Check out the dynamic arts performances and events that Holy Cross has lined up.
Spring 2021 Arts Events
Due to COVID-19 precautions at the College, events may be virtual or capacity may be limited. Please contact sponsoring departments for more information.
All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.
- 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.
Jan. 10 - Jun. 1 | 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday - Friday
Cantor Resource Gallery
“10 x 10: Ten Women/Ten Prints”
On view in the Cantor Resource Gallery this semester, the portfolio “10 x 10 Ten Women/Ten Artists,” published by the Berkeley Art Center in 1995 on International Women’s Day (March 8) to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th amendment. Also known as suffrage, the amendment granted U.S. women the right to vote. The portfolio, from the gallery’s permanent collection, is being shown to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in America. Presented with assistance from Alyssa Stone ’22, student research assistant.
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
Photo by Paula Rosenblum
Through Feb. 5 | 12 - 5 p.m., Monday - Friday
“B. Lynch: New Gilded Age,” A Theatrical Installation
Open by appointment, for reservations email Paula Rosenblum
The fictional world of the “Reds” and the “Greys,” as imagined and constructed by Boston-based artist B. Lynch, is where a cast of characters play out their roles on life’s stage as the “haves” and “have nots.”
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
Photo by Paula Rosenblum
Feb. 2 | 12:30 p.m.
First Tuesday Lunch Concert
Concert link: https://linktr.ee/hcmusic
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Feb. 9, 16 and 23 | 4 p.m.
“Introduction to Exercises for the Quiet Eye and Interactive Looking” - Feb. 9
“Developing I-Thou Relationships with Art” - Feb. 16
“Triptych: An Exercise with Art at Home” - Feb. 23
Workshops held via Zoom, approximately 1 hour long.
Registration information TBA, space is limited.
Annie Storr is a resident scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, a visiting professor of art history at Holy Cross, and museum educator. She will lead a series of virtual workshops, based on Holy Cross and other Massachusetts-based collections. The workshops will introduce Exercises for the Quiet Eye (EQE), a program that Storr developed to encourage patient reflection and an attempt to avoid the rush to understand, or determine a set interpretation for what we see. Through a series of exercises, specifically formatted for virtual participation, participants will find new ways of experiencing art.
The first session will be an introduction to EQE, and will help participants learn more about how we look at art. The goal will be to slow down, override classic art historical analysis/cognitive approaches, and explore the unresolved ambiguities in order to get more out of holistic art experiences. The second session focuses on connecting directly to the humanity in art, a skill that can extend beyond the painting. The workshops will include exercises meant to explore the difference but interplay between subjective and objective responses to the work of art. The third and final session asks participants what art do you put around you and why? This workshop utilizes the art in your home to challenge and hone your impressions of the familiar.
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
Feb. 11 | 4:30 p.m.
“State vs. Natasha Banina” - An Online Interactive Live Performance
Live on Zoom, sign up for the ATB newsletter to receive the link
Arlekin Players Theatre
Directed by Igor Golyak
Performed live by Darya Denisova (2020 Elliot Norton Award-winner for Outstanding Actress) “State vs. Natasha Banina” unfolds as a Russian teenager tells the story of her life in a small-town orphanage and the crime of passion that landed her inside the “Zoom courtroom.” As she appeals to you, the jury, Natasha shares her dreams of love, family and her future. Is Natasha guilty of manslaughter? You decide her fate.
Arlekin Players Theatre’s “State vs. Natasha Banina” is based on “Natasha’s Dream” by Russian playwright Yaroslava Pulinovich. A New York Times Critic’s Pick, this is Zoom as you’ve never seen it before: theatre for our time, made for the new virtual landscape.
The performance will be immediately followed by a talkback with the artists moderated by Lynn Kremer, professor in the Department of Theatre & Dance and Distinguished Professor of Humanities.
Sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders
Photo by Igor Golyak
Feb. 22 - March 4 | 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily
Kevork Mourad In Residence
Known for his spontaneous drawing technique and collaborations with performing artists, Kevork Mourad, printmaker and installation artist, will work with students to build “Memory Gates” on site in the Cantor Art Gallery. Based on themes of place and memory, the piece will be an immersive series of doors and passages through which visitors can travel, and will take shape as the artist interacts with the Holy Cross community.
Gallery as Studio: ArtBreak with Kevork Mourad
Feb. 25 | 12 - 12:45 p.m. | Register to attend via Zoom
Feb. 26 | 4:30 - 5:15 p.m. | Register to attend via Zoom
Mar. 2 | 12 - 12:45 p.m. | Register to attend via Zoom
Check in virtually — or in person — with artist Kevork Mourad as he creates the site-specific installation work “Memory Gates.” Ask questions and listen as he describes his spontaneous drawing and printmaking techniques. All are welcome to join virtually; in person attendance is limited and restricted to members of the Holy Cross community.
Co-sponsored by the Iris and B. Cantor Art Gallery and Arts Transcending Borders
Photo by Connie Tsang
Feb. 25 - Mar. 6 | Streaming on demand
Link will be available on the Current Season Schedule
"(le) Deluge"
By Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin and Ulysses Loken
“(le) Deluge” follows an ensemble cast against the backdrop of Hurricane Agnes and the Watergate break-in during June 1972 — with moments in 1792 Paris and the far future. Journalists pursue the truth in Washington; roommates navigate a personal storm during widespread destruction; siblings split along ideological lines: Hyades, a trio of Greek deities fashioned after late-sixties girl groups, preside over this 90-minute work that explores themes of isolation, disruption, and corruption. Eighteen student actors rehearsed and recorded their performances live from six different states. An original production commissioned for Holy Cross and directed by Meagan Deiter.
Sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance
Feb. 28 | 3 p.m.
Michelle Sacco, Organ Scholar
Concert link: https://linktr.ee/hcmusic
Sponsored by the Department of Music
March 2 |12:30 p.m.
First Tuesday Lunch Concert
Concert link: https://linktr.ee/hcmusic
Sponsored by the Department of Music
March 4 - Apr. 11 | 12 - 5 p.m., Monday - Friday
“Kevork Mourad: Memory Gates”
Open by appointment, for reservations email Paula Rosenblum
Using his signature style of spontaneous drawing and printmaking techniques, Syrian artist Kevork Mourad will create the site-specific immersive installation “Memory Gates” during a residency at the Cantor Art Gallery in February. The work, imagined as a series of doors and passageways that visitors can pass through, will explore themes of cultural plurality and collective memory.
Co-sponsored by the Iris and B. Cantor Art Gallery and Arts Transcending Borders
Photo by Connie Tsang
March 4 | 4 p.m.
Opening Artist’s Talk
“Kevork Mourad: Memory Gates”
Live streamed on YouTube, Registration requested
Join us live on YouTube as artist Kevork Mourad gives a talk in the gallery in conjunction with the opening of his site-specific installation work, “Memory Gates,” created at the Cantor Art Gallery during his February residency.
Co-sponsored by the Iris and B. Cantor Art Gallery and Arts Transcending Borders
Photo by Connie Tsang
March 8 | 4 p.m.
“The Destruction of Images (and Images of Their Destruction)”
Zoom talk by Aaron Tugendhaft, Ph.D.
Registration information TBA
Join us as Aaron Tugendhaft, a scholar of the ancient Middle East teaching courses focusing on religion, political philosophy, and the arts at Bard College Berlin, gives a talk in conjunction with the installation of “Memory Gates” by Kevork Mourad at the Cantor Art Gallery. He is the author of “The Idols of ISIS: From Assyria to the Internet”(University of Chicago Press, 2020) exploring the political power of images and the significance of their destruction.
Co-sponsored by the Iris and B. Cantor Art Gallery and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture
March 11 | 3:30 p.m. Craft Talk, 7:30 p.m. Reading
Dan Flores (Creative Non-Fiction)
Working Writers Series
Link will be posted prior to the event.
A native of Louisiana, Dan Flores is a writer who presently lives in the Galisteo Valley outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is A.B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of the History of the American West at the University of Montana-Missoula. He is the author of 10 books, most recently the New York Times Bestseller, “Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History”(2016), and “American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains” (2016). Pulitzer-winning novelist Annie Proulx has written that “his work ranks with that of Thoreau, William Bartram, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Peter Matthiessen.” Dr. Flores’s essays on the environment, art, and culture of the West have appeared in newspapers like The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune, and in magazines such as Texas Monthly, Orion, Wild West, Southwest Art, The Big Sky Journal, and High Country News. His work has been honored by the Western Writers of America, the Denver Public Library, the Western Heritage Center/National Cowboy Museum, the High Plains Book Awards, the Montana Book Awards, and the Oklahoma Book Awards, and by the Western History Association, the Montana Historical Society, and the Texas State Historical Association.
Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program
March 12 | 7 p.m.
"Songs of Joy and Grief: Intimate Passions of Everyday Life"
Concert link: https://linktr.ee/hcmusic
Renowned French mezzo-soprano Sophie Michaux will present a virtual concert exploring a range of emotions seething beneath the surface of our daily interactions. Grief, anger, love, and joy will be spotlighted in this diverse program. Well-known works by Schubert, Poulenc, Handel, Vivaldi, and Fauré will be featured, as well as lesser-known works by women composers Barbara Strozzi, Florence Price, Moira Smiley and Edith Piaf. Michaux and her accompanist (and spouse) Adam Simon will perform from their home on a variety of instruments (keyboards, guitar, and percussion). This spectacular singer wowed the campus last year — don't miss this special, intimate return performance!
Sponsored by the Department of Music
March 18 | 3:30 p.m. Craft Talk, 7:30 p.m. Reading
Joy Priest (Poetry)
Working Writers Series
Link will be posted prior to the event.
Joy Priest is the author of “HORSEPOWER” (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020), and the winner of the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry. She is the recipient of the 2020 Stanley Kunitz Prize and her poems have appeared in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, APR, The Atlantic, and Poetry Northwest, among others. Her essays have appeared in The Bitter Southerner, Poets & Writers, ESPN, and The Undefeated, and her work has been anthologized in “Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop,” “The Louisville Anthology,” “A Measure of Belonging: Writers of Color on the New American South,” and “Best New Poets” 2014, 2016 and 2019. Priest has been a journalist, theater attendant, waitress, and fast-food worker in Kentucky, and has facilitated writing workshops and arbitration programs with adult and juvenile incarcerated women. She is currently a doctoral student in Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Houston.
Co-Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and Africana Studies
March 18 | 7 p.m.
Reinventions: A Concert of Genre-Busting New Music
Concert link: https://linktr.ee/hcmusic
Alfredo Colon – saxophones
Alex Davis – bassoon
This exciting virtual concert includes a collection of modern works for saxophone and bassoon that synthesize a variety of musical genres. Colon and Davis are equally at home interpreting complex musical scores and improvising, both of which will be featured in the program. Works by Holy Cross faculty member Matthew Jaskot will be performed.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
March 25 | 4:30 p.m.
“The Harpweaver”
Live streamed on YouTube, Registration requested
Gilchrist, Celtic harp
Featuring the Aizuri Quartet
An acclaimed harpist and member of the Silkroad Ensemble, Maeve Gilchrist presents selections from her latest release, “The Harpweaver,” featuring the Grammy-nominated Aizuri Quartet. Drawing inspiration from “The Ballad of the Harpweaver” by 1923 Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, the suite of music weaves a rich textural soundscape that illuminates her roots as a traditional folk musical through the prism of luscious string parts. The album evokes a sense of nostalgia, the catharsis of familiar sounds and words that bring a sense of connection, possibility and joy. Hailing originally from Edinburgh, Maeve Gilchrist blends original compositions and traditional Irish and Scottish music into a richly imaginative world.
Sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders
Apr. 4 - Apr. 21| Streaming on demand
"The Theory of Relativity"
Link will be available on the Current Season Schedule
By Neil Bartram and Brian Hill
This moving and unconventional song cycle bursts with originality as it examines the interconnectedness of us all through life's shared experiences — from the hilarious to the heartbreaking. "The Theory of Relativity" introduces a compelling array of characters experiencing the joys and heartbreaks, the liaisons and losses, the inevitability and the wonder of human connection. An Alternate College Theatre production directed by Nate Tanner.
Sponsored by Alternate College Theatre
April 8 | 3:30 p.m. Craft Talk, 7:30 p.m. Reading
Kali Fajardo-Anstine (Fiction)
Working Writers Series
Link will be posted prior to the event.
Kali Fajardo-Anstine is the author of “Sabrina & Corina” (One World, 2019), finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN/Bingham Prize, The Story Prize, The Saroyan International Prize, and winner of an American Book Award and Reading the West Award. Fajardo-Anstine is the 2019 recipient of the Denver Mayor’s Award for Global Impact in the Arts. Her writing has appeared in print and online at Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, O, the Oprah Magazine, The American Scholar, Boston Review, Bellevue Literary Review, The Idaho Review, Southwestern American Literature, and elsewhere. Kali has been awarded fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, Tin House, and Hedgebrook. She holds an MFA from the University of Wyoming and is from Denver, Colorado. Her work has been translated into multiple languages.
Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program
Apr. 16 | 7 p.m.
Demi Para Dewa Lama Dan Baru (For The Gods Old and New)
Gong Gaada (gamelan and electronics)
Concert link: https://linktr.ee/hcmusic
Inspired by the traditional music of Indonesia, as well as its contemporary experimental scenes, Gong Gaada is a Los Angeles-based trio exploring a hybrid form of gamelan with electronics. Utilizing reyong (the arrays of metal gongs used in Balinese gamelan), suling (bamboo flute), and modular synthesizer, the group lays out familiar and creative patterns as a matrix for departure. The analog electronics pick up and process the acoustic drama in real-time, the modular output augmenting their sounds with newfound harmonics and psychedelic flitter. Groove intact, noise rips and punctuates in step with the hypnotic rhythms of their struck metal attack.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Apr. 15 | 7 p.m.
Artist-in-Residence Concert
With Brooks Scholars
Concert link: https://linktr.ee/hcmusic
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Apr. 22 | 7 p.m.
Holy Cross Jazz Ensemble Concert
Concert link: https://linktr.ee/hcmusic
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Apr. 28 | 6 p.m.
Spring Orchestra Concert - "Shall We Dance?"
Livestream will be available on the music department’s YouTube channel
Tune in as the Orchestra plays together for the first time in over a year! Circumstances permitting, we will be livestreaming our physically distanced, outdoor concert at the end of the Academic Conference. This program will feature dance movements from a variety of countries and sources, including Eastern Europe, Britain, and America. Don't miss this short and lively concert!
Sponsored by the Department of Music
Apr. 28 - May 28 | 12 - 5 p.m., Monday - Friday
"2021 Visual Arts Studio Concentration Seminar"
The Cantor Art Gallery will once again host an exhibition of artwork by graduating visual arts studio majors.
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
Apr. 28
Academic Conference Senior Presentations and Opening Reception
Sponsored by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery
Apr. 30 | 7 p.m.
Chamber Singers Concert - "The Road Home"
Concert link: bit.ly/hcmusicyt
Join us as the Chamber Singers sings about traveling to different places and walking down different roads. We will be singing works by Johannes Brahms and Stephen Paulus, music by African American composers André Thomas and Undine Smith Moore, and tunes by James Taylor and Elton John. In a year that has felt constraining for many, join us for music about movement, and about getting to where you want to go, even if the route is roundabout.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
April | Date and Time TBC
"Budi and the Hornbill"
Written and directed by Lynn Kremer
For the latest information, visit the Current Season Schedule
In this fantasy inspired by a Sumatran folk tale, Budi, an honest but down-on-his-luck fisherman, learns about loyalty, honesty and how to recognize one’s strengths and weaknesses. "Budi and the Hornbill" incorporates large scale puppets to portray buffalo, horses, tigers, snakes, and the hornbill of the title. Near extinction in some places in the world, hornbills are thought to have sacred powers in Indonesia and are portrayed in dances and tales as heroes who are close to godlike. Audiences of all ages will delight in this inventive dance/theatre work.
Sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance
Image licensed from Shutterstock
May 2 | 2 p.m.
HC Wind Ensemble
Rachel Leeper, Bassoon
Concert link: https://linktr.ee/hcmusic
Please join us for an afternoon of great music as the Holy Cross Wind Ensemble (HCWE) presents their spring concert titled “Winds of Color.” Selections include standard and contemporary works for wind band (and chamber winds) including works composed by female minority and underrepresented composers. A highlight of the program includes the premiere of "Concerto for Bassoon and Wind Ensemble" by Venezuelan composer Josefina Beneditti commissioned specifically for the HCWE and will feature guest artist, Ms. Rachel Leeper. Each selection will be accompanied by a collage of still images in order to enhance the total aesthetic experience for the audience.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
May 4 | 7 p.m.
H-CLEF – “Bach to the Future”
Concert link: https://linktr.ee/hcmusic or the music department’s YouTube channel
Join the Holy Cross Laptop Ensemble Federation for a virtual concert of sound and image inspired by the music and art of J.S. Bach, Wendy Carlos, Laurie Spiegel, Pamela Z, and others.
Sponsored by the Department of Music
May 5 | 7 p.m.
College Choir Concert - "Unofficial Anthems"
Livestream will be available on the music department’s YouTube channel
Come on a trip around the world as the College Choir sings some of the most famous songs from Italy, Venezuela, South Korea, and Australia. These songs are not national anthems, but they are so well-known that they could be! Verdi's "Va pensiero," "Alma Llanera," "Arirang," and "Waltzing Matilda" will all lift your spirits. And of course, we will end with our own school's official anthem, the Alma Mater and the Songs of Holy Cross!
Sponsored by the Department of Music
May 6 | 7 p.m.
Gregorian Vespers in Honor of the Virgin Mary
Concert link: https://linktr.ee/hcmusic
A Latin Vespers, featuring Gregorian chant. The Schola Gregoriana of Holy Cross, consisting of the students in Professor Daniel DiCenso’s “Gregorian Chant” courses will be directed by Laurence Rosania (Director of Liturgy and Music, Office of the College Chaplains). This year’s Vespers, featuring Latin chants dedicated to the Virgin Mary, will be offered online.
Sponsored by the Department of Music and the Office of the College Chaplains