VIRGINIA ARTS FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2024 SEASON

Highlights include
Dance Theatre of Harlem, Martha Graham Dance Company,
Mandolin master Chris Thile, Jazz vocalist Samara Joy,
Broadway star Adrienne Warren,
Chamber concerts featuring pianist Olga Kern
and composer Jessie Montgomery,
and a concert performance of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd

Virginia Arts Festival’s 27^th season will showcase renowned artists in dazzling performances of dance, theater, and music that ranges from classical to jazz, rock, opera, Americana, Broadway, and beyond.

“We’re honored to present an array of artists who represent the best in their fields: revered dance companies, critically acclaimed composers and musicians, bright new stars of jazz and Broadway, and more. We’re fostering collaborations with regional arts organizations including the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and we’ll be bringing artists from around the world to our beloved Virginia International Tattoo. It’s a season full of thrills, and we can’t wait to share it with you,” said Virginia Arts Festival Perry Artistic Director Robert W. Cross.

DANCE

The Virginia Arts Festival has long been the most prolific and influential presenter of dance in Virginia, rivaling some of the most comprehensive dance seasons on the East Coast—and this year promises a spectacular line-up. For ballet and modern dance fans, there’s Dance Theatre of Harlem, whose relationship with the Festival spans more than two decades; the legendary Martha Graham Dance Company celebrates their 100^th Anniversary and whose repertoire includes the Graham works that forever changed the art form; and Collage Dance Collective, one of the largest Black-led performing arts organizations in the South, whose mission is to foster the growth of ballet and expand the communities that embrace it. And the electrifying Step Afrika! will thrill audiences with its signature style that melds the percussive stepping of historically African American fraternities and sororities with traditional African dances and contemporary movement.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Adventures await classical music fans in the Festival’s 2024 season. GRAMMY Award-winner Chris Thile will perform his new work for mandolin with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra (this performance is rescheduled from last season); and the brilliant Montreal chamber ensemble Les Violons du Roy returns with an unforgettable performance with classical guitarist MILOŠ.

CHAMBER MUSIC

The Virginia Arts Festival welcomes award-winning composer, 2024 Grammy-nominated Jessie Montgomery to a two-year residency and will celebrate the beginning of this musical adventure with a chamber concert featuring her works. Selected as Musical America’s 2023 Composer of the Year, Jessie has created works that The New York Times says are changing the American canon.

The Festival’s Connie & Marc Jacobson Director Chamber Music and Van Cliburn Gold Medal-awarded pianist, Olga Kern, has curated a great season and will perform a number of times, including with the famed directors of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, and with the internationally acclaimed Takács Quartet. The Festival’s much-loved Coffee Concerts return, offering music lovers the opportunity to mingle with the artists and fellow fans after each concert, including a performance by musicians from one of the world’s most acclaimed early music ensembles, Apollo’s Fire.

OPERA

A composer who’s blazing a trail in contemporary opera, Anthony Davis is making headlines with his works that portray historical Black figures; his X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X made its Metropolitan Opera debut this fall, and The Central Park Five won a Pulitzer Prize in 2020. Hear songs from Anthony’s operas in a performance in the Attucks Theatre.

THEATER AND MORE

The Festival’s Goode Family Artistic Advisor for Musical Theater and American Songbook, famed Broadway music director Rob Fisher, has begun a tradition of concert performances of some of Broadway’s most memorable musicals, and the 2024 season brings a winner of eight Tony Awards: Stephen Sondheim’s hit Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Fisher will conduct this performance, which will feature a cast of Broadway singers with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. One of Broadway’s brightest stars will headline an evening of song when Tony Award-winner Adrienne Warren (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical) comes home for a one-night only performance in the Attucks Theatre. For families—and for anyone who loves a thrill—the 360 ALLSTARS bring a heart-pumping show that combines BMX, basketball, breakdancing, beatboxing, acrobatics, drumming, and more.

JAZZ

One of jazz’s hottest young stars, two-time GRAMMY Award winner Samara Joy makes her Virginia Arts Festival debut, during a season that includes swinging Saturday nights at the Attucks Jazz Club.

THE FESTIVAL’S PERRY PAVILION

Located in the heart of Norfolk’s arts district and steps from restaurant row, the Festival’s outdoor Perry Pavilion is a welcome addition to the area’s venues. This season the Perry Pavilion will welcome musicians across genres including a tribute to the Trailblazing Women of Country, celebrating Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton; singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan and special guests in a daylong concert; and cabaret star Storm Large. More Perry Pavilion performances will be announced in early 2024.

VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL TATTOO

The Virginia International Tattoo returns for its 27^th season, with an awe-inspiring show featuring bands and drill teams from each of the U.S. Armed Forces as well as bagpipers and drummers, singers, and instrumentalists from around the world. This year’s Tattoo will be an emotional and grateful Celebration of Freedom, 80 years from the D-Day landings and 75 years from the founding of NATO.

Tickets for these 2024 performances as well as Virginia Arts Festival’s upcoming holiday performances are on sale now, available online at vafest.org, by phone at 757-282-2822, or at the Festival Ticket Office, 440 Bank St, Norfolk (Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm).

About Virginia Arts Festival

The largest performing arts organization in Southeastern Virginia, the Virginia Arts Festival has presented great performers from across the globe since 1997.  Under the direction of Perry Artistic Director Robert W. Cross, renowned artists have performed at the festival including Itzhak Perlman, Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Olga Kern, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Miami String Quartet, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Stewart Copeland, Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara, Patti LuPone, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre and Mark Morris Dance Group. The Festival has presented numerous world premieres and new productions of classical music, dance, and theatre from some of today’s most influential composers, choreographers, and playwrights. Van Cliburn Gold Medal-Awarded pianist Olga Kern serves as the Festival’s Connie and Marc Jacobson Director of Chamber Music, and award-winning Broadway music director Rob Fisher serves as the Festival’s Goode Family Artistic Advisor for Musical Theater and American Songbook. Each season, Virginia Arts Festival performances are broadcast nationwide on American Public Radio’s Performance Today. The Festival’s arts education programs reach tens of thousands of schoolchildren each year through student matinees, in-school performances, artist residencies, master classes, and demonstrations.

DANCE

Collage Dance Collective
Thursday, March 7, 7:30 PM
Chrysler Hall, Norfolk

Dance Theatre of Harlem
Tuesday, April 30, 7:30 PM
Ferguson Center for the Arts, Newport News

Friday, May 3, 7:30 PM
Saturday, May 4, 7:30 PM
Sunday, May 5, 2:00 PM
Chrysler Hall, Norfolk

Step Afrika!
Sunday, April 14, 3:00 PM
Chrysler Hall, Norfolk

Martha Graham Dance Company
with Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Saturday, May 11, 7:30 PM
Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, Virginia Beach

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Chris Thile, mandolin
Attention! A narrative song cycle for extroverted mandolinist and orchestra by Chris Thile
Eric Jacobsen, conductor
Virginia Symphony Orchestra

Thursday, June 13, 7:30 PM
Chrysler Hall, Norfolk
Friday, June 14, 7:30 PM
Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, Virginia Beach
Saturday, June 15, 7:30 PM
Ferguson Center for the Arts, Newport News

Les Violons du Roy
Jonathan Cohen, Music Director and Conductor
with MILOŠ, classical guitar
Monday, April 29, 7:30 PM
Norfolk Academy, Norfolk

CHAMBER MUSIC

Takács Quartet
Olga Kern, piano
 
Wednesday, May 8, 7:30 PM
Williamsburg Library, Williamsburg

Thursday, May 9, 7:30 PM
Robin Hixon Theater, Clay & Jay Barr Education Center, Norfolk

Wu Han, Piano
David Finckel, cello
Olga Kern, piano
Tuesday, June 4, 7:30 PM
Robin Hixon Theater, Clay & Jay Barr Education Center, Norfolk

Jessie Montgomery
VAF Chamber Players
Thursday, May 16, 7:30 PM
Robin Hixon Theater, Clay & Jay Barr Education Center, Norfolk

COFFEE CONCERTS
 
Coffee Concert I:
Apollo’s Fire Chamber Ensemble
Thursday, May 23, 10:30 AM
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Portsmouth

Coffee Concert II:
Apollo’s Fire Chamber Ensemble

Friday, May 24, 10:30 AM
Williamsburg Library, Williamsburg

Coffee Concert III:
Wu Han, piano
David Finckel, cello
Olga Kern, piano
Wednesday, June 5, 10:30 AM
Miller Studio Theatre, Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, Virginia Beach

Coffee Concert IV:
Olga Kern, piano
Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players
Thursday, June 6, 10:30 AM
Robin Hixon Theater, Clay & Jay Barr Education Center, Norfolk

Coffee Concert V:
Olga Kern, piano
Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players
Friday, June 7, 10:30 AM
William & Mary Concert Hall, Williamsburg

RECITALS

The Chenaults, duo-organists
Sunday, May 12, 4:00 PM
Christ & St. Luke’s Church, Norfolk
Co-presented with The Tidewater Chapter of The American Guild of Organists

Grisha Goryachev, guitar
Wednesday, April 24, 7:30 PM
Robin Hixon Theater, Clay & Jay Barr Education Center, Norfolk
Co-presented with Tidewater Classical Guitar

THEATER

Adrienne Warren
Thursday, May 30, 7:30 PM
Attucks Theatre, Norfolk

Music from the Operas of Anthony Davis
Sunday, June 2, 4:00 PM
Attucks Theatre, Norfolk

Sweeney Todd
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - A Musical Thriller
Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Rob Fisher, Music Director And Conductor
An Orchestra Concert with Broadway Soloists!
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
From an Adaptation by Christopher Bond
Originally Directed on Broadway by Harold Prince
Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick
Originally Produced on Broadway by Richard Barr, Charles Woodward, Robert Fryer, Mary Lea Johnson, Martin Richards
in Association with Dean and Judy Manos

Saturday, April 13, 7:30 PM
Connie and Marc Jacobson Opening Night
Chrysler Hall, Norfolk

TATTOO
 
Virginia International Tattoo
Thursday, April 18, 7:30 PM
Friday, April 19, 7:30 PM
Saturday, April 20, 7:30 PM
Sunday, April 21, 2:30 PM
Scope Arena, Norfolk

PERRY PAVILION

Trailblazing Women of Country
A Tribute to Patsy, Loretta and Dolly
Featuring Miko Marks and Kristina Train
Wednesday, May 1, 7:30 PM
Perry Pavilion, Norfolk

Aoife O’Donovan
Light in the Eastern Sky
with Special Guests
Saturday, June 1, 7:30 PM
Perry Pavilion, Norfolk

Storm Large
Friday, May 31, 7:30 PM
Perry Pavilion, Norfolk

JAZZ/WORLD

Samara Joy
Saturday, June 8, 7:30 PM
Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, Virginia Beach
 
Anthony Hervey, trumpet
John Toomey, piano; Jim Masters, bass; Frank Russo, drums
Saturday, January 20, 7:30 PM
Attucks Jazz Club, Attucks Theatre, 2^nd Floor

Janis Siegel, vocals
John Toomey, piano; Jim Masters, bass; Emre Katari, drums
Saturday, February 17, 7:30 PM
Attucks Jazz Club, Attucks Theatre, 2^nd Floor

Troy Roberts, saxophone
John Toomey, piano; Jim Masters, bass; Frank Russo, drums
Saturday, March 16, 7:30 PM
Attucks Jazz Club, Attucks Theatre, 2^nd Floor

FAMILY

360 ALLSTARS
Friday, May 10, 7:30 PM
TCC Roper Performing Arts Center, Norfolk

HOLIDAY 2023

When You Wish Upon a Star
A King’s Singers Christmas

Thursday, December 14, 2023, 7:30 PM
Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, Williamsburg

Saturday, December 16, 2023, 7:30 PM
River Road Church, Baptist, Richmond

Sunday, December 17, 2023, 3:00 PM
Christ & St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Norfolk

Hometown Heroes Holiday Benefit Concert
Musicians of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Adam Turner, Artistic Director & Conductor, Virginia Opera
Sunday, December 3, 2023, 3:00 PM
Harrison Opera House, Norfolk
Children under 18 Free with the purchase of an adult ticket

###

VAF Media Contact
Alli Pereira
Apereira@vafest.org
757-282-2804