Weis Center for the Performing Arts Blog
Bringing the performing arts to Central Pennsylvania for more than 35 years
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Jazz Saxophonist BIRCKHEAD to Perform in the Weis Center Atrium
The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome BIRCKHEAD on Wednesday, November 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Weis Center Atrium. The performance is sponsored, in part, by Teri MacBride and Steve Guattery. Saxophonist Brent Birckhead is an award-winning artist, whose aesthetic is an intersectional amalgam of traditional and popular styles. Unbound by genre, Birckhead’s approach to woodwind artistry is driven by his compulsion for creative risk and deep respect for legacy. His place in the continuum of a storied lineage begins with…
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Folk/Americana Artist Charly Lowry to Perform at Weis Center, Eric Ian Farmer will Open the Performance
The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome Charly Lowry on Thursday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center. The performance is sponsored, in part, by the Sun Gazette. There will be a pre-show artist talk with Charly Lowry from 6:45-7:15 p.m., facilitated by Eric Ian Farmer in the Weis Center Atrium. At 7:30 p.m. Eric Ian Farmer will open the engagement, followed by Charly Lowry, both in the Concert Hall. This engagement is part of the Weis Center’s year-long Trees Series.…
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Lights, Camera, 48 Hours: Inside Bucknell’s Most Thrilling Film Challenge
At Bucknell University, some weekends are spent studying, some are spent celebrating, but this one is about storytelling. On October 24, the campus will once again transform into a living film set as the Bucknell Film Club launches its 48-Hour Film Challenge, with this year marking an exhilarating collaboration with the Weis Center for the Performing Arts that dares students to write, shoot, and edit an entire short film within just two days. The challenge begins with a mandatory prop reveal at 7 p.m. on…
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Branches of Memory: Kurbasy’s Songs of the Ukrainian Forest
Some performances feel less like concerts and more like ceremonies, moments that blur the line between past and present, between what is sung and what is remembered. Kurbasy’s Songs of the Ukrainian Forest was one of those rare evenings. It didn’t simply perform; it reached, branching outward from deep cultural roots and carrying with it echoes of survival, sorrow, and hope. Before the first note was sung, the Weis Center was already steeped in reflection. The pre-talk, led by Heather Almer, Assistant Director of International…
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Performance Review: Nrityagram: The Sound of Dancing Feet
Originially published in The Bucknellian. On Oct. 21, 2025, the Weis Center for the Performing Arts filled with the glow of lamps, music and movement. The night carried a special meaning. It was Diwali, the Festival of Lights, when Hindus around the world celebrate hope, goodness and renewal. That same spirit of light and devotion came alive on stage as Nrityagram, one of India’s most celebrated dance ensembles, performed “KHAṄKHAṆĀ: The Sound of Dancing Feet.” It was an evening that went beyond performance. It was worship,…
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Modigliani Quartet to Perform Works by Haydn, Beethoven, and Brahms at the Weis Center
The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome classical ensemble Modigliani Quartet on Sunday, November 9 at 4 p.m. at the Weis Center. There will be a pre-performance talk with the artists from 3:15-3:45 p.m. in the Atrium. The Paris-based Modigliani Quartet features Amaury Coeytaux on violin, Loïc Rio on violin, Laurent Marfaing on viola and François Kieffer on cello. The performance is sponsored, in part, by Sam and Nancy Craig. Founded in 2003, the Modigliani Quartet is recognized as one of today’s most…
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Folk/Americana Artist Yasmin Williams Will Perform in Weis Center Atrium
The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome folk/Americana artist Yasmin Williams on Wednesday, November 5 at 7:30 p.m. in the Weis Center Atrium. Yasmin Williams is an innovative guitarist and composer known for her unique compositional approach and expansive instrumental style. Her latest album Acadia, released on Nonesuch Records, showcases her evolution from solo performer to collaborative artist, featuring partnerships with notable musicians like Aoife O’Donovan and Immanuel Wilkins. Williams’ distinctive creative process involves “ruminating” on single notes until compositions naturally emerge. Beyond…
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Performance Review: Sprout of Movement: The Living Language of Ailey II
The Weis Center Atrium had never felt so alive. Before the performance even began, the space pulsed with an energy that was warm and contagious. Conversations intertwined, laughter filled the air, and a gentle hum moved through the crowd like the sound of anticipation itself. It was not noise but life, a kind of harmony that emerges when people gather for something they love. Children weaved through clusters of adults, friends called out to one another across the room, and strangers exchanged smiles that needed…
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Indian Classical Dance Coming to Weis Center on October 21st
The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble on Tuesday, October 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center. One of the premier Indian dance ensembles performing today, the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble had the distinction of making The New York Times’ Best Dance of the Year list two consecutive years (2015 and 2016). More than a dance company, Nrityagram (pronounced NRI-thyuh-graam) was founded as a gurukula (or school) devoted to Indian dance. The all-female ensemble’s daily life of intensive training…
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From Root to Stage: How the Samek and Weis Center Grow Together
This year, the Samek Art Museum and the Weis Center for the Performing Arts have cometogether under one unifying theme: trees. It is more than coincidence, more than a sharedimage. It is a collaboration that asks us to think about growth, process, and connection acrossart forms, and to experience how these lessons move between the museum and the stage. At the Samek, Gina Siepel’s exhibition To Understand a Tree anchors the season. The project,created over six years in communion with a single tree, blends ecology,…
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