Fine & Performing Arts

This week is packed with cultural and performing arts events at North Central College.

On Wednesday, April 29, student jazz musicians in the News Orleans Brass Band and Big Band combo will perform a free concert at 7:30 p.m. in Wentz Concert Hall. Also on Wednesday, Filmmaker Alex Halkin will showcase her work in progress, “The Chiapas Media Project: Filming in Sinaloa” and discuss the plight of agricultural workers in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Halkin is the international coordinator of the Chiapas Media Project (http://www.chiapasmediaproject.org/). The free presentation begins at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday in the White Activities Center. More (http://finearts.northcentralcollege.edu/x47966.xml)

On Thursday, April 30, North Central’s Japanese language program and Japan Club will sponsor a Japanese Spring Festival from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. in the White Activities Center. Visitors will experience Japanese culture by participating in hands-on activities, such as folding paper, doing calligraphy, playing traditional and contemporary children’s games, sampling Japanese tea and music, and engaging in face painting and anime portraits. There will also be demonstrations of contemporary Japanese flower arrangements (Ikebana) and Japanese archery (Kyudo).

On Friday, May 1, Comedy Central star Eliot Chang performs at 8 p.m. in Wentz Concert Hall. Sponsored by the Asian Student Konnection (ASK), Chang’s irreverent one-man “Barely Legal” show is free for North Central students, $5 for other students and senior citizens, and $10 for the general public.

On Sunday, May 3, the Taiwanese Association of America Greater Chicago Chapter will celebrate the 2009 Taiwanese American Heritage Week at North Central with a 2 p.m. event in Pfeiffer Hall. The Ro-Han-Mem Taiwanese Cultural Troupe will present “Taiwanese Epic—Folklore & Musical,” a celebration of traditional song and dance. General admission is $5; contact Shirlin Ye at 630-717-7876.

Finally, Young Naperville Singers celebrates its 25^th anniversary Sunday, May 3, with two Spring Concerts, “Lose Yourself in Singing, Find Yourself in a Song,” in Wentz Concert Hall, at 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Visit www.youngnapervillesingers.org.

The critically acclaimed entertainer and Tony Award-winner Patti LuPone will showcase her one-woman show “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda,” which she recently debuted at Carnegie Hall. Her not-to-miss show is set for Saturday, April 25, at 8 p.m. in Pfeiffer Hall. Her concert act “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda” was conceived and directed by “Hairspray’s” Scott Wittman and features songs LuPone “could have played, should have played, did play and will play.” Audiences on April 25 can expect to hear tunes from “Hair,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Funny Girl,” “West Side Story,” “Anything Goes” and more, performed in a way that is uniquely LuPone. She won her Tony Award for work in “Evita” and an Olivier Award for her performances in the West End productions of “Les Misérables” and “The Cradle Will Rock.” Her other theatrical credits include “Sunset Boulevard,” “Anything Goes,” “Oliver!,” “Working,” “The Old Neighborhood,” “Master Class” and “Pal Joey.”

LuPone also headlined two solo Broadway concerts, “Patti LuPone On Broadway” and “Matters of the Heart,” and received glowing notices for her performance as Mrs. Lovett in the Lincoln Center concert version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” and a Tony nomination for her performance in the recent revival of that Sondheim work. LuPone has appeared in opera productions, including San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Weill-Brecht’s “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny” for the Los Angeles Opera and Marc Blitzstein’s “Regina” at The Kennedy Center. LuPone is also known for her many film roles, such as “Driving Miss Daisy,” and television appearances in the Emmy-winning telecasts of “Passion” and “Sweeney Todd,” “Will & Grace,” “Ugly Betty,” “Monday Night Mayhem,” “Evening At the Pops” with John Williams, and many more. 

Billy Childs, one of the most in-demand composers, arrangers and pianists in jazz, and his Jazz-Chamber Ensemble will take the stage Friday, April 24, at 8 p.m. in North Central’s acoustically perfect Wentz Concert Hall. Childs has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards and won two in 2006: Best Instrumental Composition for “Into the Light” for the Billy Childs ensemble release “Lyric” and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist for his work with Chris Botti and Sting. Just announced in April, he was awarded a prestigious fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial. Childs will be recording with his Jazz-Chamber Ensemble and the Ying Quartet this spring and has also been co-commissioned by the Detroit Symphony, Boston Pops, Notre Dame Symphony and Oakland East Bay Symphony to compose a new violin concerto for Regina Carter. This piece will be premiered by the Detroit Symphony in January 2010.  

He has written works for a number of orchestras and recorded with such jazz greats as Freddie Hubbard, Dianne Reeves, Luciana Souza and Lou Rawls. “The Fierce Urgency of Now,” his musical version of various texts by Dr. Martin Luther King, was performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He’s been commissioned twice by the Monterey Jazz Festival, first to write an extended piano concerto and then to arrange a set of original compositions for Bobby Hutcherson.  

Childs has performed with his own trio in Carnegie Hall and has worked on various commissions sponsored by, among others, the L. A. Philharmonic, the New Century Chamber Orchestra and the Dorian Wind Quintet, as well as the score to “Crazy As Hell,” a film directed by Eriq LaSalle. He has also produced the CD, “Rhythm Of Life” by Verve recording artist Claudia Acuna.