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Georgia Tech Office of the Arts Announces 2013-14 Ferst Center Presents Season

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The Office of the Arts at Georgia Tech announces its 2013-14 Ferst Center Presents performance season, with Georgia Tech’s arts center set to host audience favorites from around the globe, including four Atlanta premiere performances.  Ferst Center Presents offers one of the city’s most diverse line-ups, presenting nationally and internationally-recognized artists.

The 22nd season is a year filled with contemporary dance, jazz, other music genres and unique artist residency programs.  The season maintains the tradition of presenting popular jazz and contemporary dance performances while introducing artists who are young or premiering their work in Atlanta but poised to become the next great tradition with their own extraordinary talent.  In addition to performances, the season includes several artist residency programs that deepen the arts experience with constituent audiences including K-12 students, Georgia Tech students and local artists.  

Special 2013-14 five-show ticket packages – at a 15 percent discount off individual ticket prices – are now on sale and may be ordered from the Ferst Center Box Office at 404-894-9600. Single tickets go on sale on August 13.  Information can also be found at www.ferstcenter.org.

The 2013-14 Season, listed by series, includes:**

Dance:  Diavolo, Push Dance Company, Pilobolus
Jazz:
  Arturo Sandoval, A Peter White Christmas with Rick Braun and Mindi Abair, Pat Metheney Unity Group, Alfredo Rodriguez Trio, Earl Klugh: A Night of Guitars

More Music:  Steven Lin, The Hot Club of San Francisco, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Sonic Generator and L’Orchestre National de Lorraine, Carolina Chocolate Drops

Other Performance and Residency Programs:  Shuffle, Shake and Shatter video and art installation and artist residency with Sanford Biggers; Crowd Source artist residency with Jonah Bokaer, Handpicked artist residency with Earl Klugh

The 2013-14 Season, listed by date, includes:** 

Diavolo
Friday, September 20 at 8 p.m.

Diavolo takes dance, daring and athletics to the extreme. The dynamic company returns to the Ferst Center with Fluid Infinities, the next installment of the work they performed in 2010, and with Transit Space, a kinetic new piece inspired by the thrilling movement of skateboarding that uses ramps and half-pipes as set pieces.

Arturo Sandoval
Friday, October 4 at 8 p.m.
Vivacious, talented and charismatic, Arturo Sandoval has traveled the world with his blend of infectious, mind-blowing jazz that has earned him Grammy and Billboard Awards, an Emmy and fans the world over.  A protégé of the legendary jazz master Dizzy Gillespie, Sandoval was born in Cuba in 1949 and has evolved into one of the world’s most acknowledged guardians of jazz trumpet and flugelhorn, as well as a renowned classical artist, pianist and composer.

Steven Lin
Friday, October 11 at 8 p.m.

Steven Lin,an immediately engaging and imaginative young Taiwanese American pianist, moves with ease between concertos, recitals and chamber music. The winner of several prestigious piano competitions including the William Kapell International Competition and the Juilliard School’s Gina Bachauer Piano Competition, he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 13. An Atlanta Premiere.

The Hot Club of San Francisco
Friday, October 18 at 8 p.m.

The great gypsy jazz ensemble The Hot Club of San Francisco presents Cinema Vivant, an evening of vintage silent films accompanied by live gypsy swing music.  The music of Django Reinhardt and 1920s Paris will highlight three classic short films: The Cameraman’s Revenge and The Mascot by Ladislaw Starewicz, and There It Is by Charley Bowers.  An Atlanta Premiere.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Friday, November 1 at 8 p.m.

2013 marks the 20th Anniversary of this band’s remarkable arrival on the music scene. In their first years, they reminded the world that it was still cool to swing – Big Band style. Today the high-energy nine-piece ensemble continues the party and takes things to the next level, continuously performing and recording while expanding their horizons with new musical inspiration and influence.

Sonic Generator and L’Orchestre National de Lorraine
Sunday, November 3 at 7 p.m.

Sonic Generator, the high-tech contemporary music ensemble in residence at Georgia Tech, joins forces with members of L’Orchestre National de Lorraine and their conductor Jacques Mercier. This concert of innovative French and American contemporary music features Steve Reich’s City Life, a seminal work that uses digital samplers to bring the sounds of New York City into the concert hall. This concert is co-presented by the Georgia Tech School of Music and the Office of the Arts as part of France-Atlanta 2013. An Atlanta Premiere.

A Peter White Christmas with Rick Braun and Mindi Abair
Saturday, December 14 at 8 p.m.
The jazz guitar favorite returns to deliver his brand of holiday jazz!  Peter White leads an all star lineup featuring Rick Braun and Mindi Abair performing dazzling arrangements of holiday favorites. White has kept contemporary jazz fans worldwide enthralled by his spirited melodies, soulful grooves and instantly recognizable acoustic guitar tone.

Push Dance Company
Friday and Saturday, February 7 and 8 at 8 p.m.

Raissa Simpson’s Push Dance Company builds vibrant contemporary dances to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges attributed to mixed heritage. Edgy, sleek and sexy, each moment generates fresh perspectives from intermingling diverse dancers in raw situations. Showcasing rarely seen, discussed or presented topics, Push Dance provides audiences an opportunity to examine issues of identity and intersecting cultures that surround and affect us all. An Atlanta Premiere.

Pat Metheny Unity Group
With Chris Potter, Antonio Sanchez, Ben Williams and Giulio Carmassi

Saturday, February 15 at 8 p.m.
Guitarist Pat Metheny’s versatility is almost without peer. Whether purely acoustic or searingly electric, powerfully intense or deeply contemplative, his unmistakable talent and musical sensibility have been at play for nearly 40 years resulting in an incredible 20 Grammy Awards.

Carolina Chocolate Drops
Saturday, March 1 at 8 p.m.

Proudly reclaiming the African-American string band tradition, the Chocolate Drops reveal the celebratory, interconnected currents running through blues, country and bluegrass, bringing brash, youthful energy to old-time music rooted in the red soil of the southern Piedmont.

Alfredo Rodriguez Trio
Friday, March 7 at 8 p.m.

A young pianist of astonishing virtuosity and imagination, Cuban-born Alfredo Rodríguez calls up images of legendary jazz pianists like Keith Jarrett, Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum, Bill Evans and his compatriot Chucho Valdés. Schooled in the rigorous classical conservatories of Havana, Rodríguez was discovered at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2006 by Quincy Jones and his star has risen rapidly under the tutelage of the famed producer.

Shuffle, Shake and Shatter by Sanford Biggers
Friday, March 28 at 8 p.m.

Multimedia and performance artist Sanford Biggers presents his three-part film suite Shuffle, Shake and Shatteraspart of the citywide Africa Atlanta 2014 celebration. The first installment, Shuffle, shot in Stuttgart, Germany, follows the Brazilian Ricardo as he navigates German society by constantly putting on and taking off clown makeup. In Shake and in Shatter, the story continues to Sao Paulo and then West Africa in this exploration of the formation and dissolution of identity.  See Artist Residency section below for more information.

Pilobolus
Saturday, April 5 at 8 p.m.

Like its biological namesake – a feisty little fungus that thrives in farmyards – Pilobolus continues to grow toward the light, expanding and refining its unique methods of collective creativity. Now in its 41st year, the popular dance company delights audiences around the globe with its inventive, athletic, witty and collaborative performance works.

Earl Klugh
Saturday, April 12 at 8 p.m.

Grammy-winning guitar virtuoso Earl Klugh and special guests ignite the stage in this “Night of Guitars” exploring Klugh's various guitar influences and their styles and techniques, plus solo, duet and trio performances, and with a full band. The concert will conclude the first year of a three-year collaboration between Klugh and Georgia Tech aptly titled “HandPicked” in honor of his upcoming 2013 album release. See Artist Residency section below for more information.

Artist Residency Programs
Georgia Tech’s Office of the Arts is committed to working with artists who collaborate in unique ways with the educational mission of the office, exploring connections between art and technology and serving both K-12 students at area partner schools and the students at Georgia Tech. The following projects will take place in the 2013-14 season:

Crowd Source Choreographer and digital media artist Jonah Bokaer will explore and engage the campus and community in the development and testing of a new smart phone app that maps crowd movement as inspiration for the artist and information and engagement for the audience. As the world becomes more densely populated, the concept of crowd management, crowd flow and movement becomes more significant and integrated with art. The project explores the question: How does technology play into the understanding of science and the art of movement in everyday places? The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation recently funded this two-year residency which follows the groundbreaking residency Bokaer conducted on campus two years ago.

Shuffle, Shake and ShatterGeorgia Tech students and faculty will work with Drew Charter School to create a public art project in collaboration with the work of interdisciplinary artist Sanford Biggers.  Developing a theme around cultural heritage, contemporary art and technology, this residency will be stewarded by Georgia Tech PhD digital media candidate Nettrice Gaskins and will be part of the citywide Africa Atlanta 2014 celebration.

HandPicked Grammy-winning jazz great and Atlanta resident Earl Klugh will explore, over a three-year period, a hand-picked arc of jazz music.  Throughout this time period Klugh will work with K-12 partner schools and Georgia Tech music students, in addition to presenting a concert each season. Selected students will participate in professional on-stage experiences with his group.  The first year will feature the role of the guitar (his chosen instrument) in Night of Guitars, followed by Jazz and the Movies for the second year, and ending with Latin Jazz for the third year.

Keep up with performance and residency activities all year online at www.ferstcenter.org and on Facebook.

**All programs subject to change. 

 

Located on the Georgia Tech campus in midtown Atlanta
349 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0468
Ferst Center Box Office 404-894-9600
www.ferstcenter.org

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About the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts

The Office of the Arts is a leader for the Georgia Tech community in the exploration of the arts by advocating, promoting and facilitating arts partnerships that enhance the campus arts experience, providing provocative fine arts choices on campus and creating a bridge to the larger Atlanta community. The Ferst Center Presents artist series, the major public program of the office, is dedicated to bringing world class performances and artist residency programs to the Georgia Tech campus that will enhance the total learning experience of the Georgia Tech student body, serve as a bridge to the surrounding Atlanta community and engage artists in a way that is uniquely Georgia Tech. Funding for the series is provided in part by contributions from individuals, foundations, corporations, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Fulton County Board of Commissioners under the guidance of the Fulton County Arts Council. Major corporate support is provided by the Coca-Cola Company and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For information call 404-894-2787 or visit www.ferstcenter.org.

 

 

 

 

Status

  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:Jenna Farmer
  • Created:05/01/2013
  • Modified By:Fletcher Moore
  • Modified:10/07/2016