Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts™
State College, Pennsylvania

July 10-13, 2008 ~ Children's Day is July 9, 2008

CENTRAL PA FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS HOT PICKS FOR 2008

(Our schedule is subject to change.)

= HOT PICK!
B = Button required to attend

Wednesday, July 9, Children's Day

National Marionette Theatre presents Peter and the Wolf
Sponsored by The Schreyer Foundation
B 11:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.; Schawb Auditorium
Each season the National Marionette Theatre tours extensively performing their award winning adult and family productions for festivals, theaters, colleges, universities and performing arts centers throughout the USA and Europe. So polished is their technique, so tasteful is their artistry that today the company is recognized as one of the finest in the world. The National Marionette Theatre will be presenting Peter and the Wolf, the classic children’s story written by Russian composter Sergei Prokofiev in 1936.

Thursday, July 10

Malinky
B 9:30 p.m.; Memorial Field
Touring the United States from its home in Scotland, Malinky combines an array of vocal talent with a highly distinctive instrumental palette, in fresh yet timeless arrangements of both traditional and contemporary material. The band is ranked among today’s foremost young exponents of Scottish music

Malinky first emerged at Glasgow’s prestigious Celtic Connections festival in 1999. At a time when most new Scottish bands were focusing on instrumental sounds, Malinky’s song-centered repertoire immediately marked them out from the crowd.

Composed of Steve Byrne, Jon Bews, Mark Dunlop, Fiona Hunter, and David Wood, Malinky has released three superb albums, Last Leaves in 2000 and 3 Ravens in 2002. In 2005, the band released its third album The Unseen Hours.
www.malinky.com

Lao Tizer Band
B 8:00p.m.; Schwab
Jazz pianist Lao Tizer, accompanied by his extraordinary band, will entrance not only jazz lovers, but also those who are not as enamored of the genre. Tizer has been proclaimed "an independent artist with all the right moves" and "a torchbearer for the new generation of contemporary jazz."  He was nominated "Best New Artist of the Year" at the National Smooth Jazz Awards and has appeared at the nation's premier musical events alongside artists including: Isaac Hayes, Wayne Shorter, and George Benson. Tizer's recordings have sold over 70,000 copies, charted and received acclaim in the industry's most respected publications and his music can be heard on radio and television airwaves across the country.  His talents continue to evolve and command attention.

In 2006, the Lao Tizer Band recorded Diversify, Tizer's new release on Yse Records.  The album expounds upon Tizer's broad artistic influences while staying firmly rooted in his benchmark style.  The record features phenomenal piano performances from Tizer, supported by his handpicked group and features guest appearances by top-flight artists including: Chieli Minucci, Karen Briggs, D. Munyungo Jackson and Andy Suzuki.  The latest single, title track "Diversify" was released to national radio - terrestrial, satellite and web - in July 2007, following the success of the first single "Uptown," which spent over 15 weeks on both the Radio and Records Jazz Indicator and SmoothJazz.com charts.
www.laotizer.com

Friday, July 11

Cartoon
B 7:30 p.m.; Schwab Auditorium
Sponsored:  Gemini Enterprises, Black Walnut Body Shop, House Wires, Inc., Brown & Associates, Inc.
A Festival tradition unlike any other, Cartoon is consistently one of the most popular musical groups at the Festival. The band brings the rich vocal harmonies of Jon Rounds, Randy Hughes, Kevin Dremel and Glenn Kidder to a repertoire of original songs.  The group was founded in 1980 in State College and played throughout Pennsylvania in the ‘80s.  Cartoon has recorded several albums, including In the Living Room, Native State and Hubba Hubba.

Luminescent Orchestrii
B 7:30 p.m.; Memorial Field
Luminescent Orchestrii means Romanian gypsy melodies, punk frenzy, salty tangos, hard-rocking klezmer, haunting Balkan harmony, hip-hop beats and Appalachian fiddle, all eaten and spit out by two violins, resophonic guitar, bullhorn harmonica and bass.  Got that?

The members of the Orchestrii come from different scenes in New York City, yet come together through their love of Balkan and Gypsy music.

Since 2002, when the band was formed, the Luminescent Orchestrii has toured the East Coast, England, Scotland, and Germany, and have traveled to Romania, Macedonia, Turkey and Serbia for inspiration.

The Luminescent Orchestrii has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at festivals across the United States.
www.lumii.org

Harmonius Wail
B 9:30 p.m.; Memorial
The mandolin driven gypsy jazz of Harmonious Wail draws from the rich influence of the European gypsy musicians, most notably Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, the creators of what came to be known as Gypsy Swing. You’ll find the intoxicating arrangements and the sheer joy the Wail brings to every performance to be downright addictive.

Specializing in the style of Django Reinhardt, Harmonious Wail is made of mandolin, guitar, bass, percussion with superb female vocals by Maggie Delaney-Potthoff. The band has toured throughout the United States and Europe over the past 17 years.
www.wail.com

Saturday, July 12

Entrain
7:30 p.m.; Shell
Sponsor: The Penn State Alumni Association
Epic in sound and kaleidoscopic in vision, the eclectic Martha's Vineyard-based six piece Entrain has been thrilling critics and fans alike since its founding in 1993.
Entrain has recorded seven albums, all of which have been praised for their ability to shift effortlessly between musical styles - from rock, blues, calypso and ska, to zydeco, jazz and funk - often within the same song."The whole Entrain concept is based around the drums and infectious rhythms. Once we've got that.... anything goes, everything goes," explains group founder Tom Major. Entrain's lastest record Entrain 7-Just a Matter of Time! has enjoyed heavy rotation in such trendsetter markets as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New England, Upstate New York, Aspen, Santa Fe, Houston, Cincinnati, and Nashville, among others.
Since its inception, Entrain has jammed with the likes of singer/songwriter James Taylor, Grateful Dead Alum Bob Weir and rock legend Bo Diddley, Not to mention amateur saxophonist and former professional Leader of the Free World President William Jefferson Clinton. If you’ve never been to an Entrain show, you’ll soon know why Entrain is an enormously popular live act.
www.entrain.com

Paragon Ragtime Orchestra presents The Clown Princes
B 8:00 p.m.; Schwab
Sponsor: The Schreyer Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Penn PAT

Take a trip back in time to the era when Schawb Auditorium was a new building. Automobiles weren’t commonplace, air travel was unheard of, and Penn State’s enrollment was measured in hundreds not in thousands. Movies were silent, and the soundtrack would have been provided by a live orchestra, large organ, or in smaller communities, a piano.

We are especially delighted to present silent films by Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton — the three most popular and influential comedians of the silent film era. As they were when they were first released the films will be accompanied by a live orchestra. The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra will perform the music especially written for each of the films when they were released in the early twentieth century. The evening will be a rare treat for the Festival audience.

The visual quality of silent movies — especially those produced during the 1920s — was often extremely high. From the beginning of the Silent Film era, the musical accompaniment was regarded as an essential part of the performance.

The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra is the world's only year-round, professional ensemble re-creating "America's Original Music" - the syncopated sounds of early musical theater, silent cinema, and vintage dance. Since its debut in 1988 at debut at Alice Tully Hall - the first concert ever presented at Lincoln Center by such an ensemble, hen Paragon Ragtime Orchestra has appeared at hundreds of leading arts venues, including the Ravinia Festival, the Smithsonian Institution, Chautauqua, the Brucknerhaus (Austria), the New York 92nd Street Y, and the American Dance Festival.

In addition to its worldwide concert hall, university, and festival appearances, the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra has acquired a considerable following both here and abroad through its radio programs on the New York Times' WQXR, National Public Radio, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and the Voice of America networks. Since 1989 the Walt Disney Company has relied on the Orchestra's recordings for the outdoor theme music heard at Main Street, U.S.A. at Disney Land, Disney World, and Euro Disney.

Over the years the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra has been heard on the soundtracks of several motion pictures and television programs. The Orchestra's audio and video recordings have been widely praised, and considered instrumental in rekindling interest in America's rich traditions of theater, cinema, and dance orchestra music.

Paragon Ragtime Orchestra's performance sponsored by:
   
       

This project is partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by The Heinz Endowments; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and The Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Trout Fishing in America
B 9:30 p.m. Memorial Field

Three time Grammy Award nominee Trout Fishing in America is the long-standing musical partnership of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet. The name, taken from an early Richard Brautigan novel, seems almost as incongruent and intriguing as a picture of this musical duo - Idlet (guitar) stands six feet nine inches and Grimwood (bass), five feet five and one-half inches.

Trout Fishing in America has an impressive body of work. The newest release, Grammy nominated, My Best Day, was recorded before a live audience sponsored by the Arkansas Educational Television Network. The songs on the album cover a range of topics and themes, from odes to friends whom we love despite the fact they talk too much to snowflakes named Bob.
www.troutmusic.com

QUESTIONS?
Contact us by phone or e-mail
(814) 237-3682
(814) 237-0708 FAX
e-mail: office@arts-festival.com

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