Monday, May 21, 2012
Dance.net interviews Lauren Jonas — 'it's important that the dancers be artists.'
There are insights dancing through a new interview by Dance.net of Lauren Jonas, artistic director and co-founder of Diablo Ballet. Jonas opens a window on the creative process at Diablo and the collaboration needed to be produce a successful ballet. An excerpt of the interview: "One of the reasons why I choose dancers who have had soloist or principal experience in a prominent ballet company prior to joining Diablo Ballet is because they are not only at the height of their careers, but they are also individuals with life experiences. Because Diablo Ballet is a small company, it’s important that the dancers be artists. I feel that this is definitely one of Diablo Ballet’s strengths. Each of our dancers has a story to tell and it is …
Sunday, May 13, 2012
'I Love This City' ticketholders irate that electronic dance music festival has been moved from San Francisco.
San Francisco's loss is Mountain View and the South Bay's gain. The popular electronic dance music festival, 'I Love This City' originally scheduled for Friday, May 25 and Saturday, May 26 at AT&T Park has been relocated to Shoreline Amphitheatre for those same nights. A Live Nation press release stated the move was due to production challenges surrounding the lot at the ballpark. To accommodate concertgoers Live Nation, the concert producer, will provide a free shuttle bus to Mountain View for ticketholders who board in San Franciso. Also, the concert time has been extended until 11:30 p.m. and teens older than 16 can now attend. However, while dance music fans in the South and East Bay welcome the shorter drive to listen to more than 40 …
Friday, May 11, 2012
No, NOT Van Morrison. Listen to these songs on a YouTube gone bacterial by a former Acalanes Don who sounds crystal clear even as she's apparently piloting a VeeDub full of musicians. Stay with the song through the first kazoo solo, please.
This from Lafayette City Manager Steven Falk, a music lover and fan of all things Lafayette, who caught the buzz in the music world about a local gal with a stellar set of pipes. Acalanes High graduate Nicki Bluhm and her Acalanes High guitar player childhood friend Deren Ney made, while driving in a van, a great video cover of the Hall & Oates classic “I Can’t Go For That.” One Patch commenter said Nicki and the bearded guys sound better than Hall & Oates. It went viral, attracting more than a million views. And so Nicki and her band are heading out on tour and – in respect for their Lafayette roots – asked the promoter (Greg Perloff/Another Planet Entertainment) to book them for an evening at Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette. Nicki and the…
Friday, May 4, 2012
“If you play music, you’re doing something beautiful and worthwhile in the world." That was one message about music, art, life and humanity, delivered by top musicians Eliot Fisk and Richard Stoltzman to young musicians Monday.
During a special concert for middle school students at the Lesher Center for the Arts on Monday, world-renowned clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and classical guitar player Eliot Fisk performed a sampler of classical, jazz, modern and folk music. While displaying exquisite technique, the two virtuosos also took questions and offered valuable lessons about the craft of performance, the thrill of artistic expression and music’s essential role in society and in a happy, meaningful life. “How many of you play music because you feel something deep inside that you want to express?” Fisk asked the excited audience of nearly 300 students, grades 6 through 8 from Rancho Medanos and Hillview junior high schools in Pittsburg. Many hands shot up. A few …
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
A flotilla of dance performances, symphony season wrap-ups, and select theatrical and visual art extravaganzas for your entertainment!
It’s May! The hills are green, the buds have budded/burst/blossomed, Easter’s over and summer vacation is rising like a phoenix on the horizon. It’s time to catch a flotilla of dance performances, symphony season wrap-ups, and select theatrical and visual art extravaganzas. I took a peek at April’s column and thought the chronological mashup was messy, so this month, we’re trying categories. Pick one from each genre or be a one-track-only theater couch potato and gorge on your favorite art form. Either way, shut down the laptop, turn off your cell (unless you’re a tweeter for Diablo Ballet!) and ride the night-out wave with this month’s Cream of the Crop: Diablo Ballet at Shadelands Arts Center Auditorium Friday, May 4, at 7:30 pm, and …
Monday, April 30, 2012
Eight o'clock shows are sold out; center for the arts adds 5 o'clock performances.
The Lesher Center's new jazz series is off to a beboppin' start even before the first sound check. In January, the Lesher Center for the Arts announced plans for four international jazz names to inaugurate "Jazz at the Lesher Center" in July and August. Now, those 8 p.m. performances are sold out and three of those artists — Arturo Sandoval, John Pizzarelli and Wycliffe Gordon — have added 5 p.m. shows. Another 5 o'clock show, by vocalist Wesla Whitfield — who finds the place where jazz and cabaret meet — was added on Saturday, July 14, at 5 p.m. only. The series fills a gap. "Jazz, as performed by artists of the very top rank, has been missing from the area's arts scene," said Peggy White, director of the Diablo Regional Arts …
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Locust Street closed off for Walnut Creek's Fine Arts and Crafts Festival, which continues Sunday.
The art patrons, the craft lovers and the merely curious filled downtown Walnut Creek Saturday for the 68th Semi-Annual Fine Arts and Crafts Festival. They flocked to the sidewalks of North Main Street and the sidewalks and closed-off thoroughfare of Locust Street. "The quality of art here I think is extraordinarily good," said Patrick Baker, who runs the Cutco knives outlet in Walnut Creek and is showing cutlery at the festival. The event continues from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Sponsored by the Downtown Business Association, the 68th Semi-Annual Fine Arts and Crafts Festival is free to the public and features more than 150 professional artists traveling from throughout California and the West to showcase original paintings, sculpture, …
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Clay Arts Guild event is at Civic Arts Education Studio in Civic Park.
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Thursday, April 26
The following press release feature comes from the Clay Arts Guild: The burst of green grass on Mount Diablo and colorful wildflowers on the hillsides stimulate gardeners to think about brightening their own yards and patios with plants, water features and garden decoration. But where can they get unique pots and garden ware in which to put those plants? The Clay Arts Guild will focus on outdoor garden pots and garden decoration at the Artists’ Market spring sale Friday through Sunday. A reception with live music, light refreshments and a flower-arranging demo kicks off the sale from 5-9 p.m. Friday at the Civic Park Studio, 1313 Civic Dr. The sale continues 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and April 29, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at the Civic Park …
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Civic Park
1375 Civic Dr, Walnut Creek, CA
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Walnut Creek's Ben Orum and his band All Shall Perish have hundreds of thousands of fans around the world.
Ben Orum got his first guitar at the age of 15 – just 16 years later and the Walnut Creek resident is now playing in front of thousands of fans every night. Orum has been the rhythm guitarist for the Bay Area metal band All Shall Perish since its formation in 2002. The California native was born in Chico, but also spent time in Orinda, Oakland and Lafayette before moving to Walnut Creek as a teenager with his mom. "Most of my life I've been in the Bay Area," said Orum in an interview at the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival in Worcester, Mass. "... I moved to Walnut Creek in my teens, so it was probably 17 years ago, with my mom. I love it there – it's very nice." All Shall Perish, which combines elements of death metal and hardcore …
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Comedian's conversational standup style has audience chuckling at the Lesher Center.
Howie Mandel brought his conversational style of standup comedy to the stage of the Lesher Center Friday night. The television game show and talent show star picked out audience members, asked pointed questions and brought forward items that yielded yucks in unexpected ways. Mandel picked on people but in a good-natured way. There was an occasional wrong turn, but it usually worked through the agency of Mandel's comedic timing. "I don't edit myself," he said, but it seemed to me that that was exactly what he was doing. A woman in the front row was texting her adult son, who was getting ready to board a plane from LA to the Bay Area. A woman in the back didn't know the name of her friend's pet fish. A doctor named Carla — who will never …
Ken Roberts
7:33 am on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Can't blame the people wanting a refund. Taking this event from a pretty cool place like ATT park to the 'strip mall' that is Shoreline, is a big let down. Still, the line up is impressive. It only took the better park of 2 decades for DJ culture to arrive in the states. more ›