2024-25 Season
The Weis Center's 2024-25 season has been announced and the brochure is available.
Once again, a diverse range of performances is in store, including world music, contemporary dance, contemporary cirque, jazz, classical, Americana/folk, family-friendly events and more.
Single tickets for all performances are now on sale.
Subscriptions for five or more performances receive a 20% discount.
Order online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice, by phone at 570-577-1000, and by mail order form.
Upcoming Performances
Pablo Giménez Spanish Ensemble
WORLD MUSIC/FLAMENCO
Friday, Jan. 31, 7:30 p.m.
Pablo Giménez is a flamenco and classical guitarist who performs as a soloist, in chamber music ensembles and as an accompanist for flamenco dance and song. He is also the artistic director and guitarist of the Pablo Giménez Spanish Ensemble and the Corazon de Granada flamenco company.
Kings Return
GOSPEL QUARTET
Saturday, Feb. 8, 7:30 p.m.
Dynamic and soothing four-piece vocal group Kings Return takes pride in crafting a diverse yet supremely cohesive a cappella sound. The blend of their unique vocal timbres is so rich and smooth that, at times, it sounds more like a full choir than four men. Discovered after posting a series of bare-bones stairwell performances that went viral, their music is a balm to the soul, laced with expansive harmonies that flex the agility and effortless range of their vocal talent.
Heloísa Fernandes Quartet
WORLD MUSIC/BRAZILIAN PIANIST
Tuesday, Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m.
Brazilian pianist and composer Heloísa Fernandes encapsulates the sound of a woman free to study literature, poetry, nature and the classical, jazz and Brazilian musical worlds, and to let them shape her identity and flow into compositions. Her creations, described as both strong and original, effortlessly bridge ancient and modern influences, blossoming with rhythmic vitality and melodic delicacy. With her skill as an improviser, she searches for emotional depths and soars with joy. “Fernandes is beyond categorization,” wrote the Post and Courier of her American debut. “She is herself, and I’ll always be interested in any music she cares to explore.” In addition to herself, the quartet includes Toninho Carrasqueira (flute), Sidiel Vieira (bass) and Ari Colares (percussion).
Henhouse Prowlers
BLUEGRASS
Friday, Feb. 14, 7:30 p.m.
Founded nearly two decades ago, this Chicago-bred quartet finds itself at the intersection of performance, diplomacy and education. Onstage, the group’s performances give audiences a sense of how much they love what they do. In recordings — including 2023’s Lead and Iron, released via Dark Shadow Recording — the band explores their collective life experiences through songwriting and intricate instrumentation. While bluegrass is the undeniable foundation of the Henhouse Prowlers’ music, the band bends and squeezes the traditional form into a keenly developed sound all its own.
Nate Smith
JAZZ
Friday, Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m.
Nate Smith is a drummer, composer and producer from Chesapeake, Va. His visceral, instinctive and deep-rooted style of drumming has led to three Grammy nominations. Smith fuses his original compositions with an eclectic mix of music, including everything from jazz to rhythm and blues and hip-hop to pop.
Esmé Quartet
CLASSICAL
Friday, Feb. 28, 7:30 p.m.
Praised for its warm sound and powerful stage presence, the Esmé Quartet was formed in 2016 at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Germany, by four musicians who had been friends since their youth. The Esmé Quartet brings together four brilliant and distinct musical personalities to form a cohesive, close-knit group that is passionately dedicated to the string quartet repertoire.
DakhaBrakha
WORLD MUSIC/UKRAINE
Thursday, March 20, 7:30 p.m.
DakhaBrakha is a world music quartet from Kyiv, Ukraine. Reflecting fundamental elements of sound and soul, Ukrainian “ethno-chaos” band DakhaBrakha creates a world of unexpected new music.
DakhaBrakha was created in 2004 at the Dakh Contemporary Art Center by the avant-garde theatre director Vladyslav Troitskyi and given the name that means “give/take” in the old Ukrainian language. Theatre work has left its mark on the band’s performances; their shows are always staged with a strong visual element.
Houston Ballet II
BALLET
Friday, March 28, 7:30 p.m.
Houston Ballet II is the second company of Houston Ballet, America’s fourth largest ballet company. Comprised of a stellar array of young dancers from around the world, Houston Ballet II is under the direction of Artistic Directors Julie Kent and Stanton Welch AM. They will perform: Grand Pas de Deux from Don Quixote, Act II, A Dance in the Garden of Mirth and Sleeping Beauty, Act III.
Neave Trio
CLASSICAL
Sunday, March 30, 2 p.m.
Since forming in 2010, the Grammy-nominated Neave Trio, including violinist Anna Williams, cellist Mikhail Veselov and pianist Eri Nakamura, has earned enormous praise for its engaging, cutting-edge performances. Gramophone praised the trio’s “taut and vivid interpretations,” while The Strad called out the musicians’ “eloquent phrasing and deft control of textures” and BBC Music Magazine described the performances as balancing “passion with sensitivity and grace.”
Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion
WORLD MUSIC
Thursday, April 3, 7:30 p.m.
Zakir Hussain is appreciated both in the field of percussion and in the music world at large as an international phenomenon and one of the greatest musicians of our time. A classical tabla virtuoso of the highest order, his consistently brilliant and exciting performances have established him as a national treasure in his own country of India and as one of India’s reigning cultural ambassadors.
Ruthie Foster
BLUES
Friday, April 25, 7:30 p.m.
Renowned for her ability to weave together a tapestry of diverse musical influences ranging from gospel and blues to folk and soul, Ruthie Foster's musical odyssey has taken her from singing in churches in rural Texas to earning multiple Grammy nominations, gracing the stage of New York’s Beacon Theatre with the Allman Brothers, and collaborating with icons such as Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. With her milestone tenth studio album, Mileage, released by the legendary Sun Records, Foster continues to tell stories that reflect her personal triumphs, losses, and the universal human experience.
Past Performances
Sierra Hull
BLUEGRASS
Friday, Sept. 13, 7:30 p.m.
Sierra Hull is widely regarded as a master of the mandolin. She is a two-time Grammy-nominated artist and songwriter, recognized for her most recent projects, 25 Trips (2020) and Weighted Mind (2016). She is also the six-time recipient of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Mandolin Player of the Year, the first woman to ever receive this distinction.
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with pianist Garrick Ohlsson
CLASSICAL
Thursday, Sept. 26, 7:30 p.m
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a radical experiment in musical democracy, proving for 50 years what happens when exceptional artists gather with total trust in each other and faith in the creative process. Orpheus began in 1972 when cellist Julian Fifer assembled a group of New York freelancers to play the orchestral repertoire as if it were chamber music. In that age, the idealistic Orpheans snubbed the “corporate” path of symphony orchestras and learned how to play, plan and promote concerts as a collective with leadership roles rotating.
Machine de Cirque: Ghost Light: Between Fall and Flight
CONTEMPORARY CIRQUE
Tuesday, Oct. 8, 7 p.m.
Award-winning Guinness World Record-holder Maxim Laurin performs a spectacular duet with Guillaume Larouche on a spinning teeterboard that brings audiences into the elusive world between fall and flight.
Charly Lowry — CANCELLED
AMERICANA
Charly Lowry, a musical powerhouse from Pembroke, N.C., is proud to be an Indigenous woman belonging to the Lumbee/Tuscarora Tribes. She is passionate about raising awareness around issues that plague underdeveloped and under-served communities. Since her teenage years, Lowry has established a career as a professional singer-songwriter with a unique passion and voice. In addition to performing solo, for 10-plus years, she has been the front-woman for the award-winning band, Dark Water Rising. Most recently, Lowry and the members of her newest project, Charly & The Sunshine, were selected by the U.S. Department of State and American Music Abroad to participate in the 2021–22 American Music Abroad virtual season.
Cirque Kikasse: SANTÉ!
CONTEMPORARY CIRQUE
Saturday, Oct. 19, noon and 4 p.m.
Cirque Kikasse presents SANTÉ!, a dynamic circus show with high-level acrobatics, contagious energy and breathtaking balancing, all on an extraordinary food-cirque truck. The performers arrange furniture that turns into a tower 30 feet off the ground; playfully and inefficiently clean the truck and trampoline, and react to an overflowing popcorn machine. This fun concept will give thrills to even the most seasoned in the audience.
Lakecia Benjamin Quartet
JAZZ/SAXOPHONE
Thursday, Oct. 24, 7:30 p.m.
One of the most sought-after and revered saxophonists in the world, Lakecia Benjamin was voted 2020 DownBeat Critics Poll’s Rising Star, alto saxophone, and Up and Coming Artist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. Known for her charisma and dynamism as a player and as a composer, she has an inimitable skill of fusing traditional conceptions of jazz, hip-hop and soul. She’s performed alongside Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, The Roots, Macy Gray and many more. Her latest album, Phoenix, was nominated for three Grammy awards.
RUBBERBAND: Ever So Slightly
CONTEMPORARY DANCE
Tuesday, Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m.
Los Angeles-native Victor Quijada brings together classical dance composition and West Coast hip-hop like no one before him. Bursting onto the scene with his Montreal-based company in 2002, Quijada uprooted the boundaries of contemporary dance, creating a singular language that is uniquely his own. His dance technique, the RUBBERBAND Method, is taught in some of the most prestigious dance schools and conservatories from Los Angeles to London.
Quartetto di Cremona
CLASSICAL
Sunday, Nov. 3, 4 p.m.
Winner of the 2019 Franco Buitoni Award, Quartetto di Cremona is among the world’s preeminent string quartets, noted for its lustrous sound, refined musicianship and stylistic versatility. According to The Strad, its Lincoln Center debut in 2022 “was distinguished by splendid balance, abundant color and a relaxed mastery of all the musical elements.”
Sean Mason
JAZZ/PIANO
Thursday, Nov. 7, 7:30 p.m.
When Sean Mason speaks about music, the notes fall into place. The cadence of his ideas unfolds with deliberate tempo, each exploring and resolving tension like an inspired chord progression. On his debut album, The Southern Suite, he emerged as a guiding luminary, shining his introspective command as both a pianist and composer through the historic lens of jazz to create a work that distilled the essence of the genre, even as it pointed the way forward.
Sister Sadie
BLUEGRASS
Friday, Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m.
Sister Sadie is a wildfire of raging hot bluegrass combined with breathtaking instrumental drive and awe-inspiring vocals. Comprised of original members Deanie Richardson (fiddle) and Gena Britt (banjo and vocals), and newcomers Jaelee Roberts (guitar and vocals), Dani Flowers (guitar and vocals) and Maddie Dalton (acoustic bass and vocals), Sister Sadie has combined the varied talents of each woman in the lineup to create something that is far more than the sum of its parts.
MAROONED! A Space Comedy
PUPPETRY/THEATRE
Saturday, Nov. 16, 4 p.m.
Alex and Olmsted’s Jim Henson Foundation grant-awarded MAROONED! A Space Comedy is an innovative new puppet show that features music from the Voyager Golden Record and takes place at the outer reaches of space. An astronaut crashes on an uncharted planet. Will she be able to survive strange creatures, an anomalous atmosphere and isolation in order to find her way home? See for yourself in MAROONED!
Tab Benoit with Jesse Dayton
DELTA BLUES
Saturday, Dec. 7, 7:30 p.m.
Tab Benoit is a Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and guitarist who has built a remarkable 30-plus-year career on the foundation of his gritty and soulful Delta-swamp blues. He’s acquired a devoted legion of fans along the way as well as five Blues Music Awards, including B.B. King Entertainer of the Year (twice) and an induction into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
Contact Details
Weis Center for the Performing Arts
Location
525 Weis Drive