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Broadcast live: Thursday 6:04 p.m. & Friday 11:04 am. By Sabrina Eastwood

Cal State University Monterey Bay celebrates Cinco de Mayo with Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles, the 12-member all-female mariachi group. Two performances at the CSUMB World Theater May 2 and 3. Both shows will start at 7:30 p.m. The group has released three albums: Solo Tuyo (Yours Only), El Mejor Mariachi Feminino del Mundo (The Best Female Mariachi in the World), and Companeras, which was nominated for Grammy and Latin Grammy awards in 2009. Tickets at the World Theater box office at (831) 582-4580 or online atcsumb.edu/worldtheater. The World Theater is located on Sixth Avenue between A and B streets on the CSUMB campus. Driving directions and a campus map are available at CSUMB.edu/map.

 

The Santa Cruz County Symphony presents “Bohemian Rhapsodies” on Saturday, May 4, 8pm at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium and Sunday, May 5, 2pm at Watsonville's Mello Center. The concert features Dvořák's Symphony No. 6 and renowned Bay Area pianist Hans Boepple performing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. Conductor Rebecca Miller, the last of five guest conductor candidates competing to become the Symphony's next Maestro, will lead the symphony. Ms. Miller is the Music Director of London's New Professionals Orchestra. Tickets are available at 831-420-5260 or online at SantaCruzSymphony.org.

 

Youth Music Monterey County presents a concert "The World of Joy & Beauty" on Saturday, May 4 at 2:00 pm at the Steinbeck Institute for Art & Culture (Sherwood Hall), 940 North Main Street, Salinas. Tickets at the door, online at http://www.youthmusicmonterey.org/event_tix.php or by calling 831.375.1992

 

Monterey County Composers Forum will present "Home Is Where the Song Is," a concert of new music by local composers on Sunday, May 5 at 3:00 PM at the First United Methodist Church, 404 Lincoln St, Salinas. Presented in conjunction with the Salinas Steinbeck Festival, this concert will and feature works for voice, guitar, violin, cello, flute, and piano - that reflect Salinas, Steinbeck's birthplace. Special guest, poet Illia Thompson, will do a reading of her poetry. The concert will feature composers Jonathan Barron, Benjamin Belew, Steve Ettinger, Tom Faia, Bruce Graham, Mary Lesher, Ed Mercurio, Ed Moncrief, Alison Passell, David Price, Julie Roseman, Dennis Seese, Dale Victorine and Rick Yramategui. A reception will follow the concert. For more information, contact Steve Ettinger at (831) 385-0973dallapiccolo@msn.com, or Dale Victorine at (408) 768-1941 dvic56@aol.com.

 

Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz welcomes Jason Moran and The Bandwagon on Monday, May 6, 7:00 PM “…shaping up to be the most provocative thinker in current jazz.” - Rolling Stone. A fateful discovery of Thelonious Monk's “Round Midnight” changed the path of thirteen year-old Houston pianist Jason Moran from a classical player, and took him on a detour through the wilds of jazz. After signing with Blue Note Records in the late nineties, Moran has released albums that have consistently become benchmarks for contemporary jazz players and fans alike. A recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, Moran continues to expand the boundaries of jazz expression. For the past 10 years, Moran and his trio The Bandwagon has challenged the status quo and earned the reputation as the future of jazz. Ticket/info: 831-427-2227 or www.kuumbwajazz.org

 

 

And Continuing

The Cabrillo College Theatre Arts Department presents a festival of plays, storytelling, and improvisation from the local theatre community in collaboration with Cabrillo students. With over 30 local theatre companies in Santa Cruz County producing plays on a regular basis, Cabrillo Theatre Arts is celebrating the theatre community by bringing some of these companies onto campus to work with students and perform in Cabrillo's Black Box Theater, which is an intimate theatre-in-the-round that is rarely, if ever, experienced in Santa Cruz theatre. The Cabrillo Theatre Festival will present nine different shows, each performing multiple times through May 12. (Fridays at 7:30 PM and 9:20 PM; Saturdays at 2:00 PM, 3:20 PM, 7:30 PM, and 9:20 PM; Sundays at 2:00 PM and 3:20 PM in the Cabrillo College Black Box Theater, 6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos. Tickets: 831-479-6154 or www.cabrillovapa.com

El Teatro Campesino in association with Company of Strangers presents the Northern California premiere of 7, 8IGHT, 9…, a new tragi-comedy written and directed by Joe Luis Cedillo. Inspired by real-life events 7, 8IGHT, 9… was recognized by the Kennedy Center as runner-up for the National Latino Playwriting Award. More than a gritty LA crime story, 7, 8IGHT, 9… is a collage of the struggles of three desperate men and women trying to make ends meet, their broken opportunities, and their shared burden of trying to stay alive while the world eats them raw. 7, 8IGHT, 9… premieres at El Teatro Campesino with performances through Sunday, May 5. Shows are Thurs-Sat at 8:00 PM & Sun at 2:00 PM. Tickets at 800-838-3006 or at elteatrocampesino.com

Paper Wing Theatre of Monterey presents "9 to 5, The Musical.” Book by Patricia Resnick; music and lyrics by Dolly Parton. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00PM through May 11 at Paper Wing Theatre, 320 Hoffman Avenue, Monterey. Tickets online at www.PaperWingTheatre.com or at the door. Box Office opens at 7:30PM. Call 831-905-5684 for more info.

Coming up next week and beyond:

The Monterey Peninsula College Theatre Company's 2013 season continues with Moss Hart's 1948 comedy Light Up the Sky, a backstage comedy filled with classic character types and over-the-top farce associated with comedies of a bygone era.  On the newly renovated Morgan Stock Stage at MPC. Tickets on sale at the MPC Box Office (646-4213) and online at https://secure3.TicketGuys.com/mpc. Preview performance on Thursday, May 9 at 7:30 PM.  Regular performances are Thursday, Friday & Saturday at 7:30 PM (May 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25) and Sunday at 2:00 PM (May 12, 19, 26) on the Morgan Stock Stage at MPC, located at 980 Fremont Street, downtown Monterey.

The Santa Cruz Baroque Festival presents the ensemble Lux Musica in a concert called “Popular Baroque Revival” with special guest artists. The program features then-popular tunes from the 1600s and 1700s but with some jazz thrown into the mix. Forming the evening's highlight is a hot-jazz trio playing Bach swing-style. Special guest for this truly Santa Cruz 'home-brew' show is violinist Bob Stern. Stern is former member of popular Santa Cruz band Oganookie, which had its heyday in the 1970s, playing for crowds of fans at the Catalyst. Around that same time he was part of Baroque Festival's beginnings. He (re)joins forces with Lux Musica members Linda Burman-Hall (harpsichord), Amy Brodo (cello), David Wilson (violin), and Lars Johannesson (wooden flutes), along with guitarist Mesut Ozgen and bassist Stan Poplin. May 11 at 7:30pm at the Music Center Recital Hall at UC Santa Cruz. www.scbaroque.org.

Cabrollo College presents Sueños de mi Madre - A Celebration of Mothers in Song and Dance featuring Mariachi Alma de Mexico and Estrellas de Esperanza, a children's Folklorico dance group. Sunday, May 12 at 3:00 p.m. in the Cabrillo Crocker Theater on the Cabrillo campus. Sponsored by the Sueños Club, dedicated to supporting students of the Dream Act obtain higher education. This event supports raising funds for scholarships for the advancement of Dreamers' education. Tickets www.cabrillostage.com or 831-479-6154 

Cowell College, Stevenson College, and the Language Program at UC Santa Cruz will present International Playhouse (IP), an annual multilingual program of fully staged short theater pieces, now in its 13th season. Four public performances will be held on May 16, 17, 18, 19, at 8:00 PM at the Stevenson Event Center at UCSC and will feature works in French, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, with English super-titles. The program will be directed by Language lecturers, working with their students. This year's works include excerpts from (French) LE MALADE IMAGINAIRE (The Hypochondriac) by Molière, directed by Miriam Ellis; (Italian) NATIVITÀ (Nativity) by La Smorfia, directed by Giulia Centineo; (Japanese) THE VAMPIRE CABBIE by Murarka, directed by Sakae Fujita; (Spanish) LAS LUCIÉRNAGAS DEL CARIBE (Caribbean Fireflies) by Carballido, directed by Marta Navarro. For further information: ellisan@ucsc.edu or 459-2054.

Paper Wing Theatre presents Mr. Bruce, Do You Swear?, an original play by Rob Foster. Lenny Bruce, the most important stand-up comedian of the 20th century, gets one more chance to defend his life on the witness stand. And you are the jury. Bruce's struggle for his right to speak his mind on stage brought about an evolution in stand-up comedy and transformed the way we interpret our freedoms under the First Amendment of the Constitution. Every American should know his story. "Mr. Bruce, Do You Swear?" brings Lenny Bruce and the legal battle he waged back to life, recreating some of his legendary, status-quo threatening comedy along the way! May 17 through June 1, Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM in the intimate Gallerie Theatre in Monterey. Tickets at www.PaperWing.com. More Info: 831-905-5684

Driftwood Consort opens its second season with "Galanterie," a program of late 18th-century music from Bach to Haydn, highlighting the "galant" style of that time. Performing are Lars Johannesson and Alissa Roedig (18th-century wooden flutes), Amy Brodo (cello and viola da gamba), and Jonathan Rhodes Lee (harpsichord). May 19 at St. John's Episcopal Church in Aptos. Tickets at the door only from 6:30pm. More information at www.driftwoodconsort.org

UC Santa Cruz presents the 36th Annual Spring Gamelan Concert featuring master drummer and dancer Undang Sumarna and guest artists performing traditional and contemporary music for gamelan. The 15-member Santa Cruz Guitar Orchestra, directed by UCSC instructor Mesut Özgen, will make a guest appearance for a performance of Gongan by composer and Grammy Award-winning guitarist William Kanengiser of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. In the UCSC Music Center Recital Hall on Sunday, May 19 at 7:30 pm. Tickets at the UCSC Ticket Office and the Santa Cruz Civic Box Office. santacruztickets.com

Pacific Voices choir presents their 19th Annual Spring concert "Life Melodies" Saturday, May 18, at 8:00 PM and again on Sunday, May 19, at 2:00PM, at the Inner Light Center, 5630 Soquel Drive, in Soquel. Under the leadership of Dr. Sean Boulware, this musical offering is a journey through the touch points in our lives: the joy of beginning, the sorrow of farewell, the passion of love and the wonder of all that is greater than ourselves. Performing in a range of styles -- from the vocal jazz of Metheny and May's Phase Dance to the ethereal beauty of Eric Whitacre's Water Night, to William Dawson's rousing Ain't-a That Good News -- this community choir of more than sixty singers celebrates the sheer joy and enduring power of singing. Tickets are available at BrownPaperTickets.com, from choir members, and at the door. For more information go to: www.PacificVoices.org

The Santa Cruz Guitar Orchestra presents “Sinfonia de Guitarra” with a program of music from Baroque to modern, as well as traditional music from Zimbabwe, Indonesia, and Turkey, played by a symphony of guitars. Friday, May 24 at 8:00 pm at the First Congregational Church in Santa Cruz. Directed by guitarist/composer Mesut Özgen, the SCGO is comprised of professional players, teachers, and students from the community. The concert program includes a wide range of works. Among the highlights are Bach's famous Sinfonia, Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos's beautiful Aria from the Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5, the famous LAGQ's lead guitarist William Kanengiser's Gongan (specially arranged for the guitar orchestra with Indonesian drums eerily sounding like an authentic Gamelan Orchestra), Benjamin Verdery's "Scenes from Ellis Island" featuring surprise guest musicians in the exciting finale with a special rhythmic pattern from traditional East Indian music, and the world premiere of Mesut Özgen's Istanbul Espresso for guitar orchestra with soprano, mandolin, electric guitar and bass. Featured guest musicians are guitarist Marc Teicholz, sopranos Doanna Weissgerber, and Sheila Willey. Friday, May 24, First Congregational Church in Santa Cruz, doors will open at 7:30, concert will start at 8:00 pm. Tickets at scgo.brownpapertickets.com, Streetlight Records, 939 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, and at the door. More information at www.santacruzguitarorchestra.mesutozgen.com

The dance faculty and students of the UCSC Theater Arts Department present Blueprints, a full-length program of contemporary and traditional dance featuring four works by four diverse choreographers: Cid Pearlman, Mandjou Koné, Ted Warburton, and David Herrera. Blueprints runs for two weekends: May 24-June 2 in the Mainstage Theater, UC Santa Cruz. Fridays & Saturday at 7:00pm, Sundays at 3:00pm. Tickets at santacruztickets.com. UCSC Ticket Office (831-459-2159) or SC Civic Auditorium box office (831-420-5260)

Kuumbwa Jazz announces a concert with singer Madeleine Peyroux - The Blue Room. Sunday, June 30 at 7:30 pm at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz. Recently, Peyroux has found a new muse in the legacy of the late Ray Charles, specifically Ray's most popular (and at one time controversial) album: Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music. Her latest project, The Blue Room, revamps the music from Charles' landmark recording, along with choice gems by songwriters Randy Newman, Warron Zevon, John Hartford, Leonard Cohen, and Buddy Holly. Tickets at Logos Books & Records, 1117 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz and online at: www.kuumbwajazz.org or by phone 1-866-55-TICKETS

If your PERFORMING ARTS organization has an upcoming event which might interest KUSP's listening audience, please send a BRIEF press release or SHORT public service announcement to: performing at kusp dot org

or snail mail an announcement to:
KUSP Performing Arts Calendar 203 8th Ave. Santa Cruz, CA 95062

Tips for getting your announcement on air and web:
- Put your event name and date in the email's subject heading
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PLEASE SEND AT LEAST 2 WEEKS IN ADVANCE OF YOUR EVENT.

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