Images featured (left): Arturo O'Farrill, Photo Credit: Laura Mariet. Top right: Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project, Photo Credit: Andrew McAllister. Bottom right: Music From The Sole: I Didn't Come to Stay, Photo Credit: Titus Olgilvie Laing/Works & Process at the Guggenheim. All images courtesy of the artists.
(GLASSBORO, NJ) -- Rowan University’s College of Performing Arts has announced the 2023-2024 lineup for the Marie Rader Presenting Series. The series brings award-winning artists to South Jersey for transformative engagements and is one of the only places in the region where the public can access world-class arts programming designed to resonate with a diverse population.
“Our series plays an important role within the region,” says Richard Dammers, Dean of the College of Performing Arts, “The performances on our stages reflect the diverse cultures and identities within the community we serve.”
The series programs high-quality, accessible performing arts engagements, bringing audiences what they love while broadening horizons with new perspectives and interpretations in music, theatre and dance.
In recent years, the Marie Rader Series explored the work of brilliant African American performers, Wynton Marsalis, Rennie Harris and Urban Bush Women. This year, the series will highlight the artistry derived from Latin cultures.
The 2023-2024 Marie Rader Series programming includes:
September 22 - Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project. A collaborative performance from the Fry Street Quartet and physicist Dr. Robert Davies, Rising Tide pairs original music, stunning visuals, environmental photography and scientific prose to confront a planet under siege and a future in peril. The interactive presentation invites audiences to consider global sustainability and the path forward. Rowan will host the project’s only performance in the region this year.
November 4 - Music From The Sole: I Didn’t Come to Stay. Tap, percussive dance, samba, house and live music come together in I Didn’t Come to Stay in which Brazilian tap dancer/choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and bassist/composter Gregory Richardson lead eight dancers and a five-piece band in a performance that explores tap’s lineage and connections to other Afrodiasporic forms, as part of the work’s first Mid Atlantic tour.
January 26, 2024 - Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. The multi-Grammy award-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO) led by pianist, composer and Artistic Director Arturo O’Farrill bring their critically acclaimed sound – a blend of big band and Latin music – to Rowan in the New Year. ALJO’s innovative repertoire pushes the genre forward, reflecting Arturo’s dual sensibilities of contemporary, improvisational jazz and Latin jazz.
The series bolsters the college’s robust dance, music and theatre academic programs, providing transformative coaching opportunities for students, who will participate in master classes from the three visiting companies. Rebecca Allan, whose paintings investigating watershed environments are featured in Rising Tide will also visit with students studying visual art and sustainability while on campus.
Beyond the performances, the series nurtures relationships between Rowan University and surrounding communities. This year, the Fry Street Quartet will perform a chamber music concert on the patio of the Glassboro Senior center while O’Farrill, with members of ALJO will visit Millville High School for a performance and lecture demonstration with students. Music From The Sole will also host a body workshop for the Glassboro Boys and Girls Club.
With engagements in the fall and spring, the series plans to expand to year-round programming in the future to inspire audiences and move cultural conversations forward through the performing arts.
Established in 2008, the Marie Rader Presenting Series at Rowan University brings exceptional artists to campus, enriching the university community and the Greater Southern New Jersey region through expanded performing arts programming, bolstering a robust academic program in dance, music and theatre. The series honors the institution’s legacy of serving Glassboro and the surrounding community through arts programming.
The series is made possible in part through generous support from the Henry M. Rowan Family Foundation via the Marie Rader Memorial Fund and through funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
The presentation of I Didn’t Come to Stay is made possible by New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.
The engagement of Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra is made possible through the ArtsCONNECT program of the Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
