Patten Performances 2016/2017 Season: World-Class Artists at UTC Fine Arts Center
The Patten Performances series, launched by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) in 1980 as the Dorothy Patten Fine Arts Series, honors Chattanooga's renowned performing artist Dorothy Patten. She starred in over 30 Broadway plays, numerous touring and summer stock productions, television shows, and the film Botany Bay with Alan Ladd and James Mason.
The series marked the opening of UTC's Fine Arts Center and continues to deliver nationally and internationally acclaimed artists to the university community and greater Chattanooga area. The venue has hosted luminaries in music, dance, and theater, including Dave Brubeck, Isaac Stern, Wynton Marsalis, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Ramsey Lewis, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, Dave Mason, The Tokyo String Quartet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, the Vienna Boys Choir, The Acting Company, Diavolo, and SFJazz Collective, among many others.
Consistent with its commitment to premier artistry, the 2016/2017 season features GRAMMY winners Rosanne Cash and Eighth Blackbird; Parsons Dance; acclaimed British actor Julian Sands; and innovative Squonk Opera.
Click here to learn more about the Patten Performances at the UTC Fine Arts Center.
2016/2017 SEASON LINEUP
ROSANNE CASH
Friday, September 16, 2016
7:30pm
One of America's foremost singer-songwriters, Rosanne Cash has released 15 albums of exceptional songs, earning four GRAMMY Awards, 11 nominations, and 21 Top 40 hits—including 11 No. 1 singles. An accomplished author, her best-selling memoir Composed was praised by the Chicago Tribune as "one of the best accounts of an American life you’ll likely ever read." Her essays appear in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Oxford American, The Nation, and more. Cash has collaborated with the Minnesota Orchestra, Lincoln Center, and San Francisco Jazz, completed a Library of Congress residency in 2013, received the SAG/AFTRA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012, the 2014 Smithsonian Ingenuity Award, and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2015. Her 2009 album The List won Americana Music Album of the Year, and The River and the Thread (2014), co-created with husband John Leventhal, earned three GRAMMYs. 
PARSONS DANCE
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
7:30pm
Founded in 1985 by artistic director David Parsons and Tony Award-winning lighting designer Howell Binkley, New York City-based Parsons Dance is celebrated for its accessible, enriching contemporary American dance. Known for energized, athletic ensemble works, the company has collaborated with Billy Taylor, Milton Nascimento, Allen Toussaint, William Ivey Long, Donna Karan, Annie Leibovitz, and Alex Katz. Its repertory of over 80 works fuses modern dance vocabulary with classical precision, performed by eight full-time dancers. Parsons Dance has toured 383+ cities across 22 countries and five continents, including The Kennedy Center and Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro. New York Magazine hails Parsons as "one of modern dance’s great living dance-makers." 
JULIAN SANDS in A CELEBRATION OF HAROLD PINTER
DIRECTED BY JOHN MALKOVICH
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
7:30pm
British actor Julian Sands, trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, has appeared in over 100 films including The Killing Fields, A Room With a View, Impromptu, Leaving Las Vegas, Arachnophobia, Ocean's 13, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. On TV, he's known for 24, Dexter, Smallville, Ghost Whisperer, and Banshee. In 2005, Nobel laureate Harold Pinter mentored Sands in delivering his poetry, inspiring this solo show directed by John Malkovich. Acclaimed at Edinburgh Festival, Irish Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf, and more, it explores Pinter as poet, playwright, activist, and Nobel winner. Nominated for a 2013 Drama Desk Award. 
EIGHTH BLACKBIRD
Monday, February 6, 2017
7:30pm
The Chicago-based, four-time GRAMMY-winning sextet eighth blackbird blends string quartet finesse, rock band energy, and theatrical audacity. Celebrating 20 years in 2016, these "super-musicians" (Los Angeles Times) perform with precision and vibrancy worldwide. 2016 MacArthur Award winners, they've commissioned works by David T. Little, Steve Reich (Pulitzer-winning Double Sextet), and others. Their Cedille Records releases have earned four GRAMMYs. Chicago Tribune: "one of the smartest, most dynamic contemporary classical ensembles on the planet." 
SQUONK OPERA
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
4:00 pm - 6:30pm - 8:00 pm
at Historic Engel Stadium
Born in a Pittsburgh junkyard over 20 years ago, Squonk Opera crafts post-industrial spectacles with original music, design, and staging by composer Jackie Dempsey and artist Steve O’Hearn, alongside 10-20 artists. Their accessible, transformative works celebrate idiosyncrasies, touring three continents and 25+ states. Praised as "Rust Belt dada" (Buffalo News) and "Debussy meets Godzilla" (Washington Post), they've created hits like Night of the Living Dead: The Opera and Bigsmorgasbordwunderwerk (Broadway transfer, American Theater Wing Award). Supported by NEA, Doris Duke, Rockefeller, and more; appeared on America’s Got Talent. Pneumatica is an immersive outdoor air-themed festival with music, inflatables, and workshops—a Patten series first. 
