Virginia Arts Festival Announces 
Ben Folds 
Friday, June 7  
Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, Virginia Beach 

Virginia Arts Festival welcomes Ben Folds to the Sandler Center on Friday, June 7 at 7:30 pm as part of the Festival’s 2024 season. Tickets go on sale this Thursday, February 8 at 10 am and are available at vafest.org, 757-282-2822, and in person at the Virginia Arts Festival Box Office (440 Bank Street, Norfolk).   
With a seemingly bottomless bag of musical treats, Ben Folds has created an enormous body of genre-bending music that includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, and numerous collaborative records, making him one of the major music influencers of his generation. In addition to his varied musical gigs, he’s a New York Times best-selling author and podcast host, frequent guest star in film and TV, and recently earned an Emmy® nomination for his composition of a new theme song for a popular Peanuts TV special. An advocate for the arts, he serves on the Board of the Arts Action Fund, Planet Word and the Nashville Symphony, and has launched a music education initiative for kids in his home state of North Carolina. Catch this irresistible artist at the piano, where he’ll perform his signature songs and then ask the audience to submit requests.   

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 Allison Krauss, Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris, Lake Street Dive, Rhiannon Giddens, Jason Isbell, Martina McBride, Amos Lee, Chris Thile, Leyla McCalla, The Wood Brothers, Shovels & Rope, Kenny Loggins, and Keb’ Mo’. The Festival has also presented 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.