2020/2021 GVR Live! ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Welcome to the GVR Live! 2020/2021 Performing Arts Season at West Center! We at GVR have made some adjustments so we can deliver the quality performances that you have come to expect from us. Our goal is to provide you with a safe and comfortable environment to relax and enjoy the performance. We appreciate your patience and assistance with these adaptations. GVR wants to help with the healing of our community by providing some normalcy with wonderful entertainment at one low price. We will not be offering season discounts this season as the discount has already been applied to all the 2020-2021 season ticket prices. All of our 2020-2021 Performance prices are as follows: Member $28 Member Guest $31 ** General Public $36 ** GVR will be taking every precaution to recognize social distancing according to current Arizona State mandates and CDC guidelines at the time of each performance. Masks will be required at all GVR programs. Our staff and volunteers will also be wearing the required protective equipment. Here is what to expect when attending a performance: Before Your Visit ** Please check our website for up-to-date information regarding guests and general public. Currently guests are not permitted, but this will likely change with time. All patrons will be required to sign a Release of Liability and Waiver. These are available on our homepage or from 8am-12pm at the West Center Box Office window in the lobby. If you have already signed a waiver, please bring your copy or have the picture available on your phone. Purchasing Your Tickets At the time the brochures were printed, our CSR offices had not yet reopened. To purchase tickets, please call (520) 625-3440, and choose the option for purchasing tickets or classes. You can also use the GVR Live! Ticket Order Form to complete your purchase. Please locate this form on our homepage. We will update you immediately when our CSR offices reopen and tickets can be purchased in person. At the Doors and in the Lobby Patrons will need to bring their own masks. Hand sanitizer will be available at the doors and concessions. A social distancing line in six-foot increments to the auditorium will be clearly marked. Auditorium Social Distancing Seating GVR has developed a three-phased seating plan for program seating. Phase one is four feet surrounding two sets of chairs staggered for a total of 175. Phase two is reduced to two feet surrounding a pair of staggered chairs with a maximum of 300. Phase three is normal seating of 500 max attendance. All Phase seating plans will be adjusted according to current Arizona State mandates and CDC recommendations at the time of the program. Concessions We will continue to provide concessions. All food items will be prepackaged. Free water will not be available. Please feel free to bring your own. GVR Arts & Entertainment Volunteers are the foundation of GVR Arts & Entertainment programs. They come from all over the country and various occupations with a treasure trove of experience. They are our Ticket Takers, Concessions/CD/Merchandise Sales Volunteers, Lobby Ushers, Auditorium Ushers, and back stage helpers. We in the Arts & Entertainment Department cannot do all of the above without them! Thank you! Meet your GVR Performing Arts program team! Shelly Freeman, Senior Arts & Entertainment Supervisor Judith LeClair, Arts & Entertainment House Manager Arline Fass, Arts & Entertainment Lighting Technician Marshall Jones, Sound Engineer Carissa Klaus, Arts & Entertainment Event Assistant Please welcome Carissa Klaus as the new Arts & Entertainment Event Assistant! Carissa brings to GVR a wealth of knowledge and experience from the event and hospitality realm. GVR LIVE! 2020/2021 PERFORMANCES OCTOBER 29 - Quarteto Nuevo NOVEMBER 10 - Beth Lederman 19 - Nostalgia starring comedian Randy Riggle DECEMBER 3 - Alfredo Rolando Ortiz 10 - Celtic Yuletide starring Michael Londra 17 - Yakov Smirnoff 31 - Special Event “New Year’s Eve Dance ”Uncorked The Band JANUARY 7 - Celebrating Tom Jones starring David Burnham 12 - What Would Petula Do? starring Maxine Linehan 19 - Piece of My Heart: The Music & Friends of Janis Joplin starring Katherine Byrnes 26 - Andy Hersey 28 - Spinphony FEBRUARY 4 - Fabulous Fanny starring Kimberly Faye Greenberg 9 - Celebrating the Tony Bennett Songbook From Gershwin to Gaga starring Chris Mann 16 - The Camarada Tango Quintet 23 - Cinema Vivant starring Hot Club of San Francisco MARCH 2 - She Rocks starring Tara Vaughan 16 - Tribute to Johnny Cash starring James Garner 23 - A Neil Diamond Tribute starring Eddie Diamond & AZ Diamond Band 30 - Green Valley Stage Band OCTOBER 29 7PM QUARTETOQUARTETO NUEVONUEVO Quarteto Nuevo is a world chamber music group that merges western classical, eastern European folk, Latin, and jazz with an organic feel that packs a wallop! The ensemble’s razor sharp precision is enhanced by its jazzy interludes, lightly rumbling percussion motifs, and difficult to navigate time signatures. They effectively meld the music of ancient worlds and faraway places with a contemporary groove. Their unique instrumentation – soprano saxophone (Damon Zick), cello (Jacob Szekely), guitar (Kenton Youngstrom) and hand percussion (Felipe Fraga) – richly colors their wide-ranging repertoire, from Erik Satie’s “Pieces Froides” and Chick Corea’s “Tales of the Black Forest” to Traditional Macedonian “Gadjarsko” and original works “Hector, Desmond and Titus”, “Rain Song”, and “Dizer O Que”. BETH LEDERMAN NOVEMBER 10 7PM Beth Lederman is well-known for her sophisticated jazz and rhythmic Brazilian and Latin-jazz piano styles, not only in the Phoenix area, but throughout the Western U.S. from Canada to Mexico. She has been playing professionally for more than twenty years, leading several bands and playing with such well- known names as The Diamonds, Bobbie Vinton, and The Drifters, as well as with local artists such as Dave Cook, Pete Pancrazi, Alice Tatum, Dennis Rowland, Renee Patrick, Paul McDermand, and her own groups, Jazz Con Alma and Novo Mundo. Her music is melodic, fun, fluid, passionate, innovative, heartfelt, rhythmic, eclectic, honest, artistic, humorous, spontaneous…and great! NOVEMBER 19 • 7PM RANDY RIGGLE COMEDY Randy Riggle is a nationally touring stand-up comedian and has opened for such acts as Bob Dylan, Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen DeGeneres, Red Skelton, and Jerry Lewis. Long before computers, answering machines, and cell phones, there was a time that was part of all of us. Instead of drive-thrus there were drive-ins. Coke wasn’t “Classic”, and it came from a fountain or its green glass bottle. The only survivor series on TV consisted of Gilligan and his crew. Times have changed, but have we? Do you still remember the first record you owned? How about sitting around the radio instead of the television? EVERY night was a classic car cruise! Was it really that long ago? The nationally touring production of NOSTALGIA takes you down memory lane with your ‘57 Chevy as we remember the times and people who changed our lives in the 1950’s and 60’s. Nationally touring stand-up comedian Randy Riggle will be your tour guide on a trip filled with songs and laughs in this unique one-man show. DECEMBER 3 • 7PM ALFREDO ROLANDO ORTIZ Alfredo was born in Cuba. When he was eleven years old, he immigrated with his family to Venezuela. Four years later, he began studying the Venezuelan folk harp with his school friend Fernando Guerrero. A year later, he became a pupil of Alberto Romero on the Paraguayan harp. Just two years after his first harp lesson, he began medical school at Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia, and began performing professionally and recorded his first album. Music supported his medical studies until graduation. Five years later, he moved to the United States to continue studies of Music Therapy. Two years later, he married Luz Marina Otero. For eight years, from the time of his graduation from medical school, he worked in the medical field as well as a harpist and recording artist until his wife became pregnant. In order to have time for his growing family, he then decided to dedicate his life only to them and to his first love, the harp. With a multicultural repertoire that covers folk, classical, and popular music from many countries, as well as his original compositions, Alfredo has performed for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. He has recorded many albums and is the winner of a Gold Record in South America. He has lectured on a variety of subjects at universities, colleges, and schools; is the author of several harp music books and articles; and his compositions have been performed and recorded by classical and folk harpists in many countries. His “Venezolana for Five Pedal Harps” has become a favorite of harp ensembles around the world. Celtic Yuletide is a heartwarming live show that will have the audience singing, clapping and tapping its feet. The live show is a wonderful blend of the old and the new. Holiday classics, traditional Irish carols, lively dance music, and heart-wrenching slow airs sweep the listener away to Ireland at Christmastime. The Houston Chronicle calls Michael’s voice “clear as a crystalline stream” whether performing traditional Irish carols such as “Winter, Fire and Snow” and “The Wexford Carol”, Gaelic versions of Christmas songs “Oiche Ciuin” (Silent Night), or timeless Holiday favorites “The First Noel” and “O Come All Ye Faithful” the tenor’s stellar voice is certain to enthrall. DECEMBER 10 • 7PM DECEMBER 17 7PM COMEDY OF Yakov Smirnoff is a legend in American comedy. After escaping communist Soviet Russia in the 1970’s, he came to this country with nothing but a dream. Not even knowing the language, Yakov humbly began working as a bartender at the famous Grossinger’s Catskill Resort in New York where he was able to tell jokes each night after his shifts.