BOCA RATON — Organizers of the 6th Annual Festival of the Arts
BOCA, set for March 7th – 18th, 2012 presented by the Schmidt
Family Centre for the Arts’ at the Count de Hoernle Amphitheater &
Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center in Boca Raton, have announced a
sensational line-up, bringing “Star After Star” to South Florida.
“This Festival has truly evolved into a one-of-a-kind cultural
celebration, bringing the best in music, dance, film and ideas to South
Florida,” said Charlie Siemon, Festival Chair, at a news conference
earlier this week.
“From a showing of Casablanca – an all-time classic – with live
orchestra – to an evening of operatic favorites that have inspired the
sound tracks of movie masterpieces, this year’s program will reflect a
bit of Hollywood glamour.”
Hailed as “one of the world’s greatest tenors,” internationally
acclaimed José Carreras, presented by AEG Live, will kick-off the
Festival on Wednesday, March 7th.
Twenty-five year old, Cuban-born jazz pianist Alfredo Rodríquez
returns to the Festival, with his trio to present an evening of original
compositions and jazz standards on Thursday, March 8th. This
Quincy Jones discovery is not to be missed, Siemon said.
On Friday, March 9th, Festival-goers will enjoy a presentation of
Casablanca with live orchestral accompaniment conducted by
the Festival’s recently appointed Music Director, Constantine
Kitsopoulos, and the Boca Raton Symphonia.
Celebrating its 70th Anniversary, Casablanca is the 1942 American
romantic film classic that tells the dramatic story of a man torn
between love and virtue, featuring iconic performances by
Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreie. This full-
feature evening showcases Max Steiner’s Oscar-nominated score.
Opera will “Go to the Movies” on Saturday, March 10th with
Constantine Kitsopoulos and Metropolitan Opera rising stars Angela
Meade, James Valenti, Jennifer Johnson Cano, and the Boca Raton
Symphonia. The evening’s repertoire includes beloved opera arias,
duets and orchestra overtures as featured in such popular movies as
Pretty Woman, Philadelphia, Raging Bull, Moonstruck, The Bridges of
Madison County and many more!
Sunday, March 11th marks the Festival debut of Time for Three, the
groundbreaking, category-shattering trio that transcends traditional
classification, with elements of classical, country western, gypsy and
jazz idioms forming a blend all its own. So audience members can
get close to these unique artists, limited on-stage seating is available
for this special event.
Acclaimed pianist and YouTube sensation Valentina Lisitsa will join
the Lynn University Philharmonia, conducted by Jon Robertson, on
Wednesday, March 14th for the ever-popular Rachmaninov’s Piano
Concerto No. 2 and Berlioz’s seminal work, Symphonie Fantastique.
On Thursday, March 15th, the Festival and Larry Rosen’s Jazz Roots
Series team up once more to present An Evening of Gershwin
featuring Patti Austin and Tony DeSare. Boca Raton will welcome
Grammy award-winning singer Austin and Billboard chart-topping
vocalist DeSare who will bring their renditions of the legendary
Gershwin songbook.
For more than three decades as both a leader and a sideman,
conguero Poncho Sanchez has stirred up a fiery stew of straight-
ahead jazz, gritty soul music, and infectious melodies and rhythms
from a variety of Latin American and South American sources. He
will bring his high energy performance along with his band to Boca
Raton on Friday, March 16th.
The Festival music finale, Saturday, March 17th, will be a St.
Patrick’s Day Extravaganza with an afternoon filled with folk dancers,
acclaimed fiddlers, and Celtic bands to entertain the masses while
delighting in food and libations honoring great Irish traditions.
This year’s program of Authors & Ideas once again welcomes
Distinguished Writer in Residence, Doris Kearns Goodwin, the
Pulitzer Prize-winning Presidential Historian and Kevin Bleyer,
multiple Emmy Award-winning writer for “The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart”, co-author of the New York Times #1 bestseller, Earth: The
Book and author of the upcoming book Me The People: An Order
to Form a More Perfect Union, which will be published by Random
House in the summer of 2012. Bleyer is also a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations
Joining this year’s line-up of authors is Mika Brzezinski, co-host of
MSNBC’s Morning Joe and Citadel Media’s syndicated radio show
The Joe Scarborough Show and author of Knowing Your Value:
Women, Money & Getting What You’re Worth and the memoir All
Things At Once which became a New York Times Bestseller; Andrew
Ross Sorkin, co-host of CNBC’s Squawk Box, best-selling author of
Too Big To Fail, The New York Times chief mergers and acquisitions
reporter, columnist, and editor of DealBook, an online daily financial
report he started in 2001; and Barbara McDonald Stewart, daughter
of the first U.S. Ambassador to Israel, James G. McDonald, who
will discuss her experiences with her father in Israel and the newly
founded embassy in Tel Aviv, will be on hand.
New this year will be a University President’s Panel moderated by Dr.
Susan Resneck Pierce, President Emerita of the University of Puget
Sound and author of On Being Presidential: A Guide for College
and University Leaders (Jossey-Bass, 2011); with President MJ
Saunders of Florida Atlantic University and President Kevin Ross of
Lynn University. Their topic: “The Role of the College President in
Preparing Citizens of the World.”
In its sixth year, Festival of the Arts BOCA is an extraordinary, multi-
day cultural arts event for South Florida. The Festival brings to its
audiences the world’s most sought after jazz and classical performers
while simultaneously cultivating the stars of tomorrow.
IMG Artists, a leader in worldwide cultural arts management and
producer of three world renowned festivals: Tuscan Sun Festival, a
late summertime festival in Cortona, Italy; Festival del Sole Napa,
a mid-July festival in Napa Valley, California; and the Singapore
Sun Festival in the fall, is once again collaborating with the Schmidt
Family Centre for the Arts at Mizner Park in the planning and
execution of Festival of the Arts BOCA 2012.
Individual tickets will range from $20 to $100 per person and
packages are available for admission to all events. Student discounts
will be available for some events with proper identification.
For more information call 561-368-8445 and to purchase tickets visit
www.festivaloftheartsboca.org or call 866-571-ARTS.