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Norton, Singletary are centered on success

By Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com

Midday on an August afternoon, the Norton Center for the Arts' Newlin Hall is standing-room only.

No, center director George Foreman hasn't finally landed a coveted Berlin Philharmonic performance that has broken the box office. It's just that all the seats are gone while the performing-arts center on the campus of Centre College undergoes a $3 million renovation.

Gone will be the rigid seats and strange angles of the campus' main concert hall, which has hosted some of the world's leading artists. In their place will be new burgundy seats forming gently curving rows that will accommodate patrons as they come to the center's 2009-10 season featuring acts as familiar as the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (April 11) and as new as The Opera Show (Feb. 5), an aria hit parade performed in a modern style.

"It's getting close," Foreman says of reopening night, "but we'll be ready."

As the school year approaches, Centre and the University of Kentucky's Singletary Center for the Arts are unveiling performing-arts seasons for their campuses and their communities.

"Town and gown is really important to us here," says Singletary Center director Michael Grice, who is heading into his fifth season at the center.

The season, the Singletary's 30th, shows how his programming has evolved, both in what it includes and in what it doesn't.

There's a heavy emphasis on jazz, with vocalist Bettye Lavette (Sept. 26), violinist Jean-Luc Ponty (Nov. 14) and sax man Joe Lovano (Jan. 30). Once again, the center is presenting a star soloist with the UK Symphony Orchestra: violinist Sarah Chang (Feb. 20). And for the first time, the theater will present a fully staged, professional classical ballet, the Moscow Festival Ballet's Swan Lake (March 9). There's also rock 'n' roll, with the first-ever Lexington performance by The Decemberists (Oct. 6).

What is de-emphasized is world music and dance, Grice says. Audiences have not turned out for those events in previous seasons.

There are numerous events sponsored by area corporations, primarily Alltech, which will present Irish tenor Ronan Tynan (Oct. 10) and other shows, and UK HealthCare, presenting violin virtuoso Nadja Salerno- Sonnenberg with the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra (April 17).

"It's a very strong season, and I think people will come out for it," Grice says. "I'm not scared of the economy and I don't think it will have a major effect the way it did last season."

Last season, Grice said, he found that patrons who used to attend four to six events were coming to two or three, and although the theater finished in the black, audience numbers were down.

In Danville, Foreman said he noticed the biggest audience drop-off in mid-level events, while season highlights like the New York Philharmonic attracted crowds.

"If it was a big event people really wanted to see, they came and saw it," Foreman said. "But if they were just mildly interested, it seemed they passed."

This season, with the economy in mind, Foreman says he programmed "in a prudent way. We maintained our standard of quality, but it is less expensive for us and less expensive for the patrons."

For example, he says, in the world of classical music, there might be no more of a household name than the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. But the group is much less expensive to book than the bank-breaking New York Philharmonic.

And the Berlin Philhar monic on the schedule is the orchestra's Wind Quintet (Feb. 9).

The Norton Center also is putting a local twist on its schedule, bringing in the Lexington Philharmonic with the jazz vocal group Five by Design (Jan. 16) and the Lexington Singers for a Valentine's concert (Feb. 13).

There's holiday fare, too, with the Spirit of Christmas, a Radio City-esque show (Dec. 1), and Nebraska Theatre Caravan's A Christmas Carol (Dec. 17).

With those acts and a renovated theater to show off, Foreman hopes it will be standing-room only at the Norton Center this year ... the kind in which the seats are all filled.