Nicandro Guereque is one of the youngest ever Tucson Studio guests, but his original songs and thoughtful covers easily place him in the same league as other, older featured artists. Arizona Arts Live is proud to welcome one of Tucson’s brightest young talents to the Centennial Hall Stage. Nicandro is a 15-year-old singer-songwriter from Tucson, Arizona. Nicandro began playing piano at five, drums at seven and picked up a guitar at ten, and never looked back. He has played professionally since he was 13 at local businesses, weddings, and fundraisers. His musical influences include Johnny Cash and Chris Cornell because of their soulful songwriting and poetic lyrics. Nic is an honors student and hopes to attend the University of Arizona to study music and film. Join us at 6pm on Thursday, August 5th for the release of this live performance video, filmed in Centennial Hall. Facebook Instagram Link

Arizona Arts Live is proud to present Eric Schaffer live for The Tucson Studio. Filmed and recorded in Centennial Hall, this treasure of the Tucson folk scene plays a set full of love, hard-won wisdom, and tales of Tucson. Eric Schaffer has been on the Tucson music scene since moving here from the east coast in 2007. After honing his craft playing with various local musicians, he began playing solo and eventually formed his band Eric Schaffer and the Other Troublemakers, which has become a Southern Arizona favorite. He has opened for acts such as Clint Black, and Marc Cohn at Tucson’s Fox Theater, and has performed all over the US. Eric has been a 4-time finalist in the Tucson Folk Festival’s Stefan George Memorial Songwriting Contest, coming in 2nd place this year. He has also been a finalist in the Great American Songwriting Contest (2016) and Passport to Nashville (2018). He and his wife Carol make their home in the desert outside of Tucson, where they have been co-writing music together since 2011.Join us at 6pm on Thursday, August 12th for the release of this live performance video, filmed in Centennial Hall. Link Facebook Link

The Porch Rockers light up the Centennial Hall stage in this raucous set featuring some of Tucson’s most skillful musicians. And with so much talent in tow, this blues-rock powerhouse installment of The Tucson Studio is sure to get you groovin’. The Porch Rockers are a musical collaboration of blues, jump, and swing, featuring some of Tucson’s finest and hardest working musicians. Their music is both visceral and highly crafted, with standout performances from every member. In this set, The Porch Rockers feature Johnny Guitar Blommer on guitar, Steven Jonas on harp, Larry Lee Lerma on bass, Glenn “the Hitman” Velardi on drums, Anna Warr on vocals, and Hurricane Carla Brownlee on Sax. Tune in and get ready to rock! Join us at 6pm on Thursday, August 19th for the release of this live performance video.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Carlos Arzate will not be able to perform tonight. All other Sonoran Restaurant Week festivities will continue as planned, and we hope to see you there! Arizona Arts Live & Club Congress are proud to present two songwriters indispensable to the Tucson sound. Join us for troubadour and poet Salvador Duran’s weekly set on the plaza, followed by a special performance: the undismissable presence of Carlos Arzate joined by some extraordinary friends.  The heart-warming and political poignancy of Ziggy Marley and Michael Franti, with a southwestern bent.-Zocalo Magazine Come on down to the Club Congress plaza for Sonoran Restaurant week’s kickoff fundraising bash with Arizona Arts Live, Agave Heritage Festival, and Hotel Congress followed by a performance by some of the Old Pueblo’s most beloved musicians. Whether you join us for the VIP launch party in the tasting room, dinner at the cup, the music of Salvador Duran, or Carlos Arzate & Friends headlining performance, there’s something at the Sonoran Restaurant kickoff party for everyone.  Tucson native Carlos Arzate has been a standout member of the Arizona music community since the 90’s, first known for leading bands like Innisfail and American Android with his huge voice. While those bands were known for their loud, confrontational sound and message, he nurtured a deep love of soul, folk, Norteno, and what is broadly called Americana, influences that finally found a home in his solo project, Carlos Arzate and The Kind Souls. The voice is still huge, but these songs also make space for a quiet, yearning, and at times sweet side, passionate stories about social inequity, border realities, family, struggle, and triumph. Link Instagram Facebook YouTube

We are inspired by ordinary objects that surround us. We are influenced by our context and our everyday activities which allow us to visit and share with different cultures and different individuals. We are inspired by history, art, music, architecture, books and the city itself. We firmly believe that these are the goals of design: To weave and generate interactions, human connections and emotions, to relate to users, and to enhance and translate our inheritance and skills into new expressions.-Hector Esrawe & Ignacio Cadena Mi Casa, Your Casa is inspired by the mercados of Latin America, lively street markets where human connections are made every day. The installation features a series of three-dimensional red frames that illustrate the warmth, comfort, and safety of our homes. With their basic shape recognizable by all, the tiny houses form a blank canvas for community engagement and activity, where people of all ages can socialize in a playful spirit. When a casa is empty, a welcoming white glow bids you to enter. Once inside, the glow intensifies to show that someone is home. ABOUT THE CREATORS OF MI CASA, YOUR CASAHector Esrawe, Ignacio Cadena Esrawe is the founder of the cross-disciplinary design firm Esrawe Studio that develops furniture and interior design solutions for commercial spaces. He is inspired by traditional Latin American design, architecture and folk art, and his works are playful, sometimes humorous, and organic. Cadena is owner and creative director of CADENA+ASOC. CONCEPT DESIGN, which combines art and science using painting, graphic design, photography, sculpture, video, marketing, architecture, and industrial design to generate award-winning works. Esrawe and Cadena brought their design firms together more than six years ago to form E + C. ABOUT CREOSA leading agency for temporary public interactive installations, Creos connects owners, creators, and distributors of public art around the world so installations can travel and shine on the international stage. Creos offers a portfolio of very diverse installations that give visitors a unique sensory and interactive experience that changes based on the location and the users. Creos also offers expert consulting services for technology and art in public spaces, and project management services for the creation and development of participative installations. Instagram Instagram Facebook Twitter Instagram

Creative, socially conscious . . . it’s perfect.-NPR Born and raised east of the Los Angeles river, Las Cafeteras are remixing roots music and telling modern day stories. Las Cafeteras create a vibrant musical fusion with a unique East LA sound and positive message. Their Afro-Mexican beats, rhythms, and rhymes deliver inspiring lyrics that document stories of a community seeking love and justice in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles. Using traditional Son Jarocho instruments like the jarana, requinto, quijada (donkey jawbone) and tarima (a wooden platform), Las Cafeteras sing in English, Spanish, and Spanglish and add a remix of sounds, from rock to hip-hop to rancheras. Las Cafeteras use music as a vehicle to build bridges among different cultures and communities, and create “a world where many worlds fit.” Link YouTube Facebook Instagram Twitter Spotify

The Tucson Studio gets a big update! Arizona Arts Live and Club Congress are proud to present Mattea and Sharkk Heartt LIVE and in-person on the club stage. Join us on October 12th for our inaugural performance of this new chapter, featuring two phenomenal local musicians. And with this lineup full of heavy hitters and powerful songwriters, you’ll definitely want to be in the mix!  Mattea (it/she/he/they) is a queer black artist based in Tucson who creates what has been described as Sonoran-Soul. Mattea released it’s first album Body & Soil from her laptop in 2016. Equal parts bougie and the beast, their music is a schmaltzy rabbit hole of bashful beats and clumsy prose. He strives to grow a body of work that chips at the tyrannical empire of white supremacy with a love supreme and a solid grip on the groove. Sharkk Heartt’s debut, Wars Our Mothers Fought, features seven seismic, moody downtempo electro-pop songs paired with sharp political and cultural commentary. It captures a powerful moment of artistic autonomy as songwriter Lara Ruggles shifted from a band-centric/organic creative process to composing tracks with Ableton and exploring a fresh, richly textured approach. Tracks “Work Fires” and “Hush We Found” can be frequently heard on Tucson’s KXCI Community Radio, Downtown Radio, and Rarity Rock Radio, and the music video for “Work Fires” was winner of the Startup Tucson Ideafunding Creative Battle. Sharkk Heartt’s music would fit snugly on a Spotify playlist alongside artists such as Sylvan Esso, Vagabon, Broods, London Grammar, and Florence + the Machine BUY TICKETS

… a truly joyous, celebratory work of art… brilliant homage to one of the great rock albums.-The Telegraph Mark Morris meets The Beatles! Created at the request of the City of Liverpool to start its Sgt. Pepper at 50 Festival in May 2017, the Mark Morris’ evening-length dance work features an original score by composer Ethan Iverson interspersing arrangements of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “With a Little Help From My Friends,” “A Day in the Life,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Within You Without You,” and “Penny Lane” along with six original Pepper-inspired pieces intended especially for Mark Morris’ profound understanding of classical forms: Allegro, Scherzo, Adagio, and the blues. This colorful new piece resounds with the ingenuity, musicality, wit, and humanity for which the company is known. Link Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

Due to circumstances out of our control, CARTOGRAPHY has been postponed. We can’t wait to share this incredible piece of theatre with you in the near future. A wonder of theater-making… Cartography is a unique live documentary about young people searching for asylum as harrowing times and hostile environments overtake their lives.-DC Metro How do we navigate our worlds? We build maps of our histories, our memories, and our futures. Inflatable rafts on the Mediterranean. Dark holds of cargo trucks. Family photos wrapped carefully in a backpack that crosses border checkpoints. These are some of the powerful images of modern-day humanity-in-motion depicted in the theater piece CARTOGRAPHY. Sewn from stories of young Eritrean and Syrian refugees, CARTOGRAPHY fuses dance, film, map-making, and projections to explore the tragedy and wonder of young lives in motion. In 2016, theater director Kaneza Schaal and award-winning author for young people Christopher Myers flew to Munich, Germany, as 30,000 people were arriving in the city each day in the largest migration in recorded history. Listening to the stories of young refugees, they pondered how to create an artwork that placed all of us within this historical moment. Combining simple storytelling with interactive video technology (audiences shape the onstage video projections with their own cell phones), Cartography maps the perilous physical journeys and the confusing interior journeys which brought four young people from their old homes to their new ones. Performed by a diverse company of actors from El Salvador, Syria, Lebanon, and Rwanda, this is theater for our times, theater for all ages, theater at its most relevant.

[Sundance] hit the jackpot this year with a film/performance combination called A Thousand Thoughts… It’s as magical an amalgamation as anything you can imagine.-Los Angeles Times Oscar-nominated filmmakers Sam Green and Joe Bini have teamed up with Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet for a wildly creative multimedia performance piece that blends live music and narration with archival footage and filmed interviews with such prominent artists as Philip Glass, Tanya Tagaq, Steve Reich, Wu Man and Terry Riley. Green tells the multi-decade and continent-spanning story of the groundbreaking string quartet, Kronos revisits its extensive body of work, performing music by George Crumb, Aleksandra Vrebalov and many others. Together on stage, Green and Kronos interact with the stirring cinematic imagery on screen to craft an important record and exploration of late 20th– and early 21st–century music. Transcending the typical live music and film event, this collaboration quickly becomes a meditation on music itself – the act of listening to it closely, the experience of feeling it deeply, and the power that it has to change the world. Link Instagram Twitter Facebook

“One of the most refreshing, melodic and successfully themed albums that I have heard this year comes from drummer Arthur Vint & Associates on his debut release…clearly one that is highly recommended for those who love entertaining, expertly played music that straddles the seams between rock, country and jazz.”-The Huffington Post Join Arizona Arts Live and Club Congress in welcoming drummer, composer, and bandleader Arthur Vint back to Tucson! And what better way to celebrate his return than the Arizona premiere of his critically acclaimed album “Death Rides a Horse” a jazz salute to the spaghetti western soundtracks of Ennio Morricone? Featuring a nine-piece ensemble of extraordinary musicians backed by full-scale film projections, this performance will be the first opportunity for Arizonans to witness the critically acclaimed album live and in-person on the plaza stage. This is a chance to catch a world-class band leader performing a hit album for the first time this side of the Mississippi. We’ll see you there Tucson! Lineup includesArthur Vint (drums), Thoger Lund (bass), Angelo Versace (piano), Mamma Coal (acoustic guitar), Matt Mitchell (electric guitar), Marco Rosano (accordion), Mike Moynihan (bass clarinet), Brice Winston (tenor sax), Jason Carder (trumpet), Ben Nisbet (violin) Instagram Facebook Twitter Spotify

It’s time to turn up the volume. Join Mute Swan and Kryge in making some noise on the Club Congress stage. In partnership with our friends over at Hotel Congress, Arizona Arts Live is proud to present two band’s who balance musicianship and roaring power in equal parts.  mute swanFour-piece, Mute Swan blends 90’s shoegaze and dreampop with neo-psychedelic rock. Their recording process employs lo-fi gear including cassette tape recorders and their onstage visuals similarly feature VHS aesthetics and CCTV monitors. They formed in 2014 out of Tucson’s tight-knit music scene and have since released two EPs, an LP, and a handful of singles and videos. Despite being self-produced and self-promoted they’ve drawn the attention of the Fader, Post-punk.com, Impose, and others. They’ve opened for the Psychedelic Furs, Modern English, Wild Nothing, Kikagaku Moyo, No Joy, Wand, and have toured the continental US extensively. Members include Mike Barnett (guitar, vocals), Prabjit Virdee (bass, vocals), Thom Sloane (guitar), and Gilbert Flores (drums). Bandcamp KrygeKryge is an experimental music project out of Tucson, Arizona.  Spotify

The performance of Let Crows Come on January 13, 2022, has been canceled.While we hope to reschedule this performance next season, refunds have already begun to process. For any questions or concerns, please contact the Arizona Arts Box Office. Ashwini Ramaswamy’s dancing “weaves together the human and the divine.” -The New York Times Evoking mythography and ancestry, Let the Crows Come uses the metaphor of crows as messengers for the living and guides for the departed. This dance for three with live music explores how memory and homeland channel guidance and dislocation. Featuring Ramaswamy (Bharatanatyam technique), Alanna Morris-Van Tassel (Contemporary/Afro-Caribbean technique), and Berit Ahlgren (Gaga technique), Bharatanatyam dance is deconstructed and recontextualized to recall a memory that has a shared origin but is remembered differently from person to person. Composers Jace Clayton (dj/rupture) and Brent Arnold extrapolate from Prema Ramamurthy’s classical Carnatic (South Indian) score, utilizing centuries-old compositional structures as the point of departure for their sonic explorations. Let the Crows Come premiered in November 2019.  Link Instagram

…their expressiveness was as moving as it was breathtaking-The Wall Street Journal Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring has inspired dances and ballets for over 100 years, but never circus – until now. See the bodies of 10 fearless acrobats – highlighted by a technically and artistically stunning lighting design – hurl, twist, and collide in an electrifying explosion of physicality and power. These performances also feature a stirring new composition by Phillipe Bachman that pairs with Stravinsky’s classical music masterpiece. In this first-ever circus setting of The Rite of Spring, CIRCA weaves together powerful acrobatics with poetic tenderness and raw emotion – penetrating the senses and stirring the soul. Seen by over one million people in 40 countries, the Australia-based performance troupe, CIRCA, is at the forefront of contemporary circus, leading the way with a diverse range of thrilling creations. Under the direction of circus visionary Yaron Lifschitz, CIRCA features an ensemble of exceptional, multi-skilled circus artists.  CIRCA is a regular fixture at leading festivals and venues in New York, London, Berlin, and Montreal with seasons at Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Barbican Centre, Les Nuits de Fourvière, Chamäleon Theatre as well as major Australian Festivals. Link Instagram Facebook Spotify Vimeo

The most heartfelt and evocative sounds imaginable.-Roots World Small Island Big Song celebrates 5,000 years of Pacific Islander culture.  From Taiwan to Aotearoa/New Zealand – Madagascar to Rapa Nui/Easter Island. Islanders who share an ancient seafaring ancestry and language. Over three years, Small Island Big Song evolved from visits to 16 Island Nations, and work with over 100 artists, solo artists, elders, community groups, and grassroots musicians, all recorded in their homelands in nature using traditional instruments and languages, with each contributing to each other’s songs. The result is a surprising and stunning musical collaboration reuniting the distant yet interconnected musical traditions of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Link Facebook YouTube Instagram Vimeo Spotify

Arizona Arts Live & Club Congress are thrilled to light up the Congress stage with a dynamic duo of modern solo songwriters. Elizabeth Goodfellow and Jillian Bessett both operate on the new frontiers of songwriting and instrumentation, composing and performing through unconventional means with beautiful results. Join us as these two extraordinary and innovative women explore new sonic landscapes. Beth Goodfellow’s singer-songwriter approach to the marimba was born out of a desire to write songs on a chordal instrument after drumming in other people’s bands. She bought a 1920s Deagan Marimba through Craigslist and began incorporating it into her original songs. When the pandemic hit in 2020 she spent the better part of eighteen months writing for voice and marimba from Tucson, AZ and her apartment in Los Angeles. The pandemic allowed her time to strip the marimba and vocal approach down to the basics and focus on writing two-minute songs that were intended to be stream-of-conscious with minimal rewrites. These songs were released in early 2021 as the band camp album “Hunting The Silence”. Beth’s writing for marimba also draws inspiration from the polyrhythmic counterpoint of minimalist composer Steve Reich. By building loops of marimba counterpoint she creates a uniquely meditative backdrop for her lyrics and vocals. Beth is a drummer, percussionist and vocalist based in Los Angeles and has recorded or toured with artists including Iron and Wine, boygenius, Madison Cunningham, Per Gessle, and Calexico. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Tucson, Arizona whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. The keystone, however, is an instantly recognizable smoky alto voice that has prompted comparisons to Amy Winehouse, Feist, Nina Simone, and Adele. ​In 2014 Jillian released Electric Moon a stripped back solo endeavor which came in at #100 on KXCI’s Top 100 Albums of The Year. A full band filled out her next release with 2016’s Mr. Airplane. Jillian and the Giants–aptly named for their giant electric sound and stature– gigged furiously and put out two beautiful music videos for the singles “Mr. Airplane” and the locally loved “Chicago.” Mr. Airplane has over 58K streams on Spotify and came in at #19 on KXCI’s Top 100 Albums of the Year. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station. Watch her use it here.​

NEW DATE ALERT!  Arizona Arts Live & the Tucson Jazz Festival are pleased to announce our new date for Jon Batiste’s performance in Tucson. Join us on March 4, 2022 for the rescheduled performance LIVE in person. Born for showbusiness-NPR One of the best-known musicians of his generation, virtuoso pianist, singer, bandleader, educator, and television personality Jon Batiste has spent his career bringing music back to where it started —with the people. Born into Louisiana’s legendarily musical Batiste family, Jon studied at Juilliard, where he established his Stay Human band by playing around New York City’s subways and in street performances he called “love riots.” He developed a fluency in jazz and popular music of all stripes, collaborating with legends from Wynton Marsalis to Prince. In 2015, Jon was named bandleader and musical director of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Batiste’s latest studio album, WE ARE, was released in March 2021 to overwhelming critical acclaim including praise from New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and Forbes.  Arizona Arts Live jazz programming supported by Alice and Paul Baker. Link Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Due to the loosening of COVID-19 mask mandates and safety protocols in the United States, Indian Ink Theatre Company has canceled their North American tour of Mrs. Krishnan’s Party. The company looks forward to returning to the United States when they will not be putting the health and safety of audiences and company members at risk. So different, so original, so creatively fresh and so much fun no one wanted to go home.-Waikato Times Indians throw crazy parties. Heard of Diwali? A million lamps floating on a river and fireworks to wake the dead. Heard of Holi? An explosion of color and joy and massive dry cleaning bills. How about Onam? No? It’s the harvest festival, and this one could be the craziest of them all! Mrs. Krishnan is renting an apartment to the overzealous wannabe DJ, James. James has invited a few friends into the back room of Mrs. Krishnan’s corner shop as a special surprise to celebrate Onam and the return home of her son. But when 100 strangers turn up (you, the audience) and settle in, Mrs. K has no choice but to throw the party of her life! An immersive experience like no other, join the party with music, dancing and vegetarian dal prepared live for each performance. Come as you are or break out that festive sari. Indian Ink Theatre Company continues to bridge cultures and expand boundaries with this utterly disarming new comedy that seats the audience around the dining table and at the kitchen bench in the back room of Krishnan’s corner shop. Now that her son is grown up, Mrs. Krishnan is thinking of selling the shop. It’s Onam, a time to celebrate life, death, and rebirth, and Mrs. Krishnan has to throw the party of her life in this joyous, heart-warming show. Link Facebook Twitter Instagram

Time is the common variable of all art. It is what defines sound and pitch, and at faster rates, color and light. It is what separates composition from performance. It is paint drying on the canvas, the instant fracture of million-year-old marble, the browning in the baker’s oven, a tackle or a touchdown, an echo in the canyon, the stars you can see, and the ones you can’t.  Polymath artist Ryan Alfred’s “We Are Made Of Time” is a fully improvised exercise in spontaneous composition, a tightrope act of electronic, vocal, and acoustic elements recorded and processed live without a net of pre-recorded material. Onstage are a few synthesizers, an upright bass, a nylon string guitar, and a vocal mic, routed through an Ableton Live-based processing network optimized for improvisation. A graduate of Berklee School Of Music’s Synthesis department, Ryan has been thinking about what it means to perform electronic music since the late 90s. “I would go see performances by electronic artists, and it was nearly always somewhere on the karaoke spectrum, meaning to some degree it was pre-recorded, with some elements left for musicians onstage to play or sing. Often, it was “hit play and look busy”, where it was clear that most if not all of what was heard was pre-recorded. It really got me thinking, what exactly do we mean when we say somebody was playing live ?”  After graduating college, Ryan split his time between performing music and learning about sound as a sound engineer. He has toured the world playing upright bass and singing harmony with Tucson luminaries Calexico, and the Tucson Weekly praised his band SweetGhosts (a collaboration with his partner Katherine Byrnes) as “Stunning…rarely predictable”. At 25, his compositions for the rock-n-roll tap show Revolution debuted at New York’s famed Joyce Theater, and more recently he collaborated with Ben Nisbet on an original electronic score for Art.if.act Dance Company’s “Impetus”. As a sound engineer, he has traveled with The Jayhawks, Nick Lowe, Fun., She Wants Revenge, Manchester Orchestra, and many others.   Maybe time and refinement are all that really distinguish composition from improvisation, but not all edits are improvements, and often the initial expression of an idea is the truest to its essence. We have essays and we have conversations; “We Are Made Of Time” brings Ryan Alfred’s full range of instruments into conversation, employing modern technology and timeless instruments to present a unique, fully present moment of creation. 

…a sonic distillation of a blistering American past and its perilous present, with a transcendent strength of spirit woven through.-The Washington Post With 10 tap dancers and one acoustic bass player, Michelle Dorrance’s SOUNDspace strips tap dance down to its most raw basics—movement as pure music. SOUNDspace invites the audience to experience tap dancing with a fresh pair of eyes and ears, with both an acknowledgment towards the past and a look into the future.  Dorrance Dance is an award-winning tap dance company based in New York City. The company’s work aims to honor tap dance’s uniquely beautiful history in a new, dynamic, and compelling context not by stripping the form of its tradition, but by pushing it rhythmically, aesthetically, and conceptually. The company’s inaugural performance garnered a Bessie Award for “blasting open out notions of tap,” and continues its passionate commitment to expanding the audience of tap dance. Street, club, and experimental dance forms – all of which are American dreams – awake to the sound of furious rhythms and find their boundaries missing. Link Instagram Facebook YouTube

Angélique Kidjo returns to Tucson as one of the most iconic and respected artists in international music today, the opportunity to see her perform in the intimate setting of the Rialto Theatre is not to be missed. “Kidjo is probably Africa’s most widely respected international vocalist, and one of its hungriest synthesizers of culture and ideas.”The New York Times With a striking voice, radiant energy, and messages of unity and healing, four-time Grammy Award winner Angélique Kidjo is a chart-topping world music superstar who blends the West African traditions of her childhood with R&B, funk, and jazz. Time Magazine calls Angélique Kidjo, “Africa’s premier diva” and named her one of their 100 Most Influential People in September of 2021. “The grace she exudes toward her fellow creators, and to humankind, is a reflection of her vibrancy, kindness, and generosity. Angélique is as real as they come,” says Alicia Keys, in her introduction of Kidjo to the list. The acknowledgment is the latest in a series of major accolades and appearances in what has been a tremendous year for this “towering figure of cross-cultural music” (New Yorker). Kidjo’s reinterpretations rearrange the molecules of songs that many of us know by heart … the results are glorious.NPR Music Widely recognized as the “Queen of African Music,” she has collaborated with everyone from Alicia Keys to Bono to Philip Glass. In addition to winning four Grammy Awards for her masterful vocal prowess and innovative explorations of cross-cultural musical genres, she has also proven a tireless advocate for women and children in her native home of Benin and across Africa, serving as both an OXFAM and UNICEF goodwill ambassador. Facebook Instagram Twitter Spotify Rialto Theatre Foundation Covid Policy – September 2021 As of September 20, 2021, both the Rialto Theatre and 191 Toole will require all patrons to wear masks while attending an event unless actively enjoying a beverage. Additionally, Proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result within 48 hours will also be required. We cannot accept all at-home tests. If it’s an at-home test that gives results via an app (which includes your information) those are acceptable. The test result will need to include your name and date of birth, and also have a time stamp so we can determine when the test was taken. It will be compared to your photo ID at the door. Visiting artists and productions may elect to follow increased health and safety protocols. Therefore, vaccinations, specific capacity, distancing, and face-covering protocols may vary from show to show For information about Covid-19 vaccination and free Covid-19 Testing sites in Pima County, please click HERE POLITICA COVID-19 DE ESTE LUGAR A partir de Septiembre 20, 2021, ambos Rialto Theatre y 191 Toole requerira a todos los patrocinadores que usen mascarillas mientras esten asistiendo un evento, a menos que queue activamente esten disfutando de una bebida. Adicionalmente, tendran que mostrar una prueba complete de la vacuna COVID-19, o resultados de una prueba negativa de COVID-19, de dentro las ultimas 48 horas. No podemos aceptar todas las pruebas en casa. Si se trata de una prueba en casa que da resultados a través de una aplicación (que incluye su información), esos son aceptables. El resultado de la prueba deberá incluir su nombre y fecha de nacimiento, y también tener una marca de tiempo para que podamos determinar cuándo se realizó la prueba. Se comparará con su identificación con foto en la puerta. Artistas invitados, visitantes y producciones podran decider el aumento en el protocolo a seguir para la seguridad y salud.Por lo tanto, los protocolos de vacunas, capacidad especifica, distanciamiento, y cubiertas faciales, pudiesen variar, de evento a evento. Para informacion acerca de los sitios en el Condado Prima de pruebas gratuitas de Covid-19, por favor presione AQUI.

Few alternative artists have the dynamic power and range of this bilingual warrior-woman, who has recorded nine albums, earning a Grammy and four Latin Grammys along the way.NPR Music Agave Heritage Festival, Pueblos del Maíz, and Arizona Arts Live are proud to bring Lila Downs back to the Old Pueblo for a live performance at Centennial Hall on Thursday, April 28th. The concert will serve as the official kickoff event for the annual Agave Heritage Festival (Apr 28-May 1) and the inaugural Pueblos Del Maiz (May 5-May 8). Mexican American singer and activist Lila Downs is adored by her many fans for staying true to her roots even while she is always moving forward. Through a long career that has earned her multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards, she now ranks as one of the most recognizable singers in Latin alternative music. A commanding presence at center stage, Downs, “no stranger to raising hell and consciousness through the power of song” (Rolling Stone), with her superhuman vocal range and a deeply empathetic spirit, she champions the causes of immigrants, women, and indigenous groups in her genre-hopping compositions. Her latest release, Al Chile, is infused with the infectious rhythms of cumbia and explores themes of pleasure and pain, suffering, and redemption, through the metaphor of Mexico’s ubiquitous chili pepper.

an interactive experience where children will be expected to take off their shoes and dive right into a whimsical world…-The National Two dancers move, play and paint in the air, telling the story of the slow metamorphosis of the butterfly.  COMPAGNIA TPO’s “theater of the senses” weaves dance, storytelling, and visual experience into a magical hands-on performance like nothing you’ve seen before. The audience is invited to enter the performance and interact with the beautiful, immersive world created on stage. Under the direction of Francesco Gandi and Davide Venturini, Italy’s COMPAGNIA TPO (Teatro di Piazza o d’Occasione) is the world’s foremost pioneer in interactive performance media for all ages – creating works for proscenium and alternative spaces – melding astonishing digital imagery with multi-disciplinary performance techniques in the use of music, dance, art, sculpture, digital media, computer technology, lighting, and sound. Their vision of accessibility in the arts is unprecedented, simultaneously allowing festivals and venues worldwide their most rewarding audience experiences while redefining them from the inside out. Link

Join Arizona Arts Live and Hotel Congress for an indie blowout featuring M.Crane and MRCH. Two of Arizona’s most exciting indie alternative bands, two sparkling sets, and some serious lighting design to match, this evening is going to be a vibe all its own.  MRCHSince their inception in 2015, indie electronic duo MRCH has been recognized by The Guardian as “band of the week” and CMJ as – one to watch, with CoS debuting their single Glitter McQueen – a feel-good anthem for dark times. The band has toured the DIY route extensively, opening for the likes of Chvrches, Foster the People, Bad Suns, Skylar Spence, and many others. Their songs have been featured in episodes of Shameless, Guilt, The Vampire Diaries, Famous in Love, Search Party, 13 Reasons Why & The Twilight Zone. With glassy synths, pulsing beats, and whimsical vocals, MRCH makes a ruckus dreamscape. For fans of: Purity Ring, Metric, Cocteau Twins, Phantogram, Beach House. Link Spotify Instagram M. Crane M. Crane is always changing. A revolving door of musicians since 2016, its one constant, singer Nick Maskill, moves from song to song in eclectic fashion. From ’40s French pop to modern alt rock. They’ve gigged and toured across the US. This will be the first live performance since February 2020. Spotify Instagram

Join Arizona Arts Live, Rhythm and Roots, Hotel Congress, and the Tucson Weekly for the first ever Tucson Opry variety show. Don’t miss an evening featuring performances from national favorites and local gems along with cowboy poetry and a surprise or two–all on the beautifully historic Hotel Congress stage! The Small GloriesPowerhouse duo Cara Luft and JD Edwards are a musical partnership from the Canadian Prairies. With stage banter striking a balance between comedy and sermon, they have a way of making time disappear, rooms shrink, and audiences feel as if on stage. Their folk-pop music combines songs of love, loss, and environment with soaring vocals, a banjo, a guitar, and a harmonica. The duo has received multiple Canadian Folk Music Awards. They were also a 2020 JUNO Award nominee for traditional roots album of the year.  Link Spotify Instagram Whitney RoseIf you love classic country you’ll want to saddle up for Whitney Rose. Her unique and soulful voice will have you swaying to perfectly blended pop-country retro music. Listening to her will transport you back in time to Nashville Studios in the late 1950’s and 60s. Her album, “ Rule 62” was rated an All Music Best Albums of 2017, Wide Open Country 25 Best Albums of 2017, and Yahoo! Music Best Country Albums of 2017. Link Spotify Instagram Tucson Opry Local Performances Hot Club of Tucson, Gypsy Jazz – Matt Mitchell leads the Hot Club, which will serve as the house band for the night.Salvador Duran (Calexico, Sergio Mendoza Orkestra) – One of Tucson’s gems brings the corridos of the borderlands to life.Richard Tavenner, Cowboy Poet – Richard’s poetry speaks to the spirit of the southwest.The Arizona Trail – Matt Nelson highlights one of Southern Arizona’s most underrated and interesting outdoor adventures.

With a deep respect for cultural and personal history, Ladysmith Black Mambazo makes its way to the Old Pueblo. Don’t miss an evening of uplifting South African rhythms and harmonies only at the Rialto Theatre. These five-time Grammy award winners have charmed global audiences for over 60 years with messages of peace, love, and harmony. Assembled in the early 1960s, the group took the name Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Ladysmith, the name of the founder’s hometown; Black, a reference to the oxen, the strongest of all farm animals; and Mambazo being the Zulu word for chopping ax, a symbol of the group’s ability to “chop down” any singing rival who might challenge them. Their musical efforts over the past five decades have garnered praise and accolades from a wide body of people, organizations, and countries. The late former South African president Nelson Mandela designated the group “South Africa’s cultural ambassadors to the world,” a title the members carry with them with the highest honor. In 2018 the group received two Grammy Award nominations for two separate albums, a first in the history of World Music. These two nominations brought their career total to 19 Grammy nominations. Link Facebook Instagram Twitter