Director’s View:
Thanks for choosing us
The response by patrons purchasing tickets to 2008–2009 presentations has been terrific. I am so pleased that patrons have so warmly embraced our first all-your-choice season. Not only are people excited about the performances, they are thrilled with the new flexibility offered in arranging for tickets.
The opportunity to choose four or more performances, save 10 percent, get great seats with other benefits, and receive tickets right away has really caught on. I have had some patrons remark that the only trouble they’ve had is in narrowing their list of selections.
Patrons have identified various advantages to purchasing tickets as a Choice series. They have discovered they don’t need to make their decision up front about what to attend for the entire season. All they have to do is select at least four presentations to make a Choice series. If they decide later to attend more presentations, they can choose four others to create a second series. One couple, for instance, told me they don’t yet know their travel schedule for next spring. So, they chose four of our fall presentations, and later they’ll make their selections for the spring.
Another patron chose performances based on whom she wanted to bring to each. For one presentation she wants to attend with her husband, another with the whole family, and yet another with her women friends. Our Choice plan gives her the opportunity to mix and match her ticketing while providing her with a discount and all the benefits of a series buyer.
Those are just some of the ways patrons are enjoying the opportunity to choose events and make their own individual packages. Keep Choice in mind as the season progresses. You only need four events to save and gain benefits.
And now, here are some observations about our first presentations of the season.
Three performances get our season off to a fabulous start.
Clarinetist David Krakauer joins the Orion String Quartet September 23 to open our chamber music offerings in Schwab Auditorium. I’m particularly excited about this performance for several reasons. First, the Orion is a wonderful string quartet. Its collaboration with Krakauer, a most amazing artist, will offer the chance to hear some wonderful pieces for the combination of strings and clarinet. The program features David Del Tredici’s Magyar Madness, a most amazing piece co-commissioned by the Center for the Performing Arts. We expect to have Del Tredici at Penn State for this performance. The program also contains some well-known favorites, including Wolf’s Italian Serenade and Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 59 No. 2.
CHICAGO has everything one would want in a musical—a universal tale, great show-stopping numbers, and knock-your-socks-off dancing. No wonder it’s still on Broadway and holds the record for longest-running musical revival. CHICAGO has become a worldwide phenomenon with professional productions staged in more than twenty-five countries. Join us for “all that jazz” when the national tour swings into town October 1.
Wynton Marsalis is one of the great musical talents of our time. His artistry on the trumpet is equaled only by his achievements with Jazz at Lincoln Center. As artistic director of an organization dedicated to this uniquely American art form, Marsalis has helped Jazz at Lincoln Center to become the world’s most prominent organization of its kind. Despite his busy schedule as artistic director, Marsalis has kept playing and conducting the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The big band’s Penn State concert, with Marsalis at the helm, is a not-to-be-missed performance October 9 at Eisenhower Auditorium.
