UREL
The University of Arkansas Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center is pleased to announce its 10th anniversary season.
“The season begins in October with a moving tribute to our center’s namesakes, the late couple Jim and Joyce Faulkner, and concludes in May with a world premiere by NWA Ballet Theatre and local photographer Brent Umphlett,” said Nicole Leachman, executive director of the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center.
“With a little stand-up comedy and musical performances thrown in, our tenth season promises to be an exciting celebration,” she added.
Events of the tenth season
A musical tribute to Jim and Joyce Faulkner
Friday, October 4, 7:30 p.m.
The season begins with a tribute to the center’s namesakes, Jim and Joyce Faulkner. Although both Jim and Joyce passed away in 2021, their generous support in creating the Faulkner Performing Arts Center ensures their legacy lives on at the University of Arkansas and beyond. This tribute is a collaboration between several campus and community artists and will be conducted by Emmy Award winner and U of A alumnus Lendell Black.
PUBLIQuartet What is American?: Rhythm Nation
Friday, January 31, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Applause from The Washington Post as “a perfect summary of today’s trends in chamber music” and by The New Yorker The “independently minded,” multi-GRAMMY-nominated PUBLIQuartet is an improvising string quartet whose repertoire blends genres and highlights American multiculturalism. PUBLIQuartet rose to prominence in the music scene as winners of the 2013 Concert Artists Guild New Music/New Places Award and in 2019 received Chamber Music America’s prestigious Visionary Award for outstanding and innovative approaches to contemporary classical, jazz, and international chamber music.
PUBLIQuartet’s genre-bending programs range from newly commissioned pieces to reinterpretations of classical works with open-form improvisations that expand the techniques and aesthetics of the traditional string quartet. The quartet’s latest album, the Grammy-nominated What is Americanreleased in June 2022 on the Bright Shiny Things label, explores resonances between contemporary music, blues, jazz, free improvisation and rock-influenced music, all of which have their roots in the Black and Indigenous musical traditions that inspired Dvorak’s “American” String Quartet (Op. 96). The album also includes CARDS 11-11-2020, written by Roscoe Mitchell for PUBLIQuartet, as well as works by Ornette Coleman, Rhiannon Giddens and Vijay Iyer.
Comedian Mike Paramore
Thursday, February 27, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Mike Paramore is the guy you want to sit next to in the movies, on a long car ride, or during a boring lecture. His natural talent for infusing everyday situations with energetic, uplifting humor, combined with a natural ability to put you at ease, is the key to his personal brand of comedy.
His fluid delivery and powerful punch lines have made him a major force in the stand-up comedy circuit, which is very evident in his two DryBar comedy specials You’ve Just Been Flirted With and I Probably Shouldn’t Say This. He has also appeared on AXTV’s Live at Gotham in NYC and was a comedian on the FOX hit show “Laughs.”
REVEALED: A ballet on the paths
Friday, May 2, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 3, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 4, 2025, 3 p.m.
This world premiere from NWA Ballet Theatre will feature original dance and music expressed through the images of local photographer Brent Umphlett and Emmy award-winning composer Lendell Black. This production is not to be missed. Umphlett describes Exposed as a journey in which he had to “first leave comfort and security behind, overcome all doubts and expose himself to his own burning passion. Essentially, he exposed himself to nature, to the elements, to be defenseless. Then he exposed himself to adventure and beauty. He who risked nothing gained nothing.”
Furthermore, Umphlett said, the production lives up to its name because “the camera captured these adventurous scenes in its memory, thought romantically, the film was exposed to this beauty and all the stories and emotions associated with it were visually documented.” And finally, the production name also represents how “the audience will be exposed to a creative and meaningful collaboration that will move and inspire them. In general, life is richer when we expose ourselves to new experiences, situations and relationships; this is where curiosity is aroused and peace is created.”
Tickets for all shows go on sale September 1. To reserve your ticket, visit faulkner.uark.edu.
