Fine & Performing Arts

Elizabeth Futral

North Central College’s 2009-2010 fine and performing arts season continues this week with several opportunities to appreciate outstanding performers in great venues.

Soprano Elizabeth Futral, who has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and many other of the country’s best opera companies, headlines at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4 in the magnificent Wentz Concert Hall at the Fine Arts Center. The performance is a chance to hear one of the world’s best coloratura sopranos perform in a world-class concert hall. Tickets are $40 and $50, with discounts available for groups of 10 or more.

For pop music fans, Gloria Gaynor performs at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, in Pfeiffer Hall. She’ll perform her 1978 disco classic “I Will Survive” and many other hits. Tickets are $55, $50 and $35.

The first theatrical performance of North Central’s season takes place this week with four performances of “The Poet and the Rent,” David Mamet’s children’s play about a young poet who struggles to find balance between writing the poetry he loves and paying his rent. “The Poet and the Rent” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, and Friday, Oct. 2, with two performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 3 in the “black box” Madden Theatre at the Fine Arts Center. Tickets are just $5/adults and $3/students and senior citizens.

Finally, new art exhibits open soon in North Central’s three galleries. Next up is an exhibit featuring the works of two North Central College students, Tamarra Love of Aurora, Ill. and Danielle Clark of Sparta, Wisc. Their ceramic and sculptural work will be featured in “Les Femmes Faithful” Oct. 1 through Oct. 31 in the Gallery at Meiley-Swallow Hall, 31 S. Ellsworth St. Love and Clark explore themes of faith and the search for spirituality in their works.

For more information about all fine & performing arts events, call the North Central College Box Office at 630-637-SHOW (7469) or visit www.northcentralcollege.edu/show.

North Central College kicks off its 2009-2010 Fine & Performing Arts Season with a performance by legendary trumpet player Herb Alpert and his wife, internationally renowned singer Lani Hall, at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, in the acoustically perfect Wentz Concert Hall.

Alpert’s trumpet playing has earned him five No. 1 hits, eight Grammy Awards, 15 gold albums, 14 platinum albums and a staggering 72 million albums sold worldwide. Alpert and The Tijuana Brass propelled Latino music into the pop music limelight in the 1960s, at one point outselling The Beatles two to one. His popular tunes “The Lonely Bull,” “A Taste of Honey,” “This Guy’s in Love with You” and “Rise” were recorded either as leader of the Tijuana Brass or as a solo artist. Alpert was the “A” in A&M Records, an independent, visionary record label of the last half century yielding successful acts like the Carpenters, Carole King, Billy Preston, Peter Frampton, Cheech and Chong, and many more.

Hall first rose to international fame as lead singer for Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 whose hit songs included “The Look of Love,” “The Fool on the Hill,” “Scarborough Faire” and many more. She is celebrated worldwide for her fluency in singing with equal finesse in English, Portuguese and Spanish. All of Hall’s musical endeavors have highlighted her expertise as a powerful jazz/pop song stylist and a masterful interpreter.

For their Naperville concert, Alpert and Hall have crafted an evening of music from a wide treasury of jazz, both American and Brazilian, as well as American popular standards. Tickets for their Sept. 27 show are $60 and $45; call the North Central College Box Office at 630-637-SHOW (7469) or visit http://finearts.northcentralcollege.edu/x48285.xml.

Herb Alpert and Lani Hall