Josh Turner returns to the CAC on Friday, September 27!

Josh Turner returns to the CAC on Friday, September 27!

Tickets for the Josh Turner: The Greatest Hits Tour go on public sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, March 15, at CACLive.com!

Williamsport, March 11, 2024 – Country music legend Josh Turner is returning to the Community Arts Center in Williamsport this fall! As part of his The Greatest Hits Tour, Josh Turner will be at the CAC on Friday, September 27.

Turner returns to the Community Arts Center for the first time in five years to play timeless hits like “Long Black Train” and “Why Don’t We Just Dance.”

Josh Turner’s global reach has surpassed 5.8 billion global streams, 6.5 million album sales, and almost 12 million track sales worldwide. Turner’s five No. 1 singles include “Your Man,” of which the official music video surpassed 223 million views. Turner’s album Long Black Train celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023 and was certified Platinum by the RIAA with nearly 1.5M album sales, 1.3M track downloads, and almost 315M streams to date. The title track was also certified Platinum, making up over 1M track downloads and almost 245M global streams. Turner released his first Greatest Hits album in September 2023, which features 11 of his biggest songs from seven of his studio albums.

In June 2021, Turner released Your Man Deluxe Edition, celebrating 15 years of Turner’s iconic double Platinum-selling album and the mini-documentary “Josh Turner Your Man 15th Anniversary”. The now certified triple-Platinum selling “Would You Go With Me,” featured on Your Man Deluxe Edition, experienced a viral surge across TikTok, leading to an increase in popularity, which landed the classic country tune on Spotify’s US Viral 50 along with Spotify Viral charts in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland.

A native of South Carolina, Turner has been nominated for three GMA Dove Awards and won his first GMA Dove Award in 2021 for “I Saw The Light” featuring Sonya Isaacs, from his I Serve a Savior album. Turner has been nominated for two GRAMMY Awards, five CMA Awards, two ACM Awards, one CMT Award, seven ACA Awards, and has received six Inspirational Country Music Awards. Turner released his first Christmas album, King Size Manger, in 2021, and it was released on vinyl the following year.

Tickets for the Josh Turner: The Greatest Hits Tour go on public sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, March 15, at CAClive.com/JoshTurner or through the CAC Box Office at 570.326.2424. Mark your calendars for the return of this country music legend to Downtown Williamsport!

The Community Arts Center is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pennsylvania College of Technology, a national leader in applied technology education.

Traditional Irish Music Comes to the Weis Center

Traditional Irish Music Comes to the Weis Center

The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome Irish music ensemble Dervish on Friday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center.

The performance is sponsored, in part, by Martha and Alan Barrick, Coldwell Banker Penn One Real Estate, and WBRE/WYOU.

At the end of 2019 Dervish received a prestigious lifetime achievement award from the BBC, a fitting tribute to the band after over 30 years of recording and performing all over the world.

Described by the BBC as “an icon of Irish music”, the band have played at festivals from Rio de Janeiro to Glastonbury. They accompanied the Irish President on state visits to Latvia and Lithuania and Prime Minister of Ireland on a trade mission to China as Cultural Ambassadors taking time out to play an impromptu session on the Great Wall of China. Dervish have a line-up which includes some of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians, fronted by one of the country’s best-known singers, Cathy Jordan.

The Guardian newspaper commented: “Dervish are simply brilliant…they carry Irish history with them.” Dervish are long-established as one of the biggest names in Irish music internationally. They’re renowned for live performances, which match dazzling sets of tunes with stunning interpretations of traditional songs.  Their studio and live albums – 13 to date – make up one of the outstanding catalogues in Irish music.

They are regular visitors to the US, performing sell out shows from coast to coast. However, their fan base stretches across several continents, including Europe, Asia, and South America. They were the first Irish band to play the world’s biggest music festival, Rock in Rio, performing to an estimated 250,000 people. Over the years they’ve been on the same bill as artists such as James Brown, Neil Young, Sting and even Iron Maiden! In 2018 Dervish are still busy touring internationally and still making plans. The band are excited about signing for the renowned US roots label Rounder Records and will be releasing their first album on the label in 2018 featuring guest appearances by artists including Vince Gill, Steve Earl, David Gray and many others.

All six members of Dervish are steeped in the musical traditions of counties Sligo and Leitrim in north-west Ireland. It’s an area which matches Atlantic coastline with storied mountains and rural landscapes. It has inspired a host of musicians, artists and writers, including the Nobel Prize-winning poet W. B. Yeats.

In 2004 Dervish were given their home towns highest honour when they were given the freedom of Sligo City in a civic reception, an accolade they share with Yeats himself, Michael Flatley and Countess Markievicz. Dervish were formed in 1989 when four of the founding members met while playing informal sessions in the pubs of Sligo – Shane Mitchell (accordion), Liam Kelly (flute/whistle), Brian McDonagh (mandola/mandolin) and Michael Holmes (bouzouki). They were soon joined by Roscommon born singer and bodhran (drum) player Cathy Jordan, and later by all Ireland Fiddle Champion Tom Morrow in 1998.

It’s a remarkable and at times electric combination – “capable of playing with note-perfect accuracy and perfect control at nearly supersonic levels” (Irish Voice, New York).

But Dervish marry technical brilliance with a rare sensibility, born of an understanding of the music and many years of playing together. The Irish Times said their “integrity makes the group a formidable heir to the throne abandoned by The Bothy Band, if not a serious contender for The Chieftains’ international space.”

The News Journal (Delaware) described Dervish as: “The most compelling, most soulful Irish traditional folk band playing today. If you ever find yourself in the beautiful town of Sligo on the wild Atlantic way, check out the music sessions that take place in many establishments. The members of Dervish enjoy playing tunes back where it all began.”

TICKETS
Tickets are $30 for adults, $24 for seniors 62+ and subscribers, $20 for youth 18 and under, $20 for Bucknell employees and retirees (limit 2), free for Bucknell students (limit 1) and $20 for non-Bucknell students (limit 2).

Tickets can be reserved by calling 570-577-1000 or online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice.

Tickets are also available in person from several locations including the Weis Center lobby (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and the CAP Center Box Office, located on the ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).

For more information about this event, contact Lisa Leighton, marketing and outreach director, at 570-577-3727 or by e-mail at [email protected].

For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

Susquehanna Valley Chorale Presents New Choral Work that Celebrates Women’s Empowerment and Resilience

New Work Documents the Struggle of Generations to
Establish and Protect the Constitution’s 19th Amendment

The Susquehanna Valley Chorale (SVC) will present a brand-new choral work for their spring performance, Amendment: Righting Our Wrongs, on Saturday, March 16 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, March 17 at 3 pm at Stretansky Hall on the campus of Susquehanna University.

This new choral work celebrates women’s suffrage through underrepresented voices and brings to the forefront those who still fight for the right to vote today.

William Payn serves as Conductor and Music Director of the 60-member ensemble and David Cover serves as Accompanist.

The first part of the performance features pieces which promote awareness and advocacy for voices that have gone unheard. It will include songs such as: Light of a Clear Blue Morning with words and music by Dolly Parton and soloist Kathi Beiter and Everybody Says Don’t with words and music by Stephen Sondheim and featuring Dick Adams on guitar, Jack Lawton on drums, bass guitarist Chris Wheeland and David Cover on synthesizer.

The second part of the performance will feature the new choral work, Amendment: Righting Our Wrongs which was composed by Melissa Dunphy and features cellist, Jonathan Dexter. The work includes six movements: The Quest, All Men Are Created Equal, We Hold These Truths, Identity Politics, Pledging Allegiance, and Amendment.

The SVC is proud to be part of the consortium that commissioned this important work.

Melissa Dunphy specializes in composing vocal, political, and theatrical music. She first came to national attention when her large-scale work The Gonzales Cantata was featured in The Wall Street Journal and on The Rachel Maddow Show. Dunphy is the recipient of an Opera America Discovery Grant for Alice Tierney, commissioned by Oberlin Conservatory. Other recent commissions include works for Experiments in Opera, the BBC Singers, VOCES8, and Cantus. Dunphy is also a Barrymore Award-nominated theater composer and Director of Music Composition for the O’Neill National Puppetry Conference. Dunphy has a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.M. from West Chester University and teaches at Rutgers University. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Matt; the Dunphys are co-hosts of the popular podcast The Boghouse about their adventures in Philadelphia colonial archaeology.

Several local organizations will offer resources at the performances including the League of Women Voters of Northumberland County and Transitions of PA. The League of Women Voters of Lewisburg will serve as ushers.

Sponsors for the performance are Elsbeth Steffensen and Walter Bruce in Memory of Richard Steffensen, Co-sponsors are Lois and Tom Clark and Leta Jo and Fred Maue, and Underwriters are Ruth Anderson and William Payn, Harmonious Endeavors, Barb Walzer, and Diane and Ted Meixell.

Tickets for the performance are $25 for adults and $10 for students.

Tickets are available online at SVCMusic.org, by calling 570-547-0455 or at the door.

For more information about this performance and future performances, visit SVCMusic.org.

All-Female Brass Ensemble Comes to the Weis Center

All-Female Brass Ensemble Comes to the Weis Center

The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome tenThing on Friday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center.

Formed in 2007 by Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth as a fun and exciting collaboration between musical friends, the ten-piece, all-female brass ensemble tenThing have firmly established themselves on the international scene to great acclaim.

tenThing are celebrated for their commitment to outreach and access to music through a diverse repertoire that spans from Mozart to Weill, Grieg to Bernstein, and Lully to Bartok. The group work closely with Norwegian guitarist and arranger Jarle Storløkken in the arrangement of scores for the ensemble, enabling them to play pieces of differing instrumentations.

tenThing first came into prominence thanks to performances all over their native Norway, eventually delighting a huge national audience by opening the 2011 Norwegian Grammy Awards. Soon after, the group drew international attention after their highly successful appearance at the BBC Proms at London’s Cadogan Hall. Elsewhere in Europe, they have performed at a wide range of prestigious festivals and concert halls, including the Schleswig-Holstein, Beethoven Bonn, Gstaad, MDR Musiksommer, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rheingau, Bodensee, Engadin, Merano, Thüringer Bachwochen, and Bremen festivals in Central Europe, the Merano and Sienna festivals in Italy, the NCPA Beijing May Festival, and Moscow’s House of Music.

In Spring 2017, the ensemble embarked on their American debut tour, which included concerts in New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and at the renowned Wolf Trap Festival. Since then, they have returned to the USA on two occasions including with a Holiday-themed program in December 2022. Their next visit to the USA sees the ensemble celebrate Women’s History Month in March 2024.

TICKETS
Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors 62+ and subscribers, $15 for youth 18 and under, $15 for Bucknell employees and retirees (limit 2), free for Bucknell students (limit 1) and $15 for non-Bucknell students (limit 2).

Tickets can be reserved by calling 570-577-1000 or online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice.

Tickets are also available in person from several locations including the Weis Center lobby (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and the CAP Center Box Office, located on the ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).

For more information about this event, contact Lisa Leighton, marketing and outreach director, at 570-577-3727 or by e-mail at [email protected].

For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

Martha Redbone Roots Project Comes to the Weis Center

Martha Redbone Roots Project Comes to the Weis Center

The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome folk/blues/gospel ensemble Martha Redbone Roots Project on Tuesday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center.

The performance is sponsored, in part, by the News-Item.

Martha Redbone is a Native American and African American vocalist/songwriter/ composer/educator.

She is known for her unique gumbo of folk, blues and gospel from her childhood in Harlan County, Kentucky, that is infused with the eclectic grit of pre-gentrified Brooklyn.

Inheriting the powerful vocal range of her gospel-singing African American father and the resilient spirit of her mother’s Southeastern Cherokee/Choctaw culture, Redbone broadens the boundaries of American roots music.

With songs and storytelling that share her life experience as a Native and Black woman and mother in the new millennium, she gives voice to issues of social justice, bridging traditions from past to present, connecting cultures and celebrating the human spirit.

Her album The Garden of Love- Songs of William Blake, produced by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder/Grammy Winner John McEuen is an unexpected twist – “a brilliant collision of cultures” (The New Yorker) – features Redbone’s magnificent voice, Blake’s immortal words and a masterful cornucopia of roots music (blues, gospel, bluegrass, soul and traditional Southeastern Woodlands). Featured on NPR’s All Things Considered the album released on her own indie label imprint rose to the Top Ten on Amazon Folk Charts for several weeks and has become the bedrock of her live shows bringing audiences to their feet with her fiery old-time mountain gospel singing and foot-stomping energy.

Redbone and her long-term collaborator/husband, composer/pianist/producer Aaron Whitby are called “the little engine that could [by their] band of NYC’s finest blues and jazz musicians” (Larry Blumenthal/Wall Street Journal). From grassroots beginnings at powwows across Indian Country and in the underground clubs of NYC Redbone has built a passionate fan base with her mesmerizing presence and explosive live shows. Her debut Home of the Brave – “Stunning album, the kind of woman who sets trends” (Billboard) – garnered extremely positive critical attention while her sophomore album Skintalk – described as the soulful sound of “Earth, Wind and Fire on the Rez” (J Poet/Native Peoples Magazine) – took her music to Europe and the Far East. Albums Skintalk and The Garden of Love: Songs of William Blake are included in the Library Collection and “Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture” exhibits in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC.

Redbone is Composer for the Public Theater’s 2019 production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuff, a revival/reimagining of the 1976 classic choreopoem by the late Ntozake Shange. Redbone joined the all-women-of-color Creative Team to celebrate the author’s historical work and legacy, and enjoyed a 4-week extended run through December that received rave reviews with notable mentions for their team’s original compositions and score — “supreme music…brilliant” (NY Daily News).

Redbone and Whitby’s recent work is Bone Hill – The Concert, an interdisciplinary musical theater work inspired by the lives of Redbone’s family in the hills of coal-mining Appalachia. A multi-racial Cherokee and African American family, they are permanently bonded to their culture, identity and the mountain despite its violent past and the ever-changing laws of the land that threaten to extinguish them. Commissioned by Joe’s Pub/NEA and Lincoln Center for the Arts, Bone Hill – The Concert is touring extensively nationwide and is a recipient of the NEFA National Theater Project Creation and Touring Grant and National Performance Network Creation Fund. Other theatrical commissions include compositions for the Goethe Institute / New York Theater Workshop collaboration, Plurality of PrivacyPrimer for a Failed Superpower directed by Rachel Chavkin; a Chinese-American musical collaboration Flood in the Valley which premiered in Beijing in 2018; New Musical work, Black Mountain Women, currently in development at the Public Theater.

Over the years Martha has performed and recorded with many great artists including; Bonnie Raitt, George Clinton, Judy Collins, Joan Osborne, Steven Van Zandt, Me’Shell Ndegeocello, Nona Hendryx, Lisa Fischer, Steve Martin, David Amram, Randy Brecker, Tony Trischka, John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John Carter Cash, Ben Sollee and Tom Chapin amongst many others.

Martha guest lectures on subjects ranging from Indigenous rights to the role of the arts in politics and Native American Identity at many institutions including New York University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, to name a few. Redbone includes workshops and motivational talks with grade school children as part of her touring schedule on numerous reservations including Red Lake, Minn., Cherokee, N.C., Yuma, Ariz., and Menominee, Wisc., among others.

An exemplary ambassador for both Native and African-American Youth for the National HIV/Aids Partnership, she was awarded the Red Ribbon Award for Outstanding Leadership presented on World AIDS Day at the United Nations in 2005. Currently Martha advocates for Why Hunger’s Artists Against Hunger and Poverty program which raises and awareness of poverty and hunger in the United States and abroad. Redbone is an Advisory Board member of the ManUp Campaign, the global youth movement to eradicate violence against women and girls for whom she served as the indigenous affairs consultant and creative advisor. She is particularly proud of her accomplishment in working with founder Jimmie Briggs and the Campaign’s Board of Directors to include an Indigenous North American contingent (independent of the USA) to the roll call of 50 countries taking part in their Youth Leadership Summit held at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Redbone serves as an Advisory Board member of The Carlisle Indian School Project, Association on American Indian Affairs, Voices- A Peoples’ History of the United States/Howard Zinn, a 2016 Fellow of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation and is the 2018 MAPfund and 2018 Creative Capital awardee.

Redbone and Whitby are the 2020 Drama Desk Award recipients for Outstanding Music in a Play and the 2020 Audelco Award recipient for Outstanding Composer of Original Music and Score for Public Theater revival For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuff by Ntozake Shange. Redbone is an Awardee of Creative Capital, NEFA, NPN, NACF, MAPFund and NYC Womens Fund for Music.

PRESS REVIEWS

New York Times (John Pareles)
“Martha Redbone’s voice held both the taut determination of mountain music and the bite of American Indian singing.”

Huffington Post (Dusty Wright)
“An organic, gorgeous feast for ears and minds.”

The New Yorker
“A brilliant collision of cultures.”

Anastasia Tsioulcas covering globalFEST for NPR:
“Redbone combines folk, Appalachian, soul and Native tradition in a group of settings of poetry by William Blake — a startling idea, perhaps, but one that brims with potency and freshness.”

Village Voice
“Poised to be Americana’s next superstar.”

TICKETS
Tickets are $20 for adults, $16 for seniors 62+ and subscribers, $10 for youth 18 and under, $10 for Bucknell employees and retirees (limit 2), free for Bucknell students (limit 1) and $10 for non-Bucknell students (limit 2).

Tickets can be reserved by calling 570-577-1000 or online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice.

Tickets are also available in person from several locations including the Weis Center lobby (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and the CAP Center Box Office, located on the ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).

For more information about this event, contact Lisa Leighton, marketing and outreach director, at 570-577-3727 or by e-mail at [email protected].

For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

Weis Center Welcomes Two Up-and-Coming Blues Artists

Weis Center Welcomes Two Up-and-Coming Blues Artists

The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome blues artists Jontavious Willis and Jayy Hop on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center.

The performance is sponsored, in part, by PPL Electric Utilities.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Every generation or so, a young bluesman bursts onto the scene and sends a jolt through the blues community. Jontavious Willis may just have that effect on people. Many fans of Willis regard him as an old soul. His style of playing and his voice touches the very roots of country blues, bringing back the true soul of the music. A newspaper headline once called him a “70-year-old Bluesman in a 20-year-old Body.” Hailing from Greenville, Ga., Willis grew up singing gospel music at the Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church with his grandfather. From an early age, he had the talent and passion for the music and the ability to sharpen his skills fast. At the age of 14, he came across a YouTube video of Muddy Waters playing “Hoochie Coochie Man” and was instantly hooked on the blues. He got his much-needed break from the living legend Taj Mahal in 2015, when Mahal asked Willis to play on stage with him. That appearance resulted in a roaring response from the audience and led Willis to bigger stages and broader opportunities, including an opening slot at select shows along the TajMo tour, featuring his musical mentors Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’.

Jayy Hop is part of the new generation of Black bluesman. From Georgia, he got his start in the Church, first playing drums in Gospel groups before being introduced to guitar by his cousin. The guitar led him on a musical journey backwards through time, unpacking the history of blues guitar from Jimi Hendrix through Albert Collins and Son Seals through the funky soul of the Ohio Players (founded by his Uncles Robert and Billy Ward). He went to school with Jontavious Willis, who then opened his ears to an even earlier generation of acoustic players. Jayy is on the path to becoming a powerful force in Country Blues working with Jontavious as well one of the elder living master of the country blues sound, Bentonia, Mississippi ‘s own, Jimmy “Duck “ Holmes. For this show, he will be sharing the stage with his longtime friend, Jontavious Willis, for an evening of old blues, masterfully performed by the next generation of young masters.

TICKETS
Tickets are $20 for adults, $16 for seniors 62+ and subscribers, $10 for youth 18 and under, $10 for Bucknell employees and retirees (limit 2), free for Bucknell students (limit 1) and $10 for non-Bucknell students (limit 2).

Tickets can be reserved by calling 570-577-1000 or online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice.

Tickets are also available in person from several locations including the Weis Center lobby (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and the CAP Center Box Office, located on the ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).

For more information about this event, contact Lisa Leighton, marketing and outreach director, at 570-577-3727 or by e-mail at [email protected].

For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.