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| Carol Burnett visits Strathmore April 15-16, 2016 |
From our friends at Strathmore...
Andrew Lippa Oratorios Are Cornerstone of New Announcement, Which Also Features Two-Night Engagements by Kristin Chenoweth, Patti LaBelle & Carol Burnett
Grammy and Tony Award nominated composer Andrew Lippa honors transformational social activists in his oratorios I Am Anne Hutchinson and I Am Harvey Milk, bringing world and Washington, D.C. premieres, respectively, to the Music Center and anchoring Strathmore’s latest announcement of 19 new performances in its 2015–2016 Season. For the first time ever, I Am Harvey Milk will be presented alongside the world premiere of Lippa’s newest work, I Am Anne Hutchinson in back-to-back performances. This production reinforces Strathmore’s commitment to presenting new works, exemplified by its support of more than 125 premiere performances since the opening of the Music Center in 2005. In addition to artistic direction, Lippa will perform alongside Broadway sensation Kristin Chenoweth, who makes her return to Strathmore following a solo engagement in early 2016. Chenoweth will debut a song from Lippa’s I Am Anne Hutchinson during her solo performance at Strathmore in January.
Also featured in two-night engagements are legendary comedienne Carol Burnett and international pop star Patti LaBelle. These vital American talents, with Chenoweth, complement Strathmore’s celebration of female voices in the arts. This capsule series includes more than 15 concerts, exhibitions, and performances that feature women as an integral creative force.
This latest slate of shows includes many newcomers to the Music Center stage, including Chenoweth’s 2015 Tony Awards co-host Alan Cumming in a wry Valentine’s cabaret. The SFJAZZ Collective performs Michael Jackson’s iconic hits alongside original works by members of the group.
Strathmore favorite Johnny Mathis returns to celebrate 60 years in entertainment, while the family-friendly Peking Acrobats commemorate 30 years of conserving Chinese cultural traditions dating back to 221 BC.
The latest ensemble to join Strathmore’s family of education programs, the venerable Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras of Strathmore (MCYO), celebrates its 70th anniversary season in 2015-16 with three Music Center concerts. Bookending this announcement, the art center’s resident vocal ensemble, Strathmore Children’s Chorus, celebrates the holidays with a performance of jubilant music from around the world, and pays tribute to The Beatles in spring. Additionally, Seth Kibel and Rochelle Rice, recognized talents from Strathmore’s Artist in Residence program, return to the Mansion, along with New York-based Metropolitan Klezmer.
Tickets for these concerts go on sale to Strathmore Stars members Tuesday, September 8, 2015 at 10 AM and to the public on Wednesday, September 23, 2015 at 10 AM.
Strathmore’s flexible programming schedule allows it to continually book new artists throughout the year, capitalizing on artist availability and new touring acts. Additional events in the 2015–2016 Season may be announced. While current at time of publication, this calendar is subject to change.
New concerts for Strathmore’s 2015–2016 Season are:
STRATHMORE CHILDREN’S CHORUS: HOLIDAYS AROUND THE WORLD
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
7:30 PM
Music Center
Tickets $8-$25
Strathmore’s resident chorus kicks off the holiday season with the joyful sound of young voices lifted in song. Instrumentalists, guest performers, and two powerful choral ensembles share traditional music from South Africa, England, Sweden, Germany, and Puerto Rico, with guest ensemble Seneca Valley High School Choir.
MARYLAND CLASSIC YOUTH ORCHESTRAS OF STRATHMORE
WINTER SOUNDSCAPES
WINTER SOUNDSCAPES
Sunday, December 6, 2015
4 PM
Music Center
Tickets $15-$25
MYCO’s Philharmonic, Symphony, and Chamber ensembles perform a holiday repertoire that includes Shostakovich’s dramatic Symphony No. 5.
SETH KIBEL & FRIENDS: HANUKKAH HODGEPODGE
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
7:30 PM
Mansion
Tickets $25
Seth Kibel and a cadre of klezmer-loving friends light up the season as they explore the intersection of Jewish and American music. Jazz, swing, and klezmer come together as this marvelous multi-instrumentalist makes Hanukkah favorites shine bright. A local favorite, Kibel has won 28 Washington Area Music Awards in a variety of categories including “best world music instrumentalist” and “best jazz instrumentalist.”
METROPOLITAN KLEZMER
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
7:30 PM
Mansion
Tickets $25
Metropolitan Klezmer ensemble’s eclectic exuberance brightens the holidays, bringing Yiddish musical genres together in a shimmering sound that stretches beyond klezmer to incorporate jazz, funk, folk, and more.
AIR ALUMNI: ROCHELLE RICE
Friday, December 18, 2015
11 AM
Mansion
Tickets $17
Hailed as “best jazz vocalist” by Washington City Paper, this Artist in Residence alumna returns to Strathmore and adds her soulful spin to an array of holiday classics ranging from medieval plainchant to Stevie Wonder hits.
KRISTIN CHENOWETH
COMING HOME TOUR
COMING HOME TOUR
Friday, January 29, 2016
8 PM
Music Center
Tickets $58-$155
Sponsored by Joel & Elizabeth Helke
Broadway legend Kristin Chenoweth leads her audience through an evening of career-defining moments and personal favorites, from Wicked to The West Wing to Glee to On the Twentieth Century, in which she recently made her return to Broadway. She’ll also debut a piece from Andrew Lippa’s new production I Am Anne Hutchinson, previewing her later world premiere performance with the composer in Strathmore’s 2015–2016 Season.
ALAN CUMMING
SINGS SAPPY SONGS
SINGS SAPPY SONGS
Sunday, February 14, 2016
8 PM
Music Center
Tickets $35-$85
Tony Award-winner Alan Cumming, best known for his star turns as the Emcee in the Broadway revival of Cabaret and Eli Gold on the hit television series The Good Wife, transforms Valentine’s Day into a cabaret The New York Times calls an “emotional firestorm.” A little sappy and sometimes naughty, the Scottish actor-singer parades lovers through silly love songs everyone secretly adores, performing music from the likes of Annie Lennox, Elaine Stritch, and Rufus Wainwright “with tremendous theatrical authority” (The New York Times). The evening of song and comical banter is backed by his Emmy-winning musical director Lance Horne and cellist Eleanor Norton.
MARYLAND CLASSIC YOUTH ORCHESTRAS OF STRATHMORE
EFFLORESCENCE
EFFLORESCENCE
Sunday, March 20, 2016
3 and 7 PM
Music Center
Tickets $15-$25
All six Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras ensembles perform a vibrant program that includes Mahler, Wagner, and Copland. The booming sounds and budding artistry of the MCYO Philharmonic, Chamber Ensemble, Symphony and Young Artists orchestras, Chamber Strings, and Preparatory Strings take on the classical canon.
THE PEKING ACROBATS
30TH ANNIVERSARY NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
30TH ANNIVERSARY NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
Thursday, March 24, 2016
7:30 PM
Music Center
Tickets $25-$45
There is something innately thrilling about The Peking Acrobats. These amazing artists defy gravity, push the limits of human flexibility, and redefine balance and control as they continue a tradition dating back to the Qin dynasty: 221 BC. The troupe executes daring maneuvers atop a precarious pagoda of chairs, trick cycling, powerful precision tumbling, somersaulting, and gymnastics, amazing displays of contortion, and extraordinary exhibitions of agility and grace. The performers “seem to push the envelope of human possibility. If daring and dexterity turn you on, this is a show that will probably twist you around in your seat” (New York Post).
JOHNNY MATHIS
THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT TOUR
THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT TOUR
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
8 PM
Music Center
Tickets $45-$150
With a sublime approach to singing that eclipses passing fads, Mathis returns to Strathmore to perform his greatest hits like “Chances Are,” “It’s Not For Me To Say,” and more, alongside personal favorites. Throughout his 60-year career, Mathis has recorded more than 80 albums, achieved 50 hits on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary Chart, and garnered a multitude of awards, including Grammy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
PATTI LaBELLE
Thursday and Friday, April 7 and 8, 2016
8 PM
Music Center
Tickets $65-$150
Audiences will savor the grace, artistry, and remarkable voice that propelled her from The Bluebelles to Labelle to international pop stardom and hits like “On My Own” and “If You Ask Me To,” when singer, author, and actress Patti LaBelle performs two nights in the Music Center. A solo artist since the 1970s, LaBelle has created timeless songs that have helped cement her place as a music icon and garnered her numerous honors, including Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, NAACP Image Awards, New York Times bestsellers, and more.
LAUGHTER AND REFLECTION WITH CAROL BURNETT
A CONVERSATION WHERE THE AUDIENCE ASKS THE QUESTIONS
A CONVERSATION WHERE THE AUDIENCE ASKS THE QUESTIONS
Friday and Saturday, April 15 and 16, 2016
8 PM
Music Center
Tickets $65-$175
Actress, singer, writer, comedian, and bona-fide American treasure—iconic funny lady Carol Burnett unleashes her wit, wisdom, and comic genius in a show to remember. Best known for The Carol Burnett Show, Burnett got her big break in 1959, when her role in Broadway’s Once Upon a Mattress led to a Tony nomination. Since then she’s been honored with Emmys, Golden Globes, People’s Choice Awards, the Horatio Alger Award, an Ace Award, and a Peabody Award. A Kennedy Center Honoree, she received the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for Humor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. Named by TIME as one of 100 Best Television Shows of All Time, The Carol Burnett Show ran for 11 years, averaged 30 million viewers per week, and garnered 25 Emmy Awards, making it one of the most honored shows in television history.
I AM ANNE HUTCHINSON/I AM HARVEY MILK
Starring Kristin Chenoweth & Andrew Lippa
Starring Kristin Chenoweth & Andrew Lippa
Saturday and Sunday, April 23 and 24, 2016
8 PM
Music Center
Tickets $49-$249
Words & Music by Andrew Lippa
Joel Fram, music director
Noah Himmelstein, director
Strathmore, producer
Rolando Sanz, executive producer
Produced in association with Bruce Cohen, Robb Nanus & David Bloch
Part choral work, part theater piece, I Am Anne Hutchinson/I Am Harvey Milk is an emotional, musical celebration of two American icons. Broadway superstar Kristin Chenoweth and Grammy and Tony Award-nominated composer Andrew Lippa pull pages from history and bring them to life onstage in these world and Washington, D.C. premieres.
I Am Harvey Milk was originally commissioned by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and weaves the story of Milk’s life–from boyhood to his rise as the first openly gay man to hold public office in California, to his assassination. Lippa’s soaring melodies and lyrics have already sold out houses in Los Angeles’s Disney Concert Hall and New York City’s Lincoln Center; now, I Am Harvey Milk makes its Washington, D.C. debut, where so many political opinions, legislative decisions, and, most recently, a landmark Supreme Court ruling, have impacted the LGBT community.
I Am Harvey Milk will be presented alongside the world premiere of Lippa’s newest work, I Am Anne Hutchinson. Hutchinson is widely considered the mother of women’s rights and religious tolerance in America. In 1637, she was tried for insubordination to the patriarchal church, for the “sin” of forming women’s study groups. While she was branded a radical, like Harvey Milk centuries later, her tragic end only strengthened her legend, furthering her cause of women’s independence.
SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE
THE MUSIC OF MICHAEL JACKSON & ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS
THE MUSIC OF MICHAEL JACKSON & ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
8 PM
Music Center
Tickets $35-$75
The King of Pop gets the royal treatment when the composer-improvisers of one of the world’s most acclaimed jazz ensembles, the SFJAZZ Collective, turn their amazing talent his way. The SFJAZZ Collective is praised for its innovative approach to repertoire. Each year, the ensemble performs a new list of compositions by a modern jazz master and new pieces by the Collective members, which include vibraphonist Warren Wolf, familiar to Strathmore’s Music in the Mansion concertgoers. Through this pioneering approach, honoring jazz’s recent history while championing the music’s up-to-the-minute directions, the Collective embodies SFJAZZ’s commitment to jazz as a living, ever-relevant art form.
MCYO’S PLATINUM CELEBRATION: MUSIC MATTERS
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
7 PM
Music Center
Tickets $15-$25
Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras’ Young Artists, Symphony, and Philharmonic perform Tchaikovsky’s monumental 1812 Overture.
STRATHMORE CHILDREN’S CHORUS
MEETS THE BEATLES
MEETS THE BEATLES
Wednesday June 8, 2016
7:30 PM
Music Center
Tickets $20-$25
Fab Four favorites are reimagined and performed by hundreds of young voices and instrumentalists when the Strathmore Children’s Chorus joins Rocky Hill Middle School Choirs and Strathmore’s resident orchestra, Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras of Strathmore, for a tribute to The Beatles.
