Places A preview of Performing Arts at Johnson County Community Collegewww.jccc.edu/TheSeries

Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble

The 5 Browns

Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble

Brentano String Quartet

PAS New Season

Little Theater for the Deaf

April-May 2010

The 5 Browns, America’s first family of piano virtuosos, return to YardleyHall in a program of classical music and commanding showmanship onfive Steinway grand pianos at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, April 9-10, in theCarlsen Center. Their first appearance with the Performing Arts Serieswas February 2008, to a sold-out audience.

The 5 Browns once again perform an easy-listening collection of classicalpiano selections. Artists Insights will be presented by Keith Brown, father of The 5 Browns, at 7 p.m.

Since their last Yardley Hall performance, The 5 Browns having been on national and international tours in support of their recent CD,Browns in Blue.

In descending order of their age, the siblings are Desirae (born 1979),Deondra (1980), Gregory (1982), Melody (1984) and Ryan (1986). In concert, they perform together, individually and in various ensemble combinations. Flawless in precision and steeped in passion, they contradictthe preconception of those who find classical music inscrutable or intimidating.

The world-class, classically trained pianists are the sons and daughters ofKeith and Lisa Brown from Utah who wanted their Mormon children tohave music in their lives. The goal was to raise “five good people.” Not onlydid they achieve their goal, but they also managed to raise five great pianists. As early as age 9, they had each made his/her debut with a majorsymphony orchestra.

When Desirae began to plan for college, Deondra, a year younger, decidedto accelerate her education in order to attend with her sister. The familybegan looking into music schools and scholarships before deciding uponNew York’s Juilliard School. One year later Gregory, Melody and Ryan wereaccepted to Juilliard. They became the first family of five siblings ever accepted simultaneously and so the entire Brown family, along with theirfive pianos, moved from Utah to New York.

The quintet enjoyed their first wave of critical attention in February 2002when People magazine dubbed them the “Fab Five.” In 2005, The 5Browns released their debut album, The 5 Browns.

At that time, the New York Post proclaimed: “One family, five pianos and50 fingers add up to the biggest classical music sensation in years.”

By the end of 2005, The 5 Browns were one of the top classical artists ofthe year; they were featured on Oprah, 60 Minutes, Good Morning America and The Tonight Show; and No Boundaries, a second CD, spentmore than 20 consecutive weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Traditional Classicalchart. Their latest Browns in Blue CD (October 2007) is classical, romanticand jazz-inspired. They published a book, Life Between the Keys The(Mis)Adventures of The 5 Browns in 2009.

Hearing a five grand-piano version of any piece is formidable, but The 5 Browns, themselves, are unpretentious. They are friends, family and musicians who each play a distinctive part but always in harmony.

Tickets $35, $25

The 5 Browns

Sibling harmony

Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble, a 16-member group of dancers ages19 to 27, celebrates a legacy of artistic excellence with Interactive Performance at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 24, in Yardley Hall of the Carlsen Center. Artists Insights by a company member will be presented at 7 p.m.

This family-friendly theatrical experience reveals and demystifies the worldof dance. As the company warms up on stage, a narrator tells the process ofwhat goes into creating a dance artist, then explains each selection beforeit is danced to live piano accompaniment. The audience gains an insider’sperspective on how classical dancers are trained and how a show comestogether.

The performance is diverse: one-act ballets, dance suites and high-energycontemporary pieces, each costumed accordingly. Dances will be taken fromthe ensemble’s repertoire that includes Return, New Bach, Hallmark, BillyWilson’s Concerto in F and Fragments.

To make it even more interactive, a few patrons (best suited for the extrovert) get a chance to go onstage, where they learn basic pas de deuxskills and partner with a ballerina in a short dance sequence.

A short question-and-answer segment follows at the end of the performance.

Writing about Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, the year the ensemble was founded, Clive Barnes, dance critic for The New York Times, began hisarticle, “Black is beautiful, classic ballet is beautiful, so why are the two so rarely found together?”

That changed when Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook founded Dance Theatre of Harlem. Shortly after the assassination of The Rev. Dr. MartinLuther King, Jr., Mitchell was inspired to start a school that would offer children — especially those in Harlem, the community in which he wasborn — the opportunity to learn about dance and the allied arts.

Remaining deeply rooted in the Balanchine tradition, Dance Theatre ofHarlem extended the vocabulary and forged a neo-classical style all its own with eclecticism that would become its strength.

Together, Mitchell and Shook dispelled the myth that blacks could not doclassical ballet because it was foreign to black culture and their bodies werenot physically built for it. In launching the only primarily African-Americanballet company in the world, Mitchell understood people would “see something they had never seen before.”

Yet, he says, when you watch Dance Theatre of Harlem perform, you don’tthink of the dancers as black, white, green or red. He insists the magic happens when his dancers hit the stage. Within the passion, power andperfection is a great love for the art of dance.

Starting from humble beginnings in the basement of the Church of theMaster to an internationally celebrated ballet company, professional schooland education-community outreach programs, Dance Theatre of Harlem hasearned a secure and well-deserved place in ballet history. Today, Dance

Theatre of Harlem is located at 466 West 152nd Street in a newly designated landmark district in Harlem.

Changing perceptions of audiences worldwide with the universal commondenominator of excellence as their guiding light, Dance Theatre of Harlemhas amassed 40 years of “firsts,” clearly pointing to the “miracle on 152ndStreet” as an example of a true American classic.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem is now comprised of an ensemble, school, andcommunity and education outreach program.

This presentation is supported by Mid-America Arts Alliance with generousunderwriting by National Endowment for the Arts, Kansas Arts Commission,foundations, corporations and individuals through Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.

Tickets $35 and $25

Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble master classes will be offered from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Saturday, April 24, in Yardley Hall. Cost is $10. For aclass reservation, call the PAS box office, 913-469-4445.

Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble is American classic

Since its inception in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet has appearedthroughout the world to popular and critical acclaim as passionate, uninhibited and spellbinding. Appearing with the Friends of ChamberMusic in October 2008, the Brentano String Quartet returns to Kansas City, this time with clarinetist Charles Neidich, at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 1, in Yardley Hall of the Carlsen Center.

The program highlights are Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet and Shubert’s G MajorQuartet. Artists Insights by Dr. Paul Laird, musicologist at the University ofKansas, will begin at 7 p.m.

The Brentano Quartet is composed of Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin,violin; Misha Amory, viola; and Nina Maria Lee, cello, who joined the quartet In 1998 succeeding founding member Michael Kannen. The TorontoGlobe and Mail calls them “one of the classiest string quartets in the business.”

The resident string quartet at Princeton University, The Quartet has performed and received recognition around the world. Within a few yearsof its formation, the ensemble garnered the first Cleveland Quartet Awardand Naumburg Chamber Music Award; and in 1996 the Chamber MusicSociety of Lincoln Center invited them to be the inaugural members ofChamber Music Society Two. The Quartet had its first European tour in1997 and was honored in the U.K. with the Royal Philharmonic Award for“Most Outstanding Debut.”

The Brentano Quartet has a strong interest in both very old and very newmusic, as well as the standard quartet repertoire. It has performed many musical works pre-dating the string quartet as a medium, among themMadrigals of Gesualdo, Fantasias of Purcell, and secular vocal works ofJosquin. Also, the quartet has worked with some of the most importantcomposers of our time, among them Charles Wuorinen, Elliot Carter, Chou Wen-chung, Steven Mackey, Bruce Adolphe and György Kurtág.

The Quartet has been privileged to collaborate with such artists as sopranoJessye Norman, pianist Richard Goode and pianist Mitsuko Uchida.

All Juilliard graduates, each has a performing career in addition to The Quartet. The Quartet, however, is central to their lives, proven by the extraordinary dynamic between the four players. The Quartet is named forAntonie Brentano, whom many scholars consider to be Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” the intended recipient of his famous love confession.

Clarinetist Neidich has performed throughout Europe, Asia and the UnitedStates, and is known as a unique clarinetist who maintains a solo career, dividing his time among recitals, orchestra engagements and chambermusic concerts. He has also undertaken the role of conductor.

Known as a leading exponent of period instrument performance practice,Neidich has been influential in restoring original versions of works. For theBrahms Clarinet Quintet, Neidich will play a replica of a clarinet used byRichard Mühlfeld, for whom Brahms wrote the work. He has a repertoire of more than 200 solo works includes pieces commissioned or inspired by him, as well as his own transcriptions.

A native New Yorker of Russian and Greek descent, Neidich began clarinetstudies with his father at the age of 7 and went at the age of 17 to continue studying with the noted clarinet teacher, Leon Russianoff. Afterfour years at Yale University where he majored in anthropology, Neidichwent to the Moscow State Conservatory as the first recipient of a Fulbrightgrant to study in the Soviet Union. He studied in Moscow for three years asa student of the clarinetist, Boris Dikov, and the pianist, Kirill Vinogradov.

Active in education, Neidich is on the faculties of The Juilliard School,Queens College of the City University of New York, Manhattan School and the Mannes College of Music.

Tickets $25

Brentano String Quartet in sync with clarinet

Brentano String Quartet

JCCC dedicated its Cultural Education Center on Oct. 3, 1990, and offered two performing arts series — the Kansas City Series and Center Series —in spring 1991. For its 20th anniversary, Emily Behrmann, interim general manager, the Performing Arts Series at JCCC, is announcing a gala celebration on Sept. 25 and a season of cutting-edge performances, celebrity names, diverse cultures, dance and music.

True to tradition, another exceptional season unfolds.

Highlights include a worldwide premiere tour by Robert McDuffie, violinsoloist, and the Venice Baroque Orchestra of The Seasons Project, which includes a new Philip Glass composition entitled Concerto No. 2 for Violinand Orchestra, a co-commission by the PAS; singer Michael Bolton; politicalcomedy troupe Capitol Steps; DRUMLine Live, created by the team behindthe hit movie Drumline showcasing the black marching band tradition; a spectrum of dance including modern dance company Lar LubovitchDance Company; comedian Martin Short; Silent Surrealism, silent surrealistfilms accompanied by this country’s most celebrated Gypsy jazz ensemble,The Hot Club of San Francisco; the MTV-style The Opera Show; Opole, Philharmonic of Poland; Hot Tuna Blues with guitarists Jorma Kaukonenand Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane fame, blues-harp player Charlie Musselwhite, and country-and-bluegrass artist Jim Lauderdale; and Spamalot, a Broadway musical lovingly ripped off from the movieMonty Python and the Holy Grail.

PAS announces 20th anniversary season

Patrons can buy the entire season or create their own package of any five performances to receive a 10 percent discount off single-ticket prices.“Friends” members receive an additional 5 percent discount. New subscriptions of five or more shows go on sale April 26, and single ticketson June 1.

Spamalot

The Opera Show

Lar Lubovitch Dance Company

Michael Bolton

Jungle Jack Hanna

April 2010Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

For best seats, order early.

Call 913-469-4445or buy tickets onlinewww.jccc.edu/TheSeriesfor tickets and information.

Service fee applicable.

Purchase live online

Box Office: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday • Call 913-469-4445Tickets are required for most events in Polsky Theatre and Yardley Hall. Programs, dates and times are subject to change. There is a $1 per ticket handling charge at the JCCC box office. Discounts are available for music, theater and dance students.

PAS Administrative Office: Open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday • Call 913-469-4450A request for interpretative services must be made 72 hours before a performance. Call the box office at 913-469-4445 or TDD/TTY 913-469-4485.

Persons with disabilities who desire additional support services may contact services for patrons with disabilities, 913-469-8500, ext. 3521, or TDD/TTY 913-469-3885.

*free-admission event

Kansas City Symphony

Classical Series2 p.m. Yardley Hall$52, $42, $12 youth

*Ron Stinson, trumpet

Patricia Higdon, pianoRuel Joyce Recital Series

noon Polsky Theatre

The 5 BrownsCenter Stage Series8 p.m. Yardley Hall

$35, $25

*Steven Elisha, celloLarisa Elisha, violin

Ruel Joyce Recital Series

noon Recital Hall

Stories in My PocketNational Theatre for the Deaf

PAS Arts Educationand GURC

9:45 a.m. and noonYardley Hall

Kansas City SymphonyFamily Series

2 p.m. Yardley HallLimited seats availableat 816-471-0400

Marcus BuckinghamCohen Community

Series7:30 p.m. Yardley Hall

$55 single; group rate of 10, $50

*Antigone by SophoclesJCCC Academic

Theatre7:30 p.m.

Polsky Theatre

*Antigone by Sophocles, JCCC Academic Theatre7:30 p.m. Polsky Theatre

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Performing Arts EventsJ o h n s o n C o u n t y C o m m u n i t y C o l l e g e

Dance Theatre ofHarlem EnsembleDance Series, 8 p.m.Yardley Hall, $35, $25

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May 2010Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

*Johnson County Chorus3 p.m.

Yardley Hall

*JCCC ConcertBand

7:30 p.m. Polsky Theatre

*JCCC Jazz Night7:30 p.m.

Polsky Theatre

*Antigone by SophoclesJCCC Academic

Theatre2 p.m. Polsky Theatre

*JCCC Chamber Choir

7:30 p.m. Polsky Theatre

*Moonlight SerenadeOrchestra

Brown & Gold May Gala

7 p.m. reception 8 p.m. Yardley Hall

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*Antigone by SophoclesJCCC Academic Theatre7:30 p.m. Polsky Theatre

Brentano String QuartetCharles Neidich, clarinetClassics Series 8 p.m.Yardley Hall, $25

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Kansas City Symphony

Classical Series2 p.m. Yardley Hall$52, $42, $12 youth

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The Opera ShowSee PAS season announcement page 4

Charles Neidich

Brentano String Quartet

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JOHNSON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

12345 COLLEGE BLVD

OVERLAND PARK KS 66210-1299

NONPROFIT ORG

U.S. POSTAGE PAID

Johnson County

Community College

www.jccc.edu/TheSeries

Seeing and hearing transcend cultures

Stories In My Pocket, an original work by Little Theatre for the Deaf, willbe performed at 9:45 a.m. and noon Tuesday, April 13, in Yardley Hall.

The performance will include an innovative participatory audience warm-upwith American Sign Language by members of the company followed by theperformance.

Stories In My Pocket draws on the large repertory of stories, fables, poemsand riddles the Little Theatre of the Deaf has pocketed during its 40-plusyear history. Many of the company’s favorites are tucked into large coloredpockets on the stage. After teaching the audience the sign for each of thecolors, volunteers from the audience pick stories to be performed by signingthe color.

Keep a story in your pocket

And a picture in your head

And you’ll never feel lonely

At night when you’re in bed

Some of the stories that may be chosen include, Rich Man, Poor Man, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Little Red Hen and the Butterfly Jar. Also partof the program is “Signing Fun” and “Sign a Song” which is highly entertaining and instructional.

The Little Theatre of the Deaf, comprised of deaf and hearing actors, performs the entire program completely in American Sign Language andthe spoken word. The Little Theatre of the Deaf entertains as it educates;the audience sees and hears every word.

The Little Theatre of the Deaf is the children’s wing of the National Theatreof the Deaf. Each year, LTD gives live performances to thousands of childrenand adults around the world.

“We want all children to benefit from the arts and encourage the deaf andhard of hearing to be engaged as audiences and artists. Touring companiespresent an opportunity for both. The production, Stories in My Pocket, invites the audience to participate in the creative process and the actors areseen as role models for students interested in the arts,” said Angel Mercier,program director, arts education, PAS.

Stories in My Pocket is a co-presentation of the PAS Arts Education programand Gallaudet University Regional Center at JCCC.

Tickets $5