Prior Performing Arts Center

Lunchtime Concert | Two Piano Mini-Extravaganza
2025-03-26 12:00 (America/New_York) | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Two Piano Mini Extravaganza

Lunchtime Concert Series

This concert celebrates the two remarkable Steinway D pianos housed in Luth Concert Hall with performances by Music Department students and faculty.

Details

March 26, 202512:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series | Gavin Klein, Holy Cross Organ Scholar
2025-03-25 19:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – St. Joseph Memorial Chapel –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Gavin Klein, Holy Cross Organ Scholar ‘26

Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series

Holy Cross Organ Scholar Gavin Klein (Class of ‘26) will perform works by Buxtehude, Bach, Mendelssohn, and Reger for the Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series at the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel.

Details

March 25, 20257:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

St. Joseph Memorial Chapel

Irish Music Hour
2025-03-25 15:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Irish Music Hour

Diarmuid Ó Meachair (button accordion & melodeon) and Nathan Gourley (guitar) perform the music of the Dwyer family from The Beara Peninsula in West Cork, Ireland.

The Dwyer brothers, John, Richard, Finbarr, and Michael, came from a musical family of nine children. Their father played the fiddle and their mother played accordion. Brothers Michael and Finbarr, who died in 1997 and 2014 respectively, were musicians and composers. Richard, also a musician and composer, now lives in Ennis, Co. Clare.

Details

Mar 25, 20253:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

Working Writers Series: Michelle Ephraim & Alizah Holstein
2025-03-20 16:30 | CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM – Booth Media Lab –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Michelle Ephraim & Alizah Holstein

Co-sponsored by the Jenks Chair of Contemporary American Letters and the Creative Writing Program

Michelle Ephraim is a Shakespeare scholar and Professor of English at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her debut book GREEN WORLD: A Tragicomic Memoir of Love & Shakespeare (UMASS Press, 2024) was awarded the 2023 Juniper Prize for Creative Nonfiction.
Alizah Holstein authored My Roman History (Viking Press, June 2024). She holds a MFA in Creative Writing & Literary Translation from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a PhD in medieval Italian History from Cornell University.

Details

March 20, 20254:30 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Rehm Library

Jha D Amazi of MASS Design
2025-03-18 18:00 | PRIOR PRESENTS – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Prior Presents 2024–25

Jha D Amazi

Residency supported by the Division of Justice, Equity, Belonging, and Identity

RSVP: Tue Mar 18, 2025 @ 6:00 PM

As a Principal at MASS Design Group, Jha D Amazi leads the Public Memory and Memorial Lab, an ongoing research and design project which asks, “How can spatializing memory support healing and inspire collective action for generations to come?” MASS Design’s Public Memory and Memorials Lab has engaged communities to design projects such as The Embrace (Boston, MA), the National Memorial for Peace and Justice (Montgomery, AL), and the Franklin Park Action Plan (Boston, MA). Across its work, the Lab honors the experiences, histories, and cultures of people historically denied representation in our memorial landscape.
Beyond MASS, Amazi is also a spoken word artist, event producer, and space maker for LGBTQ+ communities of color. With an M.Arch from the University of Pennsylvania, Amazi has worked as a Designer at Sasaki and taught studio at the Boston Architectural College.

“Design excellence should be defined by the impact a project (through all phases; conception, construction, and occupancy) has on the quality of life of those who experience the space.”
— Jha D Amazi

Details

March 18, 20256:00 PM

Price

Free Entry (RSVP Required)

Venue

Luth Concert Hall
The Prior Performing Arts Center

Faculty & Artist Roundtable
2025-03-13 17:00 | Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Cantor Art Gallery

Faculty & Artist Roundtable

Please join us at the Cantor Art Gallery for a spirited roundtable discussion about creativity, curiosity, and problem-solving across disciplines with the artist Michael Beatty and Holy Cross faculty.

Details

March 13, 20255:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Cantor Art GalleryThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Lacina Coulibaly | Until the Lion Tells the Story...
2025-03-12 18:00 | DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE & DANCE – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, 01610, United States
Department of Theatre & Dance

Lacina Coulibaly

Until the Lion Tells the Story…

Until the Lion Tells the Story… invites audiences to embrace the wisdom of Africa as a vital perspective in understanding our shared humanity. Drawing on the golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence, Coulibaly builds a transformative narrative inspired by ancient Egyptian practices and the writings of African intellectuals like Omotunde Kalala and Cheikh Anta Diop. The work explores themes of history, memory, and self-renewal, reminding us that reconnecting with our past is key to understanding ourselves.
With lighting design by Roderick Murray, costume design by Oumar Ouedraogo, and set design by Sylvester Akakpo, this performance promises to be a rich blend of artistry and storytelling. Music inspired by African traditions and sound composition by Kimathi Moore further enhance the experience.

About the Artist

Born in Burkina Faso, Lacina Coulibaly has crafted a career blending traditional African dance with contemporary influences, creating a unique choreographic expression. His extensive experience spans collaborations with global companies, teaching at esteemed institutions like Yale and Brown, and performing in award-winning works. Coulibaly’s artistic vision bridges cultural traditions and modern innovations, inspiring audiences worldwide.

“I have always believed that dance is the sovereign expression of African arts. Life is about achievements and failures, and one should not allow themselves to fail twice in the same way. As I said, I am expressing in my performance, in my journey, the path I choose: self-determination, trust in myself, and sovereignty.”
Lacina Coulibaly

Details

March 126:00 PM

Price

Free entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

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Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series | Matthew Luca
2025-03-11 19:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – St. Joseph Memorial Chapel –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Matthew Luca, Holy Cross Organ Scholar ‘22

Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series

Rising star (and soon to be Dr.) Matthew Luca will perform an organ program with works by Buxtehude, Scheid, Bach and Reubke as part of the Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series at the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel.

Can’t join in person? Join a live stream of the performance via the YouTube link below:

Details

March 11, 20257:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

St. Joseph Memorial Chapel

Jeremy Flower: A Series of Resolutions
2025-02-27 19:00 | PRIOR PRESENTS – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Prior Presents 2024–25

Jeremy Flower: A Series of Resolutions

RSVP: Thu Feb 27, 2025 @ 7:00 PM

with the Semiosis Quartet

Jeremy Flower, multi-instrumentalist and composer of acoustic and electronic music, will perform a piece commissioned by Composer-In-Residence Osvaldo Golijov at The Prior on February 27.
Like much of Flower’s work, A Series of Resolutions aims to live outside genre definitions, creating a place where moments of harmonic exploration and dissonance can coexist with earnest melodies. The extended sonic tapestry allowed through live electronic manipulation of the string quartet is mixed with synthesized and sampled sounds which can sometimes leave the listener wondering where a particular sound is originating.
Flower and Golijov have collaborated extensively on film and concert music, most recently the score to Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, as well as the Grammy-nominated song cycle Ayre (2006) and the double Grammy Award-winning Ainadamar (2007). Flower finds himself at home on a concert stage supporting groups such as the Silkroad Ensemble, or David Krakauer as well as in louder settings with long-time collaborators Carla Kihlstedt, Matthias Bossi, and Jon Evans.

Details

February 27, 20257:00 PM

Price

Free EntryRegistration Required

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

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Holy Cross Wind Ensemble & Orchestra | Game On: A Celebration of Video Game Music
2025-02-26 20:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Holy Cross Wind Ensemble & Orchestra

Game On: A Celebration of Video Game Music

Video game music often transcends its digital origins, offering timeless themes and otherworldly places.
On February 26, The Holy Cross Wind Ensemble and Orchestra will present a joint concert featuring iconic melodies from the video game industry. This program will include classics like The Legend of Zelda, Halo, and Super Mario, along with selections from lesser-known titles.
The performance will explore the deep connections between video game music and its classical and cinematic influences. Several pieces will be enhanced by multimedia displays, immersing the audience even further into the worlds of these games.

Details

Feberuary 26, 20258:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Form, Structure, and Symmetry: Bach in the Gallery
2025-02-25 16:00 | Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Cantor Art Gallery

Form, Structure, and Symmetry: Bach in the Gallery

Cello Concert + Talk
This immersive concert features selections from Bach’s iconic Cello Suites, performed by Pietro Romussi ’27, Brooks Scholar, and Julianna Stratton ’26, followed by a lively discussion on Bach, math, and symmetry between Mathematics Professor Gareth Roberts and artist Michael Beatty.
Set in the inspiring Cantor Gallery, this unique program weaves together the intricate beauty of Bach’s compositions with the mathematical elegance and harmony of the sculptures on display. Attendees are invited to move freely through the gallery, experiencing music and art in perfect dialogue. The 30-minute concert will be followed by a 30-minute talk, which will also feature musical performances by Romussi and Stratton.
Please join us for what’s sure to be an engaging event and discussion!

Details

February 25, 20254:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Cantor Art GalleryThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Working Writers Series: Heather Treseler & John Hodgen
2025-02-20 19:30 | CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM – Booth Media Lab –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Creative Writing Program

Heather Treseler & John Hodgen

Working Writers Series

In this Working Writers Series presentation, award-winning poets John Hodgen and Heather Treseler discuss and read from their latest collections of poetry —Hodgen’s What We May Be and Treseler’s Auguries & Divinations—in a call-and-response format.

John Hodgen has published six books of poetry, most recently What We May Be. His many awards include the AWP Donald Hall Prize in Poetry, Grolier Prize for Poetry, Bluestem Award, Balcones Prize, Foley Prize, and prizes from Beloit Poetry Journal, Birmingham Poetry Review, and Yankee Magazine. He is Writer-in-Residence at Assumption University and advisory editor for New Letters.

Heather Treseler is the author of Auguries & Divinations, winner of the 2023 May Sarton Poetry Prize, and Parturition, which received the 2019 Munster Literature Centre Chapbook Award and the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize. Individual poems have won the W.B. Yeats Prize and prizes from Narrative and the Missouri Review. She is professor of English at Worcester State University.

Details

February 20, 20257:30 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Booth Media LabThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Miguel Luciano: Artist Talk
2025-02-20 17:00 | DEPARTMENT OF VISUAL ARTS – Luth Concert Hall, 1 College St, Worcester, 01610, United States
Above: Shields/Escudos, 2020 (Collection of the National Gallery of Art)

Department of Visual Arts

Miguel Luciano: Artist Talk

Co-sponsored by The Prior and the Departments of History; Visual Arts; Spanish; Critical Race & Ethnic Studies; Africana Studies; and Latin American, Latinx & Caribbean Studies.

Miguel Luciano is a multimedia visual artist whose work explores themes of history, popular culture, social justice and self-determination through painting, sculpture, and socially engaged public art projects.
His work explores colonial legacies and stories of resistance, particularly in the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States, and is featured in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of African American History and Culture, The Brooklyn Museum, El Museo del Barrio, and the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. He lives and works in New York and is currently a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts and Yale University School of Art.

Details

Thursday, February 205:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Lunchtime Concert Series | Selections of Light and Dark: The Evolution Of The String Quartet
2025-02-19 12:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – The Beehive –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Selections of Light and Dark: The Evolution Of The String Quartet

Lunchtime Concert Series

Emerson Lyons, violin
Emily Seiler, violin
Sergio Muñoz Leiva, viola
Julianna Stratton, cello
This program includes the first movements of Haydn’s Sunrise Quartet, Mozart’s Dissonance Quartet, and Schubert’s Death and The Maiden Quartet.
These selections trace the evolution of the string quartet, from Haydn’s radiant classical ideals to Schubert’s dramatic expressiveness, and demonstrate the development of the string quartet through the 18th and 19th centuries.

Details

February 19, 202512:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

The BeehiveThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series | Members of the Worcester Chapter of the American Guild of Organists
2025-02-18 19:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – St. Joseph Memorial Chapel –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Members of the Worcester Chapter of the American Guild of Organists

Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series

Kristjon Imperio, Trisha Snyder and Jonathan Bezdegian
The 2025 Chapel Artist Series continues with this exciting program of works by Bach, Buxtehude and Mendelssohn performed by local organists in the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel at Holy Cross.

Details

February 18, 20257:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

St. Joseph Memorial Chapel

Irish Music Hour
2025-02-13 15:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Irish Music Hour

Diarmuid Ó Meachair (button accordion & melodeon) and Matt Mulqueen (piano) will perform a program featuring the music of PJ Conlon (1920s, New York) and Joe Derrane (1940s, Boston).

Peter Conlon, the king of the melodeon was Peter James “PJ” Conlon, an immigrant born in 1892 near Milltown, County Galway who recorded some fifty commercial recordings between 1917 and 1929. PJ’s eldest sister Mary Ellen also played the melodeon and recorded a 78 rpm disc of her own in 1923.
Conlon began his recording career playing a German-made instrument like that used by John Kimmel but later switched to a more powerful eight-voice accordion from Baldoni Bartoli, an Italian-American firm whose instruments became the preferred choice among Irish-American “box” players. He played at a fast pace but always in complete control, and with a penchant for ornamentation and melodic variation. The Depression put an end to his recording career, but Conlon continued to perform in bars and dance halls. A benefit concert was organized for him in 1935 at the fiddler James Morrison’s Celtic Hall in west Harlem. Though he lived until 1967, Conlon was not musically active after 1951. His influence on later Irish players was immense and it could well be said that modern traditional Irish style on the button accordion started with P.J. Conlon.

Joe Derrane electrified the world of Irish music back in the late 1940s when as a high school senior he recorded eight solo 78-rpm shellac discs for Boston’s Copley Records on the D/C# two-row button accordion. Through his recordings and performances, this native Bostonian defined the state of the art in Irish-American button accordion playing.
The Boston-born son of Irish immigrants, Joe Derrane was among the finest button accordionists in the history of Irish music. He was also a somewhat elusive legend in the genre.
After recording during the 1940s and ‘50s, he disappeared from the traditional music circuit for thirty-five years, popping up again in 1994 at the Irish Folk Festival at Wolf Trap.
In 2004 Derrane received one of the highest honors for a traditional musician: the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship.

Details

Feb 13, 20253:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

August Wilson's Two Trains Running | The Acting Company
2025-02-10 19:00 | PRIOR PRESENTS – Boroughs Theatre –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Prior Presents 2024-25

August Wilson’s Two Trains Running

The Acting Company

Co-presented with the Division of Justice, Equity, Belonging, and Identity

Buy Tickets: Mon Feb 10, 2025 @ 7:00 PM

This event will sell out. Please check back frequently as additional tickets are being released.
Beginning at 4:00 PM on February 10, there will be an in-person wait list available for sign-ups on a first-come, first-served basis at our Box Office table in the Beehive. We expect a limited number of seats to be available before show time so please consider arriving early to sign up for tickets if you have not registered already.
Funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.

Two Trains Running is the 1960s chapter of acclaimed playwright August Wilson’s American Century Cycle, a decade-by-decade saga of African American life in the 20th century. This fully designed, fully staged production from The Acting Company is part of the first-ever tour authorized by the Wilson estate, which The Prior presents in partnership with Connecticut College and Middlebury College.
Set in Civil Rights era-Pittsburgh, Two Trains Running this work tells the story of restaurant owner Memphis Lee and his host of regulars, searching for work, love, and justice as their neighborhood changes in unpredictable ways. Accessible, heartfelt, and hilarious, Two Trains Running is a lyrical tale of reinvention and reclamation: of finding out where you belong and how to take your place in the world.

Details

February 10, 20257:00 PM

Price

$55 | $45Prices are subject to change without notice

Venue

Boroughs TheatreThe Prior Performing Arts Center

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Sweeney Todd
2025-02-06 - 2025-02-16 | DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE & DANCE – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, 01610, United States
Department of Theatre & Dance

Sweeney Todd

Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler from an adaptation by Christopher Bond

Buy Tickets: Feb 6 - Feb 16

“Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd . . .”
In the nearly half-century since Stephen Sondheim’s adaptation of a delectably lurid nineteenth-century melodrama premiered on Broadway, it has become a modern classic. The title character is perhaps the most frightening and complex anti-hero in musical theatre, a barber whose fury and despair over the loss of his innocent wife to a pitiless predator turns him into a serial killer with a witty and imaginative partner in crime, his landlady, Mrs. Lovett. Containing his most ambitious and challenging music, Sweeney Todd is a fitting tribute to the great composer-lyricist who died in 2021.
Directed by Meaghan Deiter, whose recent productions at the College include Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and Sondheim’s Company.

Evening Presentations

THU FEB 6 @ 7:30 PMFRI FEB 7 @ 7:30 PMSAT FEB 8 @ 7:30 PMTHU FEB 13 @ 7:30 PMFRI FEB 14 @ 7:30 PM **SAT FEB 15 @ 7:30 PM

Matinee Presentations

SUN FEB 9 @ 2:00 PMSUN FEB 16 @ 2:00 PM

** Enjoy the perfect Valentine’s Day date night at Sweeney Todd with a buy-one-get-one ticket deal! Enter code “LOVETT” before choosing seats to unlock a $20 price for two tickets to our February 14 presentation.

Details

February 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, and 15 at 7:30 PMFebruary 9 and 16 at 2:00 PM

Price

$20 Public | $15 Holy Cross Community

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Faculty Reading: Leah Hager Cohen
2025-01-30 19:30 | CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM – Booth Media Lab –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Creative Writing Program

Leah Hager Cohen

Faculty Reading

College of the Holy Cross faculty member and writer Leah Hager Cohen is featured in this Faculty Reading event sponsored by the Creative Writing Program.
Leah Hager Cohen is the author of seven novels and five works of nonfiction, which have been selected as best books of the year by the New York Times, Washington Post, Globe and Mail and others.

Details

January 30, 20257:30 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Booth Media LabPrior Performing Arts Center

Bala Brass Quintet
2025-01-28 12:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Bala Brass Quintet

The award-winning Bala Chamber Brass presents a variety of original music for brass quintet, featuring both staples of the repertoire and lesser-known works. Pieces include Victor Ewald’s Quintet No. 3, and works by Anthony Plog, Kevin McKee, and Canadian composer Ian McDougall.

Details

January 28, 202512:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

Michael Beatty: Fabrications
2025-01-21 - 2025-04-05 | Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Michael Beatty, Inside Out, 2020, birch plywood, resin, welded steel and paint, 15″ x 16″ x 10″. Courtesy of the Krakow Witkin Gallery.

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery

Michael Beatty: Fabrications

Selected works from 1992 to present

Associate Professor Emeritus Michael Beatty taught sculpture and three-dimensional design at Holy Cross for 25 years before retiring in 2023. This retrospective exhibition celebrating his sculptural practice investigates duality and hierarchy as a dialogue between technology-assisted and handmade forms. Beatty’s work, inclusive of prints and drawings, is informed by concepts and visual culture taken from science, nature, and mathematics. Beatty’s sculptures and drawings are evocative hybrids of geometry and biological form.

Details

January 21-April 5, 2025

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art GalleryThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Advent Festival of Lessons and Carols
2024-12-05 20:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – St. Joseph Memorial Chapel –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Advent Festival of Lessons & Carols

Please join us for the College’s Annual Festival of Lessons and Carols for Advent.
The service will take place in St. Joseph Memorial Chapel on Thursday, December 5 at 8:00 PM.

Details

December 5, 20248:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

St. Joseph Memorial Chapel

Holy Cross Laptop Ensemble Federation
2024-12-03 20:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Booth Media Lab –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Holy Cross Laptop Ensemble Federation

Designed as an experiential, hands-on learning environment, MUSC 242: Coding Music welcomes all majors interested in sound synthesis, DIY instrument design, and collaborative performance of live electronic music. The end-of-the semester concert will showcase final student projects written for the class.

Details

December 3, 20248:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Booth Media LabPrior Performing Arts Center

Inspired by Blue
2024-11-25 12:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Cantor Art Gallery –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery; Departments of Music and Theatre & Dance

Inspired By Blue

Join us for a performance of compositions by students in Professor Matthew Jaskot’s Composition/Songwriting course and dances from students in Professor Jimena Bermejo’s Body Stories. These works are inspired by the current gallery exhibition Blue Profundity: Contemporary Artists Revisit a Color.

Details

November 25, 202412:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art GalleryThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Holy Cross Wind Ensemble | Earth Songs
2024-11-24 15:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Holy Cross Wind Ensemble | Earth Songs

Join the Holy Cross Wind Ensemble for a musical journey inspired by the beauty of the earth.
Experience diverse climates and locations, from the serene Alaskan snow to the sound of a gentle rain which the audience will help create. The program features Frank Ticheli’s “Earth Song,” described by the composer as “a cry and a prayer for peace,” along with additional works by Whitacre, Hall, Ives, Iannaccone, Balmages, and others.
This concert will be an exploration and celebration of our beautiful planet.

Details

November 24, 20243:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band with Mali Obomsawin
2024-11-22 19:30 | PRIOR PRESENTS – Boroughs Theatre –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Prior Presents 2024–25

Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Bandwith Mali Obomsawin

Buy Tickets: Fri Nov 22, 2024 @ 7:30 PM

The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band (JKIBB) is an ensemble of Native and Indigenous jazz musicians from across Indian Country. Performing pieces from their under-appreciated predecessors in jazz alongside works by contemporary Indigenous composers, the band spotlights a vibrant, long-standing tradition of Indigenous improvised music today. Led by the celebrated vocalist Julia Keefe (Nez Perce), the ensemble brings charisma, passion, and purpose to every stage, leaving audiences both inspired and educated.
JKIBB will be supported at The Prior by Mali Obomsawin (Odanak First Nation), an award-winning bassist, songwriter and composer. Obomsawin’s stunning debut Sweet Tooth (2022) received international acclaim and was named in “best of” lists from GRAMMY.com to JazzTimes and NPR. With an expansive background in American roots, rock, and jazz, Obomsawin carries several music traditions. Beyond the stage she is a community organizer and advocate for Indigenous rights and environmental justice.

“Jazz is a uniquely American art form. The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band…takes that one step further.”
— Olympian, 2022

“[Obomsawin’s Sweet Tooth] not only works as potent commentary on indigenous heritage, autonomy and experiences, but as gripping, dynamic and thunderous music in and of itself.”
— Morgan Enos, Jazz Times

Details

November 22, 20247:30 PM

Price

$25Prices are subject to change without notice

Venue

Boroughs TheatreThe Prior Performing Arts Center

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Holy Cross Jazz Ensemble
2024-11-21 20:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Holy Cross Jazz Ensemble

The Holy Cross Jazz Ensemble will perform American Jazz standards under the direction of Mike Monaghan.

Details

November 21, 20248:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallPrior Performing Arts Center

Brooks and Organ Scholars Recital
2024-11-20 20:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Brooks and Organ Scholars Recital

The Brooks Scholarship is a four-year, full tuition scholarship offered to a music major or double major in music and another discipline. They demonstrate outstanding accomplishment in their area of musical study as well as significant academic achievement. The Department of Music is proud to present a concert featuring the Brooks and Organ Scholars, our most accomplished student artists.

Details

November 20, 20248:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

Adam Chau, Artist Talk + Clay Demo
2024-11-20 12:00 | Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery

Adam Chau, Artist Talk + Clay Demo

Adam Chau, whose work is featured in the Cantor Art Gallery’s current exhibition Blue Profundity, will give a lunchtime gallery talk and hands-on clay demonstration. A graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Industrial Design program, his research blends digital technology with traditional studio craft. In 2018, Adam was awarded the Emerging Artist Fellowship from the National Council for the Education in the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) and in 2019 became a member of the International Academy of Ceramics, a UNESCO partner.
Chau will discuss the hybrid approach to art-making, as well as the integration of digital culture, queer politics, and adding to the canon of traditional blue and white pottery.
Snacks provided and/or BYO lunch!

Details

November 20, 202412:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery
The Prior Performing Arts Center

Mfoniso Udofia's Sojourners | Pop-up with The Huntington Theatre
2024-11-19 19:00 | PRIOR PRESENTS – Boroughs Theatre –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Prior Presents 2024–25 with The Huntington Theatre

Mfoniso Udofia’s Sojourners

RSVP: Tue Nov 19, 2024 @ 7:00 PM

With Sojourners, the first chapter in her sweeping Ufot Cycle, nationally acclaimed playwright Mfoniso Udofia explores the collision of marriage, migration, and the pursuit of education. Set in 1978, this lively, funny play centers on a young and brilliant Nigerian couple arrives in Houston, looking to earn their degrees and bring insights back to their home country. But when Abasiama discovers that her husband has been seduced by Motown records and American culture, she has to choose between the Nigerian Dream and her obligations as a matriarch.
Udofia draws inspiration for the nine-play Ufot Cycle from her time growing up in Southbridge, MA and from meeting playwright August Wilson at Boston’s Huntington Theatre. The Prior is thrilled to partner with the Huntington on this pop-up event, which brings the company’s full production of Sojourners to Holy Cross.
Udofia’s plays have previously been produced at New York Theatre Workshop, American Conservatory Theater, the Playwrights Realm, the Boston Court, and more. She also writes and produces for film and television, including on “Lessons in Chemistry,” “Let the Right One In,” and “A League of Their Own.”

Content Advisory
This performance includes a content advisory. Click below to read more.

Read Content Advisory

‘Sojourners’ rises to the challenge — and beyond — of launching a nine-play cycle

Click below to read the full review of The Huntington’s debut of Sojourners in The Boston Globe.

Read More

Details

November 19, 20247:00 PM

Price

Free EntryCourtesy of initiative from Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu

Venue

Boroughs TheatreThe Prior Performing Arts Center

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Over the next two years, a consortium of theatre companies and activation partners across Greater Boston will produce Mfoniso Udofia’s 9-play cycle which follows three generations of a Nigerian American family. Boston’s Ufot Family Cycle represents two years of convening, planning, and investment by The Huntington to incubate and create this one-of-a-kind event.

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