EXPAND THE ARTS! ONLINE Ticket Sales for slected events begin August 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.

The Lenfest Box Office opens for in-person and online ticket sales on Monday, September 9, 2024. The Box Office hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. and is open only when undergraduate classes are in session. Forms of payment include cash, check or credit card. Patrons can contact the Box Office by calling 540.458.8000 or emailing boxoffice@wlu.edu.

"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 (O&E) 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 interactions 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 with the performances.

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). Additional O&E Kamen Gallery events include Indigenous Dress and Culture Exhibit opening Sept. 1- Dec. 23; 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.

October Lenfest O&E highlights include Keynote Speaker Sandra Laronde (artistic director of Red Sky Performance) and Red Sky Performance dancers at an authentic Indigenous Dinner prepared 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.

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

The Lenfest Center marks its first ever Indigenous-centered 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. Join Red Sky Performance 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. Supported in part by the Pickens Fund for Performing Arts.

Lenfest welcomes Compagnie Hervé KOUBI, a French-based, Algerian-rooted-troupe on January 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the Keller Theatre. KOUBI is a powerhouse player on the international touring circuit. Combining contemporary and urban dance movements, capoeira and martial arts with powerful imagery and inspired choreography, the dancers defy gravity looking deceptively like a desert ritual.

The Lenfest Season concludes with Okaidja Afroso: "Jaku Mumor: Ancestral Spirit" on March 29 at 7:30 p.m. in the Wilson Concert Hall. His evocative and soulful original music charts a journey from the traditional songs of his youth, to an immersion into the music of the African Diaspora, integrating the influences and sounds of international collaborators in pursuit of global harmony. Afroso explores the perseverance of ancestral traditions and creates a new, complex and contemporary African oral tradition to create an unforgettable and unique experience. Lenfest O&E Series includes Afroso's connection with several classrooms across campus.

Tickets are required for all Lenfest Series events. Performances are sponsored in part by the Class of '64 Performing Arts Fund.
W&L's Concert Guild Season boasts three ticketed performances in Wilson Concert Hall. Season opens on Nov. 8 with Spain's Quarteto Casals at 8 p.m. Cuarteto Casals, with its distinctive tonal language and brilliance, is one of the best string quartets in the world. They 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. Boris Berman, piano, performs on Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. He heads the Piano Department of Yale School of Music and conducts master classes throughout the world. A Grammy nominee, Berman has recorded all solo piano works by Prokofiev and Schnittke, complete sonatas by Scriabin, and works by Mozart, Weber, Schumann, Brahms, Franck, Shostakovich, Debussy, Stravinsky, Berio, Cage and Joplin. The King's Singers, representing the gold standard in a cappella singing, will close the season on Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. with " Close Harmony"-celebrating highlights of their repertoire since its founding in 1968, including arrangements of English folksongs as well as songs by Billy Joel, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Gershwin and Bob Chilcott.

W&L's SonoKlect Season, a program dedicated to bringing modern music to local audiences in Lexington, opens in the Wilson Concert Hall with the "Music of Royce Campbell" on Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. in the Wilson Concert Hall. Campbell is a titan among jazz guitarists and composers. The season concludes on Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. with Los Tres Músicos-a triumphant return of a trio whose musical journey began at SonoKlect in 1997. Violinist Jasper Wood's performances have graced prestigious stages worldwide, earning him acclaim as a virtuoso soloist and chamber musician. Cellist Jesús Morales, a cornerstone of the Dalí Quartet, has garnered accolades for his stirring performances on global tours. Pianist David Riley, renowned for his collaborative prowess and musical partnership, enriches the trio's dynamic sound. Experience the premiere of Terry Vosbein's latest piano trio, a testament to decades of friendship and musical synergy. No tickets are required for SonoKlect performances.

W&L's Department of Theater, Dance, and Film Studies Season is proud to announce their ticketed season opening with 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. "Hamlet 50/50" opens 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. The Winter 2025 Robert O. and Elizabeth M. Bentley Musical will be "The Prom," running March 12-14 at 7:30 p.m. and March 15 at 2 p.m. in the Keller Theatre. Four eccentric Broadway stars are in desperate need of a new stage. So when they hear that trouble is brewing around a small-town prom, they know it's time to put a spotlight on the issue.. and themselves. Winner of the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, "The Prom" expertly captures all the humor and heart of a classic musical comedy with a message that resonates with audiences now more than ever. The award-winning W&L Repertory Dance Company will perform pieces created by both faculty and nationally and internationally renowned guest artists on April 9-11 at 7:30 p.m. The season concludes with Aerial Dance on May 22 at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. and May 23 at 2 p.m. on the roof and outside wall of the Wilson Concert Hall. This spring term performance is a practicum using emerging research in aerial dance with rope and harness. Students work with a diverse array of experimental approaches to vertical dance techniques in collaboration with music and other media and create new dance works for a vertical space.

Join us for W&L's Department of Music Season, full of exciting performances from faculty, guests and talented students. Highlights include numerous faculty recitals in the Wilson Concert Hall including Heather Dobbins, bassoon and Anna Billias, piano; Anima e Grazia featuring Julia Goudimova, cello and Anna Billias, piano; and the Marlbrook Chamber Ensemble. The choral program offers a number of performances featuring the University Singers, Men's Glee Club and Cantatrici throughout the year.

W&L Fall Choral Concert will be held on October 22 at 8 p.m. and is not to be missed! Tickets are free, but required. Join us for a performance by the University Wind Ensemble on November 4 at 8 p.m., no tickets are required. Mix it up with the University Jazz Ensemble performance on November 7 at 8 p.m., no tickets are required. The University Orchestra opens its season on November 14 at 8 p.m., no 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.

For a full list of performances, visit the Lenfest Center's website.