Performances

Join us for a selection of arias and other memorable moments from Mozart’s delightful Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), performed by students from the Penn State Opera Theatre, under the direction of Ted Christopher, artistic director, accompanied by Beverly Patton, musical director.

Presented in partnership with the Institute for the Arts and Humanities as part of the third annual Moments of Change multidisciplinary initiative, “Dare to Know!” The Late Eighteenth Century, 1776–1801.

Legendary performers and rising stars will kick off the new decade as AEG Live presents the Gaither Homecoming Tour 2010, coming Friday, March 19 to Penn State University’s Bryce Jordan Center.

Led by Bill Gaither and his vocal band, the 2010 Homecoming Tour promises to bring its usual celebration filled with the very best in contemporary Gospel.

America's #1 live on stage multi-media Beatle's experience as seen on Broadway and around the world. Hear it… See it… Believe it!
Beatlemania NOW! is not just a Beatles Tribute Band. Beatlemania NOW! is the most entertaining, authentic, and elaborate, Beatles tribute show performing today!
With as many as seven authentic costume changes, no other show gives you more! The band features four permanent, well-rehearsed group members and accomplished musicians, actors and Beatles impersonators who bear uncanny resemblances to John, Paul, George and Ringo, not only from across the room, but up close too and possess vocal talents to sound like them as well!
There are no tracks, tapes or background music of any kind used during a Beatlemania NOW! performance. All songs are performed absolutely live, including the most complex of Beatles' songs such as “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “I am the Walrus,” “Penny Lane,” “All You Need is Love” and more!
As many as 21 authentic guitars are used, just as the Beatles used, to reproduce their unique sound and look. Authentic, virtually impossible to rent backline equipment consisting of Vox amplifiers and Black Oyster Pearl Ludwig drum kit is used, just like that of the Beatles.
The band also has custom tailored costumes including exactly matching, "’60's black sheen" suits with velvet collars, camel colored Shea Stadium jackets, Magical Mystery Tour white tuxedos with tails and intricately and accurately detailed, satin "Sgt. Pepper" band uniforms including coats, trousers and hats.

Price: $32, $27, $22

America's #1 live on stage multi-media Beatle's experience as seen on Broadway and around the world. Hear it… See it… Believe it!
Beatlemania NOW! is not just a Beatles Tribute Band. Beatlemania NOW! is the most entertaining, authentic, and elaborate, Beatles tribute show performing today!

Benefit concert for Bridge of Hope Centre County, featuring songwriters Jason O, Cole Hons, Stacy Glen Tibbetts, and Paul Barsom.

Presented by the Junior Baroque Music Festival

Ticket Price: $10

The State College Area Municipal Band is playing a wide range of concert marches, March 28, Sunday at 3:00 in SCAHS South Auditorium in its Strike up the Band, Marches - and Music for Palm Sunday.


After opening the concert with "Strike Up the Band" by the March King, John Philip Sousa, the band will play concert marches ranging from "Washington Grays" by Grafulla to Tchaikovsky's "Marche Slave"--both wartime marches.


For Palm Sunday the band will play "Salvation is Created," a fine example of the choral music of the Russian Orthodox by Tschesnokoff, and "Oh Magnum Mystserium (Oh Great Mystery)" by Lauridsen, a piece which celebrates the Christian sacraments.


See and hear us on Facebook or call 238-8187 for more information.

Free Admission

Price: $45

Robert Cray
Robert Cray’s This Time – the first studio album on singer-songwriter-guitarist Cray’s own imprint Nozzle Records, distributed by Vanguard Records – arrives at a vital juncture in the musician’s career, marked by creative renewal and a key reunion with an old performing partner.
The five-time Grammy Award winner summarized 35 years of mastery on the debut Nozzle release Live From Across the Pond (2006), an electrifying two-CD concert set drawn from a series of shows (opening for Eric Clapton) at London’s Royal Albert Hall. When the time came to follow up that widely praised collection with a studio recording, Cray viewed it as an opportunity to move his sound in other directions.
As ever with Robert Cray’s undefinable sound, the music on This Time remains stubbornly beyond category. He has been internationally admired as a stylist whose innovations have brought new life to the blues, and such punchy outings as “Chicken in the Kitchen” and “That’s What Keeps Me Rockin’” should satisfy the most demanding blues fans. But the new album’s barrier-busting material – whether it’s the soulful “Love 2009” or the profound balladry of “This Time” and “Forever Goodbye” – demonstrate once again that attempting to slot Cray in a single genre is an exercise in futility.
“Blues is one of the foundations of our music, but it’s not all that we play,” Cray says. “When I first started playing guitar, I wanted to be George Harrison – that is, until I heard Jimi Hendrix. After that, I wanted to be Albert Collins and Buddy Guy and B.B. King. And then there are singers like O.V. Wright and Bobby Blue Bland. It’s all mixed up in there.”
He continues, “Every time somebody asks me about where my music comes from, I give them five or six different directions – a little rock, soul, jazz, blues, a little gospel feel. Then there are some other things that maybe fall in there every once in a while, like a little Caribbean flavor or something. You just never know. I always attribute it to the music we grew up listening to, and the radio back in the ‘60s. It’s pretty wide open. It’s hard to put a tag on it.”

Shemekia Copeland
At only 19, Shemekia Copeland stepped out of her father’s shadow with the Alligator release of 1998 debut recording, Turn the Heat Up!, and the critics raved. The Village Voice called her “nothing short of uncanny,” while the Boston Globe proclaimed that “she roars with a sizzling hot intensity.” A year later, she appeared in the Motion Picture Three To Tango, while her song “I Always Get My Man, was featured in the film Broken Hearts Club.
Her second album, Wicked, released in 2000, scored three Handy Awards (Song of the Year, Blues Album of the Year, Contemporary Female Artist of the Year) and a Grammy nomination. Two years later, New Orleans R&B legend Dr. John stepped in to produce her third recording, Talking To Strangers (2002), which Vibe called “a masterful blend of ballsy rockers and cheeky ballads.”
Copeland released The Soul Truth in 2005. The album was produced by legendary Stax guitarist Steve Cropper (who also played on the CD), and featured generous doses of blues, funk and Memphis-flavored soul. She joined Telarc International for the February 2009 release of Never Going Back. This new chapter in the Shemekia Copeland story represents a crossroads on her ongoing artistic journey – a place where numerous new avenues are open. While she will always remain loyal to her blues roots, Never Going Back takes a more forward view of the blues, and in so doing points her music and her career in a new direction.
We’re happy to welcome Shemekia back to the State for her second visit!

Three-time American Music Award winners Daughtry will bring their 2010 North American Tour to Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center on Wednesday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m. with special guest Cavo.

Tickets go on sale to the general public February 5 at 10:00 a.m. and can be purchased at the Bryce Jordan Ticket Center, Eisenhower Auditorium, Downtown Theatre, Penn State Altoona Campus, online www.ticketmaster.com,www.bjc.psu.edu or charge by phone at (814) 865-5555.

Don’t miss this opportunity to catch perhaps the premier folk/Americana duo as they wrap up their final shows after 17 years of touring. Crisp songwriting, killer hooks and licks, and infectious energy! Live and unplugged in the most intimate listening room in the area.

With a warm, relatable sound, Ingrid Michaelson has captured the hearts of countless fans with her compelling story as an unsigned artist who first achieved national attention with multiple song placements on the hit television series Grey's Anatomy. The show's producers became so enamored of her music that they chose Michaelson's "Keep Breathing" to air during the final six minutes of the 2007 season finale, resulting in massive and immediate mainstream exposure. Her ubiquitous hit single "The Way I Am," off her breakthrough album Girls and Boys, was not only spun on radio stations all over the country, but was featured in a major national television commercial for Old Navy. Ingrid has since appeared on Good Morning America, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and was the first unsigned musician ever selected as a Vh1 "You Oughta Know" artist. The New York Times has described Michaelson's unique musical approach as "soulful, idiosyncratic" and Entertainment Weekly described her as "a deft mistress of quirk folk---a grassroots phenomenon." Ingrid has released all of her music via her own Cabin 24 label which has sold nearly 400,000 albums and over 1.5 million singles to date.

Price:$27, $17 PSU UP Students Only**

Canadian actor and record artist, Drake, will bring “The Far Away From Home Tour” to Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center on Friday, April 9 at 8:00 p.m. with special guests K-OS and Francis & The Lights.

Tickets can be purchased at the Bryce Jordan Center, Eisenhower Auditorium, Downtown Theatre, Penn State Altoona, online at www.ticketmaster.com and www.bjc.psu.edu or charge by phone at (814) 865-5555.

Seventeenth Annual Nittany Valley Handbell Festival Concert
Guest conductor: Kath Wissinger
April 10, 2010
7:30 pm, State College Area High School, North Gymnasium.

The 17th Annual Nittany Valley Handbell Festival Concert will be held at 7:30 pm on April 10, 2010, at the State College Area High School, North Gymnasium. Guest conductor this year will be Kath Wissinger.

Ms. Wissinger is a church musician, clinician, teacher and composer who has long been active in handbells. Kath is known for her direct teaching style and for teaching theory and musicality while directing from the podium. She has directed the teen handbell group at her church since 1988 and also teaches middle high handbell classes at a small private school. She has over 50 compositions in print.

Festival contact info:
Gail Ritchey, ggritchey@verizon.net, 814-234-1655, www.nittanyvalleyhandbellfestival.org/index.html

The State Theatre will be a hopping place on Saturday, April 10 when UltraMax Music puts a new spin on old classics. Led by Max Fomitchev, a Penn State professor of computer sciences, UltraMax Music brings classical music to the younger generation by fusing classics by Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi and more with original techno dance music.
UltraMax Music will be performing with the Penn State Innovation Orchestra and the Electric Light Quartet, which are made up of some of the Penn State’s most talented musicians. The Electric Light Quartet will be using custom made instruments that respond visually with light to the music that is being played. The instruments were created by Penn State computer engineering students. The show will also include lasers and live video.
TechnoClassica 2.0 is going to be a perfect family event. Traditional patrons of classical music are encouraged to bring their children and grandchildren to the show. This is a concert that both older and younger generations can enjoy together.
In 2008, UltraMax Music and the Penn State Innovation Orchestra played to a sold out crowd at Eisenhower auditorium. A few hundred people couldn’t get in to the concert because of the unexpected turn out. Since The State Theatre is a smaller venue, we recommend ordering tickets in advance. For more information and to order tickets visit www.TechnoSymphony.com or www.thestatetheatre.org.

Performed live by UltraMax and the Penn State Electric Light Quartet

Ticket Price: $25, $12 Students

In 1995, Zoso was formed to create the most mesmerizing and accurate portrayal of "the biggest band of the 1970’s" - Led Zeppelin (Rolling Stone Magazine). Each member was selected to portray both the appearance and playing styles of the original Led Zeppelin band members. Comprised of Matt Jernigan (Robert Plant), John McDaniel (Jimmy Page), Adam Sandling (John Paul Jones), and Greg Thompson (John Bonham), Zoso almost immediately developed an outstanding regional reputation and were awarded "Best Tribute Act in California" by Rock City News.
In 1999, Zoso began touring nationally, playing a remarkable 2,400 live performances, honing their show to become one of the most musically and visually rewarding acts in North America. Their passion, musical ability, showmanship and precise attention to detail earned them critical acclaim, name recognition and a large loyal following. The Los Angeles Times hailed the group as being "head and shoulders above all other Zeppelin tributes," and the Chicago Sun-Times declared Zoso to be "the closest to the original of any tribute."
Every year since its conception, Zoso continues to play 150 to 180 high profile concerts at performance arts centers, civic centers, theaters, festivals, and universities. Since 2004, the band has been working on numerous shows with Live Nation including a rotation of nine House of Blues venues. The four permanent members’ mastery of authentic vintage instruments coupled with spot-on vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards, their compelling stage persona and distinct Led Zeppelin sound, with astounding visual imagery recreates the music, magic, and mystery of a Zeppelin concert. Each of the timeless hit songs performed in their sets are known and loved by generations of fans.
If you missed Led Zeppelin live in the 70's or are looking for a great chance to relive the "Hammer of the Gods" phenomenon, you must experience what the St. Petersburg Times calls "the most exacting of the Zeppelin tribute bands in existence.”

Price: $25, $20 for students

Humor, history, tall tales and good ol’ fashion American folk music from these longtime ‘Brew favorites. Live and unplugged in the most intimate listening room in the area.

Vivaldi: Concerto for 2 Flutes
Albrechtsberger: Concerto for Harp
Anne Sullivan, Harp
Haydn: Symphony "Le Midi"

In 1995, Zoso was formed to create the most mesmerizing and accurate portrayal of "the biggest band of the 1970’s" - Led Zeppelin (Rolling Stone Magazine). Each member was selected to portray both the appearance and playing styles of the original Led Zeppelin band members. Comprised of Matt Jernigan (Robert Plant), John McDaniel (Jimmy Page), Adam Sandling (John Paul Jones), and Greg Thompson (John Bonham), Zoso almost immediately developed an outstanding regional reputation and were awarded "Best Tribute Act in California" by Rock City News.
In 1999, Zoso began touring nationally, playing a remarkable 2,400 live performances, honing their show to become one of the most musically and visually rewarding acts in North America. Their passion, musical ability, showmanship and precise attention to detail earned them critical acclaim, name recognition and a large loyal following. The Los Angeles Times hailed the group as being "head and shoulders above all other Zeppelin tributes," and the Chicago Sun-Times declared Zoso to be "the closest to the original of any tribute."
Every year since its conception, Zoso continues to play 150 to 180 high profile concerts at performance arts centers, civic centers, theaters, festivals, and universities. Since 2004, the band has been working on numerous shows with Live Nation including a rotation of nine House of Blues venues. The four permanent members’ mastery of authentic vintage instruments coupled with spot-on vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards, their compelling stage persona and distinct Led Zeppelin sound, with astounding visual imagery recreates the music, magic, and mystery of a Zeppelin concert. Each of the timeless hit songs performed in their sets are known and loved by generations of fans.
If you missed Led Zeppelin live in the 70's or are looking for a great chance to relive the "Hammer of the Gods" phenomenon, you must experience what the St. Petersburg Times calls "the most exacting of the Zeppelin tribute bands in existence.”

Price: $26

Price: $30, $25 students and seniors

Freddy Cole has been a recording artist since 1952, when his first single "The Joke’s on Me" was released on an obscure Chicago-based label. During the 1970’s, Cole recorded several albums for European and English companies that helped him develop a loyal overseas following. A resident of Atlanta, Georgia since 1972, he currently leads a quartet that regularly tours the United States, Europe, the Far East and South America.
Cole doesn't apologize for sounding like his brother, Nat "King" Cole. There are certain unmistakable similarities. He plays piano and sings and performs live with guitar and upright bass, just like Nat. Yet his voice is raspier, smokier, jazzier even. But he has emerged from the awesome shadow cast by his elder brother. In truth, his phrasing is far closer to that of Frank Sinatra or Billie Holiday than that of his brother and his timing swings a little more.
His vocals are suave, elegant, formidable and articulate and are among the most respected in jazz. Cole’s career continues to ascend as he has moved into the front ranks of America’s most precious art form with a style and musical sophistication uniquely his own.

An unbelievable night of music and cultural diversity with the acknowledged masters of Tuvan throat singing, a remarkable technique for singing multiple pitches at the same time. Alash also performs on traditional Tuvan instruments. A must-see for world music fans, and fans of the movie Ghengis Blues!

Brahms: Serenade in A
Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Jan Wilson, mezzo soprano
Haydn: Symphony "Le Soir"

lan Jackson, one of country music’s most popular mainstays, is once again hitting the tracks and will bring his 2010 Freight Train Tour to Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center on Friday, May 21 at 7:00 p.m. with special guests Josh Turner and Chris Young.

Tickets can be purchased at the Bryce Jordan Center, Downtown Theatre, Penn State Altoona, online at www.ticketmaster.com, www.bjc.psu.edu or www.LiveNation.com or by phone at (814) 865-5555.

One of acoustic music’s living legends, Schmidt just keeps getting better. She brings her impeccable 12-string guitar stylings, dulcimer virtuosity and rich vocals back to the Brew. Live and unplugged in the most intimate listening room in the area.

Back by popular demand! This California duo welcomes in summer with a special Memorial Day Monday show featuring their trademark blend of bluegrass, folk and country. Join us before the show for a potluck picnic on the Lemont Village Green.

Creation Festivals are two annual events that have become the Nation's Largest Christian Music Festivals. The Creation Experience includes four jam-packed days of music, teaching, baptism, camping and fellowship - a summer's worth of fun for one low price.

Creation Festival 2010 Northeast comes to the Agape Farm in Mount Union, PA, June 30 - July 3rd, 2010. Join the tens of thousands who have made Creation a part of every summer. Group rates are available - make it your summer event or youth mission trip.