Next week Friday, April 24th, 2015, downtown Grand Rapids will host the Grand Rapids Live Arts event, which will feature 1,500 performers involved in one amazing show at the Van Andel Arena. The event will feature the Grand Rapids Symphony, as well as the Symphony Chorus, Grand Rapids Symphony Youth Chorus, Grand Rapids Youth Symphony and Classical Orchestra, Grand Rapids Ballet, Opera Grand Rapids, and Broadway Grand Rapids! The curtains go up at 8 PM, and this will certainly be an arts event to remember!
The Grand Rapids Symphony will be providing the soundtrack for this unique narrative performance. In addition to amazing music (including some of John Williams' work, selections from The Phantom of the Opera, and Beethoven, there will be visual art, such as dancing, presented throughout the evening. Despite not being that large of a city, Grand Rapids has a lot of culture available to its citizens, much of which is represented in this amazing event. Many cities larger than Grand Rapids do not have a ballet company, let alone a civic opera group and a Broadway troupe.
The Live Arts event was dreamed up to be one of the pillars of the celebration of the 85th Anniversary of the Grand Rapids Symphony. The story being told is about the dream of a child, which makes for plenty of interesting and magical moments within the performance, and its telling will certainly make audience members of all ages feel young at heart. In addition to live performances from the various local performance groups and twenty area schools, there will be motion graphics on a massive 3D screen installed in the Van Andel Arena that should be in sync to the music and story being told. Because of how immersive the presentation promises to be, this should be an engaging and enjoyable show for music lovers of all ages, even children. Many of the performers involved in this show, after all, are children and students who have a passion for the arts.
There is a lot of local excitement about the Live Arts event, which has been advertised very heavily. At this point, with only a week to this once-in-a-lifetime event, most of the closest sections have already been sold out, but there are still seats available for those who are interested in attending. Tickets are $22 for the upper bowl and increase in price up to $67 for the few remaining seats available on the main floor. They can be purchased via Ticketmaster. For those who love the arts or share their life with someone who does, this will be a must-attend local event that people in the west Michigan performance community will be talking about for some time to come.