hosts an international competition each year in Italy for pianists, singers, instrumentalists and composers. IBLA is named for the town where the competition takes place -- Ragusa Ibla, Italy.
The 2014 winners who are touring in Arkansas are from Italy, France, South Korea, Japan, China, Poland and Holland.
The group partook in an informal outreach and master class performance at Gibbs Elementary on Monday.
They will be in Springdale on Thursday to meet with students and have another free formal performance at 6 p.m. at Cross Pointe Community Church.
The group will return to central Arkansas for a final performance Saturday in North Little Rock at the Argenta Community Theater, 405 Main St. It will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for children.
The winners have previously presented in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Tokyo Opera City Hall and Tchaikovsky Bolshoi Hall.
Little Rock's membership with Sister Cities International initiated Arkansas' involvement with the IBLA Foundation tours.
Metro on 05/06/2015