|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Stanford Live Arts Festival kicks off two weeks of music, dance and more this weekend.
Opening the festival on July 13 will be conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and the San Francisco Symphony with its “Spanish Favorites” program. The performance showcases works by Isaac Albéniz, Joaquín Rodrigo and Manuel de Falla, featuring soloists Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, guitar, and Caroline Corrales, soprano. The concert is the first of the symphony’s two appearances in the festival.
The following night, the Count Basie Orchestra takes the stage, directed by Scotty Barnhart, with multiinstrumentalist Gunhild Carling as a special guest. The orchestra specializes in all things jazz. (This show is currently at capacity.)
The festival gets the blues in a serious way on July 19 with Grammy Award-winning multi-instrumentalist Taj Mahal and his quintet. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame guitarist Elvin Bishop and Grammy-winning harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite team up to open the show.
The San Francisco Symphony returns for its second outing on July 20 with a program of big, bold cinematic works, all by composer John Williams. He might be best known for writing the themes for films like “Star Wars,” “Superman,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Jurassic Park,” all of which are on this program, but Williams also wrote the “Olympic Fanfare and Theme (Bugler’s Dream),” Hedwig’s Theme from “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and music for films including “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Schindler’s List,” “Munich” and “Lincoln.” Those compositions will also be featured in the program.
Stanford Live and Stanford Jazz Festival, with support from El Centro Chicano y Latino (Stanford University) and EPACENTER, present the high-energy evening CUMBIA!@Frost on July 21. The event’s lineup features Vilma Diaz with La Sonora, a longstanding, influential band in the cumbia sound, as well as El Feeling, La Doña and DJ Wonway Posibul, performing cumbia, a style of music originally from Colombia that draws on influences from indigenous, African, and Spanish sounds. In addition to the music, the event includes family-friendly arts and crafts, face-painting, cumbia dance lessons and a photo booth.
The Stanford Live Arts Festival wraps up on July 26-27 with “Starry Nights,” featuring San Francisco Ballet dancers in a program under the stars at Frost Amphitheater that highlights both classical and contemporary works. The program includes Act II of “Swan Lake” choreographed by the company’s former artistic director Helgi Tomasson, plus the SF Ballet premiere of Ben Stevenson’s “Three Preludes,” set to piano compositions by Sergei Rachmaninoff; and four short pieces paying tribute to the unique style of Dutch choreographer Hans van Manen.
Most performances take place at Frost Amphitheater. For times and ticket prices, visit live.stanford.edu.
