San Diego Weekend Arts Events: Short Stories, Christmas Jazz, Tchaikovsky And Americana
Speaker 1: 00:00 Get festive while also getting a little culture this weekend with plenty of options from the local art world. From jazz to short stories, to an interactive Nutcracker. Joining me is KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dickson Evans with all the details. Julia welcome. Speaker 2: 00:16 Hi Jane. Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: 00:18 Hey, so the San Diego symphony has two free digital offerings this weekend, Noel Noel, and I will be jazzed for Christmas. Uh, what stands out to you? Speaker 2: 00:28 Yeah, it's a, it's a great weekend for a free live stream from symphony hall and both of these events have been recorded from actually onstage at Copley. They use all sorts of safety measures like plexiglass around any of the musicians who can't wear a mask. And everyone's really spaced out sometimes using the entire hall, not just the stage and everything I've seen from the symphony in the last few months has been really well put together and worth just a little bit more screen time in the evenings. First is tonight's Noel Noel. It's kind of a variety show with hosts, Scott, rad Brown and singer storm leaver. And also Jason morass. We'll be narrating the evening. It's going to be packed with stories, coral offerings, and a sugar plum fairy dance from city ballet and also a sing along that's tonight at seven o'clock. Speaker 1: 01:18 Sounds nice. And then there's the symphonies virtual version of jazz at the Jacobs? Speaker 2: 01:23 Yeah. Sunday night is I'll be jazzed for Christmas with a quartet, including Gilbert kassianos on trumpet and Joshua White on piano. Gilbert kassianos is really a force to be reckoned with in the jazz scene. And I recently started listening to San Diego born Joshua White. He is absolutely brilliant on piano. Last year, he performed at the Kennedy center for the NPR music, jazz piano, Christmas music, special. Speaker 3: 02:03 [inaudible] Speaker 2: 02:05 Do some festive jazz tunes. So like Vince Guaraldi and adaptations of some pop favorites and more traditional carols, like we three Kings and that is Sunday night at seven. Both of these events are free, but you have to register separately for each one to get your streaming link sent to you in advance. Speaker 1: 02:26 Um, we've been listening to Joshua White on piano at NPRs music's jazz piano, Christmas music special from 2019. He'll perform with the San Diego symphonies. I'll be jazzed for Christmas. This Sunday 7:00 PM and Noel Noel takes place tonight at 7:00 PM. So Julia for families, what's a good virtual Nutcracker option this year. Speaker 2: 02:46 So a standout for me is the Poway onstage partnership with Southern California ballet for their virtual field trip. Instead of just putting up the video from last year, Nutcracker online, they put the work in, they repackaged it as this interactive educational thing. It's split up into bite-sized segments. You can tour the performing arts center. You can go through the nutcrackers history and then they have two 17 minute segments of the ballet. So individual dances have been shortened for a young attention spans and also our digital attention spans that there's also a narrator who pops in every so often to describe what's happening and what everything means, which I have to say. It helped me even. And there's video tutorials for everything from costume design to pantomiming, to actual choreography where you can try water down versions of some of the Nutcracker dances. It meets the California education standards for first through seventh grade. But I really think any age will get something out. Speaker 1: 03:49 That's great. And parents and teachers can sign up online for the virtual Nutcracker field trip from Poway onstage. And it's viewable through January 15th. Um, moving on to literature. Now it's one thing to curl up by the fireplace with a good book, but there's a local group who wants to read stories to you. Tell us about right out loud story concert. Speaker 2: 04:09 Yeah, there are a local group of literary and drama performing artists, and they bring us things like professed and for their holiday show, they're performing a series of classic short stories and poetry that you can watch or listen to from home. They're calling it a story concert. So expect some more theatrical than your standard read-a-loud voice. You're doing stories like Christmas day in the morning by Pearl S buck and Robert Lewis. Stevenson's beautiful seafaring poem Christmas at sea. And we have a little sample here of Patricia Polacco Hanukkah story. The trees of the dancing goats as performed by Rachel van warmer Speaker 4: 04:50 At our farm, just outside union city, Michigan. We didn't celebrate the same holidays as most of our neighbors, but we shared their delight and anticipation of them. Just the same such call the winter brings my babushka said, as she looked out our front window, my bones, it makes to ache. Then she slapped her chest. Then she caught my eye and winked. She wasn't fooling me. I knew how much she loved the snow. Speaker 1: 05:22 That was Rachel van warmer reading the trees of the dancing goats by Patricia Polacco from right out loud giving season the event streams on demand for free. Now through January 6th and the local music scene, Berkeley heart has a Christmas special forest. Speaker 2: 05:38 Yeah, the local Americana duo are doing their holiday show and the style of a Christmas TV special. So they'll play some songs and bring in some surprise. Guests. These two have been mainstays in the San Diego music scene for so long and it should be a nice lo-fi and cozy. Listen, they out a Christmas album Speaker 3: 05:58 In 2014. It's the new stuff that also takes on classics. And I'll leave you with their version of silent night. [inaudible] Speaker 1: 06:28 That silent night from Berkeley heart, their Christmas special show is available to stream on demand. Now through the end of the month to find more arts events or to sign up for our weekly arts newsletter, go to kpbs.org/arts. I've been speaking with KPBS arts editor and producer, Julia Dixon Evans. Julia, thanks. Speaker 3: 06:48 Have a good weekend.
