Coffee with Kaizer... Musical happenings for the week of February 23

Tuesday February 24th 7:30pm
Chamber music recital by the Horszowski Trio; hailed by The New Yorker
as "Destined for great things," and each member: violinist Jesse Mills, Cellist Raman
Ramakrishnan and pianist Reiko Aizawa, teaches at both Columbia
and Bard Universities in New York City, program includes Ravel, Faure, and Saint-Saens
UNLV Doc Rando Hall - Beam Music Center
4505 S. Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas NV 89154
$25, discounts available, $5 students with ID 1 hour before concert
more info: 702-895-2787

Wednesday February 25th 4:00pm-5:30pm
Masterclass with the Horszowski Trio, watch them work with UNLV chamber groups on
standard repertoire including Beethoven's Piano Quartet in Eb Major and Brahms' Piano Quintet in F minor
UNLV Doc Rando Hall - Beam Music Center
4505 S. Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas NV 89154
Free and Open to the Public
more info: 702-895-3332

Wednesday February 25th 7:30pm
Piano recital by UNLV Artist in Residence Pedro Carbone, former pupil of Istomen,
Fleisher and Pommier and leading authority on the Spanish piano repertoire, program includes
"Suite Iberia, Books I-II" by Albeniz, "Sonata Espanola, Op. 53" by Espla, and "Fantasia Baetica" by De Falla
UNLV Doc Rando Hall - Beam Music Center
4505 S. Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas NV 89154
Free and Open to the Public
more info: 702-895-3332

Thursday February 26th 7:30pm
UNLV Wind Orchestra concert, program includes works by McAllister, Nelson, Saint-Saens, and features Respighi's "Queen of Sheba," guest conductors include Cody Birdwell, Gary Smith, Zane Douglass
UNLV Ham Concert Hall
4505 S. Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas NV 89154
$10, discounts available, 1 free ticket per student with ID
more info: 702-895-2787

Friday February 27th 5:30pm
UNLV Flute Studio recital featuring the students of Dr. Jennifer Grim, program includes
works by Debussy, Schubert, Vivaldi, Piazzolla, Mozart and more, they are joined by pianist
Jae Ahn-Benton
UNLV Doc Rando Hall - Beam Music Center
4505 S. Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas NV 89154
Free and Open to the Public
more info: 702-895-3332

Saturday February 28th 2:00pm
Brass band concert by Brass Roots Quintet, performing a wide variety of music
from classical to contemporary
Charleston Heights Arts Center
800 Brush St.
Las Vegas NV
Free and Open to the Public
more info: 702-229-6383

Saturday February 28th 5:30pm
Flute recital by UNLV flute professor Dr. Jennifer Grim and Las Vegas Philharmonic's
principal flutist Alexander Viazovtsev, program includes Poulenc's Sonata, Bach's Chaconne, Saint-Saens' "Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso," and Doppler's "Hungarian Phantasy" for two flutes and piano they are joined by pianist Albina Asryan, concert is presented by the Las Vegas Flute Club
UNLV Doc Rando Hall - Beam Music Center
4505 S. Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas NV 89154
Free and Open to the Public
more info: 702-895-3332

Saturday February 28th 7:30pm
Desert Winds directed by David Irish along with guest choral group: Desert Voices presents a program including the world premiere of "Forgotten Children" by Peter Meechan
Nicholas J. Horn Theatre
CSN Cheyenne Campus
3200 E. Cheyenne Ave.
North Las Vegas NV 89030
$15
more info: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/colorations-in-purple-tickets-13559784681

Saturday February 28th 8:00pm
Trombone ensemble recital by the Texas Tech Graduate Trombone Quartet, program includes works by Bruckner, Debussy, Piazzolla, Bozza and more
UNLV Doc Rando Hall - Beam Music Center
4505 S. Maryland Pwy
Las Vegas NV 89154
Free and Open to the public
more info: 702-895-3332

Saturday February 28th 10:00pm
Opera Las Vegas presents a night of tribute to Liberace including performances by pianists: Philip Thortenberry, resident pianist of the former Liberace Museum; Martin Kaye, "Million Dollar Quartet's" Jerry Lee Leewis; Danny Wright, American pianist and composer; Spencer Baker, Liberace Scholar; Jacob Tolliver of "American Idol," along with some Opera Las Vegas Singers, tickets include a tour of the mansion including special items from the Liberace Collection and the Cadillac Collectors Club, and refreshments prepared from Liberace's own recipes
Liberace's Las Vegas Villa (newly restored)
4982 Shirley St.
Las Vegas NV 89119
RSVP, limited seating for tickets and more information
contact: Nancy Dailey 702-629-4165 or 702-374-3423

Brian Paco Alvarez enculturating Las Vegas into the millennium...

S.P. Grogan's "Atomic Dreams at the Red Tiki Lounge" Debut Release and Book Signing at the Writers Block Downtown Las Vegas

Atomic Dreams at the Red Tiki Lounge

Thursday, February 19, 2015
The Writers Block - 1020 Fremont Street 6-9 pm

Literary Friends are cordially invited to the Debut Release and Book Signing Event of S. P. Grogan’s new novel, “Atomic Dreams at the Red Tiki Lounge” to be held on February 19, 2015, 6-9 p.m. at the newest book seller in Las Vegas, The Writer’s Block at 1020 Fremont Street.

Grogan, who is also Chairman of the Las Vegas Arts Commission, incorporated the illustrations of Hawaiian pop surrealist artist, Brad ‘Tiki Shark’ Parker, into what he describes as a ‘tiki noir’ genre, with the plot set in 1946 Honolulu.

Grogan is noted for his two previous award-winning novels, local mob-mayor plot, Vegas Die and art-centric/culinary Captain Cooked. www.spgrogan.com

Since part of the 1946 plot includes spies trying to steal an atomic bomb at the Bikini Atoll, both the National Atomic Testing Museum and Atomic Liquors in Las Vegas are giving sponsorship to the event, with that weekend February 19-22, Atomic Liquors, across the street, 917 Fremont, will be hosting a 9-11 after book signing event serving two of the retro cocktails found in Grogan’s novel. And the National Atomic Testing Museum will provide discount tickets to the museum, available at the bookstore.

Addison & Highsmith Publishers

For further information contact: 702.303.5915

Book is available at the Writer’s Block, at The National Atomic Testing Museum and on Amazon and as ebook at all digital stores

Brian Paco Alvarez enculturating Las Vegas into the millennium...

First Friday Carnival! February 2015!

Brian Paco Alvarez enculturating Las Vegas into the millennium...

The sensually delicious art of Las Vegas artist Marshall Bradford @ Sin City Gallery

By Dr. Laura Henkel,

The art of Las Vegas artist Marshall Bradford is alternately alluring, shocking, deeply suggestive and subversive. Bradford’s work has a magnetic power. Decadent and masterfully staged photographs belong to the narrative pictorial language of cinema, the contrast of skin, rope, cloth, and light making for an orchestrated mise-en-scène.

Bradford’s masterly admixture of haute couture photography and sexuality is the thrill of the illicit paired with an admiration and hunger for so much splendor. This engenders an irrepressible desire to see more, provoking an admiration and hunger for so many splendors. Bradford’s exhibition, Desert Bound, at Sin City gallery includes twenty photographs that offers a unique view into the artistic oeuvre of this esteemed photographer.

The works are all brilliantly composed and have a cinematic quality. Many of the images are connected to archetype of the vamp, the femme fatal so often seen in fashion, film, theater and art. While an undisputed sexiness is present in all the works, Bradford’s mastery over his medium is the cornerstone of his work. In works like Ecstasy at Mojave Lake, taken outdoors, Bradford combines the thoughtful and clean use of light, magnification, focus, reflection of texture, and a sensual game of veiling, and exposure, creating a series of works that have at their core, a sense of theatric.

Bradford’s stunning photos are part of the colliding worlds of fashion and sexuality, and as such are part of the tradition of the great fashion photographer Helmut Newton, in the sense that Bradford builds on Newton’s precepts for a new vision and constructs stylish, posed and iconic pictures of bondage, sexual subjection and fantasy. Bradford is fully engaged with the provocative image of a beautiful woman, her accessories and props highlighting her sexuality, her power, or the power of the voyeur over her, something Newton was unabashed about, this pleasure of looking, this need for beauty, and sexual experience.

Bradford’s black and white work Sex and the Maiden, is a supple photo of a nude, classical illuminated, her arched body resembling the tradition of a figurehead or wooden lady at the stern of a boat. The pattern of the ropes are like ornate carving, and scrollwork, and function as a fetishistic form of clothing. These are exquisitely constructed spectacles, at times purely about lust, and at other times, more complex and fetishistic. For example in many works, there is an intrusion of the strange. The picture Beautiful Monster I (from the Genki Series) shows a voluptuously lovely nude with a squid, in her mouth, a portrait of submission. In Beautiful Monster II, the creature is worn as a boa, an outlandish marriage of aquatic monsters, food, and sensuality provokes questions about taste, fetish and power.

More than a collection of images from a sexual subculture, Bradford’s work meets at intersection of erotica, burlesque and performance art and as such is multifaceted, masterly and unerring beautiful. The artist’s ability to engage in contemporary leitmotifs, and transform his images of sex into distinctive portrayals of explosive beauty makes his work stand apart.

Desert Bound will be on exhibition from February 2 to March 22, 2015. There will be a closing Artist Talk with Marshall Bradford at Cockroach Theater on March 22, 2015 at 2:00 PM.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Sin City Gallery and The Las Vegas Rope Social will be hosting Rope 101 Classes throughout February and March. If you are new to rope and would like to learn about the types of rope, safety, negotiation and a few ties, come join these instructional workshops.

Tuesday, February 10 7:30 - 9:30 PM
Tuesday, February 24 7:30 - 9:30 PM
Saturday, March 7 3:00 - 5:00 PM
Saturday, March 14 3:00 - 5:00 PM

Classes will be donation based $5-$20. The exhibition at Sin City Gallery is free.

Sin City Gallery is located off the Strip in the famous Arts Factory, situated in the heart of Downtown Las Vegas’ Arts District, at 107 E. Charleston Boulevard, Suite 100. Hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 1:00 to 7:00 p.m. For information, updates and exhibition calendar, call 702-608-2461 or visit www.sincitygallery.com.

The art of Marshall Bradford @ Sin City Gallery

Brian Paco Alvarez enculturating Las Vegas into the millennium...