Virginia Arts Festival Brings Rhythm and Blues Legend Ruth Brown Home for Mother's Day Weekend

Virginia Arts Festival Brings Rhythm and Blues Legend Ruth Brown Home for Mother's Day Weekend

NORFOLK, Va., May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruth Brown, the legendary blues and R&B singer and Portsmouth, Virginia native, highlights a new collaboration between the City and the Virginia Arts Festival with a star-studded celebratory concert Saturday, May 13.

The Ruth Brown Blues Festival jumps off at 8 p.m. at the nTelos Pavilion. The electrifying singer, known as "Miss Rhythm," rocked the house last year at Norfolk's Attucks Theater and wowed Festival audiences with her Hampton Roads performance on "A Prairie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor. Brown, a Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame member, is one of VH1's "100 Greatest Women of Rock 'n' Roll." She also won Broadway's Tony Award for Best Actress for her role in "Black and Blue."

On the all-star blues bill with Miss Brown are Shemekia Copeland, a Grammy Award-nominated singing sensation; guitarist Bo Diddley, one of Rolling Stone's "Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time," performing with the Debbie Hastings Band; and New Orleans legend Clarence "Frogman" Henry.

Copeland is often compared to Brown, Etta James and Aretha Franklin, and is acclaimed not only for her singing but also for her original music. Diddley, the Southside Chicago bluesman, is in the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. Henry's remarkable falsetto helped him score hits with "I Don't Know Why I Love You (But I Do)" and "You Always Hurt the One You Love."

The Ruth Brown Blues Festival is just one of several noteworthy concerts scheduled for Mother's Day weekend in Portsmouth.

Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, described by the Los Angeles Times as "rhythmic energy bursting in all directions," performs at Willett Hall at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 12. Pianist Arturo O'Farrill, the son of famed jazz musician and composer Chico O'Farrill, leads the 18-piece orchestra. The group performs classics from the Afro-Latin canon by composers Mario Bauza, Machito and the late Chico O'Farrill.

The weekend's attractions begin in a different tempo with chamber music Thursday, May 11 at noon at the Trinity Episcopal Church. Violinist Ani Kavafian, pianist Charles Woodward and the Miami String Quartet open the Lunchtime Chamber Music series, led by pianist Andre-Michel Schub.

About Virginia Arts Festival

Virginia Arts Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary season of world-class arts, April 26-June 4, 2006. Twenty-one venues in nine cities from Williamsburg to Virginia Beach host 52 performances by the world's top-flight artists in classical music, dance, theatre, and jazz. Visit http://www.vafest.com/; call the Festival at 757-282-2800 or toll-free 877-741-ARTS (2787) for ticket information and travel packages.

Photos available at http://www.vafest.com/ - Media, call 757-282-2820 for password.

Media Contact: Leigh Mang, 757-282-2820 or 757-615-6580, lmang@virginiaartsfest.com

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Source: Virginia Arts Festival

CONTACT: Leigh Mang, Virginia Arts Festival, +1-757-282-2820 or
+1-757-615-6580, lmang@virginiaartsfest.com

Web site: http://www.vafest.com/

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