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norfolk — As the weather warms and pandemic restrictions ease, the Virginia Arts Festival is adding events to its 2021 calendar — more concerts, live theater, and opera performances.
“As we passed through the pandemic, we were reminded every day of how vital the arts are to our quality of life,” Robert Cross, the festival’s Perry artistic director, said in a release. “Our audiences are longing to share the thrill of great performances again; artists are eager to return to the stage. It’s our mission to bring them together, and we are honored and thrilled to be a catalyst for the arts’ return.”
Additions include:
April 15: The Catalyst Quartet
Attucks Theatre, 1010 Church St., Norfolk
The performance will explore how unity can be achieved through music. This performance will continue the tradition of the historic venue’s vital role: honoring the innumerable contributions of Black artists.
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April 17: Ryan Speedo Green
Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul’s Blvd., Norfolk
Opera singer and Suffolk native Ryan Speedo Green will perform opera favorites with young singers on the rise from the Virginia Opera Emerging Artists Program, backed by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra conducted by the Virginia Opera’s artistic director, Adam Turner.
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April 22: Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players
Bank Street Stage, at the corner of Bank and East Charlotte streets in downtown Norfolk
The VAF Chamber Players will perform on the festival’s new outdoor stage. Pieces will include Villa-Lobos’ lyrical “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5,” Dvořák’s “Serenade for Wind Instruments,” and Gounod’s “Petite Symphonie.” Virginia Opera’s artistic director, Adam Turner, will conduct. The concert features members of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra along with other gifted area musicians, and soprano Symone Harcum from the Virginia Opera’s Emerging Artists Program.
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April 30-May 1: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Septet with Wynton Marsalis
Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, 201 Market St., Virginia Beach
A rare opportunity to hear the JLCO Septet with Wynton Marsalis in a small group configuration. Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the orchestra performs a vast repertoire, from rare historic compositions to works commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus and many others.
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May 2: Pianist Rob Fisher and Tony Award nominee Laura Osnes
Bank Street Stage
Festival friend, conductor and pianist Rob Fisher will perform with Tony Award nominee and actress Laura Osnes. Osnes is best known for starring roles on Broadway in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Cinderella,” “Anything Goes,” and “Bonnie and Clyde.”
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May 13: Guitarist Manuel Barrueco
Bank Street Stage
Hailed as “the greatest living guitarist on the world stage today” by Fanfare magazine, Barrueco has performed in the great concert halls around the world and in such popular programs as “CBS Sunday Morning” and a PBS bio-documentary.
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May 14-15: Virginia Symphony Orchestra with Chesapeake native Aundi Marie Moore
American conductor Gerard Schwarz will appear with Aundie Marie Moore, the Grammy Award-winning soprano with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and Chesapeake native, for American classics.
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May 15: Jae Sinnett Trio
Bank Street Stage
Local jazz artist Jae Sinnett will perform with Allen Farnham on piano and Terry Burrell on bass.
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May 25-26: Olga Kern
Bank Street Stage (25th); Sandler Center (26th)
The festival’s director of chamber music and Van Cliburn Gold Medalist, Olga Kern, will perform. Her Olga Kern Trio will feature Canadian violinist Lara St. John as well as Canadian Juno award-winning cellist Amanda Forsyth, former principal cellist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ontario.
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May 28-30: Norfolk State University Theatre Company, “A Musical Tribute to Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston”
Bank Street Stage
Directed by NSU producing artistic director Anthony Mark Stockard, this performance will feature theater company alumni.
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June 4: Chris Smither
Bank Street Stage
From North Shore Point House Concerts and the festival, folk/blues singer-songwriter Chris Smither.
Weekend Scoop
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June 27: Mipso
Bank Street Stage
From North Shore Point House Concerts and the festival, Mipso, a bluegrass/indie-folk band out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
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More performances will be announced soon. Tickets are available online at vafest.org or by calling the festival box office at 757-282-2822.
Amy Poulter, 757-446-2705, amy.poulter@pilotonline.com