Spank! The Fifty Shades Parody will be onstage at 8 p.m. Saturday at Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. (The show, which spoofs the best-seller Fifty Shades of Grey, is neither associated with, nor authorized by, Fifty Shades author E.L. James or the book’s publisher, Vintage Press.) Tickets are $20-$45. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit the website, waltonartscenter.org.
Jazz homecoming
Jazz pianist Lee Tomboulian, formerly of Little Rock but now living in New York, will give a concert at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Unitarian Universalist Church of Little Rock, 1818 Reservoir Road, Little Rock.
Tomboulian taught for several years at the University of North Texas, where he received a master’s degree in jazz studies and was the pianist with the world-renowned One O’Clock Lab Band. He was instructor of jazz piano and improvisation at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Wisconsin from 2005-11.
The concert will showcase music from his recently released piano and accordion recording, Imaginarium, featuring his own compositions, interpretations of jazz standards, Brazilian music and a “smash-up” of “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Freddie Mercury and Rhapsody in Blueby George Gershwin, titled Bohemian Rhapsody in Blue. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door. A portion of the proceeds will benefit church programs. Call (501) 225-1503.Bluegrass Monday
The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band - including Leroy Troy, banjo and “accessories” (washboard, duck call and bicycle bell); Dan Kelly, fiddle; Ernie Sykes, upright bass; Mike Armistead, guitar and vocals; “Lonesome” Lester Armistead, vocals and jug; and Mike Webb, Dobro steel guitar - will give the June Bluegrass Monday concert at 7 p.m. Monday at the Collins Theatre, 120 W. Emerson St., Paragould. Series sponsor Jonesboro public radio station KASU-FM, 91.9, will pass the hat to pay the group. The suggested donation is $5 per person. Call (870) 972-2367 or e-mail [email protected].
Chamber changes
The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra has shuffled the schedule for its 2013-14 Parker Lexus River Rhapsodies Chamber Series, which will still open Sept. 24 but now with a concert titled “Brahms the Romantic” that had originally been scheduled for March 4.
There will also be a change in the planned program: Toru Takemitsu’s Rain Tree and Johannes Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in b minor, op.115, remain, but the String Quintet No. 3 in C major, K.515, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will replace Bela Bartok’s Contrasts.
All concerts are at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Clinton Presidential Center, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. Performers for each concert are to be announced.
The rest of the lineup:
Oct. 22: “Visions of America.” Antonin Dvorak: String Quartet No. 12 in F major, op.96, “American”; Samuel Barber: String Quartet, op.11; Christopher Theofanidis: Visions and Miracles. (Theofanidis is the orchestra’s 2013-14 Composer of the Year.)
Nov. 12: “Artist of Distinction.” Inbal Segev, cello. Sergei Prokofiev: String Quartet No. 1 in b minor, op.50; Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1; George Enescu: Octet in C major, op.7
Jan. 28: “Dvorak’s Piano Trio.” Gustav Mahler: Piano Quartet in a minor; Alban Berg: Lyric Suite; Dvorak: Piano Trio No. 3 in f minor, op.65
March 4: “Sonatas for Two.” Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 5 in F major, “Spring”; Gabriel Faure: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major, op.13; Amy Beach: Violin Sonata in a minor, op.34
April 22: “Beethoven and Wagner.” Theofanidis: O Vis Aeternitatis for string quartet and piano; Beethoven: Piano Trio No. 5 in D major, op.70 No. 1, “Ghost”; Astor Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango; Richard Wagner: Siegfried Idyll.
Tickets are $23, $10 for students. Call (501) 666-1761 or visit the website arkansassymphony.org.
Poetry coup
Little Rock poetry “slam” team Rocktown Slam, by virtue of winning the bid at the21st annual Southern Fried Poetry Slam, June 5-8 in New Orleans, will host the 23rd regional poetry competition, the nation’s largest, in early June 2015.
The event will take place over four days at four Little Rock venues, including the Arkansas Arts Center, Rocktown Slam’s regular second-Wednesday-night home.
The competition will feature at least 32 teams and 16 individual poets, with four teams competing at each venue in two nightly bouts, culminating in the Saturday night finals, featuring the top four teams and top four individual poets. The event will also include daytime workshops, open mics and other side events.
“We have the support of Little Rock’s mayor, and with the Main Street arts initiative moving forward, we’re confident that we’ll have enough venues to host such a large and notable competition,” says team member Kita Marshall.
“Sometimes due to the prominent focus on business, Little Rock is considered less of an arts destination than, say, Fayetteville or Hot Springs, but events such the Arkansas Literary Festival and the 2015 Southern Fried will go a long way toward combating that misconception,” adds “slam master” Amoja “The Mo-Man” Sumler.
The 22nd Southern Fried Poetry Slam will take place in June 2014 in Greenville, S.C.
Style, Pages 43 on 06/23/2013