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Some of the world's greatest performing artists will visit Easton for Lafayette's 2002-03 Performance Series at the Williams Center for the Arts.
The fall schedule alone features a collection of internationally renowned performers, including the McCoy Tyner Trio with flutist Dave Valentin, Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers, The Limón Dance Company, sitar prodigy Anoushka Shankar, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg.
All performances start 8 p.m. For information on subscription packages and individual tickets, call the Williams Center at 610-330-5010. Starting Tuesday, Aug. 27, call the box office at 610-330-5009 from noon-2 p.m., 4-5 p.m., and one hour before performances.
The unrivaled master of acoustic jazz piano, Tyner boasts four decades of distinguished accomplishment in music, extending from his Philadelphia roots with John Coltrane, Bud Powell, and Lee Morgan to his current ensemble partners, bassist Avery Sharpe and Aaron Scott. Along with Valentin, the group kicks off the Jazz Masters series Friday, Aug. 30. Subsequent concerts include Tom Harrell, Down Beat's Composer of the Year in 2001, and his quintet Friday, Nov. 8; Charlie Haden's “Nocturne” Wednesday, Feb. 5, featuring music from the 2002 Grammy winner for best Latin jazz recording; and heralded young saxophonist Chris Potter with his quartet Tuesday, April 8. A Jazz Masters subscription costs $59, a savings of $14 compared to the total price of the individual concerts.
The Williams Center also will partner with the Board of the Easton Boys and Girls Club to host the 16th Annual Easton Jazz Festival, featuring the legendary Phil Woods Quintet and piano phenom Marc Copland with his trio, both at the gala Saturday night concert Nov. 16. The preceding evening, the Williams Center will bring in major national artists for its first-ever Blues Festival, presented in cooperation with the Lehigh Valley Blues Network. Tickets for each concert cost $20, with all proceeds benefiting the Easton Boys and Girls Club.
Horacio Gutiérrez starts off Chamber Music Thursday, Sept. 5, with the piano recital program that he will perform later in the fall at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. He will be followed by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, returning for its 16th Williams Center season with a European program Thursday, Oct. 10; Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, seven of New York's finest chamber musicians, Saturday, Nov. 9; Grammy-nominated Takács Quartet, Wednesday, Jan. 29; Orpheus again, switching to music of the Americas Sunday, Feb. 16; and a cappella ensemble Tallis Scholars, interpreting the polyphonic music of Renaissance Europe Saturday, April 12. A Chamber Music subscription costs $99, a savings of $25 compared to the total price of the individual concerts.
Ivers, winner of several All-Ireland fiddle championships, a founding member of Cherish the Ladies, and a musical anchor for Riverdance, will visit Wednesday, Sept. 4, to inaugurate Sound Alternatives. The series continues with a sitar concert by Shankar, who has taken up the legacy of her teacher and father, Ravi, and will be joined by the two virtuoso tabla players who toured for many years with Ravi Wednesday, Nov. 6; a cappella group New York Voices, performing a program ranging from jazzy improvisations to swing, from show tunes to Afro-Brazilian rhythms, Saturday, Feb. 1; and Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo – also serving as Lafayette's Alan and Wendy Pesky Artists-in-Residence for 2002-2003 – Tuesday, March 11. A Sound Alternatives subscription costs $59, a savings of $15 compared to the total price of the individual concerts.
A new Basically Baroque two-concert package features period instrument bands Red Priest and Academy of Ancient Music Friday, Sept. 13, and Friday, March 28, respectively. A subscription to Basically Baroque costs $39, a savings of $4 compared to the total price of the individual concerts.
Limón Dance Company opens the Footlights series Tuesday, Oct. 8, embracing the best of the late José Limón's work together with contemporary creations by some of this generation's great choreographers. The rest of the schedule features Big Dance Theater's performance of Antigone: Songstress on the Edge of Heaven, Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 12 and 13; Urban Bush Women with guest artists from Mozambique, presenting Shadow's Child Friday, Feb. 7; and Rennie Harris Puremovement, performing Facing Mekka, which combines hip-hop, photomontage, videography, original music, and text, Tuesday and Wednesday, March 25 and 26. A subscription to Footlights costs $59, a savings of $14 compared to the total price of the individual performances.
In connection with Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, the Williams Center and Oechsle Hall Plaza will be the setting for a visit by choreographer Jennifer Monson's Bird Brain project, a five-year navigational dance touring program that follows the pathways of birds and gray whales on their migratory journeys across the north and south hemispheres. The free presentation of The Osprey Tour will take place noon Thursday, Sept. 19.
The nationally recognized Performance Series attracts more than 10,000 people each season. It has been cited for performing excellence by the National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project, Chamber Music America, Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund, Pennsylvania Arts and Humanities Councils, and Association of Performing Arts Presenters.
The 2002-03 Performance Series at Lafayette is supported in part by gifts from Friends of the Williams Center for the Arts; by the F.M. Kirby Foundation; by provisions of the Alan and Wendy Pesky Artist-in-Residence Program, the James Bradley Fund, and the Ed Brunswick Jazz Fund; and by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, and New England Foundation for the Arts.
Williams Center for the Arts Director Ellis Finger received the 2002 William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters at its 45th annual conference. The national award recognizes sustained achievement in programming, and honors an individual or organization for quality, innovation, and vision of program design, audience building, and community involvement efforts. Finger's selection was by unanimous vote of the association's awards committee.