Outreach Opportunities
Families
Schools
- Meet the Artist Series
- Meet the Artist Comes to Your School
- ASC Teaching Artists On The Road
- The Robert Redus School of Guitar
- Master Classes & Workshops
- Open Rehearsals for Students
Students
Community
Meet the Artist Series
FREE DAYTIME PERFORMANCES FOR SCHOOLS
These one-hour performances allow the ASC to share the arts with students and aspiring young
artists by experiencing the thrill of a live performance in a world-class performing arts center. Performers will engage students with anecdotes about their professional training and provide insight into the pieces they perform and the instruments they play.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
School reservations are accepted on a first come, first served basis. Curriculum Guides are available for all “Meet the Artist” programs via email. Performances fill up months in advance. In order to accommodate as many students as possible we request that schools only make reservations if they are sure they can attend. Please check your school’s testing/holiday schedules for the full year before signing up. Last-minute cancellations keep others from participating in our free educational performances. If a school group must cancel, please do so no later than three weeks prior to the performance date. We greatly appreciate your cooperation and understanding.
Harlem String Quartet
Friday, January 25th, 2013 // 10 A.M.
Recommended Grades: 4th and up
Jemison Concert Hall
Praised for its panache, fresh attitude, and cultural diversity, Harlem String Quartet has set the classical music world abuzz since its public debut in 2006 at Carnegie Hall. The New York-based ensemble has performed throughout the U.S. and in Canada, Panama, South Africa, and Europe.
In addition to performing in chamber music series around the country, the ensemble has collaborated with such distinguished performers as violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Carter Brey, clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera, and pianist Misha Dichter, with whom the quartet will make its Kennedy Center debut in February 2013.
Each member of Harlem String Quartet is a seasoned solo artist, having appeared with several of the nation’s most highly regarded orchestras.
California Guitar Trio
Thursday, February 7, 2013 // 10:00 A.M.
Recommended for Grades 4-12
ASC’s Jemison Concert Hall
The California Guitar Trio’s eclectic repertoire includes original compositions, surf covers, and unconventional re-workings of classical music. The group’s influences include rock, blues, jazz, European classical music, world music, and surf music. Their performances are astounding; their diversity unparalleled; their technical wizardry breathtaking.
ArtPlay Presents Lesssons Well Learned
Monday, February 18, 2013// 10:00 A.M.
Recommended for Grades 3-12
ASC’s Jemison Concert Hall
Something amazing happens in the hands of young actors at UAB’s Alys Stephens Center. ArtPlay’s “Make It Happen” Performing Ensemble (MIH), under the direction of Alicia Johnson, is comprised of local high school students who have researched and written and will perform this wonderful production celebrating Black History Month. This performance is packed with memorable songs, spoken word, and dances that only MIH can bring to life. Through the voices of the past and the present, the ensemble tells a story that not only inspires but also educates.
Charlie Albright
Friday, March 8, 2013// 10:00 A.M
Recommended for Grades 3-12
ASC’s Sirote Theatre
Charlie Albright is the winner of the prestigious 2010 Gilmore Young Artist Award and the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. Hailed as “among the most gifted musicians of his generation” by The Washington Post, he was also praised for his “jaw-dropping technique and virtuosity meshed with a distinctive musicality” by The New York Times.
An ArtPlay Studio Ensemble’s “Play
Monday, April 22, 2013// 1:00 P.M.
Recommended for All Ages
ASC’s Sirote Theatre
Set to several movements from the Camille Saint-Saëns musical suite The Carnival of the Animals, this whimsical contemporary ballet explores the rules of engagement that we learn on the playground as children. This ballet is performed by an adult ArtPlay Studio Ensemble and choreographed by ArtPlay Teaching Artist William-Michael Cooper. While using vocabulary from both modern dance and classical ballet, Play expresses the importance of our playtime as children and asks the question, “At what age did we stop playing?” The dancers soar, leap, and explore early-childhood movements through the voice of dance, all the while examining the unique human relationships that are built when we are allowed to pretend.
Noe Inui: Violin/Vassilis Varvaresos: Piano
Monday, April 26, 2013// 10:00 A.M.
Recommended for Grades 4-12
ASC’s Jemison Concert Hall
As an emerging international soloist and chamber musician, violinist Inui combines strength, energy, and virtuosity with sensitivity in his playing.
Born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1985 to a Greek mother and a Japanese father, Inui began violin lessons at age 4. He won the 2008 European YCA Auditions in Leipzig at the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdi and the 2008-09 YCA International Auditions in New York. He was also awarded YCA’s Buffalo Chamber Music Society Prize, the Paramount Theatre Prize, the Saint Vincent College Concert Prize, and the S&R Foundation Prize. In 2010, YCA’s Summis Auspiciis Prize sponsored his New York debut at Merkin Concert Hall, and the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Prize of YCA sponsored his Washington, D.C., debut at the Kennedy Center.
This season, in addition to his intimate concert at ArtPlay, Inui tours Japan and has his Tokyo Philharmonic debut; appears as a soloist with the Orchester Deutsche Einheit and the Slovak Philharmonie; attends the Verbier Festival; and performs a recital at Missouri State University with pianist Varvaresos, his counterpart for the ArtPlay Parlor concert.
Varvaresos was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1983. At age 14, he was the youngest pianist to win the YCA International Auditions. Through YCA he gave acclaimed debut concerts in New York and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Following his YCA debuts, The Washington Post called him “a young master on the rise,” and the New York Concert Review said that he “engaged his audience with a performance that sizzled from start to finish.”
Varvaresos won first prizes in his early teens in the Petar Konjovic Competition in Belgrade and the Pan-Hellenic Competition in Athens, and was chosen as one of 11 young musicians from around the world to perform in Monte Carlo in a “Little Mozarts” concert organized by Italy’s RAI National Television.
Make Reservations Now 
Meet the Artist COMES TO YOUR SCHOOL
Each year the Alys Stephens Center’s ArtPlay brings a performing artist into a local school to hold a special concert just for that school.
Friday, September 14 with Red Baraat at Homewood High School
ASC TEACHING Artists ON THE ROAD
FREE EDUCATION WORKSHOPS FOR SCHOOLS
For the fourth year the Alys Stephens Center offers arts education programs that travel to your school for free! We are thrilled to collaborate with three engaging and enlightening artists: local poet and performance artist, Sharrif Simmons; actor/educator, Alicia Johnson; and singer-songwriter/educator, Charles Tortorici.
POET’S CORNER POETRY WORKSHOP WITH SHARRIF SIMMONS
For grades 5 – 12
The Poet’s Corner Workshop provides a comprehensive series of creative writing programs. This interactive program focuses on school-age children and students in “at risk” programs. Through the use of poetry and spoken word, students will be given the opportunity to participate in comparative literature while learning about the history of the oral tradition in comparison to contemporary forms of expression like Hip Hop, Theater, and Rhythm & Blues.
THE WORKSHOP WILL INCLUDE:
• An acoustic guitar poetry performance.
• An overview of poetic forms.
• An overview of historical poets.
• A comparison to contemporary poets.
• Listening to and reading excerpts from modern poets and popular music.
• Writing and sharing poems with classmates.
This workshop is generally administered once a week over a six-week period, but an abbreviated version is available in one or more school classes or through afterschool programs. Students are encouraged to use their vocabulary in creative ways and in a variety of mediums including spoken word, poetry, and music. Writing and reference materials will be provided throughout the workshop. At the end of the six-week workshop students will perform a recital with a live band at the school.
THE WATERSHED WORKSHOP WITH CHARLES TORTORICI
For grades 3 – 8
wa•ter•shed –
1. An area of land through which water, dissolved materials, and sediments flow on their way to a common outlet, such as a stream, river, lake, or ocean.
2. An important transition between two phases.
Kids and grown-ups all over the world are endeavoring to keep our world and our bodies healthy by ensuring the protection of our drinking water. Join educator and singer-songwriter, Charles Tortorici, as he teaches elementary and middle students the importance of a watershed and its interdependent plant and animal species through a series of six classes using creative writing (in the narrative, descriptive, expository, and poetic styles), song, visual art, and creative movement as teaching tools. The final class will be an in-school performance where students incorporate all of their work from the past five weeks into one cohesive performance piece. We recommend booking these programs early in the school year as availability is very limited.
Make T
heatre Happen Workshop with Alicia Johnson
For grades 5 – 12
The Make Theatre Happen (MTH) Creative Dramatics Workshop introduces students to the performing arts in an up close and personal classroom format. Students will learn the basics of performance, participate in theatre games, improvisational exercises, concentration exercises, and voice and diction activities, learn theatre terminology and understand the mechanics of character development along with the playmaking process. Students will assist in developing a theatrical ensemble piece which will evolve into a stage play right before their very eyes. Students will get the opportunity to showcase their talents and all that they have experienced during the workshop in a finale showcase performance.
This fun and engaging workshop, which starts with a one woman theatrical performance, is for school-age children whose schools are limited in performing arts programs. Exposure to this program will help encourage healthy self-esteem, develop communications skills, stage presence, self confidence and social skills.
Through theatre, music and dance, students will be taken on a journey that will help them develop cognitive learning skills while becoming more creative, well rounded expressive individuals. Handouts and other materials will be provided throughout the workshop.
Students participating in the MTH workshop will experience:
- An overview of theatrical terminology
- A brief overview of the playmaking process.
- A brief introduction to theatre history.
- An introduction to theatre games, voice and diction exercises and improvisation.
- Working together to create and produce a play for a performance which includes the rehearsal process.
- A closing culminating live performance to be presented before their peers.
This workshop takes place once a week over a six to nine week period, but a condensed workshop can be designed to meet the needs of a specific school or program. Ideal for developing school presentations to celebrate the Holiday Season, Black History Month and Women’s History Month, Earth Day or any occasion.
THE ROBERT REDUS School of Guitar
The Robert Redus School of Guitar was born out of a vision from friends and family of the late Robert Clark Redus IV to spread his joy of music. The Alys Stephens Center is proud to bring this program to a select group of students at three local elementary schools. During this year-long program 12 students will have the chance to study guitar from a university level guitar instructor. At the end of the school year, the students will have the opportunity to keep their guitars based on their commitment to lessons, practice, responsibility, and volunteerism. If you are interested in bringing this program to your school call (205) 975-4769. Spaces for three schools are available.
Master Classes and Workshops
ArtPlay master classes are a wonderful opportunity to connect local intermediate and advanced students of a variety of ages with masters of their art forms who are here as ASC presented artists. In a master class all the students (and often spectators) watch and listen as the master teacher works with one student at a time. Workshops allow a larger group of people to participate and are geared more toward beginning or intermediate level students. Master classes and workshops take place at ArtPlay, the Alys Stephens Center, and sometimes in local schools. Most are free unless otherwise notated.
Ronnie McCoury Master Class- March 9 at 3pm Reynolds-Kirschbaum Recital Hall
Open Rehearsals for Students
Open rehearsals give students a rare opportunity to see renowned artists prepare for an evening’s performance at the Alys Stephens Center. Additionally, audience members are often able to ask the performer(s) questions at the end of the rehearsal.