Fund for the Arts President & CEO, Andre Stone Kimo Guess
The Fund for the Arts is a vital asset for the arts in Louisville. Its goal is to provide arts access and education, and foster diversity, as well as promote the city as a nationally recognized epicenter of the arts. During a roller coaster of a year — the arts and the community overall are just now starting to rebound from the challenges of the pandemic — Christen Boone, who has navigated the Fund for the past seven years, announced her resignation.
After a national search for a new President and CEO, the Fund for the Arts’ next chapter will be led by one of Louisville’s own, Andre Kimo Stone Guess. With an extensive background in arts and entertainment world from consulting to management, he is ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work on many important issues around our community.
On Tuesday, June 30, Guess was publicly introduced at the Fund for the Arts Summer Arts Kick-off that was attended by Mayor Greg Fischer, this year’s Campaign Chairperson, and Brown-Forman Chairman, Campbell Brown, Board Chairman and CEO of Stock Yards Bank, James ‘Ja’ Hillebrand, and outgoing President & CEO for the Fund, Christen Boone.
Audience publisher, G. Douglas Dreisbach, caught up with Guess to learn more about his background, his interest in the arts and the community, and what he is excited about for the future of the Fund for the Arts.
Kentucky Opera is excited to announce their 2021-2022 live and in-person season that includes mainstage operas of Orfeo and An American Dream with add-on performances to include Holiday Celebration and Robin Hood: a youth opera. After an entire season away from the stage, KO is thrilled to invite you to subscribe to the full season and seeing their longtime supporters as well as new ones back to their home stage in the Brown Theatre to celebrate and gather with our community.
The season includes the following performances and season subscriptions can be found at KYOpera.org.
The Louisville Orchestra recently announced its return to live and in-person performances with a stellar season of fan favorites, as well as some creative collaborations that will have audiences applauding with roars of ovation.
Pops Series conductor, Bob Bernhardt, is entering his 40th season with the Louisville Orchestra and is ready to feel the energy of a live audience. We are fortunate to have such great leadership and talent with his wealth of knowledge garnered over decades of musical collaborations with various symphonies around the country. He is not only a staple with the Louisville Orchestra, but also works with the Grand Rapids Symphony in Michigan, the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, and is an Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee.
Audience publisher, G. Douglas Dreisbach, caught up with the busy conductor to talk about LO’s return to Whitney Hall, his musical influences of John Williams and a snapshot of the season ahead.
Kentucky Shakespeare, the Official Shakespeare Festival of the Commonwealth, is returning to the C. Douglas Ramey Amphitheater in Old Louisville’s Central Park from June 16 to August 15, 2021. “We are beyond excited to finally return to the magical in-person experience of Kentucky Shakespeare Festival in Central Park, after being away from it since the summer of 2019. We look forward to coming together to connect, heal, and again experience the joy together of the free summer festival under the stars,” said Matt Wallace, Producing Artistic Director. “Opening with the stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love is a fitting love letter to Shakespeare and theatre, and it wouldn’t be possible without the presenting sponsor of the production, our partner Churchill Downs. We also return with the epic history Henry V, the culmination of the four-year Henriad tetralogy, Kentucky Shakespeare’s Game of Kings series. What a homecoming this will be – together again in Central Park.”
Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Billy Strings will perform two shows as part of Louisville, KY’s new concert series, Live On The Lawn at Waterfront Park, May 21 and 22. Tickets for shows go on-sale this Friday, April 16 at 10:00am ET/9:00am CT with a selection of pod-based purchase options. Full details can be found at billystrings.com/tour.
The newly confirmed dates follow an ambitious spring run for Strings, who continued to perform throughout the past year, both virtually and in-person. Most recently, he performed multiple nights at Mobile, AL’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium, St. Augustine, FL’s Saint Augustine Amphitheatre and Columbia, SC’s Columbia Speedway Entertainment Center as well as a sold-out show at Austin, TX’s Long Center, livestream concerts from iconic venues in New Orleans and Austin and, finally, his six-night “Déjà Vu Experiment”—a one-of-a-kind livestream event broadcast from Port Chester, NY’s The Capitol Theatre. Reflecting on these performances, Pollstar declares, “The hottest hand in jamgrass mastered pandemic touring…in a fraught year, Strings and those around him parlayed that fervor into the rare pandemic success story, blazing trails in livestreaming, drive-in touring and socially distanced podded shows while remaining true to their core values of authenticity and fan engagement.”
Adding to an already triumphant year, Strings won Best Bluegrass Album at the 63rd GRAMMY Awards for his acclaimed record, Home. Released on Rounder Records, Home was produced by Glenn Brown and furthers Strings’ reputation as “one of string music’s most dynamic young stars” (Rolling Stone). Of the album, The Associated Press proclaims, “it is his creative musical storytelling, paired with solid vocals on Home that should seal the deal, pleasing fans of the genre and creating some new ones…the perfect blend of pure talent and pluck,” while The Wall Street Journal praises, “Billy Strings has clearly emerged as a premier guitar flatpicker of this era.” Moreover, Strings and the album topped Billboard’s 2020 year-end chart in both Bluegrass categories: Top Bluegrass Artists and Top Bluegrass Albums.
Michigan-born and now Nashville-based, Strings arrived on the music scene as one of the most compelling new artists with the release of his 2017 debut LP, Turmoil & Tinfoil. Since his debut, Strings has been awarded Guitar Player of the Year and New Artist of the Year at the 2019 International Bluegrass Music Awards, selected as one of Rolling Stone’s 2017 “New Country Artists to Know” and performed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and PBS’ “Bluegrass Underground.” Often playing over 200 shows per year, he has also become known as an electric live performer, keeping the improvisational tradition of bluegrass alive while incorporating elements of several diverse genres. WXPN’s World Café declares, “a bona fide phenom…with his virtuosic guitar playing front and center, Strings fuses bluegrass to psych rock, country and jam music, without fussing over what bluegrass should be.”
www.billystrings.com
Tickets on sale Friday, April 16 at 10:00 AM at www.LiveOnTheLawnLou.com or Ticketmaster.com. Tickets sold in socially distanced pod seating configuration, in quantities of 4 to 6.
Creative freedom. Magic. Joy. After months of social distancing and isolation, the light at the end of the tunnel is finally growing brighter. Some semblance of normalcy is emerging with the spring, and that includes Kentucky Shakespeare’s return to the parks for the first time in two years.
On Saturday, April 17, at 6:30 p.m., Kentucky Shakespeare kicks off its 2021 Spring Parks Tour at Maples Park with an abridged performance of Romeo and Juliet.
