Celebrity Series of Boston Presents the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, WHAT THE %@&*! HAPPENED TO COMICS? and More

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
May 1-4
Thursday | 7:30pm
Friday | 8pm
Saturday | 2pm & 8pm
Sunday | 3pm
Citi Wang Theatre: 270 Tremont St., Boston, MA
Tickets: $35 and up
Phone: 866-348-9738
MBTA: Green line to Boylston

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has been thrilling Boston audiences since the Celebrity Series presented their Boston debut in 1968. The Company will present two different programs throughout the five performances May 1-4. The first program will featureLIFT by in-demand choreographer Aszure Barton in its Boston premiere, Wayne McGregor's Chroma, and D-Man in the Waters (Part I) by modern dance innovator Bill T. Jones. The second program aptly titled Ailey/Ellington, showcases two of the 14 ballets founder Alvin Ailey created during his career celebrating the musical genius of the eminent American composer Duke Ellington, includingNight Creature and new productions of Pas de Duke, and The River restaged by Associate Artistic Director Masazumi Chaya.

Marc-André Hamelin, piano
Anthony Marwood, violin
Martin Fröst, clarinet
Friday, May 2, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall: 30 Gainsborough St., Boston, MA
Tickets: $35 and up
Phone: 617-482-6661
MBTA: Green line E to Symphony

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin completes his 3-concert cycle with a chamber music concert that includes violinist Anthony Marwood and clarinetist Martin Fröst. Program includes works by Schubert, Debussy, Stravinsky, Poulenc, and Bart?k.

Art Spiegelman: What the %@&*! Happened to Comics?
Friday, May 9, 8pm
Sanders Theatre: 45 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA
Tickets: $30 and up
Phone: 617-482-6661
MBTA: Red line to Harvard Sq.

Art Spiegelman's comics are best known for their scratch-board, illustrative style and controversial content. In his talk "What the %@&*! Happened to Comics?" he takes his audience on a chronological tour of the evolution of comics, all the while explaining the value of this medium and why it should not be ignored.

Mark Morris Dance Group: Acis and Galatea
Handel and Haydn Society Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus
Nicholas McGegan, conductor
May 15-18
Citi Shubert Theatre: 270 Tremont St.,Boston, MA
Tickets: $35 and up
Phone: 866-348-9738
MBTA: Green line to Boylston

Celebrity Series of Boston is co-commissioner of this fully-staged production of Mozart's arrangement of Handel's opera, Acis & Galatea, by director and choreographer Mark Morris and the Mark Morris Dance Group making its East Coast premiere. Known as one of the greatest pastoral operas, Acis and Galatea, based on Ovid's Metamorphoses, was composed by Handel in 1718 and arranged by Mozart in 1788.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky, baritone
Ivar Ilja, piano
Thursday, May 29, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall: 30 Gainsborough St., Boston, MA
Tickets: $35 and up
Phone: 617-482-6661
MBTA: Green line to Boylston

Internationally acclaimed Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky won the prestigious Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 1989. From the start, audiences were bowled over by his cultivated voice, innate sense of musical line and natural legato. After his Western operatic debut at the Nice Opera in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame, his career exploded to take in regular engagements at the world's major opera houses and appearances at renowned international festivals. Program includes works by Tchaikovsky, Medtner, and Rachmaninoff.

Le Grand Continental®
May 16-18
Copley Square Park

This spring ... Join the Le Grand Continental® dance celebration in Copley Square Park for this free, public event! Celebrate the finale of Celebrity Series of Boston's 75th anniversary season with an outdoor dance extravaganza in Copley Square Park. Created by Montreal-based choreographer Sylvain Émard, Le Grand Continental® is the most infectious contemporary line dancing event ever imagined! 150 individuals of all ages from across Greater Boston will join together to be part of three special dance shows in May 2014. Be a part of this community-wide, first-ever, outdoor dance extravaganza right in the heart of Boston!

About Celebrity Series of Boston

Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. Over the course of its 75-year history, Celebrity Series has presented an array of the world's greatest performing artists, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski, Artur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Andrés Segovia, Kirsten Flagstad, Marian Anderson, Luciano Pavarotti, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Martha Graham, Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the New York City Opera Company.

The Celebrity Series has been bringing the very best performers-from orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, and more-to Boston's major concert halls for 75 years. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experiences, transform lives and build better communities. Through its education initiatives, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience-on stages, in schools, at home- everywhere. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call(617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.

The Celebrity Series of Boston, Inc. receives generous support from Amy and Joshua Boger; Eleanor and Frank Pao; Donna and Mike Egan; Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation; The Little Family Foundation; Tufts Health Plan; Foley & Lardner LLP; The John S. and Cynthia Reed Foundation; First Republic Bank; The Peabody Foundation; Charlesbank Capital Partners; PTC, The D.L. Saunders Real Estate Corp; Massachusetts Cultural Council; Vertex Pharmaceuticals; New England Foundation for the Arts.