The Kentucky Center Blog

Confirmed! Jackson Browne, with special guest Sara Watkins, to perform at The Kentucky Center Aug. 12

On Sale to the Public May 18!

The Kentucky Center presents

JACKSON BROWNE Summer 2012 Acoustic Tour

with special guest Sara Watkins

Sunday, August 12, 7:30 p.m.

The Kentucky Center, Whitney Hall

Acclaimed American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne is set to bring his summer 2012 Acoustic Tour to The Kentucky Center’s Whitney Hall. Playing guitar and piano, Jackson will perform songs from his entire body of work, with varying set lists each night.

Tickets start at $44.50, reserved seating, fees apply. Tickets are on sale to the general public beginning Friday, May 18, at 10 a.m. Call The Kentucky Center Box Office at 584-7777, toll free at (800) 775-7777, (502) 562-0730 (TTY), or visit www.kentuckycenter.org.

Kentucky Center Members, donors at the $100 level and above, save 15% on select seats and receive waived handling fees on orders placed via the Member Hotlines. MembersFirst ($100-499 donors), call (502) 562-0144, and CenterCircle Members ($500+) call (502) 562-0195.

Please call (502) 562-0111 (V), (502) 562-0140 (TTY) or email access@kentuckycenter.org for information about the range of accessibility services we offer to enhance your performance experience.

Visit www.kentuckycenter.org/presents to see other upcoming shows.

Arts in Healing program helps clients with self-expression, improves attitudes toward other types of therapy

ARTS IN HEALING:

Visual and Performing Arts programs help people in recovery

Since January, Kentucky Center Arts in Healing visual and textile artist Pat Sturtzel has been working with men in recovery at Volunteers of America. Pat proudly displayed work by these residents at the Art in the Arbor festival on May 12. The men participating in this program report that making art really helps them approach their therapy with a better outlook.  In the last four months, they have created acrylic paintings, made dream catchers, experimented with drawing,  and created fabric collage pieces - all part of “The Road to Recovery--Past, Present and Future” project.   

Participants in the VOA women’s substance abuse treatment program have been busy writing songs and dramatic poems in workshops led by Arts in Healing artists Katherine Mapother and John Gage, preparing for their final performance on May 18.  The women often comment that this interaction helps them open up to each other and express themselves more freely.

The power of Arts in Healing is demonstrated by compelling patient histories and validated by remarkable evidence-based research. As defined by the National Endowment for the Arts, it is “an international movement that works to infuse the full spectrum of the arts into healthcare settings, including design, visual, performing and literary arts, resulting in programs and healthcare environments that are welcoming and uplifting for caregivers, patients, their families and visitors.”

To participate in or learn more about The Kentucky Center's Arts in Healing Program, call (502) 562-0198 or email artsinhealing@kentuckycenter.org.    

Did we take your picture? Sharing shots from the 6th Annual Da 'Ville Classic Drumline Showcase

 

The Kentucky Center and River City Drum Corp hosted the 6th Annual Da 'Ville Classic Drumline Showcase in Whitney Hall in April.

Drumlines, marching bands, dance teams and cheering squads were featured in this celebration of the Historically Black College and University tradition.

 

Local musicians and dancers were able to strut their stuff in a high-energy environment. The event also serves as a recruiting platform for regional schools, including Kentucky State University.

View more highlight photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kentuckycenter/sets/72157629771472128/

 

Congratulations to GSA alum Lathan Vargason! One of the 2012 Presidential Scholars in the Arts...

The Kentucky Center Governor's School for the Arts (GSA) is proud to announce that a GSA 2011 Visual Art alumnus, Lathan Vargason from Hancock County, has been identified as one of the twenty 2012 Presidential Scholars in the Arts!  This is “the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an artistically talented graduating high school senior.”

The Presidential Scholars are picked from participants in the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts’ YoungArts Program.  Lathan first learned about the YoungArts program when we invited them to present to last year’s GSA class during the summer program.  To our knowledge, Lathan is the first GSA alumnus to receive this honor.

Learn more about how The Kentucky Center Governor's School for the Arts positively impacts the lives of Kentucky's young artists, performers, writers, designers and musicians by visiting www.kentuckygsa.org.

 

Last episode of iconic THE COSBY SHOW aired 20 years ago today! See Bill Cosby in Louisville May 12.

The final episode of THE COSBY SHOW aired 20 years ago today! Bill Cosby, as Dr. Cliff Huxtable, was the patriarch of a very active, creative and tight-knit clan that made their way into millions of homes via the beloved sitcom over a period of eight award-winning years.

Where are they now? Read this article and find out!

And if you're a fan of Bill Cosby's storytelling and gentle humor, consider seeing him perform live at The Kentucky Center on May 12. Good seats are still available.

Order your Derby florals or Mother's Day bouquets from Nanz & Kraft, and help support our nonprofit mission!

Thanks to the generosity of community partners like NANZ & KRAFT Florists, it's easy to support The Kentucky Center's statewide nonprofit mission while taking care of business in your everyday life! Between floral arrangements for Derby decorating and getting orders in for Mother's Day bouquets, we've got flowers on the brain!

Anytime you order florals or gift baskets from Nanz & Kraft, you can support the Center's mission by selecting The Kentucky Center from the Helping Hands menu as part of the online check-out process. Each time you order and select us as your community organization of choice, N&K donates $2 to The Kentucky Center.

Follow this link to view their Mother's Day floral & gift gallery or click here for Oaks and Kentucky Derby selections.

Adam Cohen (son of Leonard) coming to Louisville Aug. 5, performing new music from LIKE A MAN

 

Adam Cohen, son of iconic singer/songwriter/tortured artiste Leonard Cohen, will open for Rufus Wainwright at Iroquois Amphitheatre on August 5. "The United States has no F'en clue who I am," he says. That won't last for long. The music on LIKE A MAN is spare, confessional, and deeply romantic. Fans of The Civil Wars, Lyle Lovett, Counting Crows, etc. will get sucked in immediately.

Click here for ticketing information for the upcoming Cohen/Wainwright show.

Rufus Wainwright tells NEWSWEEK he wants a hit with new release "Out of The Game"

As reported this week in NEWSWEEK magazine (full article) -

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT WANTS A HIT WITH "OUT OF THE GAME" - finally embraces Pop.

Rufus Wainwright’s fans have come to expect extravagance. A new album might start with a lushly orchestrated cabaret number, veer into gothic folk, pause for a ballad or two played solo at the piano, take a detour into Radiohead-inspired alternative rock, and end with a rousing show tune backed by strings, brass, woodwinds, harpsichord, banjo, harp, and a choral group.

There was the time he opened a record with a 6-minute ditty sung entirely in Latin—with lyrics and title borrowed from the “Agnus Dei” portion of the Roman Catholic Mass. In concert he’s equally prone to excess.

Most nights on his 2007 tour in support of Release the Stars, he opened the concert wearing a garishly multicolored striped suit, switched to lederhosen after intermission, began the encore in a plush white bathrobe, and ended the evening decked out in drag as he performed a cover of Harold Arlen’s “Get Happy,” a song made famous by Judy Garland.

Admirers who take such flamboyance for granted may be shocked by Wainwright’s seventh studio album, Out of the Game, which sounds remarkably restrained—like the work of a man trying very hard to rein it all in. “Yeah, maybe it’s a Rufus Reined-Wright record,” he says with a chuckle.

Rufus Wainwright and special guest Adam Cohen are scheduled to perform in Louisville at the Iroquois Amphitheatre on August 5. Ticketing information available here.

Why curb his musical enthusiasms? Part of it was simple creative fatigue. “I love making albums where every song sounds like its own opera,” he says. But Wainwright has now written an actual opera—Prima Donna, which debuted at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, England, in 2009 and had its U.S. premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this past February. When it came time to record his next pop album, he says, “I was pretty exhausted ... I was ready to sit back and let someone else do the conducting.”

That someone is Mark Ronson, the Grammy Award–winning producer of hits for Amy Winehouse, Christina Aguilera, and Adele. And that points to what might be the deeper reason for the new record’s change of pace.

“I need a hit single somewhat desperately,” Wainwright admits. His critically acclaimed self-titled debut album was released in 1998, which, he notes, was “right at the beginning of the collapse” of the record industry. “I remember thinking it could never get any worse.” But of course it did. With a rabid cult following that allows him to fill thousand-seat auditoriums around the world, Wainwright has it much better than most struggling musicians. Yet the reality is that composing music requires “taking a year off at a time to sit around and dream.” That kind of leisure, in turn, requires commercial success.

Far from being out of the game, then, Wainwright is in it more intensely than ever before. Wainwright still crafts intricate, unpredictable melodies—the kind that inspired Elton John to describe him as the “greatest songwriter on the planet.” A handful of tracks boast baroque arrangements that would have sounded at home on his most ambitious releases, Want One (2003) and Want Two (2004). And Wainwright’s singing—with its impeccable phrasing, highly resonant tone, and effortless range of well over two octaves—has never sounded better.

Bonnie Raitt to receive Lifetime Achievement Award from Americana Music Association

As reported in the Nashville Music News (full article) -

Bonnie Raitt To Receive Americana Lifetime Achievement Award For Performance

The Americana Music Association today announced the selection of Bonnie Raitt to receive its coveted Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance at the Association’s 11th Annual Honors and Awards ceremony, slated for Wednesday, Sept. 12 at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. As this year’s honoree, Raitt joins a distinguished list of previous recipients, which includes Gregg Allman, Wanda Jackson, Asleep at the Wheel, Jason & the Scorchers, Joe Ely, Alejandro Escovedo, Chris Hillman, Levon Helm and Emmylou Harris.

Bonnie Raitt will perform at The Kentucky Center (Louisville) on May 13. Tickets are still available and start at $54.50, reserved seating, fees apply. Ticketing information is available online, by phone (502.584.7777, 502.562.0730 TTY), and in-person at The Kentucky Center box office.

Throughout her career, Bonnie Raitt has celebrated and shaped American roots music. More than just a best-selling artist, respected guitarist, expressive singer and accomplished songwriter, Raitt has become an institution in American music. A nine-time GRAMMY winner, Raitt was named one of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time” by Rolling Stone and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Throughout her career, she’s combined old-school, country-blues grounding with a contemporary outlook and a willingness to experiment. Bonnie Raitt has left an indelible mark Americana Music as we know it today.

After decades of major label releases, Bonnie launched her own label, Redwing Records, in 2012 as a platform for creating and releasing her first album in seven years, the acclaimed and Top Ten Billboard charting Slipstream. The album’s title is one of significance for Bonnie; “I’m in the slipstream of all these styles of music,” she says. “I’m in the slipstream of those who came before me, and I’m leaving one for those behind me. I’m holding up the traditions of the music that I love.” 

Louisville Fund for the Arts names Barbara Sexton Smith President/CEO

As reported by Elizabeth Kramer in the Courier-Journal...

The Louisville Fund for the Arts board of directors Tuesday named Barbara Sexton Smith the new president and chief executive officer of the organization for which she has been the interim leader since last April.

She took over after the organization’s previous head, Allan Cowen, resigned amid protests that arose when he left a hostile voice mail for an arts leader whose organization relies on contributions from the Fund for the Arts. She also headed the organization with the Louisville Orchestra at an impasse in negotiations over a new contract with its musicians.

An announcement from the board of directors said the decision to name Smith came after a yearlong search.

“We’ve had almost a year now of working with Barbara in that role and seeing her in action,” fund board chairman David Calzi said. “Barbara was just fabulous going out and working with our donors. … If you go to any performance, Barbara is usually there. She’s about the education aspects. She gets it.”

Smith, a native of Louisville and graduate of the University of Louisville College of Business who has worked for the fund for more than 14 years, said she sees the decision as “a vote of confidence in the team that we have.”

Read full article on the C-J site.

LEO Weekly interview: "Béla Fleck Buzz Cuts" [the story of a diverse career]

As reported on April 25, 2012 in LEO Weekly (full article)... 

Béla Fleck’s buzz cuts

 By Damien McPherson

Béla Fleck has had one of the most diverse and interesting careers of anyone in music. Starting out in the bluegrass world, he has since conquered classical and jazz, dabbled in various fusions, and most recently explored the historical ties of his banjo to its African origins via his Throw Down Your Heart album. About the only pairings he hasn’t made room for — to date — include explorations of the banjo and roots sounds to early gospel and soul of the American South, and an obligatory T-Pain remix.

Best known for his work with his Flecktones lineup, their work has been sporadic while Fleck follows his muse across the spectrum. His Louisville date marks the last show of this latest reunion tour before he expands the production of his banjo concerto, which he premiered last year with the Nashville Symphony. That concerto has been recorded and filmed for a future release, and expect a couple of new collaborations to appear imminently. Having lived such a charmed life has made Fleck as laid back and comfortable in his skin (and coifs) as anyone could ever hope to be, as can be read in LEO’s brief exchange with the man:

LEO: What will be the most lasting effect of your Throw Down Your Heart project and African trip?

Bela Fleck: My awareness of the world was enhanced tremendously, and I hope that never changes. I have high hopes that the musical influences will stick, too, but it’s hard to tell what’s what.

LEO: I was shocked to see the Additional Tracks collection from the Throw Down Your Heart sessions on your website. With the sheer volume of your output, what kind of vault of unreleased material are we looking at?

BF: There are quite a few tours over the years that were recorded, but I don’t have a ton of studio recordings that were not released. I tend to get them on out.

LEO: You hold a special place in Grammy history — is there a Grammy that means a little more than the others?

BF: The Grammy for Best Mullet In Jazz Fusion has got to be my favorite. That was in the early ’90s. Now I hope to win Best Buzzcut In Classical Crossover; we shall see — please cross your fingers for me.

LEO: What’s your first reaction when someone mentions the word “genre” to you?

BF: I usually say “gesundheit.” Actually, I don’t have any issues with the idea of different genres and what they offer in terms of structure, and sometimes I really enjoy playing in a particular style. But a lot of the fun is in poking at the edges of styles and seeing what happens.

LEO: The classical and world records notwithstanding, what’s the key creative difference in plotting a Bela Fleck record versus a Flecktones record? How often do you “hold back” certain compositions while in collaboration mode?

BF: Sometimes I play a piece that I really love for everyone, and nobody gets excited. Then I play it for a different set of musicians, and they flip for it. So I have learned to be patient and wait for each song to have its time.

LEO: The Louisville date is scheduled as the last Flecktone date with the original members before going back on “hiatus.” Anything in store for this particular swan song?

BF: It’s too late to grow my mullet back, but maybe hair extensions? It’ll be an emotional night, the end of an incredible year together. But I doubt it’ll be the end of the band. It’ll likely be several years, but I think we will fly again.

LEO: Whom haven’t you collaborated with yet that you’d like to?

BF: My next collab is with Marcus Roberts, who is one of my favorite jazz artists. We have a release coming out in June. Also, I am doing things with classical musicians, such as my banjo concerto, which I will be playing quite a bit in the next few years. I want to make a duo album with Abigail Washburn, who is my wife! Lucky me ...

Bela Fleck & the Flecktones

Saturday, April 28, 8 pm

Brown Theater

315 W. Broadway • 584-7777

kentuckycenter.org

Tickets start at $25.