John Mark Rafacz, Town&Gown

Dawn Upshaw, a five-time Grammy Award-winning soprano, and Gilbert Kalish, a celebrated pianist and her longtime accompanist, will join with Sō Percussion, a quartet that “plays with an irresistible vitality” (Washington Post), to perform music by two Pulitzer Prize-winning composers at 7:30 p.m. October 24 in Schwab Auditorium. The program features a yet-to-be-titled work,…

Lila Downs is a global superstar and champion of indigenous cultures, but most people in the State College area probably haven’t heard of her. Central Pennsylvanians not familiar with Downs’ three-octave vocal range and poignant storytelling can get to know her when she makes her Penn State premiere October 17 at Eisenhower Auditorium. One…

Montreal, the fertile crescent of contemporary circus, has done it again. Flip FabriQue, the newest gravity-defying sensation from Quebec, will make its Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State premiere this fall in Catch Me!, a celebration of fun and friendship. “The young members of Flip FabriQue claim to be French Canadian,” writes…

Wynton Marsalis knows musical talent when he hears it. After considering the attributes of jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant, the trumpeter is convinced of her greatness.   “She has poise, elegance, soul, humor, sensuality, power, virtuosity, range, insight, intelligence, depth, and grace,” Marsalis says of the 27-year-old McLorin Salvant, who has been thrilling…

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, one of the world’s most celebrated musicians, will appear at Penn State for only the third time when he performs in concert with pianist Kathryn Stott November 3 at Eisenhower Auditorium. Ma, whose career is defined by an insatiable desire to find musical connections across cultures, and Stott, a fixture on…

“A master of visual composition” (Dance Magazine), choreographer Jessica Lang transforms ballet language into artfully crafted, emotionally engaging contemporary works. Lang is the artistic director of Jessica Lang Dance, a New York City-based company formed in 2011 after the choreographer and former member of Twyla Tharp’s company, THARP!, received a 2010 Joyce Theater Artist…

Bang on a Can All-Stars, which performed Julia Wolfe’s John Henry-inspired Steel Hammer at Penn State in 2009, returns to Eisenhower Auditorium March 30 for a concert featuring Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning oratorio Anthracite Fields. Penn State Concert Choir will join Bang on a Can for the performance. Anthracite Fields commemorates the history of the…