Prior Performing Arts Center

Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series: Renee Louprette, Bard College
2026-03-10 19:00 (America/New_York) | St. Joseph Memorial Chapel, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Renee Louprette, Bard College

Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series

American organist Renée Anne Louprette maintains an international career as recitalist, conductor, collaborative musician, and teacher.
Professor Louprette’s musicianship is renowned worldwide, and this is a recital not to be missed.

Details

March 10, 20267 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

St. Joseph Memorial Chapel

Courage to Remember: From Royal Roots to Living Legends - A Black History Month Celebration
2026-02-28 18:00 | Luth Concert Hall – Prior Performing Arts Center, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Courage to Remember

From Royal Roots to Living Legends – A Black History Month Celebration

Buy Tickets

Kingdom Voice & Music will be highlighting powerful stories of Black history that deserve to be remembered and passed down—stories of African royalty, historical heroes, living legends within our communities, and the generational wisdom that continues to shape our future.
Featuring Award winning Storyteller, Valerie Stephens, local choirs, dance groups, and local food vendors will provide a fully immersive experience.
Kingdom Voice & Music is also partnering with the Alzheimer’s Association to shed light on Alzheimer’s and dementia within the African American community, providing both awareness and resources for families affected.

Details

February 28, 20264:30 p.m. | Art Collection Presentation (see below)5:30 p.m. | Pre-Show Presentation6 p.m. | Show8 p.m. | Vendor Exhibition

Price

$29 | $39 | $55

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Learn More

Eddie Jenkins ’72 African Art Collection Showing

Join us before the Courage To Remember performance to witness a showing of African artwork collected by distinguished alumnus and Holy Cross football legend Eddie Jenkins ’72. Free entry, open to all.

Boroughs Theatre in The Prior4-9 p.m. | Showing4:30 p.m. | Collector’s Presentation

Music Worcester at The Prior: Aaron Diehl Trio
2026-02-27 20:00 | Luth Concert Hall – Prior Performing Arts Center, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Music Worcester at The Prior

Aaron Diehl Trio

Buy Tickets

Pianist Aaron Diehl’s nuanced sound bridges the gap between jazz and classical music with sophistication. His trio, known from their Jazz at Lincoln Center performances, builds a program for piano, bass, and drums and explores the creation of musically diverse environments.
Aaron is a staple of the New York jazz scene, collaborating with artists like Benny Golson, Philip Glass, Cécile McLorin Salvant and more. His trio unites jazz standards with classical music, bringing them into focus, and infusing them with his trademark brilliance. His recent collaborations with ensembles like The Knights have invited listeners in for a taste of what Diehl has to offer.
Join Music Worcester at The Prior for a performance that’s fit for any musical palette.

There’s an entire world of jazz in Aaron Diehl’s playing . . . he makes the case that jazz is not one style or genre but many, gliding gorgeously among decades of artistic influences.
Philadelphia Inquirer

Details

February 27, 20268 p.m.

Price

Adults $50-$76Students $20Youths $10

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Learn More

Eddie Jenkins ’72 African Art Collection Showing

Join us before the Aaron Diehl Trio performance to witness a showing of African artwork collected by distinguished alumnus and Holy Cross football legend Eddie Jenkins ’72. Free entry, open to all.
Boroughs Theatre in The Prior6:30-8:30 p.m. | Showing7 p.m. | Collector’s Presentation

Explore More

About Music Worcester

Celebrating More Than 160 Years of Music and Culture
Music Worcester has been bringing world-renowned musicians and ensembles to Central Massachusetts since its founding in 1858. Today, the organization regularly presents world-renowned orchestras, soloists, and ensembles from the worlds of classical, jazz, folk, world music, and dance to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
In 2024, Music Worcester launched THE COMPLETE BACH, an 11-year project to present live performances of all J.S. Bach’s known works. Music Worcester’s education and outreach initiatives include in-school workshops and masterclasses, and the availability of free and reduced-price tickets. In 2026, Dr. Everett McCorvey will serve as the Artist-in-Residence, a bi-annual program that establishes deep community relationships with an individual artist.
Learn more at MUSICWORCESTER.ORG

Eddie Jenkins ’72 African Art Collection Showing at The Prior
2026-02-26 - 2026-02-28 | Boroughs Theatre (Prior Performing Arts Center), 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
From Benin, Nigeria to Roxbury, MA

How Art Imitates Life–A Painful But Inspired Journey

Eddie Jenkins ’72 African Art Collection Showing at The Prior

With two can’t-miss community concert presentations set to wrap up Black History Month in 2026, The Prior invites patrons to witness a showing of African artwork collected by distinguished alumnus and Holy Cross football legend Eddie Jenkins ’72.
This showing of the Jenkins collection will be on display in the Boroughs Theatre from February 26-28. In addition to an opening event on the evening of February 26, The Prior offers additional, pre-concert viewing opportunities for patrons planning to attend Music Worcester’s presentation of the Aaron Diehl Trio on February 27 and Kingdom Voice & Music’s presentation of their “Courage to Remember” choral program respectively.
Collector’s Presentations on February 26 & 27 will feature performances by rapper Wyatt Johnson (of We Move In Color) and drummer Stephen O’Neal.

Details

Thu Feb 26, 20266:30-8:30 p.m. | Showing7 p.m. | Collector’s Presentation

Fri Feb 27, 20266:30-8:30 p.m. | Showing7 p.m. | Collector’s Presentation

Sat Feb 28, 20264-9 p.m. | Showing4:30 p.m. | Collector’s Presentation

Price

Free entry, open to all.

Venue

Boroughs TheatreThe Prior Performing Arts Center

“African Art parallels African History. Throughout its vast continent of myriad cultures, languages, climates and politics, its people share a ceremonial respect of a spiritual authority; an admiration of nature and the animal kingdom; and an understanding of Slavery’s lasting influence on natural law and order. I believe these commonalities are bound together, and I have collected various pieces that highlight all three after first being introduced to this art in Roxbury, MA by Aboubacar in 1994. Throughout our friendship and trade, I began to understand the Diaspora and the journey of my people.”
Eddie Jenkins '72

Holy Cross Wind Ensemble & Orchestra: Beloved Classics from Broadway to the Silver Screen
2026-02-25 19:30 | Luth Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Beloved Classics from Broadway to the Silver Screen

Holy Cross Wind Ensemble & Orchestra

Join us for a program featuring some of the greatest show tunes and movie soundtracks arranged for orchestra and wind ensemble.

Details

Feb 25, 20267:30 p.m.

Price

Free entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallPrior Performing Arts Center

Brooks Scholars Concert
2026-02-19 19:30 | Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Brooks Scholars Concert

Sophie Rose Riopel ‘29, saxophoneLogan Sherwin Kornilov ‘28, pianoJohn Hannagan ‘28, button accordion Robert Gardner ‘26, piano
The Brooks Scholarship is a four-year, full tuition scholarship offered to a music major or double major in music and another discipline. Recipients demonstrate outstanding accomplishment in their area of musical study as well as significant academic achievement. The Department of Music proudly presents a concert featuring the Brooks Scholars, our most accomplished student artists.

Details

February 19, 20267:30 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

Christine Sun Kim | Deaf Death [SOLD OUT]
2026-02-19 18:00 | PRIOR PRESENTS – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Prior Presents 2025–26

Christine Sun Kim

Deaf Death

A co-presentation with the Department of Visual Arts

Reserve Tickets

This presentation is sold out. There is no wait list. Please check back at the reservation link above, as returned tickets will be added back to online sale inventory in real time.
Christine Sun Kim is a Berlin-based artist who works with sound, language, and the complexities of communication. She uses musical notation, infographics, and language—both in her native American Sign Language (ASL) and written English—to create drawings, site-specific murals, paintings, video installations, and sculptures.
In her lecture-performance Deaf Death, Kim explores the frequent autocorrection of “deaf” to “death” in text-based technologies. Through a study of popular media, memes, disability signage, and recent headlines, Kim questions what defines disability, and how different definitions reflect fears and hopes for the future.

Details

Feb 19, 20266 p.m.

Price

Free entry, reservation required.

Venue

Luth Concert Hall
The Prior Performing Arts Center

“Kim’s work . . . is often the first encounter museumgoers have with the question of what it is like to live in a hearing world as a Deaf person — with all the anger, frustration and, most strikingly when it comes to Kim’s work, the humor that it entails.”
Aruna D'Souza
Contributor, The New York Times

Explore More

Cantor Window Exhibition
Christine Sun Kim (b. 1980, active Berlin, Germany), Mind Touch Touch Touch, 2025, digital print of charcoal drawingCourtesy of the artist, François Ghebaly, Los Angeles and New York, and WHITE SPACE, Beijing.
Repetition and iteration define Christine Sun Kim’s work, which distinctly incorporates the visual representation of sign language. This mural was made exclusively for the Cantor’s front window and comes from a body of work that combines text and graphic representations of signs in American Sign Language (ASL). Here, Kim depicts the arc of the hand movement in the sign obsess, which is a compound formed by the signs for mind and touch. Through her practice, Kim foregrounds Deaf culture; explores the relationship between sound, language, and image; and explores the social politics of communication.
CLICK HERE for a video of obsess being signed in ASL.

Lunchtime Concert: Blue in the Beehive
2026-02-18 12:00 | The Beehive in The Prior, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Blue in the Beehive

Lunchtime Concert Series

Chaney Goldstein ‘28, saxophoneChris Maratea ‘28, bassSean Dooley ‘29, piano
Join us for a lunchtime set of jazz standards performed by Chaney Goldstein (saxophone), Sean Dooley (piano), and Chris Maratea (bass), and incorporating styles such as swing, ballads, Latin and funk.

Details

February 18, 202612 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

The BeehivePrior Performing Arts Center

Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series: American Guild of Organists (Worcester Chapter)
2026-02-15 15:00 | St. Joseph Memorial Chapel, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

American Guild of Organists (Worcester Chapter)

Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series

Join us for this Chapel Artist Series presentation featuring Robert Potterton, Robin Dinda and Andrew Sheranian, all members of the Worcester Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Details

February 15, 20263 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

St. Joseph Memorial Chapel

Makers and Mentors: A Studio Faculty Roundtable
2026-02-11 16:00 | Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Faculty artists at Impetus exhibition opening (February 3, 2026), photo by Troy B. Thompson.

Cantor Art Gallery

Makers and Mentors: A Studio Faculty Roundtable

The ten exhibiting artists featured in Impetus: Visual Arts Faculty 2026 share insights about maintaining a professional creative practice. Facilitated by senior studio art majors at Holy Cross, these faculty members and artists answer questions about nurturing the creative process, balancing personal life and professional work, and how to find joy and motivation while navigating career growth.

Free entry, open to all.

Details

February 11, 20264 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Cantor Art Gallery3rd Floor, Prior Performing Arts Center

Semiosis Quartet Residency
2026-02-10 19:30 | Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Semiosis Quartet Residency

Florescence
Semiosis QuartetNicole Parks – violinEmma Burge – violinAmelia Hollander Ames – violaOlivia Katz – cello
Semiosis Quartet offers a respite from the February cold with music for string quartet by Holy Cross faculty Matthew Jaskot and Chris Arrell, and more.
Arrell’s Voyagers draws inspiration from breathtaking images of the solar system from the Voyager Interstellar Mission, which began in 1977. The concert includes the premiere performance of Jaskot’s Florescence, which is inspired by a short excerpt of text from Sufi mystic Bawa Muhaiyadeen (translated by Coleman Barks): “You’re the meaning that blooms in the heart. In this world of flowers, in the next world.”
Join us as we navigate through musical terrain to explore florescence in many forms. Sonic blooms, fluid harmonies, moments of stillness, and rhythmic intensity are just a few ways that the evening’s repertoire will transport you to another sound-world full of new and fascinating discoveries!

Details

February 10, 20267:30 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

Winter Homecoming Concert: Julianna Stratton ’26, cello & Robert Gardner ’26, piano
2026-02-07 12:00 | Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Winter Homecoming Concert

Julianna Stratton ’26, cello

Robert Gardner ’26, piano

This program explores the complex themes of memory, political resistance, and the formation of identity through place and experience. Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata, a classical example of a composer writing music grappling with the political environment of his time, is paired with a selection from his student, Galina Ustvolskaya’s “Grand Duet,” a work that challenges the normative compositional and musical boundaries of her time.
Together, these works take us on a musical journey of resistance and creativity in the face of oppression, ranging from cosmic, soaring melodies, to angry, hammering, defiance. In the words of Ustvolskaya herself: “The important thing is that the music is genuine and strong.”

Details

February 7, 202612 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Cantor Art Gallery3rd Floor, Prior Performing Arts Center

Into The Woods
2026-02-05 - 2026-02-15 | DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE & DANCE – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, 01610, United States
Department of Theatre & Dance

Into The Woods

Book by James Lapine
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Meaghan Deiter

Buy Tickets

Perhaps the stories we learned as children aren’t as simple as they once seemed.
Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s witty and daring reimagining of classic fairy tales, leaves behind the binary world of good versus evil and right versus wrong to explore what really happens after “happily ever after.” Little Red Riding Hood and Jack the Giant Killer confront the consequences of their choices, and their decisions echo throughout their community, while Cinderella and Rapunzel discover that getting what you want doesn’t always lead to happiness.
Sondheim and Lapine welcome us into an unconventional kind of fairy tale that challenges conventional thinking and the tales we thought we knew. After all, witches can be right and giants can be good. It’s up to us to decide in this production from the Holy Cross Department of Theatre & Dance.

EVENING PRESENTATIONS

February 5 @ 7:30 p.m.February 6 @ 7:30 p.m.February 7 @ 7:30 p.m.February 12 @ 7:30 p.m.February 13 @ 7:30 p.m.February 14 @ 7:30 p.m.

MATINEE PRESENTATIONS

February 8 @ 2 p.m.February 15 @ 2 p.m.

Details

February 5-7, 12-14 @ 7:30 p.m. February 8 & 15 @ 2 p.m.

Price

$20 Public | $15 Holy Cross Community

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Impetus: Visual Arts Faculty 2026
2026-02-03 - 2026-04-08 | Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Above: Matthew Gamber and Yael Eban, detail of Formation (5) from Marbre Vivant, 2022, photogram of ink on gelatin silver paper.

Cantor Art Gallery

Impetus: Visual Arts Faculty 2026

The faculty of the Studio Art program at Holy Cross are fundamental to the student creative experience. In addition to teaching and mentoring, these faculty members maintain a vibrant studio practice outside of the classroom and conduct scholarly research in areas ranging from the environment, feminism, the spectacle of religion, the body, memory, and consumerism.
Featuring work by Rachelle Beaudoin, John Carney, Marcus Clarke, Hilary Doyle, Colleen Fitzgerald, Matthew Gamber, Anna McNeary, Victor Pacheco, Cristi Rinklin, and Leslie Schomp.

Exhibition Events

Opening ReceptionTuesday, February 3 | 6:30 p.m.Cantor Art Gallery

Conversations on Contemporary Art and Faith: Marcus Clarke and Peter FritzMonday, March 16 | 12 p.m.Cantor Art Gallery

Treadmill of Information: Art, Influencers and Wellness CultureWednesday, March 18 | 12 p.m.Cantor Art Gallery

Details

February 3-April 8, 2026

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery3rd Floor, The Prior Performing Arts Center

Traditional Irish Music Hour
2026-01-21 12:00 | Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Traditional Irish Music Hour

Join us for a Irish traditional music concert with Diarmuid Ó Meachair (accordion) & Andrew Caden (fiddle).
Diarmuid Ó Meachair is a traditional Irish accordion and melodeon player from Cúil Aodha, Co. Cork, and is also a sean-nós singer. In 2022, he was awarded the prestigious TG4 Ceoltóir Óg na Bliana (Young Musician of the Year). Diarmuid currently teaches Irish traditional music at College of the Holy Cross. Diarmuid, who has performed with De Dannan internationally since 2022, has released four solo albums and he has been nominated for three RTÉ Folk Awards: Best Instrumentalist (2023 & 2024) and Best Emerging Artist (2023).
Andrew Caden is a fiddle player originally from Bethesda, MD. Andrew is currently based in Dublin, where he works at the Irish Traditional Music Archive. Andrew is completing an MA programme in Archives & Records Management at the University College of Dublin. Andrew, who was taught primarily by New York fiddle player Brian Conway, counts among his greatest musical influences Michael Coleman, James ‘Lad’ O’Beirne, Seán McGuire, and Frankie Gavin. Andrew has performed and taught at many traditional music festivals throughout Ireland, and he has been recognised by numerous established traditional musicians as one of the most promising young Irish fiddle players of today. In June 2025, Andrew released a duet album “Across the Atlantic” with flute player Conor McDonagh (available on Bandcamp), which has been met with critical acclaim from The Journal of Music and The Irish Echo.

Details

January 21, 202612 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

Gamelan Gita Sari Concert
2025-12-06 19:30 | DEPARTMENTS OF MUSIC AND THEATRE & DANCE – Boroughs Theatre –, 1 College St, Worcester, 01610, United States
Departments of Music and Theatre & Dance

Gamelan Gita Sari Concert

Join us for this end-of-semester performance from the students in I Nyoman Catra’s Balinese dance and gamelan classes, in which they will display what they have learned in a delightful evening showcasing the Balinese performing arts.

Details

December 6, 20257:30 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Boroughs TheatrePrior Performing Arts Center

Science Ball
2025-12-05 18:00 | HOLY CROSS COMMUNITY – The Beehive –, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Science Ball

TICKETS ARE SOLD OUT. Walk-up sales will not be available.
Students and faculty have been paired with designers who will elevate a lab coat to reflect their research and science identity. These lab coats will be worn by the scientists in a fashion show. Attendees are invited to decorate a lab coat and hit the runway during a special segment.
The event also features speakers from Holy Cross (Prof. Ann Marie Leshkowich), Boston University (Prof. Lucy Kim – Associate Professor of Art and Painting who received the 2022 Creative Capital Award for her project creating images with melanin produced by live, genetically-modified bacteria) and Tufts University (Prof. Dan Jay – Professor of Biology who creates art pieces from unusual chemicals and chemical reactions).

Details

December 5, 20256 p.m.

Price

Free entry, registration required.

Venue

The BeehivePrior Performing Arts Center

Forty-Seventh Annual Festival of Lessons & Carols
2025-12-04 20:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – St. Joseph Memorial Chapel –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Forty-Seventh Annual 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 4 at 8 p.m.

Details

December 4, 20258 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

St. Joseph Memorial Chapel

Holy Cross Laptop Ensemble Federation
2025-12-02 20:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Booth Media Lab –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Holy Cross Laptop Ensemble Federation

Join the Holy Cross Laptop Ensemble Federation (H-CLEF) for a concert of choreographed sound and image showcasing final student projects written for Music 242: Coding Music.

Details

December 2, 20258 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Booth Media LabPrior Performing Arts Center

Wind Ensemble Pop-Up Concert
2025-11-24 18:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – The Beehive –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Wind Ensemble Pop-Up Concert

Join the Holy Cross Wind Ensemble for a seasonal pop-up concert in the Beehive. Embrace a moment of levity and seasonal beauty before the rush of finals.
For this concert, music selections will be chosen by the performers.

Details

November 24, 20256 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

The BeehivePrior Performing Arts Center

LayeRhythm | SWITCH
2025-11-21 19:00 | PRIOR PRESENTS – Boroughs Theatre –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Prior Presents 2025–26

LayeRhythm

SWITCH

Free entry, open to all.
Join us before the interactive performance at 7 p.m. for a DJ set beginning at 6 p.m. to warm up and feel the vibe for the show. Come prepared to dance!
LayeRhythm (LR) highlights freestyle dance and music voices under-recognized in the traditional performing arts landscape while providing entertainment, building community through play, educating audiences in cultural history, preserving the legacy of street & club dance forms, transforming individuals’ relationship to music & dance and supporting emotional & social well-being. LR is dedicated to risk-taking improvisation and interactive audience engagement through performances and educational events.
Commissioned by Works & Process, LR’s performances and events have engaged audiences at Jacob’s Pillow, USC Kaufman School of Dance, Harris Theater, Movement Research at Judson Church, 92NY, Abrons Arts Center, National Jazz Museum in Harlem, Spiegeltent (Bard) and Bridge Street Theatre. LR has been presented by Works & Process at the Guggenheim, Lincoln Center, SummerStage, NY Public Library for the Performing Arts, Gibney, The Church (Sag Harbor), Catskill Mountain Foundation and Manhattan West Plaza. LayeRhythm was nominated National Dance Institute’s Helen Stambler Neuberger Artist-in-Residence (22-23).
About the Program
In SWITCH, the audience is LayeRhythm’s muse. Through a series of games, audience ideas are collected and announced by the MC. Performers instantaneously draw from personal experiences and artistic knowledge to turn audience ideas into music, lyrics and movement. The evening’s events will take place in five parts:
6-7 p.m.1st DJ Set
7 p.m. until end of show1st Interactive Performance2nd DJ Set2nd Interactive Performance3rd DJ Set

Details

Nov 21, 20256 p.m. – Welcome DJ Set7 p.m. – Interactive Performances & Additional DJ Sets

Price

Free entry, open to all.

Venue

Boroughs TheatreThe Prior Performing Arts Center

“If dancing with others is an intimate act, LayeRhythm makes it communal.”
James Thomas
Contributor, The New York Times

LayeRhythm Participating Artists
Mai Lê Hồ – Founder/DancerStiggity Stackz – DancerKlassic – DancerOsyris Antham – MCSimone Acosta – Musician (keyboard)Pete Henry – Musician (bass)Rodney Harrison – Musician (drums)SC-One – DJ

About the Founder
Mai Lê Hồ is a French-Vietnamese movement artist, cultural strategist, curator, and educator based in New York City. She is the founder of LayeRhythm Productions, Inc., a nonprofit organization amplifying street/club dances and freestyle artistry. Since launching LayeRhythm in 2015—a groundbreaking performance platform layering freestyle dancers with live musicians and emcees, acclaimed by The New York Times—she has produced over 140 editions in NYC and beyond.
As a dancer, Mai Lê has performed and taught nationally and internationally for over 20 years, with past engagements at the National Dance Institute, USC Kaufman, 92NY, Lincoln Center, Harris Theater, Lehman College, FIAF, and others. She is a 2025 Simons Foundation & Gibney Open Interval Resident Artist., a 2024 Bogliasco Foundation fellow, a 2023 Dancing Futures resident artist at BAAD! through Pepatián, a 2021 virtual artist-in-residence with the Asian American Arts Alliance, and movement curator for Asian Cultural Council’s East West Fest. In 2014, she toured Europe with pioneering Detroit producer Theo Parrish and his live band.
First introduced to house dance by her late teacher Babson in France, Mai Lê has since won first place in this category at events including Ladies of Hip-Hop (NYC, 2015), Universole (Detroit, 2015), and Step Ya Game Up (NYC, 2013). She has judged competitions such as Sole Open Philly (2024), Footwork Frenzy (2022), House Dance UK (2015), Slick City (Chicago, 2015), and The Blueprint (Houston, 2013).
Mai Lê has served as a voting member of the Bessies Awards selection committee (2018-2020), and as a grant panelist for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Works & Process at the Guggenheim, New Music USA, and Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL).
Currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Hunter College, she consults with institutions on integrating street and club dance cultures into programming, and reimagining artist-centered support systems.

Explore More

End of Semester Student Recitals
2025-11-21 16:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

End of Semester Student Recitals

Students who participated in the private lesson program perform the works they have studied during the semester. Please join us in celebrating their work!

Details

November 21, 20254 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

Holy Cross Jazz Ensemble
2025-11-20 20:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Holy Cross Jazz Ensemble

Join us for an unforgettable evening of music as the Holy Cross Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combos take the stage! Experience the sounds of swing, bebop, funk, and more performed by some of the college’s most talented student musicians.
Whether you’re a jazz aficionado or just looking for a night of great live music, this concert promises high energy, soulful solos, and tight grooves you won’t want to miss.

Details

November 20, 20258 p.m.

Price

Free entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallPrior Performing Arts Center

Chamber Music Recital
2025-11-18 19:30 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Chamber Music Recital

Chamber music is played by small ensembles of two or more players such as duos, trios, quartets, etc., where every part is played by a single performer. Its intimate setting creates a process that is democratic, participative, and that across history has been compared to a conversation among friends.
This recital features the students who participate in the Chamber Music course as they perform the works they have studied during the semester.

Details

November 18, 20257:30 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

American Patchwork Quartet
2025-11-14 19:30 | PRIOR PRESENTS – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Prior Presents 2025–26

American Patchwork Quartet

A co-presentation with Music Worcester, Inc.

Purchase Tickets

Join us for a pre-concert talk at 6:30 p.m. in the Boroughs Theatre, free and open to all.
American Patchwork Quartet (APQ), led by multi-Grammy award-winning guitarist/vocalist Clay Ross, binds timeless American folk songs with jazz sophistication, country twang, West African hypnotics, and East Asian ornamentation. APQ’s sound is a masterful confluence of tradition and innovation, transcending culture, politics, and ideology.
A southern-born roots music aficionado, Ross is also the founder of the world-renowned Gullah group Ranky Tanky. In APQ, Ross intertwines with other Grammy-winning artists: Falu (Falguni Shah), an eleventh-generation Hindustani classical vocalist, Yasushi Nakamura, an internationally acclaimed Issei jazz bassist, and Clarence Penn, a drumming protégée of Ellis Marsalis whose fibers were honed by African American church traditions.
APQ resonates as a potent symbol of unity in diversity. It stands testament to the notion that, from a collage of varied backgrounds, a coherent and beautiful whole can be fashioned. Mirroring America’s cultural mosaic, APQ stitches together a story that’s both intricate and resilient. The fabric of their music is genuine—it neither feigns tolerance nor presents an overly-embellished image of unity. Instead, each carefully chosen piece dives deep into America’s patchwork soul and shares the joys, sorrows, and unwavering hope of a nation crafted by shared dreams and diverse histories.

Details

Nov 14, 20257:30 p.m. Performance6:30 p.m. Pre-Concert Talk

Price

$35 | $45 | $55

Venue

Luth Concert Hall
The Prior Performing Arts Center

“ . . . a breathtaking confluence of heritage roots, jazz, and world music influences . . . ”
Robyn Flans
Mix Magazine

Explore More

About Music Worcester
Celebrating More than 160 Years of Music and Culture
Music Worcester has been bringing world-renowned musicians and ensembles to Central Massachusetts since its founding in 1858. Today, the organization regularly presents world-renowned orchestras, soloists, and ensembles from the worlds of classical, jazz, folk, world music, and dance to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
In 2024, Music Worcester launched THE COMPLETE BACH, an 11-year project to present live performances of all J.S. Bach’s known works. Music Worcester’s education and outreach initiatives include in-school workshops and masterclasses, and the availability of free and reduced-price tickets. In 2026, Dr. Everett McCorvey will serve as the Artist-in-Residence, a bi-annual program that establishes deep community relationships with an individual artist.
Learn more at MUSICWORCESTER.ORG

Working Writers Series: Ferris Jabr
2025-11-13 19:30 | CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM – Booth Media Lab –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Creative Writing Program

Ferris Jabr

Working Writers Series

Ferris Jabr will read from and discuss his work as part of the Working Writers Series sponsored by the Creative Writing Program.
Ferris Jabr is the New York Times-bestselling author of Becoming Earth and a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. Ferris has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, National Geographic, and Scientific American, among numerous other publications. He has received fellowships from Yale, MIT, and UC Berkeley, as well as grants from the Pulitzer Center and the Whiting Foundation. His work has been anthologized in four editions of The Best American Science and Nature Writing series.

Details

November 13, 20257:30 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Booth Media LabPrior Performing Arts Center

Holy Cross Orchestra with Alice Jones & Alexander Davis*
2025-11-12 19:30 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Luth Concert Hall –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Holy Cross Orchestra

with Alice Jones (flute) & Alexander Davis (bassoon)

*Funded by The Patrick E. Moriarty, M.D. ’57 Visiting Scholars Program
Guest artists Alice Jones (flute) and Alexander Davis (bassoon) join the Holy Cross Orchestra, under the direction of Michael Carney, for the world premiere of Matthew Jaskot’s double concerto, By the Ocean in May.
This piece was inspired by annual family trips to Cape Ann (Gloucester and Rockport, MA) taken to commemorate a moment of personal loss. The central focus of the work is to explore how the healing process evolves as time passes, and that overcoming grief is not a linear experience, but instead circular. The work includes many fascinating sonic representations of rays of light, sunsets, shades of cerulean, and prismatic ribbons which contrast with the boisterous and punchy second movement.

Details

November 12, 20257:30 p.m.

Price

Free entry

Venue

Luth Concert HallThe Prior Performing Arts Center

Carol Lieberman, Baroque Violin & Mark Kroll, Harpsichord
2025-11-11 16:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Carol Lieberman, Baroque Violin & Mark Kroll, Harpsichord

The program will feature music for Baroque violin and harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, François Couperin, Georg Friedrich Handel and Domenico Scarlatti.

Details

November 11, 20254 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

Charles Weiss Summer Research Recital: Nate Murray ‘26 & Julianna Stratton ‘26
2025-11-08 13:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – Brooks Concert Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

Charles Weiss Summer Research Recital

Julianna Stratton ‘26
Nate Murray ‘26

This concert will include premiere performances of The Voices We Wear by Julianna Stratton ‘26 and Songs under a Cricket Moon by Nate Murrary ‘26. These song cycles were inspired by reflections on life, love, and longing, and were written as one component of Weiss Summer Research projects.
The Voices We Wear was inspired by the romantic idiom of the character piece and is loosely tied to the chronology of a lifetime, exploring the one-dimensional identifiers we assign to ourselves in seeking universality and connection beyond our own personal experiences. Each movement is centered around a classical or romantic text, and represents a different person we ‘become’ over the course of our life.
Songs under a Cricket Moon emanates from a collection of over 200 poems written by two women during the Heian period in Japan. It explores themes of longing, love, and betrayal, and how these emotions can both coexist and suddenly morph into a different one. This musical journey employs both male and female voices and a diverse instrumental ensemble, serving to challenge traditional expectations about gender and narrative.

Details

November 8, 20251 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

Brooks Concert Hall

Lunchtime Concert Series: A Collection of Originals | Haley Labdon ‘28, Singer/Songwriter
2025-11-05 12:00 | DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC – The Beehive –, 1 College St, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
Department of Music

A Collection of Originals

Haley Labdon ‘28, Singer/Songwriter

Lunchtime Concert Series

The program will feature a collection of original compositions featuring voice and acoustic guitar.
Inspired by the passing of time, the natural world, and the human experience, the pieces highlight personal experiences and stories through indie-folk style music.

Details

November 5, 202512 p.m.

Price

Free Entry

Venue

The BeehivePrior Performing Arts Center
