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RED BANK: BASIE SEEKS TEEN OPERA VOICES

Press release from Count Basie Theatre 

The Count Basie Theatre Performing Arts Academy today has announced a summer residency with famed Los Angeles Opera director Eli Villanueva, on a summer opera camp program for vocalists aged 10-17.

The two-week intensive, open to students of all vocal types, begins with auditions on Saturday, May 20 — and culminates with a pair of performances of Brundibar, the famed children’s opera originally staged at the Theresientadt concentration camp in occupied Czechoslovakia. Needs-based scholarships will be available to those students who qualify.

The public performances will take place on Saturday, August 19 at the Count Basie Theatre and on Sunday, August 20 at the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts, located on the campus of Ocean County College in Toms River.

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RED BANK: SIGN UP NOW FOR BASIE ACADEMY

Press release from Count Basie Theatre 

count-basie-performing-arts-academyA wide variety of instructional programs and workshop — including classes aimed at pre-school children, members of the Latino community, and students with Autism Spectrum Disorder — are available now, as the Count Basie Theatre Performing Arts Academy announces the opening of registrations for its fall 2016 semester, which begins on September 26 and concludes in December.

Private, one-on-one lessons, adult classes in public speaking, acting and voiceovers will also be held during the fall semester, in addition to classes in musical theatre, acting for the stage, TV and film. Young musicians can explore Rock and Jazz through courses offered with Basie partner programs Rockit! and Jazz Arts Project. In addition to the popular returning programs, several new Academy offerings will be on the schedule:

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RED BANK: JAZZ TALKIN’ ON MONMOUTH

Basie Armstrong Jazz LPsLouie Armstrong and Count Basie, who shared the grooves of many a compilation but never made a record together, are among the topics at a new slate of free TALKIN’ JAZZ events that begin tonight. Below, the Basie bust at the Red Bank train station. 

basie-bust2April is National Jazz Appreciation Month, and here in Red Bank, birthplace of the great William “Count” Basie, jazz sounds the keynote for a recently minted (and minty-cool) tradition: an annual Talkin’ Jazz slate of edu-taining presentations, brought to you by the borough-based nonprofit Jazz Arts Project and hosted by that homegrown organization’s artistic director, internationally noted music scholar, conductor and arranger Joe Muccioli.

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