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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > April > 02
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Itzhak Perlman: Carnegie Hall, ‘Sesame Street’ — It’s all good
He’s played the world’s best symphony halls, won 16 Grammy Awards and also on performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “Sesame Street.”
Of course, now that violinist Itzhak Perlman is celebrating his 50th season of his United States debut there’s little the virtuoso hasn’t done.
Perlman plays the Bass Concert Hall Sunday. On the program is Handel’s Violin Sonata No. 13, Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in A and Messiaen’s Theme and Variations.
What’s perhaps remarkable about Perlman’s lengthy resumé is its democratic range. Yes, he can claim as his own the most exclusive classical gigs. But he’s also been a champion of classical music, taking his message to every pop culture or media platform he can. Besides, once you’ve already had your Carnegie Hall solo debut at 18, why not concertize with muppets if it means exposing a television audience of children to the beauty of classical music? Or why not play the achingly beautiful solo on the soundtrack to movie “Schindler’s List?”
Born in Tel Aviv in 1945, Perlman contracted polio at age four and grew up listening to classical music on the radio. Although he’s been known to eschew the word “prodigy,” that’s what he was: He gave his first solo recital aged 10. After moving with his family to the United States in the late 1950s, Perlman, who now walks with the use of a cane or uses a motorized scooter, soon embarked on a breathtaking career of award-winning recordings and nearly non-stop performing.
Sunday he plays the Bass Concert Hall in a solo recital. “Our society would be incomplete without culture, without music,” Perlman told a recent interviewer. “The world has so many problems these days, but music has proved to be something that can be around for a very long time.”
7 p.m. Sunday
Bass Concert Hall, University of Texas campus
$34-$75
512-477-6060. www.utpac.org.
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City council to weigh street closure rules
The City of Austin has proposed new rules about closing streets for races, parades, arts festivals and other big events. And today at 6 p.m. the council is scheduled to consider a change to street closure rules that would prevent arts events like Art City Austin and First Night Austin from occupying Cesar Chavez Street.
Read a recent American-Statesman story about the issues.
See the city council agenda item and supporting documents here.
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Weekend Arts Pix
‘Common Ground.’
Two years ago at the Black Arts Movement Festival, San Antonio playwright Antoinette Winstead impressed with a staged reading of ‘Common Ground,’ her play about a Central Texas African American ranching family in the 1960s as a son returns from Vietnam and clashes with the world he left. Now Pro-Arts Austin stages the compelling drama as a full production. 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday. 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 7 p.m. Sunday. Boyd Vance Theatre, Carver Museum and Cultural Center, 1165 Angelina St. $20. 474-8497. www.proartsaustin.org.
‘RubyRico’s Peepshow Magnifico!’
From the folks who created the popular ‘The Tom Waits Peepshow’ comes an all-new offbeat cabaret with dancing girls, outrageous costumes, magicians, acrobats, jugglers and the No Salvation Army Band playing their covers of Prince, Cole Porter, the White Stripes, Queen and more. 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Saturdays through April 25. The Independent at 501 Studios, 501 N. Interstate 35. $20. www.rubyrico.com.
Image: ‘Peepshow Magnifico.’ Photo by Christopher Caselli.
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Candidates, talking arts
Nearly 400 people showed up Wednesday night at the Paramount Theatre for an arts forum with Mayoral and City Council candidates.
Mayoral candidates attending were David Buttross, Josiah James Ingalls, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Lee Leffingwell, Brewster McCracken. City Council candidates Perla Cavazos, Sheryl Cole, Sam Osemene, Chris Riley, and Bill Spelman were also on hand.
Council Member Mike Martinez, who was absent due to illness, delivered a statement by proxy.
Not an open Q-and-A with the audience, the forum instead had each candidate responding to specific questions with a specific time limit for answer ( one minute for some topics, two minutes for other).
That made for orderly, if somewhat predictable presentation by the candidates, with almost every candidate voicing their support of, in many instances, Austin’s creative community and its need. Osemene and Ingalls dissented at times, however, arguing that there were more important issues (homelessness, the recession, public safety), that required the city’s attention first before the arts.
The discussion circled around three essential issues: 1) The city’s need for a consolidated ,and higher profile, department of arts and culture that would oversee all aspects of cultural funding and municipal support for the all of the creative arts, including film; 2) The need for more downtown public parking, especially around the Long Center, and; 3) Lifestyle and affordability issues, particularly accessibility to affordable housing and affordable rehearsal/studio space.
Not brought up at all? The city’s current funding levels for cultural contracts issued to arts organizations.
The event was hosted by Arthouse, Austin Film Festival, Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Museum of Art, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Austin, Conspirare, KMFA, The Long Center, Mexic-Arte Museum, One World Theatre, Paramount & State Theatres, and Zach Scott Theatre.
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Wet Ink: Windy new music
It isn’t always easy getting an audience out to see a woodwind ensemble.
Maybe a little ‘American Idol’ type voting will help.
“Wet Ink,” a pair of concerts on Sunday and Tuesday by five-member Austin ensemble Wild Basins Winds, will feature all new music, including some compositions that have never been heard by an audience before
The audience will be invited to vote on which new piece they like best.
Read more about the program here and find concert information.
And check out this video clip of the Wild Basin Winds:
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