Spot 5

It’s an almost 7,000-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean and the United States to get from Seoul to State College. But pianist Seong-Jin Cho, who makes his Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State premiere October 28, has taken an even longer route — by way of Poland — to get to his first…

Pianist Ramsey Lewis has appeared at Eisenhower Auditorium three times in the last quarter century. He’s performed in a duo with the great Billy Taylor, been backed by Penn State’s Essence of Joy choir, and shared billing with the legendary Dave Brubeck. When Lewis returns to the university October 13, he’ll be celebrating the…

Life for a teenager is often awkward. In Shadowland, Pilobolus Dance Theater’s newest production, it’s also surreal. Created by Pilobolus dancers and directors in collaboration with Steven Banks, lead writer for the animated TV series SpongeBob SquarePants, Shadowland is an imaginative detour from the traditional coming-of-age story. “Our protagonist is a girl who…

The Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State 2016-17 season begins with a set of café doors swinging open on an exhilarating evening in the mythical Wild West. Cirque Éloize (Cirkopolis, iD, Rain) rustles up a mix of theater, music, acrobatics, and emotion in its new production, Saloon. Co-commissioned by the Center for…

The sixth season of the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State’s Classical Music Project features six ensembles, including performances by Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra with Chopin International Piano Competition winner Seong-Jin Cho and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra’s J.S. Bach: The Circle of Creation. The project, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aims to…

Maria Schneider, who NPR describes as “a national treasure,” calls her own shots. That and her immeasurable talent have helped her and the orchestra she guides to earn five Grammy Awards in three genres (jazz, classical, and rock), 12 Grammy nominations, and the acclaim of critics and music lovers. She added two Grammys this…

Revered in the hip-hop world as a master turntablist, Paul D. Miller — better known by his stage name DJ Spooky — is a sonic artist who hears music in everything from visual forms and economic theory to the great outdoors. In Arctic Rhythms, which comes to the Center for the Performing Arts at…

Patty Griffin, Sara Watkins, and Anaïs Mitchell are coming to Penn State for a celebration of American songwriting and performance. Their March 16 concert at Eisenhower Auditorium, part of the Use Your Voice Tour 2016, finds the artists sharing songs and accompanying one another. The tour, visiting almost 40 cities, doubles as a voter-engagement…

Billy Childs received a 2015 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album for his Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro. The pianist and composer, who’s earned three Grammys and a Guggenheim Fellowship, makes his Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State debut February 5 in a Schwab Auditorium concert featuring music from the…