Mechanics Hall - Youth Jazz Ensembles

The WY Jazz Program is pleased to host the Empire State Youth Jazz Orchestra for an afternoon jazz exchange concert! Each ensemble will perform their own selections and conclude with joint performances with both ensembles.

Light refreshments served and cash bar available.

Featuring:
Worcester Youth Jazz Ensemble
Dan Gabel, Director of Jazz
Empire State Youth Jazz Orchestra
Peter Bellini, Conductor

Nashua Arts - Safe Haven Ballet Nutcracker

Safe Haven Ballet is thrilled to bring our spirited, full-length ballet of The Nutcracker to Nashua Center for the Arts! This dynamic performance includes all of your favorite characters including a strong-minded Clara to the eccentric Drosselmeyer, the spooky Rats, as well as our beloved Sugarplum Fairy danced by artistic director, Lissa Curtis. In the Land of Sweets you will be introduced to a variation unique to Safe Haven Ballet called The Brave American. Come sing and clap along to this spirited, patriotic piece! 

SHB is located in beautiful Portsmouth, New Hampshire and exists to offer free trauma sensitive classes to survivors of sexual/domestic violence and trauma. Many of these brave survivors will be in the production as they help bring the magic of the season to you. We would love your energetic applause! 

Erica Rhodes (2)

As seen on America's Got Talent Season 19

Erica Rhodes has appeared on ABC’s Modern Family, HBO’s Veep, Fox’s New Girl, and IFC’s Comedy Bang Bang. She was a regular panelist on Comedy Central’s @midnight and Fox’s Punchline. Her standup TV appearances include NBC’s Bring the Funny and Last Call with Carson Daly, the CW’s Howie Mandel Comedy Extravaganza, SeeSo’s The Guest List, Hulu’s Coming to the Stage, and AXS’ Live at Gotham. Erica was chosen as a New Face for the 2018 Just for Laughs Festival (Montreal) and also performed at the San Francisco Sketchfest, the Moontower Comedy Festival (Austin, TX), the Blue Whale Comedy Festival (Tulsa, OK), the Boston Comedy Festival and RIOT L.A. Fest. Erica starred in the ABC Digital series The OffSeason, was a semi-regular performer/writer on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion, and a recurring character on the Audible series, Dr. Katz: The Audiobook. Her first album Sad Lemon hit #1 on the iTunes comedy charts and her first one-hour comedy special La Vie en Rhodes was shot as part of the Tribeca Drive-In Fest (at Pasadena’s famous Rose Bowl) and can now be viewed on Amazon Prime. Erica currently voices the scene-stealing character of “Dotty” in the hit Netflix animation series, A Tale Dark and Grimm. Bring the Funny judge Jeff Foxworthy described Erica as “the best-defined comic voice of the competition.”

Och & Oy!: A Considered Cabaret

Och & Oy!: A Considered Cabaret starring Alan Cumming and Ari Shapiro

Alan Cumming (Cabaret, The Good Wife) and Ari Shapiro (NPR’s All Things Considered, Pink Martini)  both transport audiences to other worlds through their stories.  Now, they’re joining forces in SONG.  Witness the critically acclaimed evening of tunes and tall tales titled “Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret”.  Musical direction by Henry Koperski.

In a statement, Cumming said, “I’ve got to know Ari over the last few years, both socially and when he interviewed me for a couple of events.  The last time was an evening in D.C., and by the end of it I realized our chemistry and the unusual combo of us, as well as the fact that Ari has an amazing voice, would make for a really great cabaret show.  And kapow!  We’re doing it!  What I love most is it’s fresh and ever-changing.”

Shapiro added, “When Alan first suggested that we create a show together, I didn’t quite believe him.  Then as we started to dig in to this collaboration, I realized how much our professional lives actually complement each other.  We’re both storytellers who try to help audiences better understand themselves and the world around them.  This show lets us explore those shared ideals on stage together, through stories and songs.”

Lexington Symphony Orchestra

pre-concert conductor's talk at 6:30pm

Ives | Three Places in New England 1st Movement “The ‘St. Gaudens’ in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and His Colored Regiment)”
Nielsen | Symphony No. 4 “The Inextinguishable”
Holst | The Planets

Experience works that exemplify the human spirit of the colonists during the Revolutionary War. Ives is a local Massachusetts story. Nielsen and Holst were influenced by what was in the air during WW1 — humanity’s desire to live in freedom from oppression.

Josh Ritter: Great to Small, Small to Grand – 2024 Fall Tour

A special, intimate show with a stripped down trio version of Josh Ritter and his band,  featuring Sam Kassirer on piano and Rich Hinman on pedal steel, and more.

Josh Ritter is a renowned singer, songwriter, musician, artist and best-selling author. One of today’s most thoughtful and prolific voices, he has released eleven studio albums including 2019’s widely acclaimed, Fever Breaks, of which NPR Music praised, “He remains a hydrant of ideas while embodying an endless capacity for empathy and indignation, often within a single song.”

Hopkinton Arts - Dueling Pianos

Get ready for one of the most entertaining shows you will ever see! Savage Pianos was established in 2018 to bring the FINEST in Dueling Piano Entertainment to the Northeast. Co-founders Steve Savage and Matthew Tobin are recognized as headline entertainers worldwide. Both are known for their craftsmanship, deep repertoires, and unique personalities!  We guarantee this show will be a high-energy, request-driven, rock and roll singalong experience. Get ready to be wowed! Their last two HCA shows sold out, so hurry and get your tickets now!

Bull Run - Dave Hause

Dave Hause's songs have always been rooted in tangible reality - of emotion, of environment, of circumstance. Since releasing his debut album, "Resolutions," in 2011, the Philadelphia-born songwriter has poured his whole heart, soul and life into his music.

That’s no different on “Drive It Like It’s Stolen,” his sixth full-length release. Its 10 songs overflow with Hause’s trademark urgency and passion, shimmering with a truth that reflects the harsh realities of life in this day and age, as well the intermittent jolts of joy that punctuate it. 2013’s second album, "Devour," for example, was a response to his divorce from his first wife, while 2019’s "Kick" saw him tackle hope, depression, global warming and a crumbling American democracy with the news that he was to become a father. Most recently, on 2021’s "Blood Harmony," Hause wrote and sang about the positive impact of having twins, and of the joy and excitement of being able to be at home with them for the first couple of years of the pandemic. 

Sounds of Stow - Baroque Brilliante

Our 46th season opening concert, “Baroque Brilliance”, focuses on compositions by the three great Baroque composers — Scarlatti, Handel and Bach — all by happy coincidence born in the year 1685!  Scarlatti, though best known for his over 500 keyboard sonatas, also wrote beautiful devotional choral works which recall the ethereal sound of Palestrina, but are ingeniously constructed along Baroque principles of contrapuntal writing.

Mechanics Hall -

Boston Conservatory Orchestra, conducted by Bruce Hangen, highlights an array of Italian composers from throughout the ages, representing opera, ballet, film, and concert music. The program also features Capriccio Italien by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky—an acknowledgment of the many composers of other nationalities who traveled to Italy and composed symphonic impressions from their visit.