Contact: Andrea Ebeling, Public Relations Assistant, 920-832-6585 or andrea.ebeling@lawrence.edu
For Immediate Release
October 3, 2006
Lawrence University Conservatory of Music Presents Kaleidoscope Concert
APPLETON, WIS. — The Lawrence University Conservatory
of Music presents its first-ever Conservatory Kaleidoscope concert at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 21 at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, downtown Appleton.
Tickets for the concert are $12 for adults and $7 for senior citizens and students.
Tickets are available at both the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749,
and the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center Box Office, 920-730-3760.
The concert will showcase most of the university's 365 music majors as
well as young musicians from the Lawrence Academy of Music in a theatrical 75-minute
show, performed in a continuous single set with no intermission. There will
also be art displays in the lobby of the Performing Arts Center by Lawrence
University student artists as well as local school children who are participating
in ArtsBridge America, an arts and education outreach program that offers hands-on
experiences in the arts to school-age children, placing university students
in kindergarten through high school classrooms as instructors and teaching-artists.
"The Conservatory has grown dramatically over the past two decades, and
we offer hundreds of public concerts and recitals each year. It's impossible
for anyone, even those of us working at Lawrence, to attend all of them. The
Kaleidoscope concert presents a broad mix of Conservatory offerings in one concert,"
said Fred Sturm, director of jazz and improvisational music at Lawrence University.
"So many folks attending our Lawrence musical performances have expressed
interest in a 'sampler' program featuring multiple facets of the Conservatory's
offerings. Kaleidoscope is a public platform in which most of our musical groups
can strut their stuff in a single performance."
The concert will feature 16 different student groups performing "in the round" utilizing the main stage, orchestra pit, eight side balconies, main floor, and upper balcony of the Performing Arts Center. "Kaleidoscope is a three ring musical circus in a slam-bang sequence of events. You won't have time to applaud between selections, for as one group finishes, another will begin. You'll be turning your head north, south, east, and west to watch groups on stage, in the orchestra pit, on the eight left and right side balconies, and behind you in the grand balcony above. It makes for a theatrical high-tech performance in the round, the likes of which we've never previously staged at Lawrence," Sturm said.
Designed to both entertain and educate the public, the Kaleidoscope program
will appeal to families and first-time concert attendees as well as regular
Lawrence audience members. Accessible classical repertoire, musical theater,
opera, jazz, and world music will be presented by six Lawrence large ensembles,
eight chamber groups, a solo guitarist, and six hands
performing on a single grand piano.
"Our ensemble conductors and faculty coaches have selected music that's
entertaining, accessible, and educational. It's music that speaks to first-time
concertgoers and general audiences, particularly families that love to experience
live music together," Sturm said.
Significant works spanning music history by Gabrieli, Verdi, Rachmaninoff,
Debussy, Hindemith, and Bernstein will be joined with selections by American
blues artist Charles Calhoun and contemporary Broadway composer Rupert Holmes.
World music by Argentine Tanguero Astor Piazzolla, Brazilian samba master Anibal
Augusto Sardinha, the Bulgarian Mystery Voices, and Cuban bata drummers will
also be featured.
University President Jill Beck will present the opening welcome and Dean of
the Conservatory Robert Thayer will conduct the full Kaleidoscope cast in "Make
Our Garden Grow," the finale from Leonard Bernstein's Candide.
The Kaleidoscope concert is sponsored by The Boldt Company. Lawrence University is deeply grateful to The Boldt Company for its generous support of this unique community arts showcase.