UCLA Arts Season Will Feature Mezzo McDonald, Poet Heaney

Tony Award-winning singer Audra McDonald, Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, legendary jazz pianist Keith Jarrett and the Mark Morris Dance Group are among the diverse mix of dance, music, theater and spoken-word performers who will be featured in UCLA Performing Arts’ 2000-2001 season, to be announced today.

Mezzo-soprano McDonald will make her Royce Hall debut Oct. 12. Appearing at Royce on Oct. 1 will be Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin, who was nominated this year for a Grammy for best instrumental soloist performance.

Irish poet Heaney, whose best-selling translation of the epic poem “Beowulf” brought new life to the esoteric language of the original text, will take part in UCLA’s World of Mouth Series April 19. The speakers’ series, which showcases contemporary authors, journalists and satirists, will also feature novelist Margaret Atwood, political strategist James Carville, “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening, “Angela’s Ashes” author Frank McCourt, in addition to a mock performance of the popular television show “Politically Incorrect,” hosted by BillMaher.

Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project will make their only Southern California appearance with two performances in October. Dancer-choreographer Mark Morris will bring his world-renowned dance group to UCLA in November in its only Los Angeles appearance. On Feb. 2-3, Ballet Preljocaj will perform “Paysage Apres la Bataille” (Scene After the Battle), and the Nederlands Dans Theater I, featuring the choreography of French-born Albanian Angelin Preljocaj, will perform Feb. 15-17.

Julie Taymor, creator of Broadway’s “The Lion King” and “The Green Bird,” will bring her puppetry to the Royce Hall stage March 29-31 in an exclusive Los Angeles engagement of “The King Stag.” The production revolves around the world of castles, damsels and sorcery. UCLA’s theater programs open Oct. 12-14 with India’s 30-member Ratan Thiyam Chorus Repertory Theater in its North American debut tour, presenting “Uttar-Priyadarshi” (The Final Beatitude) from an Indian historical cycle. Rounding out the theater season with performances at the Freud Playhouse are the GATE Theater of Dublin’s “Waiting for Godot”; “Kwaidan,” three Japanese ghost stories told through puppetry and co-produced by the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center; and “Spirit” by Britain’s Improbable Theatre.

One of the world’s leading chamber ensembles, the Emerson String Quartet, will perform March 4 at Schoenberg Hall. The National Orchestra of Spain makes its Los Angeles debut on March 25. New music eclectics from New York--the Bang on a Can All-Stars--and the West Coastthe Kronos Quartet--will perform at Schoenberg Hall.

Other noteworthy programs include a night of jazz with pianist Jarrett, who will perform with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette on Nov. 16; “An Evening With Arlo Guthrie and Family,” in which the son of legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie and his family will play music from the ‘60s; and singer Andrea Marcovicci, whom New York magazine calls “the most throbbingly irresistible voice in cabaret,” will appear in March.

Among the season’s other offerings will be performances by the Boys Choir of Harlem, Italian singer Paolo Conte, and Buena Vista Social Club’s Omara Portuondo accompanied by Cuban lute player Barbarito Torres.

For a complete listing of events, go to https://www.performingarts.ucla.edu or call the UCLA box office at (310) 825-2101.