Check out the dynamic arts performances and events that Holy Cross has lined up.
For directions to Holy Cross and arts venues on campus, please visit our Maps, Directions, Transporation and Parking site.
Spring 2019 Arts Events
All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.
- View the spring 2019 arts brochure (PDF) » (Please note that this was created in January. For a complete and accurate listing of arts events, please see below.)
- See our Events Calendar for a complete listing of events taking place at Holy Cross »
Jan. 23 │ 7:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
An Evening with Silkroad, featuring Golijov’s “Falling Out of Time”
A Work-in-Progress Performance
Silkroad’s three-year exploration of curiosity, difference, and the arts within the Holy Cross community continues with a work-in-progress sharing of Loyola Professor of Music Osvaldo Golijov’s “Falling Out of Time.” This Silkroad commission is inspired by David Grossman’s genre-defying exploration of grief and loss. In a voice that draws from the musical and narrative roots of the early Delta Blues and the ballads of Central Asia, Golijov gives new expression to the notion that, as Edward Hirsch writes in his New York Times review of the book, “Grief is democratic. It crosses barriers and strikes at will.”
Ticket Box Office: holycross.edu/atb/visit
Sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders
Jan. 24-Apr.7 │ 10 a.m.-5 p.m. M-F; Noon-5 p.m. Sat.
Cantor Art Gallery
“Rodin: Truth, Form, Life”
Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection
The inaugural exhibition of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery on campus in 1983 featured 31 bronze sculptures by Auguste Rodin from the collection of the Cantors. Thirty-five years later, in celebration of the Gallery’s anniversary and in conjunction with the College’s 175th, Rodin’s sculptures will again grace O’Kane Hall. In addition to the 22 pieces on loan from the Cantor Foundation, the exhibition will feature several Rodin sculptures from the College’s permanent collection.
Sponsored by the Cantor Art Gallery
Jan. 24 │ 5-6:30 p.m.
Cantor Art Gallery
Opening Reception: “Rodin: Truth, Form, Life”
Sponsored by the Cantor Art Gallery
Jan. 31, Feb. 1-2 & 7-9 at 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 3 & 10 at 2:30 p.m.
Fenwick Theatre, O’Kane Hall
“Little Women”
A musical version of the beloved classic about four sisters in 1860s Massachusetts: conventional, maternal Meg; rebellious, tomboyish Jo, who longs to be a writer; the fragile homebody Beth; and Amy, the baby of the family, pampered and vain but loveable. The play begins during the Civil War, when the girls live in genteel poverty with their mother, Marmee, the guiding light of their lives, while their father is away at the front as an army chaplain. Meaghan Deiter directs this indelible coming-of-age story.
Ticket Box Office: 508-793-2496 or hclittlewomen.eventbrite.com
Sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance
Feb. 4 │ 5:30 p.m.
The Pit, O’Kane Hall
Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE
“Faith embodied” is a fitting description of Ronald K. Brown’s work, a “sophisticated amalgam of Afrocentric movement and modern dance to make spirituality not merely a passive state but something vibrant and transformative” (Los Angeles Times). As part of a Spring ’19 residency exploring dance, community and spirituality, members of his company EVIDENCE join Brown in an informal showing of excerpts highlighting the company’s seamless integration of African forms and contemporary choreography. Brown founded Brooklyn-based EVIDENCE in 1985, and has set works on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Ailey II, Philadanco, and others. Among his numerous awards and accolades are a 2015 Doris Duke Artist Award, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer’s Fellowship and a 2018 Dance Magazine Award.
Ticket Box Office: holycross.edu/atb/visit
Sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders
Feb. 5 │ 12:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
First Tuesday Lunch Concert
Enjoy a relaxing half hour at the First Tuesday Lunch Concert Series. The series features short and enjoyable concerts by our Artists-in-Residence, various guest artists, and students.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Feb. 5 │ 7:30 p.m.
Rehm Library
Reading by Robin Hemley
Robin Hemley is the Jenks Chair of Creative Writing at Holy Cross. He is an international writer who has published a dozen books as well as essays and short stories around the world. The founder and past president of NonfictioNow, he has received many awards and grants for his writing, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, three Pushcart Prizes, and the Nelson Algren Award for Fiction from the Chicago Tribune.
Sponsored by Creative Writing
Feb. 5 │ 7:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Beethoven Piano Sonatas Marathon
Featuring the piano students of Adam Golka.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Feb. 11 │ 7:30 p.m.
Rehm Library
Vocation of the Writer
Talk by Laura van den Berg
Join us as we hear Laura van den Berg, whose most recent novel, “The Third Hotel,” was an ABA Indie Next Pick, a Powell’s Books Indispensable Pick, and an Amazon Best Book of August. She is a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Fiction at Harvard.
Sponsored by Creative Writing and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture
Feb. 12 │ 7:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Artists-in-Residence Concert
Acclaimed solo violinist and member of the Brooklyn Rider String Quartet and the Silkroad Ensemble, Johnny Gandelsman will join Holy Cross Artists-in-Residence, pianist Adam Golka and cellist Jan Müller-Szeraws, in a trio program featuring masterworks by Maurice Ravel and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Feb. 20 │ 7:30 p.m.
Location TBA
Reading by Stephanie Elizondo Griest
Come hear a reading by globetrotting author from South Texas, Stephanie Elizondo Griest. Her five books include “Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana,” “Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines,” and “All the Agents & Saints: Dispatches from the U.S. Borderlands.” She has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, VQR, The Believer and The Oxford American.
Sponsored by Creative Writing
Feb. 21 │ 7:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Just D.A.N.C.E.
Featuring Alicia Kosack, flute; Laura Armstrong, clarinet; Matthew Jaskot, piano
Guest artists Alicia Kosack and Laura Armstrong join Matthew Jaskot in presenting music inspired by dance. The program will include choreography provided by students and faculty from the Holy Cross Dance Department and music by Valerie Coleman, Claude Debussy, Osvaldo Golijov and Libby Larsen. The featured composition is Jaskot’s modern take on the traditional dance suite, titled “Dense, Angular, Nuanced, Cosmic Energy.”
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Feb. 24 │ 3 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Senior Recital
Lorraine Mihaliak, organ
Holy Cross Organ Scholar ‘18
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Feb. 26 │ 7:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Global Voices
Sponsored by the Department of Music
March 12 │ 12:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
First Tuesday Lunch Concert
Sponsored by the Department of Music
March 14 │ 6 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Gregorian Vespers in Memory of those Lost to War
A Latin Vespers, featuring Gregorian chant. The Schola Gregoriana of Holy Cross, consisting of the students in Prof. Daniel DiCenso’s Gregorian Chant courses will be directed by Laurence Rosania (director of Liturgy and Music, Office of the College Chaplains). This Vespers service will be dedicated to those alumni and students of the College who gave their lives in service of their country. An event of the 175th anniversary of the College.
Sponsored by the Department of Music and the Office of the College Chaplains
March 14 │ 7:30 p.m.
Dinand Library, Levis Browsing Room
Reading by Jon Pineda
Meet Jon Pineda, the author of the novel “Let’s No One Get Hurt.” His other books include the memoir “Sleep in Me,” the novel “Apology,” and the poetry collections “Little Anodynes,” “The Translator’s Diary,” and “Birthmark.” A core faculty member in the low-residency MFA program at Queens College in Charlotte, Jon teaches at the College of William & Mary.
Sponsored by Creative Writing
March 15 │ 7:30 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Holy Cross College Choir
The Holy Cross Choirs are back from their tour down the East Coast, and eager to share their tour program with the Holy Cross community! Appropriately enough for returning home after a journey, this program is called “Finding Your Place.” Come hear songs from across the globe, with a special set by American composers.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
March 17 │ 3 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series
Benjamin Alard, organ
Organist at Church of Saint-Louis-en-Île, Paris, France
Sponsored by the Department of Music
March 19 │ 7:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Artists-in-Residence Concert
Sponsored by the Department of Music
March 21-23 at 7:30 p.m.; March 24 at 2 p.m.
The Pit, O’Kane Hall
“Into the Woods”
In composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim and playwright James Lapine’s mash-up of familiar fairytales, Cinderella and Rapunzel and their hopeful princes, Jack (of the Beanstalk), Little Red Riding Hood, and the Baker and his wife are plucked out of the pages of the Grimm Brothers and given a modern psychologist twist. Erin Leslie ’19 directs this Alternate College Theatre production.
Ticket Box Office: 508-793-3536
Sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance
March 29 │ 7:30 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Music and the Jesuits: A 175th Celebration
Many Holy Cross musical ensembles and performers will join together for this jubilant celebration of the Jesuits and their multifaceted relationship to music: as composers, performers, scholars, patrons, dedicatees, and more. This Lessons-and-Carols style concert will feature a wide-ranging program, with student essays on the Jesuits’ contributions to the field of music interspersed with performances by the College Choir, Chamber Singers, Organ Scholars, Brooks Scholars, Chamber Orchestra, Marching Band, and many talented soloists, as well as students taking the “Music & the Jesuits” and “Senior Seminar” courses. The musical program will consist of music by Jesuit composers, settings of Jesuit poetry, commissions by Jesuit institutions — all honoring the historical influence of Jesuits on our musical life. An event of the 175th anniversary of the College.
Sponsored by the Department of Music, the Office of the College Chaplains, the Office of Mission and Identity, and the 175th Anniversary Committee
April 2 │ 12:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
First Tuesday Lunch Concert
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 4 │ 7:30 p.m.
Location TBA
Reading by Ira Sukrungruang
Join us to hear Ira Sukrungruang, the author of the nonfictions books “Buddha’s Dog & Other Meditations,” “Southside Buddhist,” and “Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy,” the short story collection “The Melting Season,” and the poetry collection “In Thailand It Is Night.” He is the recipient of the 2015 American Book Award, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Nonfiction Literature, an Arts and Letters Fellowship, and the Emerging Writer Fellowship. He teaches in the MFA program at University of South Florida.
Sponsored by Creative Writing
April 4 │ 7:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Song Concert
Join us for an intimate concert of love songs by Schubert, Barber, and other notable art-song composers. Come and hear about all the different aspects of love, from the joyous to the heartbreaking to the hilarious.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 4-6 & 11-13 │ 7:30 p.m.
Fenwick Theatre, O’Kane Hall
“Once in a Lifetime”
When the phenomenon of talking movies revolutionizes popular entertainment in the late 1920s, a trio of vaudeville performers travels west to get in on the new game and make their fortunes. Kaufman and Hart’s marvelous comedy, devised while the talkies were still young, is perhaps the funniest, savviest and most sharp-witted satire of Hollywood ever written by Americans. Directed by Steve Vineberg.
Ticket Box Office: 508-793-2496
Sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance
April 12 │ 7:30 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Holy Cross Chamber Singers
The Chamber Singers will share works of the Spanish Renaissance Jesuit composer Tomas Luis de Victoria, together with his mentor, and the most famous composer of his day, the Italian Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. These two composers represent the height of the Renaissance musical genius; don’t miss this transcendent program.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 16 │ 7:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Holy Cross Jazz Ensemble Spring Concert
An evening of Big Band Jazz music from the Classic to the Contemporary. The band will play music drawn from the libraries of jazz legends Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Buddy Rich, as well as contemporary jazz artists Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis. Our student soloists will be featured throughout the concert. Also performing this evening will be the Brooks Combo, a small jazz group made up of members of the Jazz Ensemble.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 24 │ Noon
Cantor Art Gallery
Academic Conference Presentations by Senior Artists
Senior Concentration Seminar Exhibition 2019
Presentations of the Studio Concentration Seminar students as part of the Academic Conference.
Sponsored by the Cantor Art Gallery
April 24 │ 7:30 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Holy Cross College Orchestra
The Holy Cross College Orchestra will perform Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and a world premiere by Brooks Scholar Matthew Pinder ’20. Pinder’s work takes inspiration from an encounter with the powerful work of Syrian-Armenian visual artist and Silkroad member Kevork Mourad.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 25-May 24 │ 10 a.m.-5 p.m. M-F; Noon-5 p.m. Sat.
Cantor Art Gallery
Senior Concentration Seminar Exhibition 2019
Senior majors participating in the yearlong Studio Concentration Seminar offered by the Visual Arts Department present their graduation thesis exhibition at the Cantor Art Gallery. The students work with visual arts faculty and gallery director Roger Hankins, during both the fall and spring semesters, developing their individual vision, skills, and studio practices, leading to the presentation of a cohesive body of work at the Cantor.
Sponsored by the Cantor Art Gallery
April 25 │ 5:30-7 p.m.
Cantor Art Gallery
Opening Reception: “Senior Concentration Seminar Exhibition 2019”
Sponsored by the Cantor Art Gallery
April 26 │ 4 p.m.
Mary Chapel
Spring Chamber Music Recital
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 26 │ 7:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
H-CLEF Concert
Join the Holy Cross Laptop Ensemble Federation for an evening of silent film accompanied by live music performed on DIY synthesizers, repurposed smart phones and hacked game controllers.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 27 │ 7:30 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Holy Cross College Choir
Giacomo Carissimi was the first great composer of oratorios, and his influence on the form has lasted for hundreds of years. Hear his most famous oratorio, “Jephte,” the tragic Hebrew Bible story of the general Jephte, his daughter, and the heart-breaking results of his vow to God. The final chorus is one of the most beautiful works in the choral repertoire. All of the highly dramatic vocal solos will be performed by students.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 28 │ 2 p.m.
Hogan Ballroom
Holy Cross Concert Band
The Holy Cross Concert Band, led by Director of Bands Ernest Jennings, will present its spring concert titled “Contemporary Classics”. This concert will feature standard and contemporary works for wind band by a diverse list of composers for the medium. Please join us for an afternoon of exciting music.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 28 │ 3 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series
Pavel Kohout, organ
International Concert Organist, Prague, Czech Republic
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April 30 │ 4 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
End of Semester Student Recital
Sponsored by the Department of Music
May 1 │ 7 p.m. & 9 p.m.
Fenwick Theatre, O’Kane Hall
Dance Concert
Eagerly awaited, densely attended, and enthusiastically greeted, this annual concert showcases the students in all our dance classes, performing work choreographed by our four instructors — Jimena Bermejo, Kaela Lee, Audra Carabetta and Jaclyn Waguespack — and by the students themselves.
Sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance
May 2 │ 7:30 p.m.
St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
Psaltikon: The Day of Resurrection
Psaltikon, the critically acclaimed Boston-based Byzantine chant ensemble directed by Spyridon Antonopoulos, will present a program of celebratory chants for Pascha from Medieval Byzantium. An event of the 175th anniversary of the College.
Sponsored by the Department of Music, the Office of the College Chaplains, and the Department of Classics
May 3 │ 7:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Gamelan Gita Sari
The students in our gamelan and Balinese dance classes, joined by special guests, are featured in this biannual concert — a treat for the whole family. Under the direction of I Nyoman Catra.
Sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance and the Department of Music
May 5 │ 7:30 p.m.
Brooks Concert Hall
Percussion Ensemble & Brooks Jazz Combo
Sponsored by the Department of Music