Author: Mark Arnest

For the second straight year, the private El Paso Club will become not-quite-as-private as it hosts an exhibition of woodcut engraving reproductions.”The exhibit last year made quite a bit of money for the El Paso Club Civics and Art Foundation,” said Nelson “Buz” Rieger, who organized the exhibition and whose collection is the source of…

The Fine Arts Center Theatre Company’s production of “Beauty and the Beast” is a behemoth with a human heart.In some respects, it’s the company’s most impressive production ever, with one show-stopping production number after another.But director Cory Moosman and a huge and deep cast go a step further, creating a sense of warmth, affection and…

The Colorado Springs Philharmonic’s fifth classical season comes to a very loud end this weekend, when 73 musicians will cram into First United Methodist Church for a concert featuring Saint-Saens’ Organ Symphony. The final pops concert is May 17.”It’s May in orchestra land,” said conductor Lawrence Leighton Smith. “Everybody hates each other. We’re nearing the…

If interest inside the theater community is an indication, the Fine Arts Center’s new production of “Beauty and the Beast” will be hit.The audition drew 165 people – by far the largest anyone can remember at the center. The show opens Friday.The show’s appeal isn’t hard to fathom, said director Cory Moosman.”It’s about two underdogs…

   Opportunities abound this weekend in the visual arts, with several other toptier artists in addition to the opening of the Fine Arts Center’s enormous Marilyn Monroe exhibit.   Denver artist Bill Amundson has had major shows to the north and south, but the exhibit that opens today at the Smokebrush Foundation is his first in…

The Manitou Art Theater is leaving its namesake.This weekend’s “The Incredible Circus MAT” promises to be its last at the Business of Art Center. The theater company is leaving Manitou Springs for a new home near Gold Hill Mesa.”It’s going to be hard not to be in Manitou Springs,” said producer Jim Jackson. “All the…

There was little drama but lots of pleasure at Saturday’s Colorado Springs Philharmonic concert in a program with Mozart’s Serenade, K. 361 and Haydn’s Symphony No. 104.Mozart’s seven-movement serenade is an enormous piece that’s probably a hundred times better than it needed to be for the long-forgotten celebration for which it was written. The highlight…

This week’s Colorado Springs Philharmonic concert pairs two of the 18th century’s greatest Viennese composers – Mozart and Haydn.Conductor Lawrence Leighton Smith describes Mozart’s Serenade K. 361, “Gran Partita,” as Mozart at his greatest.”It’s K. 361, which is a juicy period,” he said. (The K. numbers are a chronological listing of Mozart’s music created by…