FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 2003      File #349
Contact: Alan Kleinschmidt, (707) 664-2791 or Jean Wasp, (707)664-2057

Bold Combinations at 2003 Green Music Festival Features Dance with Sean Curran, Salsa Dura Does Vivaldi, and Call of the Wild by the Fireside

What do a symphony under the stars, The Call of the Wild, Puerto Rican salsa, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons have in common with a dance troupe that has all the vigor of STOMP! and the flair of Irish step dancing?

They are all part of the Sonoma State University’s fourth annual Green Music Festival called Conversations in the Arts to be staged from June through August in a beautiful wine country setting by the lakes on the Rohnert Park campus.

The popular summer festival offers a bold combination of arts programming that permits masters from a diversity of disciplines to work together for the first time.

Under the artistic leadership of Jeffrey Kahane, the Festival offers a new range of programs from brilliant, physical dance by the Sean Curran Dance Company, to a salsa version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons by Salsa Dura master Jimmy Bosch, a double-sized chamber music concert series and fireside readings of Jack London's adventure tales.

The Sean Curran Dance Company performs July 11 and 12 to the accompaniment of Jeffrey Kahane on piano and Margaret Batjer on violin in four classical music pieces. Known for his wit, intelligence, ingenuity, and uncanny physical humor, Curran successfully blends a myriad of influences into a purely original style with influences from Irish step dancing, STOMP! and Alvin Ailey

Spellbinding, scintillating rhythms will pulse through the audience on Aug. 3 as Salsa Dura artist Jimmy Bosch and his band play with the Santa Rosa Symphony in a "call and response" approach to the most celebrated masterpiece of the Italian Baroque: Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Salsa dance lessons will bring festival-goers to their feet as they did last year.

Honoring the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Call of the Wild, a captivating eight-week lecture series will explore the works and world of legendary author, Jack London, with the addition of Fireside Tales — two free family evenings under the stars featuring local celebrities reading their favorite London stories.

The festival's sell-out Independence Day on the Green is set for July 4 with the music of American patriotic classics by the Santa Rosa Symphony followed by the region’s most spectacular fireworks.

The Chamber Music Series has doubled in size for this year's mid-July series. Returning by popular demand, the Borromeo String Quartet will join an intimate circle of other nationally and internationally acclaimed soloists and principals, including cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

"This year, the Green Music Festival will enhance the emotional power of musical performances with a great deal of kinetic excitement," says artistic director Jeffrey Kahane.

For ticket information, call (707) 546-8742 or visit the Festival website at www.greenmusicfestival.org.

2003 GREEN MUSIC FESTIVAL
Sonoma State University
1801 E. Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park

Jeffrey Kahane, Artistic Director

JACK LONDON LECTURE SERIES — 7 p.m.,Wednesdays, June 25 - Aug. 13, Alumni Amphitheatre (for Call of the Wild readings) and Evert B. Person Theatre (for historical lectures). Noted Jack London scholars, California authors and historians will explore the works and world of Jack London. Fireside Tales (7 p.m., June 25 and Aug. 13) offers free family evenings under the stars with celebrity guests reading excerpts from London's works including The Call of the Wild. Admission: $6 per lecture, $30 for six-lecture series, July 2 -Aug. 6. Call (707) 664-2353 for dates and topics of specific lectures.

INDEPENDENCE DAY ON THE GREEN—Friday, July 4, Sonoma State University lakes area. Santa Rosa Symphony with Tim Hankewich, conductor and Bonnie Brooks, mezzo-soprano and the San Francisco Starlight Orchestra. Patriotic favorites plus spectacular Sonoma County fireworks. Lawn seating: Adults $30, seniors $25, youth $10. Table seating: per person $55; table for eight $420. Gates open at 4 p.m., Starlight Orchestra, 5 p.m., Santa Rosa Symphony, 7 p.m.

CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES — 4 p.m., Sunday, July 13; 8 p.m.,Thursday, July 17; 8 p.m., Saturday, July 19; 4 p.m., Sunday, July 20, Evert B. Person Theatre. Jeffrey Kahane & Friends include Margaret Batjer, Chee-Yun, Eric Wyrick, Geraldine Walther, Peter Wyrick, Alisa Weilerstein, Todd Palmer, The Borromeo String Quartet, Jon Kimura Parker. Adults $30, seniors $25, youth $15.

SEAN CURRAN DANCE COMPANY — 8 p.m., Friday, July 11 and Saturday, July 12, Evert B. Person Theatre, Sean Curran Dance Company with Jeffrey Kahane, piano, and Margaret Batjer, violin. Curran is a champion Irish step dancer in his native Boston; he went on to become a leading dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and later a cast member of STOMP! Adults $30, seniors $25, youth $15.

GREENFARMFEST — 2-10 p.m., Saturday, July 26, and 2-7:30 p.m. Sunday, July 27, Ives Hall. A summer showcase for students from Greenfarm, the Green Music Center's Arts and Education program, where innovative pieces are presented from students who have developed collaborative works over the course of their summer immersion. Visit www.greenfarm.org for more information or call (707) 664-3312. Free admission.

SALSA VIVALDI — 4-8 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 3, (gates open at 2 p.m.) Sonoma State University lakes area. Salsa Dura artist Jimmy Bosch and his band, Leila Josefowicz, violin with members of the Santa Rosa Symphony. Lawn seating: adults $30, seniors $25, youth $10. Table seating: $45 per person, $340 table for eight. For ticket information, call (707) 546-8742 or visit the Festival website at www.greenmusicfestival.org.