Snowflakes, sugarplums, naughty little boys, and magical dolls– The charm of the Holidays is back this year, as Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida presents the return of the classic ballet “The Nutcracker.” The critically acclaimed performance, choreographed and directed by renowned Ballet Master Vladimir Issaev, will run in both Fort Lauderdale and North Miami Beach.

The enthusiastic young company features a team of professional dancers performing the principal roles, as well as a community cast made up of local character artists and children for the party scene. The engaging choreography- from the fun of the party scene- to the harrowing battle scene- to the enchanting kingdom of the sweets- is guaranteed to entertain any age.

This traditional ballet is performed every year by Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida to Tchaikovsky’s popular score based on the tale of Ernest Hoffman. Not only is it the most popular ballet enjoyed by all audiences around the world during this time of the year but it also serves as an introduction to ballet for the very young audiences.

Issaev’s choreography preserves the Russian tradition, and the company’s ticket pricing makes the gift of the ballet a truly unique and unforgettable opportunity for any budget. Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida’s adaptation of the classic also offers a refreshing alternative for those who have already experienced the Balanchine version.

This is your chance to give the gift your loved ones will always cherish. Don’t miss the opportunity to share the excitement and charm of the holidays with Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida during their extraordinary performances of “The Nutcracker” at the Parker Playhouse of Fort Lauderdale, December 12 and 13 www.parkerplayhouse.com, and at the Julius Littman North Miami Beach Theater, December 19 and 20 www.boxofficetickets.com. Tickets range from $15.00 to $ 35.00

For information: www.artsballettheatre.org or 305 948 4777.

The Nutcracker has the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.

Funding for this organization is provided in part by the Broward County Board of Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council. Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida is also sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment

November 21, 2009 – South Florida JAZZ welcomes the renowned piano and vocal sensation ELIANE ELIAS performing with her quartet to celebrate the South Florida JAZZ 18^th anniversary.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Brazil is a continent-sized nation blessed with abundant natural resources, including a seemingly endless supply of wonderful female singers, but none more and accomplished and ravishing than Eliane Elias, who is, at the very least, equally as renowned for her prowess as a jazz pianist. Eliane will traverse the rich musical terrain of her country with her quartet in this fundraising gala evening.

This concert takes place at the 500-seat Rose & Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center on the Nova Southeastern University campus, 3100 Ray Ferrero, Jr. Blvd. in Davie, FL 33314. Tickets are $40 or $125 for VIP packages. All seats are reserved and may be purchased from the Broward Center box office by calling 954.462.0222 in Broward County; also toll-free at 877-311-SHOW, and online at: www.southfloridajazz.org, the presenting organization’s official Web site.

VIP packages include:

• Best seats first

• Pre-concert Gourmet Fare & Wine reception with live music by the award-winning New World School of the Arts Jazz Ensemble

• 2010 South Florida JAZZ membership

• Discounts to all concert series performances

• Members-only promotions

For more details, please see below

Eliane Elias

Pianist-singer-composer Eliane Elias is known for her distinctive and immediately recognizable musical style that blends her impressive instrumental and compositional skills with a sensuous, alluring voice, delicately flavored by her Brazilian heritage. Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Eliane demonstrated musical talent at a very early age. She began piano studies at age seven, and at age 12 she was transcribing solos from some of the great jazz masters. Remarkably, at 15 years of age, she was teaching piano and improvisation at one of Brazil’s most prestigious music conservatories. Her professional career began shortly thereafter, working with Brazilian singer-songwriter Toquinho and the great poet Vinicius de Moraes, who was also the legendary Antonio Carlos Jobim’s co-writer and lyricist. At 21, Eliane left home for New York and quickly claimed the piano chair in the acclaimed, forward-looking jazz band, Steps Ahead.

Considered one of the great interpreters of Jobim’s music, Ms. Elias has been featured in many concert tributes to the master, and recorded two albums on Blue Note Records dedicated to his works, Eliane Elias Plays Jobim and Eliane Elias Sings Jobim. The latter won Best Vocal Album in Japan and was recognized as the Best Brazilian Album in the 1999 Jazziz magazine Critics Poll.

Eliane Elias was featured in the Thelonious Monk Institute’s Second Annual Celebration of America’s Music. She has appeared at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; with the BBC Jazz Orchestra in London, and at Carnegie Hall with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, and at Carnegie Hall to name just a few notable performances.

In 2007, Ms. Elias released Something for You – Eliane Elias Sings and Plays Bill Evans, which received Best Vocal Album of the Year and the Gold Disc Award from the Recording Industry Association of Japan, the third consecutive recording that Eliane received these awards, and her fourth all-time. It is a disservice to her pianistic skills that the accolades are directed to singing because her piano playing is so impressive, and she sings on only six of the 16 tracks. In early 2009, Blue Note Records released the remarkable Bossa Nova Stories that features the cream of Brazil’s rhythm players in Eliane’s band. The CD immediately went to the top of the charts on iTunes and everywhere else. This performance for South Florida JAZZ on November 21, 2009 supports that most recent recording effort by one of Brazil and America’s most gifted musical artists.

Funding for this organization is provided in part by the Broward County
Board of Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Division

Florida Grand Opera will open its 69th season on Saturday, November 14, 2009, with a double-bill of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Puccini’s Suor Angelica featuring the outstanding American soprano Kelly Kaduce singing both Nedda in Pagliacci and Sister Angelica in Puccini’s gripping musical drama. Ms. Kaduce will be joined in Suor Angelica by mezzo-soprano Mzia Nioradze as the Princess, Sister Angelica’s aunt, who visits the convent to demand that Angelica relinquish her inheritance. When Angelica begs for news of the son she bore seven years earlier, she is devastated to learn he has been dead for two years. Angelica’s desperate suicide is followed by a dispensation of grace that provides one of the most moving effects in all of opera. Suor Angelica is one of three one-act operas, collectively known as Il trittico, that were given their world premiere at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1918. The others are Gianni Schicchi and Il tabarro. Mzia. Nioradze, a Georgian mezzo-soprano, made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2002 in War and Peace and has performed with leading companies in the United States and Europe.
Tenor Jay Hunter Morris will join Ms. Kaduce in Pagliacci singing Canio, the leader of a group of itinerant performers. His rage at Nedda, who has betrayed him, spills over into their performance, resulting in the death of both Nedda and her lover, Silvio, before a stunned audience who realize that the arresting drama is in fact real life being played out before them. This verismo opera concludes with the famous words signaling the end of the play within a play as well as the opera, “La commedia è finita.”
Kelly Kaduce was seen this summer in the title role of Richard Strauss’ Salome at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, of which the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote, “Kaduce was simply stunning in the role.” Her previous engagements with Florida Grand Opera include Marguerite in Faust, Mimì in La bohème, the title role in the world premiere of Anna Karenina, and last season as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro. Jay Hunter Morris last appeared with Florida Grand Opera in the 2000 production of La traviata, and has since specialized in some of the tenor repertory’s most demanding roles for leading companies. Baritone Mark Rucker will return to Florida Grand Opera in his signature role of Tonio, who sings the famous prologue to Pagliacci, and later betrays Nedda’s infidelity to Canio.

Florida Grand Opera Resident Conductor Andrew Bisantz will conduct the double-bill. He made his FGO main-stage debut in 2006 conducting performances of Carmen, and has subsequently led FGO performances of Manon Lescaut, La bohème and La Cenerentola. He made his Glimmerglass Opera debut in 2004, conducting Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience, and in 2005 conducted Massenet’s Le portrait de Manon, which was subsequently broadcast on NPR. He is currently Guest Music Director of Eugene Opera, where he conducted critically acclaimed productions of Orphée aux Enfers and Don Giovanni last season, and will return this season to conduct The Marriage of Figaro and Faust. Additionally, he returns to Portugal to lead the Orquestra Nacional do Porto and will make his Boston Lyric Opera debut conducting a new production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.
Cast lists and performance dates:
* = Debut; ◘ = Former Young Artist
Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo and Suor Angelica by Giacomo Puccini
Sung in Italian with English and Spanish projected translations
MIAMI ◙ Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County
Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House
November 14 at 7 p.m. – Opening Night
November 18, 20, 24, 28 at 8 p.m.
November 22 matinee at 2 p.m.
FORT LAUDERDALE ◙ Broward Center for the Performing Arts
Au-Rene Theater
December 3 & 5 at 8 p.m.
Conductor ………………………………………………………………………………………………… Andrew Bisantz
Director ………………………………………………………………………………………………… Sandra Pocceschi*
Set Designer ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. André Barbe
Costume Designer ………………………………………………………………………………………….. André Barbe
Lighting Designer …………………………………………………………………………………….Gordon W. Olson
Chorus Master…………………………………………………………………………………………………..John Keene
Production ………………………………………………………………………………………….. Florida Grand Opera
Pagliacci
Canio …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Jay Hunter Morris
Nedda ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Kelly Kaduce
Tonio ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Mark Rucker
Silvio ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Kyle Pfortmiller*
Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica ………………………………………………………………………………………………. Kelly Kaduce
The Princess, her aunt ………………………………………………………………………………… Mzia Nioradze*
Continued on following page . . .

About Florida Grand Opera
Florida Grand Opera was formed in June 1994 by the merger of Greater Miami Opera, founded in 1941, and The Opera Guild Inc., of Fort Lauderdale, founded in 1945. Celebrating its 69th season of continuous performances, Florida Grand Opera stands as one of the oldest performing arts organizations in Florida. In addition to producing standard repertoire, Florida Grand Opera also presents lesser known operas, as well as commissions and produces new operas. Annually, performances are attended by nearly 100,000 people, and education and outreach programs serve over 50,000 students. FGO offers several highly successful outreach and educational programs, including its internationally-recognized Young Artist Studio. Founded in 1984, the program attracts young singers who train and enhance their professional skills during a 35-week Miami residency.
Florida Grand Opera is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding for this organization is provided, in part, by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council and by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. Additional support is provided by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Mayor and the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners. Program support is provided by the City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council. Florida Grand Opera is a Resident Company of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County and a member company of OPERA America.
American Airlines is the Official Airline, Intercontinental Miami is the Official Hotel and Steinway & Sons is the Official Piano of Florida Grand Opera.

ACCLAIMED MUSICAL TO LAUNCH 2009-2010

BROADWAY ACROSS AMERICA-MIAMI SUBSCRIPTION SERIES

FOR A LIMITED ONE-WEEK RUN, OCTOBER 27- NOVEMBER 1,

PRESENTED AT THE SANFORD AND DOLORES ZIFF BALLET OPERA HOUSE BY FLORIDA THEATRICAL ASSOCIATION AND THE ADRIENNE ARSHT CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

Miami, FL September 17, 2009 — Oprah Winfrey, Scott Sanders and the producing team of the Broadway smash hit THE COLOR PURPLE, The Musical about Love, are proud to announce that Miami will host the first North American touring production of THE COLOR PURPLE from Tuesday, October 27-Sunday, November 1 at the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House in the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County. The show will launch the 2009-2010 Broadway Across America subscription series presented by Florida Theatrical Association and the Adrienne Arsht. Tickets are on sale now!

Nominated for eleven Tony Awards^®, including Best Musical, THE COLOR PURPLE opened on December 1, 2005 at the Broadway Theatre where it ran for more than two record-breaking years.  It is based on the classic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker and the moving film by Steven Spielberg.  It is the unforgettable and inspiring story of a woman named Celie, who finds the strength to triumph over adversity, and discover her unique voice in the world.  With a joyous GRAMMY^®-nominated score featuring gospel, jazz, pop and the blues, THE COLOR PURPLE is about hope and the healing power of love.

Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press described THE COLOR PURPLE as “a roof-raising story of triumph.”  And Richard Corliss of TIME Magazine said, “[it is] a soaring, epic tale.  It made a joyful noise in my heart.”  Elysa Gardner from USA Today raved, “Pure heart!  It celebrates the inspiring relationships of faith and love, A Broadway hit!”

As on Broadway, the first North American Tour of THE COLOR PURPLE is directed by Gary Griffin.  THE COLOR PURPLE features a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winner Marsha Norman, music and lyrics by Grammy Award^®-winning composers/lyricists Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, and choreography by Donald Byrd. The original creative team of Tony Award^®-winner John Lee Beatty (sets), Paul Tazewell (costumes), Tony Award^®-winner Brian MacDevitt (lighting), Jon Weston (sound), Jonathan Tunick (orchestrations) and Kevin Stites (Music Supervisor) was reunited for the tour.

The first North American Tour is produced by Oprah Winfrey, Scott Sanders, Roy Furman, Quincy Jones, Creative Battery, Anna Fantaci & Cheryl Lachowicz, Independent Presenters Network, Lowy Family Group, Stephanie McClelland, Gary Winnick, Jan Kallish, Nederlander Presentations, Inc., Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Andrew Asnes & Adam Zotovich and Todd Johnson.

The original cast recording is available on EMI/Angel Records, and THE COLOR PURPLE: A Memory Book of the Broadway Musical (Avalon/Carroll & Graf) is available in bookstores now.  Ariel Investments is a proud sponsor of THE COLOR PURPLE.

Tickets are on sale now and range from $25-$75 (not including applicable service charges). Tickets are available for purchase at www.arshtcenter.org or call 305-949-6722 Monday to Friday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is made possible by the public support of the Miami-Dade County Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, and Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council. Education & Outreach is funded in part by The Children’s Trust. The Adrienne Arsht Center also receives generous support from private contributions to the Adrienne Arsht Center Foundation, Inc., through its Visionary Society membership program and its Encore Circle major gifts program; City of Miami Omni Community Redevelopment Agency; American Express Company; Arison Arts Foundation; Dade Community Foundation; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council; the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

About the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County

The Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is Miami-Dade County’s largest ever public/private-sector partnership, comprised of an $150 million private capital campaign conducted by the Performing Arts Center Foundation and public funding drawn primarily from the County’s Convention Development Tax revenues, as well as the City of Miami Omni Redevelopment District Community Redevelopment Agency. Greatly enhancing the artistic and educational opportunities in South Florida, the Adrienne Arsht Center will have significant and long-term economic benefits for the city and the region.

The Adrienne Arsht Center, designed by world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, includes the 2,400-seat Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House, the 2,200-seat John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall, a 200-seat black box Carnival Studio Theater, the Peacock Education Center, a restored Carnival Art Deco Tower, and the Parker and Vann Thomson Plaza for the Arts, which unites the Center buildings across Biscayne Boulevard, providing a magnificent setting for outdoor entertainment and informal gatherings. The key members of the design team include theater planning and design consultant Joshua Dachs of Fisher Dachs Associates, Inc. and acoustician Russell Johnson of ARTEC, Inc., both of whom worked on the project since its inception.

The Adrienne Arsht Center is a Miami venue not only for its three resident companies (Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet, and New World Symphony), but also for many smaller South Florida arts organizations that will perform in its theaters on a regular basis, as well as for the finest popular and classical performances from around the world. With state-of-the-art performance facilities in Miami for the first time, the Adrienne Arsht Center offers South Florida audiences the best and most diverse theater, music, and dance—with a dedication to entertain, challenge, and educate all segments of the community. For more information, visit www.arshtcenter.org.

Contacts:

• Broadway Across America
• Charlie Cinnamon 305.672.1324
• Charlotte Vermaak 954-626-7821
• Adrienne Arsht Center
• Suzette Espinosa 786.468.2221