Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Strathmore Adds 18 New Shows to 14-15 Season, on Sale May 28

The Temptations and the Four Tops (top) visit Strathmore December 12

From our friends at the Strathmore...

New Appetite Festival with Giada de Laurentiis and Andrew Zimmern, Imaginative Lightwire Theater, Motown Classics Temps & the Tops, Versatile Violinist Miranda Cuckson Join Eclectic Season

Today Strathmore introduces 18 new concerts to its 2014-2105 season, bringing the total number for the season to 60. Included in this latest slate of performances are the fanciful antics of Lightwire Theater and Imago Theatre, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as popular names such as George WinstonDave Koz, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Chieftains. The Mansion introduces jazz innovator Oscar Peñas, locally cherished Tim Whalen Quintet performing the Music of Bud Powell, and the Israeli Chamber Project, as well as classical violinist Miranda Cuckson, who also performs on the earlier Vijay Iyer - RADHE RADHE: Rites of Holi concert in the Music Center.

Strathmore’s first food festival, Appetite: A Gastronomic Experience, welcomes headliners Giada De Laurentiis and “Bizarre Foods” star Andrew Zimmern to the Music Center stage. The campus-wide event will also feature numerous tastings from Washington-area restaurants and culinary demonstrations from celebrated local chefs, live music and a sampling of the region’s best food trucks. 

Tickets for these newly added concerts will go on sale Wednesday, June 28, 2014 at 10 a.m.

Strathmore’s flexible programming schedule allows the arts center to continually book new artists and musicians throughout the year, allowing it to capitalize on artist availability and new tours. Additional events in the 2014-2105 season will be announced.

New concerts for the 2014-2015 season are:

GIADA DE LAURENTIIS
Friday, August 1, 2014
7:00 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $58-$128
(Prime seating and Meet & Greet can be purchased as part of VIP All-Access pass to Appetite)

Anything-but-”Everyday Italian” chef and Emmy-winning Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis brings star power to Strathmore’s first food festival Appetite: A Gastronomic Experience. As the culinary mogul prepares to open her first restaurant in Las Vegas, she takes a breath in D.C. to talk the cuisine of Italy, her passion for pastry, and the joy of sharing food and fine living ideas with her fans.

ANDREW ZIMMERN
Saturday, August 2, 2014
7:30 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $44-$79
(Prime seating and Meet & Greet can be purchased as part of VIP All-Access pass to Appetite)

James Beard Award-winner, Travel Channel star, and “Bizarre Foods” aficionado Andrew Zimmern headlines the Music Center to share his globetrotting culinary adventures as well as his penchant for consuming delicacies he finds off the beaten path. In his Strathmore debut for Appetite: A Gastronomic Experience, this frank and funny chef-author-entertainer as he discusses the wide world of food, shares anecdotes from his amazing journeys, and offers his unique perspective on cuisine and life.

THE BELGRADE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
7:30 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $15-$55
co-presented with Opus 3 Artists

Formed in 1923, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra became one of the most highly regarded in Europe, a position that would crumble with the civil wars that ravaged much of Serbia in the 1990s. However, resolution of the conflicts and restoration of Serbia within the international community brought back young artists who had fled the country. The orchestra is today one of the youngest and most acclaimed in Europe. This legendary jewel unfurls a new chapter in its history during its Strathmore debut performance.

OSCAR PEÑAS, GUITAR
Friday, November 21, 2014
7:30 p.m.
Mansion
Tickets $25
Sponsored by Asbury Methodist Village

This Barcelona-born guitarist and composer creates music that pays homage to American jazz masters, with flourishes of Flamenco and the rhythms of South America. Discover “a master artist who paints with mood and melody” (AllAboutJazz.com), in performance with his quartet—the justly renowned jazz violinist Sarah Caswell, master bassist Moto Fukushima, and drummer Richie Barshay.

GUITAR PASSIONS:
SHARON ISBIN, GUITAR | STANLEY JORDAN, JAZZ GUITAR | ROMERO LUBAMBO, BRAZILIAN GUITAR
Sunday, November 23, 2014
4:00 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $29-$70

“The pre-eminent guitarist of our time” (Boston Magazine), Grammy Award winner Sharon Isbin is an acknowledged queen of the classical concert hall. In her 2011 album Guitar Passions, she explored new horizons, collaborating with jazz, rock and world musicians to create new sounds. Isbin performs with one of her collaborators on that album, Stanley Jordan, the jazz fusion guitarist whose unique sound is driven by his two-handed tapping technique, and the masterful Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo. The extraordinary trio returns after being snowed out last season.

LIGHTWIRE THEATER
Saturday, November 29, 2014
3:00 and 8:00 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $25-$42

Discovered by millions in their breakout performances on America’s Got Talent, Lightwire Theater creates worlds of endless possibilities with costumes made of light. The troupe takes kids and families on a journey to a fantastical place where birds grow 16 feet tall, cats battle with light sabers, and an unlikely hero emerges from the darkness. Lightwire gives "the ancient art of full-body puppetry a magical, luminous update" (New York Post).

GEORGE WINSTON
Sunday, November 30, 2014
3:00 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $28-$58

A favorite of Strathmore audiences, pianist George Winston weaves worlds with his playing: hushed forests blanketed in snow, majestic mountains, sunlit streams. Unique among holiday performances, this concert is Winston’s “ode to the quiet, cold winter that descends upon the northern hemisphere in the twelfth month of the year… subtle keystrokes that sound as if a snowflake touched the piano wire… gentle and honest, along with being damn beautiful” (Houston Press).

DAVE KOZ & FRIENDS CHRISTMAS TOUR
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
8:00 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $38-$85
co-presented with Blues Alley

Grammy-winning saxophonist Dave Koz returns with his high-energy holiday tour, celebrating its 17th anniversary. The 2014 lineup includes R&B and gospel star Jonathan Butler, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Christopher Cross, known for such Top 10 hits as “Sailing” and “Ride Like the Wind,” and Soul Train award winner Maysa. This “must-see show” (Examiner.com) features a catalogue of jazz-tinged interpretations of holiday classics.

THE TEMPTATIONS AND THE FOUR TOPS
Friday, December 12, 2014
8:00 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $40-$98

Two iconic male vocal groups take the stage for a night of unmistakable Motown sound and a bit of American pop history. The Temptations and The Four Tops helped to define music in the 1960s, and the incredible staying power of their singing has seen them through the changing tides of doo-wop and the disco era right up to contemporary soul, with career-defining hits including “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination,” “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” “Baby, I Need Your Loving,” and “Bernadette.” The Temptations and The Four Tops bring the epitome of Detroit to the Music Center stage for a Merry Motown Christmas.

PEABO BRYSON/THE COLORS OF CHRISTMAS
Friday, December 19, 2014
8:00 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $35-$100

Grammy Award-winning R&B legend Peabo Bryson is joined by gospel superstar CeCe Winans, pop diva Melissa Manchester, and American Idol-winner Ruben Studdard on the Music Center stage for an unforgettable evening of pop hits and Christmas favorites.

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO
Friday, January 30, 2015
8:00 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $28-$69

Since their groundbreaking 1986 performances on Paul Simon’s Graceland album, each year has brought new fame for this vibrant ensemble, whose 2014 album Live: Singing for Peace Around the World won a Grammy Award—the group’s fourth. The singers share an evening of pure joy that will leave audience members “in awe of the power and variety of the human voice” (Yorkshire Post).

JOHN PIZZARELLI & JANE MONHEIT
Saturday, February 14, 2015
8:00 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $48-$78

From the Café Carlyle to Carnegie Hall, nobody swings a love song like guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli, whose performances are “a delight—the arrangements are sharp and witty, the singing deceptively easygoing, and the guitar playing just terrific” (The Guardian). He is joined by Jane Monheit for this Valentine’s performance, a sultry chanteuse with a “flair for setting the emotional thermostat to precisely the temperature that can melt the ice from a cold, cold heart” (Variety).

IMAGO THEATRE: FROGZ
Sunday, February 22, 2015
4:00 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $25-$38

The spellbinding Imago Theatre thrilled Strathmore audiences in 2011 with the “Felliniesque mayhem” (Variety) of its brilliant physical comedy and stunning stagecraft. The company returns with its best-known show Frogz—a “lively, inventive, mysterious, thrilling, truly goofy fun” stage play (Boston Globe) that was a hit in New York in two smash engagements at the New Victory Theatre.

TIM WHALEN QUINTET
MUSIC OF BUD POWELL
Friday, February 27, 2015
7:30 p.m.
Mansion
Tickets $20
Sponsored by Asbury Methodist Village

For a sampling of some of D.C.’s best jazz musicians, this date is a must. The remarkable Tim Whalen Quintet—pianist Whalen, tenor sax Elijah Jamal Balbed, guitarist Paul Pieper, bassist Eliot Seppa and drummer Shareef Taher—have developed a fanatical fan base in D.C.’s jazz clubs. Now they come to Strathmore to celebrate the release of their new CD—a celebration of the music of the legendary bebop pianist Bud Powell.

ANNAPOLIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
with Special Guest Piano Soloist
Sunday, March 1, 2015
3:00 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $10-$30

The symphony has won the hearts of Maryland’s capital city is joined at Strathmore by a pianist who leaped to fame with her historic recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, hailed for her “wonderfully expressive interpretation” (NPR) and the “majestic originality of her vision” (The Independent, UK). This not-to-be-missed program with a renowned piano soloist includes works by English poet and composer Arthur Bax, Richard Strauss, and Ravel.

THE CHIEFTAINS
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
8:00 p.m.
Music Center
Tickets $35-$78

The mists and myths of Ireland live strong in the music of this legendary group, whose Grammy-winning recordings have made unofficial Irishmen of fans the world around. Over the past half-century, they’ve performed for pub crawlers and Presidents, winning six Grammys along the way. St. Paddy’s Day starts early with “that uniquely distinctive Chieftains sound – mellifluous one moment, rip-roaring the next” (BBC).

MIRANDA CUCKSON, VIOLIN
Thursday, April 9, 2015
7:30 p.m.
Mansion
Tickets $25
Sponsored by Asbury Methodist Village

“An artist to be reckoned with” (Gramophone), violinist and violist Miranda Cuckson is at home in a wide range of repertoire, from early eras to the most current creations. Savor a “deeply satisfying” performance (The New York Times) by an artist of “exceptionally adventurous intellect…fascinating for an originality borne out of making the absolute most of any given moment” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

ISRAELI CHAMBER PROJECT
Thursday, April 16, 2015
7:30 p.m.
Mansion
Tickets $28
Sponsored by Asbury Methodist Village

Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp
Jolivet: Chant de Linus for Flute, Harp, and String Trio
Zohar Sharon: The Ice Palace
Schumann: Piano Quartet

The artists of this award-winning seven-piece ensemble are joined by a common passion for music-making and the musical traditions of their native Israel. They “think, breathe and play as one…spellbinding” whole (Time Out New York), mixing music from the standard classical repertoire with music born in and influenced by Israeli culture.

About Strathmore:
Strathmore presents and produces exemplary visual and performing arts programs for diverse audiences; creates dynamic arts education experiences; and nurtures creative ideas and conversations that advance the future of the arts. The hallmark of the arts center is the Music Center at Strathmore, a 1,976-seat concert hall and education complex. The Music Center at Strathmore, located at 5301 Tuckerman Lane in North Bethesda, MD, is immediately adjacent to the Grosvenor-Strathmore station on Metro’s Red Line and a half-mile from the Capital Beltway. For those attending a ticketed performance at the Music Center at Strathmore, parking in the Metro garage is complimentary. All Music in the Mansion concerts are held in the Dorothy M. and Maurice C. Shapiro Music Room in the Mansion at Strathmore, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda, MD. Parking is available on site for all Mansion performances. For more information, call (301) 581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.