Eclipse inspiring musical salutes
Musicians across the region are gearing up to celebrate the April 8 total solar eclipse with performances ranging from jazz and country to symphonic.
AMPHITHEATER TRIO
The Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau is hosting a free three-day concert series at First
Security Amphitheater, 400 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock:
■ The Rodney Block Collective & All-Star Friends will perform at 6 p.m. April 6. Gates open at 5.
■ Country singer Ward Davis performs at 8 p.m. April 7. Gates open at 6. A yet-to-be announced opening act will take the stage at 7.
■ And Pink Floyd tribute band The Machine performs Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of The Moon” album in its entirety on April 8, based on the timing of the moon passing between Earth and the sun, starting at 12:33 p.m. The performance is to run 12:40-1:40 p.m., pausing for a 20-minute intermission ahead of full totality, 1:51-1:54 p.m., and resuming from 2-3 p.m., with the eclipse concluding at 3:11 p.m. Amphitheater gates open at 11 a.m.
The three-day concert series will be cashless; only cards or mobile payments will be accepted for purchases at concession and merchandise stands.
PLANETS OF THE ECLIPTIC
Symphony orchestras in Little Rock and Jonesboro both hit upon possibly the perfect piece to mark the eclipse: “The Planets,” by Gustav Holst.
■ Arkansas Symphony Orchestra concerts, 7:30 p.m. April 6, and 3 p.m. April 7, in Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway, Little Rock, will also include “Night Ferry” by Anna Clyne. Geoffrey Robson conducts. Tickets are $19-$97 (prices subject to change); call (501) 666-1761, Ext. 1, or visit ArkansasSymphony.org.
■ “The Planets” forms the entire program for the Delta Symphony Orchestra and conductor Neale Bartee, 7:30 p.m. April 6 in Riceland Hall, Arkansas State University’s Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro. Tickets are $30, $25 for senior citizens, $20 for students and military. Call (870) 761-8254 or visit deltasymphonyorchestra.org.
The seven movements, in musical, not planetary, order, are: “Mars, the Bringer of War,” “Venus, the Bringer of Peace,” “Mercury, the Winged Messenger,” “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity,” “Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age,” “Uranus, the Magician” and “Neptune, the Mystic,” which concludes with a female chorus wordlessly extending its reach into infinite interstellar space. The piece premiered in 1918; Holst, whose interest in heavenly bodies was astrological, not astronomical, wrote no movement for Earth. Nor is there a movement for Pluto, which though now “discredited” as
a planet, wasn’t discovered until 1930.
SPA CITY FESTIVAL
Hot Springs’ Low Key Arts is partnering with New York City-based travel publication Atlas Obscura for Ecliptic,a four-day festival April 5-8 at Cedar Glades Park, 461 Wildcat Road in Hot Springs, featuring music, science, art and a celebration of the eclipse.
The festival will feature more than 20 musical acts, including headliners Deerhoof (April 5), Blonde Redhead (April 6), The Allah-Las and Shannon and the Clams (April 7) and Angel Olsen (April 8). The list also includes the Sun Ra Arkestra, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Dengue Fever, Mary Lattimore and Hailu Mergia. The festival lineup also includes film screenings, stargazing and “special guests,” including “Mythbusters” host Adam Savage and comedian-musician Fred Armisen. All music and performances will pause during the actual eclipse.
Four-day passes are $385; individual day passes are $70 April 5, $99 April 6-7, $135 April 8; admission is free for children 10 and younger. Camping at the park is available and shuttles will run to the park from Hot Springs. Visit ecliptic.atlasobscura.com.
Fuller coverage of Ecliptic will appear in Tuesday’s Style section.
‘MUSIC ON THE MULBERRY’
Bluegrass, country and blues performers are lining up, pre- and post-eclipse, for “Music on the Mulberry,” April 7-8 at Mulberry Mountain, 4117 Mulberry Mountain Loop, Ozark. Gates open at 11 a.m. April 7, with Main Stage performances by Sean Harrison, Ozark Riviera, The Well Drinkers, Blue Ridge Girls, Bluewater Revival and Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley; a “VIP Gold Event” at the Mountain Hall featuring Trent Tomlinson & Scotty Emerick; and a “Platinum All Access Event” at the Mountain Lodge featuring Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Steve Dorff. The April 8 lineup kicks off with a sunrise service, a “Platinum All Access Breakfast” and Main Stage performances by Crystal Shawanda and The Bag Men.
A two-day general admission pass is $175; VIP packages and parking and camping passes are available. Visit tinyurl.com/4czjrbfn.
COUNTRY EXPRESSION
Hope native Mae Estes, Arkansas Country Music Awards’ Female Vocalist of the Year, headlines a free concert at 7 p.m. April
7 as part of a weekend-long
Solar Express Celebration, under the auspices of the
Hope Tour- ism Commission. “Solar Sunday on the Big Stage” takes place on the CMC stage at Hope Fair Park, 800 S. Mockingbird Lane; gates open at 5 p.m., with Wyatt Putman opening the concert at 6. Food trucks will be available for food and drink purchases; bring your own chairs. Visit tourism.hopeusa.com/eclipse-2024/.
‘FANTASIA’ FILM
And it’s not exactly a concert, but the Arkansas Cinema Society marks the eclipse weekend with a screening of Walt Disney’s “Fantasia,” 12:30 p.m. April 7 at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, 501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock.
For his third full-length animated feature, Disney partnered with the then-Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski to produce a groundbreaking film in which classical music was the main focus. Stokowski arranged several musical scores (sometimes more or less completely), from which Disney animators found inspiration for onscreen stories.
Stokowski’s orchestral arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in d minor resulted in an abstract depiction involving musical symbols. Selections from Peter Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” Suite depicted the changing of the seasons from summer to winter, via fairies, fish, flowers, mushrooms and leaves. Mickey Mouse played the title role for Paul Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” magicking a broom to carry water from a well but unable to shut it off when the cistern was full.
Stokowski’s adaptation of Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” depicts the early days of the Earth, up to the death of the dinosaurs. An edited version of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony features creatures of Greek myth — centaurs, cupids, fauns, nymphs and gods — in a celebration of wine, culminating in Zeus pitching stormy thunderbolts followed by a sunny prayer of thanksgiving.
The animators formed a ballet company of distinctly ungraceful animals — elephants, hippos, ostriches and alligators — for “The Dance of the Hours” by Amilcar Ponchielli. And an unholy black sabbath ends in a holy sunrise as Stokowski morphs Modest Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” into Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria.”
Running time for the G-rated film is 2 hours, 4 minutes. Tickets are $15, $10 for children 2-11 and senior citizens. Visit tinyurl.com/ uwu493pu.