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Isaiah Collier: The World Is On Fire

Chicago/Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, curator, activist, motivational speaker, and educator Isaiah Collier is a musical virtuoso in the truest sense of the phrase. Most known for his work as a saxophonist, Collier’s sound and approach is drawn from the influences of other master saxophonists such as John Coltrane, Roscoe Mitchell, Wayner Shorter, Ari Brown, and Gene Ammons. 

Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion featuring Ringdown

For 20 years and counting, Sō Percussion has redefined chamber music for the 21st century through an “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam” (New Yorker). For their ArtPower debut, they are joined by Ringdown, an “ecstatically blissful” (Night After Night) and “irresistible” (Feast of Music) cinematic electro-pop duo featuring composer-musicians Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee Parpan. They create music that floats up from the dusty record bin between Brahms and Brandi Carlile, and centers around joy, human connection, and trying to inspire people to feel more love.

Alfredo Rodríguez Quintet

GRAMMY–nominated Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodríguez returns to San Diego with the sound of Miami from his latest album: Coral Way. This album represents a significant chapter in his artistic journey, reflecting his current worldview as an artist. As Rodríguez himself states, “I play what I live, and Coral Way is my new life. It is the name of the street on which, for the past 3 years, I have been composing this album, and now I’m excited that people from all over the world will finally get to hear it in an expansive way, with a full live band.”

Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, globally acclaimed artist Alfredo, has not only captivated audiences worldwide with his exceptional mastery of diverse genres and disciplines, but his personal story adds an equally captivating dimension to his music. Since 2015, Alfredo has captivated audiences with sold-out performances at ArtPower. Now making his fourth appearance, he continues to be a highly anticipated and celebrated artist on our stage.

The Second City 65th Anniversary Show

The Second City is celebrating 65 years of legendary laughs! Showcasing some of our audience’s favorite songs, sketches, and characters written on our stages by some of our illustrious alumni, including Catherine O’Hara, Tina Fey, Keegan-Michael Key, Amber Ruffin, Stephen Colbert, Tim Meadows, Bill Murray, Tim Robinson, Joan Rivers, Eugene Levy, Adam McKay and so many more… With material handpicked from our iconic comedy archive and brought to life by our all-star ensemble, see for yourself why The Second City continues to be the world’s most influential name in comedy for sixty-five years and counting.

Cast: Rich Alfonso, Kennedy Baldwin, Karl Bradley, Anna Bortnick, Claire Favret, Ross Taylor

 

Anoushka Shankar Chapter III: We Return to Light

Chapter III…

Anoushka Shankar marks the culmination of her recent trilogy of mini-albums: ‘Chapter I: Forever, For Now,’ ‘Chapter II: How Dark it Is Before Dawn’ and ‘Chapter III: We Return to Light’ with a visionary new live show. Written and released back-to-back during two years of an experimental, creatively-charged global tour of an ever-evolving programme, the performance of each Chapter infused the composition of the next. After first exploring the transient, bittersweet joy of a summer afternoon on Chapter I and an immersion into a healing, womblike night on Chapter II, Chapter III completes the cycle, leading audiences through each movement and into the strong, golden heat of morning—a time of strength, wisdom and change.

With 30 years’ performance since her teenaged debut, eleven Grammy nominations and an Honorary Degree in Music from Oxford University under her belt, Anoushka has spent her career redefining the conventions of the sitar. Alongside an ensemble celebrated for their endless virtuosity, sensitivity and ear for improvisation, this show sees Anoushka expand the vocabulary of her sitar, looping and bending sound to create a bold new Indo-futurist vision for her music.

Forever, for now

How dark it is before dawn

We return to Light

 

Anoushka Shankar, sitar

Arun Ghosh, clarinet and keys

Tom Farmer, upright bass

Sarathy Korwar, drums and percussion

James Campbell and John Ducket, sound design

Eric Collignon, lighting design

THE JUMP UP!

Sandbox Percussion, Steven Schick, and local community percussionists

Presented as part of La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival and in partnership with UC San Diego Professor Steven Schick and Red Fish Blue Fish, Sandbox Percussion will perform the West Coast premiere of Douglas J. Cuomo’s THE JUMP UP!, a site-specific piece directed by Mark DeChiazza, shaped to accommodate the specific topography and features of its location. 

THE JUMP UP! is a celebration of the joy of communal music making, composed by Douglas J. Cuomo (Doubt, Arjuna’s Dilemma) for Sandbox Percussion and volunteer percussionists from the local community. This free outdoor performance will have the musicians roaming through the Epstein Family Amphitheater, with the audience encouraged to freely move about the players, each listener navigating their own interaction with the music.

Says Cuomo, “Making music together, and particularly drumming, creates such deep and powerful connections for everyone involved. The whole point of this piece is to have as many people as possible experience that connection, by bringing together Sandbox, the volunteer players, and the audience, so that some joyful magic can happen.”

If you are 12 years or older and have some percussion experience, you are invited to join the ensemble. More information can be found HERE. 

About the artists:

Described as “exhilarating” by the New York Times, the GRAMMY-nominated ensemble Sandbox Percussion champions living composers through its unwavering dedication to contemporary chamber music. Composer Douglas J. Cuomo has composed for the concert, operatic and theatrical stage, a well as for television and film, including the themes for Sex and The City (HBO); NOW with Bill Moyers and Wide Angle (PBS); music for Homicide: Life On The Street (NBC).

Confirmed Community Musicians from:

red fish blue fish
One fish two fish
San Diego Youth Symphony 

Sign up to join the ensemble

See full WOW Festival Schedule

 

Trinity Irish Dance Company

Under the lead of Mark Howard, founding artistic director/choreographer—and recent inductee into the 2023 Irish American Hall of Fame—Trinity Irish Dance Company (TIDC) makes its debut at ArtPower just in time to welcome St. Patrick’s Day! TIDC has significantly changed the direction and scope of Irish dance, re-introducing the art form as the phenomenon it is today. This uniquely Irish-American company was the birthplace of progressive Irish dance, an innovative movement genre which “ushered in a new era for Irish step dance” (Chicago Tribune), opening new avenues of artistic freedom that led directly to commercial productions such as “Riverdance.” 

Sara Schoenbeck and Wayne Horvitz

The Sara Schoenbeck and Wayne Horvitz duo navigate through original tunes and improvisatory soundscapes. With feet firmly planted in a genre-less zone, electronics and an ever-expanding textural palate serve to deepen the feel of a shared melodic language.

Sara Schoenbeck and Wayne Horvitz first met as improvising musicians at the 4 day, “company” style “Time Flies” festival (Vancouver B.C.) in 2000. In 2004 Horvitz formed the Gravitas Quartet with Schoenbeck, Ron Miles (Trumpet) and Peggy Lee (Cello). This quartet recorded two CDs and performed throughout Europe and North America. In 2015 Horvitz fused his ensemble Sweeter Than the Day with the Gravitas Quartet to create a septet performing compositions based on the poems of Richard Hugo. “Some Places Are Forever Afternoon” resulted in a CD, touring throughout the US, and an episode of NPR’s “Jazz Night in America”, hosted by Christian McBride. In addition, Schoenbeck and Horvitz had performed in numerous improvised collectives, special projects, and the occasional duo concert.

In 2018, the duo Schoenbeck/Horvitz was created, with subsequent concerts in NY, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Ann Arbor, Sacramento, Northampton, Bellingham, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, and Detroit. Their first CD, entitled Cell Walk, was released on the Songlines label in May 2020. Since the pandemic the duo has presented concerts in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Sessa

Vinyl DJ set by B+

Sessa is a long-time fixture of both the American and Brazilian music scenes. Initially known for collaborating with NY guitar legend Yonatan Gat and co-founding the São Paulo psych-funk combo Garotas Suecas, Sessa released his debut album, Grandeza, in 2019. In their review of the album, the New Yorker described Sessa as “a songwriter cut from Veloso’s mold and blessed with a flair for the intimate, the enigmatic, and the licentious.”

Sessa’s songs are sung in Portuguese, with visceral, sensual lyrics, and melodic flourishes not unlike those of Tom Jobim. However, the music gets a deliberate minimalist treatment rarely found in contemporary Brazilian music, more reminiscent of the bareness of Leonard Cohen.

Sessa’s concerts are already stuff of legend, as he takes the stage accompanied solely by a female backing choir and Afro-Brazilian percussion. While the songs often deal with subjects such as the sensual body and spiritual transcendence, the music points to new, more subtle directions for Brazilian pop music – a deep, minimalist, almost insinuated use of the endlessly rich textures and rhythms that define the songwriting history of Brazil, which Sessa joins as one of its most promising new voices.