Tag Archives: Cincinnati Arts Association

CINCINNATI, OH – Direct from their phenomenally successful Broadway engagement, the internationally-acclaimed Beatles concert, RAIN – A Tribute to The Beatles, returns to the Aronoff Center’s Procter & Gamble Hall for one night only on Sunday, May 20 at 7pm.

Tickets are on sale now at www.CincinnatiArts.ORG, (513) 621-ARTS [2787], and the Aronoff Center Ticket Office.

As “the next best thing to seeing The Beatles!” (Associated Press), RAIN performs the full range of The Beatles’ discography live onstage, including the most complex and challenging songs that The Beatles themselves recorded in the studio but never performed for an audience. Together longer than The Beatles, RAIN has mastered every song, gesture and nuance of the legendary foursome, delivering a totally live, note-for-note performance that’s as infectious as it is transporting. From the early hits to later classics (I Want To Hold Your Hand, Hard Day’s Night, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Let It Be, Come Together, Hey Jude and more), this adoring tribute will take you back to a time when all you needed was love, and a little help from your friends!

RAIN is a multi-media, multi-dimensional experience… a fusion of historical footage and hilarious television commercials from the 1960s lights up video screens and live cameras zoom in for close-ups. All the music is performed live, with no pre-recorded tapes or sequences. Like The Beatles, the onstage members of RAIN are not only supreme musicians, but electrifying performers in their own right.

“The Beatles are back!” – Variety

“The audience is enraptured. They get a chance to sing along, twist and shout!” – The New York Times

“Just turn off your mind, relax and float downstream for a quick fix of nostalgic cheer!” – Entertainment Weekly

“A fun-filled family crowd-pleaser!” – Toronto Star

“A two-hour homage to pop music’s most brilliant gem.” – Los Angeles Times

“On their feet, with arms raised high above their heads, all in the audience were swaying and singing along in blissed-out, nostalgia-powered unison!” – Chicago Sun-Times

“The enraptured audience relives the soundtrack of its life!” – Chicago Tribune

“RAIN creates musical nirvana…makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up! A thrilling bit of time-warping nostalgia…Boomer Heaven!” – Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“Uncanny! RAIN are a quartet of fine musicians in their own right…as The Beatles, they triumph!” – The Boston Herald

“An adoring Valentine to The Beatles!” – The Washington Post

“RAIN is a spectacular extravaganza…did the audience love it? Yeah, yeah, yeah!” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Parents (and grandparents) and kids were on their feet bopping like crazy!” – The Courier Post

For more information, visit www.raintribute.com.

Become a fan of RAIN on Facebook and follow RAIN on Twitter @raintribute.

CALENDAR INFORMATION

WHAT: RAIN: A Tribute to The Beatles

WHEN: Sunday, May 20, 2012 • 7:00 PM

WHERE: Aronoff Center for the Arts – Procter & Gamble Hall

PRICES: $60 • $55 • $50 • $35

INFO: As “the next best thing to seeing The Beatles!” (Associated Press), RAIN performs the full range of The Beatles’ discography live onstage, including the most complex and challenging songs that The Beatles themselves recorded in the studio but never performed for an audience. Together longer than The Beatles, RAIN has mastered every song, gesture and nuance of the legendary foursome, delivering a totally live, note-for-note performance that’s as infectious as it is transporting. From the early hits to later classics (I Want To Hold Your Hand, Hard Day’s Night, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Let It Be, Come Together, Hey Jude and more), this adoring tribute will take you back to a time when all you needed was love, and a little help from your friends!

TICKET INFORMATION – on sale now

• www.CincinnatiArts.ORG
• (513) 621-ARTS [2787]
• Aronoff Center Ticket Office
• Group sales (10 or more): (513) 977-4157

Cincinnati Arts Association SPONSORS

Season Sponsors: THE UNION CENTRAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY (Founding Season Sponsor), The P&G FUND of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, LOCAL12 WKRC, FIFTH THIRD BANK (Lifetime Endowment Partner)

RAIN PERFORMANCE SPONSORS: Ultimate Air Shuttle

“CAA PRESENTS” SPONSORS: Coldwell Banker West Shell, Heidelberg Distributing, Ultimate Air Shuttle, Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA, Inc.,

SEASON PRESENTING SPONSORS: CityBeat, Cincinnati Herald, Cincinnatian Hotel, Furniture Fair

RAIN Media Partner: 103.5 WGRR- FM

Founded in 1992, the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) is a not-for-profit organization that oversees the programming and management of the Tri-state’s finest performing arts venues – the Aronoff Center for the Arts and Music Hall – and is dedicated to supporting performing and visual arts. Each year, CAA presents a diverse schedule of events; serves upwards of 700,000 people in its venues; features the work of talented local, regional, and national artists in the Weston Art Gallery (located in the Aronoff Center); and supports the work of more than one dozen resident companies. Since the inception of its acclaimed arts education programs in 1995, CAA has reached more than 1.2 million students.

CAA is proud to be a member of Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, Greater Cincinnati Convention & Visitors Bureau, Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce, and Performing Arts Center Consortium.

For more information, visit www.CincinnatiArts.ORG.

Guest Celebrity Judge, Drew Lachey, just announced!

CINCINNATI, OH – DANCING FOR THE STARS, Cincinnati Arts Association’s (CAA) annual fundraiser, has sold-out two weeks before the event, scheduled for Saturday, April 14, 2012 at the Music Hall Ballroom. The popular evening of dance and friendly competition, now in its sixth year, benefits CAA’s Overture Awards – the nation’s largest locally-run high school arts scholarship competition.

Inspired by the hit ABC-TV show “Dancing with the Stars,” DANCING FOR THE STARS will feature eight Cincinnati celebrities paired with some of the area’s finest professional dancers in a competition program, at which the audience will vote for their favorite celebrity dancer. The competitive dance for the evening will be the Cha Cha, and each dance pair will have 90 seconds to woo the crowd and the judges.

Emceed by Chris O’Brien (“Married With Microphones,” 103.5 WGRR-FM) and Tanya O’Rourke (WCPO-TV anchor and DANCING FOR THE STARS 2010 alum), DANCING FOR THE STARS will feature a silent auction; showcase performance by the 2012 Overture Award winner in dance, Danielle Betscher; the swinging sounds of Sound Body Jazz Orchestra; DJ “Rockin Ron” from 103.5 WGRR-FM; pre-event reception and wine tasting; open dancing before and after the competition; lite bites provided by some of Cincinnati’s finest restaurants and caterers; and a cash bar.

The celebrity dancers at this year’s event include: Janeen Coyle (On-Air Personality, 103.5 WGRR-FM), Chief James Craig (Police Chief, Cincinnati Police Department), Peter Hiltz (Financial Advisor, Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC), Candace Klein (Attorney, Ulmer & Berne, LLP; CEO, Bad Girl Ventures), Dr. Michael Leadbetter, MD (Cosmetic Surgeon, Plastic Surgery Group), Joe Rigotti (Creative Director / Event Planner, Accent on Cincinnati;), Moe Rouse (Community Volunteer), and Regina Russo (Director of Marketing and Communications, Cincinnati Art Museum).

The judges for the centerpiece dancing competition include Terry Foster (DANCING FOR THE STARS 2010 alum), Sarah Hairston (Cincinnati Ballet), and Eleanor Lachman (local ballroom dance pro), and special guest celebrity judge, Drew Lachey (champion of ABC-TV’s second season of DANCING FOR THE STARS).

THE OVERTURE AWARDS ESSAY CONTEST 2012
“An Underground Railroad Traveler”
Eighth-grader Caroline Lembright Wins Essay Contest

CINCINNATI, OH – The Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) has announced Caroline Lembright as the winner of its Overture Awards Essay Contest 2012: “An Underground Railroad Traveler.” Caroline, chosen by four judges who are professional writers/historians/teachers, will be awarded a $250 prize for her essay, “Someone to Watch Over Me.”

For the contest, thirty-five students submitted essays on the subject of the Underground Railroad, from the perspective of a young person their own age who might have traveled north to freedom via this system. Any Tri-state student in grades 6-9 for the 2011-12 school year was eligible for the contest.

Caroline Lembright is an eighth-grade student at Highlands Middle School in Fort Thomas, KY, where her advanced language arts class was studying the Underground Railroad. Ivy, the main character of Caroline’s essay, was inspired by women in Caroline’s life, as well as women in history. Through this piece, she conveys the strength and determination of not only those who made it to freedom, but also the horrors of slavery.

According to Caroline, “In a world where visual media reigns, great writing can be extremely impactful, and I hope to one day accomplish that. Writing to me is feeling brought to life. What you feel and what you make of those feelings is truly who you are. And that’s why writing plays such a large role in my life. I have always loved creative and poetic writing, and feel extremely grateful for this opportunity. Slavery is a subject that has always shocked and awed me. And I feel that through this experience I have better grasped the horror that made up the lives of many slaves who lived in the United States and around the globe in this period of history.”

Lisa Birkley, eighth-grade language arts teacher, and Kathleen Lemmons, teacher of gifted-and-talented students, teamed up to create a special unit that looked at the Underground Railroad in our area. “We did a great deal of preliminary research in the computer lab,” said Mrs. Birkley. “We used videos, writing journals, a novel, and even made a freedom quilt to try to simulate the experience. We also had a traveling trunk full of artifacts, which the Freedom Center let us borrow for a few days. The students worked on this unit for about four weeks, and the culminating event was the essay. They were all very interested in this time in our local history.”

Essay submissions were judged on the following criteria:

• Originality: the essay topic is approached with creativity and imagination.
• Quality of content: the essay is presented clearly and its material is well organized, well developed and accurate.
• Style: the essay has a clear structure with a title, introduction, body and conclusion. Paragraphs are used correctly, and punctuation, spelling and grammar are correct.
• Footnotes were not required, but a bibliography was highly recommended.

To read Caroline’s essay, visit
www.cincinnatiarts.org/essaycontest

ABOUT THE OVERTURE AWARDS
The Overture Awards – the largest locally run arts scholarship competition in the country – annually provides a $2,500 scholarship to six area high school students for education and training expenses, with 18 finalists each winning a $500 scholarship. This year, more than 500 students were nominated by their schools to compete in one of six artistic disciplines: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theater, Visual Art or Vocal Music. The Overture Awards was developed to recognize, encourage and reward excellence in the arts among Tri-state students in grades 9-12. It also provides students an opportunity to share their talents and interests among their peers in a supportive environment outside of their individual schools.

Now in its 16th year, The Overture Awards was launched in 1996 by the Cinergy Foundation (now Duke Energy) and Leadership Cincinnati (a Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce program). The program is administered by the Cincinnati Arts Association, which operates and manages the Aronoff Center and Music Hall. The Overture Awards also relies on hundreds of volunteers from the community who help raise funds, adjudicate and manage the competitions, and nurture the program.

Founded in 1992, the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) is a not-for-profit organization that oversees the programming and management of two of the Tri-state’s finest performing arts venues – the Aronoff Center for the Arts and Music Hall – and is dedicated to supporting performing and visual arts. Each year, CAA presents a diverse schedule of events; serves upwards of 700,000 people in its venues; features the work of talented local, regional, and national artists in the Weston Art Gallery (located in the Aronoff Center); and supports the work of more than one dozen resident companies. Since the inception of its acclaimed arts education programs in 1995, CAA has reached more than 1.2 million students.