Note: All performances take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall, unless otherwise noted.
The Weis Center’s spring 2024 season kicks off on Tuesday, January 30 with a family-friendly performance of Hamid Rahmanian’s Song of the North, a large-scale, cinematic performance combining the manual art of shadow puppetry with projected animation to tell the courageous tale of Manijeh, a heroine from ancient Persia, who must use all her strengths and talents to rescue her beloved from a perilous predicament and help prevent a war. This epic love story employs a cast of 500 handmade puppets and a talented ensemble of nine actors and puppeteers.
Ballet Hispanico returns to the Weis Center on Tuesday, February 6. Ballet Hispánico is the largest Latine/Latinx/Hispanic cultural organization in the U.S. and one of America’s cultural treasures. They will present a mixed repertoire of three pieces.
Kyshona, an artist who blends roots, rock, rhythm and blues and folk, will perform on Thursday, February 8. Her release, Listen, was voted Best Protest Album of 2020 by Nashville Scene. Kyshona’s nonprofit organization, Your Song, offers songwriting programs for youth empowerment programs, detention, re-entry, recovery, mental health and veterans centers and organizations.
Blues artists Jontavious Willis and Jay Hopp perform at the Weis Center on Wednesday, February 14. Jontavious got his much-needed break from the living legend Taj Mahal in 2015, when Mahal asked Willis to play on stage with him. That appearance resulted in a roaring response from the audience and led Willis to bigger stages and broader opportunities, including an opening slot at select shows along the TajMo tour, featuring his musical mentors Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’. Jayy started in the church; first playing drums in gospel groups before being introduced to guitar by his cousin. The guitar led him on a musical journey backwards through time, unpacking the history of blues guitar. He went to school with Jontavious, who then opened his ears to an even earlier generation of acoustic players.
The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine will perform on Friday, February 23 under the chief conductor Volodymyr Sirenko. Pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky will be featured.
Formed by the Council of Ministers of Ukraine in November 1918, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine is considered to be one of the finest symphony orchestras in Eastern Europe.
Then on March 1, tenThing returns to the Weis Center. Formed in 2007 by Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth as a fun and exciting collaboration among musical friends, the 10-piece, all-female brass ensemble has firmly established itself on the international scene to great acclaim. tenThing is celebrated for its commitment to outreach and access to music through a diverse repertoire, from Mozart to Weill, Grieg to Bernstein and Lully to Bartók.
The Martha Redbone Roots Project comes to the Weis Center on Tuesday, March 5. Martha Redbone is a Native American and African American vocalist/songwriter/composer/educator. She is known for her unique gumbo of folk, blues and gospel from her childhood in Harlan County, Kentucky, that is infused with the eclectic grit of pre-gentrified Brooklyn. Inheriting the powerful vocal range of her gospel-singing African American father and the resilient spirit of her mother’s Southeastern Cherokee/Choctaw culture, Redbone broadens the boundaries of American roots music. With songs and storytelling that share her life experience as a Native and Black woman and mother in the new millennium, she gives voice to issues of social justice, bridging traditions from past to present, connecting cultures and celebrating the human spirit.
Traditional Irish music will be performed on Friday, March 22. Described by the BBC as “an icon of Irish music,” the band has played at festivals from Rock in Rio, Brazil, to Glastonbury, England, toured with the Irish president and struck up tunes on the Great Wall of China. Dervish has a lineup that includes some of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians, fronted by one of the country’s best-known singers Cathy Jordan. Dervish has been long-established as one of the biggest names in Irish music internationally.
Bill and the Belles returns to the Weis Center on Thursday, April 4. Happy Again isn’t exactly happy, but the delightfully deadpan new album from roots mainstays Bill and the Belles is full of life, humor and tongue-in-cheek explorations of love and loss. This album marks a new chapter for the group by featuring 11 all-original songs penned by founding member Kris Truelsen. There’s no dancing around it: this album is about his divorce. But the group has a knack for saying sad things with an ironic smirk, pairing painful topics with a sense of release and relief. Anyone who’s been to one of their shows can attest that you leave feeling lighter and refreshed.
Then, two young classical artists, Jonathan Swensen on cello and Adam Golka on piano will be showcased on Sunday, April 7 at 2 p.m. Rising star of the cello Jonathan Swensen is the recipient of the 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant and was featured as both Musical America’s New Artist of the Month and One to Watch in Gramophone magazine. Polish-American pianist Adam Golka first performed all of Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas when he was 18 years-old, and he returned to the complete cycle in 2020-2021 for performances in New York City, Orlando, and Houston.
The U.S. Army Field Band/Jazz Ambassadors take the stage on Friday, April 12 in a free performance.Known as America’s Big Band, the Jazz Ambassadors are the premier touring jazz orchestra of the U.S. Army. Formed in 1969, this 19-piece ensemble has received critical acclaim throughout the U.S. and abroad performing America’s original art form, jazz. Performances by the Jazz Ambassadors offer some of the most versatile programming of any big band. Concerts include classic big band standards, instrumental and vocal solo features, patriotic favorites, contemporary jazz works and original arrangements and compositions by past and present members of the Jazz Ambassadors. This performance is free, but tickets are required in advance.
Finally, the season ends with Caña Dulce Caña Brava on Thursday, April 18. Caña Dulce Caña Brava offers a performance that shows off the music, poetry, dance and traditional attire of Veracruz, Mexico, interpreted by artists who are beneficiaries of the jarocho culture and noteworthy performers with years of experience on both national and international stages. The group stands out as an artistic project that highlights feminine poetry and voices. Creating an experience that connects the spectator with distinct emotions, one is taken on a voyage through multiple rhythms, accompanied by traditional string instruments, such as the harp and the jarana, percussion and zapateado (percussive dance), poetic improvisation in rhyme and visual effects.
Season Brochure
The season brochure is now available as an eco-friendly, downloadable and printable PDF at Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter.
Hardcopies are available at the Weis Center and throughout the Susquehanna River Valley region including the Susquehanna River Valley Visitors Bureau, Columbia Montour Visitors Bureau, local Chambers of Commerce and local libraries.
Sponsors
The Weis Center’s 2023-24 season is supported by the following season-level sponsors: Bucknell Sports Properties, The Daily Item, Seven Mountains Media, Sunbury Broadcasting Corporation and WVIA.
Event sponsors include Backyard Broadcasting, Bucknell Music Department Gallery Series, Martha and Alan Barrick, Centre Daily Times, Class of 1953 Fund, Coldwell Banker Penn One Real Estate, Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau, Nancy and Sam Craig, Evangelical Community Hospital, Geisinger, Jazz at Bucknell, Clayton and David Lightman, Teri MacBride and Steve Guattery, The News Item, PPL Foundation, Press Enterprise, Asbury Riverwoods, Adriana Rojas and family in memory of Andrew, Service 1st Federal Credit Union, Gary and Sandy Sojka, Standard Journal, Stone State Entertainment, ViaMedia, Williamsport Sun Gazette, Karl Voss and Chanin Wendling family, PAHomepage/WBRE/WYOU, WNEP and WVIA.
Grant funding for the season includes Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Western Arts Alliance Advancing Indigenous Performance (AIP) Touring Fund and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
TICKETS
Tickets are now available:
- Weis Center Atrium
Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. - Elaine Langone Center, Campus Activities & Programs Center
Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
The Campus Box Office opens one hour prior to performances at the performance location.
570-577-1000 or Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice
For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
