South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center unveils subcription lineup

The South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay is launching a build-your-own subscription series for 2014-2015 that contains a wide variety of music, theater and dance events.

The lineup begins with Trinidadian trumpet player Etienne Charles perforeming a Miami Nice Jazz Festival concert Nov. 1. On Nov. 8, the Minnesota-based TU Dance led by Alvin Ailey veterans Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands performs.The Spanish company Noche Flamenca starring Soledad Barrio performs Nov. 15, followed by the jazz band The Hot Sardines Nov. 22. A touring production of Guys and Dolls visits the center Jan. 3, and San Francisco’s Alonzo King LINE Ballet performs Jan. 17.

Chicago’s Second City plays the center Jan. 22, then the Celtic-inspired StepCrew performs Jan. 23. Zap Mama and Antibales explore the evolution of contemporary Afro music Jan. 24, then actress Jasmine Guy performs Raisin’ Cane, a piece celebrating the Harlem Renaissance, on Feb. 7. The Pasadena Roof Orchestra brings its dance band-swing sound to the center Feb. 20, followed by the Peking Acrobats Feb. 21. Mummenschanz brings its wordless artistry to Cutler Bay Feb. 28-March 1, and the dance tourpe Urban Bush Women will perform March 7.

A touring production of the Broadway musical Jekyll & Hyde plays March 14, then Kinsey Sicks brings its spoof America’s Next Top Bachelor Housewife Celebrity Hoarder Makeover Star Gone Wild! to the center April 18. The subscription lineup winds up with Ballet Memphis on April 25.

Subscriptions give arts lovers early access to some main stage shows and discounts of up to 20 percent on ticket prices, depending on how many shows are purchased. The Arquitectonica-designed center is located at 10950 SW 211th St. in Cutler Bay. For information, call the box office at 786-573-5300 or visit www.smdcac.org.

National success

A pair of New World School of the Arts high school music students, violist Athalie Claude-Lilia Vaval and violinist Jason Arevalo, will tour the country with the National Youth Orchestra of the USA this summer. Chosen from 1,000 applicants from 35 states for the orchestra’s second summer tour, the two will perform with 118 other musicians, giving concerts conducted by David Robertson featuring violinist Gil Shaham. On the bill are a commissioned piece by Samuel Carl Adams, Symphonic Dances by Leonard Bernstein from West Side Story, Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto, and Maurice Ravel’s arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

After the teen musicians experience a two-week training residency in July, the orchestra will give concerts at the the Perming Arts Center in Purchase, New York; Manhattan’s Carnegie Hall; the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lennox, Massachusetts; the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago; the Appalachian Summer Festival in Boone, North Carolina; the Grand Teton Music Festival in Teton Village, Wyoming; Sonoma State’s Green Music Center in Rohnert Park, California; and the Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The National Youth Orchestra is an educational program started in 2013 by Carnegie Hall. For information on Miami’s New World School of the Arts, call 305-237-3135 or visit nwsa.mdc.edu.

Opera artists

Florida Grand Opera has chosen the singers who will make up the 2014-2015 class of its Young Artist Program. The group of new and returning artists was selected from more than 600 applicants.

The group’s returning singers are mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis, soprano Betsy Diaz, soprano Rebecca Henriques and mezzo-soprano Caitlin McKechney. New to the program are tenor Daniel Bates, baritone Isaac Bray, soprano Hailey Clark, bass-baritone Chance Eakin, baritone Will Hughes, soprano Vanessa Isiguen and mezzo-soprano Carla Jablonski.

In addition to the training and concert experiences that the Young Artist participants receive, the singers have the opportunity to perform in the opera’s 74th main stage season. For 2014-2015, the lineup consists of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Nov. 15-Dec. 6), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte (Jan. 24-Feb. 14), Georges Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers (Feb. 28-March 14) and Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Consul (May 9-16). For information, call 800-741-1010 or visit www.fgo.org.

Book Fair dates set

Summer is here, but it’s time to think about fall: Miami Book Fair International has announced its 2014 dates.

The 31st edition of the fair will run Nov. 16-23 at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami. No word on individual authors yet, but there are a couple of new offerings: Playtime, an international children’s theater festival presented by Teatro Prometeo, and The Swamp, a pop-up lounge featuring live music and writers whose works explore the weird and wonderful in the Sunshine State.

You can also participate in the community project 6WordsMiami, in which everyone can submit six-word stories, memoir, fiction or fantasy, preferably inspired by life in Miami. A 6WordsMiami reading will take place at the fair, and some stories will be paired with original photography and published in a limited-edition postcard set. Submissions will be accepted in English, Spanish or Creole; submit your story before Oct. 1 at 6wordsmiami@gmail.com and via social media using the hashtag #6WordsMiami.

Caribbean TV

Investigative reporter Zahra Burton’s program 18 Degrees North is coming to South Florida’s WBFS-Channel 33 at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, bringing with it the in-depth stories from the Caribbean region. Taking its inspiration from such magazine-style shows as 60 Minutes, Burton’s show will include cultural and entertainment segments along with its serious content.

Now in its second season, 18 Degrees North (the title refers to the location of Jamaica) will feature such varied stories as a jailhouse interview with Jamaica-born D.C. sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, a story on Europeans with offshore accounts and a piece on NCIS: New Orleans actress C.C.H. Pounder, who was born in Guyana. Host Burton, a former Bloomberg TV reporter, is the founder of Global Reporters for the Caribbean.

AIRIE discussion

AIRIE, a program that brings artists to create in the Everglades, will present a discussion with its current fellows at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the ArtCenter South Florida. Since its launch in 2001, the Artist in Residence in Everglades (AIRIE) program has given 100 visual artists, writers, dancers and composers month-long residencies in Everglades National Park.

Artist Christy Gast and biologist Skip Snow will moderate a discussion with the current fellows: writers Brenna Dixon and Nathaniel Sandler, architect Elite Kedan, audio composer Gustavo Matamoros and photographer Susan Silas. The free event takes place at the ArtCenter’s Richard Shack Gallery, 800 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, where the current AIRE exhibit Flight: Aloft in the Everglades is on view. For more information on AIRIE, visit www.airie.org.

Visual arts

This story was originally published June 15, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center unveils subcription lineup."