RINGLING MUSEUM, BARYSHNIKOV ARTS CENTER SET STAGE FOR 2011 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL
October 11-16, 2011
Sarasota, FL – March 5, 2011 – Dance, music and theater artists from Europe, North and South America headline the 2011 Ringling International Arts Festival, October 11-16, 2011 at the Ringling Center for the Arts in Sarasota, Fla. Eight stage productions were announced by festival organizers, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and the Baryshnikov Arts Center at the Historic Asolo Theater on Saturday, March 5. This year’s lineup includes Brooklyn Rider; Colin Dunne; Doug Elkins & Friends; Meklit Hadero; Piano Foursome; Soledad Villamil Canta Tangos & Hermanos Macana; Company Stefanie Batten Bland / sbb birdlegs; and The Wooster Group.
“In collaboration with the Ringling Museum, we look forward to bringing together a group of artists from the world of dance, music and theater to present creative works that reflect the expressive art forms and bold ideas of artists that have made, or are currently making, a name for themselves,” said Mikhail Baryshnikov, the artistic director of the Baryshnikov Arts Center. “Where else but at the 2011 Ringling International Arts Festival can audiences see, just to name a few, a 21st century marching band, an authentic proponents of the Argentinean tango, a new take on Irish step dance, a rare performance of Carl Czerny's virtuosic Quatuor Concertant, as well as a ground-breakingly original interpretation of a Shakespeare play and a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical?”
The Ringling International Arts Festival is the result of a unique partnership between The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and New York’s Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC). Now in its third year, the annual festival draws visitors each year to Florida’s gulf coast to see contemporary, innovative work by both emerging and established artists. Over the course of the Festival are also art exhibitions and special events, as well as a host of activities in, and around, the grounds of the 66-acre Ringling Museum estate situated by Sarasota Bay. Previously held over four days, this year’s festival has been extended to a fifth day due to its popularity.
“The Ringling International Arts Festival has in just two short years gained a loyal following,” said Dwight Currie, Ringling Deputy Director. “Patrons come from near and far to Sarasota/Bradenton to experience this unique festival and the talented artists who are hand picked by the Baryshnikov Arts Center to grace the charming stages and facilities around the Ringling Museum estate. We’re excited by the prospect of seeing familiar and new faces in the audience this year, watching the looks on their faces and hearing what struck a chord with them.”
“OPENING NIGHT”
“Opening Night,” Tuesday, October 11, features the energizing sounds and sights of New York City’s Asphalt Orchestra. The iconoclastic 12 piece marching band trumpets the arrival of the 2011 Ringling International Arts Festival with their own unique style of music and movement that plays to the audience in ways never seen or heard before. Described by one leading U.S. newspaper as part parade spectacle, part halftime show and part cutting-edge contemporary music concert, Asphalt Orchestra radiates a new vibe, amplified by its staging of a wide spectrum of songs from pop to jazz to progressive rock into one breathtaking “parade of a show.” Renowned choreographer Susan Marshall along with Mark DeChiazza choreograph the band’s movement. The result is a radically different marching band that takes the audience on a journey, transforming simply immobile listeners to a mobile extension of their performance. This group of versatile brass, wind and percussion players recently played the Lincoln Center Out of Doors and the Barbican Centre in London. Asphalt Orchestra released their debut recording on Cantaloupe Music in 2010. In addition to the performance by Asphalt Orchestra, “Opening Night” also includes a gathering with Festival artists, a sumptuous buffet, open bar and spectacular fireworks display. Tickets are $150 / $135 Museum Members.
Location: Ringling Museum of Art Courtyard.
Date: Tuesday, October 11 at 7 p.m.
FESTIVAL STAGE PRODUCTIONS
Eight additional stage productions in music, theater and dance are to be presented in repertoire in the three theaters that comprise the Ringling Center for the Arts: The Historic Asolo Theater, The Cook Theatre and The Mertz Theatre. In all, 34 stage performances are being presented during the five-day festival.
Music Productions
As a follow-up to last year’s sold-out musical performances by violinist Tim Fain and jazz singer/bassist Kate Davis, the 2011 Ringling International Arts Festival presents a mix of emerging and established artists.
· Meklit Hadero: This year’s RIAF includes performances by the singer/songwriter who in 2010 released her debut album “On a Day Like This…”. The Ethiopian-born Hadero’s warm and luminous singing voice draws comparisons to Norah Jones. Showcasing her vocal range, her musical treatments combine jazz, Ethiopia and the San Francisco art scene and visceral poetry. She sings of fragility, hope and self-empowerment that remarkably generates visual pictures of the poetic stories she sings about as well. Her singing style, characterized as cradling, gentle, soulful, lushly spelling binding, sensuous and strangely cinematic by music critics, reflects her worldly upbringing. 50 minutes.
Location: Cook Theatre.
Dates/Times:
Thursday, October 13 at 9:00 p.m.
Friday, October 14 at 6:30 p.m. & 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 15 at 6:30 p.m. & 9:00 p.m.
· Piano Foursome: Four internationally acclaimed pianists (Inon Barnatan, Adam Golka, Anne-Marie McDermott and Pedja Muzijevic) perform four short solo works before joining forces for a rare performance of Carl Czerny's virtuosic Quatuor Concertant for four pianos. 60 minutes. Location: Historic Asolo Theater.
Dates/Times:
Wednesday, October 12 at 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, October 13 at 4:00 p.m.
Friday, October 14 at 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 15 at 1:00 p.m.
· Brooklyn Rider: Hailed by music critics as “the future of chamber music,” the genre-defying string quartet Brooklyn Rider presents a bold repertoire of classical, world, jazz, pop and new music that draws inspiration from the exploding array of cultures and artistic energy found in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, home to the group. Their gripping performance style has garnered critical acclaim from classical, world and rock critics. NPR credits Brooklyn Rider with “recreating the 300-year-old form of string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble. The quartet's name is inspired in part by the cross disciplinary vision of Der Blau Reiter (The Blue Rider), a pre-World War I Munich-based artistic collective whose members included Vassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Arnold Schoenberg and Alexander Scriabin. 60 minutes.
Location: Historic Asolo Theater.
Dates/Times:
Thursday, October 13 at 7:00 p.m.
Friday, October 14 at 1:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 15 at 4:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 16 at 4:00 p.m.
Theater Production
Continuing the trend of showcasing experimental theater works, the 2011 Ringling International Arts Festival presents an interpretation of a classic.
· HAMLET: The Wooster Group performs HAMLET by William Shakespeare. Directed by Elizabeth LeCompte, this stage production follows Richard Burton’s famous 1964 Broadway production. The Burton production was recorded in live performance and edited into a film that was shown for only two days in 2,000 movie houses throughout the United States. The Group reconstructs a hypothetical theater piece from the fragmentary evidence of the film by channeling the ghost of that legendary performance. 150 minutes.
Location: Cook Theatre.
Dates/Times:
Wednesday, October 12 at 4:30 p.m.
Thursday, October 13 at 4:30 p.m.
Friday, October 14 at 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 15 at 1:30 p.m.
Sunday, October 16 at 1:30 p.m.
Dance Productions
Following on the heels of festival performances by such legendary artists as Mikhail Baryshnikov, David Neumann and Maria Pagés just to name a few, the 2011 Ringling International Arts Festival carries on its tradition of stepping forward with engaging works by celebrated international artists.
· Doug Elkins& Friends’ “Fräulein Maria”: One of today’s most musical, witty and inventive choreographers Doug Elkins & Friends’ presents his rendition of a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical with his creation, “Fräulein Maria,” co-directed by Barbara Karger and Michael Preston with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Presented in cooperation with the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization: An Imagem Company, Elkins version is a take on The Sound of Music, incorporating various influences such as hip-hop, Balanchine, stepping and Martha Graham. Elkins covers all the classical songs within the film, such as The Sound of Music, Do Re Mi, and So Long, Farewell. Using nothing much more than songs and featuring his fine dancers, Mr. Elkins’s ceaselessly brilliant and often hilarious take on The Sound of Music is a fount of unending movement ideas and about as much visceral pleasure as it’s possible to have in a theater.” 65 minutes.
Location: Mertz Theatre.
Dates/Times: Wednesday, October 12 at 5:00 p.m.
Friday, October 14 at 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 15 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 16 at 2:00 p.m.
· Soledad Villamil Canta Tangos & Hermanos Macana. Hailed internationally for her award-winning performance in El secreto de sus ojos (winner of the 2010 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film), the acclaimed Argentine film actress/singer Soledad Villamil brings the power and passion of Argentinean Tango vibrantly to life in concert with Hermanos Macana – the famed brother dancing duo from Buenos Aires. 60 minutes.
Location: Mertz Theatre.
Dates/Times:
Wednesday, October 12 at 8:00 p.m.
Thursday, October 13 at 5:00 p.m.
Friday, October 14 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 15 at 2:00 p.m.
· Colin Dunne: Out of Time. In Out of Time, internationally-acclaimed Irish step dancer Colin Dunne brings movement, sound and image together to create a provocative dialogue between past and present. Intimate and playful, Out of Time is both an unsentimental homage to Irish step dance, and a bold investigation of Dunne’s personal and artistic relationship with a tradition that has shaped his life. In this multi-media show he seamlessly integrates movement, text, film and sound design with the step dance tradition for which he is internationally acclaimed, to offer a contemporary perspective of the art form. He is joined onstage by projected archival images of dancers from the 1930’s onwards – including himself as a ten year old boy. 65 minutes.
Location: Mertz Theatre.
Dates/Times:
Thursday, October 13 at 8:00 p.m.
Friday, October 14 at 2:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 15 at 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 16 at 5:00 p.m.
· Terra Firma: Company Stefanie Batten Bland / sbb birdlegs performs “Terra Firma,” a dance piece about the search for solid ground, exploring questions of stability on and off the most ancient vehicle of water transit -- boats -- and the diverse passengers that take them. The bi-continental Paris-based French-American group takes the definition of community to the next level, illustrating the synergy that can arise when artists from several backgrounds and cultures join forces. The company explores human emotional relationships and the notion of community, within a cultural, social, historical and present performance context by mixing the subtleties of Europe with American ardor. 45 minutes.
Location: Historic Asolo Theater.
Dates/Times:
Wednesday, October 12 at 4:00 p.m.
Friday, October 14 at 4:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 15 at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 16 at 1:00 p.m.
Orders for multiple-performance Festival Passes with prime seating are now being accepted at the Historic Asolo Theater Box Office at the Ringling Museum of Art: 941.360.7399. Tickets for:
· Four Performance Pass: All tickets $42 each ($168 for pass) / $38 each ($152 for pass) for Museum Members.
· Six Performance Pass: All tickets $40 each ($240 for pass) / $36 each ($216 for pass) for Museum Members.
· Eight Performance Pass: All tickets $38 each ($304 for pass) / $34 each ($272 for pass) for Museum Members.
· Add Opening Night to your RIAF Pass: $135 / $115 for Museum Members
Single tickets go on sale in early May.
The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) was established in 2005 to house the core activities of the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation, incorporated in 1979 by Mikhail Baryshnikov. BAC serves as a creative laboratory, meeting place, and performance space for a vibrant community of artists from around the world. BAC is also dedicated to building audiences for the arts by presenting contemporary, innovative work at low or no cost to the public. To date, BAC programs have served more than 500 artists, and approximately 6,000 audience members visit the Center each year. Located in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, BAC comprises four large column-free studios, a studio theater, and office space. In November 2008, BAC purchased a 299-seat theater within the building that houses its existing facilities. BAC renovated and re-opened the new Jerome Robbins Theater in February 2010. The renowned Wooster Group is the resident theater company of BAC, creating and performing work in the new venue three months out of the year. Other programming in the theater parallels the existing mission of BAC, emphasizing multi-disciplinary work, emerging talent, and international artists who might not otherwise have the opportunity to perform in the United States.
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University, is one of the largest museum/university complexes in the nation. It preserves the legacy of John and Mable Ringling, educating and enabling a large and diverse audience to experience and take delight in a world-renowned collection of fine art; Cà d’Zan, the Ringling historic mansion; the Circus Museum; the Original Asolo Theater; and historic architecture, courtyard, gardens and grounds overlooking Sarasota Bay.
###