Continuing its tradition of bringing
internationally and critically acclaimed theatre, music and
dance to the campus of Hope College and into the Holland
community, the college's 2000-01 Great Performance Series
announces its 31st season.

Kicking off this year's seven events will be the
New York-based dance duo of Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer on
Monday, Sept. 25. Dance partners and choreographers, they
will collaborate live with Grammy-award winning
percussionist Glen Velez to perform "Carried Away," an
original work delving into the desire to be carried away,
and to get carried away. Recipients of six National
Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowships, a New York
Foundation for the Arts Choreography Fellowship and numerous
other awards, Myrna Packer and Art Bridgman have been
described in the "New York Times" as "among the leading
practitioners of the art of the dance duet." The
performance will be held in the DeWitt Center main theatre.

Center City Brass, a brass quintet quickly earning
praise for setting new standards of artistry on brass
instruments, will perform on Friday, Oct. 20, in Dimnent
Memorial Chapel. Founded in 1985, the group boasts first
prize from the Coleman Chamber Music Competition and the
Carmel Chamber Music Competition in 1988. Known for their
wide range of musical styles Bach to Bernstein to Bozza they
will also perform a piece, "Firedance," by their own Emmy-
award winning composer, trumpet player Anthony Di Lorenzo.
While a fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, Di Lorenzo worked
with Leonard Bernstein, who nominated him for an Avery
Fisher Career Grant. The "Cleveland Plain Dealer" has said
of the quintet, "This is brass playing that glows, sings,
and abounds in dazzling colors."

Described by the "Boston Globe" as "the livest
live music in town," The Triple Helix is next. Inspired by
the notion of the double helix as the dynamic intertwining
energies that generate life, they combine piano, violin and
cello into superb musical chemistry, and will perform on
Friday, Nov. 3, also in Dimnent Memorial Chapel. The trio
includes former Lydian String member and Holland resident
Rhonda Rider on cello. The "Globe" has said, "this listener
has heard many trios--but never anything to surpass the
Triple Helix."

The year's "Bonus Blues Event," Saffire: The
Uppity Blues Women, will perform on Wednesday, Dec. 6, at
the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland. W.C. Handy
Award winners, these three performers, according to the
"Buffalo News," redefine acoustic blues "with enough
attitude to make Dennis Rodman blush." The "Chicago
Tribune" has described them as looking "more like fugitives
from a Tupperware party--but appearances can be deceiving,
as these musicians demonstrate by tearing up the stage with
their high-powered, take no prisoners approach." The "San
Jose Mercury News" has called them "One of the sassiest,
funniest blues bands to come down the pike."

On Tuesday, Feb. 6, Quartetto Gelato will combine
the classical and colloquial into operatic arias, "Danny
Boy," and gypsy fiddling at Dimnent Memorial Chapel. Named
as "Debut Artist of the Year" by NPR's Performance Today in
1996, this "classical" quartet is anything but traditional;
the group's recordings can literally be described as "out-
of-this-world," having been taken into space by Canadian
astronaut Dr. Robert Thirsk. "Quartetto Gelato has the
stuff," the Los Angeles "Times" has said, noting, "Dry humor
and occasional clowning are part of the quartet's arsenal,
yet first it meets the requisite virtues of skilled music-
making."

On Monday, March 12, in conjunction with Hope
College's Visiting Writers Series, Emmy-award winning and
Oscar-nominated actors Roscoe Lee Browne and Anthony Zerbe
present an evening of 20th century literature, drama and
comedy titled "Behind the Broken Words." Performing at the
Knickerbocker Theatre, the two actors will celebrate the
words of William Butler Yeats, Richard Wright, e.e.
cummings, Seamus Heany and a host of others in what the "New
York Times" calls "a rhapsodic flight of words and images."

Bringing the Great Performance Series to a fitting
new location with acoustical edge for its final performance
of the year, Anonymous 4, the forerunners in medieval chant,
will perform on Tuesday, April 24, in St. Francis de Sales
church in Holland. Renowned for its astonishing vocal blend
and technical virtuosity, the group also performs works by
contemporary composers, and each of their 10 recordings have
reached the Billboard classical Top Ten. The London "Times"
has described the group as having become "anything but
anonymous."

All performances will begin at 8 p.m. Season
subscriptions for the Great Performance Series 2000-01
season are now available. Subscription prices are $50 for
adults, $42 for seniors, $22 for students and $100 for
families. Individual ticket prices are $12.50 for adults,
$10.50 for seniors and $6.50 for students. Those interested
in subscribing or obtaining additional information should
call (616) 395-6996.

• Share
• Tweet
• Post