Modlin Center for the Arts: Jazz to the west

April 1, 2011; 6:00 AM • by David Tenenholtz

RVAJazz presents RVAJazzfest 2011
sponsored in part by Modlin Center for the Arts
Saturday, April 9, 2011, 9pm
Purchase tickets online

For the second year in a row, The Modlin Center for the Arts is a most gracious sponsor of RVAJazzfest. If you’ve ever been to a performance of any sort at Modlin, you likely have been stunned by the beautiful collegiate gothic architecture inside the long hallway connecting Modlin, which houses the theater and visual arts department, to Booker Hall, where the music department and Camp Concert Hall are situated. Located at The University of Richmond campus, Modlin consists of “state-of-the-art performance venues, galleries, studios, and classrooms.” A bonafide performing arts center of the highest caliber, Modlin presents events through the Great Performances Series, the Department of Music’s free concert series, and the department of Theatre and Dance’s three main stage productions annually. Set in this environment of learning, students are taught to engage with the arts in all forms. Master classes and lectures from acclaimed visiting artists and performers, along with post-performance “talkbacks” help audiences ask questions that collapse the barriers between those on stage and those in seats. World class performances, with a robust and diverse scope of visiting artists, have helped Modlin become a key component to cultural life in the Central Virginia region.

At the Modlin Center (as with any fantastic performing arts center), there is a merging of a healthy variety of genres, from jazz to symphonic music, circuses and musical theater productions, and an invaluable atmosphere for Richmond students and the public. Through the Great Performance Series events presented by Modlin this year, you watched Merce Cunningham’s Dance Company bring his choreography to life for their final tour; you laughed out loud at the pithy stories read by humorist David Sedaris; you heard the politically-charged declarations of eighth blackbird’s Powerless and Powerful concerts; you enjoyed the vibrant sounds of an all-star jazz ensemble, the SFJAZZ Collective, paying tribute to hard-bop icon Horace Silver. At each presentation, The Modlin Center strives to provide audiences with unique opportunities to engage with the arts, and these audiences are treated to more than thirty-five events each year through the Great Performances Series.

Making strides as an arts presenting institution means having a close-knit working relationship with artists, and helping to advance their own creativity. Modlin has uniquely taken on this role, to commission works performed by the University of Richmond’s ensemble-in-residence eighth blackbird, and their collaborations with composers like Steve Reich, John Corigliano, and Jennifer Higdon, among many others. Notably, Steve Reich’s Double Sextet, which had its world premiere at The University of Richmond’s Camp Concert Hall in March of 2008, earned the composer the Pulitzer Prize for Music the following year. Indeed, eighth blackbird’s list of commissions continues to grow, and The Modlin Center continues to provide support for these works. The cultural community of Central Virginia, in turn, continues to reap the rewards from having such a forward-thinking venue for modern concert-artistic music.

With RVAJazzfest, the Modlin center continues to stretch outside of the academic walls of The University of Richmond, and brings the musical community in this city together. Our own local artists and ensembles, like Fight the Big Bull, have been featured performers as a part of RVAJazzfest, and have appeared in programs at The University of Richmond as well. Drummer Brian Jones performs each year as a faculty member at UR, and local trumpeter and VCU graduate Mark Ingraham most recently performed with tap-dance innovator Savion Glover at the artist’s February dates here. The list continues to grow with each season that The Modlin Center presents.

Visit Modlin Center for the Arts online. The 2011-2012 Jazz Series will feature artists and groups such as Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Chucho Valdes, Gretchen Parlato, Rene Marie, Hot Club of San Francisco, and more.