EXPAND THE ARTS! ONLINE Ticket Sales begin SEPTEMBER 1!

W&L ANNOUNCES ITS 2024-2025 SEASON
"EXPAND THE ARTS"

Washington and Lee University's Lenfest Center for the Arts announces its 2024-25 season, "Expand the Arts!" featuring stimulating artistic alliances, creative outreach and community engagement collaborations and engaging performance experiences.

Tickets for the entire season are available to buy online beginning Sept. 1 at my.wlu.edu/lenfest-center. The Lenfest Box Office will open Monday, Sept. 9.

Expand the Arts! was conceived with an eye toward creating unique and engaging approaches for the W&L community and audiences to connect with the artists on stage through Lenfest Center's University Fall and Winter Outreach and Engagement Series.

The Lenfest O&E series is focused on connecting university knowledge and art experiences on the W&L campus and beyond to the community in a mutually beneficial partnership. All while emphasizing university-community partnerships that are immersive and collaborative, participatory and empowering and are a two-way communication engaged in dialogue, feedback and decision-making.

In addition to the O&E performances, audiences will have the opportunity to interact in open dialogue and conversation with artists and speakers during several events presented in conjunction to the performances.

The Lenfest Center marks its first ever Indigenous and Indigenous-led performance with Red Sky Performance on Oct. 8 at 7:30 p.m., a leading company of contemporary Indigenous performance (dance, theater, music and media) in Canada and worldwide.

Ahead of Red Sky's Performance and classroom engagements, there will be opportunities in the Kamen Gallery to view an Exhibit of modern and traditional Monacan regalia created by educator Victoria Ferguson (Monacan) opening Sept. 1- Oct 10; learn about Native American Peoples and Lands: Historic Connections to W&L on Sept .27 at 5:30 p.m.; and hear from Native American Washington state poet laureate Rena Priest (Lhaq'temish Lummi Nation) on Oct. 1 at 5:30 p.m.

These inter-disciplinary offerings usher in new ways for W&L's campus to celebrate Native American histories and cultures leading up to Indigenous Peoples' Day (October 14, 2024), Native American heritage month (November) and beyond.

To open the season, W&L's Lenfest welcomes a family-friendly daredevil circus-"Afrique en Cirque" on Sept. 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Keller Theatre. "Cirque Kalabanté" shares the beauty, youth and artistry of African culture. The audience will see acrobats execute gravity-defying moves and human pyramids, accompanied by the contemporary sounds of live Afro-Jazz, percussion and kora (a long-neck harp lute). Tickets are required.

W&L's SonoKlect Series, a program dedicated to bringing modern music to local audiences in Lexington, will open with the "Music of Royce Campbell" on Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. in the Wilson Concert Hall. Experience the mastery of Royce Campbell, a titan among jazz guitarists and composers, in an electrifying concert that transcends boundaries. No tickets are required.

Closing out September is W&L's Music Faculty Recital featuring Heather Dobbins, bassoon; and Anna Billias, piano on Sept. 29 at 3 p.m. in Wilson Concert Hall. They will play a selection of solos and combined numbers that weave together a broad range of composers, styles and connections to nature. Works include Grant Still's Summerland, Rachmaninoff's Prelude in G# minor, John Williams' Five Sacred Trees and Jenni Brandon's Colored Stones. No tickets are required.

October highlights include Keynote Speaker Sandra Laronde (artistic director of Red Sky Performance) and Red Sky Performance dancers at an Indigenous Dinner by W&L's talented chefs on Oct. 7 at 5:30 p.m. in Evans Dining Hall. Laronde is a renowned visionary leader, multidisciplinary artist and arts innovator from the Teme-Augama Anishinaabe, the People of the Deep Water, in Temagami, northern Ontario and based in Toronto. Tickets are required with limited availability.

Join Red Sky Performance on Oct. 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Keller Theatre for "A Night of Miigis Moments, An Evening with Red Sky." "Miigis: Underwater Panther" is inspired by the formidable odyssey of the Anishinaabe along the water routes from the Atlantic shores to the Great Lakes, moving from salt to fresh water. Along this journey we discover the catalyst for this movement and encounter Indigenous archetypes, mysterious beings and the ancestral pull of the next seven generations. Miigis reveals the power of nature through dance, theatrical innovation and a fusion of athleticism, music and film. Tickets are required.

W&L's Music Faculty Recital features William McCorkle, organ with "Ahhh, Bach!" on Oct. 20 at 3 p.m. at Lexington Presbyterian Church. The Fall Choral Concert is on Oct. 20 at 8 p.m. in the Wilson Concert Hall. The University Singers, conducted by Shane M. Lynch, will then perform a rigorous set centered around Heinrich "Schütz's Singet dem Herrn" and the music of Slovenia, one of the destinations of the 2025 choral tour. No tickets are required.

Last Octobers event is W&L Dancers Create... on Oct. 31 - Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. in the Keller Theatre. Under the artistic direction of Jenefer Davies, W&L Dancers Create... is a concert of works created, designed and performed by W&L students. Tickets are required.

November events include W&L's Marlbrook Chamber Players' 20th Anniversary concert on Nov. 3 at 3 p.m. in Wilson Concert Hall. Featuring a lineup of present and past members, this concert promises to be a nostalgic journey through classical masterpieces. Mark Taylor, Megan Mason and Tim Gaylard will join the current Marlbrook Chamber Players. No tickets are required.

The University Wind Ensemble presents "Classics Reimagined" on Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. in the Wilson concert Hall. Special guest Dr. Armando Bayolo, composer, will join the ensemble to present the world premiere of his Mach Show, a modern twist on tunes of the iconic British rock band, the Beatles. No tickets are required.

November 7 ushers in the University Jazz Ensemble + Vosbein Magee Big Band at 8 p.m. in Wilson Concert Hall. Get ready for a night of swinging rhythms and soulful melodies as the University Jazz Ensemble and the Vosbein Magee Big Band team up for their annual fall concert! No tickets are required.

W&L's Concert Guild Series opens on Nov. 8 with Spain's Quarteto Casals at 8 p.m in the Wilson Concert Hall. Cuarteto Casals, with its distinctive tonal language and brilliance, is one of the best string quartets in the world. Cuarteto Casals will perform Mozart's "Quartet in D Major, K. 499," "Hoffmeister," Gubaidulina's Reflections on the Theme B-A-C-H," and the "Quartet in c minor, Op. 51, No. 1" by Johannes Brahms. Tickets are required.

Join the University Orchestra on Nov. 14 at 8 p.m. in the Wilson Concert Hall for an evening of music based around dances and fun. Music by Mozart, De Falla and others will be performed in a concert meant to make the audience move and smile. Guest composer Alex Mansour, a Hollywood-based film music composer, will join the University Orchestra for the world premiere of his new piece, "Solstice." No tickets are required.

Senior Anna Walters, clarinet, will present her senior recital on Nov. 17 at 3 p.m. Music by Schubert, Zemlinsky, Gade and others will be performed. No tickets are required.

W&L's Theater will present "Hamlet 50/50" on Nov. 19-21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Johnson Theatre. This world premiere 90-minute adaptation of Shakespeare's greatest play balances the power structure in Hamlet's Denmark and in the contemporary rehearsal room while staying true to Shakespeare's story and retaining his famously beautiful language. If you think you know "Hamlet," come hear it again in a whole new
way. Tickets are required.

W&L's Holiday Pops Concert will be one night only-Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. in the Keller Theatre. Tickets are free with non-perishable food or monetary donation to Campus Kitchen. Tickets can be reserved online. Monetary donations may be made online, while food donations are required in-person at the Lenfest Box Office during open hours. Tickets available beginning Monday, November 11, 2024 . The box office will be closed during W&L Thanksgiving break, November 25-29, 2024.

Lessons and Carols, an annual tradition at W&L dating back over 80 years, returns Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. in the University Chapel. The Candlelight Service weaves together the narration of the Christmas story through music, readings and carols.
For a full list of performances, visit the Lenfest Center's website.
The Lenfest Center for the Arts, home of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Film Studies and the Department of Music and Department of Art and Art History is a multi-use facility designed and equipped to accommodate a broad spectrum of the the fine and performing arts.