Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 30, 1991 TAG: 9103300247
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jeff DeBell
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Sure, it was a string quartet playing rock. You can't turn violins into electric guitars and drum kits. But there was no mistaking the Kinks' surging standard, especially with the enthusiastic vocal contribution of guest violist Paul Cortese.
The audience loved it - especially a youthful back-row contingent that supplemented its applause with lusty cheers of the kind more typical of rock concerts.
Kandinsky Trio T-shirts were for sale at the post-performance reception in Olin Hall. So were copies of the group's latest poster, which features a vibrant new painting by Roanoke Valley artist - and avid Kandinsky fan - Beth Shively. Nearby, concertgoers politely munched on cheese cubes and sipped punch or mineral water while chatting with the formally dressed musicians.
It was rock-style marketing in a chamber-music setting - a relatively new combination in these parts, but one that seems to work.
The Kandinsky will conduct a four-day residency next week in the Buchanan and Eagle Rock areas of Botetourt County. The series of performances for schools and civic groups will culminate April 6 with a public concert in Buchanan's Trinity United Methodist Church.
The residency is made possible with a grant from the Presser Foundation of Bryn Mawr, Pa., in support of the trio's community outreach program.
\ Festival in the Park this year will award four scholarships to high school seniors who plan further studies in the arts. There will be awards of $2,000, $1,500 and $1,000 from the festival, plus a special recognition award of $250 underwritten by Blue Ridge Public Television.
Applications are available from the festival office (342-2640) and through high school departments of English, art, drama or music. The deadline is April 15.
Approximately 210 artists from Virginia and nine other states have signed up so far for the festival's\ Sidewalk Art Show, which will take place June 1 and 2. The show is run by the Docent Guild of the Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts as a fund-raiser for the museum. Income from artists' fees already has reached some $20,000, according to Ruth Appelhof, director of the cash-strapped museum.
\ John D. Stafford has been named box office manager at Mill Mountain Theatre. He is a native of Wythe County and a graduate of Lenoir-Rhyne College. He comes to Mill Mountain from the Arena Stage in Washington.
The Free Clinic of the New River Valley will share proceeds from this year's art auction with artists who donate their work to the annual fund-raiser.
Beset by a growing number of requests for such donations, many of the area's artists last year petitioned the auctions to let them keep a share of the proceeds from the sale of their work. The Free Clinic is responding to the artists' request.
Under the plan it has adopted, artists have the choice of donating the entire proceeds or keeping 50 percent for themselves.
This year's auction is set for April 6 at the Blacksburg Holiday Inn. Viewing and silent auction begin at 6 p.m., with regular bidding starting at 7:30.
Not surprisingly, money was on their minds when members of the board of directors for\ Center in the Square assembled for a meeting this week.
Spending reductions by the Wilder administration will cost Center and its resident organizations something like $700,000 in state money (based on past support) for fiscal 1992. As a result, there will have to be layoffs - they've already begun - and curtailment of programs. In fact, it's conceivable that the entire building might have to reduce its hours of operation.
The board members aren't happy about it. But what really burns them up is the fact that state budget-slashers seem to regard Center as a private institution (and therefore an inappropriate recipient of state money when times are tough).
In fact, the directors said, Center is supported by a unique and successful partnership of government, corporate and private interests that has included more than $6 million in state money since the early 1980s. It's of multimillion-dollar value to the Roanoke economy, both in its own spending and as an attraction for tourists and business and industrial prospects. Moreover, the on-premises and outreach educational programs of the resident organizations annually serve an estimated 50,000 public schoolchildren from 39 counties - counties that need Center because their own education programs have been hit by the state cutbacks, too.
It's "myopic to fail to see the public value," board chairman Warner Dalhouse said. "It's an absolute total perversion of logic and fairness."
One clear glass wall of the board room provides a view of the stairwell through Center's five-story atrium. During the board's entire 90-minute meeting, visiting schoolchildren and their teachers could be seen trooping up and down the steps in an orderly and continual lines.
It was an irony not lost on Dalhouse and other directors of Western Virginia's "private" cultural institution.
by CNB