Check out the dynamic arts performances and events that Holy Cross has lined up.
Spring 2022 Arts Events
- Please visit the Visitors On Campus-Policy page for Holy Cross’ current COVID-19 precautions and protocols.
- For directions to Holy Cross and arts venues on campus, please visit our Maps, Directions and Transportation and Parking site.
- All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Please visit the sponsoring department or program’s website for further information and updates about attending. Dates are subject to change based on COVID conditions.
- See our Events Calendar for a complete listing of events taking place at Holy Cross.
- View past concerts and receive alerts for upcoming concerts on the Holy Cross Department of Music YouTube channel.
January 24 - February 20
Mon-Fri 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. | Sat & Sun noon – 5 p.m.
Cantor Art Gallery
“A Mirror to the World: Two Centuries of Collecting at Holy Cross”
Since its founding in the mid-19th century, the College of the Holy Cross has attracted gifts of art and precious objects to its campus. Given by alumni, faculty, and other friends of the College, these works are meant to support both the liberal arts idea and curriculum for Holy Cross students past, present, and future. As we transition into a new space, the Cantor Art Gallery seizes the opportunity to study, contemplate, and prepare its collections; as well as to consider them in relationship to other collections on campus. This exhibition explores the question: what is an art collection for Holy Cross, what is its purpose, and how do we plan for its future?
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
Photo Credit by Frank E. Graham
January 31 | 4:30 p.m.
Virtual Event (Zoom webinar)
“An Art Collection for Holy Cross: Past, Present, and Future”
James Welu, Director Emeritus, Worcester Art Museum in conversation with Meredith Fluke, Director, Cantor Art Gallery | Register
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
February 1 | 7 p.m.
Hogan Ballroom
Glen Velez Handance Ensemble: Excerpts from “Doctrine of Signatures”
Tickets: $10//general, $10//HC faculty & staff, $5//students
Get Tickets
Silkroad artist and percussionist Shane Shanahan returns to Holy Cross with his long-time mentor, percussion master Glen Velez, exploring the universal link between rhythm and spirituality. A four-time Grammy Award winner, Velez is regarded as a leading figure in the modern frame drum movement. Velez’s virtuosic combinations of hand movements, finger techniques, along with his original compositional style, which incorporates stepping, drum language and Central Asian Overtone singing (split-tone singing), has undoubtedly opened new possibilities for musicians around the globe. Shanahan and Velez are joined by percussionist Yousif Sheronick, rhythm vocalist Loire Cotler and Raman Kalyan, a leading flautist in the Indian Carnatic style, in an hour-long presentation with conversation and excerpts from Velez’s 1989 composition “Doctrine of Signatures,” a seminal work that inspired John Cage to compose for Velez.
HANDANCE WORKSHOP with Glen Velez and guests immediately following (60 minutes)
Open to percussionists of all levels. Free registration with ticket purchase; space is limited.
Sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders
February 1 | 12:30 p.m.
Virtual Offering
First Tuesday Lunch Concert
featuring Marjorie Merryman’s “Four Images for Solo Cello”
Watch the livestream
Sponsored by the Department of Music
February 9 | 4.30 p.m.
Virtual Event (Zoom meeting)
“Conserving Holy Cross Collections”
Theresa Carmichael, Paintings Conservator and Susan Jackson, Frames Conservator
Register
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
Photo Credit by Paula Rosenblum
February 10-12 and 17-19 | 7:30 p.m.; February 13 and 20 | 2:00 p.m.
Fenwick Theatre
“She Loves Me”
Book by Joe Masteroff, music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Based on the screenplay by Samson Raphaelson
Tickets available here after January 24
General Public $15 / HC Community $10
Bock and Harnick’s entrancing musical – based on the great Hollywood romantic comedy “The Shop Around the Corner” – is set in an elegant Budapest shop at the height of the Depression. Georg, the assistant manager, and Amalia, the newest employee, dislike each other from the first; they have no idea that they have been writing anonymous love letters to one another for months and are planning to meet their pen pal for the first time. Joe Masteroff’s wonderful script is built on the tension between truth and appearance and explores the mysterious nature of romantic attraction. Directed by Meaghan Deiter.
Sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance
February 14| 12:30 p.m.
Cantor Art Gallery
Music in the Cantor Art Gallery
Jan Müller-Szeraws plays John Harbison’s “Suite for Solo Cello”
Watch the livestream
Sponsored by the Department of Music and the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
Photo Credit Jan Muller-Szeraws
February 16 | 12:15 – 1 p.m.
Cantor Art Gallery
Gallery Talk (in person)
“Two Centuries of Collections for Teaching”
Amy Adams, Professor, Russian Studies and Susan Rodgers, Professor Emerita, Anthropology
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
Photo Credit Amy Adams
Photo Credit Susan Rodgers
February 22 | 7:30 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series
Nathan Laube
Watch the livestream
Not to be missed, maestro Laube commanding the Taylor and Boody organ at Saint Joseph Memorial Chapel.
Grammy winner, Nathan Laube, is a leading performer and pedagogue. He is on the organ faculty at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Germany.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
March 1 | 7 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
In Progress: An Evening with Maeve Gilchrist and Kevork Mourad
Tickets: $10//general, $10//HC faculty & staff, $5//students Get Tickets
Famed Scottish harpist Maeve Gilchrist and prominent Syrian-Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad return to Holy Cross for a creative residency that builds on their first-time collaboration under Silkroad (“How the Knot Binds,” presented virtually in Fall 2020). This latest residency offers the artists dedicated time and space to delve further into an exploration of connections between their respective cultural heritages. At the end of their time together, they will come together onstage to share their work-in-progress, with lively conversation on the nature of their collaboration and creative process.
Sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders
March 2 | 1 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Afternoon Concert
Nostalgic and Eternal Visions
Matthew Jaskot, piano
Watch the livestream
Pianist Matthew Jaskot performs music by William Grant Still, Paul McCartney (as played by jazz pianist Brad Mehldau), and Mary Kouyoumdjian. Still's “Three Visions” are an evocative rumination on the soul's journey after death. Mehldau's interpretation of the Beatles classic “Blackbird” is both delicate and alluring, and Kouyoumdjian's hauntingly beautiful “Aghavni (Doves)” follows the lives of a group of woman before, during, and after the Armenian Genocide.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
March 2 | 8 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Joint Wind Ensemble/Orchestra Concert
Classics from Broadway to the Silver Screen
Watch the livestream
From Phantom of the Opera to Harry Potter, be sure to catch this performance of timeless movie and musical classics!
Sponsored by the Department of Music
March 10 - April 10, 2022
M-F 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Sat & Sun noon – 5 p.m.
Cantor Art Gallery
In Process: Contemporary Photographers Rethinking their Medium from the Collection of Mark Nevins ‘86
For more than 10 years, Holy Cross Alumnus Mark D. Nevins has been building a collection of contemporary process-based photography. This exhibition comprises works from Nevins’ collection by artists exploring the medium in diverse ways. Through their unique processes, each artist crosses the boundaries between media, and reconsiders the role of light, materiality, color, and subject on the photographic object — to beautiful and often enigmatic results. Works included in the exhibition from artists Abelardo Morell, Marco Breuer, Jessica Eaton, Alison Rossiter, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and others.
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
Photo courtesy of Penelope Umbrico
Tuesday, March 15 | 5 p.m.
Rehm Library
Collecting Process-based Photography
A conversation with collector Mark D. Nevins ’86 and Randy Rosen, Independent Curator Gallery opening at 6 p.m.
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery
Photo courtesy of Mark Nevins
March 15 | 8:00 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Stuart Gerber, percussion
Watch the livestream
Stuart Gerber (praised by The New York Times as a musician of “consummate virtuosity”) presents an evening of music for percussion and electronics by Alvin Singleton, Emma O’Halloran, Eric Lyon, and a world premiere by Prof. Chris Arrell.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Wednesday, March 16 | 4.30 p.m.
Hogan 519
Artist Talk by Abelardo Morell, photographer
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery
Photo courtesy of Abelardo Morell
March 17 | 7:30 p.m.
Rehm Library
An Evening with Ellen Clegg, Journalist
In a journalism career that spanned more than three decades at The Boston Globe, Ellen Clegg held a variety of senior editing positions in the newsroom, including Page One Editor and Editorial Page Editor, where she oversaw the Editorial Page, the Op-Ed Page and the Sunday Ideas section. During her tenure on the Editorial Page, staff members won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing and the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Now an affiliated faculty member at Northeastern University's College of Arts, Media and Design, she is collaborating with Professor Dan Kennedy on a book about the future of community journalism, "What Works: The Future of Local News," (Beacon Press, 2023.) Clegg, who has written widely on the life sciences and the intersection of public health and public policy, is the author/co-author of two previous books, “ChemoBrain” (Prometheus Books, 2009) and “The Alzheimer’s Solution” (Prometheus Books, 2010, with Dr. Kenneth Kosik).
Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program
March 19 | 7:30 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Senior Recital
Matthew Luca, Organ Scholar
Watch the livestream
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Wednesday, March 23 | 4.30 p.m.
Rehm Library
Artist Talk by Bryan Graf, photographer
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery
Photo courtesy of Bryan Graf
March 24 | 7:30 p.m.
Rehm Library
Fiction Reading by Katie Kitamura
Katie Kitamura’s most recent novel is “Intimacies.” Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award, it is a Barack Obama Summer Reading selection and a New York Times Editors’ choice. Her third novel, “A Separation,” was a New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the Premio von Rezzori. She is also the author of “Gone To The Forest” and “The Longshot,” both finalists for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. Her work has been translated into nineteen languages and is being adapted for film and television. A recipient of fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and Santa Maddalena, Kitamura has written for publications including The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, BOMB, Triple Canopy, and Frieze. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.
Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program in conjunction with the W.H. Jenks Chair of Contemporary Letters Fund
March 24 | 7:30 p.m.
Hogan Ballroom
Las Cafeteras│Bridging Music, Activism and Community
Tickets: $25//general, $10//HC faculty & staff, $5//students
Born and raised east of the Los Angeles river, Las Cafeteras are remixing roots music and telling modern day stories. Their Afro-Mexican beats, rhythms, and rhymes deliver inspiring lyrics that document stories of a community seeking love and justice in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles. Using traditional Son Jarocho instruments, Las Cafeteras sing in English, Spanish, and Spanglish and add a remix of sounds, from rock to hip-hop to rancheras. Las Cafeteras use music as a vehicle to build bridges among different cultures and communities, and create ‘a world where many worlds fit’.
Sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders
March 25 | 8 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
College Choir Concert
Silver and Gold
Watch the livestream
“Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other gold.” This famous round is the inspiration for our program, which will combine a world premiere and newly published music with beloved choral classics. The poetry of Holy Cross’s own Oliver de la Paz is being set by Canadian composer Patrick Murray in a piece composed specifically for the College Choir. We will also be sharing a newly published and long-lost work by African American composer Margaret Bonds, a setting of the Prayer of St. Francis (“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”) These new works will be paired with beloved choral chestnuts such as “The Silver Swan” by Gibbons and the classic African American spiritual “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit” by Dawson.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Wednesday, March 30 | 12.15 p.m.
Cantor Art Gallery
Offline Images—Photographs as Objects
In-person Gallery Talk with Matthew Gamber, Associate Professor, Visual Arts Department
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery
Photo courtesy of Matthew Gamber
March 31 | 8 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Art Song Concert
Langston Hughes, Musical Inspiration
featuring Christon Carney, tenor
Watch the livestream
American poet Langston Hughes has been an inspiration to countless composers over the past century. This program will feature settings of his poetry by four composers: Florence Price, Robert Owens, Jean Berger, and Margaret Bonds. Operatic tenor Christon Carney has performed with the Nashville Symphony, Nashville Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Rhode Island Civic Orchestra and Chorale, and has won the Orpheus Vocal Competition, the Altech Vocal Competition, and the Harlem Opera Theater Competition. He holds a masters' degree from NEC and teaches in Worcester.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 3 | 3 p.m.
Jean McDonough Arts Center (JMAC), downtown Worcester
Cyro Baptista & the Banquet of Spirits
Tickets: $25//general, $10//HC faculty & staff, $5//students
One of the premiere percussionists on the planet, Cyro Baptista leads his winsome quartet on a virtuosic trek through myriad musics of the world. Washed out surf rock splashes, blazing hardbop solos, breathtaking West African harping, exquisite Brazilian rhythms — the sounds all coalesce into a carnivalesque stew of joy and irreverence as these four astonishing players draw on sounds and instruments from around the globe to create utterly unique combinations. Throughout a week-long residency, Baptista will be leading workshops with a variety of community groups and participants, using everyday objects as well as traditional instruments at the Jean McDonough Arts Center in downtown Worcester. The sessions will culminate in a concert featuring Baptista & the Banquet of the Spirits with community participation.
Sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders
April 4 | 12:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
“Fire, Passion, Beauty: Music of Domenico Scarlatti”
Laurence Rosania, Piano
Watch the livestream
The brilliant music of Spanish composer Domenico Scarlatti ranks with the greatest of any age. It also provides a cultural lens on St. Ignatius Loyola in this special Ignatian Year. Although from different centuries, still the same passion, energy, and courtly ideals that motivated his countryman Ignatius can be found in Scarlatti’s dazzling keyboard works. His famous “Cat’s Fugue” is featured!
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Tuesday, April 5 | 7 p.m.
On Process: A Virtual Discussion with artists Penelope Umbrico and Ellen Carey
Virtual Panel Discussion moderated by Professor Matthew Gamber, with curator Randy Rosen
Register for Zoom webinar
Sponsored by Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery
Photo courtesy of Ellen Carey
April 21 | 4:30 p.m
Rehm Library
Conversation with Sneha Shrestha
IMAGINE (aka Sneha Shrestha) is a Nepali artist who incorporates her native language and meshes the aesthetics of Sanskrit scriptures with graffiti influences. She has shown her meditative works in several exhibitions, commissioned works and public walls around the world from Kathmandu to Boston. Her show “Mindful Mandalas” was on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her newest work is a thirty-foot sculpture commissioned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum currently on view. She was recognized by WBUR as one of the 25 millennial artists of color impacting Boston. Shrestha’s work is held in the private collections of Facebook, Google and Fidelity Investments.
Co-sponsored by the Department of Visual Arts, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery and Arts Transcending Borders
April 7 | 7:30 p.m.
Rehm Library
Fiction Reading by Madeline ffitch
Madeline ffitch writes and organizes in Appalachian Ohio. She was a founding member of the punk theater company, The Missoula Oblongata, and is the author of the story collection, “Valparaiso, Round the Horn.” Madeline has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, and Ucross. Her first novel, “Stay and Fight” (FSG, 2019), was a Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and the Washington State Book Award. The New York Times praised the novel as “A contemporary feminist spin on the traditional pioneer novel . . . With Stay and Fight, ffitch aims to update the frontier narrative from a queer feminist perspective, spinning a tale of exodus from a cruel new America where pipelines and pollution pox the countryside.”
Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program
April 8 | 8 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Chamber Singers Concert
Clash! Music of Struggle
Watch the livestream
The Holy Cross Chamber Singers will present music about struggle and war in this pugnacious program! A movement from Bach’s cantata “Christ lag in Todesbanden,” Vittoria Aleotti’s thrilling Renaissance motet “Exurgat Deus,” contemporary composer Jonathan Woody’s sparkling “I Conquer the World with Words” and Moses Hogan’s famous setting of “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho” are just a few of the exciting pieces on this program – don’t miss it!
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 9
Brooks Concert Hall
Senior Recitals
Watch the livestream
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 7-9 and 21-23 | 7:30 p.m.; April 9 and 23 | 2:00 p.m.
Fenwick Theatre
“Our Town”
by Thornton Wilder
Tickets available here after March 15
General Public $15 / HC Community $10
Steve Vineberg directs Thornton Wilder’s classic 1938 play, which uses the details of life in a small town in New Hampshire in the early days of the twentieth century to look at the hard and tender truths of human existence – family and coming of age, love and loss, what passes away and what is eternal. “Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you,” Emily, the play’s heroine, declares at the end of the last act. We thought that this American masterpiece was the ideal way to say goodbye to our beloved Fenwick Theatre as we prepare to move into the new Prior Performing Arts Center.
Sponsored by Department of Theatre and Dance
April 21 | 7:30 p.m.
Rehm Library
The Vocation of the Writer Talk with Rigoberto González
Rigoberto González is the author of 17 books of poetry and prose, most recently the poetry collection “The Book of Ruin” (2019). Rigoberto González has also edited “Camino del Sol: 15 Years of Latina and Latino Writing.” His awards include Lannan, Guggenheim, NEA, NYFA, and USA Rolón fellowships, the American Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Shelley Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America, and the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets. His memoir “What Drowns the Flowers in Your Mouth: A Memoir of Brotherhood” (2018) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography, and he is the 2020 recipient of the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry.
Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Culture
April 21 | 8 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Jazz Ensemble Concert
Watch the livestream
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 23
Brooks Concert Hall
Senior Recitals
Watch the livestream
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 24 | 3 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Percussion Ensemble Recital
Watch the livestream
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 27 | 7 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Holy Cross Spring Orchestra & Holy Cross Choirs
Academic Conference Concert
“Mendelssohn, Warlock, and Brahms”
Watch the livestream
The Holy Cross Orchestra and Holy Cross Choirs will join forces at the conclusion of the Academic Conference. This program will feature Mendelssohn’s famous “Hebrides Overture,” Warlock’s lively “Capriol Suite,” and Brahms’ beloved work “Nänie” for chorus and orchestra, a piece full of Classical references in which the gods mourn the transience of beauty. This joint concert promises to be an unforgettable musical experience.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 27 | Noon – 1 p.m.
Cantor Art Gallery
Academic Conference Presentations by Senior Art Majors
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
Photo Credit Installation view of work by Grace Peluso, “Your Perception of Me is a Reflection of You,” 2021 Senior Concentration Seminar exhibition, “Metanoia”
April 27 - May 27
Mon-Fri 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Cantor Art Gallery
“Senior Concentration Seminar Exhibition 2022”
Throughout their senior year, students participate in a concentration seminar – a rigorous capstone experience in which they develop their artistic practice through independent work and experimentation. Students work closely with studio faculty to find and refine their practice, and to develop and present a cohesive body of work.
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
Photo Credit Installation view of work by Grace Peluso, “Your Perception of Me is a Reflection of You,” 2021 Senior Concentration Seminar exhibition, “Metanoia”
April 28 | 8 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
H-CLEF Concert
Watch the livestream
Join the Holy Cross Laptop Ensemble Federation for a screening of MUSC 299: Principles of Sound Synthesis final projects combining sound with choreographed video.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 29 | 6 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Chamber Music Recital
Watch the livestream
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 28-30 | 7:30 p.m.; April 30 and May 1 | 2:00 p.m.
The Pit (O’Kane 37)
“Jekyll and Hyde”
by Leslie Bricusse and Frank Wildhorn
Tickets: No admission charge; limited seating; reservations at (508) 793-3536
The epic struggle between good and evil comes to life in this musical based on the classic story by Robert Louis Stevenson. Directed by Nate Tanner ’22.
Sponsored by Alternate College Theatre
April 30
Brooks Concert Hall
Senior Recitals
Watch the livestream
Sponsored by the Department of Music
May 1 | 3 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Spring Wind Ensemble Concert
Something Old & Something New
Watch the livestream
Join the Holy Cross Wind Ensemble performing works of Ralph Vaughan Williams, J.S. Bach, Julie Giroux and more.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
May 3 | 6 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
End of Semester Student Recitals
Watch the livestream
Sponsored by the Department of Music
May 4 | 7:00 and 9:00 p.m.
Fenwick Theatre
Dance Concert
Tickets: No admission charge; limited seating
Always one of the highlights of the season, this collection of dance pieces showcases the work of all of our dance classes. Choreographed by our creative and resourceful dance faculty – Jimena Bermejo, Audra Carabetta, Jaclyn Waguespack and Taylor Travassos-Lomba – and sometimes by the students themselves.
Sponsored by Department of Theatre and Dance
May 5 | 6 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Gregorian Vespers for the Ignatian Year
Watch the livestream
For its fourth annual Gregorian Vespers, the combined Chant classes of Professor Daniel DiCenso will perform Gregorian Vespers for the Ignatian Year under the direction of Laurence Rosania, Director of Liturgy and Music. Over 50 singers will bring to life this ancient and haunting music in the majestic acoustics of the Chapel, inviting the listener into an otherworldly realm of sound.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
May 7 | 7:30 pm
Brooks Concert Hall
Gamelan Gita Sari Spring Concert
Watch the livestream
Tickets: No admission charge; limited seating
I Nyoman Catra, Visiting Fellow in Balinese Music, Theatre, and Dance, directs gamelan and Balinese dance students for this always eagerly anticipated concert.
Sponsored by Department of Theatre and Dance and Department of Music
May 8
Brooks Concert Hall
Senior Recitals
Watch the livestream
Sponsored by the Department of Music