Ballet Tucson Announces Its reFRESH Winter Concert 2022
BALLET TUCSON ANNOUNCES ITS reFRESH Winter Concert 2022
– In partnership with the Tucson Desert Song Festival –
A Celebration of Women in Song and Dance
Featuring Broadway Legend Ann Hampton Callaway
January 28th – 30th
TCC Leo Rich Theater
(Tucson, Arizona). Ballet Tucson’s reFRESH Winter Concert 2022 is a celebration of women in song and dance. The reFRESH Winter Concert is presented in partnership with the Tucson Desert Song Festival. Ballet Tucson has been a festival partner since its inception. The company’s artistic team have created a triple bill of three distinctive and entertaining works that fit perfectly with this year’s festival theme. Broadway legend Ann Hampton Callaway is the featured Guest Artist.
Opening the program is perhaps the quintessential classical ballet scene of all time – “Swan Lake Act II”, featuring Odette – ballet’s most definitive heroine. Experience the Swan Queen’s odyssey in this iconic masterpiece set to the unforgettable Tchaikovsky score. This ballet, originally choreographed by Lev Ivanov and Marcius Petipa, made its debut on February 20, 1877 at the Bolshoi Theater, Moscow. It has since been performanced continuously throughout the world and may be the best-known classical ballet of all time. Ballet Tucson Prima Ballerina Jenna Johnson dances the role of Odette supported by Ballet Tucson’s beautiful ensemble of ballerinas.
Next on the program is the world premiere of an original work by nationally recognized, on-the-rise choreographer Amanda Morgan of Pacific Northwest Ballet. Ms. Morgan’s creation, “Unraveling Seams”, promises to capture the spirit of female creativity, diversity, and resilience. Featuring original music, this joyful yet sentimental new work explores what motivates us below the surface. As the piece unfolds, the dancers deconstruct their poised facades to reveal rich and complex feelings of elation.
Finally, the featured centerpiece of the program is a brand new collaborative work with the incomparable Ann Hampton Callaway and Ballet Tucson. Associate Artistic Director, Chieko Imada’s always fresh and innovative choreography will bring Callaway’s original compositions – sung live by the composer – to life! “Ballet the Callo-way” is the Company’s contribution to the 2022 Tucson Desert Song Festival, not only in providing the finalé to our stellar winter concert, but also offering a unique program for all music and dance audiences to enjoy.
Ann Hampton Callaway Biography
Ann Hampton Callaway is one of the leading champions of the great American Songbook, having made her mark as a singer, pianist, composer, lyricist, arranger, actress, educator, TV host and producer. Voted recently by Broadwayworld.com as “Performer of the Year” Ann is born entertainer. Her unique singing style that blends jazz and traditional pop, making her a mainstay in concert halls, theaters and jazz clubs as well as in the recording studio, on television, and in film. She is best known for Tony-nominated performance in the hit Broadway musical Swing! and for writing and singing the theme song to the hit TV series The Nanny. Callaway is a Platinum Award winning writer whose songs are featured on seven of Barbra Streisand’s recent CD’s. The only composer to have collaborated with Cole Porter, she has also written songs with Carole King, Rolf Lovland and Barbara Carroll to name a few.
Callaway’s live performances showcase her warmth, spontaneous wit and passionate delivery of standards, jazz classics and originals. She is one of America’s most gifted improvisers, taking words and phrases from her audiences and creating songs on the spot, whether alone at a piano or with a symphony orchestra. Ann has been a special guest performer with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood and is featured at many of the Carnegie Hall tributes. She has sung with more than thirty of the world’s top orchestras and big bands, and has performed for President Clinton in Washington, D.C. and at President Gorbachev’s Youth Peace Summit in Moscow. Callaway performed with her sister, Broadway star Liz Callaway, in their award-winning show Sibling Revelry at London’s Donmar Warehouse. Their act “Boom!,” a critically acclaimed celebration of the baby boomer hits of the 60’s and 70’s, was recorded on PS Classics which debuted in the top 25 on Billboard Jazz. Ann was featured in the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade telecast watched by 6 million people singing Emmy Award winning song “Yes, Virginia.” She took the symphony world by storm with her latest show “The Streisand Songbook” which she premiered with The Boston Pops and continues to tour with top orchestras across the country. Said Randall Fleischer after conducting the show with The San Francisco Symphony, “Ann’s tribute to Streisand is a glorious evening of great songs, brilliantly orchestrated and sung magnificently.” After performing the show at 54 Below, she garnered two Broadwayworld.com Awards and the 2013 MAC Award for Show of the Year.
Ann’s latest recordings have both met great critical acclaim – The Sarah Vaughan Project: Live at Dizzy’s in 2014 and The Hope of Christmas in 2015. She is featured on her sister Liz Callaway’s holiday EP Merry and Bright as well as Arbor’s Records CD Johnny Mandel: the Man and His Music. Her recent solo CD’s At Last, Blues in the Night, Slowand Signature have received rave reviews as well. She has recorded two popular holiday CD’s – Holiday Pops! With Peter Nero and the Philly Pops, and her solo CD, This Christmas. Ann’s other recordings include Easy Living, To Ella with Love, After Ours, Bring Back Romance, Ann Hampton Callaway, and the award-winning live recording Sibling Revelry. Callaway has also been a guest performer on more than forty CD’s including Kenny Barron’s latest CD The Traveler.
Ann’s dream of working in film, TV and radio has been realized in several recent projects. She made her feature film debut opposite Angelina Jolie and Matt Damon in the Robert De Niro film “THE GOOD SHEPHERD”, performing the standard “Come Rain or Come Shine”. She recorded “Isn’t It Romantic?” and “The Nearness of You” in Wayne Wong’s “LAST HOLIDAY”, starring Queen Latifah. Ann wrote songs for the upcoming movie musical “STATE OF AFFAIRS”, to be directed by Philip McKinley. And, as a part of her mission to keep the American Songbook thriving, she has produced and hosted two TV specials Called “Singer’s Spotlight With Ann Hampton Callaway” with guests Liza Minnelli and Christine Ebersole for WTTW National which dovetailed into her critically acclaimed radio series “This is Cabaret” which debuted in 2016.
Ann devotes much of her time to philanthropic causes, both as a singer performing in numerous benefits, and as a songwriter composing songs in times of need. In September 2005, Ann performed her original composition “Let the Saints Come Marching”, written to honor Hurricane Katrina victims, on a national TV broadcast on the Fox News Channel. Her song “Who Can See the Blue the Same Again?” was released earlier in 2005 as a single, paying tribute to the tsunami survivors and raising much needed money for The Tsunami Fund of The PRASAD Project. In the aftermath of September 11th, Ann composed the stirring anthem, “I Believe in America”, which she performed on Larry King Live and released as a CD single. Just days after the tragedy, Ann heard an 8,000 year old prayer from the Rig Veda and composed the world renowned “Let Us Be United”. Ann recorded the song with Kenny Werner, The Siddha Yoga International Choir and five-year-old Sonali Beaven, who sang in honor of her father who lost his life on Flight 93. It was released on CD and DVD and its proceeds continue to benefit Save the Children and The PRASAD Project.
Her new CD, Jazz Goes To The Movies, was released on Shanachie Entertainment and debuted at #12 on the Billboard Jazz Chart.
In response to COVID – 19 shutting down our concert venues Ann has introduced her monthly live stream series “The Callaway Hideaway” which takes place the last Sunday of every month on the Zoom platform.
Ann’s father was Chicago’s legendary TV and radio journalist, John Callaway. Her mother, Shirley Callaway, was a superb singer, pianist and one of New York’s most in-demand vocal coaches.
Ann lives by the creed best expressed in the Andre Gide quote: “Art is the collaboration between God and the artist and the less the artist does, the better.”
Ann Hampton Callaway Awards:
Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical – Swing!
Theatre World Award for “Outstanding Broadway Debut”
Platinum award selling songwriter with seven Barbra Streisand cuts
2013 “The Streisand Songbook” won two Broadway World Awards and the MAC Award for Show of the Year
2014 Broadway World New York Cabaret Award for “Performer of the Year”
2016 Broadway World New York Cabaret Award “Best Jazz Vocalist”
2017 Broadway World New York Cabaret Award “Best Jazz Vocalist”
2017 Broadway World New York Cabaret Award “Best Tribute Show” for the Ella Century
2019 Broadway World New York Cabaret Award for “Commercial Recording Of The Year” for Jazz Goes To The Movies
She has received fifteen MAC Awards from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs
Ann Hampton Callaway Press Quotes:
“For sheer vocal beauty, no contemporary singer matches Ms. Callaway.” –Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“Callaway establishes herself as one of the best equipped jazz vocalists swinging today.” – Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
“Astonishing.” – LA Weekly
“…superbly intelligent, singularly creative pop-jazz stylist who can stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Streisand, Ronstadt, Shirley Horn and Dianne Reeves…” – Christopher Loudon, JazzTimes
“Great is one of the most over-used words in the dictionary but just as Ella Fitzgerald was the greatest jazz singer of her era, so too is the magnificent Ann Hampton Callaway of hers.” – Musical Theatre Review
Photo by: Bill Westmoreland
Amanda Morgan Biography
Amanda Morgan is an on-the-rise dancer and choreographer based in Seattle, Washington. Ms. Morgan joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 2016 and was promoted to corps de ballet in 2017. Amanda has choreographed several works for Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Next Step program and in 2020, she choreographed and directed “This Space Left Intentionally Blank” for PNB’s digital season. In 2019, she was selected to be a choreographer in the Seattle International Dance Festival and also won a residency at Northwest Film Forum and Velocity Dance Center, giving her the opportunity to create her own show at Northwest Film Forum. Later in 2019, she launched “The Seattle Project”, which is a group of collaborative artists led by Amanda, that create new works aimed to break down accessibility barriers in the community. In February of 2020, she premiered her piece “The How of It Sped” at Northwest Film Forum, and in July of 2020 she created and premiered her piece “Musings” for Seattle Dance Collective’s Continuum Program.
Amanda has been featured by Pointe Magazine, Dance Magazine, the National Endowment for the Arts Podcast, Crosscut, Dance Spirit Magazine, KUOW, NPR, and the Seattle Times. In 2021 she was nominated for a prestigious Princess Grace Foundation USA Fellowship Award in two categories: Dance and Choreography.
Amanda is from Tacoma, Washington and studied at Dance Theatre Northwest and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She attended summer courses at Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Boston Ballet School, and the School of American Ballet. She has participated in the PNB School’s exchange with the Palucca University of Dance in Dresden, where she also performed with Dresden Semperoper Ballett.
Amanda is creating a world premiere work for Ballet Tucson’s Winter Concert 2022 in partnership with the Tucson Desert Song Festival, in honor of their festival theme celebrating women in song and dance.
Photo by: Lindsay Thomas
Performance Date/Time
Friday, January 28 – 7:00 pm
Saturday, January 29 – 2:00 pm
Sunday, January 30 – 2:00 pm
Location
Leo Rich Theater
260 S. Church Ave.
Tickets
For tickets, please call the TCC Box Office at (520)791-4101.
General $50*
Seniors/Students/Military $45*
Groups $40*
Phone: 800.745.3000
www.ticketmaster.com
www.ballettucson.org
About Ballet Tucson
Now in its 36th season and 18th year as the only professional dance company in Tucson and Southern Arizona, Ballet Tucson presents the highest quality dance productions with a full range of historic classics and contemporary works.
The company has been hailed as “a treasure in our community” by the Arizona Daily Star. Chuck Graham (Tucson arts writer) exclaims that the company “proudly maintains its place as the keeper of the flame of classical ballet in the Old Pueblo.”
For more information, visit www.ballettucson.org
Contact: Margaret Mullin, Media Director and Associate Artistic Director
Address: 200 S. Tucson Blvd.
Tucson, AZ 85716
Phone: 520.903.1445
Email: margaretmullin@ballettucson.org
