Centre County PA Live Entertainment

November 3, 2010

Location: Schwab Auditorium

Time: 7:30 PM

Ticket Info: call 814-863-0255

Adult $38   |   University Park Student $15   |   18 and Younger $31

The most sought-after piano trio in the world makes its Penn State debut in a program mixing classic and contemporary selections. The Eroica Trio, which has earned multiple Grammy Award nominations, thrills audiences with flawless technical virtuosity, irresistible enthusiasm, and sensual elegance. Whether playing the great standards of the piano trio repertoire or daring contemporary works, pianist Erika Nickrenz, violinist Susie Park, and cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio electrify the concert stage with performances of depth and precision. Since earning the prestigious Naumburg Award in 1991, the American trio has toured widely in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The trio has also released eight acclaimed recordings for Angel/EMI Classics Records. The Eroica program features Jean-Baptiste Loeillet’s Trio Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Astor Piazzolla’s Three Tangos, and Robert Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 2 in F Major. The program also includes Kevin Puts’ Trio-Sinfonia (2007), a piece co-commissioned by the Center for the Performing Arts through its membership in Music Accord.

Complimentary round-trip shuttle service is provided between the Eisenhower Parking Deck and Schwab Auditorium.

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December 2, 2010

Location: Eisenhower Auditorium

Time: 7:30 PM

Ticket Info: call 814-863-0255

Adult $37   |   University Park Student $17   |   18 and Younger $27

Equally at home on the concert stage or at a folk festival, Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster is one of the most versatile and exciting young musicians on the folk and Celtic music scenes. MacMaster has collaborated and performed with Alison Krauss, The Chieftains, Paul Simon, Luciano Pavarotti, and Yo-Yo Ma. In her Christmas show, MacMaster invokes the holiday traditions of her native Cape Breton, an island that’s part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Foot-tapping rave-ups, heart-wrenching ballads, and world-class step dancing—combined with MacMaster’s fiddling fireworks on Celtic melodies and Christmas carols—generate a “traditional fusion” delivered with ferocious energy. “To call Natalie MacMaster the most dynamic performer in Celtic music today is high praise,” writes a Boston Herald critic, “but it still doesn’t get at just how remarkable a concert artist this Cape Breton Island fiddler has become.”

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November 16, 2010

Location: Eisenhower Auditorium

Time: 7:30 PM

Ticket Info: call 814-863-0255

Adult $45   |   University Park Student $22   |   18 and Younger $38

New Orleans Nights, a love letter to the rich musical traditions of the Crescent City, features Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Allen Toussaint, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, and The Joe Krown Trio. Producer, bandleader, arranger, songwriter, pianist, and singer Toussaint has had a seminal influence on the music of New Orleans. Toussaint’s timeless hits include “Working in the Coal Mine,” “Mother-in-Law,” and “Southern Nights.” He has written for or worked with a who’s who of musicians, including Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Dr. John, the Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, and Paul Simon. The Grammy-winning Payton, who last appeared at Eisenhower Auditorium with The Blue Note 7 in April 2009, is a composer, bandleader, and trumpeter who The New York Times calls “abundantly gifted” and “a high-wire soloist.” A fan favorite on Sunday nights at the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans, The Joe Krown Trio features Krown on piano and Hammond B-3 organ, Walter “Wolfman” Washington on guitar and soulful vocals, and Russell Batiste Jr. on drums.

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October 28, 2010

Location: Eisenhower Auditorium

Time: 7:30 PM

Ticket Info: call 814-863-0255

Adult $32   |   University Park Student $10   |   18 and Younger $22

“Sad love, crazy love, bad love, joyful love, life-or-death love: those were what Concha Buika sang about in her magnificent New York City debut … . While the lyrics were in Spanish, the emotion was luminous and unmistakable,” writes a New York Times reviewer. “Buika, as she bills herself, is a Spanish singer and songwriter who has conceived her own diaspora: one in which the Gypsies, who catalyzed flamenco, crossed the Atlantic to meet Cuban music and jazz. Her music is the rare fusion that honors all its sources.” Buika (pronounced BWEE-kah), the daughter of political refugees from the tiny West African nation Equatorial Guinea, grew up on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. The dynamic, husky-voiced singer came of age in a Gypsy neighborhood listening to flamenco, jazz, soul, and African music. Her 2008 recording Niña de Fuego earned a Latin Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. El Último Trajo, released in 2009, is her collaboration with Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés.

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Janaury 27, 2011

Location: Schwab Auditorium

Time: 7:30 PM

Ticket Info: call 814-863-0255

Adult $38   |   University Park Student $15   |   18 and Younger $31

Deluxe jazz musicians John Scofield and Joe Lovano have been friends for three decades. But other than a brief pairing in the early 1990s in the group ScoLoHoFo, which also featured bassist Dave Holland and drummer Al Foster, guitarist Scofield and tenor saxophonist Lovano have rarely performed together in public. Now, Scofield and Lovano bring the sum of their collective years of experience, creativity, and technique to a new partnership. Along with Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, Scofield is considered one of the “big three” living jazz guitarists. He’s a superb improviser whose music bridges post bop, funk-edged jazz, and R&B. Lovano’s top-tier music making, which frequently explores new directions, can be heard in ensembles large and small. The post-bop saxophonist has released almost twenty albums on the Blue Note label, including 2007’s Grammy-nominated Kids, a duet recording with iconic pianist Hank Jones.

Complimentary round-trip shuttle service is provided between the Eisenhower Parking Deck and Schwab Auditorium.

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February 3, 2011

Location: Eisenhower Auditorium

Time: 7:30 PM

Ticket Info: call 814-863-0255

Adult $65   |   University Park Student $40   |   18 and Younger $50

Premium Seat plus Reception with Artist $150

Joshua Bell is the most celebrated and popular classical violinist of his generation. The Indiana native, who made his Center for the Performing Arts debut in March 2007 with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, returns to Eisenhower Auditorium in an intimate recital. Musical America named the violinist 2010 Instrumentalist of the Year. Bell, who records exclusively for Sony Classical, has released more than thirty-five albums that transcend genres. At Home with Friends, his September 2009 release, features collaborations with Chris Botti, Sting, Kristin Chenoweth, Josh Groban, Anoushka Shankar, Regina Spektor, and others. In 2004, Billboard named Bell Classical Artist of the Year and his Romance of the Violin Classical Album of the Year. Live From Lincoln Center Presents Joshua Bell with Friends @ The Penthouse aired nationally on PBS stations in January 2010. The violinist entered the national limelight at age 14 when he performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra. In the three decades since, he has performed with many of the greatest symphony orchestras, as a chamber musician, and as a soloist of the first order.

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February 22, 2011

Location: Schwab Auditorium

Time: 7:30 PM

Adult $38   |   University Park Student $15   |   18 and Younger $31

One of the world’s great string ensembles, the Takács Quartet plays with a unique blend of drama, warmth, and humor. The Takács (pronounced tah-KAHSH) combines four distinct musical personalities to bring fresh insights to its repertoire. Based in Boulder at the University of Colorado, the quartet performs about ninety concerts a year worldwide. Second violinist Károly Schranz, cellist András Fejér, and two others formed the quartet in 1975 when they were students at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary. Edward Dusinberre, originally from England, became first violinist in 1993. Geraldine Walther, a Florida native who had been principal violist of the San Francisco Symphony, joined the quartet in 2005. The Penn State program includes Franz Joseph Haydn’s Quartet No. 59 in G minor, Op. 74, No. 3, The Rider; Béla Bartók’s Quartet No. 3; and Franz Schubert’s Quartet D. 887.

Complimentary round-trip shuttle service is provided between the Eisenhower Parking Deck and Schwab Auditorium.

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