Season Subscriptions go on sale now.
Chose 4-6 from the following shows to make your package. For more information on each performer, click on the link to view their information.
Windham Hill’s Winter Solstice December 11, 2019 Windham Hill’s Winter Solstice
Bandstand January 30, 2020 Bandstand
The Tap Pack February 6, 2020 The Tap Pack
The Chieftains- The Irish Goodbye February 14, 2020 The Chieftains-The Irish Goodbye
The Play That Goes Wrong March 10, 2020 The Play That Goes Wrong
The Choir of Man April 3, 2020 The Choir of Man
Individual Tickets on sale October 7, 2019
The 35th Anniversary of Windham Hill’s Winter Solstice featuring Will Ackerman, Barbara Higbie, Todd Boston with special guest Mia Pixley
Celebrate the winter solstice and its warm traditions with a concert of original and traditional acoustic music drawn from the multi-platinum selling Winter Solstice series as well as their many solo releases. Windham Hill founder and Grammy-winning guitarist, Will Ackerman, and Grammy Award-nominated singer, fiddler, pianist, and songwriter Barbara Higbie, guitarist Todd Boston and cellist, Mia Pixley come together to lead joyous holiday concerts.
William Ackerman founded Windham Hill Records in Palo Alto in 1975. The label’s audiophile recordings were a run-away success with critics and audiences alike. Musicians including Michael Hedges, George Winston, Will Ackerman, Alex de Grassi, Barbara Higbie and Darol Anger and their group Montreux, Liz Story, Mark Isham, and Tuck and Patty quickly became internationally recognized. Also, the name “Windham Hill” became synonymous with the best in acoustic music in the 1980s and 90s. For that reason, Windham Hill’s 10 Winter Solstice compilation recordings, selling in the many millions, “changed people’s conceptions of seasonal music” (John Diliberto, Echoes radio show host). Finally, the Winter Solstice Concerts bring the music of Windham Hill full circle, 40 years after it was originally conceived on the Stanford campus.
Press Quotes
“. . . Will Ackerman’s . . . pieces have that timeless introspection that has made his music so enduring. “—Billboard
“Barbara Higbie is one of the most exciting musicians I have heard, full of life and brilliant in her playing. “—S.F. Examiner/Chronicle
“Todd Boston is a mature artist who has come of age. The world’s a better place for his gift.” —Will Ackerman
“You won’t easily find a sound like Pixley and her twist on experimental classical music with a unique Southern vibe.”—Magnet Magazine
More information here
This concert is funded in part by the Allan Swartz Hoke Concert Fund of InFaith Community Foundation. The Clayton Center for the Arts thanks them for their support.
Bandstand Musical -From three-time Tony® winner and Hamilton choreographer, Andy Blankenbuehler, comes a poignant and inspiring new American musical that explodes with infectious music and high-octane, heart-stopping dancing.
It’s 1945. America’s soldiers come home to ticker-tape parades and overjoyed families. Private First Class Donny Novitski, singer and songwriter, is struggling to rebuild the life he left behind. When NBC announces a national competition to find the nation’s next great musical superstars, Donny sees a lifeline for himself and some fellow veterans. Finally it gives them the purpose they so desperately need. Together, they form a band unlike any the nation has ever seen. Along the way, they discover the power of music to face the impossible, find their voice, and finally feel like they have a place to call home.
BANDSTAND is “both a peppy celebration of can-do spirit and a more somber exploration of what American servicemen experienced when they marched home from World War II.
“It’s a great argument for why theater can sometimes tell a story more boldly and more viscerally” –The New York Times
“The show defies you not to be moved” – Time Out New York
“VISUALLY AND EMOTIONALLY COMPELLING.” –Newsday
“EYE-POPPING, ROOF-RAISING, AND ASTONISHING! BANDSTAND IS STAGED WITH BREATHTAKING ORIGINALITY BY ANDY BLANKENBUEHLER.” –Deadline
photo by Michael Pool
The Tap Pack Individual Tickets on Sale November 25, 2019
THE TAP PACK is a high energy, tap comedy show inspired by the infamous “Rat Pack” which included the famous talents of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Junior.
With dazzling performances on stage, dressed in slick suits and equipped with sharp wit, they are a modern twist on the classic Rat Pack.
They infuse tap dance with swing music and witty banter. As a result, this is a taste of a new, highly entertaining act featuring some of Australia’s finest tap dancing performers tapping up a storm. With credits on stage, film and television and with over 20 musical theatre productions between them, The Tap Pack is pure entertainment.
The show features high energy performances of mind-blowing tap dancing, smooth vocals, a swinging live jazz band and witty on-stage banter. As a result, the five-member cast wins the audience from the first downbeat and the pace of their amazing performances never slows. They joke, they compete, they croon and they cajole while performing cool classics with a fresh twist.
Above all, The Tap Pack brings a new, invigorating energy to a timeless style.
Old School Cool from the new Kings of Swing.
“If a couple of hours in the company of five talented, likeable Australian male entertainers who sing, joke around and could probably tap till dawn sounds appealing, this well-packaged … percussive dance show might be just the ticket.” —The Times of London
Photo by Simon Arnand
More about the group here
The Chieftains: The Irish Goodbye
After fifty-seven years of making some of the most beautiful music in the world, The Chieftains are as fresh and relevant as when they first began. The six-time Grammy Award winners are highly recognized for reinventing traditional Irish music on a contemporary and International scale. Their ability to transcend musical boundaries to blend tradition with modern music Them hailed as one of the most renowned and revered musical groups to this day.
As cultural ambassadors, their performances have been linked with seminal historic events. The Chieftains were the first Western musicians to perform on the Great Wall of China, participating in Roger Water’s “The Wall” performance in Berlin in 1990. Also, they were the first ensemble to perform a concert in the Capitol Building in Washington DC. In 2010, their experimental collaborations extended to out of this world, when Paddy Moloney’s whistle and Matt Molloy’s flute travelled with NASA astronaut, Cady Coleman, to the international space station.
Although their early following was purely a folk audience, the range and variation of their music and accompanying musicians quickly captured a much broader audience, elevating their status to the likeness of fellow Irish band, U2.
The Chieftains are never afraid to shock purists and pushing genre boundaries and the trappings of fame have not altered The Chieftains’ love of, and loyalty to, their roots. They are as comfortable playing spontaneous Irish sessions as they are headlining a concert at Carnegie Hall. After fifty years of making some of the most beautiful music in the world, The Chieftains’ music remains as fresh and relevant as when they first began.
Come see them perform at what will be a memorable evening of music, song and dance.
Individual Tickets on sale January 6, 2020
The National Geographic Live Speaker Series brings premium storytelling and visually stunning imagery to the stage with first-hand accounts of science, adventure, and exploration told by our world-class explorers who inspire change in the world.
Life on the Vertical
Mark Synnott is one of the most prolific exploratory climbers of his generation. His travels have taken him on nearly 30 expeditions. Mark has gone to the far corners of the planet where he has had a seemingly endless series of epic adventures. Also a pioneering big wall climber, Synnott’s first ascents include some of the biggest cliffs in the world, like the northwest face of Pakistan’s Great Trango Tower. Additionally, Mark climbed the Polar Sun Spire in Baffin Island, a wall on which he and his partners spent 36 days living in a portaledge. Synnott is a long time member of The North Face “Dream Team”. Over the years he has had the privilege to climb extensively with legendary characters including the late Alex Lowe, Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and the wonder kid Alex Honnold.
Synnott’s climbing career has followed the arc of professional climbing from its birth in the mid 1990s to what it has become today. As a result, this puts him in a unique position to explore the subject of risk and to reflect on the old climbing proverb: “there are old climbers and there are bold climbers, but there are no old bold climbers.” Finally, a gifted communicator known for his wit and dry sense of humor, Synnott is widely regarded as one of the best story-tellers in the business.
photo by Mark Thiessen
For more about Mark, check out his website
The Play That Goes Wrong Individual Tickets on Sale January 6, 2020
What would happen if Sherlock Holmes and Monty Python had an illegitimate Broadway baby? You’d get THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG, Broadway & London’s award-winning smash comedy! As a result, called “A GUT-BUSTING HIT” (The New York Times) and “THE FUNNIEST PLAY BROADWAY HAS EVER SEEN” (HuffPost), this classic murder mystery is chock-full of mishaps and madcap mania delivering “A RIOTOUS EXPLOSION OF COMEDY” (Daily Beast). Welcome to opening night of The Murder at Haversham Manor where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous. Because there is an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines), it’s “TONS OF FUN FOR ALL AGES” (HuffPost) and “COMIC GOLD” (Variety) – sure to bring down the house!
“BROADWAY’S FUNNIEST AND LONGEST-RUNNING PLAY!” – New York Post
“COMIC GOLD!” – Variety
HILARIOUS! NONSTOP PANDEMONIUM.” – Entertainment Weekly
“PERFECTLY EXECUTED COMIC MAYHEM!” – The Hollywood Reporter
“REMARKABLE! It embraces risk and danger to an extraordinary extent. You start to think that maybe the day you are having, or the year, really is not so bad after all!” – Chicago Tribune
Photo by Jeremy Daniel
Video Montage: The Play That Goes Wrong Original Broadway Company.
The Choir of Man Individual Tickets on Sale January 27, 2020
A choir in a pub?! The runaway hit of numerous international music festivals hits the road for its first U.S. tour! Known across the globe as “the ultimate-feel good show,” THE CHOIR OF MAN offers up 90 minutes of indisputable joy! It’s a party. It’s a concert. It’s a pint-filled good time set in a working pub and combines hair-raising harmonies, high-energy dance, and live percussion with foot-stomping choreography. Even more, the multi-talented cast of nine handsome blokes sing everything – pub tunes, folk, Broadway, classic rock – all to roof-raising heights. As a result, it’s the best singing, dancing, stomping, pub crawl of a concert you’ll ever attend! CHEERS!
Also winner of the best overall Pick of the Fringe award at the 2018 Adelaide Fringe Festival, the world’s second largest annual arts festival with over 1200 acts, THE CHOIR OF MAN is a runaway hit!
”A feast for the senses, Choir of Man will have you dancing down the aisles. Leave your worries in your coat and grab a pint!” -Broadway Baby
“No matter how hard you look, you won’t find a more joyful hour of entertainment” – Fife Today
“Dynamic, jovial and really bloomin’ fun” -Edinburgh Festivals Magazine
Find out more here