|
Resounding Success at the 2003 Virginia Arts Festival
Virginia Beach Region - Virginia Arts Festival, in its seventh season, captured international attention with its highly diverse programs, tourist-attractive surroundings and high-caliber performances. This year's world-famous artists include : Herbie Hancock, Lorin Maazel, Van Cliburn, Mark Morris Dance Group, Irish fiddler Eileen Ivers, comedian Jackie Mason, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Guarneri String Quartet, Trinity Irish Dance Company, and big-band legend The Woody Herman Orchestra. The Festival also features successful education outreach programs with visiting artists. Festival runs from April to May every year.
June 21, 2003
Resounding Success at the 2003 Virginia Arts Festival
Festival captured international attention; participation reached a record high
Norfolk, Va. (PRWEB) - Arts writers came from as far away as Germany and Finland. Two grants were awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Two grants were awarded by Virginia Tourism Corporation. A major orchestral project made its world premiere. Every student matinee and master class sold out. And participation from partner cities and corporate sponsors was at an all-time high.
All this adds up to a 2003 Virginia Arts Festival that was nothing short of a resounding success, says Festival director Robert W. Cross.
In a year of war and economic recession, the high caliber of artists performing during the Festivals seventh season garnered global attention and lured visitors from Australia, England, and other countries to the Hampton Roads region.
With six successful seasons under our belt," Cross says, the Festival is able to attract some of the worlds most prestigious performers."
Arts critics around the world agreed. The program of this years seventh Festival does, in fact, read like a concentrated 'Whos Who of top names in the arts," wrote arts critic Dr. Wolfgang Sandner in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Among the award-winning and much-lauded artists on the 2003 bill roster composer/pianist Philip Glass, composer/pianist Herbie Hancock, pianist Van Cliburn, conductor Loren Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conductor Julius Rudel, Mark Morris Dance Group, Irish fiddler Eileen Ivers, comedian Jackie Mason, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Guarneri String Quartet, Trinity Irish Dance Company, and big-band legend The Woody Herman Orchestra.
One of the pleasures of the Virginia Arts Festival," wrote arts critic Lee Teply in The Virginian-Pilot, is the diversity of arts experiences brought from around the country and the world."
The 2003 season also saw the Festival receive recognition in the form of two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. A $10,000 Challenge America grant for Community Arts Development supported the Festivals efforts at generating cultural tourism for the Hampton Roads region. And a $12,500 Creativity grant helped fund the Festivals series of diverse and outstanding American musicians: Philip Glass, Boys Choir of Harlem, Herbie Hancock, and the Chamber Music Series featuring the Guarneri and Miami String Quartets.
The Virginia Tourism Corporation also awarded two grants to the Festival through its Cooperative Marketing to promote performances by Boys Choir of Harlem, Herbie Hancock, Denyce Graves, and Three Mo Tenors to a targeted out-of-market African-American audience, and a comprehensive marketing grant to leverage out-of-market travel investment through Festival weekend hotel and performance packages.
Over the 32 day Festival held from April 24 through May 25, attendance at the 101 ticketed performances totaled more than 71,600, a slight increase over last season. Seven performances were sold out.
The Festivals Education Outreach programs reached 18,150 students through sold-out master classes and sold-out matinee performances. For the first time this year, student performances were held in Suffolk and in York County, furthering the Festivals regional outreach.
Two additional programs also expanded the Festivals regional focus. The weekend-long Festival Williamsburg drew huge crowds of locals and visitors alike across Hampton Roads harbor for a rare performance of Carmina Burana and other noteworthy concerts. The PANorama Caribbean Music Fest at the Virginia Beach oceanfront hosted 13 steel bands from around the country and attracted a diversity of visiting students and fans. Contributing to PANoramas success were workshops and clinics conducted by international steel-drum legends Ellie Mannette and Andy Narell.
Another new offering helped generate more national recognition for the Festival. Insider Insights, a series of lectures by arts experts and artists, featured Richard Dyer, classical music writer for The Boston Globe; Tim Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from The Washington Post; Robert Sadin, guest conductor and orchestrator for Herbie Hancocks world premiere of Gershwins World; and Terry Teachout, music critic for Commentary magazine and former senior editor for Harpers.
Other highlights of the 2003 season included:
Growing support from the regions business community, as evidenced by more than 100 corporate and media sponsors, an increase of 10% percent over 2002;
Support from 7 Hampton Roads cities, an all-time high for the Festival;
Continued funding from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, Virginia Tourism Corporation, and National Endowment for the Arts;
More visiting journalists than in any previous year, including arts writers from Boston, Los Angeles, Canada, Finland, and Germany;
Herbier Hancocks personal orchestral premiere, with the Virginia Symphony, of an evolution of his Grammy Award-winning release Gershwins World;
The recording of four Festival concerts by National Public Radio for later national broadcast on Performance Today;
A rare performance by Mark Morris Dance Group, in the fourth year of its five-year Festival residency, of its award-winning and richly textured LAllegro, which drew fans from around the world.
Dates of the eighth annual Virginia Arts Festival are April 23 through May 23, 2004.
The world-class Virginia Arts Festival premiered in coastal Virginia in spring 1997. Venues throughout the 50-mile region, extending from Williamsburg to Virginia Beach, host top-flight artists from around the world in classical music, dance, theater, popular music, and family entertainment, along with the popular Chamber Music series, led by Andrι-Michel Schub. The Virginia International Tattoo, a signature Festival event, features more than 700 performers, including military bands, massed pipes and drums, dancers, acrobats, and more.. For more information or to be placed on the Festivals mailing list, call 757-282-2800 (or 877-741-ARTS) or visit www.vafest.com.
# # #
Contact:
National/International Promotion
Jay K. Hoffman & Associates
(212)371-6690
jay@jaykhoffman.com
Virignia Arts Festival
Amy Krawczyk, PR Coordinator
(757) 282-2820
akrawczyk@virginiaartsfest.com
|
