Arizona Pro Arte refuses to abandon Phoenix audiences due to summer

PHOENIX - May 7, 2013 - PRLog -- The Valley of the Sun gets a little emptier in the summer. Sometime in April or May many residents pack up and leave for cooler ZIP codes. And even as their taillights fade in the distance, most Valley arts and entertainment organizations do a fade of their own. They close their doors, turn off the lights, turn down the thermostats and surrender to a drowsy, quiet summer hibernation, waiting for all those part-time Phoenicians to return.

But what about the audiences left behind? Those hardy, heat-resistant hopefuls who yearn for a performing group that keeps the lights burning and the great music playing all summer long? Timothy Verville, artistic director and conductor of Arizona Pro Arte wants them to know, “We hear you. Now come hear us.”

But shortly after the curtain comes down on APA's final season performance, APA is raising it again, offering a three concert “Cool Classics Series” in its new performance home, the Tempe Center for the Arts.

“Audiences in the Valley shouldn’t have to put their passion for great music away for three months,” says Verville. “We have air conditioners for a reason. The Tempe Center for the Arts is filled with very cool air for the summer, and we want to fill it with very cool music, too.”

Offering a summer classical series isn’t the only innovation Arizona Pro Arte introduced in its debut season, which local media praised for the ensemble’s inventive programming. Additional recognition for the orchestra will come by way of these summer series performances, which will be recorded for delayed broadcast by classical radio station KBAQ-FM 89.5. The concerts will be offered one-per-month throughout the summer. They include:

June 15: Pilgrimage to Beethoven —Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6

July 20: The Czech Connection — Mozart’s Symphony No. 38, “Prague”; and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7

August 24: Two Greats — Haydn’s Concerto for Cello in C (featuring Catalin Rotaru, double bass); Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, “The Great”

All performances in Arizona Pro Arte’s Cool Classics Series take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Studio theater of the Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 West Rio Salado Parkway on the south shore of Tempe Town Lake.

TCA will also be APA’s performance home for the 2013–14 season. “When all those part-time Valley dwellers return,” Verville promises, “we’ll welcome them back with some great performances in the Tempe Center for Arts. But we’ll be there all summer, too, playing for lovers of live music who won’t let a little heat keep them at home by the radio.”

Information about Arizona Pro Arte’s Cool Classics Series is available at http://arizonaproarte.com.