The Virginia Arts Festival is a Norfolk -based non-profit arts presenter which serves southeastern Virginia, offering dozens of performances during the spring and throughout the year. Virginia Arts Festival performances have included international ballet companies, along with modern, contemporary, and ethnic dance companies; world-renowned soloists and ensembles in musical genres including classical, jazz, world, folk, rock, blues, bluegrass, country, and pop; opera; theater and cabaret; and collaborative productions with local arts organizations like the Virginia Symphony Orchestra .
13-417: City of Norfolk and a group of arts patrons, seeking to increase local tourism during the spring "shoulder season," approached Robert W. Cross in 1995 to create a performing arts festival that would serve as a cultural destination for the region. Cross produced the first Virginia International Waterside Arts Festival on 1997, presenting an 18-day festival featuring such performers as Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra ,
26-686: A year. Zehetmair has made several recordings for ECM , both as soloist and with his quartet. Zehetmair later developed a parallel career in conducting. In November 2001, he was named music director and chief conductor of the Northern Sinfonia (now the Royal Northern Sinfonia), his first conducting post, starting with the 2002–2003 season, for an initial contract of 3 years and 6 weeks of concerts each season. In August 2005, he extended his contract for another 3 years through 2008. He concluded his music directorship of
39-722: Is a German chamber orchestra based in Stuttgart . Its principal concert venue is the Liederhalle, Stuttgart [ de ] . Karl Münchinger founded the orchestra in 1945, and served as its chief conductor until 1987. With Münchinger, the orchestra made its USA debut in March 1954 in New York City. Martin Sieghart was the orchestras second chief conductor from 1990 to 1995. From 1995 to 2006, Dennis Russell Davies
52-541: Is an Austrian violinist and conductor . Zehetmair was born in Salzburg , and studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum , where both of his parents taught. His festival debut was at age 16. He was in master classes with Nathan Milstein and Max Rostal . In 1994, Zehetmair formed a string quartet which bears his name. The Zehetmair Quartet performs all works entirely from memory, and learns one new programme
65-555: Is scheduled to conclude his Winterthur tenure at the close of the 2020–2021 season. In October 2017, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra announced the appointment of Zehetmair as its next chief conductor, effective with the 2019–2020 season, with an initial contract of 3 years. In March 2021, the Orchestre national d'Auvergne announced the appointment of Zehetmair as its next principal conductor, effective with
78-584: The Mark Morris Dance Group , contemporary composer/performer Steve Reich , and jazz legends Ramsey Lewis and Billy Taylor . The 1997 Festival also saw the creation of the first Virginia International Tattoo , an international display of military bands, drill teams, and pipe and drum corps. After four successful years, in 2001 the name was officially changed to the Virginia Arts Festival. The Washington Post has called
91-683: The Festival-commissioned song cycle by Rappahannock County , Stravinsky 's Les Noces and The Soldier's Tale , and the Schoenberg transcriptions of Mahler 's Das Lied von der Erde and Songs of a Wayfarer . Additionally, the Festival's presentation of Peter and the Wolf: A Special Report was recorded for NPR Classics. Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra ( Stuttgarter Kammerorchester )
104-718: The Royal Northern Sinfonia after the 2013–2014 season, and now has the title of conductor laureate with the orchestra. He became an Artistic Partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minnesota in 2010. In June 2015, the Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur announced the appointment of Zehetmair as its next principal conductor, effective September 2016, with an initial contract of 3 seasons. He
117-454: The Virginia Arts Festival offers year-round arts education programs, presenting special student matinee performances and aligning visiting performing artists with area schools for master classes, in-school workshops, and demonstrations. According to their 2016 Annual Report, the organization's education programs reached 39,644 area school children during the 2015–16 season. The Festival's John Duffy Institute for New Opera seeks out and supports
130-419: The Virginia Arts Festival the "Tidewater Tanglewood." From a two-week festival in its first year, the festival has tripled in size and attendance. In 2016, the Virginia Arts Festival celebrated its 20th Anniversary season, presenting 72 ticketed performances throughout the region from mid-April through June, with patrons traveling from 49 states and 13 countries. Reaching tens of thousands of students every year,
143-515: The work of opera composer/librettist teams by providing professional mentorship and a professional process for the development of their new work, with the intent to see the works through to full productions. In May, 2016, the Festival will present the world premiere of Kept: a ghost story, a world premiere performances of the new opera Kept: a ghost story , at Norfolk's Attucks Theatre . Created by composer Kristin Kuster and librettist Megan Levad ,
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#1732775829580156-540: The work was developed over a three-year process through the Duffy Institute. Additional new operas are currently in the development phase and will receive their premieres in 2018 and beyond. In addition to its commissions through the Duffy Institute, the Virginia Arts Festival has commissioned 18 works of music, dance, and opera: Virginia Arts Festival performances have been recorded for the Naxos label , including
169-468: Was chief conductor, and his projects with the orchestra included recordings of Haydn symphonies. Subsequent chief conductors have included Michael Hofstetter (2006–2013) and Matthias Foremny (2013–2019). In October 2017, the orchestra announced the appointment of Thomas Zehetmair as its next chief conductor, effective with the 2019–2020 season, with an initial contract of three years. Thomas Zehetmair Thomas Zehetmair (born 23 November 1961)
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