W&L ‘Expands The Arts’

W&L ‘Expands The Arts’

Lenfest Season Features Outreach Series, Indigenous Peoples’ Events

Washington and Lee University’s Lenfest Center for the Arts announces its 2024-25 season, “Expand the Arts!” featuring artistic alliances, creative outreach and community engagement collaborations and engaging performance experiences.

Online ticket sales for selected events - Afrique en Cirque, Key Note Speaker & Authentic Indigenous Dinner and Red Sky Performance - begins Aug. 1.

The Lenfest box office opens for in-person and remaining online ticket sales on Monday, Sept. 9. Patrons can contact the box office by calling (540) 458-8000 or emailing [email protected].

Expand the Arts! was conceived with an eye toward creating unique and engaging approaches for the W&L community and audiences to connect with the artists on stage through Lenfest Center’s University Fall and Winter Outreach and Engagement (O&E) Series, explained a Lenfest Center spokesperson.

The Lenfest O&E series is focused on connecting university knowledge and art experiences on the W&L campus and beyond to the community in a mutually beneficial partnership.

In addition to the O&E performances, audiences will have the opportunity to interact in open dialogue and conversation with artists and speakers during several events presented in conjunction with the performances.

These interdisciplinary offerings usher in new ways for W&L’s campus to celebrate Native American histories and cultures leading up to Indigenous Peoples’ Day (Oct 14). Additional O&E Kamen Gallery events include the Indigenous Dress and Culture Exhibit Sept. 1 through Dec. 23; “Native American Peoples and Lands: Historic Connections to W&L” on Sept. 27 at 5:30 p.m.; and Native American Washington state poet laureate Rena Priest (Lhaq’temish Lummi Nation) on Oct. 1 at 5:30 p.m.

October Lenfest O&E highlights include keynote speaker Sandra Laronde (artistic director of Red Sky Performance) and Red Sky Performance dancers at an authentic Indigenous Dinner prepared by W&L’s chefs on Oct. 7 at 5:30 p.m. in Evans Dining Hall. Laronde is a renowned visionary leader, multidisciplinary artist and arts innovator from the Teme-Augama Anishinaabe, the People of the Deep Water, in Temagami, northern Ontario and based in Toronto. Tickets are required with limited availability.

Lenfest Season

W&L’s Lenfest season, featured in the Keller Theatre, opens with a family-friendly daredevil circus, “Afrique en Cirque,” on Sept. 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Keller Theatre. “Cirque” shares the beauty, youth and artistry of African culture.

The Lenfest Center marks its first ever Indigenous- centered and Indigenous-led performance with Red Sky Performance on Oct. 8 at 7:30 p.m., a leading company of contemporary Indigenous performance (dance, theater, music and media) in Canada and worldwide. Join Red Sky Performance for “A Night of Miigis Moments, An Evening with Red Sky.” “Miigis: Underwater Panther” is inspired by the formidable odyssey of the Anishinaabe along the water routes from the Atlantic shores to the Great Lakes, moving from salt to fresh water. “Miigis” reveals the power of nature through dance, theatrical innovation and a fusion of athleticism, music and film. The performance here is supported in part by the Pickens Fund for Performing Arts.

The Lenfest season concludes with Okaidja Afroso: “Jaku Mumor: Ancestral Spirit” on March 29 at 7:30 p.m. in the Wilson Concert Hall. His evocative and soulful original music charts a journey from the traditional songs of his youth, to an immersion into the music of the African Diaspora, integrating the influences and sounds of international collaborators in pursuit of global harmony. The Lenfest O&E Series includes Afroso’s connection with several classrooms across campus.

Tickets are required for all Lenfest Series events. Performances are sponsored in part by the Class of ’64 Performing Arts Fund.

Concert Guild

W&L’s Concert Guild season boasts three ticketed performances in Wilson Concert Hall.

The season opens on Nov. 8 with Spain’s Quarteto Casals at 8 p.m. Cuarteto Casals, with its distinctive tonal language, is considered one of the best string quartets in the world. They will perform Mozart’s “Quartet in D Major, K. 499,” “Hoffmeister,” Gubaidulina’s “Reflections on the Theme B-A-C-H,” and the “Quartet in c minor, Op. 51, No. 1” by Johannes Brahms.

Boris Berman, piano, performs on Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. He heads the Piano Department of Yale School of Music and conducts master classes throughout the world. A Grammy nominee, Berman has recorded all solo piano works by Prokofiev and Schnittke, complete sonatas by Scriabin, and works by Mozart, Weber, Schumann, Brahms, Franck, Shostakovich, Debussy, Stravinsky, Berio, Cage and Joplin.

The King’s Singers, representing the gold standard in a cappella singing, will close the season on Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. with “Close Harmony” — celebrating highlights of their repertoire since its founding in 1968, including arrangements of English folksongs as well as songs by Billy Joel, John Lennon, Paul Mc-Cartney, George Gershwin and Bob Chilcott.

SonKlect

W&L’s SonoKlect season, a program dedicated to bringing modern music to local audiences in Lexington, opens with the “Music of Royce Campbell” on Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. in the Wilson Concert Hall. Campbell is a titan among jazz guitarists and composers.

The season concludes on Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. with Los Tres Músicos — a triumphant return of a trio whose musical journey began at SonoKlect in 1997. Violinist Jasper Wood’s performances have graced prestigious stages worldwide, earning him acclaim as a virtuoso soloist and chamber musician. Cellist Jesús Morales, a cornerstone of the Dalí Quartet, has garnered accolades for his performances on global tours. Pianist David Riley, renowned for his collaborative prowess and musical partnership, enriches the trio’s dynamic sound. Experience the premiere of Terry Vosbein’s latest piano trio, a testament to decades of friendship and musical synergy. No tickets are required for SonoKlect performances.

Theater, Dance

W&L’s Department of Theater, Dance, and Film Studies season will open with “W&L Dancers Create …” Oct. 31–Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. in the Keller Theatre. Under the artistic direction of Jenefer Davies, “W&L Dancers Create ...” is a concert of works created, designed and performed by W&L students.

“Hamlet 50/50” opens on Nov. 19-21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Johnson Theatre. This world premiere 90-minute adaptation of Shakespeare’s greatest play balances the power structure in Hamlet’s Denmark and in the contemporary rehearsal room while staying true to Shakespeare’s story and retaining his beautiful language. If you think you know “Hamlet,” come hear it again in a whole new way.

The Winter 2025 Robert O. and Elizabeth M. Bentley Musical will be “The Prom,” running March 12-14 at 7:30 p.m. and March 15 at 2 p.m. in the Keller Theatre. Winner of the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, “The Prom” captures all the humor and heart of a classic musical comedy with a message that resonates with audiences now more than ever.

The award-winning W&L Repertory Dance Company will perform pieces created by both faculty and nationally and internationally renowned guest artists on April 9-11 at 7:30 p.m.

The season concludes with Aerial Dance on May 22 at 2 and 6 p.m. and May 23 at 2 p.m. on the roof and outside wall of the Wilson Concert Hall. This spring term performance is a practicum using emerging research in aerial dance with rope and harness.

Department of Music

W&L’s Department of Music season features numerous faculty recitals in the Wilson Concert Hall, including Heather Dobbins, bassoon, and Anna Billias, piano; Anima e Grazia featuring Julia Goudimova, cello, and Anna Billias, piano; and the Marlbrook Chamber Ensemble.

The choral program offers a number of performances featuring the University Singers, Men’s Glee Club and Cantatrici throughout the year.

The W&L Fall Choral Concert will be held on Oct. 22 at 8 p.m. Tickets are free, but required.

The University Wind Ensemble will perform on Nov. 4 at 8 p.m.; no tickets are required. The University Jazz Ensemble will return on Nov. 7 at 8 p.m., with no tickets required; and the University Orchestra opens its season on Nov. 14 at 8 p.m., again with no tickets are required.

W&L’s Holiday Pops Concert will be one night only, Dec. 3 at 7 p.m., in the Keller Theatre. Tickets are free with non-perishable food or monetary donation to Campus Kitchen. Tickets can be reserved online. Monetary donations may be made online, while food donations are required in-person at the Lenfest box office during open hours. Tickets will be available beginning Nov. 11.

For a full list of performances, visit the Lenfest Center’s website.