The Newman Center for the Performing Arts has begun selling subscriptions for its 2007–08 season. The center’s fifth season will feature more dance companies and fewer traditional theatrical offerings while continuing to serve up an eclectic mix of modern and classic productions.
Newman Center Presents will feature 14 performances of music, theater and dance, all in Gates Concert Hall. Each performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. and will be preceded by a free “Behind the Curtain” lecture at 6:30 p.m.
Director’s choice subscriptions include nine performances and are $180–$380 per person, a 20 percent savings from per-ticket prices. Patron’s choice subscriptions include four or more performances in a “create-your-own” series at 10 percent off regular prices.
“By putting all of these artists on the same stage to express themselves, we’re sending the message that diversity and eclecticism has value. That it’s important to embrace diversity of cultures and of disciplines,” says Stephen Seifert, the center’s executive director.
Seifert says more than half of the Newman Center’s shows over the past five seasons have been performed by artists who have never before been to Denver. The University is, he says, a natural presenter for multi-disciplinary works, because the University’s own mission is multi-disciplinary.
Diavolo, a modern dance company, will open the season on Sept. 28 with “Foreign Bodies,” which was co-commissioned by the University of Denver.
Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers will perform with the Lamont Symphony Orchestra Oct. 4. Lawrence Golan will conduct. Meyers will perform a work written for her by Pulitzer Prize winning American composer Joseph Schwantner.
On Oct. 4, Yamato will perform with dozens of traditional Japanese drums, including an odaiko made from a huge 400-year-old tree.
Jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves and guitarists Romero Lubambo and Russell Malone will bring “Strings Attached” to the Gates Concert Hall on Oct. 27. Reeves makes her home in Denver, but this will be her first performance as part of theNewman Center Presents series.
On Nov. 9 Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr will recreate an evening of Mozart and Schubert using a violin and fortepiano, a forerunner of the grand piano. The duo will recreate a performance like one that might have been performed in a 19th century home.
Tapestry, a four-woman a cappella ensemble, will perform a holiday concert “In the Company of Angels” on Dec. 1. The quartet will combine medieval repertory with contemporary compositions.
Badi Assad will sing and play guitar on Jan. 19. A veritable one-woman band, Assad is a percussionist and poet as well as vocalist and guitarist.
Ballet comes to the Newman Center on Jan. 26 with a performance by Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, a group of 15 professional male dancers who wear ballerina outfits. The troupe offers a comic view of traditional ballet in parody form.
On Feb. 20, the 100-member Russian National Orchestra will perform. Vladimir Jurowski will conduct and Stephen Hough will play piano. The orchestra, which has been in demand throughout the music world since its debut in 1990, called the University to offer to play during its U.S. tour.
Pianist Piotr Anderszewski will perform on Feb. 23. He is widely regarded as one of the most exciting pianists of his generation.
Capitol Steps, a satire group mostly made up of former Capitol Hill staffers, will perform on March 12. The group has recorded 26 albums and has been featured on all of the major television networks.
On March 22, Urban Bush Women and Campagnie Jant-Bi will collaborate on a dance performance based on the cultural influences of the African Diaspora.
On April 26, the Newman Center will host a fifth anniversary celebration and performance by the jazz group the Manhattan Transfer. The event will raise funds for the Newman Center’s endowment.
The season draws to a close on May 10 with storyteller Rik Reppe’s “Glorious Noise,” an exploration of the stories and music of the New Orleans Jazz Fest. Reppe’s stories, accompanied by piano, will reveal love, life and loss in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Tickets for individual performances will go on sale Aug. 1 and can be purchased at the Newman Center and Ritchie Center box offices or from Ticketmaster. For more information about the Newman Center, visitwww.du.edu/newmancenter/.