Overture
In this issue: A Night on the Town, Asian Fest, The Dallas Regional Chamber, History of Texas Music, Warbirds Over Addison, Celebrate Downtown and more!
Dallas / Fort Worth • wrr101.com
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A Monthly publication For Friends of WRR
May 2009
Cliburn Competition comes to Cowtown
Forget about “American Idol.” Later this month begins the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which in its sheer excitement, musicianship and spontaneity will surpass anything that reality TV could ever produce. 12th Van Cliburn Thirty pianists Competition Medalists from 14 countries will start vying for fame and glory on May 22. The winner is crowned on June 7. WRR will be there for every round of the Fort Worth competition with continuous updates and live performances. Even before the pianos get rolled onto the Bass Hall stage, WRR will run short daily news segments that spotlight different aspects of what makes the Cliburn Competition the most prestigious in the world — from interviews with host families, judges, past winners and current competitors to behind-the-scenes looks at early preparations and even how the
medals are made. For the first time in its history, WRR will broadcast every note of the final round when the number of competitors gets winnowed down to six. From June 3-7, you can enjoy solo recitals and performances of piano concerts with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Conlon. WRR’s coverage will also include reporting on the wrr101.com web site, with links to video and audio excerpts of earlier rounds. The Cliburn Competition was founded in 1962 by Fort Worth music teachers in honor of Van Cliburn who had won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition four years earlier. Past Cliburn winners include Radu Lupu, Jose Feghali, Jon Nakamatsu, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Olga Kern and Alexander Kobrin. Each of the top three prizewinners in the competition receives a $20,000 cash award and bookings in some of the leading recital halls in the world. Although some other piano competitions offer more prize money, the Cliburn’s professional management and concert tours are valued at over a million dollars combined.
For this year’s competition, China is the most represented, with a contingent of seven pianists. It’s followed by South Korea, with four, and the United States, with three. For the first time in Cliburn history, a blind pianist, Nobuyuki Tsujii of Japan, will compete. This year’s 30 competitors were selected from preliminary auditions that took place earlier this year in China, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, New York and Fort Worth. All events take place at Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth. For tickets or more information, call 817-335-9000 or go to the web site www.cliburn.org . The 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Schedule: • May 22-26: Preliminary round (solo recitals) • May 28-31: Semifinal round (solo recitals, piano quintet performances with the Takacs Quartet) • June 3-7: Final round (solo recitals, performances of two piano concertos with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Conlon)
The Lexus Broadway Series & Booker T. Washington Partnership Announced The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts’ (DCPA) 2009-2010 inaugural season of the Lexus Broadway Series takes place at the Center’s new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House. The inaugural season features SOUTH PACIFIC, AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, SPRING AWAKENING and AVENUE Q. “Our goal for the Lexus Broadway Series is to give North Texas audiences the opportunity to see Broadway of the highest caliber, including productions that have never been shown in Dallas,” said Mark Nerenhau- Mark Nerenhausen, president sen and CEO of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. The DCPA is partnering with Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (BTWHSPVA) providing an extraordinary level of access for students to the Center’s new Lexus Broadway Series. Through funding provided by the Dallas Fort Worth Lexus Dealer Association, the Center will “adopt” theatre students from the BTWHSPVA senior class and provide them with complimentary tickets to the Lexus Broadway Series. In addition, working theatre professionals, including actors, technicians, writers, composers and others, will conduct master classes at BTWHSPVA throughout the year. The classes range from song writing seminars to training for open auditions to make-up seminars, and will all be geared to provide creative training and career guidance to the theatre students. “The combination of the powerful inaugural season of the Lexus Broadway Series with the unparalleled setting of the Winspear Opera
Overture • May 2009
House will provide a profound musical theatre experience that Dallas-area residents have long awaited,” said Ken Schnitzer, a board member of the Center and Chairman of Park Place Ken Schnitzer Dealerships. “The ability to create these types of educational programs is what drew us to become title sponsor of the Broadway Series presented by the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts,” said Carl Sewell, member of the Center’s President’s Advisory Council and Chairman of Sewell Automotive Companies. “The talented students at Booker T. Washington High School have the potential to become Broadway’s next stars, and we are thrilled to be able to provide them with unique opportunities that will further their artistic education.” The Winspear Opera House, one of the signature venues of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, was designed by Foster + Partners under the direction of Pritzker Prizewinning architect Norman Foster. Accommodating audiences of up to 2,300, the Winspear Opera House will provide a spectacular setting for the Lexus Broadway Series. With one of the largest stages in the region, the Winspear Opera House has been designed for Broadway productions on any scale. The ticket program and master class series are the first pieces of the collaboration between the Center and BTWHSPVA. As the program develops, the addition of internships, apprenticeships and scholarships will also be explored. “Our students have a unique opportunity to have the entire Dallas Center for the
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Performing Arts as a learning laboratory,” said Tracie Fraley, BTWHSPVA Principal. “We are grateful that the Center and Lexus have made our students an important part of the Lexus Broadway Series from the outset, and we look forward to the Tracie Fraley extraordinary exposure our students will have to the talent that performs here.” The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts opens in October 2009, with the inaugural Lexus Broadway Series beginning in December. Subscription tickets are on sale now. Full season subscriptions are available for as little as $100. Visit dallasperformingarts.org or call 214880-0202 for more information.
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