Tri-C Performing Arts Announces 2024-2025 Performances
Shows to feature jazz and dance in upcoming season
The upcoming Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) Performing Arts season will include a diverse array of jazz and dance shows.
The 2024-2025 lineup dates and times are as follows:
Amina Figarova Sextet and the Matsiko World Orphan Choir
Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, 7:30 p.m., Tri-C Metropolitan Campus Auditorium, 2809 Woodland Ave.
Tickets: $35
Azerbaijani pianist and composer Amina Figarova was inspired to write "Suite for Africa" while meeting students in South Africa. When a travel mishap placed her on the same flight as the Matsiko World Orphan Choir, an ensemble of at-risk Liberian children, a stirring piece was brought to life. The World Orphan Choir uses music in its mission to turn "the pain of loss, hunger and hopelessness into personal empowerment." It has performed at the White House on three occasions. In addition to the 24-piece choir, Figarova is joined by her stellar sextet.
Hélène Simoneau Danse (presented in partnership with DANCECleveland)
Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, 7:30 p.m., Mimi Ohio Theatre (Playhouse Square)
Tickets: $10 to $60 via Playhouse Square
The Ohio debut of Hélène Simoneau Danse brings the French-Canadian choreographer to Cleveland for a performance that highlights the creative movement and innovative partnering she's become recognized for. Explore themes of identity, sexuality, romance and the world around us in Danse's Delicate Power as the piece unfolds onstage and examines the different ways we yield, share or exert power.
Matthew Whitaker
Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, 7:30 p.m., Simon and Rose Mandel Theatre, 4250 Richmond Road
Tickets: $35
Born in 2001 in Hackensack, New Jersey, Matthew Whitaker started playing keyboard at age 3. At 13, he became the youngest artist to be endorsed by Hammond in its 80-plus-year history. He was also named a Yamaha Artist at 15 and was featured on the Today Show documentary series "Boys Changing the World." Whitaker studied classical piano and drums at the Filomen M. D'Agostino Greenberg Music School in New York City, the only community music school for the blind and visually impaired in the U.S.
The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra, directed by Scotty Barnhart
Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 7:30 p.m., Tri-C Metropolitan Campus Auditorium, 2809 Woodland Ave.
Tickets: $45 general admission, $75 premium seats
In its 90-year history, the Count Basie Orchestra has won every respected jazz poll in the world at least once and 18 Grammy Awards, performed for kings, queens and other world royalty, appeared in several movies and television shows and played every major jazz festival and concert hall in the world. Nearly 40 years after Basie's passing, he is the only bandleader whose orchestra still performs sold-out shows — with members personally chosen by him.
Raphael Xavier: Skiff (presented in partnership with DANCECleveland)
Saturday, April 12, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 13, 2 p.m., Tri-C John P. Murphy Foundation Theatre, 2809 Woodland Ave.
Tickets: $25 and $45 via DANCECleveland
Challenging the range of what hip-hop dance can be, Raphael Xavier will perform Skiff. This hour-long work features Xavier and guest artists, including some of Northeast Ohio's own dancers, in a unique piece that explores the aging body, race, privilege and power while encouraging conversations of identity, legacy and lineage. The work is contextualized through the lens of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, the classic novel about a fisherman's relentless battle with a giant marlin. Skiff also draws inspiration from Winslow Homer's The Gulf Stream, the iconic 19th-century painting of a Black man in a small, rudderless fishing boat engulfed by a restless sea as sharks circle.
Tickets for all shows are on sale now.
For performances at the Tri-C Metro Campus, free, secure underground parking is available in Lot 5 off Woodland Avenue near East 30th Street.
Visit the Tri-C Performing Arts Series webpage for more information or call 216-987-4444.
August 29, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT: Anthony Moujaes, 216-987-3068 or anthony.moujaes@tri-c.edu