Harmony Wheeler - Page 38

Backed by producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Fred Thoms, Saturday Looks Good To Me has made a huge name for themselves in the indie world. Garnering the attention of their peers and listeners alike for over a decade. Thomas has released several solo albums and fronted musical projects Swimsuit, City Center, and Mighty Clouds, among others. Thomas and his army of collaborators in SLGTM connect with a weirdly instinctual recognition of the generalized 60s music from which their own music is drawn.

Swedish duo We Are Serenades (formerly Serenades), who are members of the Shout Out Louds and Laakso, are set to release their debut LP, Criminal Heaven, on April 17 via Cherrytree Records/Interscope.

The Nederlander Organization of New York and the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa announced today that they will join forces to present the finest Broadway shows in the Tampa Bay area.

American Theater Company (ATC), together with About Face Theatre, presents a co-production of Jonathan Larson's Rent, directed by David Cromer. Rent will run April 27, 2012 - June 17, 2012 at ATC, 1909 W. Byron. The press openings are Sunday, May 6, 2012 and Monday, May 7, 2012 at 7 pm.

The Fun Fellowship was established in 2011 by the Museum of Arts and Design in recognition of the vital role nightlife practitioners play in the city's creative community and artistic endeavors. Now in its second year, The Fun provides four artists or artist collaboratives with financial and logistical support to help them advance and realize their latest nightlife-related projects. MAD announces that this year's FUN Fellows are Ladyfag, FCKNLZ, CHERYL, and Babycastles.

Cognitive Resonance, Second Shift, and transit vocal band will join forces to display the capabilities of the human voice. The show begins at 7:00pm. Tickets are $15 for individuals, $10 for students, and are available at the door. For further info call 252-725-3535 or visit www.burningcoal.org.

On Sunday, April 29, the seventh annual Opera News Awards will be presented at a gala celebration in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza in New York City, paying tribute to five extraordinary artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: sopranos Karita Mattila and Anja Silja, baritones Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Peter Mattei, and director Peter Sellars. Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, who sings Fricka in the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Wagner's Ring, will host the awards. Among the special guests for this year's festivities are conductor James Conlon (a 2005 Opera News Award-winner), who will present the award to Ms. Silja; legendary baritone (and 2008 Opera News Award-winner) Sherrill Milnes, who will present the award to Mr. Hvorostovsky; bass-baritone Eric Owens, another star of the Met's Ring, who will present to Mr. Sellars; Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who will present to Ms. Mattila; and soprano Deborah Voigt, a 2007 Opera News Award-winner and the Met's current Brunnhilde, who will present the award to Mr. Mattei. The guest list will also include Her Royal Highness Princess Madeleine of Sweden, who will attend to watch her countryman, Peter Mattei, be honored. Her Excellency, Ambassador Ritva Jolkkonen, Consul General of Finland in New York, will also be a guest at the festivities, honoring Ms. Mattila.

Arkansas Repertory Theatre (The Rep), the state's largest nonprofit professional theatre, will produce the World Premiere of Treasure Island ~ A New Musical, March 8 - March 31, 2013.

The GRAMMY Foundation® Grant Program announced today that $250,000 in grants to help facilitate a range of research, archiving, and preservation projects on a variety of subjects will be awarded to 18 recipients, in the United States, Canada, and the Dominican Republic. Research projects include a project that will use technology to enable parents of premature babies to have a presence at their child's bedside even when they are away from the hospital. Preservation and archiving initiatives include a Los Angeles Philharmonic project that will protect live recordings of such performers as Marian Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Nina Simone, among others; and an effort to digitally transfer and provide access to an archive of fragile reel-to-reel recordings of live performances and related oral histories in the collection of the oldest continuously running folk music coffeehouse. A complete list of grant awards and projects is below. The deadline each year for submitting letters of inquiry is Oct. 1. Guidelines and the letter of inquiry form for the 2013 cycle will be available beginning May 1 at www.grammyfoundation.org/grants.

Before 'Rent'-there was 'La Bohème'-and now it's back for the kick-off of Pacific Symphony's new opera-vocal initiative, 'Symphonic Voices.' Check out the behind the scenes 'out of the pit' video below!

On Friday, April 6, The Gazillionaire and cast of Absinthe attended First Friday arts celebration to donate Bar Vendome to the monthly event. At the unveiling at Beauty Bar, Gaz presented zappos.com founder Tony Hsieh with the first pair of gold shoes ever to be bestowed to another person thus making him the very first member of 'The Gazillionaire's Gold Shoe Club.' Check out the photos of the celebration below!

The internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter and actress Mira Awad premieres "Arabic Fusion" at the Metropolitan Room on Monday April 30 at 9:30pm, her first New York solo appearance of the year and her Metropolitan Room debut.

Fred Barton returns to the Metropolitan Room on Sunday, April 15, at 7:00 PM with his show FRED BARTON PRESENTS - AND THINKS YOU'RE GONNA LOVE IT! - in which he hosts, sings and plays with his 9-piece Broadway Band, presenting classic Broadway show tunes, with some of his favorite performers. This is Barton's last show until later this summer.

Family dynamics and the importance of connection will rule the stage when Steven Drukman's The Prince of Atlantis has its world premiere March 30 - April 29. The production is part of the 15th Annual Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF), which featured a staged reading of Drukman's instant comic hit last year.

In conjunction with it's current production of The Pride, Diversionary Theatre has assembled a panel of LGBT leaders for a conversation about the journey to find pride as audiences explore the differences between what it meant to be gay in the 1950's and today.

The Moscow Festival Ballet returns to Lehman Center for the Performing Arts for the second time this season, after a production of Swan Lake, with a fully-staged production of the timeless classic fairytale Cinderella on Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 4pm.

The April 22 Le Salon de Musiques program will feature Arensky: Variations On A Theme By Tchaikovsky Opus 35 For Violin, Viola And Two Cellos and Tchaikovsky String Sextet “ Souvenir De Florence“ with Julie Gigante and Roberto Cani on Violins, Andrew Duckles & Alma Lisa Fernandez on Violas, Timothy Landauer & David Low on Cellos. The performance is accompanied by Champagne, food by Patina and informal conversation introduced by musicologist Julius Reder Carlson. Tickets are $65 and $45 for students (including concert and refreshments) and are available online at www.LeSalondeMusiques.com or by calling (310) 498-0257.

As the recent recipient of international critical acclaim as well as six Tony Awards, John Logan's drama, "Red," has brought the artist Mark Rothko out of the museums and onto stages across the country. Soon to be produced by Performance Network Theatre, "Red" chronicles two years in the life of Rothko, as he works feverishly on the then highest paid commission in history, for New York's Four Seasons Restaurant. In conjunction with the production, PNT and the Ann Arbor District Library are teaming up to bring community members a deeper look at Rothko's famed commission as well as his other life's works. Grant Mandarino, from the UM History of Art department, will be presenting a free lecture on Tuesday, May 8, from 7:00-8:30pm. The event will take place at Performance Network Theatre.

Director Michael Wilson, straight from the Broadway opening of "The Best Man," has lined up a cast of New York veteran and major regional performers for the preview presentation of a "new" William Inge play on April 18. Wilson helms "Off the Main Road" on Wednesday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m., in the William Inge Theatre at Independence, Kansas. The Inge work will be the opening night event of the 31st Annual William Inge Theatre Festival at the playwright's alma mater Independence Community College.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) continues its popular "Baroque Conversations" with a program featuring three Bach sonatas performed by LACO Music Director and keyboardist Jeffrey Kahane and three LACO principals on Thursday, April 19, 2012, 7 pm, at Zipper Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Kahane, who celebrates his 15th anniversary as LACO music director, performs the Viola da Gamba Sonata in G major, BWV 1027 with Principal Cello Andrew Shulman; the Oboe Sonata in G minor, BWV 1030b with Principal Oboe Allan Vogel; and the Violin Sonata in E major, BWV 1016 with Concertmaster Margaret Batjer. Kahane shares his insights into the music from the stage and invites questions from the audience. A complimentary pre-concert wine reception for ticket holders begins at 6 pm.