By BILL KISER
DavidsonNews.net

Area stages are where it’s happening this weekend, with a healthy list of theatrical and musical performances to choose from.   The Connie Company — the youth performance group of the Davidson Community Players — and the Davidson College Theatre Department offer “Sleeping Beauty” in seven shows on Friday-Sunday at the Cunningham Theatre Center’s Barber Theatre. Meanwwhile, Warehouse Performing Arts Center in Cornelius will open its run of the comedy “On The Verge” with shows Thursday through Sunday.  On Sunday, award-winning cellist Anna Wittstruck — the granddaughter of Davidson residents Bill and Mary Vinson — performs works by Beethoven, Mozart and Shostakovich in the Sloan Music Center’s Tyler-Tallman Hall at Davidson College. Continue Reading

Davidson College will host lectures on ethics, foreign policy and food, the college’s Gamut Dance Company will perform two shows and productions of “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “Metamorphoses” will appear on the Duke Family Performance Hall stage in the coming weeks. Davidson’s February public events calendar also includes the 6th Annual Apocalypse Greek Step Show, a concert by fiddler Jon Singleton and a dedication of the solar panels installed on the Baker Sports Complex roof. Here’s the calendar: Continue Reading

A blues concert and service in Huntersville with Mike Farris and a service in Davidson led by best-selling author Donald Miller this weekend will kick off a four-week message series called “Hope in a House of Blues” at the two campuses of Lake Forest Church. Continue Reading

By BILL KISER
DavidsonNews.net

Award-winning cellist Anna Wittstruck, will perform at Davidson College on Sunday afternoon as part of the college’s 2012 Concert Series. Two movies with a message will be shown in Davidson this week – “Courageous” on Wednesday at Davidson United Methodist Church, and the documentary “Dreaming Nicaragua” on Sunday night at Davidson College Presbyterian Church.

On the stage, the Connie Company — the youth performance group of the Davidson Community Players — and the Davidson College Theatre Department will perform “Sleeping Beauty” this week, with seven shows spread over Friday-Sunday at the Cunningham Theatre Center’s Barber Theatre at Davidson College.

And for something a little more lighthearted, the Warehouse Performing Arts Center in Cornelius will open its run of the comedy “On The Verge” Thursday, with shows daily through Feb. 4. There’s also live music scheduled later this week at Summit Coffee and the Brickhouse Tavern, both in downtown Davidson.

These events — and more below — are in our day-by-day calendar at right. Also, at right on this page, see our movie show times listings for Our Town Cinemas. Continue Reading

Davidson College Music Department invites the public to a Concert Series performance by cellist Anna Wittstruck on Sunday afternoon, January 29. The concert begins at 3 p.m. in Tyler-Tallman Hall of the Sloan Music Center.

Wittstruck will be accompanied by Davidson College pianist Cynthia Lawing in a performance of three works — 1.) Beethoven’s 7 Variations in E-flat Major on “Bei Mannern, welche Liebe fuhlen” from Die Zauberflote by Mozart for Cello and Piano (composed 1801) 2.) Poulenc’s Sonate pour violoncelle et piano, op. 143 (composed 1948), and 3.) Shostakovich’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, op. 40 (composed in 1934).

Ms. Wittstruck, a native of Asheville and granddaughter of Bill and Mary Vinson of Davidson, is currently completing a PhD in musicology at Stanford University. She has performed as a soloist with the Charlotte and Hendersonville Symphonies, and appeared as a soloist with the Stanford Philharmonia this past fall.

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Brad Thomas, Davidson College’s art gallery director since 1999, has found a new perch: As curator of contemporary art at the Mint Museum in Charlotte. Mint officials announced Thursday that he will start the new job Monday, Jan 23, at the museum in downtown Charlotte.

On Wednesday night, Mr. Thomas was at the college’s Van Every/Smith Galleries, saying farewells and accepting pats on the back from friends during an opening for a show of recent acquisitions that shows the stamp he has put on Davidson’s permanent collection. Continue Reading