Faulkner Performing Arts Center Announces 10th Anniversary Season
The U of A’s Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center is excited to announce its 10th Anniversary Season.
“The season kicks off with a moving tribute to our center namesakes, the late Jim and Joyce Faulkner, in October and ends with a world premiere from the NWA Ballet Theatre and local photographer Brent Umphlett in May,” said Nicole Leachman, managing director of the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center.
“With a little stand-up comedy, and musical performances in between, our tenth season promises to be a thrilling celebration,” she added.
Tenth season events
A Musical Tribute to Jim and Joyce Faulkner
Friday, Oct. 4, 7:30 p.m.
The season begins with a tribute to center namesakes, Jim and Joyce Faulkner. Although both Jim and Joyce passed in 2021, their generous support in the creation of the Faulkner Performing Arts Center ensures their legacy will live on at the University of Arkansas and beyond. This tribute is a collaboration between multiple campus and community performers and will be conducted by Emmy-winner and U of A alumnus Lendell Black.
PUBLIQuartet’s What is American?: Rhythm Nation
Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Applauded by The Washington Post as “a perfect encapsulation of today’s trends in chamber music,” and by The New Yorker as “independent-minded,” multi-GRAMMY-nominated PUBLIQuartet is an improvising string quartet whose repertoire blends genres and highlights American multiculturalism. PUBLIQuartet rose on the music scene as winner of the 2013 Concert Artists Guild New Music/New Places award, and in 2019 garnered Chamber Music America’s prestigious Visionary Award for outstanding and innovative approaches to contemporary classical, jazz, and world chamber music.
PUBLIQuartet’s genre-bending programs range from newly commissioned pieces to re-imaginations of classical works featuring open-form improvisations that expand the techniques and aesthetic of the traditional string quartet. The quartet’s latest album, the GRAMMY-nominated What Is American, released in June 2022 on the Bright Shiny Things label, explores resonances between contemporary, blues, jazz, freely improvised, and rock-inflected languages, all of which trace their roots back to the Black and Indigenous musical traditions that inspired Dvorak’s “American” String Quartet (Op. 96). The album also includes CARDS 11-11-2020, written by Roscoe Mitchell for PUBLIQuartet, as well as works by Ornette Coleman, Rhiannon Giddens, and Vijay Iyer.
Comic Mike Paramore
Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Mike Paramore is the guy you fight to sit next to in a movie theatre, on a long car ride, or during a boring lecture. His natural ability to infuse everyday situations with energetic, uplifting humor, combined with a natural ability to put you at ease is key to his personal brand of comedy.
His smooth delivery and powerful punchlines make him a force in stand-up comedy, which is very apparent in his two DryBar Comedy specials, You’ve Just Been Flirted With and I Probably Shouldn’t Say This. He was also featured on AXTV’s Live at Gotham in NYC, as well as a featured comedian on FOX’s hit show “Laughs.”
EXPOSED: A Ballet on the Trails
Friday, May 2, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 3, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 4, 2025, 3 p.m.
A world premier by the NWA Ballet Theatre, this production will feature an original dance, and score as expressed through the images of local photographer Brent Umphlett and Emmy-winning composer Lendell Black. This is a production that shouldn’t be missed. Umphlett describes Exposed as a journey, on which he “first had to leave comfort and safety, Expose any doubts and Expose himself to his own ardent passion. In essence, he Exposed himself to nature, to the elements to be unprotected. Subsequently, he Exposed himself to adventure and beauty. Nothing risked, nothing gained.”
Additionally, Umphlett said the production lives up to its name because “the camera Exposed these adventurous scenes in its memory, romantically thinking, the film was Exposed to this beauty, and all the associated stories and emotions were visually documented.” And finally, the production name also stands for how “the audience will be Exposed to a creative and meaningful collaboration that will move and inspire them. Generally, life is richer when we Expose ourselves to new experiences, situations, and relationships; this is where curiosity is cultivated, and peace is rooted.”
Tickets to all shows are available beginning Sept, 1. To reserve yours, visit faulkner.uark.edu.
This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.