BYUI announces winter Center Stage entertainment schedule

The following is a news release from Brigham Young University-Idaho.

REXBURG — Chinese acrobats, Austrian marionettes, award-winning barbershop singers and international folk dancers will all take the stage as part of this winter’s Center Stage Performing Arts Series at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg.

The season opens Jan. 15 and 16 with a one-man show called “Leo,” a physical theater piece that challenges your sense of gravity and reality through interplay of acrobatic performance and high-tech video projection.
The always popular BYU International Folk Dance Ensemble from Provo, Utah, will perform Jan. 23 in the Hart Auditorium.

The New Shanghai Circus will feature a troupe of amazing acrobats from China on Jan. 30.

The Salzburg Marionette Theatre from Austria will present two nights of “The Sound of Music” Feb. 3 and 4.
The annual Barbershop Festival Feb. 20 will feature Vocal Spectrum, the 2006 International Barbershop Quartet Contest champions.

The von Trapps, a singing group made up of great-grandchildren on Captain and Maria von Trapp, will perform Feb. 26.

The Winter Jazz Fest will feature Grammy-winning trumpet player Brian Lynch on March 12.

A free performance of Robert Cundick’s “The Redeemer” will be presented by the BYU-Idaho choirs and orchestra on March 19 in the BYU-Idaho Center.

The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, a contemporary dance troupe from Salt Lake City, will perform March 24.
Award-winning violinist William Hagen will perform the Brahms Violin Concerto with the BYU-Idaho Symphony Orchestra on March 31.

A free brochure listing all performing arts events at BYU-Idaho is available at the BYU-Idaho Ticket Office or by calling 496-2000. Detailed information can also be found on the Center Stage website at www.byui.edu/centerstage. Season tickets also may be ordered through the ticket office by calling 496-3170.

Here is more detailed information about each event:

LEO
Friday and Saturday, January 15-16
7:30 p.m., Snow Drama Theater
Tickets go on sale December 28. $8 for BYU-Idaho students, $16 for general public. No children under six. Classroom dress.

What would happen if the law of gravity was to suddenly change? You will find out in the solo physical theatre piece, LEO, which will challenge your sense of gravity and reality through the clever interplay of acrobatic performance and high-tech video projection. Universally appealing to adults and children alike, this is the funny, intriguing, and moving journey of a seemingly ordinary man whose world becomes physically unhinged. LEO won several awards at the Edinburgh and Adelaide fringe festivals.

BYU International Folk Dance Ensemble
Saturday, January 23
7:30 p.m., Hart Auditorium
Tickets go on sale January 4. Floor and Red Seats: $5 for BYU-Idaho students, $10 for general public. Bleachers: $4 for BYU-Idaho students, $8 for general public. No children under four. Classroom dress.

The always popular International Folk Dance Ensemble from BYU in Provo, Utah, will return to Rexburg. With a beautiful array of ethnic costumes, the folk dancers will present a program of dances from more than a dozen nations, including Ukraine, Russia, Korea, Poland, Mexico and the United States.
Since 1964, the ensemble has represented the United States and American culture at folk dance festivals throughout the world.

New Shanghai Circus
Saturday, January 30
7:30 p.m., Hart Auditorium
6:00 p.m., Preshow dinner in Manwaring Center
Tickets go on sale January 11. Floor and Red Seats: $7 for BYU-Idaho students, $14 for general public. Bleachers: $5 for BYU-Idaho students, $10 for general public. Preshow dinner is $15 extra. No children under four. Classroom dress.

The New Shanghai Circus will feature a troupe of amazing acrobats from China. The art of Chinese acrobatics developed out of the Lunar New Year harvest celebrations, where the village’s peasants and craftsmen would hold a kind of Chinese Thanksgiving. Acrobats would use household tools and common items found around the farm and workshop as part of their exciting feats. Performers passed their skills down from generation to generation and great acrobatic families of China entertained everyone from city rulers to village people. At present, there are over 120 professional acrobatic troupes across China, and more than 12,000 performers.

Salzburg Marionette Theatre
Wednesday and Thursday, February 3 and 4
7:30 p.m., Kirkham Auditorium
Tickets go on sale January 11. $8 for BYU-Idaho students, $16 for general public. No children under four. Classroom dress.

The Salzburg Marionette Theatre from Austria will perform the story of The Sound of Music. Based on the Broadway musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, the marionettes will tell the story of the von Trapp family. As one of the last remaining full-time professional marionette theatres in Europe, the theatre contributes decisively to maintaining this very special art. Each member of the ten-strong team is totally committed to the theatre, ambitious to preserve the art and to uphold the Marionette Theatre’s leading place worldwide.

Barbershop Music Festival featuring Vocal Spectrum
Saturday, February 20
6 & 8:30 p.m., Barrus Concert Hall
Tickets go on sale January 25. $6 for BYU-Idaho students, $12 for general public. No children under four. Classroom dress.

The award-winning Vocal Spectrum will headline this year’s Barbershop Music Festival at BYU-Idaho. Vocal Spectrum won the 2004 International Collegiate Quartet Contest and the International Barbershop Quartet Contest in 2006. You will also hear the BYU-Idaho Men’s Choir, Women’s Choir, student quartets and the Carousel Chorus.

The von Trapps
Friday, February 26
7:30 p.m., Kirkham Auditorium
Tickets go on sale February 1. $8 for BYU-Idaho students, $16 for general public. No children under six. Classroom dress.
As the great-grandchildren of the Captain and Maria von Trapp, the four siblings are reinventing the legacy of their birthright for the modern age. As the von Trapps told Rolling Stone magazine, “This new chapter in our career feels very electric; I think our current sound is super fresh, personal and fun. Fourteen years of touring the world together has given each of us a well of inspiration, and we are at a point where all of that energy is overflowing. How each of us blend our styles together is both a challenge and a thrilling discovery for us, yet this first creation, Dancing in Gold, found a wonderfully surprising and compelling place. We’re eager to see how our music manifests itself moving forward.”

Winter Jazz Fest featuring Brian Lynch
Saturday, March 12
7:30 p.m., Hart Auditorium
Tickets go on sale February 16. Floor and Red Seats: $6 for BYU-Idaho students, $12 for general public. Bleachers: $5 for BYU-Idaho students, $10 for general public. No children under four. Classroom dress.
Grammy-winner trumpet player Brian Lynch will headline this year’s Winter Jazz Fest featuring the BYU-Idaho Sound Alliance jazz band. As a bandleader and recording artist, Lynch has released 19 critically acclaimed CDs and earned the “Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year” Grammy in 2007. He is a professor of jazz trumpet at the University of Miami. More information about the Winter Jazz Fest, clinics, workshops and performances will be made available as the event draws near.
Robert Cundick’s The Redeemer – A Service of Sacred Music
Saturday, March 19
7:30 p.m., BYU-Idaho Center
Free tickets available February 16. Free. Preshow dinner is $15. No children under six. Event dress.

As part of the biennial BYU-Idaho Sacred Music Series, The Redeemer – A Service of Sacred Music by Robert Cundick will be performed. The oratorio is in three parts: The Prophecy, The Sacrifice, and The Promise. Scored for choir, orchestra, and soloists, the work was first performed in 1978. The sacred music concert will feature the BYU-Idaho Symphony Orchestra and choirs under the direction of Kevin Brower.

Ririe Woodbury Dance Company
Thursday, March 24
7:30 p.m., Kirkham Auditorium
Tickets go on sale February 29. $6 for BYU-Idaho students, $12 for general public. No children under four. Classroom dress.

The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company of Salt Lake City was founded in 1964 by two Utah women, Joan Woodbury and Shirley Ririe, who were both professors of dance at the University of Utah. Their passion for dance not only included performing, choreographing and teaching, but it was accompanied by a deep commitment to the value of dance for everybody and its necessity in the education of youth.

William Hagen with BYU-Idaho Symphony Orchestra
Thursday, March 31
7:30 pm, Barrus Concert Hall
Tickets go on sale March 7. $6 general public, $3 BYU-Idaho students. No children under six. Event dress.

Violinist William Hagen will perform the Brahms Violin Concerto with the BYU Symphony Orchestra. Hagen is the third prize winner of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition (the highest ranking American since 1980). He is also second prize winner of the 2014 Fritz Kreisler International Violin Competition. A native of Utah, William began violin lessons at the age of four. At age 10, he entered the studio of Robert Lipsett at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts, commuting to Los Angeles for lessons. After two years of study with Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho at The Juilliard School, he returned to Los Angeles in 2012 to study with Robert Lipsett at the Colburn Conservatory of Music.