Northwest Oklahoma Concert Series (NWOCS), an organization that seeks to bring cultural performances and entertainment to northwest Oklahoma, will begin its 2017-18 season Tuesday, Sept. 19, and the advisory board is selling season tickets to its four scheduled acts. All four concerts will take place on Tuesdays with the respective dates, a set time and location of 7 p.m. in Northwestern Oklahoma State University’s Herod Hall Auditorium.
This year’s schedule includes:
Artrageous
Sept. 19, 2017
Celtic Christmas
Nov. 28, 2017
Russian String Orchestra
Feb. 27, 2018
Flipside: The Patti Page Story
April 3, 2018
More information on the four scheduled acts follows:
Artrageous, Sept. 19, 2017
Artrageous is a one-of-a-kind interactive performance of art and music that incorporates many different art forms on the same stage. The audience will get to experience live art, music, dance, life-sized puppetry, and get to be part of the show. The “larger-than-life masterpiece” images created include well-known pop icons. For more information on Artrageous visit www.artrageousexperience.com.
Celtic Christmas, Nov. 28, 2017
Rekindle the flame in the hearth with stories, music, song, and dance from the infinitely rich treasury of Ireland’s cultural heritage. Return to the days before the motor car, the television, and the telephone, and spend an evening with Tomáseen Foley – and some of the most gifted Celtic musicians, dancers and singers performing today.
Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas recreates the joy and innocence of a night before Christmas in a farmhouse in the remote parish of Teampall, an Ghleanntain in the west of Ireland, when the neighbors gather around the fire to grace the long wintry night with the laughter of their stories, the joy of their music, and dances they always said they were much too old for.
Long, long before Riverdance, ordinary Irish men and women in hobnailed boots knocked sparks off the flagstone floors with jigs, reels and hornpipes, and the rafters rang with the fiery music of the fiddle, bodhran, tin whistle, and the mesmerizing uilleann pipes.
Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas features Grammy Award-winning guitarist William Coulter (www.williamcoulter.com), fiddle, flute, whistle-player and vocalist Kathleen Keane (www.kathleenkeane.com), and world-champion-level Irish dancer Brian Bigley on uilleann pipes, whistles, and flute (www.brianbigleymusic.com).
Russian String Orchestra, Feb. 27, 2018
Founded in 1991, the orchestra, composed of some of Russia’s finest young string players, has carved a niche for itself under the creative baton of its founder and music director Misha Rachlevsky. Whether it is their highly-acclaimed CDs or mesmerizing concerts, the orchestra’s warmth and high energy create addictive performances that stay with listeners long after the last note has been played.
About half of almost 2,000 concerts the orchestra has performed to date have taken place in Moscow with the rest being played on tours in 24 countries in Europe, North and South America and the Far East. The orchestra’s discography of more than 30 albums has received widespread international acclaim, such as the Diapason d’Or award in France, Critics Choice in London’s Gramophone, Critics Choice in The New York Times and Record of the Year award in Hong Kong. Of about 1,000 compositions in the orchestra’s repertoire, more than 20 were written especially for the orchestra by composers from Russia, Europe and the USA.
The signature quality of the orchestra is depth and variety of its repertoire, from early baroque to compositions written on commission from Chamber Orchestra Kremlin. The orchestra prides itself in offering interesting and often unique programs not only for its home audience but on tour as well. For more information on the Russian Strings Orchestra visit www.kremlinontour.com.
Flipside: The Patti Page Story, April 3, 2018
Written from interviews with Miss Patti Page, Flipside features 28 of Page’s greatest hits, including “Tennessee Waltz,” “Old Cape Cod,” “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?”, and “Mockingbird Hill.”
Created and conceived by Oklahoma-native artist Greg White, Flipside offers a personal spin on that Singing Rage, Miss Patti Page.
Winner of 18 Kennedy Center Awards (including Best Musical), Flipside: The Patti Page Story played to overwhelmingly responsive (and record-breaking) crowds at NYC’s prestigious59 E. 59 Off-Broadway Theatre. Flipside preserves the life and musical legacy of one of America’s most beloved musical icons. For more information visit www.flipsidethemusical.com.
Season tickets, as well as individual performance tickets, may be purchased online at https://nwocs.ticketbud.com or from Holder Drug or Graceful Arts Center. Anyone interested in buying a contributor package or tickets can contact Kimberly Weast, chair of the Department of Fine Arts, by email at kkweast@nwosu.edu or (580) 327-8462.
The reserved seating section at each concert will be held until five minutes prior to the performance.
Stay up-to-date with NWOCS by liking the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/NorthwestOkCS/ or on Twitter at @NorthwestOkCS. Keep an eye out for the hashtag #NWOCS.
The Northwest Oklahoma Concert Series is supported by Northwestern, the Oklahoma Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Charles Morton Share Trust.
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CONTACT FOR RELEASE
Ali Gavitt, University Relations Specialist
apgavitt@nwosu.edu, 580-327-8480