Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia Performing Arts Center has announced the roster of artists for the 2011-2012 season. In making the announcement, Performing Arts Center Director George C. Foreman said, “Our upcoming season offers a rich mixture of music, dance, and theater, and continues to build upon the excellence that audiences have come to expect over the past sixteen years.”
A very special event highlights the 2011-2012 season when renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma comes to Hodgson Hall for a solo performance. “I am thrilled that we are able to engage the services of Mr. Ma,” said Foreman. “He is without a doubt one of the greatest and most versatile artists working today.” Yo-Yo Ma will treat audiences to an intimate recital performance of Bach’s Suites for Unaccompanied Cello.
The Performing Arts Center will continue its partnership with the Classic Center by co-presenting some of the biggest names in popular entertainment in the Celebrity Evenings series. The 2011-2012 Celebrity Evenings will feature the six-time Grammy-winning Irish band The Chieftains and best-selling author and radio host Garrison Keillor.
The University of Georgia’s Franklin College Chamber Music Series will enter an exciting new era as it inaugurates a partnership with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The project with Lincoln Center’s famed ensemble will bring chamber music back to the UGA Chapel for a weekend of concerts called the Arch Chamber Music Festival. “I have been looking forward to presenting chamber music in its original home on the university campus, and this new collaboration affords us the perfect opportunity to do that,” Foreman said.
The Performing Arts Center’s two premier classical music series, Masterworks and Classics, will offer a wealth of orchestral concerts with a total of six appearances by world-renowned symphony orchestras, most notably London’s acclaimed Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
A new series, the Brass Ring, will explore music made on the instruments of the brass family, while the Off-Broadway series returns with three nationally known comedy theater troupes, including the political satirists The Capitol Steps, perfectly timed for an election year.
The 2011-2012 Traditions series will focus on the rich tradition of American popular music, showcasing New Orleans jazz, bluegrass, Broadway show tunes, classic R&B, and music of the big band era.
The Ramsey Concert Hall Series will continue to showcase classical music’s best and brightest young talent, including a dynamic piano duo featuring twin sisters.
The upcoming season also will offer a variety of other special events such as a new film celebrating the legacy of violinist Jascha Heifetz and a musical play commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
The Performing Arts Center will again offer free pre-concert lectures for many of its classical music performances. In addition, pre-performance conversations with PAC Director George Foreman and special guests will take place prior to the five concerts in the Brass Ring series.
In 2011-2012, the UGA Performing Arts Center begins its fourteenth year recording concerts for broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today, enjoyed by millions of listeners across the country and around the world. The Performing Arts Center also will continue its educational programs, offering master classes and lecture/demonstrations for UGA students and regional public school students.
Subscriptions to the 2011-2012 season are on sale now. For more information or a brochure, contact the Performing Arts Center box office at 706/542-4400 or toll free at 888/289-8497 or see www.uga.edu/pac.
Single tickets for individual Performing Arts Center events will go on sale Aug. 29.
Following is the 2011-2012 season of the UGA Performing Arts Center by series:
Special Event
Yo-Yo Ma, Cello (Jan. 11)
Celebrity Evenings
The Chieftains (Feb. 24)
Garrison Keillor – An Evening of Story Telling (April 23)
Masterworks
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra – Robert Spano, Conductor and Garrick Ohlsson, Piano
(Nov. 3)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Pinchas Zukerman, Conductor and Violin (Jan. 10)
Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra (Feb.16)
Nordwest Deutsche Philharmonic (March 7)
Classics
Munich Symphony Orchestra – Philippe Entremont, Conductor (Nov. 13)
Tchaikovsky Ballet Theatre – Romeo and Juliet (Jan. 17, 18)
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra – Leonidas Kavakos, Conductor and Violin (March 25)
The Knights (April 16)
Franklin College Chamber Music Series
A Heifetz Celebration (Oct. 23)
Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet (Oct. 25)
Emerson String Quartet (Feb.14)
St. Lawrence String Quartet (April 4)
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center – The Arch Chamber Music Festival
(April 14, 15)
The Brass Ring
Georgia Brass Band (Oct. 16)
The Miles Davis Experience (Nov. 17)
Wycliffe Gordon Quintet (Jan. 24)
Canadian Brass (Feb. 21)
Australian Baroque Brass Ensemble (April 19)
Traditions
Glenn Miller Orchestra (Oct. 11)
Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Del McCoury Band (Oct. 22)
100 Years of Broadway (Feb. 6)
Cornell Gunter’s Coasters, The Bobby Hendricks Drifters, and The Platters (Feb. 17)
Off-Broadway
Reduced Shakespeare Company (Sept. 20)
The Capitol Steps (Feb. 10)
Second City Company (March 2, 3)
Ramsey Concert Hall Series
Gleb Ivanov, Piano (Nov. 8)
Bella Hristova, Violin (Feb. 27)
Christina and Michelle Naughton, Duo Piano (March 6)
Other Special Events
Civil War Voices (Oct. 12)
Jascha Heifetz: God’s Fiddler (Oct. 24)
United States Marine Band (Oct. 26)
Joe Goode Performance Group (Feb. 4, 5)
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