Arizona Arts Live is proud to announce that The Tucson Studio is back with an exceptional lineup of musicians across all genres, creeds, and callings. After a three month COVID safety break, the team can’t wait to share a new release this Thursday February 5. Join us at 6pm in welcoming local Hip Hop and R&B artist Mo-T to the Centennial Hall stage. Mo-T (she/her) is a black queer multifaceted artist, born and raised out of Winter Park, FL. Morgan is a conscious artist who’s content focuses on addressing and bringing awareness to social issues/injustices, naming feelings, and self accountability-in hopes to spread community accountability. Embracing change and deep healing, Morgan decided to open up a bit, as she knows that vulnerability is our greatest measure of courage. In this set, you will feel the passion and truly see why Mo-T, was nicknamed Mo La-Flo. Don’t miss the premiere! Tune in at 6pm sharp for 20 elevating minutes with Mo-T.SUBSCRIBE to Arizona Arts Live on Youtube and never miss a release.

If there’s one thing musician and marketing expert Seanloui knows, it’s how to make connections. His ability to build networks within our artistic community is what gave rise to the Black Renaissance Festival, which is currently celebrating its third year in Tucson and has grown to include an album, a podcast, and a plethora of events, both live and virtual, throughout the month of February. Catch up with Seanloui as he and Chad talk releasing music, building a movement, and the internet.

Meet Matt Rolland and his vision of the future for musicians, performers, and presenters in the newest episode of ON THE RECORD: The Learning Curve. Matt is a full-time musician, the director of programs at SACAA, and the president of the Tucson Folk Festival. As both a working musician and an arts leader, he’s spent the year observing the changes in his field and engaging with new approaches to performance, and it’s safe to say we can all learn from his notes on these experiences. Get excited for the future with Matt and Chad this Thursday at 6pm. Check out Matt’s musical projects Run Boy Run and Riso, and his professional pursuits with SACAA and The Tucson Folk Festival ahead of the videocast!

Adriana Gallego is back in Tucson! After decades spent in Southern California, Texas, and Phoenix, this artist and arts leader has returned to her roots in Southern Arizona, bringing twenty years of arts leadership experience with her. Gallego has dedicated her career to, in her words, “the belief that all communities and individuals deserve equitable and accessible resources to thrive,” a philosophy she brings to every aspect of her work as Executive Director of The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona. Arizona Arts Live is thrilled to welcome her to On the Record, where she and Chad discuss navigating a pandemic, honoring diversity, promoting inclusion, and the magic of the ordinary becoming extraordinary. Find out more at artsfoundtucson.org AND artsfoundtucson.org/meet-our-new-executive-director/Adriana Gallego’s visual art can be viewed adrianaclaudio.com

Join Arizona Arts Live Executive Director Chad Herzog as he picks the brains of Tucson sound experts Frank Bair and Sam Eagon. Through their conversation, they explore the experiences of sound engineers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and speculate on the future of the industry once we begin to return to gathering for live performances. This is the best kind of shop talk.

Katie Haverly is a Tucson-based singer songwriter whose musical career spans over 20 years and multiple musical genres. Katie is a multi-instrumentalist and an avid collaborator, and her diverse interests can clearly be heard in her cutting edge compositions. She just released her 8th studio album, entitled Matter. At a time when musicians are unable to work and have almost no way to earn income from their talents, Katie Haverly hopes her performance inspires you to give financial aid to Tucson Musicians via the Tucson Musicians COVID Relief Fund. This fund is 100% dedicated to supporting local musicians who count on their performance income for food, medicine, bills, childcare, and other essentials. Especially with the stress and pressure of the holiday season fully upon us, every little bit counts. Donate directly via Venmo: @TucsonMusicianRelief

Manual Cinema broadcasts holiday cheer directly to your home with this world premiere of a special live-streamed adaptation of Charles Dickens’ timeless A Christmas Carol. The ever-inventive company that specializes in “vivacious hybrids of film and theater” (The New York Times) is creating a new production tailored for home viewing, one that’s poignantly resonant with our current lives. An avowed holiday skeptic, Aunt Trudy has been tasked with presenting her family’s annual Christmas Carol puppet show from the isolation of her studio apartment—over a Zoom call while the family celebrates Christmas Eve under lockdown. But as Trudy becomes more absorbed in her own version of the story, the puppets take on a life of their own, and the family’s holiday call transforms into a stunning cinematic adaptation of Dickens’ classic ghost story. Manual Cinema’s vivid production features hundreds of paper puppets, miniatures, silhouettes, and an original music score performed live. In signature Manual Cinema fashion, hundreds of paper puppets, miniatures, silhouettes, and a live original score will come together to tell an imaginative re-invention of this cherished holiday classic. Each show will be performed live in Manual Cinema’s Chicago studio and live-streamed to you at home. 

An extraordinary landscape. A powerful connection. A unique moment in time. Renowned illusionist, mentalist, and performance artist Scott Silven invites you on a journey, from your home to his. Hear a long-forgotten story, reveal the mysteries of your own mind, and unlock the secrets of Silven’s homeland through extraordinary illusions and feats of imagination. The audience is invited to join others in this virtual event like no other, and discover the path that connects them to Scott’s past, their own present, and a collective future. Taking place from Scott’s home in Scotland to your home here, each individual live interactive performance will come to life on your home computer or tablet screen. With a maximum of 30 individual viewers per show, this remarkable interactive experience explores your own sense of home, connection, and the power of place to transform us. The Journey awaits. 

This week we give the gift of Los Esplifs! On Nov 21, Arizona Arts Live teamed up with the MSA Annex to present local psyche-desert rockers XIXA to a sold-out audience, and with the assistance of local video/audio presenters No Audience we captured it all on video. Only XIXA’s performance was live-streamed that evening, but after witnessing the wonder of the opening act, Los Esplifs, we couldn’t bear the thought of so many missing out on this incredible experience. Los Esplifs are a local up-and-coming cumbia group, featuring some of Arizona’s best musicians hailing from across the sonic map. With experts in folk, punk, reggae, cumbia, and jazz, and a lineup consisting of members from such beloved bands as Mesquite, Vox Urbana, and Afrocuban Allstars, Los Esplifs is cumbia for the modern era and the masses. Together, the band embodies a mischievous, joyful, and unquestionably fun spirit. Los Esplifs wanted their performance to feel like a celebration, and even in these times of distance and limited capacity, they managed to do just that. You could feel the camaraderie, the joy of the crowd, and the general sense of release their set evoked. And this Thursday on The Tucson Studio you’ll finally get the chance to join us for this unquestionably joyful performance as well! Check out Los Esplifs bandcamp ahead of time, and enjoy the grooves on their excellent EP. Don’t forget to follow them on instagram.

At a time when our nation questions the efficacy of effigy, Arizona Arts Live is creating a space for the community to further explore the conversation around monuments and their meaning. Australian artmaker, Craig Walsh challenges the traditional concept of monuments to celebrate living, contributing, members of our Southern Arizona community.  Monuments will take place each night from October 29 through November 29 in the trees of the University of Arizona. Projecting the faces of some of our local heroes in an outdoor environment that allows for physical distancing will provide the community an opportunity to engage with and enjoy this work at their own pace each evening.  Meet our Monuments Plan your visit: Employees, students, and visitors must use face coverings in all UArizona locations, both indoors and outdoors, in accordance with UArizona’s Administrative Directive. All visitors are encouraged to download Covid Watch Arizona, the University’s new, free and anonymous exposure notification app. Monuments starts daily at sunset. Allow between 30 minutes and 1 hour to enjoy the experience. Parking is available at Tyndall Garage, a short walk from Centennial Hall. Garage parking is free on Saturdays and Sundays, though exceptions may apply. On-street parking is also available in the Main Gate neighborhood. Location of our Monuments

XIXA is a guitar-slinging six-piece formed in Tucson, in the heart of the deep Southwest, uniquely attuned to the desert and their Latin roots. Combining gritty guitars and drums, the bumping grind of Peruvian chicha, and windswept psychedelic desert blues into a mesmerizing stew, they are by turns trippy and devilish, like a jam band getting high on Diá de Los Muertos. XIXA’s songwriting and sound, a collaborative effort of co-frontmen Brian Lopez and Gabriel Sullivan, has solidified into a dark, near-mystical experience. Collectively, they’ve gathered spiritual and psychedelic influences from all over the world, creating something entirely unique. As Tucsonans, experiencing XIXA is a must. Their performances bring out hidden aspects of our lives in the desert — the mysterious, the ethereal, and the mind-bending. COVID-19 Safety: Working closely with the Pima County Health Department, MSA Annex follows the highest COVID-19 safety protocols. The MSA Annex Festival Grounds were constructed to seat audiences of 500 people and during these times will seat just 94. Guests will sit either in groups of two or four and must arrive together before entering the grounds. Unfortunately, no single tickets are able to be sold.By using electronic tickets only, the entire experience will be hands-free. When concert-goers arrive, their phone will be scanned and they will be escorted to their personal, physically distanced 6-foot circle. Face coverings must be worn upon entry and when not seated. All seating groups are placed at a minimum of 10 feet apart from one another. COVID Safety Monitors will be on-site to enforce the face-covering protocols and escort anyone out of compliance out of the venue. All visitors are encouraged to download Covid Watch Arizona, the University’s, free and anonymous exposure notification app. Directions and more information about the MSA Annex.

Arizona Arts Live is proud to present Tom Walbank and Roman Barten-Sherman this Thursday at 6pm from Centennial Hall. This video release is an intimate performance by two of Tucson’s finest blues musicians, performing treasures from American musical history. Tom Walbank is a veteran blues musician, who has shared a stage with the likes of B.B. King, Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmie Vaughan, Lazy Lester, Kim Wilson, Canned Heat, and many others. At 16, Roman Barten-Sherman has been singing and playing the blues since he was a young child. In his repertoire, he embodies a rare mastery of pre-war acoustic country blues, skillfully moving from the slide guitar virtuosity of Mississippi Fred McDowell to the complex fingerstyle playing of Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Blake. Together Tom and Roman perform a sprawling, partially improvised set full of story and emotion. With Tom on his main instrument, harmonica, and Roman on vocals and fingerstyle guitar, the set is a compilation of pre-war and North Mississippi hill country blues interpretations, material from their recently released, Searching the Desert for the Blues. Ahead of this Thursday’s performance, check out Roman Barten-Sherman, and Tom Walbank online. And don’t forget to give their collaborative album a spin.

Analog tools for coexistence  A THOUSAND WAYS is a three-part performance in which your words, actions, gestures, silence, thoughts, and willingness are the tools. With two people, a telephone, a table, and a stack of cards, a new type of performance emerges. Everything we need is already here, just you and me.   Obie Award-winning theater-makers, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, known for exhilarating performances that challenge the very definition of theater, have created a quietly radical response to this new world with A THOUSAND WAYS. Taking place over the next year, this three-part performance is designed in response to social distancing rules that deliver us from isolation to congregation. Each distinct installment meets participants where they are.     This is an invitation. Will you attend? JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU MIGHT BE GETTING A LITTLE CYNICAL ABOUT THE THEATRE … THINK ABOUT 600 HIGHWAYMEN.THE NEW YORKER PART ONE / A PHONE CALL — November 13-15, 2020Pick up the phone. Someone is on the line. You don’t know their name, and you still won’t when the hour is over, but as you follow the recorded instructions, a portrait of another person will emerge through fleeting moments of exposure.  PART TWO / AN ENCOUNTER —Winter 2021You and a stranger meet on opposite ends of a table, separated by a pane of glass. Using a script and a few simple objects, a simple exercise of working together becomes an experience of profound connection with another person.  PART THREE / An Assembly – When it is safe to gatherA public convening made up of you and everyone else from the project’s journey. Together we follow a shared score. This final installment is a chance to feel the power and complexities of group assembly.   Part One / A Phone Call is a one-hour experience for two people calling from their homes. You will need a fully charged phone to participate in this performance, 1 ticket per person. Each ticket holder will be required to connect using their own device. Members of the same household must have their own ticket and separate devices to join the event. It is recommended that members of the same household choose different times.

Arizona Arts is proud to present this week’s video release featuring solo violinist Carissa Powe. A student of the UArizona Fred Fox School of Music, Carissa commands the stage, performing solo works both canonical and contemporary in the expanse of Centennial Hall. Her program, which features both solo Bach as well as a modern piece by Jesse Montgomery, represents a 300-year leap through the timeline of classical music. Carissa’s approach to the technical gymnastics of Bach is dazzling, and her performance of Montgomery’s more modern work is equally beautiful, pushing the boundaries of what her violin can do. As she puts it, “you can tell [the piece] was written by a violinist.” Don’t miss this award-winning violinist’s first performance in Centennial Hall, as we’re certain she’s destined for halls far larger. Join us on Thursday at 6pm for the premiere and subscribe to our YouTube channel for notifications about the release!

Weekend Lovers is an electrified four-piece band out of Tucson, AZ playing pop storms with dashes of new wave and 90’s grunge. The group draws from a deep well of collective influences to create a recognizable but fresh rock sound. Their music is riff-heavy with frontwoman Marta de Leon’s vocals and bass-thumping leading the way through their glittering three-minute dance-inducing tunes. The band promises high energy set heavy with guitar feedback and vocal harmonies. Their newest album “I Love U In Real Life” will be released November 6, 2020 on Totally Real Records.