Prior Performing Arts Center

Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series: Johann Vexo, organ
2024-10-29 19:00 (America/New_York) | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – St. Joseph Memorial Chapel –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Johann Vexo, organ

Johann Vexo is the organist for the Cathedral of Nancy, France.

Details

October 29, 20247:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

St. Joseph Memorial Chapel

Songwriting Workshop with River Glen
2024-10-29 15:30 - 17:00 | HOLY CROSS COMMUNITY – Ensemble Room, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Holy Cross Community

Songwriting Workshop with River Glen

Sign Up: Oct 29, 2024 @ 3:30 PM

In this workshop, students will discuss how to create words and music that matter to them. Singer-songwriter River Glen will deconstruct some of his own songs before working directly with students on their in-progress songs.
Participants should bring ideas, music or lyrics but do not need to consider themselves songwriters or have prior experience.
Light refreshments will be served.

Details

October 29, 20243:30 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Ensemble RoomPrior Performing Arts Center

Holy Cross Wind Ensemble & Worcester Youth Wind Ensemble
2024-10-28 19:30 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Holy Cross Wind Ensemble & Worcester Youth Wind Ensemble

The Holy Cross Orchestra is excited to host the Worcester Youth Wind Ensemble for a shared concert featuring both ensembles performing in collaboration.
The Worcester Youth Wind Ensemble is part of the Worcester Youth Orchestra organization and is open to students in grades 7-12.

Details

October 28, 20247:30 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Sunshine Over the Blessed Earth | Holy Cross College Choir and Chamber Singers Concert
2024-10-25 20:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Sunshine Over The Blessed Earth

Music celebrating life, earth, and heaven from geographically distant locations. Most of the selections on our program come to us from countries that are over 4000 miles away; locations that would take multiple legs of transportation, or are otherwise a challenge to access from Worcester, MA. We’re deeply grateful to the people with personal connections to these countries in our community who have shared their language, stories, and expertise as we embark on the joyful journey of performing this music.

Details

October 25, 20248:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Working Writer Series: Allegra Hyde
2024-10-24 19:30 | CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM – Booth Media Lab –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Working Writer Series

Allegra Hyde

Fiction writer Allegra Hyde is featured in this Working Writer Series event sponsored by the Creative Writing Program.

Details

October 24, 20247:30 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Booth Media LabThe Prior Performing Arts Center

From Pigments to Perception: The Chemical Origins of Color
2024-10-22 16:00 | Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery

From Pigments to Perception: The Chemical Origins of Color

Featuring Class Deans and Professors Sarah Petty (Chemistry) and Rob Bellin (Biology)

Blue is everywhere in the world around us . . . or is it? In fact, many of the things we see as blue have no blue pigments in them at all. Why, then, do we perceive them as blue and how does science make that possible? Of course, some things are colored by pigments — we will explore the science of those colors as well.
Join us for this fascinating conversation at the Cantor Art Gallery with Class Deans and Professors Sarah Petty (Chemistry) and Rob Bellin (Biology) about the science of color.
Free entry and blue-colored snacks provided!

Details

October 22, 2024
4:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

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

Irish Music Hour in Worcester: John Carty & Alan Murray
2024-10-20 13:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Irish Traditional Music Hour in Worcester

John Carty, fiddle & banjo
Alan Murray, bouzouki & guitar

John Carty and Alan Murray will explore together the rich and diverse domain of Irish traditional music. John Carty is one of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians having been awarded the Irish Television station, TG4’s Traditional Musician of the Year in 2003.
Born in London, fiddle and banjo player John Carty has established himself among the elite in Irish traditional music and as a staunch supporter of its preservation. He will delve into the different dance tunes with his noted inventive and creative musicianship on fiddle, banjo and tenor guitar accompanied tastefully by Alan on bouzouki and guitar who will also enhance the whole performance with his songs.
These two musicians, both with numerous accolades in their respective careers, are collaborating for what promises to be a not-to-be-missed performance here at the college.

Details

October 20, 20241:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

Mike Monaghan & Friends
2024-10-10 20:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Mike Monaghan & Friends

Renowned Jazz musician Mike Monaghan and his colleagues, Ben Cook, Marshall Wood, Marty Richards, John Wilkins will perform an exciting evening of jazz improvisation.

Details

October 10, 20248:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Aimee Nezhukumatathil
2024-10-03 18:00 | PRIOR PRESENTS – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Prior Presents 2024–25

Aimee Nezhukumatathil

RSVP: Thu Oct 3, 2024 @ 6:00 PM

Poet and essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of the New York Times-bestselling World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments. Her essay collection, Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees, blends reporting, research, and memoir to celebrate food as a locus for care, grief, desire, nostalgia.
Nezhukumatathil’s four poetry collections explore how we live in the world, lend inventive attention to issues of environmental concern. Said Poetry Foundation of Lucky Fish, “Nezhukumatathil’s third book affirms her reputation as one of the master miners of the curious fact in science, history, nature and culture.” The winner of numerous prizes and fellowships, Nezukumatahil is also the first-ever poetry editor for SIERRA magazine, the story-telling arm of The Sierra Club.

“Nezhukumatathil speaks with resonance and fierceness.”
— Publishers Weekly

Details

October 3, 20246:00 PM

Price

Free Entry (RSVP Required)

Venue

Luth Concert Hall
The Prior Performing Arts Center

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Lunchtime Concert Series | Blue Sonority
2024-10-03 12:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Cantor Art Gallery –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music | Lunchtime Concert Series

Blue Sonority

What does blue sound like?
This is the fundamental question that inspires this program in response to the exhibition Blue Profundity: Contemporary Artists Revisit a Color, currently showing at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery until December 20, 2024. Come to simultaneously immerse yourself in the shades and sonorities of blue right in the middle of the gallery.
ProgramColeridge Taylor Perkinson (1932–2004)Selections from Blue/s Forms Sergio Muñoz Leiva, viola
Eric Ewazen (b. 1954)Harmony in Blue and Gold Ari Kiirikki, flute (Brooks Scholar ‘25) Aleksandra Labinska, violin Sergio Muñoz Leiva, viola Julianna Stratton, cello (‘26)
Miles Davis (1926–1991)All BluesHarry Warren (1893–1981)Serenade in BlueW. C. Handy (1873–1958)St. Louis Blues Rhiannon Hurst, vocals (Brooks and Fenwick Scholar ‘25) Chris Maratea, bass (‘28)

Details

October 3, 202412:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

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

Irish Traditional Music Hour in Worcester
2024-09-29 15:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Irish Traditional Music Hour in Worcester

Diarmuid Ó Meachair, Accordion & Melodeon
Sorcha Costello, Fiddle

Please join us for a wonderful afternoon of traditional Irish music with Diarmuid Ó Meachair, recipient of the Young Musician of the year award from TG4 and the newest Music Instructor in the Department of Music.
He will be joined by award winning Sorcha Costello, traditional Irish fiddle player from Tulla Co. Clare. This can’t miss concert promises to be like nothing else held on campus!

Details

September 29, 20243:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

Johnny Gandelsman, violin | This Is America
2024-09-26 19:30 | PRIOR PRESENTS – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Prior Presents 2024–25

Johnny Gandelsman, violinThis Is America

With special guest artists Worcester Chamber Music Society

Buy Tickets: Thu Sep 26, 2024 @ 7:30 PM

In response to the despair, alienation, and turbulence of the COVID-19 era, Grammy Award-winning violinist and producer Johnny Gandelsman developed This Is America, a commissioning and recording project featuring over twenty new works for solo violin written by American and US-based artists.
This is America celebrates our country’s rich cultural tapestry and its myriad perspectives, offering a vivid counterpoint to the idea that this land can be understood through a singular, dominant point of view. Each composition in the anthology reflects on the current state of American society in a personal and intimate way, looking through an unflinching lens at universal topics like separation, loneliness, hope and love.
In addition to giving a full concert at The Prior, Gandelsman will perform briefer segments of the anthology across the city in collaboration with community partners: This Is America becomes This Is Worcester. We hope you will join us on the journey!
This program is made possible by the Heidi Brake Smith ’82 Fund for the Arts.

Pre-concert Conversation
Join us at 6:30 PM in the Ensemble Room on the 2nd Floor of The Prior for a pre-concert conversation between Johnny Gandelsman and This Is America contributing composer Èbùn Oguntola, free and open to all ticketholders.

“A violinist who can do anything…”
— Philadelphia Inquirer

Hailed as a group with imagination, style and chops, the Worcester Chamber Music Society (WCMS) took the Worcester, Massachusetts scene by storm with its initial concert in 2006. It has become a recognized cultural presence within the Greater Worcester area by presenting sold-out concerts to captivated audiences, receiving consistent critical acclaim, building new young audiences, and training rising musicians through both its Neighborhood Strings and Summer Music Camp programs.
WCMS brings world-class chamber music to intimate Greater Worcester venues. WCMS nurtures the community through a unique combination of affordable concerts, education and community engagement.

“Through the years the Chamber Music Society has crafted thoughtful, innovative and interesting programs, and its playing has become so effortless, so technically virtuosic and so musically expressive…., they have become one of the most loved and admired treasures in our musical community.”
— John Zeugner, Telegram & Gazette

Details

September 26, 20247:30 PM
Pre-concert talk with composer Èbùn Oguntola6:30 PM

Price

$45 | $35 | $25Prices are subject to change without notice

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

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David E. Sanger: A World On Fire
2024-09-25 19:00 | HOLY CROSS COMMUNITY – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Holy Cross Community

A World On Fire
A Talk and Q&A with David E. Sanger

Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times-bestselling author David E. Sanger will deliver a talk and Q&A on China, Russia, and the challenges for the next President in the Luth Concert Hall at The Prior, moderated by World Languages Department Chair Amy Singleton Adams.
Q&A to be followed by a book signing in the Beehive.

Details

September 25, 20247:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallPrior Performing Arts Center

Lunchtime Concert Series | Feelin' Good - The Music of Nina Simone
2024-09-25 12:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – The Beehive –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music | Lunchtime Concert Series

Feelin’ Good – The Music of Nina Simone

Join us for this lunchtime concert that features the music of American icon and innovative jazz vocalist, pianist, and songwriter Nina Simone. In addition to being a celebrated musician, Simone was a staunch advocate for Civil Rights and equal rights for women. She was a brilliant storyteller who seamlessly blended a variety of musical styles such as gospel, blues, folk, pop, jazz and classical. Simone’s music will be performed by vocalist Rhiannon Hurst (’25 Brooks and Fenwick Scholar), pianist Matthew Jaskot, and other music department students. The program will be about 30 minutes long.

Details

September 25, 202412:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

The BeehiveThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series: Dexter Kennedy, organ
2024-09-24 19:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – St. Joseph Memorial Chapel –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Dexter Kennedy, organ

Organist Dexter Kennedy is the winner of the Grand Prix d’Interprétation at the 24th Concours International d’Orgue de Chartres.

“…one of the greatest organists of our time…”
— Iceland Monitor

Details

September 24, 20247:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

St. Joseph Memorial Chapel

Jazz and Blues with an Irish Interlude at Family Weekend
2024-09-21 19:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Jazz and Blues with an Irish Interlude – Family Weekend

This one hour performance will feature a number of student musicians from a variety of academic departments on campus. From Freshmen to Seniors, they will join together to present musical opportunities offered here at College of the Holy Cross including Jazz, Blues, and Traditional Irish Music.

Details

September 21, 20247:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Traditional Irish Music at Family Weekend
2024-09-20 20:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Traditional Irish Music at Family Weekend

Joey Abarta, Uilleann piper
Nathan Gourley, fiddler

Boston based Uilleann piper Joey Abarta and fiddler Nathan Gourley are two of America’s greatest Traditional Irish musicians, who have been playing music together daily since 2013. Their debut duo album, Copley Street, featuring Owen Marshall on Greek bouzouki, has an undeniable chemistry and demonstrates a nuanced understanding of each the other’s playing.
Their music includes offbeat settings of well-known tunes and beautiful pieces that seem to languish in obscurity. “Copley Street” is a wonderful album from two stunning young players that adds to Boston’s rich history of traditional Irish music.

Details

September 20, 20248:00 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Working Writer Series: Vievee Francis & Matthew Olzmann
2024-09-19 19:30 | CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM – Booth Media Lab –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Working Writer Series

Vievee Francis & Matthew Olzmann

Writers Vievee Francis and Matthew Olzmann are featured in this Working Writer Series event co-sponsored by the Creative Writing and Africana Studies programs.

Details

September 19, 20247:30 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Booth Media LabThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Camille A. Brown & Dancers | I AM
2024-09-12 19:30 | PRIOR PRESENTS – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Above: Alain ‘“Hurrikane” Lauture in “I AM” by Whitney Browne

Prior Presents 2024–25

Camille A. Brown & DancersI Am

Buy Tickets: Thu Sep 12, 2024 @ 7:30 PM

Four-time Tony Award-nominated choreographer and director Camille A. Brown is a “prodigious” (VOGUE) Bessie, Obie, and Princess Grace Award-winning choreographer and director. She made history as the first Black director at the Metropolitan Opera to direct a mainstage production when she co-directed Fire Shut Up In My Bones (2021). With the Broadway revival of for colored girls… in 2022 (which earned her a Tony nomination for Best Direction of a Play), she became the first Black woman to direct and choreograph a Broadway play since Katherine Dunham in 1955.
Following her work as the choreographer of the new Alicia Keys musical Hell’s Kitchen, which led to a Tony Award nomination for Best Choreography, Brown returns to the roots of her own dance company, deepening her exploration of Black joy in a new work titled I AM.

“The dancers, strong, flexible, and clean in their moves, seem to exult in their physical prowess, and in the presence of each other, as if each one is challenging each other to go further, dance faster, jump higher, be their best selves. They have community in each other, and they radiate joy…”
— Bess Hochstein, Splash Magazines(from her review of the world premiere ofI AM at Jacob’s Pillow – July 31, 2024)

READ THE FULL REVIEW

Details

September 12, 2024
7:30 PM

Price

$45 | $35 | $25Prices are subject to change without notice

Venue

Luth Concert Hall
The Prior Performing Arts Center

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Outdoor Film Screening | Pakachoag: Where the River Bends
2024-09-04 19:30 | OUTDOOR FILM SCREENING – Patterson Amphitheatre at The Prior –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Outdoor Film Screening

Pakachoag: Where the River Bends
The Native American Identity of Holy Cross Campus

Telling a Native American story of the land where Holy Cross now resides, Pakachoag: Where the River Bends is a documentary produced by faculty, staff, and students at The College of Holy Cross about the transformation of this area over the last 400 years. The film takes viewers on a tour of key sites on Pakachoag Hill (now commonly known as College Hill or Mt. Saint James) and discusses them through a Native American perspective and through the stories they tell of environmental change. It covers Nipmuc relations with colonial settlers and the Jesuit community from the 1500s to today.
We are particularly excited to show this film for the first time at (and indeed on!) the Prior Center, whose site is featured at the start of the film. There was a time when all Holy Cross students knew of Pakachoag, but that knowledge has been lost. This film seeks to revive a widespread knowledge of the indigenous identity and significance of Pakachoag Hill and today’s larger Worcester region.
The documentary brings together primary resources from the American Antiquarian Society, the Holy Cross Archives, the Worcester Historical Museum and other repositories, with perspectives from three narrators: Cheryll Holley of the Nipmuc Nation, Thomas Doughton, Nipmuc historian and Senior Lecturer at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at Holy Cross, and Colin Novick, environmental historian and Executive Director of the Greater Worcester Land Trust.

Details

September 4, 20247:30 PM

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Outdoor Film ScreeningPrior Performing Arts Center

Blue Profundity: Contemporary Artists Revisit a Color
2024-08-21 - 2024-12-20 | Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Above: Michelle Samour, Blue (detail), 2019, handmade paper pulp drawing, specimen pins, 10’ x 20’ x 5” (installed). Courtesy of the artist.

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery

Blue Profundity: Contemporary Artists Revisit a Color

This exhibition features contemporary artists who incorporate blue in their work to highlight the symbolic and historic meanings of the color. Blue is celebrated as a marker of socioeconomic status in history, a symbol of cultural pride and economic exploitation, and as a metaphor for sadness and depression. Artworks such as blue-and-white porcelain, hand-pigmented paper pulp, and cyanotype photography explore these concepts by updating forms and materials to reflect current-day concerns with a nod to historical precedent. Confirmed artists include Adam Chau, Ifé Franklin, Michelle Samour, Heather Evans Smith, and Andrea Pettway Williams.

Details

August 21-December 20, 2024

Price

Free Entry

Venue

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