A behind-the-scenes look into Louisville’s performing arts and entertainment during this unprecedented time of reflection and artistic creation. APRIL 2022
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PNC BROADWAY IN LOUISVILLE 2022-23 Season Announced! Page 6 LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA LO Highlights the Music of Jewish and Black Composers. Page 10 KENTUCKY PERFORMING ARTS Former Fleetwood Mac Rocker Shines as a Solo Artist. Page 16
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TABLE of CONTENTS APRIL 2022
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SEASON PREVIEW
10
RECLAIMED TREASURES
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LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
APRIL FEATURES
18 BIG BONE LICK STATE HISTORIC SITE
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21 STANDFORD BIGGERS: CODESWITCH
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A behind-the-scenes look into Louisville’s performing arts and entertainment during this unprecedented time of reflection and artistic creation.
PUBLISHER
The Audience Group, Inc. G. Douglas Dreisbach MANAGING EDITOR
Amy Higgs CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Rhonda Mefford SALES & MARKETING
G. Douglas Dreisbach CONTRIBUTORS
PNC Broadway in Louisville Louisville Orchestra Kentucky Performing Arts
To read current and previous Audience playbills and performance guides, go to issuu.com/audience502. On the Cover: Richard Thomas (“Atticus Finch”) and Melanie Moore (“Scout Finch”) in To Kill a Mockingbird. Photo by Julieta Cervantes Read more on page 6.
GOT AN ARTICLE IDEA? Audience Magazine is a platform for the arts in Louisville. If you have an article idea or something you think we should cover, email ahiggs@theaudiencegroup.com © Copyright 2022. The Audience Group, Inc. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited.
Audience® Magazine is published by The Audience Group, Inc. 136 St. Matthews Avenue #300 Louisville, KY 40207 502.212.5177 | Audience502.com A P R I L
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EXCITING NEW BEGINNINGS Film and theater are about capturing moments: things we wish we’d said, heartaches that haven’t healed, and the thrill of the unknown. − Anonymous Allergy season, erm, we mean spring has certainly sprung up in Louisville. Buds are on the trees, jonquils are popping their heads out of the soil, and we’re ready to dust off the lawnmower for the first yard work of the season. It’s a time of rebirth and new beginnings, and the first hint that Derby is just around the corner. Yes indeed, we can feel a thrill in the air! In this issue of Audience Magazine, we’ve got a couple of truly thrilling announcements from local performing arts organizations. First, PNC Broadway in Louisville announces its 2022-23 season on page 6. Which shows are you most looking forward to? The lineup is so amazing, we simply can’t choose our favorite. From classics like Annie and Fiddler on the Roof to one of newest Tony Awardwinning sensations, Hadestown, there is something for everyone.
Amy Higgs Managing Editor
Next, the Louisville Orchestra shares the news about some unprecedented support from the Kentucky General Assembly on page 10. We are beyond excited that this infusion of funds will allow LO to resurrect its statewide touring program. And we are heartened by the passionate support of Kentucky legislators. Their endorsement draws attention to the vital role the performing arts play not just in Louisville, but across the Commonwealth of Kentucky. You’ll also read about the orchestra’s upcoming April performance of works by undervalued Jewish and Black composers, as well as a spotlight on world-renowned rocker, Lindsey Buckingham. We’re also pleased to feature a preview of the Speed Art Museum’s newest exhibit, Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch. As we emerge from the cold winter months into the spring sunshine (which peeks out in between the requisite storms, of course), our spirits are high. There’s a lot to look forward to in April, May and beyond. Thanks to our generous advertisers, we at Audience Magazine are happy to bring you the latest news from our local arts groups, free of charge. As the curtain rises,
– The Audience Group
G. Douglas Dreisbach Publisher
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SEASON
PREVIEW PNC BROADWAY IN LOUISVILLE ANNOUNCES 2022-23 SEASON by PNC Broadway in Louisville
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SEASON PREVIEW 2022-23
NC Broadway in Louisville is proud to announce the 2022-23 season, which opens with the return of the beloved theatrical masterpiece, Fiddler on the Roof, and is followed by one of Hollywood’s most beloved romantic stories of all time, Pretty Woman: The Musical.
After the new year, families will get a dose of optimism and hope when Annie returns to Louisville for the first time in nearly 17 years. The season concludes with three hot premieres, the first of which is Ain't Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations. It’s followed by the Tony Award and Grammy-winning Best Musical, Hadestown, and Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork, To Kill A Mockingbird. “We are beyond thrilled that Broadway is back!” says Leslie Broecker, President of Broadway Across America Midwest. “We were able to bring back two long-awaited returns and four Louisville premieres this season, all of which provide a kaleidoscope of cultural experiences and themes. This programming also creates an opportunity to expose more youth and underprivileged students to the arts in 2022-23, and we take that responsibility to heart.”
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF October 18-23, 2022 Tony-winning director Bartlett Sher and the team behind South Pacific and The King and I bring a fresh and authentic vision to this beloved theatrical masterpiece from Tony winner Joseph Stein and Pulitzer Prize winners Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. The original production won 10 Tony Awards, including a special award for becoming the longest-running Broadway musical of all time. You’ll be there when the sun rises on this new production, with stunning movement and dance from acclaimed Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter, based on the original staging by Jerome Robbins. A wonderful cast and a lavish orchestra tell this heartwarming story of fathers and daughters, husbands and wives, and the timeless traditions that define faith and family. Featuring the Broadway classics “Tradition,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Sunrise, Sunset,” “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” and “To Life,” Fiddler on the Roof will introduce a new generation to this uplifting celebration that raises its cup to joy! To love! To life!
PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS.
Fiddler on the Roof
National Touring Company of Ain’t Too Proud. Photo by Emilio Madrid, 2021.
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COURTESY OF PNC BROADWAY IN LOUISVILLE.
Annie
ANNIE
Pretty Woman: The Musical
February 14-19, 2023
PHOTO BY BROADWAY LOUIND.
Holding onto hope when times are tough can take an awful lot of determination, and sometimes, an awful lot of determination comes in a surprisingly small package. Little Orphan Annie has reminded generations of theatergoers that sunshine is always right around the corner, and now the best-loved musical of all time is set to return in a new production — just as you remember it, and just when we need it most. Annie, directed by Jenn Thompson, features the iconic book and score, written by Tony Award-winners Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse, and Martin Charnin. This celebration of family, optimism, and the American spirit remains the ultimate cure for all the hard knocks life throws your way.
PRETTY WOMAN: THE MUSICAL November 29-December 4, 2022 Pretty Woman: The Musical, based on one of Hollywood’s most beloved romantic stories of all time, is now on tour! Starring Broadway superstar and Tony Award-nominee Adam Pascal as Edward Lewis, and rising star Olivia Valli as the charming and charismatic Vivian Ward, Pretty Woman: The Musical springs to life with a powerhouse creative team led by two-time Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell (Hairspray, Kinky Boots, Legally Blonde). Brought to the stage by lead producer Paula Wagner, Pretty Woman: The Musical features an original score by Grammy winner Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance (“Summer of ’69,” “Heaven”), and a book by the movie’s legendary director Garry Marshall and screenwriter J.F. Lawton. Pretty Woman: The Musical will lift your spirits and light up your heart. “If you love the movie, you’ll love the musical!” (BuzzFeed News). Are you ready to fall in love all over again? 8
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AIN'T TOO PROUD – THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE TEMPTATIONS April 11-16, 2023 Ain't Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations is the electrifying, new smash-hit Broadway musical that follows The Temptations’ extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. With their signature dance moves and silky-smooth harmonies, they rose to the top of the charts creating an amazing 42 Top 10 Hits, with 14 reaching No. 1. Nominated for 12 Tony Awards and the winner of the 2019 Tony Award for Best Choreography, Ain't Too Proud tells the thrilling story of brotherhood, family, loyalty, and betrayal, as the group's personal and political conflicts threatened to tear them apart during a decade of civil unrest in America. A U D I E N C E
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Hadestown
To Kill a Mockingbird
PHOTO BY JULIETA CERVANTES
PHOTO BY T. CHARLES ERICKSON
Season tickets for the 2022-23 PNC Broadway in Louisville Season are on sale now at BroadwayinLouisville.com or by calling (502) 561-1003. Prices for the six-show season ticket package range from $230-$810, depending on seat location.
Written by three-time Obie Award winner Dominique Morisseau, directed by two-time Tony Award winner Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys), and featuring the Tony-winning choreography of Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys, On Your Feet!), the unforgettable story of this legendary quintet is set to the beat of the group’s treasured hits, including “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination,” “Get Ready,” “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” and so many more.
HADESTOWN May 16-21, 2023 Come see how the world could be. Welcome to Hadestown, where a song can change your fate. Winner of eight 2019 Tony Awards including Best Musical, and the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, this acclaimed new show from celebrated singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and innovative director Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) is a love story for today — and always. P N C
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Hadestown intertwines two mythic tales — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone — as it invites you on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back. Mitchell’s beguiling melodies and Chavkin’s poetic imagination pit industry against nature, doubt against faith, and fear against love. Performed by a vibrant ensemble of actors, dancers and singers, Hadestown is a haunting and hopeful theatrical experience that grabs you and never lets go.
HARPER LEE'S TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD June 20-25, 2023 All rise for Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork. The New York Times Critic’s Pick To Kill A Mockingbird is “the most successful American play in Broadway history” (60 Minutes). Rolling Stone gives it five stars, calling it “an emotionally shattering landmark production of an American classic,” and New York Magazine calls it “a real phenomenon. Majestic and incandescent, it’s filled with breath and nuance and soul.” With direction by Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher, To Kill A Mockingbird — “the greatest novel of all time” (Chicago Tribune) — has quickly become “one of the greatest plays in history” (NPR). Emmy Award-winning actor Richard Thomas will play the role of Atticus Finch in the National Tour. I N
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PERFORMANCE PREVIEW
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LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA PROUDLY HIGHLIGHTS THE MUSIC OF JEWISH AND BLACK COMPOSERS by Bill Doolittle
April 30, 2022
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t’s a concert with an unusual cast of composers. Two are Jewish musicians who escaped Nazi Europe to find safety in the United States. The third is an African American, whose grandparents followed the Underground Railway to Canada — leaving the United States to escape racial oppression. What do they have in common?
Each of them, says Louisville Orchestra director Teddy Abrams, experienced some kind of authoritarian oppression in which the stage for their music was somehow denied to them. “It’s not just one era, it’s not just one people,” he says. “It’s parallel stories of people around the world saying they love this music, but they don’t accept the people who create it.” That’s the theme of Reclaimed Treasures, a new concert the orchestra will present April 30 in Whitney Hall.
MAKING MOVIE MUSIC Leading the cast of composers is Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who was composing operas as a teenager and appeared destined for classical music fame. But as the 1920s grew into the 1930s, Jewish musicians in Europe found their opportunities disappearing. Korngold sensed trouble coming and simply packed up and left. In Los Angeles, he found film studios eager to sign talented musicians. And with his operatic experience, Korngold realized movie music could be more than background tinkling. It could help tell the story.
Korngold’s 1936 soundtrack for Anthony Adverse won an Oscar and signaled a new era. The composer built sensuous scores into important scenes — Errol Flynn sailing the Spanish Main in Sea Hawk, and making love to Olivia de Havilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood. Korngold’s music followed Flynn up narrow stairways in wonderfully staged sword fights, and into the stolen moments of desperate lovers. Other composers followed Korngold’s lead, many of them also refugees from European troubles. Dimitri Tiomkin, a Russian Jewish immigrant, scored High Noon, with its classic Western ballad, “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin.” Alfred Newman won a shelf full of Oscars for movies as varied as The Diary of Anne Frank and Camelot. “And Korngold was the pioneer of it all,” says Abrams, who sees the cinema as an important part of American culture. “The sad thing is that many of the great things these composers wrote — beautiful as they are — are not celebrated or played on symphonic stages because that’s not how they were produced. It’s somewhat lost, unless you are a film buff like me. I love movies.” Korngold vowed he would continue in Hollywood until Hitler was defeated — how he felt he could do his part. But with the war over, he penned a “Violin Concerto in D Major,” which includes themes from his most famous movie scores. Louisville Orchestra Assistant Concertmaster Julia Noone will perform.
‘I HAVE A PEN’ Composer Ernst Toch’s story lacks the Hollywood fanfare, but his escape was more dangerous.
LO Music Director Teddy Abrams. L O U I S V I L L E
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Erich Wolfgang Korngold
As a promising young composer in Germany, Toch was invited to attend an important music conference in Florence, Italy — which he did. But instead of returning to Germany, he gave his Nazi minders the slip and hopped a train for Paris.
PHOTO BY GEORG FAYER.
There he sent a telegram to his wife, Lilly, in Berlin. The wire read: “I have a pen.” Lilly was waiting for the cryptic message, and immediately walked out the door with their daughter to join Toch in Paris. The family rushed on to London, then on to New York, and finally Los Angeles.
Ernst Toch
Toch picked up a few gigs with the studios (including Heidi and The Hunchback of Notre Dame), but settled into teaching at the University of Southern California. One of Toch’s pupils was the brilliant pianist, composer and conductor Andre Previn. After the war, Toch found a fresh wind in his composing sails and produced a round of ambitious works, including several symphonies. Louisville Orchestra director Robert Whitney noticed what Toch was doing, and commissioned him to compose a piece to be premiered by the orchestra and recorded on its First Edition label. It is that piece, “Notturno,” that the orchestra will perform for Reclaimed Treasures.
THE ORDERING OF MOSES
Robert Nathaniel Dett
African American composer Robert Nathaniel Dett contributes the most ambitious work to the concert. A full choir and vocal soloists prepared by Dr. Kent Hatteberg join the orchestra for Dett’s oratorio "The Ordering of Moses," directed by Teddy Abrams. It’s a full-blown retelling of the Exodus story, with Moses parting the Red Sea and the Israelites escaping Egypt — an Old Testament tale shared by Black and Jewish worshippers.
Nathaniel Dett excelled in scholarship and music. He graduated from Oberlin College in Cleveland in 1908, took a masters degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., with additional postgraduate work at Harvard University. Dett headed the music department at the Hampton Institute in Virginia — very near where his grandmother had escaped decades before. As a music historian, Dett brought college scholarship to the collection and preservation of spirituals and slave songs, which he called, “the melodies of enslaved peoples, who poured out their longings, their griefs, and their aspirations in one great spiritual language.” In 1937, Dett’s composition “The Ordering of Moses,” which includes the spiritual “Go Down Moses,” was premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at its prestigious May Festival. The work received an enthusiastic review from the New York Times. But a live, nationwide NBC radio broadcast was abruptly cut off during the performance. There have always been suspicions that the broadcast was interrupted because of complaints to stations about Black music being played on a classical program. Abrams says no one really knows. “It may have just been technical, or something else,” Abrams says. “But whatever, it is at least symbolic. Literally cutting off someone’s potential. Cutting off the stage they deserve.” The Louisville Orchestra is proud to give each of these talented composers the recognition they deserve.
Dett is believed to be America’s first college-educated and music conservatory-trained African American composer. His grandmother had escaped the United States via the Underground Railroad to Canada, settling near Niagara Falls. The family flourished in Canada, then moved back across the border to upstate New York, where young 12
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The Louisville Orchestra presents “Reclaimed Treasures” The Kentucky Center, Whitney Hall Music Director Teddy Abrams April 30, 8PM Tickets: $32-$70 louisvilleorchestra.org 502-584-7777
Experience YOUR
LO U IS V IL LE O R C H ES T R A
with an amazing lineup of concerts.
SHEHERAZADE
Jonathon Heyward, guest conductor Benjamin Beilman, violin FRI 1 APR 11AM, SAT 2 APR 8PM Kentucky Center
MICHAEL CAVANAUGH PLAYS MUSIC OF ELTON JOHN Bob Bernhardt, conductor FRI 22 APR 8PM Kentucky Center
EXPLORING THE ORCHESTRA John Devlin, conductor SUN 27 MAR 3PM Eastern High School
RECLAIMED TREASURES Teddy Abrams, conductor Julia Noone, violin Louisville Chamber Choir SAT APR 30 8PM Kentucky Center
FANTASTIQUE
Teddy Abrams, conductor Yves Dhar, cello FRI MAY 13 11AM SAT MAY 14 8PM Kentucky Center Covid protocols apply.
Programs and artists subject to change
INFORMATION AND TICKETS
LOUISVILLEORCHESTRA.ORG | 502.587.8681 L O U I S V I L L E
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A SPIRIT OF UNITY Louisville Orchestra Receives $4.3 Million Appropriation for Annual Statewide Touring Programs The Louisville Orchestra (LO) is pleased to announce it will receive a $4.3 million appropriation from the Kentucky General Assembly to resume an annual statewide touring program.
This appropriation is an unprecedented commitment from the state, allowing the orchestra to visit every region of the Commonwealth of Kentucky over two years, beginning in 2023. Including multiple tours by the full Louisville Orchestra, as well as strategic engagement of local ensembles and artists across the next two concert seasons, the statewide project will launch a new era of deep community partnerships reflecting the character and interests of each town on the tour. The engagements, unlike anything conceived of previously, will carry the LO’s dedication to building creative communities beyond its hometown by presenting performances, sharing music-making, and celebrating artistic partnerships in cities and towns across Kentucky. Participation in all touring activities, including tickets to all performances, will be free. By working with arts and civic leaders to develop multiple communitybased activities, partnering with local 14
musicians and creators, and bringing entire communities together with full orchestra concerts, the LO hopes to soften the rigid lines of urban-rural division that have hindered mutual support and understanding between citizens of Kentucky. The budget passed with bipartisan support through both the House and the Senate on Wednesday, March 30, and the LO will begin the planning phase of the touring program immediately. Single performances in nearby towns will launch the initiative beginning in fall 2022, while full touring activities will begin in 2023. The LO’s tour management team will use the next 12 months to deepen relationships across the state to understand where LO partnerships can have the most impact.
CONNECTING PEOPLE ACROSS THE COMMONWEALTH LO’s Music Director Teddy Abrams, named Musical America’s “Conductor of the Year” for 2022, is the visionary behind the touring initiative, which he hopes will bring inspiration to and foster connection between the people of Kentucky. “This is a moment to reforge the human relationships that unite our communities and to celebrate our commonalities,” said Abrams. “Music is perhaps the greatest tool for overcoming differences of backgrounds and demographics. S U B S C R I B E
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Kentucky is famous around the world for its outsize contributions to music in so many genres — from bluegrass to rock, rap, and (of course) orchestral music — and so we developed the idea of taking the Louisville Orchestra throughout the Commonwealth, from the smallest communities to larger cities, to collaborate and share musicmaking with our fellow Kentuckians living in every part of the state. “I’ve grown to deeply love both my adopted hometown of Louisville and the beautiful Commonwealth beyond,” he continues. “I am proud to call myself a Kentuckian, and at the orchestra we’ve made it our mission to do right by this beautiful state and its exceptional people. We can’t wait to get on the road and make music across the state! The orchestra and I are incredibly grateful to the Kentucky General Assembly and our legislative leaders for believing in this vision and making this project possible. This is indeed a historic day for music in the Commonwealth, and for your Louisville Orchestra.”
WORKING WITH STATE LEGISLATIVE LEADERSHIP The Louisville Orchestra Commonwealth tour would not have been possible without the support of House and Senate leadership in Frankfort, Kentucky. House Speaker David Osborne (R-District 59), Senate President Robert Stivers (R-District 25), Senate Majority Leader
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successes across the state, there is little doubt that many regions feel left out or underserved in receiving access to arts and culture programming. Additionally, the reality of rural areas being left behind by investment focused on urban areas has created an urban-rural divide, with those living outside the Louisville Metro looking toward the city with frustration.
LO’s Music Director Teddy Abrams, named Musical America’s “Conductor of the Year” for 2022, is the visionary behind the touring initiative.
Damon Thayer (R-District 17), and Budget Conference Chair Senator Julie Raque Adams (R-District 36) were all immediate and passionate champions of the initiative, seeing it as essential to a vibrant and thriving community and to continuing the task of bridging the urban-rural divide in Kentucky. “Our investment provides a unique opportunity to bring the incredible music of the Louisville Orchestra to communities throughout the state while honoring the talent in each region,” said Osborne. “I look forward to seeing this series become reality.” “Music has always been an integral piece of Kentucky’s cultural heritage,” said Raque Adams. “Teddy’s vision to engage students through collaboration and performances in unique venues across our Commonwealth provides a welltimed opportunity to celebrate what unites us — our love and appreciation for great Kentucky music!” Graham Parker, Interim Executive Director, has made the LO Commonwealth tour a top priority since assuming his post a few short months ago. “The Louisville Orchestra demonstrates meaningful artistic and community leadership by making a commitment to the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky to bring people together through music,”
he said. “Our vision has been to create bridges across an urban-rural divide and to serve audiences who are often overlooked, bringing them the distinctive and celebrated artistry of Teddy Abrams and the LO. This is the right way for a modern American orchestra to engage with communities locally and regionally.” Lee Kirkwood, Chairman of the Louisville Orchestra Board of Directors, sees strong potential in the business and community relationships that will develop as the LO’s impact extends past Louisville. “The board of directors, staff, and musicians of the Louisville Orchestra extend sincere appreciation to the leaders in the Kentucky House and Senate for the confidence this appropriation shows in our ability to bring people together through music,” he said. “Forging connections that unify and create relationships across boundaries will improve the lives of everyone from business leaders to schoolchildren.”
LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA AS A RESOURCE FOR KENTUCKY The Commonwealth of Kentucky presents a rich landscape of history, community, industry, and ecology, with extraordinary depth of both innovation and tradition. Despite numerous L O U I S V I L L E
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The Louisville Orchestra firmly believes that beyond the primary human essentials like employment, housing, and healthcare, a truly healthy and unified community needs the arts to provide it with cohesion and purpose. Music, as a universal language requiring no intermediary or translation, has an especially great power to create community. The LO is a proactive community partner and pioneer of artist-driven civic leadership, actively working to provide access to its performances, free family engagement activities, and free community parks concerts that ensure the removal of economic or social barriers. Until now, this increased access has been restricted to the Louisville Metro; the next step is to provide access across the state. Through the vehicle of an annual Kentucky tour beginning in 2023, the LO will return to a moment in its own history when it was a resource for the entire Commonwealth. Bridging communities from all corners of the state, the orchestra will provide access to mainstage concerts and act as a cultural resource, building community partnerships, bringing enrichment activities designed for youth and families, and incorporating local musicians and musical traditions into LO programming and performances. The opportunity for Abrams and the orchestra to spread their message of community-building and musical collaboration outside of Louisville and across the state of Kentucky only reaffirms what Arts-Louisville concluded long ago: “The orchestra, specifically this orchestra, is a living, breathing, evolving, and relevant art form.” Learn more about the Louisville Orchestra at LouisvilleOrchestra.org
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ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
A MAVERICK AND A VISIONARY, FORMER FLEETWOOD MAC ROCKER SHINES AS A SOLO ARTIST
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT April 30, 2022
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indsey Buckingham is one of the most inventive and electrifying musicians of his generation. His instinct for melody and his singular fingerpicking guitar style are showcased on the seven studio and three live albums he has released as a solo artist, beginning with 1981’s Law and Order and continuing through 2021’s Lindsey Buckingham, his first solo release since 2011’s Seeds We Sow.
Entertainment Weekly called the new album "a California pop-rock meditation that draws on his Golden State roots and probes what Buckingham knows best: the intricacies of relationships” and named it one of the year’s 10 best, while Newsweek hailed it for featuring "all the recognizable elements of his sound: melodic hooks, intricate production, multilayered vocals, and shimmering guitar." Buckingham debuted the new material on a 2021 North American tour, during which Glide praised his live guitar playing as “captivating and flawless.” Over the last four decades, Buckingham has developed a radical sense of experimentation and an unrivaled savvy as a producer, skills he first honed as a singer, guitarist, songwriter, producer, and the musical visionary of Fleetwood Mac, where he wrote and produced several Top 10 hits, including “Go Your Own Way” and “Big Love.” Under Buckingham’s direction, Fleetwood Mac became one of the best-selling and most beloved rock groups of all time. As a solo artist, Buckingham often plays nearly every instrument himself; his complex arrangements and inventive production choices make his solo work thrilling to experience. In 2020, he appeared on The Killers’ single “Caution,” and last year joined Halsey to perform her single ‘’Darling’’ on Saturday Night Live. He remains a highly sought-after collaborator, a maverick, and a visionary. Article courtesy of Lindsey Buckingham. Don't miss Lindsey Buckingham live at the Brown Theatre on April 30. For tickets, visit kentuckycenter.org.
...all the recognizable elements of his sound: melodic hooks, intricate production, multilayered vocals, and shimmering guitar. — Newsweek
Lindsey Buckingham will perform April 30 at the Brown Theatre.
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DESTINATION SPOTLIGHT
BIG BONE LICK STATE HISTORIC SITE Union, Kentucky
Ancient creatures like the mammoth, mastodon, ground sloth, and bison once roamed through mineral springs and swamps, where grassy plains are now covered with trees and shrubs. Today, Big Bone Lick State Historic Site guests can imagine those scenes of 20,000 years ago with a visit to the outdoor diorama.
for a nice day trip or weekend escape. A 62-site campground with utility hookups, grills, a swimming pool, and playground makes a perfect combo for the camping crowd, or hotels are just 10 miles away. Visitors can take advantage of what the park has to offer historically, as well as miniature golf, picnic areas and gift shop, or take advantage of its location and add the Cincinnati Museum Center, just 26 miles away via I-75, to your list.
Experience the past through the museum with its exciting new displays on paleontology, Ordovician geology, Ice Age mammals, Native American history, and the chronology of science at Big Bone. The park’s significant combination of salt springs and late Pleistocene bone beds have earned it a National Natural Landmark designation. Learn all you can about its diverse secrets with a walk on the mile Discovery Trail, and then continue along the total of 4.5 miles of trails that combine into a continuous circuit. Together, the trails pass through grasslands, woodlands, a woody savanna, 18
Don’t miss your chance to explore the one-of-a-kind Big Bone Lick State Historic site. active salt-sulfur springs, and even offer an up-close look at the park’s American bison herd. Located just 22 miles south of Covington, or 80 miles northeast of Louisville, Big Bone Lick State Historic Site makes
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Kentucky is home to 45 state parks, including 17 resort parks with restaurants, 30 campgrounds, and 13 golf courses. For more information about Kentucky State Parks, visit parks.ky.gov.
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SCAN TO JOIN
A one-year membership allows you to take action to conserve our wildlife legacy for future generations.
Visit: fw.ky.gov/kywild A P R I L
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EXHIBIT SPOTLIGHT
SANFORD BIGGERS: CODESWITCH Speed Art Museum, March 18 - June 26
His masterful interventions add new meanings and generate new dialogues with this iconic American art form. The Speed Art Museum is pleased to announce Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch, the first survey of quilt-based works by the New York-based interdisciplinary artist. The solo show, which runs March 18 to June 26, features more than 30 quiltbased works by the renowned artist that manipulate historical quilts, placing them into new cultural and historical dialogues. For more than two decades, Biggers has been developing a singular body of work that is deeply informed by African American history and traditions and sustains a rich dialog with contemporary art on a national and international level, referencing urban culture, the body, sacred geometry, and American symbolism. The title of the exhibition, Codeswitch, refers to both the artist’s quilt series, known as the Codex series, and to the idea of code-switching itself, or shifting from one linguistic code to another depending on the social context.
The Codex series includes mixed-media paintings and sculptures done directly on or made from antique quilts. This process, like linguistic code-switching, recognizes language plurality, as the quilts signal their original creators intent as well as the new layers of meaning given to them through Biggers’s artistic intervention.
City Philadelphia, a month-long cultural project, to produce a work for the Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a stop on the Underground Railroad. As Biggers began to research the history of the Underground Railroad, he was intrigued by the myth that quilts doubled as signposts along escape routes throughout the 19th century.
“Sanford Biggers’s quilt-based work is deeply informed by his appreciation of quilts and their original makers, recognizing the multi-layered histories they assume over the decades,” said Scott Erbes, the Speed’s Curator of Decorative Arts and Design. “His masterful interventions add new meanings and generate new dialogues with this iconic American art form.”
With these stories in mind, Biggers created his first quilt-based works for the Philadelphia project, hanging antique quilts that visually engaged the churchstained glass windows, and created a "celestial map” handout documenting the city’s Underground Railroad sites, with Mother Bethel as the North Star.
In addition to his quilt-based work dating from 2012 to 2020, the Speed will feature two of the artist’s video works dating from 2000 and 2014. In 2009, Biggers was commissioned by Hidden S P E E D
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The tradition of quilt-making holds a significant place in American culture and has special resonance in African American communities as witnessed in the quilts by quiltmakers from Gee’s Bend — a small, insulated African American community in Alabama — 21
Textile artist Sanford Biggers. Photo by Gioncarlo Valentine
who have produced hundreds of quilts from the 19th century to the present. That tradition has been upheld by contemporary artists today, such as Faith Ringgold and Sam Gilliam. Biggers’s sought-after work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, among others. “Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch is a powerful exhibition about disruption and material storytelling,” said Speed Director Raphaela Platow.
“Using historic quilts and dramatically altering them with bold paint strokes, incisions, or sown additions, the artist both deconstructs the already existing vernacular imagery or patterns of quilts and creates new works of shifting meanings and multiple perspectives.” 22
She adds, “Biggers’s works, brought about in an improvisational approach, contain divergent stories and meaning and invite us into an open-ended codeswitching exercise. As we continue our important and urgent journey of equity, inclusion and belonging, this important exhibition will provide the opportunity for us to reflect on different histories and traditions from the African diaspora, the Great Migration, continued racial injustices, the history of women’s art and societal contributions, Buddhism, and much more through the works of this multi-talented, highly imaginative artist.”
The exhibition and catalog are made possible by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund: Culpeper Arts & Culture Program, Henry Luce Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Marianne Boesky Gallery, Massimo De Carlo, David Castillo Gallery, Monique Meloche Gallery, Baldwin Gallery, and Yale University Press.
Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch was co-organized by Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought, New Orleans, and The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, and curated by Andrea Andersson, (Founding Director and Chief Curator, Rivers Institute) and Sergio Bessa (former Director of Curatorial Programs, Bronx Museum).
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The Speed Art Museum 2035 S. Third St. Louisville, Kentucky 40208 502.634.2700 (Main) speedmuseum.org
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THE SPEED ART MUSEUM PRESENTS
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SANFORD BIGGERS
Codeswitch is the first survey of quilt-based works—inspired, in part, by the rich creative legacies of African American quilters—produced by the American interdisciplinary artist Sanford Biggers. The works, part of Biggers’s Codex series, consist of mixed-media paintings and sculptures done directly on or made from antique American quilts.
Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch was co-organized by Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought, New Orleans, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, and curated by Andrea Andersson (Founding Director and Chief Curator, Rivers Institute) and Sergio Bessa (former Director of Curatorial Programs, Bronx Museum). The exhibition and catalog are made possible by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund: Culpeper Arts & Culture Program, Henry Luce Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Marianne Boesky Gallery, Massimo De Carlo, David Castillo Gallery, Monique Meloche Gallery, Baldwin Gallery, and Yale University Press.
Leading sponsors: Brooke Brown Barzun & Matthew Barzun Stephen Reily and Emily Bingham
Members see it all for free! Advanced ticket purchase strongly encouraged. Visit speedmuseum.org
Contributing sponsors: Hardscuffle, Inc. Jeffrey and Susan Callen Colin and Woo Speed McNaughton Lopa and Rishabh Mehrotra
Exhibition season sponsored by: Cary Brown and Steven E. Epstein Paul and Deborah Chellgren Arthur J. and Mary Celeste Lerman Charitable Foundation Debra and Ronald Murphy
Image: Sanford Biggers American, b. 1970 Quilt 35 (Vex), 2014 Antique quilt fragments,treated acrylic, and tar on antique quilt.
Exhibition opening sponsor:
Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson
2035 S. 3rd Street Louisville, KY 40208
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EVENTS CALENDAR Audience is your connection to the performing arts and entertainment in Louisville. Below are some of the events we are looking forward to in the coming months and we hope you enjoy them all!
APRIL 8 An American Dream Kentucky Opera 8PM, Brown Theatre KYOpera.org Sal Vulcano
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My Morning Jacket Iroquois Amphitheater (Friday) Waterfront Park (Saturday) productionsimple.com
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91.9 WFPL Presents An Evening with Lindsey Buckingham 8PM, Brown Theatre kentuckyperformingarts.org
30 15 Sal Vulcano from Impractical Jokers 7PM, Brown Theatre kentuckyperformingarts.org
22 Michael Cavanaugh Plays Music of Elton John Louisville Orchestra 8PM, Whitney Hall louisvilleorchestra.org Leanne Morgan
23 Leanne Morgan: Big Panty Tour 4PM & 7PM, Brown Theatre kentuckyperformingarts.org
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24-25
ALT 105.1 Presents Rodney Crowell Modest Mouse with The Cribs 7PM, Bomhard Theater 8PM, Iroquois Amphitheater kentuckyperformingarts.org productionsimple.org
Reclaimed Treasures Louisville Orchestra 8PM, Whitney Hall louisvilleorchestra.org
Kentucky to the World and KPA Present DIVING DEEP: Chris Fischer's Journey to Save Sharks and Bring Balance to Our Oceans 6:30PM, Bomhard Theater kentuckyperformingarts.org
JULY
24 Valerie June with Rachel Maxann 8PM, Old Forester's Paristown Hall kentuckyperformingarts.org
MAY 7 85° West Music Festival Presents Janet Jackson and New Edition 7PM, Lynn Family Stadium seatgeek.com
May 25-July 22
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Kentucky Shakespeare Twelfth Night Central Park kentuckyshakespeare.org
Leon Bridges 8PM, Louisville Palace louisvillepalace.com
Forcastle Festival Waterfront Park forecastlefest.com
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JUNE
Fantastique Louisville Orchestra 8PM, Whitney Hall louisvilleorchestra.org
Hamilton
14 Flo Milli Live 8PM, Old Forester's Paristown Hall kentuckyperformingarts.org
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As I Lay Dying 7PM, Old Forester's Paristown Hall kentuckyperformingarts.org
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7-19 Hamilton PNC Broadway in Louisville Whitney Hall louisville.broadway.com
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The Mavericks
14 91.9 WFPK Presents The Mavericks 'En Español' World Tour (rescheduled) 8PM, Brown Theatre kentuckyperformingarts.org
For more of our preferred arts and entertainment recommendations, visit Audience502.com/ audience-events
TO DRINK OR NOT TO DRINK, THERE IS NO QUESTION A P R I L
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“The Lifeblood of Kentucky” – Discover one family’s bond to Kentucky’s waterways and the crucial part they play in our state’s history. “H.P. McGrath & the Kentucky Derby” – Learn about the rise of an Irish immigrant and his connection to the "Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports". “Afoul of the Law” – A corrupt Kentucky lawman tries to get away with murder but ends up in the electric chair instead. “The Children of Flatboat George” – A Mason County mystery seeks the truth about an ancestor and the people he enslaved. “The Spoils of War” – This intriguing tale details how ferry boats helped smuggling efforts during the Civil War.
