Author: brink

Brian Lopez is taking the UA Presents virtual stage on Thursday, Sept. 17, as part of the University of Arizona arts presenter’s Tucson Studio series spotlighting local musicians.

The last time we saw the husband-wife team of Jing Xia and Bin Hu perform on a Tucson stage was summer 2019 when the pair headlined a concert with St. Andrew’s Bach Society.

On Thursday, Sept. 10, the pair, who perform as Duo Chinoiserie, is playing a much bigger stage at Centennial Hall as part of UA Presents‘ The Tucson Studio series. The performance, recorded a few weeks ago, will be streamed on UA Presents YouTube, Facebook and Tucson Studios sites beginning at 6 p.m.

With everyone spending more time indoors and online it occurred to some of our community members to generate fresh content. They decided to use the interwebs as a force for good to try and help local musicians. So presented here in a digital safe space you can catch the following concerts and maybe even drop a 5 spot in the digital tip jar.

When UA Presents called off the second half of its 2019-20 season in March, the folks at the University of Arizona arts presenting arm were at a loss of what to do next.

It was their busiest time of year, with shows a couple of nights a week and the excitement of locking down the season ahead.

Suddenly the staff was homebound conducting business remotely.

It didn’t take long before “some of our staff who are used to being in the theater all the time were tired of the Zoom calls and were saying what can we do,” UA Presents Executive Director Chad Herzog said.

With COVID-19 putting a stop to live music, the community is figuring out ways to keep the show going.

University of Arizona, Broadway in Tucson and Tucson Botanical Gardens are bringing virtual concerts to the Gardens.