From the Director

Dear Friend of the Performing Arts:

You have heard the expression, “Everything but the kitchen sink,” but I wager you never would have expected to attend an event in a series named for it.  Welcome to the UIS Kitchen Sink Series!  The series of six very diverse events is presented this season in the UIS Studio Theatre on the first floor of the Public Affairs Center starting September 24 at 8 p.m.

If your home resembles mine, many wonderful things happen around the kitchen sink – it is a primary location for the gathering of friends and relatives.  There are frequent and good conversations, great meals are prepared, and generally the area serves as ‘hospitality central.’

The expression also implies a comprehensive approach.  We certainly intend to present a diversity of artists art forms, types and styles.   With UIS Music as a sponsor of the series, the year includes a smattering of opera, works from Broadway productions, popular tunes, blues, jazz, classical, roots, traditional and contemporary – themes from family to the Illinois River – spectacular virtuosity!

Review the offerings within.  I suspect you will be tempted to subscribe to everything – including the kitchen sink.

We are fortunate to have two “blockbuster” titles for the Broadway at UIS season, two traditional works, and two titles never presented in Springfield.  Packages offered provide enough flexibility that it will be easy to subscribe, and even snowbirds will save money while selecting shows performed in the fall and spring under the Create Your Own option.

We have focused on keeping our prices for Family Series at rock bottom in prior years.  This year, we have permitted a little growth in ticket prices, but we have improved the quality exponentially.  These shows are among the best available.

We screen an enormous amount of material, attend numerous showcase performances, talk with and correspond with myriad agents, managers and artists to find artists to present to you.  Sometimes we are merely lucky.  A case in point – we learned recently that former child prodigy violinist, Midori needed another performance ahead of her Carnegie Hall recital, and offered a fee that we just could not pass up.  I know that she is the Jascha Heifetz Chair at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music and Chair of its Strings Department, but I remember her in 1982 when she was 11, shortly after Zubin Mehta first heard her play, he was so impressed that he invited her to be a surprise guest soloist for the New York Philharmonic's traditional New Year's Eve concert, on which occasion she received a standing ovation and the impetus to begin a major career.

There are many other delights on the Visiting Artists Series – a return visit by the stunning modern dance company, Pilobolus and a return by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, the extraordinary Soweto Gospel Choir, along with several popular attractions to balance your selections.

Review all the offerings within, visit the artists’ web pages, and I am sure you will agree that some of the world’s finest artists will visit our community this year.  Please join them in celebrating a new dawn-a new day.

All the best,

Robert Vaughn
Director
Sangamon Auditorium, UIS