What started out as just an idea of Dance St. Louis Artistic and Executive Director Michael Uthoff has exploded into one of the hottest dance festivals in the country. Thirty professional dance companies, three nights, $15 tickets – the Memorial Day Weekend phenomenon, Spring to Dance Festival, returns for its sixth year at the University of Missouri–St. Louis with a smorgasbord of dance styles, including everything from cutting-edge contemporary dance and tap to classical ballet, modern and more.

Dancers from 30 companies across the country will gather at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center at UMSL for three nights of nonstop performances. It’s the best opportunity of the year to see all types of dance, varying in style and repertoire, from nationally touring professional dance companies in the Midwest and on the East and West Coasts. Presented by Dance St. Louis, the Touhill Performing Arts Center, Edward Jones and Whitaker Foundation, the sixth Annual Emerson Spring to Dance Festival will take place May 23 through May 25.

Spring to Dance has two notable highlights this year: over half of the 30 companies have never participated in the festival and, back by popular demand, St. Louis native, dance extraordinaire and principal dancer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Antonio Douthit, is performing a duet with the talented and breathtaking Alicia Graf Mack, another Ailey principal who once resided in St. Louis with her husband, a native St. Louisan.

“What’s unique about this year’s Spring to Dance is that 16 of the companies are new to the festival,” Uthoff said. “So while there are some returning favorites like Chicago Human Rhythm Project and MOMENTA, there are also new participants like Camille A. Brown from Durham, N.C., and Robert Moses’ Kin and others from San Francisco.”

Uthoff, who created Spring to Dance in 2008, developed a formula for the festival’s program whereby participating companies are a mix of those that appeared the year before, those that did not appear that year but did appear in previous festivals, and those completely new to St. Louis. This formula ensures the return of audience favorites while keeping the mix constantly fresh.

“Audiences flock to the performances — the price is right and the offerings are generous,” stated Time Out Chicago. “Dance St. Louis has just the ticket,” hailed Dance Magazine.

“Spring to Dance is the most popular event of the season because of its affordability, accessibility and variety, which attract a wide mix of people from the greater St. Louis area and beyond,” Uthoff said. “It’s also a fun and upbeat festival with a convivial atmosphere, making it the perfect way to wind down the season.”

Each evening’s $15 ticket covers three sets of performances. Interactive demonstrations from St. Louis-area arts groups, ranging in style from Irish and African dance to hula and hip-hop, will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Touhill’s Terrace Lobby. Performances by four different professional companies will start at 6 p.m. in the E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee Theater, followed by the 7:30 p.m. mainstage performances by another six professional dance companies in the Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall. A total of 10 professional dance companies will perform each evening of the festival.

Performances in the Lee Theater will begin at 6 p.m. Due to the intimate and limited seating in the Lee Theater, its performances are only open to ticket holders who have special Lee Theater passes. The Lee Theater passes are free and will be handed out in the Touhill’s Upper Lobby beginning at 5 p.m. on the night of the show until all passes are gone. If guests are not able to secure a pass, they can enjoy the interactive performances by local dance troupes in the Terrace Lobby, which will run continuously from 5:30 to 7:15 p.m. until the mainstage performances begin in the Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $15 per night and available at the Dance St. Louis box office at 3547 Olive Street in the Centene Center for Arts and Education in Grand Center in St. Louis, by calling 314-534-6622 or by visiting dancestlouis.org.

A day before they graduate from the University of Missouri–St. Louis with an MFA in creative writing, nine students will read their original works. The semiannual MFA Graduate Reading will begin at 7:30 p.m. May 17 at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center at UMSL. The reading is free and open to the public.

Students scheduled to read include Sara Ross, Sarah Gray, Jessyka Lee, Adam Hayward, Amy Milton, Ryan Smith, Lauren Wiser, Kerstin Parmley and Ryan Trattles. John Dalton, director of the MFA in Creative Writing program, will give an introduction to the event. Faculty members from the program will then introduce each student.

The MFA in Creative Writing program is part of the Department of English. The program provides opportunities for growth in the writing of fiction and poetry. It also provides practical training in literary editing.

Call 314-516-5574 for more information. Visit the MFA in Creative Writing website to hear past graduate readings.

Media Coverage:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch 

UMSL Chancellor Tom George will be the guest monologist for the May 15 performance by The Improv Shop at the Touhill Center at UMSL. (Photo by August Jennewein)

The Improv Shop, featuring guest monologist Tom George, chancellor of the University of Missouri–St. Louis, will bring its improvisational comedy to UMSL. The show will begin at 7:30 p.m. May 15 at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. 

Founded in 2009, The Improv Shop is St. Louis’ only long-form improvisational comedy training school and theater. This performance will feature the Armando format – Tom George will tell a personal tale about summer vacation, and the improv troupe will build a series of hysterical vignettes that interweave characters, plot, story and other details.

George is a community leader and fundraiser. As a professor of chemistry and physics at UMSL, he’s an internationally recognized as an active researcher specializing in chemical-materials-laser physics and nanoscience, including nanomedicine. 

George is also an accomplished jazz pianist, who has performed extensively at venues throughout Missouri and Illinois, as well as universities in China, Hungary, Romania, Kuwait, Bosnia and Croatia.

The Improve Shop performance is for mature audiences. Tickets for the show are $10-$15 and can be purchased at the box office, online at touhill.org or by phone at 314-516-4949.

(Photo by Justin Bernhaut)

Inspired by a once-rumored but unconsummated meeting between the Beatles and Karlheinz Stockhausen – icons of 1960s rock and avant-garde composition, respectively – Alarm Will Sound’s “1969” connects the music, politics and culture of a turbulent decade through the works of the Beatles, Leonard Bernstein and contemporary composers Stockhausen and Luciano Berio.

Alarm Will Sound will perform “1969″ at 8 p.m. April 26 at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. An E3! pre-performance discussion will begin at 7:10 p.m. Tickets are $10-$25.

The concluding production of the acclaimed contemporary music ensemble’s first St. Louis season, “1969″ incorporates multimedia elements including three on-stage screens displaying projected stills and videos of the era’s tumultuous events, such as civil rights protests, riots, the Vietnam War, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. Actors deliver lines based on interviews and writings by Lennon, Stockhausen, and Berio, and the musicians not only play their instruments, they sing and act, too, using the words of the decade’s cultural and historical figures.

“1969″ includes selections from the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” and “Tomorrow Never Knows,” Bernstein’s Mass, arranged by Gavin Chuck and Stefan Freund; and Stockhausen’s Hymnen and Gesang der Jünglinge, a work that fascinated Paul McCartney. It also incorporates parts of Berio’s unperformed 1963 opera Traces, a work about the politics of race, arranged by Payton MacDonald and Courtney Orlando; and Berio’s arrangements of Beatles songs. The recorded sound effects, samples, and tape loops of Lennon’s “Revolution 9” are performed live by the musicians, translated into instrumental lines, noise, and speech in an arrangement by Matt Marks.

Described by The New York Times as “the future of classical music” and “the very model of a modern music chamber band,” Alarm Will Sound has built a reputation for its innovative and energetic performances of a wide-ranging repertoire of demanding works.

Alarm Will Sound’s St. Louis season is sponsored by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation and the Mizzou New Music Initiative.

Tickets are available through the Touhill Performing Arts Center Ticket Office; online at touhill.org; or by phone at 314-516-4949.

Read more about Alarm Will Sound’s “1969″ at the St. Louis Magazine website or listen to an interview Alan Pierson, Alarm Will Sound conductor, on the St. Louis Public Radio | 90.7 KWMU website.

(Photo by Danny Reise)

Neon Trees (pictured), an alternative rock band from Provo, Utah, and Grouplove a Los Angeles-based indie band attracted nearly 900 fans April 17 to the annual Mirthday concert at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. The concert was held in the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. The Capital Kings, a Washington, D.C., Christian pop band, opened for the headliners.

Abby Wood, a junior majoring in business administration at UMSL and a country music fan, said she attended the concert with friends.

“They listen to alternative rock, so I listened to their music recently, and I decided to go,” Wood said. “The concert was fun, and I had a really good time.”

Visit the Riverfront Times website to see more photos from the concert.

Musicians from Samara, in their first visit to St. Louis, and UMSL piano students, will collaborate during a performance at 3 p.m. April 28 in the E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee Theater in the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center.

“Russian Seasons in St. Louis” is free to all students with valid ID. Tickets for nonstudents will cost $15. There will be a pre-show discussion at 2:15 p.m. and a reception following the performance.

University piano students will perform Russian piano music. Alla Voskoboynikova, teaching associate professor of music and director of keyboard studies at UMSL, will perform a duet with Irina Sigal, an acclaimed soprano from Samara. Dmitri Kosiakov will play the balalaika, a Russian folk stringed musical instrument.

The performance is sponsored by the College of Fine Arts and Communication and Department of Music at UMSL, as well as the Greater St. Louis-Samara Sister Cities Committee.

In October, Voskoboynikova, along with four of her piano students and James Richards, interim dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at UMSL, undertook a whirlwind trip to Russia that included performances, lectures and, of course, sightseeing. While in Russia the group visited the cities of Samara, Moscow and Voronezh.

St. Louis is the official sister city of Samara, with the relationship being formalized in 1992.

Click here or below to see the group of UMSL music students on Russian television. The video, shot in Samara, Russia, opens with senior Daniel Dickson performing on the piano.

She’ll discuss “Nursing Leadership: From the Bedside to the Boardroom” at 5 p.m. April 23 at the E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee Theater in the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. A reception will follow the lecture.

Disch, a clinical professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing  in Minneapolis and president of the American Academy of Nursing will deliver the lecture on behalf of the Elizabeth McIntosh and Jerry Durham-College of Nursing Alumni Endowed Lecture in Nursing Science at UMSL.

Disch serves on the boards of Aurora Health Care and the National Center for Healthcare Leadership. From 2006-08 she served as a board member and then chairman of the national board of AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons. She also served as president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

Her research has centered on nurse-physician relationships and quality and safety within health-care organizations.

The event is free and open to the public, however, reservations are requested. Call 314-516-6849 or e-mail gillettem@umsl.edu.

The Elizabeth McIntosh and Jerry Durham College of Nursing Alumni Endowed Lecture in Nursing Science was established in 1999 in honor of the original director of the Barnes School of Nursing, once housed at UMSL, and the former dean of the College of Nursing, respectively.

Over the last ten years, the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival has grown to be one of the most significant jazz festivals in the Midwest. Produced by the University of Missouri–St. Louis, the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center and Jazz St. Louis, the 2013 festival will run April 18-20 and feature Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour, Doc Severinsen and His Big Band and Anat Cohen and Matt Wilson.

“This annual celebration of education and performance is the only festival of its kind in St. Louis,” said Jim Widner, director of the jazz studies at UMSL and artistic director of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival. “That is because in addition to celebrating professional jazz musicians in our headline concert performances, we focus on nurturing the talent of young musicians with jazz student performances and clinics.”

The goal of the festival is to encourage the musical education and growth of the 800 participating students by interaction with internationally acclaimed jazz artists. These students perform on the same stages as the biggest names in professional jazz.

“Jazz St. Louis is proud to once again partner with UMSL and the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival,” said Gene Dobbs Bradford, executive director of Jazz St. Louis. “We all share a strong commitment to providing excellent educational opportunities for young people. In addition, the festival allows us to share some of the world’s greatest jazz musicians with our community.”

The big jazz performances in 2013 begin with Anat Cohen and Matt Wilson at Jazz at The Bistro on April 18 and continue at the Touhill with Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour and Doc Severinsen and His Big Band on on April 19 and 20, respectively. Both concerts at the Touhill feature opening-act performances by the UMSL Jazz Ensemble, directed by Jim Widner.

The festival will include the following performances:

April 18: Virtuosic reed artist Anat Cohen and New York-based drummer and Grammy-nominee Matt Wilson open the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival. Jazz St. Louis will present two shows on April 18 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. at Jazz at the Bistro.

Cohen, who will be playing both clarinet and tenor saxophone, says: “The music we perform…comes from the jazz tradition, but it’s very playful – we have fun with sounds and melodies, following our instincts, without over-analyzing. Matt Wilson is like a kid onstage, and that’s what I like to be – it’s great to have a partner in crime like him. Matt gets these incredible sounds from the drums…”

Tickets are $32 and are available through the Jazz St. Louis Box Office at 314-289-4030, MetroTix at 314-534-1111, or online at stlouis.metrotix.com.

April 19: Jazz St. Louis presents the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour 55th Anniversary Celebration on April 19 at the Touhill. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall with an opening set by the UMSL Jazz Ensemble, directed by Jim Widner.

Featuring critically acclaimed, Grammy Award-winning jazz artists, this all-star band consists of bassist and musical director Christian McBride, vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, saxophonist Chris Potter, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, pianist Benny Green and drummer Lewis Nash. Embracing the past, present, and future of jazz, the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour will perform an assortment of classic jazz repertoire as well as original compositions.

The Monterey Jazz Festival, the longest continuously-running jazz festival in the world, has presented nearly every major jazz star — from Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong to Esperanza Spalding and Trombone Shorty — since it was founded in 1958.

Tickets for Monterey Jazz Festival, sponsored by Worldwide Technology, Inc., are $35 – $75 and are available through the Touhill Performing Arts Center Ticket Office; online at touhill.org; or by phone at 314-516-4949.

April 20: Doc Severinsen and His Big Band will close out this exciting weekend of jazz on April 20 at the Touhill. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall with an opening set by the UMSL Jazz Ensemble, directed by Jim Widner.

“The Tonight Show” bandleader Doc Severinsen is best known as the legendary horn player who welcomed millions of viewers with the familiar theme song for nearly three decades. The Doc Severinsen and His Big Band repertoire includes Ellington and Basie standards, pop, jazz, ballads, big band classics and, of course, “The Tonight Show” theme. Severinsen can blow the roof off with a trumpet solo, and his band members get their well-deserved turns in the spotlight.

Tickets are $35. They are available through the Touhill Performing Arts Center Ticket Office; online at touhill.org; or by phone at 314-516-4949.

Read more about the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival on the All About Jazz website.

Media Coverage:
KPLR (Channel 11)
“Cityscape” on St. Louis Public Radio | 90.7 KWMU
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Beacon

Every time The Second City touring company returns to the University of Missouri–St. Louis for its extremely popular annual show at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center, a future legend could be onstage. Named the country’s “Comedy Empire” by The New York Times, the Chicago-based improv group has a reputation for cultivating the next generation of comedic royalty with alumni including Tina Fey, Bill Murray and Steven Colbert.

The comedy troupe will perform, as part of its “Laughing Matters” tour, at 7 and 10 p.m. April 5 and 5 and 9 p.m. April 6 at the Touhill. Ticket are $35.

The Second City will also present a master class at 2 p.m. April 5 at the Touhill. Tickets are $20.

The Second City is famous for influencing the nation’s sense of humor through the popular movies and television that its graduates have created such as “The Colbert Report” and “30 Rock.” When the comedy troupe returns to the Touhill this spring, audience members will be treated to a cabaret-style performance seated at tables close to the stage with beverage service available.

With a celebrated tradition of launching the careers of the biggest names in comedy, a Second City performance is a don’t-miss event for those who want to say, “I saw her when …”

Call 314-516-4949 or visit touhill.org to purchase tickets.

The College of Fine Arts & Communication at the University of Missouri–St. Louis announced its new program for students to earn a Certificate in Audio Recording. The college is collaborating with Ira DeWitt, president and founder of Notifi Records; the UMSL Department of Music; and the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center, to offer this certificate program that provides participants with the necessary technical skills needed for the production of high-quality sound recordings.

Through a mix of lecture-based courses and hands-on training, participants will learn to use audio technology, including recording consoles, microphones, and the widely used audio software program Pro Tools. Courses will be held in the studios of Notifi Records in Brentwood, Mo., and on the UMSL campus.

The first course offered, Intro to Music Business, will begin on April 3 and is an overview of the business structures of various types of music businesses. Course topics will address the following positions within the studio and live event industries: record producer, music publisher, booking agent, promoter, and tour manager. Additional topics that will be covered include copyright collectives, performance rights organizations, music business deal structures, and music distribution. The course will meet 6-9 p.m. every Wednesday, April 3-May 1. It will be offered again in the fall, beginning Sept. 4.

The second course beginning in April is Audio Engineering I and will meet 6-9 p.m. Thursdays, April 4-May 2. Sessions will include:

• Sound Recording, focusing on the history of sound and how sound is recorded through both analog and digital recording hardware and software
• Microphones, exploring proper microphone placement for vocal and instrumental recording, the different types of microphone polar patterns, and which microphone to use in different recording environments
• Sound Waves, where students will learn the “3P’s of sound” – physics, propagation and perception – acoustics and how sound is measured

Additional courses – Audio Engineering II, Music Production, Live Audio Engineering, and Mixing & Mastering – will continue May through September.

Courses are offered for either credit or noncredit. Participants can take select courses, but must take all six to earn the certificate. For more information on each course, including the complete course schedule, visit the website at audiorecordingcertificate.com or call 314-516-5994.

About the University of Missouri–St. Louis School of Professional & Continuing Studies: The University of Missouri–St. Louis School of Professional & Continuing Studies provides courses, programs, conferences, and events that fulfill degree completion, professional development and personal enrichment goals for the lifelong learner. For more information, visit pcs.umsl.edu.