Alverno Presents – Beautiful Dreamer: The Foster Project

Alverno Presents welcomes a collective of formidable musicians and storytellers to reinvent and reinterpret the Stephen Foster songbook at the Pitman Theatre on Saturday, February 2nd at 8:00 p.m. An Alverno Presents commission, The Foster Project is a unique musical performance curated and led by Ryan Schleicher and backed by Milwaukee’s own Juniper Tar.
Known as “the father of American music,” Stephen Foster represents the beginnings of American popular culture. Foster (1826–1864) was America's first great songwriter and the first to earn his living solely through his music. He composed over 200 songs and invented popular music as we recognize it to this day, yet he died at age thirty-seven.
The American popular song in all of its genres and variations finds its source in Foster. The Foster Project examines this with a generationally and racially diverse company of artists to interpret, re-imagine and respond to Stephen Foster’s rich and complex legacy. Local artists will team up with their peers from around the country to explore the Foster songbook and create new work in response to such essential songs as “Oh Susannah,” “Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair,” “Beautiful Dreamer” and the iconic “Hard Times Come Again No More.”
Single tickets are $15. Season subscriptions are still available at a discount off single ticket prices when purchasing three or more events. Tickets may be purchased through the Alverno Presents Box Office at 414-382-6044 or on-line at http://alvernopresents.alverno.edu.
Alverno Presents
Alverno Presents, the performing arts series of Alverno College, is celebrating its 53rd year. The series has innovated beyond our history as the longest running, continuous arts presenter in the city, to our niche of presenting contemporary dance, world music and jazz and an array of performance events. Alverno Presents shares the school’s mission by ensuring broad access to and participation in learning, experiencing and developing the arts for the learning community of Alverno, and our community as a whole. For more information on Alverno Presents, special projects, media reviews and more, visit alvernopresents.alverno.edu, contact Alverno Presents Assistant Director at 414-382-6151, or e-mail rory.trainor@alverno.edu.