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Performing Arts

[Click "Play" to hear Eileen's interview with Richard Turner]

Hp-main Richard Turner is known world wide as "the greatest card mechanic of all time."  Richard Turner will be performing at Telluride's  Sheridan Opera House on Thursday, August 27th at 7pm, to raise funds for the local youth organization Young Life.  This performance will humor and entertain an audience of all ages.  Turner does not perform magic tricks, he demonstrates the moves used by cardsharps intended to cheat players gambling with cards.  He can deal a wining hand to anyone, anywhere...every time.  Richard Turner's demonstrations have been featured on "That's Incredible", "Ripley's Believe It Or Not", "The 700 Club" and "The Paul Daniels Magic Show" in the USA.  Turner has been asked to lecture to international corporations as well as government agencies.  His inspirational lectures promote honesty, integrity and discipline.

Turner first picked up a deck of cards at the impressionable age of seven, after watching an episode of the late 1950s TV sensation "Maverick", featuring James Garner. On the show Maverick did a trick that Turner just had to learn.   By age 19 Richard Turner was fully immersed in cards and for the next 20 years, he practiced ten to 20 hours a day.  He worked for Bob Yerkes and Circus of the Stars when he met Dai Vernon, who then schooled him until his skills surpassed Vernon's.  Legally blind, Turner is also known for being a "touch analyst" for the United States Playing Card Company, who employed him to evaluate the texture, flexibility and cut of dozens of decks of cards.  In his illustrious career, Richard Turner has received countless awards, including the Golden Lion Award in Magic by Siegfried and Roy of Las Vegas.  To date he has performed over 80,000 shows.  Richard Turner is semi-retired but still enjoys performing for a good cause, including Young Life which in partnership with our local community churches, helps raise support for the youth living in the San Juan Mountains. 

26 August, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Israel Nebeker of "Blind Pilot"]

Unknown The band, Blind Pilot is in town for a concert at Telluride's venerable Sheridan Opera House. Show time is Tuesday, August 18, 8 p.m.

In 2008, Blind Pilot became a regular on NPR's "Best Of," list, where the track "One Red Thread" featured in a review of the year's musical highlights. iTunes supporters like the group too. The band appeared in the "Best of 2008 Indie Spotlight," a collection of 20 indie music tracks downloadable from the Apple Students Fan Page on Facebook. DJ Kevin Cole of KEXP, Seattle, Washington’s taste-making radio station, rated the Blind Pilot's debut recording, 3 Rounds and a Sound, one of the best of 2008.

16 August, 2009 /

[double click to view in larger format]Ask anyone who has been a member of the Telluride Academy's Mudd Butts Mystery Drama Troupe and they will tell you that theater is the ultimate learning tool – and not just because drama impacts all the senses. For...

14 August, 2009 /

by Warner Paige Telluride Chamber Music Festival and the Stronghouse Studio have officially launched "The Violin on Parade Project."Area artists transformed ten violins, with freedom to interpret their artistic visions into unique works of art and two artists created a sculpture that includes the violin....

13 August, 2009 /
[double click to view in larger format]

The idea to create a drama camp for kids in Telluride had been blowing in the wind. In 1987, the seed took root:  the Telluride Academy under the direction of  Wendy Brooks became the producer. Sally Davis and Kim Epifano (and John Fago, who is no longer directly involved) became co-directors. Mudd Butts thrived and grew: today, Mudd Butts International acts as a diplomat without portfolio, forging relationships and developing mutual understanding and respect for young neighbors around the globe through the medium of theater.

After 23 years and counting, Davis and Epifano remain the heart and soul of the Mudd Butts, because the two abundantly talented ladies possess childlike wisdom and grown-up teaching skills.

12 August, 2009 /
[double click to view in larger format]

The Telluride Academy's Mudd Butts Mystery Theater Troupe is an intensive drama workshop that covers all aspects of theater from script and songwriting to marketing. During the month-long program, kids also learn invaluable life lessons: how to laugh at themselves and ways to navigate the minefield of group dynamics.

Our big fear: Mudd Butts goes away. Right now, however, not so much, because this weekend, August 14 – August 16, the 23rd annual Mudd Butts ensemble performs its next musical. The production is based on the book, "Fears of Your Life,"  by Michael Bernard Loggins.

11 August, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Bruce Gomez]

TCMF Poster '09 Final Artist Bruce Gomez is the poster boy for the second year in a row for the Telluride Chamber Music Festival, this weekend, August 7 – August 8 and next weekend, August 14 – August 15.
On Thursday, August 13, patrons of the arts and the Chamber Music Festival can stop by Gomez's local gallery, the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, to view the original, a work entitled "Rudy's Ingram Falls," named in honor of the artist's pal, Rudy Davison. The pastel will be sold at a silent auction following the concert of the series.

On Friday, August 14, 12 – 2 p.m. and Sunday, August 16, 10a.m. – 1 p.m., Gomez will be in the Great Room, at the Peaks Hotel, working at his easel, developing new paintings.

08 August, 2009 /