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The Williams Center for the Arts is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an exceptional program of performances by some of the world’s most accomplished artists in the 2003-04 season.
Except where noted, all performances start 8 p.m. For information on subscription packages and individual tickets, call the Williams Center at 610-330-5010. New subscription orders will go on sale Friday, Aug. 1, and single ticket orders will be filled starting Friday, Aug. 8. Starting Wednesday, Aug. 27, order tickets by calling the box office at 610-330-5009 from noon-2 p.m., 4-5 p.m., and one hour before performances.
“When we opened the Williams Center for the Arts in 1983, few could have imagined the extraordinary growth and enrichment of programming in the two decades to follow: an abiding commitment to the classical music genres that defined our opening season, an exemplary jazz series, pioneering ventures in world music and dance, and contemporary performance work in dance, theater, and interdisciplinary forms that mirrors cultural resources in our major urban centers,” says Ellis Finger, director of the Williams Center. “The season ahead celebrates our history and honors the remarkable spectrum of the artistic voices that define our current strengths as a major regional cultural center.”
Two special performances will honor the historic partnership between Lafayette and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. The ensemble will launch its 18th season at Lafayette Wednesday, Oct. 1, with André Watts as soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The program also includes Haydn’s Symphony No. 92 in G (“Oxford”) and two of Stravinsky’s most charming masterworks, the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto and Dances Concertantes. Orpheus will celebrate its 50th Williams Center appearance Thursday, March 25, in the J. Mahlon and Grace Buck Concert, with renowned bassist Edgar Meyer and an all-American program, featuring Meyer’s Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra. Works by Copland, Ives, and Walter Piston complete the program. Orpheus also will perform as part of the Chamber Music series Friday, Feb. 6, in an evening highlighted by Max Bruch’s popular Violin concerto in G Minor and Paul Shihara’s new work, An Afternoon on Perfume River, commissioned in part by Lafayette in celebration of its partnership with Orpheus.
Lafayette will host an International Festival of Jazz, Blues, and World Music Nov. 11-18, featuring trumpeters Randy Brecker and Claudio Roditi, Belgian jazz legend Toots Thielemans, Chilean folk sensation Inti-Illimani, Zimbabwe’s Black Umfolosi, and a blues artist to be announced. The week includes the 17th Annual Easton Jazz Festival, held in conjunction with the Boys & Girls Club of Easton Nov. 14-15. All ticket proceeds benefit the Boys & Girls Club.
Performance art pioneer Laurie Anderson will headline the Eighth Biennial Roethke Humanities Festival Friday, April 16. The festival will include the College Theater production of Caryl Churchill’s Far Away, Stephen Petronio Company’s three-part evening of dance, a concert by the Meridian Arts Ensemble brass quintet, and free public presentations by critic-scholar RoseLee Goldberg, New York producer Mark Russell, and other poets, artists, and critics.
Easton’s Mulgrew Miller and Wingspan will perform their commissioned jazz score for the Flight Project of Dayton Contemporary Dance Company Friday, Feb. 13. Honoring the 100th anniversary of flight, the program features choreography by Bill T. Jones, Doug Varone, and Bebe Miller, as well as the tour premiere of a new dance by Ronald K. Brown. An internationally acclaimed jazz musician, Miller also will bring his Wingspan quartet for a concert the following evening. As Alan and Wendy Pesky Artist-in-Residence for 2002-03, he will interact with students and faculty in other campus events.
The season includes many more performances in the Chamber Music, Sound Alternatives, Jazz Masters, and Footlights series, as well as faculty recitals, student ensemble concerts, and College Theater productions.
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 2003-04 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.
Named Administrator of the Year for 2002-03, 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. He also hosted this year’s Chamber Music America conference.