Single-event tickets for the 2015-16 Bluffton University Artist Series go on sale Friday, July 10. This year’s series features:
• Apollo’s Fire, a baroque chamber ensemble
• Heinavanker, an Estonian vocal ensemble
• pianist Anne-Marie McDermott
• the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players
• and the Columbus-based Raise gospel choir
Tickets are available on the Web, at http://tickets.bluffton.edu, or by contacting the university box office at [email protected] or 419-358-3239. Single-event tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for senior citizens and non-Bluffton students and $10 for children ages 6-13. Children ages 5 and under are admitted free.
Season tickets are also available, at $90 for adults and $75 for senior citizens and non-Bluffton students. A family pass is $55 with the purchase of any season ticket and admits all children in the family ages 6-18 to all five events.
All performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Yoder Recital Hall, starting with Apollo’s Fire on Thursday, Sept. 24. Founded in 1992, the instrumental ensemble is dedicated to reviving the true spirit of baroque performances, with the emotional impact the music was intended to convey. The group is based in Cleveland and plays to sold-out houses around the world.
Heinavanker will be in concert on Thursday, Nov. 12. The Estonian ensemble, which has been performing since 1996, delves into early sacred music, ancestors’ traditions and contemporary imagination. Ancient Estonian runic (folk) songs and folk hymns are important parts of the vocal group’s repertoire.
McDermott will present the first series concert of 2016, on Thursday, Feb. 18. In a career spanning more than 25 years, the pianist has performed over 100 concerts per year and in hundreds of cities throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Her repertoire choices range from Bach and Haydn to Prokofiev and Scriabin and on to contemporary composers.
A reception will follow the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players’ presentation of operettas by their 19th-century namesakes on Thursday, March 17. The first act will be a performance of “The Pirates of Penzance”; during the second act, the cast will take requests for impromptu performances of other Gilbert and Sullivan works.
Closing the 2015-16 series on Saturday, April 16, will be the Raise choir. Several denominations, churches and choirs are represented in the group, which was formed in 1986 to praise the Lord in song. Its repertoire includes spirituals and choral music as well as traditional and contemporary gospel music. The university’s gospel choir will add its voices for several numbers.
