Contact: Kara Larson

(207) 370-7806

info@portlandfestival.org

Hold for release until Jan. 20, 2012

Portland Performing Arts Festival Announced

• Contemporary dance company Alison Chase/Performance and

classical guitarist Sharon Isbin among featured performers

• Performances Scheduled for June 28 – July 1, 2012

The Portland Performing Arts Festival, a multi-day array of varied presentations covering a wide range of performing arts, announces the details of its summer 2012 activities. Featuring music, dance, theater, and performance art, the Festival will transform Portland’s Arts District into a hotbed of creative activity for four days. Beginning with a guitar master class on Thursday, June 28, and ending with performances of theater and classical music on Sunday, July 1, the event will feature nine Festival performances and dozens of associated Festival Fringe programs.

“We hope to create a sustainable and distinctive festival that brings regional residents and cultural tourists to Portland’s vital downtown,” said Kara Larson, the Festival’s board president. “By combining visiting artists from around the world with performances by Maine artists and collaborative work with Portland’s arts organizations we hope to create a world-class event that is uniquely Maine’s.”

Portland has already proven itself as a cultural mecca, serving residents and visitors alike with thriving presenter and producer organizations encompassing every imaginable art form. Its creative community grows every year, and a significant sector of economic development is connected to the creative economy. The Festival organizers hope to draw both local and regional audiences and use the event to support all the arts in Portland. “If, in a year or two, it becomes an even larger day event, it will have more potential to draw audiences from New York, New England and Canada (and eventually further away),” Larson said.

“As a rising cultural center nationally, Portland now has a chance to build on its strengths and attract new audiences that will increase the entire pie for our cultural community and economy,” said Jennifer Hutchins, executive director of the Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance. “It’s festivals like this one that help solidify Portland’s place on the map and draw national and international attention to our enviable quality of life.”

PORTLAND PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL

Scheduled 2012 artists include:

SHARON ISBIN, classical guitar. This multiple Grammy-winning classical guitarist has for years been acknowledged as the pre-eminent guitarist of our times. Her performances of Baroque and Classical guitar masterpieces set the standard worldwide. She also collaborates with contemporary composers and creators; a recent recording featured new works from Leo Brouwer and Tan Dun, and featured John Duarte’s “Joan Baez Suite.” Isbin was also featured on the soundtrack of Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. This intimate solo concert will include guitar works spanning 400 years. (Friday evening, June 29, Immanuel/Williston Church)

DOUG WAMBLE, jazz/blues. A child of Memphis, Doug headed to New York and has since played with such jazz greats as Wynton & Branford Marsalis and Cassandra Wilson, and pop artists Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux and Courtney Love. With his quartet (and an added horn section) he performs “Yoknapatawpha,” an 8-part work based on the literary works of William Faulkner, using instrumental pieces to create impressions of Faulkner’s landscapes and vocal works to highlight characters from his stories. Commissioned by Chamber Music America, and composed by Doug Wamble, the work is written for an octet of guitar, bass, piano, drums and horns. This evening-length work is a deeply textured combination of jazz, blues, and traditional American music. (Saturday evening, June 30, State Theater)

• This event is sponsored by the State Theater

In addition, he will present a separate solo performance, in which blues and traditional American songwriting flavor a collection of personal songs from Doug’s third album. (tbd)

GUITAR MASTERCLASS, featuring Sharon Isbin and Doug Wamble. These two legendary guitar masters will work with selected Maine guitarists in a master class format, which will be open to public observers. This will be a unique opportunity to see coaching sessions that illuminate the technique and artistry of these two spectacular performers. Sharon Isbin is the head of the guitar programs at the Juilliard School and the Aspen Music Institute, and Doug Wamble is a sought-after teacher of both jazz and blues guitar in NY and at the Montreal Guitar Festival. (Thursday afternoon, June 28, One Longfellow)

EEPYBIRD, performance art. World famous Maine performers Fritz Grobe and Steven Voltz (the “Coke & Mentos guys”) present a unique and messy demonstration for the festival. Combining science and spectacle, Eeepybird makes ordinary objects do extraordinary things. Eepybird have been featured in web videos seen by millions, and have performed worldwide, in Las Vegas, New York, London, Madrid, and recently in Dubai. This performance is perfect for the whole family. (Opening event, evening Thursday, June 28, outdoors, downtown Portland)

• Presented in partnership with the Portland Arts & Cultural Alliance

• Artists sponsored by Headlight Audio Visual

CELEBRATION BARN ENSEMBLE, theatre. The Festival’s developmental partnership with CBE supports the new play “Thumbs Up” (presented in its world premiere performance). The Barn is the national center of “movement theater,” providing space for the development of new works by visiting artists from around the world. The resident artists of the Barn developed this original play using the techniques they teach allied with a Maine story. “Thumbs Up” stars Amanda Huotari, Kavi Montanaro, Ian Bannon, and Kelly Nesbitt, and tells the story of a young girl’s journey from Portland northward, the people she encounters, and the unique flavor of Maine. (Saturday evening, June 30, and Sunday matinee, July 1, Portland High School Auditorium)

ALISON CHASE/PERFORMANCE, dance. Maine resident and internationally renowned choreographer Alison Chase was a founder of groundbreaking dance company Pilobolus; she is an iconic figure in contemporary dance. We present her new company in a mixed repertory dance performance featuring six dancers in works ranging from intimate solo works to dramatic aerial spectacles. The Festival has commissioned a new dance work from AC/P, which will have its world premiere at the Festival. (Saturday evening, June 30, Merrill Auditorium)

• Co-Presented with Portland Ovations

CYNTHIA THOMPSON, artist. Maine artist and business owner Cynthia Thompson has pioneered the creation and use of tension fabric sculptures. Her early use of these sculptures in performance art and installation art projects led to her founding Transformit, a company that uses her designs to create installations for museums, hotels, events, and other uses. We have commissioned custom sculptural pieces that will appear in conjunction with Festival performances. (Throughout the Festival dates, outdoors at Festival venues)

PIANO RECITAL. In collaboration with the Portland Conservatory of Music, we will present the premier artists of this year’s International Piano Festival. This recital features music from a variety of composers (including a work by Maine composer Elliott Schwartz) in a program curated by the organizers of this acclaimed piano festival. (Sunday matinee, July 1, Immanuel/Williston Church)

Partners/Sponsors

The Festival is particularly proud to be co-presenting the performance of Alison Chase/Performance with Portland Ovations, which has been presenting great performances in Portland since 1931. “We are thrilled to collaborate with Portland Performing Arts Festival in the presentation of the internationally recognized, Maine-based artist Alison Chase. Alison is an artist we hold in high regard; co-presenting her with the Festival further underscores our commitment to contemporary dance and Maine artists.” said Aimée M. Petrin, Ovations executive director. “The Festival provides yet another way to bring the thrill of the performing arts to our community and bring others to our community. We are pleased to be a partner in making this exciting new venture happen.”

It also proudly acknowledges the Portland Arts & Cultural Alliance as a presenting partner for its opening events. PACA, as Portland’s arts agency and organizer of events including the First Friday Art Walks, is a natural fit for the Festival’s outdoor, free, family-friendly kickoff presentation.

And finally, we thank the Portland Conservatory of Music for curating our piano recital, featuring the premier artists featured in their International Piano Festival, running concurrently with the Portland Performing Arts Festival.

Eepybird’s appearance at the Festival is sponsored by Headlight Audio Visual, providing Northern New England with audio visual technology for over 30 years, and committed to active support of their community.

Events at the State Theater are sponsored by the State Theatre, one of Portland’s premier live music venues and a stalwart supporter of the arts. And the Festival is co-sponsored by Stone Coast Properties at the State Theatre Building.

The Festival is grateful to be able to acknowledge grants made in support by the Maine Community Foundation, Fund for the Performing Arts
, and Maine Community Foundation, Edward H. Daveis Fund, and major gifts in support of the Festival made by

Justin & Rachael Alfond, Alison Hildreth, Clara Porter, and Donald Sussman.

Tickets

Tickets and passes for the Portland Performing Arts Festival will be available to the public beginning in March, 2012. Tickets will be available on an a-la-carte basis for each Festival performance, and will range in price from $20 to $65. Passes to all Festival events (and Fringe events) will start at $125. Tickets to individual Fringe performances will be available through each event’s organizer.

Portland Festival Fringe

A diverse and vibrant array of events and performances, organized and presented by our partner artists and arts & culture organizations, will fill Portland during the Festival period. The Festival, by extending its marketing and promotion over these events, hopes to support Maine artists and arts & cultural organizations by developing audiences for their performances. Owned and operated independently of the Festival, the Fringe performances ticket revenue accrues directly to the presenting organization or artist.

• Salt Institute for Documentary Studies will present a series of spoken word events featuring student and alumni work. Salt specializes in educating and promoting documentary storytellers, and featured works concentrate on Maine stories.

• Mayo Street Arts will present a series of puppetry performances on all four days of the Festival, featuring puppet artists from Portland and from Philadelphia in events designed for children and ones appropriate for adults.

• Portland Theater Collective, a group of members of and artists affiliated with many of Portland’s theater companies, are organizing a series of Fringe performances of innovative theater works featuring Maine’s grass-roots theater community.

• Acorn Productions, the producer of Naked Shakespeare, presents an installation of Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, adapted into an interactive audience walk-through theater event at the Portland Company complex on the waterfront.

Other events in the works include film series, pop-up concerts, public art installations, lecture presentations, jazz and classical concerts, vocal recitals, family programming and more. Potential Fringe participants interested in learning more about event guidelines should contact the Festival at info@portlandfestival.org.

The Festival wishes to acknowledge two significant series of performances presented by arts partners in Portland, which were planned before the Fringe was, and which offer programs concurrently with it.

• Portland Stage is presenting performances of “2 Pianos 4 Hands,” a play with music that follows the dynamic and comical journey of two boys into adulthood, their musical aspirations gleaming like the grand pianos that they play on stage from beginning to end. (Five performances during the Festival dates.) www.portlandstage.org

• The Portland Conservatory of Music presents its 9th annual International Piano Festival, featuring recitals and concerts by participating artists at their headquarters at Woodfords Church. www.portlandconservatory.net

PORTLAND PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

Thursday, June 28

• 3pm, GUITAR MASTER CLASS featuring Sharon Isbin and Doug Wamble

• 6pm EEPYBIRD Festival Kickoff, outdoors and free

Friday, June 29

• 7pm, SHARON ISBIN solo concert

• 9pm, DOUG WAMBLE, solo concert

Saturday, June 30

• 7pm ALISON CHASE PERFORMANCE

• 8pm, CELEBRATION BARN ENSEMBLE—“Thumbs Up“

• 9pm, DOUG WAMBLE QUARTET—” Yoknapatawpha”

Sunday, July 1

• 1pm, CELEBRATION BARN ENSEMBLE—”Thumbs Up“

• 2pm, PIANO RECITAL–artists from the International Piano Festival

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For more information about the Portland Performing Arts Festival email info@portlandfestival.org or call the Festival at (207) 370-7806.

For photos and bios of participating artists, see http://www.portlandfestival.org/press-media