UCLA Live promises to spice up event lineup
By Daily Bruin Staff
Sept. 23, 2001 9:00 p.m.
NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin David Sefton,
UCLA’s new music program director, plans to bring exciting
new artists to Royce Hall, such as Elvis Costello and Sonic
Youth.
By Chris Moriates
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Royce Hall has a new feel. The world-famous structure, widely
used to represent UCLA, is not changing in outward appearance, but
has adopted a different attitude.
The prestigious venue, which was built in 1929, will be host to
a more diverse lineup of events than it has seen in recent
history.
Attempting to more fully embrace the varied interests of the
students and surrounding community, the UCLA Performing Arts
Program, UCLA Live, has planned an exciting year that will venture
into more audacious artistic experimentation than in previous
years.
Artists as wide-ranging as opera soprano Kiri Te Kanawa, hip-hop
pioneers The Watts Prophets and alternative music heroes Sonic
Youth will share the famed Royce Hall stage this fall.
“There’s a history of mixing a balance of things,
between classical music and dance, but also I’m gonna try to
make the program wider and to create new things and new challenges
with a different mix of artists,” said David Sefton,
UCLA’s Performing Arts Director, who books and programs the
events for UCLA Live. “That’s the kind of balance I
want, between the stuff that’s traditional and the stuff
that’s new and hasn’t been done here before.”
Perhaps the most apparent addition to UCLA Live is the brand new
Artist-in-Residence program. Pop star Elvis Costello will fill the
position this year, planning to participate in special projects and
student interaction.
Bringing pop and rock musicians to Royce shows a conscious
effort to cater more to the students of UCLA than past programs. By
being able to present such a diverse group of artists, UCLA Live
plans to entertain both the students as well as the traditional
older patrons of Royce Hall. All of the events also include special
UCLA student tickets with reduced prices.
“I think that there is a young, cutting-edge quality to
(Sefton’s) programming that students will really
enjoy,” said Ajna Burke, the education liaison that helps
program the artist forums.
There has also been a strong push for more post-performance
discussions, according to Burke. There will be approximately 20
this year, averaging about 15 minutes each, in which students and
audience members can hold an open discourse with the
performers.
“It’s quite a casual atmosphere,” Burke said.
“The students make up the large majority of those that stay
(for the discussion).”
Most likely the hottest music event of the season will be All
Tomorrow’s Parties, which will be a three-night festival
during October bringing together some of the most revolutionary
musicians, DJs, filmmakers and artists. The festival is making its
debut in America, having previously been held in Britain. The event
will be curated by Sonic Youth and will feature performances from
artists including Stereolab, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and a
solo appearance by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder.
The ATP events will take place around campus in Royce Hall,
Ackerman Grand Ballroom, Schoenberg and Moore Halls.
“At other schools it seems real divided between classical
music and the alternative student-type of stuff,” said Joe
Boski, an urban studies graduate student who has attended Boston
University. “Here there seems to be a much better
blend.”
Another noteworthy event this season will be Hal Willner’s
Halloween Show, “Closed on Account of Rabies,” which
will be a chilling tribute to writer Edgar Allen Poe. The line-up
for the event has not been officially determined yet, but is
promised to include big names in the entertainment world, as actors
and musicians will read Poe’s most terrifying works. Produced
to be an interesting way to escape the trick-or-treaters, the
Halloween show is expected to be a highlight of this year’s
events.
The opportunities provided by UCLA Live are truly unique for
both the performers and the audiences. Performers will have the
chance to experiment and perform in a different atmosphere than
many of them are used to.
“For someone like Eddie Vedder, I think that one of the
reasons he comes “¦ is the idea of playing somewhere like
Royce Hall,” Sefton said. “It’s not the sort of
thing that he normally does. It is kinda an intimate (venue).
Ironically, for Suzanne Vega it’s a little bit bigger than
what she is used to; for Eddie Vedder it is a little bit
smaller.”
UCLA Live is determined to bring entertainment that is truly
pushing the boundaries of modern performance directly to the
Westwood community. So, don’t miss out!
