Kimmel Center Presents Opens Fourth Season September
Shen Wei Dance Arts September 16-18
Jazz Legend Ornette Coleman Friday, September 17
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Saturday, September 18
August 27, 2004
Dame Kiri Te Kenawa
The new season opens Thursday, September 16 at 7:30pm when Shen Wei Dance Arts begins a three-night run in the Perelman Theater with performances presented in conjunction with the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe. The Chinese-born Shen Wei fuses dance, theater, Chinese opera, painting and sculpture in his innovative works Rite of Spring and Behind Resonance. This is Shen Wei Dance Arts’ Philadelphia debut. “Poetic, impudent, beautiful, and strange,” raves The New York Times. Tickets for these performances (Thursday-Saturday, September 16-18, at 7:30pm) are $30 and $35.
On Friday, September 17 at 8pm legendary jazz innovator and composer Ornette Coleman gives a rare performance that launches the Mellon Jazz Fridays series and kicks off a yearlong salute to the saxophone in all its voices. The 74-year-old icon will perform with a drummer and two bass players, creating “one of the most distinctive and thrilling sounds in jazz…a blues Picasso.” (Chicago Sun-Times). Tickets are $29, $45, $58, $63 and $70.
There will also be a public event on Friday, September 17 to help launch the Kimmel Center’s “year of incredible sax.” Details will be announced soon.
On Saturday, September 18 at 8pm one of the world’s reigning sopranos Dame Kiri Te Kanawa makes her Kimmel Center debut with a recital featuring the works of Strauss, Handel, Debussy, Berlioz and Puccini. Kiri Te Kanawa gained legendary status almost overnight after her sensational debut as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1971. Her repertoire ranges from classic opera to native songs reflecting her New Zealand Maori heritage. Kiri Te Kanawa’s performance, accompanied by Warren Jones on piano, launches the Kimmel Center’s Wachovia Master Musicians Vocal Series. Tickets are $34, $44, $53, $60, $68 and $81.
Tickets for the entire 2004-2005 Kimmel Center Presents season, featuring a wide range of programs including world music, classical, pop, dance, family and holiday concerts, are on sale now. Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org or at the Kimmel Center box office, open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. For group sales call 215-790-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets will be available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance. $10 tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office beginning at 5:30pm for evening performances and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one per person.
Sponsors of the 2004-2005 Kimmel Center Presents season include Mellon Financial Corporation, University of Pennsylvania Health System, Bank of America, Sovereign Bank, Wachovia Foundation, The American Express Company, Verizon Foundation, Bucks County Coffee and SEPTA, the Commuter’s Choice. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents. Toyota is the Official Vehicle of Kimmel Center Presents Jazz and World Pop programming.
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