2005-2006 Season

September 23 NEA Jazz Masters February 2 The Trip to Bountiful
September 25 Ying, Cascade Quartet, Greg Bolin February 11 Rennie Harris Puremovement
October 2 Dervish February 25 OMSTRAB
October 14 Imani Winds March 4 Eden Atwood & the
David Morgenroth Trio
October 23 Rennie Harris Puremovement March 12 A Couple of Blackguards with Malachy McCourt
November 18 The Be Good Tanyas March 16 The Vienna Boys Choir
January 22 Eric Bibb April 4 Les Ballet Africains
January 27 Minh Tran & Company April 20-23, 26-29 Shakespeare in Hollywood
January 31 Pavel Egorov - Russian Pianist June 20 Jennifer Monson

Click here for a PDF of the 2005-2006 Season Performances




NEA Jazz Masters
Jim Hall and Scott Colley

Friday, September 23, 8:00 p.m.
Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $25

www.jimhallmusic.com

Jim Hall is often called the greatest living jazz guitarist. Hall was an original member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet (1955), toured South America with Ella Fitzgerald (1960), joined Sonny Rollins' quartet in '61, and in the years since has played, recorded, composed and collaborated with all the greats. Hall appears here with Scott Colley, known as the bassist of choice for jazz greats including Andrew Hill and Herbie Hancock. In 2004, Hall and Colley collaborated on a CD entitled Magic Meeting. That year Hall was named as a NEA Jazz Master.

Artists in Residence: Call the Myrna Loy Center for details about their residency activities.



Echoes of Discovery Premier
of Missouri River Passacaglia
Ying Quartet, Cascade Quartet, Greg Bolin composer St. Paul's United Methodist Church

Sunday, September 25 - 7:30 pm
Tickets: $20 adults/$10 students

http://ying4.com

Echoes of Discovery Premier Performance of Missouri River Passacaglia Ying Quartet ï Cascade Quartet ï Greg Bolin, composer Montana native Greg Bolin has composed a string octet that honors the source of all life in Montana-water-and the journey of Lewis & Clark. Here to perform the premier of Bolin's unique composition are two of Montana's most beloved string quartets: the Ying Quartet and the Cascade Quartet. The dynamic Ying siblings are the resident string quartet at Eastman School of Music. The Yings will also perform Pierre Jaldert's Ice Field Sonnets, the Cascade Quartet will play Beethoven's String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, and together they will play Mendelsson's String Octet in E-flat major.

Artists in Residence: Call the Myrna Loy Center for details about their residency activities.



Dervish

Sunday, October 2, 7:00 p.m.
Helena Middle School
Tickets: $20 adults/$10 students

dervish

www.dervish.ie

This Celtic dynamo band has played the Great Wall of China, Rock in Rio, packed stadiums in the Holy Land, and festivals worldwide. Some reviewers have called them 'the pre-eminent Irish traditional band.' Their 1996 album at the End of the Day earned them a Hot Press folk Album of the Year Award. Since their 2001 release, Decade, they have performed with James Brown, the Buena Vista Social Club, Oasis, Sting, REM, and Beck. Join them in their quest to spread the sheer joy of Irish music around the world.


Imani Winds

Friday, October 14
Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $20 Adults/$10 Students (Please call 443-0287 for reservations)

imani winds

www.imaniwinds.com

At first, their weaving together of Pan-African and European musical sensibilities raised eyebrows in the classical music world. Then Imani Winds (named for the Swahili word for "faith") captured the hearts of the classical underground. Now, after performing their mix of original compositions, African-American spirituals, jazz and edgy contemporary pieces at Alice Tully Hall, on Saint Paul Sunday and Performance Today, and at Carnegie Hall, they have won even the stodgiest hearts. Reviewers call them "radiant," "pivotal" and "luxuriant."

Artists in Residence: Call the Myrna Loy Center for details about their residency activities.


Rennie Harris Puremovement: The History of Hip Hop
Closing event of 2005 Helena Festival of the Book

Sunday, October 23, 2:00 p.m.
Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $10 adults/$6 students

Rennie

www.rhpm.org

Rennie Harris is the heart of Hip Hop. He has propelled this dance from the street to the stage and is its innovator, nurturer and historian. This appearance is a discussion and an experience of a new art form and its impact on the contemporary vernacular of language and art. The company returns in February for a full concert of their repertory work.

Artists in Residence: Call the Myrna Loy Center for details about their residency activities.




The Be Good Tanyas

Friday, November 18, 8:00 p.m.
Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $20

www.begoodtanyas.com

Their music has been described as beguiling, haunting, rustic, ambient, hobo-erotica, and goth-folk. Since this Vancouver femme trio recorded their first album, 'Blue Horse,' they toured nonstop-North America, England, Australia-then back home to record their second CD, 'Chinatown.' Both old-tymey and new-tymey, their lush harmonies and raw soul delivery are as invigorating as a walk in the woods.
2006

Eric Bibb

Sunday, January 22, 7:30 p.m.
Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $20

SPONSORED BY Qwest, Associated Dermatology of Helena, and New West Health Services

Eric Bibb

www.ericbibb.com

Chicago Blues guitarist Eric Bibb returns to the Myrna Loy Center by popular demand. He's got "a voice to die for" (New York Times) and a style that reflects the soulful joy of a heart that's been around the world. We are happy to give this kind heart our stage once more. Come hear why the Los Angeles Times says, "Eric Bibb is just about stunning."



Minh Tran & Company

Friday, January 27, 7:30 p.m.
Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $15 Adults/$13 Senior/$8 Students

SPONSORED BY Naturopathic Acupuncture Clinic with support from Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), the National Performance Network and the National Dance Project with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Montana Arts Council

Minh Tran

www.mtdance.org

Vietnamese-born Minh Tran infuses traditional Asian technique with a contemporary sensibility to create "choreography that lingers most insistently in the mind's eye" (Cleveland Plain Dealer). His fusion of urban edge and ancient ritual gives modern dance a stunning new voice. "Tran is a mover, always in transit-between countries, between cultures, between technology and art, between bureaucracy and the ballet, between the physical and the intellectual." ~ Oregonian

Artists in Residence: Call the Myrna Loy Center for details about their residency activities.


Pavel Egorov

Tuesday, January 31, 7:30 p.m.
 Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $15 adults/ $10 seniors/ $6 students

SPONSORED BY Paul's Office Supply

Pavel Egorov

A winner of the Gold Medal and first prize in the International Schumann Competition, Pavel Egorov is a well known virtuoso in his native Russia. A graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, he has spent much of his professional career giving concerts across Eastern and Central Europe, in Japan and the Netherlands. Mr. Egorov has received the distinguished title of Honoured Artist of Russia, and currently teaches at the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music.



A Trip to Bountiful
Montana Repertory Theatre

Thursday, February 2, 7:30 p.m.
Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $15 Adults/ $10 Seniors/ $6 Students

SPONSORED BY The Floor Show

Trip to the Bountiful

A play of enormous emotional power, The Trip to Bountiful tells the story of Carrie Watts, an elderly woman living with her son and daughter-in-law. Carrie flees the stifling confines of her life in the city and returns to her hometown where she is surprised to discover the satisfaction of a life well-lived and a renewed connection to her past. The play deals with two topics close to the heart: how to cope with parents as they age, and the existential tug we all have in our hearts for "home."


Rennie Harris Puremovement

HEADLINE SERIES

Saturday, February 11, 7:30 p.m. Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $20 Adults/ $10 Students

SPONSORED BY Taco del Sol and Intralot with support from National Endowment for the Arts, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), the Network of Cultural Centers of Color and the National Performance Network with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Montana Arts Council

http://www.rhpm.org

"If Rennie Harris's Puremovement were any hotter it would incinerate before your eyes!" exclaimed thePhiladelphia City Paper. Come shake the house with this powerful and joyful universal dance language in a full repertory performance. Puremovement's work encompasses the rich, diverse African-American traditions of the past, presented in the voice of a new generation through its ever-evolving interpretations of dance.

Artists in Residence: Call the Myrna Loy Center for details about their residency activities.


OMSTRAB

Saturday, February 25, 8:00 p.m.
Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $12 adults/ $10 seniors/ $8 Student

SPONSORED BY Real Food Store with support from the Performing Americas program of the National Performance Network with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation & the National Endowment for the Arts and from the Montana Arts Council

From the urbanizado imagination of Northeast Brazil comes OMSTRAB, a dance/theater group exploring the inside/outsideness of urban life in South America. They incorporate street dance, ambient sounds of workers and their instruments, poetry and language, regional idiosyncrasies, and the peculiar Aboriginal/African/European pastiche of Brazilian culture. They express "a new scenic contemporary language" that honors the ancient rituals found in our changing urban environments. The Performing Americans program presents this Brazilian dance and theater group on a rare tour of a few performing arts centers around the United States.

Artists in Residence: Call the Myrna Loy Center for details about their residency activities.


Eden Atwood & the David Morgenroth Trio

Saturday, March 4, 8:00 p.m.
Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $15

SPONSORED BY American Federal Savings Bank, Benny's, and Surety Title

Eden

Since the release of her recording, 'A Night in the Life,' Eden has performed all over the world sharing bills with Gene Harris, Joshua Redman and Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band. She has been featured on NPR's Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland. Mark Holston of Jazziz Magazine says, "Eden has emerged as one of the most distinctive all around talented singers to enter the crowded ranks of the female vocal tradition in years." Here she appears with the David Morgenroth Trio.

A Couple of Blackguards with Malachy McCourt

HEADLINE SERIES

Sunday, March 12, 3:00 and 7:30 p.m.
Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $25

SPONSORED BY TRIMAC Group, Mike & Colleen Casey and Galusha, Higgins & Galusha

www.malachymccourt.com

An extraordinary two-Irishman show by Malachy McCourt carries on the wretched, funny tradition of the McCourt family's Irish heritage. (Actually, this was written before brother Frank's Angela's Ashes) This play, written by actor/barkeep Malachy McCourt, has been hugely popular since 1996. It's a funny, sad, moving, exhuberant mix of grinding poverty and the joy of being alive. Simply wonderful.


The Vienna Choir Boys

HEADLINE SERIES

Thursday, March 16, 8:00 p.m.
Helena Civic Center
Tickets: $20 adults/ $10 students

SPONSORED BY Robert Peccia & Associates/PEC, Douber & Pyfer Law Firm, Valley Bank, Ashley Furniture Homestore/Sleep City USA, US Bank, and Mountain West Bank

Great music, five hundred years of tradition, twenty-five rowdy adolescents-an unbeatable combination. These days world's most famous boy's choir sings everything from Gregorian Chant to contemporary and experimental music. They will perform motets and leider, waltzes and polkas, and some surprising new material.

Click here to see Program Notes






Les Ballet Africains

Tuesday, April 4, 7:30 p.m.
Myrna Loy Center
Tickets: $20 Adults / $10 Students

SPONSORED BY Windbag Saloon & Grill

www.lesballetsafricains.com

Back by popular demand! For nearly 50 years this ensemble has been a musical and acrobatic ambassador for Guinean culture. They tour endlessly to present traditional dance, music and storytelling, alced with spectacle, acrobatics, comedy and drama. "A bolt of joy from Africa" (New York Daily News)


SHAKESPEARE IN HOLLYWOOD

HEADLINE SERIES

April 20-23 and 26-29
Myrna Loy Center

Tickets: $15 General/ $10 Students

SPONSORED BY abc Channel 5 KHBB, Ashley Furniture Homestore/Sleep City USA, D.A. Davidson, INTRALOT, US Bank

Ludwig's newest "play within a play" follows Max Reinhardt's real-life 1934 quest to bring William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream to the silver screen. Warner Brothers Studio is less than thrilled to do an "art film" but Jack Warner relents -- much to the dismay of his three brothers. From there casting ensues and includes such interesting choices as song and dance man Dick Powell and gangster-in-the-making Jimmy Cagney. In the midst of all of this business of making "talking pictures" and overnight stars, Oberon, King of the Fairies, and his sidekick Puck arrive, having taken a wrong turn on their way home from the wood near Athens. And that's when the fun really starts! With favorite Helena performers Pete Ruzevich, John Rausch, Mike McNeilly, Benji Cosgrove and Leisa Smith joining current Carroll students and Department head Chuck Driscoll, the play will be a comic smash. The cast is an all Carroll production of alumni, current students and faculty.

Patrons with CAT tickets can turn them in for tickets to SHAKESPEARE IN HOLLYWOOD or claim a gift certificate of $15. Season Ticket holders can switch tickets for this new show. Headliners ticket-holders can switch tickets or get a $10 gift certificate.




Jennifer Monson - Flight of the Mind - Summer Equinox Performance

Tuesday, June 20
Helena Middle School
Tickets: $15 adults/ $13 Senior/ $8 students

SPONSORED BY Allegra Print and Imaging

Monson's navigational dance touring project, "Bird Brain Dance," follows the migratory pathways of birds and gray whales on their journeys across the north and south hemispheres. She specializes in site-specific outdoor and indoor performances, and will create a movement installation in the Myrna Loy building.

Artists in Residence: Call the Myrna Loy Center for details about the artist's residency activities.

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