SNEAK PEEK

Jazz Arts Group, BalletMet and WOSU Public Media Present Jazz Moves Columbus

Celebrate Columbus’ bicentennial with three of our city’s treasures!

Three of Columbus’ best organizations – Jazz Arts Group, BalletMet and WOSU Public Media – have developed an innovative and unprecedented collaboration to celebrate Columbus’ past, present and future through the first major arts presentation of the 200Columbus celebration – Jazz Moves Columbus.

These unique and creative multi-media performances will celebrate Columbus' 200th birthday through music, dance and imagery with the artistic leadership of Byron Stripling (Columbus Jazz Orchestra) and Gerard Charles (BalletMet), working in tandem with executive producer Cindy Gaillard (WOSU). Using video and images as a narrative, the audience takes a memorable journey through Columbus’ Cradle of Jazz, weekend parties, historic neighborhoods, and dance halls while remembering the fragility of life, the civil rights movement, joyous Sunday morning church services, and a celebration of our bright future. The Capitol Theatre at the Vern Riffe Center will come alive with newly-commissioned choreography and music, providing an iconic kickoff to the year-long celebration in Columbus. With the corresponding images and stories that are a part of the acclaimed Columbus Neighborhoods documentary series, audiences will be transported back in time as well as catapulted toward a future vision through the performing arts.

This marks the third major collaboration between the CJO and BalletMet – the original Jazz Moves won the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s Artistic Excellence Award and was called “groundbreaking” by the Columbus Dispatch.

The evening will be topped off with an ice cream social that celebrates the “sweet spot” that is our unique city and provides a post-performance gathering to meet one another and the stars of the show.

Where: Capitol Theatre - Riffe Center, 77 S. High St., Columbus, OH, 43215

When: February 2 – 5, February 8 – 12, 2012, Week 1: Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday – Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., Week 2: Wednesday – Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday – Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

For more info and tickets: 614-469-0939, www.jazzartsgroup.org.

Photo courtesy of BalletMet.  Credit:  Will Shively.

Carpe Diem Quartet and Columbus Children’s Choir Present Voices of Angels

Carpe Diem and guest artists, the exceptionally talented New World Singers of the Columbus Children’s Choir, present Voices of Angels. The performance will feature works for strings and choir, including Stolzel (formerly attrib. J.S. Bach) Stanojevick, Glick, Fujiwara and works for quartet by Taneyev, Visconti and Evan Chambers.

The works for the program were chosen specifically to highlight the pairing of the children’s voices and the string quartet to create a sound that is uniquely beautiful. In addition, the Voices of Angels program will feature a new work by Carpe Diem founding member Korine Fujiwara, who wrote If You Stand Very Still for the New World Singers.

Carpe Diem Quartet has earned critical acclaim with innovative programming, electrifying performances, and a passion for audience engagement. The group’s musical journey has led them down the paths of gypsy, tango, folk, pop, rock and jazz inspired music, but the quartet is equally at home with the traditional string quartet repertoire.

Born as a vocal ensemble of the Columbus Symphony more than 15 years ago, the Columbus Children’s Choir has matured into an independent arts organization that each year nurtures the voices of hundreds of young central Ohioans. New World Singers with children in grades 5-12, is the choir's top ensemble.

“The quartet loves working with children, and we feel that one of our legacies will be the inspiration and impact that we have left on the next generation of musicians and audience,” said Chas Wetherbee, renowned violinist and founding member of Carpe Diem. The angelic voices of the children combined with the world renowned artistry of Carpe Diem Quartet will make for an unforgettable evening of beauty, passion and excitement.

When: Friday, February 17 at 8 p.m., Sunday, February 19 at 2 p.m. (free family concert) and Sunday, February 19 at 4 p.m.

Where: Harrison Park Community Center 575 West First Ave. Columbus, OH 43215

For more information: www.cdsq.org, 614-205-8160 or email info@cdsq.org.

The Columbus Museum of Art Presents Columbus Views

Columbus Views celebrates the Bicentennial of the City of Columbus. The exhibition, drawn primarily from the Columbus Museum of Art’s (CMA) collection, gathers works by artists such as George Bellows, Emerson Burkhart, Edmund Kuehn, Robert Chadeayne and others who were compelled to translate the charms of the city’s various locales and neighborhoods onto canvas and into photographic prints.

CMA joins the City of Columbus in celebrating our great city’s Bicentennial with programs and exhibitions throughout 2012. Columbus Views commemorates the Columbus Bicentennial by highlighting artistic depictions of the city.

Columbus Museum of Art's mission is to create great experiences with great art for everyone. Approximately 200,000 people tour the Museum each year, many participating in programs designed for diverse audiences from school children to scholars.

CMA houses art that speaks to diverse interests and styles with an outstanding collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century American and European modern art. CMA's collection includes spectacular examples of Impressionism, German Expressionism and Cubism. They are also recognized for extraordinary regional collections such as the largest public collection of woodcarvings by Columbus folk artist Elijah Pierce and the world's largest repository of paintings and lithographs by Columbus native George Bellows, who is widely regarded as the finest American artist of his generation.

Where: Columbus Museum of Art, 480 East Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43215

When: Exhibition is on view through May 27, Tuesday – Sunday, 10:00 am – 5:30 pm, Thursday, 10:00 am – 8:30 pm.

For more information: Visit www.columbusmuseum.org or call 614-221-4848.

IMAGE: Clyde Singer Wind on the Avenue, c. 1937 Oil on canvas, 54 x 67” Columbus Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, Howald Fund Columbus Museum of Art.