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Events

POSTPONED – Songwriters By The Sea

Lauren K. Woods Theatre

Distinguished NJ Songwriters Joe Rapolla and Joe D’Urso are back this year hosting the celebrated Songwriters by the Sea series at the Lauren K. Woods Theatre. What once started in a small coffee shop as an area for local songwriters has now grown into a series that features some of the top songwriters in the country. This year, the show features special guest artists Tom Chapin and Jen Chapin with an intro set by George Wurzbach. The show will also feature Monmouth University student openers.

Tickets: $30

POSTPONED – Edda Glass and Max Hatt

Pollak Theatre

Max Hatt / Edda Glass’s award-winning original music and unique interpretations of American and Brazilian standards have “an incomparable spook” (Nashville Scene) and “a unique sound” (NPR). Telling stories of little people on great plains, the duo evokes a world that stretches from the beaches of Rio de Janeiro to the prairies of the American west, leaving audiences with a feeling both light and deep. As heard on NPR Mountain Stage, NYC’s Lincoln Center, DC’s Kennedy Center, and Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival.

Tickets: $35-$50

Virtual Blue Hawk Records Release Show for “Sweet 16”

This semester, Blue Hawk Records will be hosting their first ever virtual release show on the Blue Hawk Records Instagram page. “Sweet 16” on May 6 at 8pm. Artists on “Sweet 16” include Monmouth students, Shadiyah, featuring Gabriel Garza, Nicole Totland, Bruce Davis, featuring Janae, Mikey Sanchez, Drew Fournier, and Monmouth alumni, Anya Schildge Angeloni ‘12M, along with an ensemble of accompanying student musicians and producers.

Life Is What Happens: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy

In this interactive, multimedia talk, Kenneth Womack traces the story behind John Lennon’s remarkable 1980 comeback album with wife Yoko Ono. Along the way, Womack explores the powerful, life-affirming story of the former Beatle’s renaissance after five years of self-imposed retirement. Lennon’s final pivotal year would climax in several moments of creative triumph as he rediscovered his artistic self in dramatic fashion. Womack’s presentation is drawn from his forthcoming book John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life.

Free and open to the public

TAJ MAHAL – Livestream

Virtual

Composer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, multi-GRAMMY® winner, multi-Blues Music Award winner, Blues Hall of Fame member and Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement award recipient TAJ MAHAL streaming LIVE to the comforts of your own home from the UC Theatre stage in Berkeley, CA.  This will be Taj’s first ever livestream performance!

Livestream Access: $20; $150 Meet & Greet option

Recurring

Monmouth University Center for the Arts Studio Sessions – Episode #1: Pat Guadagno and Friends

Virtual

Tickets on sale 1/7/22 at 10 AM. Monmouth University Center for the Arts brings you its first-ever episode of Studio Sessions, recorded live concerts featuring some of your favorite singers, songwriters and musicians from the Jersey Shore and beyond! The first episode features Pat Guadagno & Friends – Dean Friedman, Sloan Wainwright and Joseph Alton Miller. Each artist performs in the round in the intimate setting of the studio at 10PRL in Long Branch.

$20 (livestream access)

Rigoletto

Pollak Theatre

Due to the anticipated weather forecast this event is cancelled. Ticket holders can use their existing tickets toward another upcoming MET OPERA broadcast. Please call the box office at 732.263.6889 for more information. Tony Award­–winning director Bartlett Sher creates a bold new take on Verdi’s timeless tragedy, resetting the opera’s action in 1920s Europe, with Art Deco sets by Michael Yeargan and elegant costumes by Catherine Zuber. Baritone Quinn Kelsey, a commanding artist at the height of his powers, brings his searing portrayal of the title role to the Met for the first time, starring alongside soprano Rosa Feola as Gilda and tenor Piotr Beczała as the Duke of Mantua, with Maestro Daniele Rustioni on the podium.

$23 (adult); $21 (senior); $10 (child); $5 (MU student)

Fire Shut Up in My Bones – Special Encore Presentation

Pollak Theatre

Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the second opera from the six-time Grammy Award–winning and Oscar-nominated trumpeter and composer—who is also known for scoring Spike Lee films—makes history this season as the first opera by a Black composer to be performed by the Met. Blanchard’s groundbreaking masterpiece weaves together jazz, gospel, and classical styles to tell a powerful story of resilience and self-discovery. The critically acclaimed production, which also features standout choreography by Camille A. Brown, including a show-stopping step dance in Act III, stars an exceptional cast including baritone Will Liverman and sopranos Angel Blue and Latonia Moore. Don’t miss the landmark production—hailed as “a watershed moment for American opera” by The Washington Post

$23 (adult); $21 (senior); $10 (child); $5 (MU student)

Ariadne auf Naxos

Pollak Theatre

Soprano Lise Davidsen makes her Live in HD debut in one of her signature roles, the mythological Greek heroine of Strauss’s enchanting masterpiece. The outstanding cast also features mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as the Composer of the opera-within-an-opera around which the plot revolves, with soprano Brenda Rae as the spirited Zerbinetta and tenor Brandon Jovanovich as Ariadne’s lover, the god Bacchus. Marek Janowski conducts.

$23 (adult); $21 (senior); $10 (child); $5 (MU student)