Celebrity Series of Boston

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.

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:

Music Performances

Pianists in Recital

* Claudio Arrau
* Daniel Barenboim
* Alfred Brendel
* Van Cliburn
* Leon Fleisher
* Boris Goldovsky
* Richard Goode
* Judith Gordon
* Glenn Gould
* Vladimir Horowitz
* Evgeny Kissin
* Radu Lupu
* Moura Lympany
* Olivier Messiaen (piano duo with Yvonne Loriod)
* Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
* Garrick Ohlsson
* Ignace Jan Paderewski
* Murray Perahia
* Maurizio Pollini
* Francis Poulenc
* Awadagin Pratt
* Sergei Rachmaninoff
* Sviatoslav Richter
* Artur Rubinstein
* Rudolf Serkin
* Russell Sherman
* Jan Smeterlin
* Solomon
* Dubravka Tomsic
* Andre Watts
* Krystian Zimerman

Violinists in Recital

* Joshua Bell
* Adolf Busch
* Mischa Elman
* Hilary Hahn
* Jascha Heifetz
* Fritz Kreisler
* Yehudi Menuhin
* Midori
* Nathan Milstein
* Anne-Sophie Mutter
* Itzhak Perlman
* Gil Shaham
* Isaac Stern
* Josef Szigeti
* Efrem Zimbalist

Cellists in Recital

* Yo-Yo Ma
* Gregor Piatigorsky
* Jacqueline du Pré
* Mstislav Rostropovich

Classical Vocalists in Recital

* Marian Anderson
* Cecilia Bartoli
* Benjamin Britten with tenor Peter Pears
* Maria Callas
* Renée Fleming
* Roland Hayes
* Marilyn Horne
* Dawn Upshaw
* Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
* Birgit Nilsson
* Jessye Norman
* Luciano Pavarotti
* Ezio Pinza
* Lily Pons
* Leontyne Price
* Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
* Beverly Sills
* Dawn Upshaw
* Deborah Voigt

Guitarists in Recital

* Andrés Segovia
* Carlos Montoya
* Christopher Parkening
* John Williams
* Julian Bream

Orchestras

* Berlin Philharmonic
* Chicago Symphony Orchestra
* Cleveland Orchestra
* Dresden Staatskapelle
* Israel Philharmonic
* Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
* London Symphony Orchestra
* NBC Symphony Orchestra
* New York Philharmonic
* Orchestre National de France
* Philadelphia Orchestra
* Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
* San Francisco Symphony
* Vienna Philharmonic

Conductors

* Andre Previn
* Antal Dorati
* Arturo Toscanini
* Bernard Haitink
* Carlo Maria Giulini
* Charles Dutoit
* Charles Munch
* Christoph von Dohnanyi
* Claudio Abbado
* Daniel Barenboim
* Dennis Russell Davies
* Edo de Waart
* Edward Van Beinum
* Eugene Ormandy
* Frans Brueggen
* George Szell
* Gil Rose
* Herbert Blomstedt
* Herbert von Karajan
* Igor Stravinsky (conducting his own works)
* Karl Boehm
* Kurt Masur
* Leonard Bernstein
* Leonard Slatkin
* Leopold Stokowski
* Lorin Maazel
* Mariss Jansons
* Michael Tilson Thomas
* Mstislav Rostropovich
* Neville Marriner
* Nikolaus Harnoncourt
* Pierre Boulez
* Pierre Monteux
* Rafael Fruehbeck de Burgos
* Rafael Kubelik
* Riccardo Chailly
* Seiji Ozawa
* Sir Georg Solti
* Vladimir Ashkenazy
* Vladimir Spivakov
* Wilhelm Furtwangler
* Wolfgang Sawallisch
* Yehudi Menuhin
* Yuri Temirkanov
* Zubin Mehta

Chamber Ensembles

* Academy of St Martin in the Fields
* Béla Bartók (with Benny Goodman and Josef Szigeti)
* Emerson String Quartet
* Guarneri Quartet
* Juilliard String Quartet
* Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

Jazz Performers

* Benny Goodman (with Bela Bartok and violinist Josef Szigeti)
* Bobby McFerrin
* Dave Brubeck
* Diana Krall
* Dizzy Gillespie
* Gerry Mulligan
* Joe Lovano
* Lester Bowie
* Maria Schneider Orchestra
* Mel Tormé
* Mingus Big Band
* Modern Jazz Quartet
* Preservation Hall Jazz Band
* Wynton Marsalis

Miscellaneous Musical Performers

* Burl Ives
* Joni Mitchell
* Maurice Chevalier
* Ravi Shankar
* The Chieftains
* Trapp Family Singers
* Victor Borge

Dance Performances

* Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre
* Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
* American Ballet Theatre
* Ballet Folklorico de Mexico
* Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
* Bejart Ballet of the Twentieth Century
* Bolshoi Ballet
* Dance Theatre of Harlem
* Destine Haitian Dance Company
* Geoffrey Holder Dance Company
* Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
* Iva Kitchell
* Joffrey Ballet
* Jooss European Ballet
* Jose Greco & his Spanish Dancers
* Jose Limón Dance Company
* Katherine Dunham
* Kirov Ballet
* Mark Morris Dance Group
* Martha Graham and Company
* Merce Cunningham Dance Company
* Moiseyev Dance Company
* Original Ballet Russe, Col. De Basil, Director General
* Paul Taylor Dance Company
* Pearl Primus Dance Company
* Pilobolus (dance company)
* Sadlers Wells Ballet/Royal Ballet
* Sankai Juku
* Seán Curran Company
* Trudi Schoop and her Dancing Comedians
* Twyla Tharp Dance
* Uday Shankar and his Hindu Ballet

Theatre/Spoken Word Performances

* Alexander McCall Smith
* Bristol Old Vic
* Carol Burnett
* Cornelia Otis Skinner
* Dame Judith Anderson as Hamlet
* David Rakoff
* David Sedaris
* Emlyn Williams as Charles Dickens
* Frank Rich
* Garrison Keillor
* Hal Holbrook in "Mark Twain Tonight!"
* Ira Glass
* Ruth Draper
* Sarah Vowell
* Sir Thomas Beecham
* Spalding Gray
* Terry Gross

Boston debuts

Many nationally and internationally recognized artists have made their Boston debuts with the Celebrity Series. They include:

* Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
* Cellist Yo-Yo Ma
* Flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal
* Emanuel Ax
* Dance Theatre of Harlem
* Wynton Marsalis Septet
* Mitsuko Shirai
* Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
* Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
* Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
* Baritone Thomas Hampson
* Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (Jazz at Lincoln Center)
* Soprano Dawn Upshaw
* Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli
* Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
* Violinist Joshua Bell
* Emerson String Quartet
* Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
* Leontyne Price

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 [cite news | first=Richard | last=Dyer | coauthors= | title=Celebrity Series gets new sponsor | date=1989-04-27 | publisher= | url =http://www.boston.com | work =Boston Globe | pages = | accessdate = 2008-08-03 | language = ] 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 [cite news | first=Jeremy | last=Eichler | coauthors= | title=Celebrity Series reverts to old name | date=2007-04-23 | publisher= | url =http://www.boston.com | work =Boston Globe | pages =E 7 | accessdate = 2008-08-03 | language = ] .

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 [cite news | first=Richard | last=Dyer | coauthors= | title=Pierce retires as Celebrity Series head | date=1996-05-08 | publisher= | url =http://proquest.umi.com | work =Boston Globe | pages = | accessdate = 2008-08-03 | language = ] [cite news | first=Peter | last=Knapp | coauthors= | title=Boston's impresario steps back after 31 years at the top | date=1996-05-11 | publisher= | url =http://proquest.umi.com | work =Patriot Ledger | pages = | accessdate = 2008-08-03 | language = ] [cite news | first=Ellen | last=Pfeifer | coauthors= | title=Celebrity Series chief steps out of spotlight into retirement | date=1996-05-08 | publisher= | url =http://proquest.umi.com | work =Boston Herald | pages = | accessdate = 2008-08-03 | language = ] . 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." [cite news | first=Richard | last=Dyer | coauthors= | title=Celebrities fete series impresario | date=1998-04-27 | publisher= | url =http://proquest.umi.com | work =Boston Globe | pages = | accessdate = 2008-08-03 | language = ] [cite news | first=Peter | last=Knapp | coauthors= | title=Tomsic's performance highlight of tribute Music - Walter Pierce Tribute Concert, Sunday afternoon at Symphony Hall, Boston | date=1998-04-28 | publisher= | url =http://proquest.umi.com | work =Patriot Ledger | pages = | accessdate = 2008-08-03 | language = ] [cite news | first=Ellen | last=Pfeifer | coauthors= | title=Music review; Musicians pay tribute to impresario | date=1998-04-28 | publisher= | url =http://proquest.umi.com | work =Boston Herald | pages = | accessdate = 2008-08-03 | language = ] . At the dinner following the performance, soprano Leontyne Price sang an impromtu version of "This Little Light of Mine" for Pierce.

Programs

=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.

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.

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.

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 [http://www.worldmusic.org/] , Broadway in Boston, Dance Umbrella, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Handel and Haydn Society.

Memberships

The Celebrity Series of Boston is a member of ArtsBoston [http://www.artsboston.org] , the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) [http://www.artspresenters.org/] , Boston Dance Alliance [http://www.bostondancealliance.org/}, Chamber Music America [http://www.chamber-music.org/] , Dance USA [http://www.danceusa.org/] , Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau [http://www.bostonusa.com/] , the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) [http://www.ispa.org/] , New England Presenters [http://www.nepresenters.org/] .

References

External links

* [http://www.celebrityseries.org Celebrity Series of Boston web site]
* [http://cseries.typepad.com/celebrityseries/ Celebrity Series of Boston Blog]
* [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/04/23/celebrity_series_reverts_to_old_name/ "Boston Globe" article, "Celebrity Series reverts to old name/" April 23, 2007]