Scottsdale Center For The Performing Arts Previews 2018-2019 Season

Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts announces a preview of its new 2018-19 season, featuring legends of world music, acclaimed dance companies, renowned classical and jazz musicians, returning favorites and more. Most performances will take place in the Center's 853-seat Virginia G. Piper Theater.

Among the artists making their Center debuts are Los Angeles-based dance troupe BODYTRAFFIC,Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and touring together for the first time, The Soul Rebels brass band, trumpeter Christian Scott and singer Tonya Boyd-Cannon. Other highlights include legendary English chamber orchestra the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, humorist David Sedaris, the 40th year for Keyboard Conversations® With Jeffrey Siegel and pianist Yekwon Sunwoo.

Join the Center's email list and visit the website, ScottsdalePerformingArts.org, to buy tickets. More shows will be added weekly to the calendar throughout the summer.

Here's the lineup to date:

DANCE
Julia Chacón Flamenco Theatre brings together the power of internationally experienced flamenco dancers and musicians to perform an unforgettable show - Flamenco Intimo - at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts' Stage 2 every Saturday night in October and November, starting Oct. 6. The most celebrated modern dance troupe in the country, the Martha Graham Dance Company, will present The EVE Project on Nov. 10 in recognition of the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. Los Angeles-based dance ensemble BODYTRAFFIC will bring its virtuosic, stylized and diverse repertoire to the stage on Feb. 8, while Complexions Contemporary Ballet will perform an exhilarating program featuring Dwight Rhoden's Star Dust, a tribute to the life and music of David Bowie, on March 29.

CONTINUING TRADITIONS
The Center continues its tradition of two concert series, Keyboard Conversations® With Jeffrey Siegel, returning for his 40th year of brilliantly polished concerts with commentary that combine captivating remarks with world-class performances of masterpieces of the piano repertoire, and Close Encounters With Music, led by Artistic Director and cellist Yehuda Hanani. Siegel's four 2018-19 concerts are The Joyous Music of Beethoven on Dec. 11, Celebrating Rachmaninoff and Debussy on Jan. 15, The Romantic Connection: Chopin, Schumann and Liszt on Feb. 12 and Chopin in Paris on March 12. Close Encounters With Music will present Romantic Quintets: Brahms and Schumann, featuring Soyeon Kate Lee, piano; Irina Muresanu, violin; Peter Zazofsky, violin; Michael Strauss, viola; and Yehuda Hanani, cello, on Jan. 16. And on Feb. 6,Alexander Shtarkman, piano, and Yehuda Hanani, cello, collaborate on Three Russian Giants: Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Stravinsky.

VIRGINIA G. PIPER CONCERT SERIES
The long-running Virginia G. Piper Concert Series begins Oct. 28 with a debut season performance by Yekwon Sunwoo, gold medalist in the 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. On Nov. 11, David Finckel on cello, and Wu Han on piano, perform three works representing the peak of the Classical and Romantic traditions: Beethoven's lyrical Op. 69 Sonata, Brahms's soulful Sonata in E minor and Mendelssohn's exhilarating Op. 58 Sonata. Garrick Ohlsson, gold medal winner at the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, will perform a range of works on Jan. 6, focusing on the music of Brahms, while innovative violinist Midori and renowned pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet team for an April 6 concert of Romantic and early 20th-century masterpieces. TheJerusalem Quartet ends the season's series on April 7 with a program featuring Josef Haydn's Quartet in G Major, Op. 76, No. 1; Béla Bartók's Quartet Number 5; and Ludwig van Beethoven's Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127

LOCAL SOUNDS
Arizona bands are featured on four successive Fridays in September for Live & Local Fridays. In the Virginia G. Piper Theater, Phoenix Afrobeat Orchestra (PAO) brings a mix of jazz, funk, soul and African rhythms on Sept. 7; award-winning folk-rock duo Ryanhood takes the stage on Sept. 14; Phoenix's own Vinyl Station performs its indie rock tight harmonies and driving rhythms on Sept. 21; and on Sept. 28, Marmalade Skies - the Valley's own six-piece Beatles tribute band - performs favorite tunes by the Fab Four to round out the season. A more intimate lineup of performances, Live & Local Fridays-Cabaret, take places in Stage 2, with rockabilly music performed by Pat Roberts and the Heymakers on Sept. 7; AJ Odneal's indie-folk pop stylings, self-accompanied on guitar or ukulele, on Sept. 14; The Gaines Brothers' blend of jazz, hip-hop and R&B on Sept. 21; and Moonlight Magic's eclectic mix of lounge, surf, bossa nova, ska and boogaloo sounds on Sept. 28.

MUSIC MIX
On Sept. 8, Danny Zelisko Presents will showcase Hot Tuna, formed in 1969 by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady as a side project of the rock band Jefferson Airplane. The band explores American blues and roots music. The Soul Rebels brass band, two-time Edison Award-winning trumpeter Christian Scott and singer Tonya Boyd-Cannon (NBC's The Voice), honor their musical heritage and the modern vibrancy of New Orleans, mixing jazz with elements of funk, soul, pop and hip-hop on Nov. 16. Grammy nominees Alfredo Rodriguez, piano, and Pedrito Martinez, percussion, will have the rare opportunity to perform together on March 15, displaying their virtuosic take on Cuban music.

SPOTLIGHT CONCERTS
The innovative Aspen Santa Fe Ballet will present a program on March 2 devoted to contemporary dance works accompanied by a live piano performance by Korean-born pianist Joyce Yang, acclaimed 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition silver medalist. Jeremy Denk, one of America's foremost pianists, teams with legendary English chamber orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, for a March 6 concert that is part of the ensemble's 68th anniversary tour. Denk, winner of a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship for his adventurous programming, will play two works with the orchestra: Wolfgang Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major, K. 414, and Benjamin Britten's one-movement study for piano and strings, Young Apollo. The remainder of the program will feature scores by Mozart contemporaries Josef Haydn and C.P.E. Bach, and Italian Baroque master Tomaso Albinoni.

HOLIDAY
On Dec. 9, the Scottsdale Philharmonic will perform a special holiday program featuring many traditional classics of the season, conducted by Robert R. Nichols. The maestro of mariachi, José Hernández and his platinum record-selling band Mariachi Sol de México® will present A Merry-Achi Christmas, a spirited, south-of-the-border musical fiesta, on Dec. 15.

HUMOR
Best-selling author and award-winning humorist David Sedaris returns to the Valley on May 4 to read from his latest works, followed by a Q & A and book signing at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix. Sedaris's latest book, "Calypso," to be published May 29, 2018, is his darkest and warmest book yet in which the writer sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality.

Photo: Ani Collier

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