Celebrity Series of Boston
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The Celebrity Series of Boston is a non-profit performing arts presenter established in Boston, Massachusetts by Boston impresario Aaron Richmond in 1938 as the Aaron Richmond Celebrity Series. Since its founding the Celebrity Series has evolved into one of New England's major presenting organizations with over 100 performance and outreach activities annually.
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[edit] History
From its inception the Celebrity Series became a mainstay of Boston's cultural life with performances by a wide variety of noted performers. Below is a partial list of performers by genre presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston since its founding:
[edit] Music Performances
[edit] Pianists in Recital
[edit] Violinists in Recital
[edit] Cellists in Recital
[edit] Classical Vocalists in Recital
[edit] Guitarists in Recital
[edit] Orchestras
[edit] Conductors
[edit] Chamber Ensembles
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[edit] Jazz Performers
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[edit] Miscellaneous Musical Performers
[edit] Dance Performances
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[edit] Theatre/Spoken Word Performances
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[edit] Boston debuts
Many nationally and internationally recognized artists have made their Boston debuts with the Celebrity Series. They include:
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Each season from early fall to late spring, the Celebrity Series presents more than 50 multi-cultural and international artists and performing ensembles to audiences in the greater Boston area. By utilizing a number of different performance venues throughout the Boston area, each year the Celebrity Series presents programs of classical music, modern and classical dance, jazz, folk, world music, family music and multi-media performances.
The Celebrity Series has operated under a number of organizational umbrellas. In 1954, it affiliated with Boston University and took the name, the Boston University Celebrity Series. In 1984, the Celebrity Series changed affiliations and moved its operations under the auspices of the Wang Center for the Performing Arts a not-for-profit institution. Then, in 1989, the Celebrity Series incorporated as an independent, non-profit institution with its own Board of Directors[1] and an annual budget of over $3 million (now between $6 million and $7 million). After 18 years of operating with the title sponsorship support of Bank of Boston, BankBoston, FleetBoston Financial, and Bank of America, the Celebrity Series began operating under its incorporated name, Celebrity Series of Boston, in June 2007 [2].
[edit] Leadership
Leadership of the Celebrity Series has remained consistent over its lifetime. In 1958, Aaron Richmond hired Walter Pierce as a Programming Associate. Pierce later became Executive Director and guided the Series from an impresario-style presenter to a fully-staffed, not-for-profit organization. In 1986, Mr. Pierce hired Martha H. Jones as the Series' Director of Marketing. Jones later became General Manager, and, in 1996, when Mr. Pierce retired his full-time post, Martha Jones was appointed Executive Director [3] [4] [5]. During her tenure, Ms. Jones has increased the impact of the Celebrity Series on Boston audiences through the creation of new outreach programs, the presentation of numerous dance programs and the commissioning of new works.
In 1998, a gala concert in honor of Walter Pierce was staged at Boston's Symphony Hall. It was announced during the festivities that seat P-1 in Symphony Hall had been endowed in Pierce's name and that the Celebrity Series had formed the Walter Pierce Annual Performance Fund. Among the performers were pianist Dubravka Tomsic, who played Liszt's Mephisto Waltz; flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal with pianist John Steel Ritter, who played Beethoven's Three National Airs with Variations, Opus 107; William Bolcom and Joan Morris, who performed Billy Desmond and Walter Dore's song, "When Are You Going to Lead Me to the Altar, Walter?"; the Juilliard String Quartet, a trio of pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Isaac Stern, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and Nasha Thomas-Schmitt of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, who danced Alvin Ailey's solo piece "Cry." [6] [7] [8]. At the dinner following the performance, soprano Leontyne Price sang an impromtu version of "This Little Light of Mine" for Pierce.
[edit] Programs
[edit] Arts, education and community program
The Celebrity Series operates one of the most extensive education and community service programs in New England. The Celebrity Series Arts, Education and Community Program has grown from a small, school-based ticket giveaway program reaching 200 people a year to an innovative outreach program reaching thousands of individuals each year with a series of residency programs, master classes, workshops and interactive concerts for students, families, seniors, and special needs groups. The Celebrity Series works with hundreds of community-based organizations who each month receive mailings detailing upcoming Arts, Education and Community Program activities and ticket programs in which they are able to participate.
Between 90,000 and 100,000 individuals attend Celebrity Series concerts each year. While audiences come from as far north as Maine and as far south as New Jersey, the majority come from the greater Boston metropolitan area. The Celebrity Series - through the Arts, Education and Community Program - attempts to ensure that its audience is ethnically diverse and includes people from all age groups and socio-economic backgrounds.
[edit] AileyCamp Boston
AileyCamp Boston is a six-week, summer day camp that combines dance instruction with personal development workshops, creative communication classes and field trips. Based on a structural model provided by the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation as a template for camps across the country, the AileyCamp program is designed to help develop students self-respect, confidence, discipline and imagination while fostering an appreciation for the joy of dance. The goal is not to train students to be professional dancers, but to challenge the participants and to strengthen their self-esteem.
[edit] Boston Marquee
The Celebrity Series Boston Marquee series, which grew out of the Celebrity Series' Emerging Artists series, was inaugurated in the 2000-01 season. Boston Marquee aspires to provide new creative opportunities for Boston artists and to offer rich, new experiences for Boston audiences by commissioning new works, encouraging artistic collaborations and making resources available to artists. Among the artists who have appeared on Boston Marquee are pianists Judith Gordon, Craig Smith, and Robert D. Levin, soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano Jan Curtis, dancer Julie Ince Thompson, the Boston Trio, Sol y Canto, the Nicola Hawkins Dance Company, violinist Stefan Jackiw and Emmanuel Music.
[edit] Collaborations
The Celebrity Series regularly collaborates with other Boston-area arts organizations to enrich Boston's cultural offerings. Most often these collaborations take the form of co-presentations. Past and present collaborative partners include The Wang Center for the Performing Arts, World Music [1], Broadway in Boston, Dance Umbrella, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Handel and Haydn Society.
[edit] Memberships
The Celebrity Series of Boston is a member of ArtsBoston [2], the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP)[3], Boston Dance AllianceChamber Music America [http://www.chamber-music.org/, Dance USA [4], Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau [5], the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) [6], New England Presenters [7].
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Boston Globe article, "Celebrity Series gets new sponsor," by Richard Dyer, April 27, 1989
- ^ Boston Globe article, April 23, 2007
- ^ Boston Globe article, "Pierce retires as Celebrity Series head," by Richard Dyer, May 8, 1996
- ^ Patriot Ledger article, "Boston's impresario steps back after 31 years at the top," by Peter M. Knapp, May 11, 1996
- ^ Boston Herald article, "Arts Celebrity Series chief steps out of spotlight into retirement," by Ellen Pfeifer, May 8, 1996
- ^ Boston Globe article, "Celebrities fete series impresario," by Richard Dyer, April 27, 1998
- ^ Patriot Ledger article, "Tomsic's performance highlight of tribute Music - WALTER PIERCE TRIBUTE CONCERT, Sunday afternoon at Symphony Hall, Boston," by Peter M. Knapp, April 28, 1998
- ^ Boston Herald article, "Music review; Musicians pay tribute to impresario," by Ellen Pfeifer, April 28, 1998
