WRIGHT CENTER SIGNATURE SERIES Regina Carter and Southern Comfort
March 23, 7:30 p.m. • $25
Regina Carter is the foremost jazz violinist of her generation. The MacArthur Fellow is lauded as a “master of improvisational jazz violin . . . pioneering new possibilities for the violin and for jazz.” She has released nine highly acclaimed solo albums, and has performed with some of the biggest names in music, including Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill, Billy Joel, Dolly Parton and Max Roach. Her newest album, Southern Comfort, is her most personal yet, using her family’s history as the focal point on a musical journey through the South. For this special performance, the Wright Center stage will be turned into a jazz cabaret! Carter and her quintet will perform surrounded by the audience seated on the stage. Complimentary dessert and coffee will be available, creating an atmosphere that promises to make this an amazing evening of music.
“When it comes to the violin, Regina Carter can do it all.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
H. T. Chen & Dancers
copresented with the Alabama Asian Cultures Foundation
April 19, 3 p.m. • $20 reserved seating, $15 general admission The premiere Chinese-American dance company, H. T. Chen & Dancers returns to Birmingham for the Alabama premiere of their newest work, South of Gold Mountain. This original work is inspired by stories collected throughout the South. It features the company’s signature dynamic style and will also include local dancers who will rehearse with the company during their weeklong residency. For over 35 years, H. T. Chen & Dancers has created a uniquely Asian-American expression by embodying its cultural heritage. Infusing Western modern dance with the strength and beauty of Asian aesthetics, the company has enchanted audiences across the United States, Europe and Asia since its inception.
“H. T. Chen’s choreography resides in an evocative, invented culture-world that shares ancient Chinese traditions with modern Western sensibility.” —Mike Huebner, The Birmingham News
H. T. Chen & Dancers is a recipient of the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project Touring Award, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.