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Penn State College of Arts and Architecture
Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State

ElSaffar jam

Community Jam Session with Amir ElSaffar

Date: 
7:00 pm Monday, April 3, 2023
Location: 

3 Dots Downtown
137 E. Beaver Ave., State College

Presented by the Center for the Performing Arts and 3 Dots Downtown

Join Amir ElSaffar — trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and composer — for some hang time and music making one day before his concert at Eisenhower Auditorium. ElSaffar combines Middle Eastern traditions with jazz and other styles of music. Want to play in the jam session? Bring an instrument and join the fun.

Community Jam Session with Mwenso and The Shakes

Community Jam Session with Mwenso and The Shakes

Date: 
7:00 pm Friday, January 20, 2023
Location: 

3 Dots Downtown
137 E. Beaver Ave., State College

Join Mwenso and The Shakes for a community music jam and reception. The artists will celebrate partnerships fostered in the past three years through their participation in the center’s Fierce Urgency Festival. Anyone who wants to play in the jam session is welcome to bring an instrument and join the fun.

Presented by the Center for the Performing Arts and 3 Dots Downtown.

This engagement is supported in part by a grant from the Association of Performing Arts Professionals ArtsForward program, funded by the Mellon Foundation.

Ancestral Listening Session

Ancestral Communal Listening Session with DJ Elbow Knee Knee

Date: 
6:00 pm Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Location: 

3 Dots Downtown
137 E. Beaver Ave., State College

Musician and educator Michael Mwenso will joyfully guide attendees through the powerful gifts buried within Black roots music and will demonstrate how he actively listens to music—alone and as part of a community.

Through this exploration of recorded music, participants will learn to understand that Black roots music contains the Black experience. It embodies the spirit and memory of a people who weave together traditions of the African diaspora with expressions in the United States, the Americas, and beyond.

A Choral Tribute to MLK

Presenter: 
Center for the Performing Arts
A spotlight shines down upon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he speaks to a large crowd.

A Choral Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
featuring
Penn State’s Essence of Joy
Dr. Anthony T. Leach, conductor
Morgan State University Concert Choir
Dr. Eric Conway, conductor
State College Area High School Master Singers
Erik Clayton, conductor
Bellefonte Area High School Concert Choir
Eric Brinser, conductor
with special guest ensemble
Mwenso and The Shakes
Artistic Coordinator: Dr. Anthony T. Leach

Date: 
4:00 pm Saturday, January 21, 2023
Event Description: 

Modeled after a program first presented in 1990 by the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., A Choral Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will bring together vocal ensembles from Penn State, Centre County high schools, and a historically Black university.

Healing Power of Music

Hope: The Healing Power of Music
A Conversation with Soweto Gospel Choir 

Date: 
2:00 pm Monday, November 28, 2022
Location: 

Paterno Library’s Foster Auditorium

Presented by the Center for the Performing Arts in partnership with Penn State University Libraries

Hear a discussion with Shimmy Jiyane, choir master, and Diniloxolo Ndlakuse, musical director, about the Soweto Gospel Choir’s concert tour featuring South African freedom songs and music of the American civil rights movement.

Make a Joyful Noize documentary

Presenter: 
Center for the Performing Arts

Soul Science Lab
Creating Make a Joyful Noize
documentary screening and talkback

Date: 
7:30 pm Tuesday, October 4, 2022
Event Description: 

This virtual screening is a collaboration between Soul Science Lab and the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State. The screening will be followed immediately by a question-and-answer session featuring film creators Chen Lo and Asante Amin.

Identities

Miguel Zenón
Identities are Changeable

Date: 
5:30 pm Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Location: 

128 Music Building II

This event is FREE, but you must register in advance to attend.
Complete the registration form.

Presented by the Center for the Performing Arts in collaboration with the Penn State Hispanic Heritage Month Committee

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