An expanded calendar and more events helped the recent Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Celebrates the Arts festival increase attendance more than 30 percent in its second year.<\/p>\n
More than 10,200 people attended the April 8-16 event at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, which featured university students, faculty members and some collaborative programs with outside partners at free concerts, presentations, lectures and workshops<\/p>\n
Jeff Moore, artistic director of the festival and director of the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ School of Performing Arts, said the attendance jumped from 45 to 60 percent of capacity at the event venues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis shows we\u2019re moving in the right direction. The festival grew in impact and grew in feedback,\u201d said Moore, a professor of percussion who joined in one of the premiere events of the festival.<\/p>\n
He played drums when faculty and student musicians backed up The Warped Side of the Universe, a multimedia performance joining multi-Grammy winner Hans Zimmer, theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, and visual-effects artist and multi-Academy Award winner Paul Franklin. The part space-age music concert and part lecture was coordinated by the three creative forces behind the blockbuster movie Interstellar.<\/em><\/p>\n Zimmer interrupted a European tour to attend this presentation, which was made specifically for Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Celebrates the Arts and debuted at the festival.<\/p>\n \u201cPlaying with Zimmer, Thorne and Franklin was unreal,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThe music and visual imagery were so powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n Other faculty and students from Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½’s School of Performing Arts and School of Visual Arts & Design showcased theatre, dance, orchestra, choirs, big band, chamber music, cabaret, concert bands, opera, visual arts, studio art, gaming, animation, photography and film.<\/p>\n After successfully testing out live-streaming for some of the events, more of the performances may be streamed next year for the festival scheduled April 7-15, said Heather Gibson, marketing director for the School of Performing Arts.<\/p>\n One event already planned for next year will be a presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein\u2019s Oklahoma! <\/em>as a collaboration of the music and theater departments.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An expanded calendar and more events helped the recent Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Celebrates the Arts festival increase attendance more than 30 percent in its second year. More than 10,200 people attended the April 8-16 event at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, which featured university students, faculty members and some collaborative programs with outside partners at free concerts, presentations, lectures…","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":72157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[3,18,28,29],"tags":[10618,7549,8119,4165,4168,13252],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-72156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-music","category-theatre-ucf","category-visual-arts","tag-dr-phillips-center-for-the-performing-arts","tag-heather-gibson","tag-jeff-moore","tag-school-of-performing-arts","tag-school-of-visual-arts-and-design","tag-ucf-celebrates-the-arts"],"yoast_head":"\n