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MEDIA RELEASES

Contact
Leslie Rodriguez
lrodriguez@dom.edu
(708) 524-6821

Performing Arts Center Announces 2005-2006 Season

With an array of artists ranging from Shawn Colvin and Kathy Mattea to Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Anne-Marie McDermott, Dominican University announces an upcoming season filled with traditional favorites and cutting-edge talent.

Just ten miles west of Chicago’s Loop, Dominican’s Lund Auditorium offers the intimate sightlines, warm acoustics and stylish atmosphere of the best concert halls. Parking is always free. For tickets and more information, contact the box office at (708) 488-5000.

The 2005-2006 season includes a Traditions Series, a Classical Series and a Theatre Arts Series. The Tradition Series features Nanci Griffith, Shawn Colvin, Sam Bush and David Bromberg, and Kathy Mattea. The Classical Series includes a special program, East Meets West, as well as the Eroica Trio, the Boys Choir of Harlem, and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Anne-Marie McDermott. The Theatre Arts Series includes productions of Little Shop of Horrors, The Foreigner and A Doll’s House.

Kicking off the season’s Tradition Series, Nanci Griffith, dubbed the “Queen of Folkabilly” by Rolling Stone magazine, will perform with her band, The Blue Moon Orchestra, on Saturday, September 10 at 8:00 p.m. A songwriter, author and activist, Griffith’s musical journey has taken her from the Hole in the Wall bar in Austin, TX to Carnegie Hall, the Grand Ole Opry and London’s Royal Albert Hall. Recipient of a Grammy Award for her 1993 album Other Voices, Other Rooms, Griffith has recorded with an eclectic group of musicians including Lyle Lovett, Mark Knopfler, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton of U2, and Irish folk legends The Chieftains. In addition to her music, Griffith has become well known for her work with the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation as well as the Campaign for a Landmine Free World. Tickets are $30/ $45.

Shawn Colvin will perform for the university’s annual President’s Signature Concert on Saturday, October 15 at 8:00 p.m.. Colvin has been making a name for herself since her 1989 Grammy Award-winning debut album, Steady On. Seven years later her song “Sunny Came Home” from her critically acclaimed 1996 album A Few Small Repairs, earned her the Grammy’s Best Song of the Year Award. Colvin has toured with such legendary performers as Richard Thompson, Neil Young, Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt. Jumpstarting the concert will be the fast-rising Americana roots trio The Greencards. Tickets are $30/ $45.

Legendary artists Sam Bush and David Bromberg will share the stage for a very special one-time-only high-octane performance on Saturday, February 4. After nearly 20 years, Bromberg returns to the Chicago music scene for an evening of fast finger playing. Well known for his stylistic range, Bromberg has been sought out as a band member by artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Tom Paxton and Chubby Checker. Founder and leader of the New Grass Revival and leader of Emmylou Harris’s Grammy Award-winning Nash Ramblers, Sam Bush is considered a giant among mandolin players. He has appeared on over 300 albums with artists including Alison Krauss, Doc Watson, Lyle Lovett, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill and the Dixie Chicks. Bush’s crossover work with Edgar Meyer on Short Trip Home earned him a Grammy nomination in 1999. Tickets are $30/ $45.

Kathy Mattea’s career has spanned 11 albums and earned her two Grammy Awards and two Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year Awards. She will grace Dominican’s stage on Saturday, March 18 at 8:00 p.m. Throughout her career she has remained ahead of the curve, earning accolades for initiating AIDS awareness in country music. In 2001 she received the prestigious Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award in recognition of her activism on behalf of AIDS victims. Blending contemporary folk music with a Celtic twist, Mattea’s new album, Right Out of Nowhere, to be released this fall, is taking her in new musical directions. Tickets are $30/ $45.

The Classical Series gets off to an exciting start on Friday, September 30 at 8:00 p.m. with a rare live performance of Ravi Shankar’s superb ragas composed in the 1960s for classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Billed as East Meets West, British violinist Daniel Hope of the critically acclaimed Beaux Arts Trio joins Shankar disciple Gaurav Mazumdar and German pianist Sebastian Knauer for this respectfully reconstructed performance of the musical magic that earned Shankar and Menuhin a Grammy Award in 1968. The artists will also explore the influence of Eastern music on Western composers with short works by Ravel, Bartok and others. Tickets are $25/ $40.

The Boys Choir of Harlem will kick off the holiday season in exuberant style with a special concert on Saturday, December 3 at 8:00 p.m. The choir will take its audience on a musical journey from the traditional sounds of Handel’s Messiah and Vivaldi’s Gloria through Christmas spirituals and gospel selections to popular holiday favorites. Celebrated for its foot-stomping energy and known throughout the world for its powerhouse performances, the Boys Choir of Harlem not gives inner-city children the opportunity to realize their creative potential through music but reminds audiences just how much fun singing can be. Tickets are $25/ $40.

The Eroica Trio, three young women hailed for their electrifying performances, will come to Dominican on Saturday, January 28 at 8:00 p.m. Whether playing the great standards of the piano trio repertoire or daring contemporary works, cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio, pianist Erika Nickrenz and violinst Adela Pena command the stage with technical virtuosity, vivid artistic interpretation and contagious enthusiasm. The trio, which has established a unique identity by creating innovative programs spanning 300 years of music, won the prestigious Naumburg Award in 1991 and have released three celebrated recordings garnering multiple Grammy nominations. Tickets are $25/ $40.

Alone, either Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg or Anne-Marie McDermott can create a stir—together they are a phenomenon. Since bursting onto the music scene in 1981 as the youngest recipient of the Water W. Naumburg International Violin Competition, Salerno-Sonnenberg has developed a reputation as one of the world’s preeminent violinists. She was the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary, Speaking in Strings, and has been featured in numerous television specials ranging from PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center to Sesame Street. Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott has been widely acclaimed by audiences and critics since her 1997 debut with the New York Philharmonic. She has performed with the orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Pittsburg, St. Louis and Seattle and will appear this season with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Tickets are $25/ $40.

The Theatre Arts Series will begin with Little Shop of Horrors, one of the longest-running Off-Broadway shows of all time, on Friday and Saturday, November 18 and November 19 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 20 at 3:00 p.m. The series will continue with a production of Larry Shue’s The Foreigner, which premiered Off-Broadway in 1984 and had a New York revival last year starring Matthew Broderick, on Friday and Saturday, February 24 and 25 at 8:00 p.m. and on Sunday, February 26 at 3:00 p.m. The series closes with Henrik Ibsen’s groundbreaking work, A Doll’s House, on Friday and Saturday, April 7 and 8 at 8:00 p.m. and on Sunday, April 9 at 3:00 p.m. Tickets for the theatre series are $15.

For more information about Dominican University’s performing arts series, please contact Leslie Rodriguez, marketing and operations manager for the performing arts series, at (708) 524-6821.