Events In Central PA

Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
Schwab Auditorium
University Park PA 16802
814-863-0255

Date(s): 10/03/2012

Time: 7:30PM

“The KLR Trio’s performances stand with the finest chamber groups of our time,” writes a Miami Herald critic. Pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jaime Laredo, and cellist Sharon Robinson made their debut as a trio at President Carter’s inauguration. Since then six presidents have come and five have gone, but the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio continues to dazzle audiences and critics. The trio members celebrated thirty-five years together by debuting three commissioned works, releasing the complete Franz Schubert trios on CD (Bridge Records), and touring extensively. The Penn State program features André Previn’s Piano Trio No. 2, a new work written for the ensemble and co-commissioned by the Center for the Performing Arts. The program also includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s youthful Piano Trio in B-flat, Johannes Brahms’ mature Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major (Revised), and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s 1987 composition Trio (also written for KLR).

Adult $42
University Park Student $15
18 and Younger $32

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Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
Schwab Auditorium
University Park PA 16802
814-863-0255

Date(s): 10/10/2012-10/11/2012

Time: 7:30PM

Wanting to belong is a powerful force. It drives us to search for love, strive for fortunes, rail against injustice, and embrace happiness. The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare’s provocative comedy, begins with Bassanio’s quest for Portia. Funded by an ill-conceived loan, the road to true love will not be smooth. When plans go awry, betrayal and anger face off against a cry for compassion and a cunning lawyer in disguise. In the end, all are left to question justice, love, and the length to which we will go to fit in. Renowned British actor Patrick Stewart founded Actors From The London Stage, one of the most respected touring Shakespeare companies. The players come from prestigious companies such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Clever staging — using minimal props, costumes, and sets —showcases the talents of a five-member ensemble in which each actor portrays multiple characters while keeping the focus on Shakespeare’s timeless words.

Adult $32
University Park Student $16
18 and Younger $25

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Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
Eisenhower Auditorium
University Park PA 16802
814-863-0255

Date(s): 10/19/2012

Time: 7:30PM

A Kansas City Star reviewer describes a Doug Varone and Dancers performance as “a feast of tens of thousands of individual moments.” The New York City company’s modern dance program features Oratorio, a new work set to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s La Betulia liberate. Oratorio delves into the libretto’s themes of heroism, mythmaking, duplicity, and conflict in a twenty-first century world of comic book-inspired imagery. The program also includes Lux, set to music by Philip Glass, and an excerpt from the evening-length Chapters from a Broken Novel. “Luxuriant. Lux is all about freedom,” writes a Washington Post critic. “It is what dancing really feels like, the kind of dancing I might dream about: loose and sweeping in a spirit of exultation.” A Boston Globe reviewer observes that “Chapters from a Broken Novel (2010) — with its shards of dreams and groping tenderness — cracks the human condition wide open.”

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

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Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
Pasquerilla Spiritual Center
University Park PA 16802
814-863-0255

Date(s): 10/23/2012

Time: 7:30PM

Renowned for their unearthly vocal blend and virtuosic ensemble singing, the four women of Anonymous 4 celebrate their twenty-fifth anniversary together with a special concert featuring ancient, traditional, and modern chants and hymns. The program, with music chosen from the ensemble’s nineteen CDs, includes works that range in origin from the eleventh century to the present. Highlights include Anonymous 4’s first recorded song, “Gaude Virgo Salutata” from An English Ladymass; “Nicholai presulis” from the group’s first public performance, Legends of St. Nicholas; American folk songs; and a new work for Anonymous 4 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang.

Adult $42
University Park Student $15
18 and Younger $32

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Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
Eisenhower Auditorium
University Park PA 16802
814-863-0255

Date(s): 10/30/2012

Time: 7:30PM

“Pilobolus,” a Washington Post reporter asserts, “embodies a large part of what the best in contemporary dance is all about: discovery. Making something new with the same standard body parts the rest of us have.” Since 1971 Pilobolus Dance Theatre has been creating inventive, athletic, witty, and collaborative performance works using the human body as a medium for expression. Based in Connecticut, Pilobolus performs for stage, television, and online audiences across the globe. The troupe has performed live shows in more than sixty countries. “Classics or the brand-new, Pilobolus keeps delivering,” writes a Philadelphia Inquirer reviewer. “It’s as if,” a New York Times critic insists, “we’re being given a fleeting glimpse of the inner workings of the universe.”

A discussion among Pilobolus company members and the audience follows the performance.

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

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Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
Eisenhower Auditorium
University Park PA 16802
814-863-0255

Date(s): 11/01/2012

Time: 7:30PM

Headlined by Béla Fleck and Tony Trischka, the 2006 Banjo Summit was one of the most memorable Center for the Performing Arts presentations of the twenty-first century. Fleck and Trischka return for more prime pickin’, joined for Banjo Summit 2 by Bill Keith, a trailblazer of melodic playing; Richie Stearns, who helped revive the old-time clawhammer style; Eric Weissberg, who performed “Dueling Banjos” for the Deliverance soundtrack; and Peter “Dr. Banjo” Wernick, a hot-picking force in bands such as Rize and Country Cooking. Fleck, generally regarded as the most accomplished master of the instrument, leads a concert that finds the banjo performed in conventional and unexpected ways. From solos and duets to full-tilt banjo blowouts with all six players, the performance features the banjo in traditional settings, including bluegrass and country, along with unconventional banjo genres such as jazz, classical, and rock.

Adult $48
University Park Student $19
18 and Younger $29

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Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
Eisenhower Auditorium
University Park, PA 16802
814-863-0255

Date(s): 11/04/2012

Time: 2PM

An adventure story in which three actors portray multiple characters, The Great Mountain inspires, entertains, and captures the imagination of children. Young Nuna hears things she doesn’t understand. Realizing Nuna has inherited the ability to hear the spirits of rushing rivers and soaring mountains, the girl’s grandmother takes her to the river and entrusts her to a boatman who guides her to where a glacier is melting and the spirit of a great mountain weeps. Does Nuna have the power to answer the mountain’s cry? Do young people recognize their capacity to address environmental issues? Inspired by the Northern Plains aboriginal story Jumping Mouse, Tracey Power’s action-packed play focuses on a girl who discovers the transformative power of nature and the importance of courage. Toronto’s Red Sky Performance is Canada’s leading company of world indigenous productions in dance, theatre, and music.

Adult $15
University Park Student $8
18 and Younger $15

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Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
Eisenhower Auditorium
University Park PA 16802
814-863-0255

Date(s): 11/07/2012

Time: 7:30PM

The magic of the circus pays homage to Anton Chekhov in a show of visions, delicate equilibriums, dancers, acrobats, and jugglers. Donka is the creation of Daniele Finzi Pasca, author of unforgettable productions with Cirque Éloize and Cirque du Soleil. Finzi Pasca immerses himself in Chekhov’s public and private writings to give form to the author’s enigmatic silences. Donka, in Russian, is a small bell attached to a fishing rod. Chekhov adored fishing and the time for meditation it afforded. Finzi Pasca, inspired by Chekhov’s pastime, fishes in a pool of circus fantasy to give life to a visual poem of suspended objects and bodies. An international cast of decadent clowns, musicians, dancers, and acrobats animates the stage, while Maria Bonzanigo’s music spreads beneath like a carpet for a parade of Chekhov characters.

Adult $38
University Park Student $19
18 and Younger $31

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Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
Schwab Auditorium
University Park PA 16802
814-863-0255

Date(s): 11/08/2012

Time: 7:30PM

A musician’s musician. That’s Ron Carter. In a career spanning more than half a century, the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master has been so continually in demand that he’s performed on more than 2,000 albums. He’s not only one of the most prolific bassists in jazz, he’s also one of the most influential. Carter came to fame as a member of the second renowned Miles Davis Quintet, a 1960s group that included Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. Since then he’s performed, as a leader and a sideman, with a multitude of first-rank players. Carter performs at Penn State with guitarist Russell Malone and pianist Donald Vega.

A discussion among the musicians and audience members follows the performance.

Adult $32
University Park Student $16
18 and Younger $25

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Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
Schwab Auditorium
University Park PA 16802
814-863-0255

Date(s): 11/14/2012

Time: 7:30PM

Last season the exuberant St. Lawrence String Quartet premiered a three-year Center for the Performing Arts program featuring all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s string quartets. The ensemble-in-residence at Stanford University returns to open the second season of Beethoven’s chamber masterworks. “These are fearless musicians,” writes a Washington Post critic, “whose spontaneity stretches past conventional interpretation and probes the music’s imaginative limits.” Violinist Geoff Nuttall and violist Lesley Robertson, founding members, are joined by cellist Christopher Costanza and violinist Scott St. John. The program includes the quartets in B-flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6; F Major, Op. 59, No. 1; and E-flat Major, Op. 127

Adult $42
University Park Student $15
18 and Younger $32

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Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
Eisenhower Auditorium
University Park PA 16802
814-863-0255

Date(s): 11/29/2012

Time: 7:30PM

Embrace the spirit of the holiday season with Leahy, a Canadian whirlwind of eight siblings performing a triple-threat of fiddle-driven music, dance, and vocals—augmented by keyboards, guitar, and percussion—influenced by the family’s Irish and Scottish ancestry. The band’s Christmas concert highlights holiday favorites, original seasonal pieces, and the Leahy fare that has made the band one of Canada’s most appealing exports. The raven-haired Leahys grew up in Ontario, where their father educated each in the ways of the fiddle, while their mother, a champion step dancer from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, taught them to sing, dance, and play the piano. A yearning to explore new sounds drew the musicians to a variety of genres and instruments. Leahy members continue to forge new paths with the group’s category-defying music, yet their Celtic-Canadian roots forever anchor them.

Adult $39
University Park Student $20
18 and Younger $31

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