mannheim steamroller green tour

• 2023 Christmas Tour
• What’s in the Aire

MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER ANNOUNCES 2023 CHRISTMAS TOUR

(Loveland, CO) - Chip Davis, founder and creator of Mannheim Steamroller, will celebrate over 35 years of his annual Christmas concert tour, making it the longest running concert tour in the entertainment industry! The hallmark tour will stop at the Blue Arena in Loveland, Colorado on November 14.

“I remember when I came out with my first Christmas album in 1984 followed by our first tour.  Back then, many in the music industry said focusing on Christmas just wouldn’t work,” said Davis.  

“Now, over 35 years later, we are still going strong. I want to thank our fans for making us part of their holiday tradition, especially after the hardships of the last few years. Today we often see multi-generational families join us during the holidays each year.”

Davis founded his own record label, American Gramaphone, which went on to become one of the industry’s largest independent record labels. A Grammy Award winner, Mannheim Steamroller has sold more than 41 million albums, with over 31.5 million in the Christmas genre.  Their holiday CD’s have become synonymous with Christmas and occupy top positions on Billboard’s Seasonal Chart every year. 

This year’s show will feature classic Christmas hits from the Mannheim Steamroller holiday albums along with multimedia effects in an intimate setting.  Davis will direct and co-produce Tour performances with MagicSpace Entertainment.

Tickets will go on sale starting Friday, July 28 at 10 a.m. at BudweiserEventsCenter.com and are available for purchase in-person at the Orthopaedic & Spine Center of the Rockies Box Office at the Blue Arena.

Mannheim Steamroller Christmas by Chip Davis is co-produced by MagicSpace Entertainment. The company is a boutique producing and presenting firm focused on first-class properties and productions.  Based in Park City, UT, the company has produced and presented national tours, Broadway shows, concerts, museum exhibits and sporting events worldwide for over 40 years with a powerhouse producing team focused on providing creative, marketing and general management expertise.   www.magicspace.net

About Chip Davis and Mannheim Steamroller

From his longtime home in Omaha, Neb., Mannheim Steamroller creator and founder Chip Davis makes innovative music inspired by the sounds of another age.  This former teacher and jingle writer founded the music industry’s largest independent recording label, American Gramaphone, in 1974 when industry executives said Davis’ innovative 18th century instrumental rock sound would never sell. In addition to a Grammy Award, Davis is largely credited with establishing the New Age music category.

His first Christmas album in 1984, revolutionized the making and marketing of holiday music, the album’s success made Christmas records a “must do” for all music artists.  With more than 31.5 million Christmas albums sold, Davis is the #1-selling Christmas artist of all time with Elvis coming in at a distant 17 million holiday records sold.  Having 19 gold, 8 multi-platinum and 4 platinum-certified records, Davis is among an elite group of music artists with this number of RIAA records. He is also one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the music industry, offering a rich array of lifestyle products on www.mannheimsteamroller.com including hot chocolate, food, apparel and novelty items.  His latest achievement is creating a cutting-edge psychoacoustic technology that is being used in major medical institutions such as Mayo Clinic.

About the Blue Arena

The  OVG360  managed Blue Arena at The Ranch Events Complex, located in Loveland, Colorado, is a 6,800 seat multi-purpose venue, which opened in September 2003, and is home to the  Colorado Eagles  of the American Hockey League. This multi-purpose facility can host concert settings in various capacities, hockey, basketball, indoor football, family shows, rodeos, trade shows and flexible set-ups to accommodate any event. The Blue Arena, less than an hour drive from Denver and Cheyenne, Wyoming, has become the focal point for sports and entertainment in Northern Colorado.

Click here for Tour Photos, Broll and more information click HERE

To Connect with Mannheim Steamroller, please follow us on Twitter @MannheimSteam and Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MannheimSteamroller or at MannheimSteamroller.com  

MEDIA CONTACT:

Lauren Layman, OVG360

[email protected]  | 970.619.4106 

Mannheim Steamroller Christmas

Event starts 7:30 pm.

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Mannheim Steamroller 35th Anniversary Tour

• By: Kevin M. Mitchell
• January 2022 , Production Profile
• January 5, 2022

Mannheim Steamroller is one of the longest running consecutive tours in music industry history, according to its Founder Chip Davis. Photo: Matt Christine Photography

“There was no way I would have guessed that we’d be where we are right now,” says Mannheim Steamroller Founder/Creator Chip Davis. “Everything especially exploded with my first Christmas album and has continued ever since.” Yes, the Mannheim Steamroller holiday experience is back out for a 35th year, selling out theaters across the country and is one of the longest running consecutive tours in music industry history. Davis knows that the longevity is due in large part to the ability to keep the shows fresh and vibrant, especially visually. “My approach is to look at what songs may have video support, which ones are music only, and try to balance out the program.”

Omaha, NE-based production company TMS has been supporting Steamroller from its earliest days, “almost as long as I’ve been in business,” says TMS President Mark Huber. It started out as a humble one-off at their town’s Orpheum Theater, where Davis and his companies are based as well. “From that, we were doing four or five shows, then a month-long tour.” Davis expanded beyond Christmas music doing other small tours at different times of the year, including a popular Halloween show, which TMS also supports.

Davis puts together two equally talented groups of musicians and crew, known as the ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ tours. Stephan Gotschel is the lighting designer for both. Because of the wide variety of places they play, versatility must be built into his design; yet his design has no compromises and there’s no B-rig. “I never liked the idea that for a smaller theater we’d have to cut this or that,” he says. “I want everybody to get to see the same show.”

“Shows have an energy about them and that energy is dynamic,” says Lighting Designer Stephan Gotschel. Photo: Matt Christine Photography

Visuals that Complement

Gotschel was born in Montreal, and his family moved to Toronto when he was 11. There he got into theater and received a scholarship to study technical production at Ryerson Polytechnic (today University). Next, he went out on tour with the Canadian a cappella group The Nylons for 12 years. Since 2005 he’s worked with Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles on Broadway and on their international tours. “I toured with them as a production designer for the last nine years and for the last three years have been production manager as well.” For the last seven years, he’s been designing the Steamroller shows.

While the 35th Anniversary tour is a significant milestone, he approaches every show the same in the sense that “essentially I give every show the best I can. I start by thinking about the audience and go about painting pictures with lights that will complement the music” as opposed to having the visuals overwhelm the show. “I’ve seen too many shows that are more of a light show than a concert, and Mannheim is about the music and the people.”

The process begins with a phone call mid-summer, though Gotschel says “it’s always in the back of my mind.” He starts every tour by listening to the music “over and over” without any preconceived ideas. Then organically it starts to take shape for him. “When I listen to music, I kind of see it in my head. I see shapes, colors, textures,” he says. Different pieces of music stand out as more subdued and emotional, while others are more dynamic, and he plots out the lighting plan accordingly.

It is a show with just the right amount of nostalgia, and that is established during the overture as Gotschel gives it the “Hollywood movie premiere” treatment with moving lights panning and crossing the ceiling. At some moments of the show those movers shoot off the stage and into the theater lighting up the walls and ceilings. This is especially effective in historic venues such as the Fabulous Fox Theater St. Louis, (which opened in 1929 and then was restored to its original glory in 1982). “I like to break the fourth wall and create an environment surrounding the audience, thereby making them part of the scene,” he says. “In theaters such as the Fabulous Fox, this can have quite the impact. Not all venues are like this, but we try to find beauty everywhere, using architectural features and angles of the lighting that accentuate the spaces.”

This tour relied on mostly the same TMS lighting elements as the last few tours, although “we’re talking about changing it up next time it goes out—TBD,” Gotschel says, with a laugh. “For me it’s not about the ‘latest and greatest technology,’ but more about what effect a light has on the stage. Sometimes something new overpowers everything else. I’m always exploring new lighting and gear, but all of it must serve the show.” His designs do lean heavily on Martin MAC Auras and Vipers, and Robe BMFLs. He’s also carrying some Elation Colour Chorus 12 fixtures for static lights. “I really like the Robe BMFLs because they are like the Vipers, but a little brighter. They have been my go-to, especially as so many of the shows have been in theaters. The MAC Aura is just a workhorse with a good throw distance. If we were doing a larger show in an arena, it might not cut it; but I don’t want arena-style fixtures in these theaters—I don’t want to blind the musicians!”

He also doesn’t want to overwhelm the audience, and he frequently takes his foot off the proverbial gas with moments that have no video and the bare minimum of lighting. “Shows have an energy about them and that energy is dynamic. Musically, they have their exciting moments and their more somber moments. If shows were all at one energy level, nothing about them would be special. Some people prefer the excitement, whereas others may prefer the quieter and more peaceful moments. These two extremes complement each other.”

There are a few special effects: MDG Touring Atmosphere haze and Martin Jem Glaciator X-Stream low-lying fog accentuate moments; and of course, what would a Christmas show be without snow effects—in this case courtesy of Little Blizzard snow machines from CITC. “It goes out over the first few rows, and we always use something that won’t stain,” he says. “It’s really fun to watch the kids enjoy that.”

Gotschel says they recently switched to the PixelFLEX’s FLEXCurtain HD 6.25mm LED video wall from a projector set up, and it has allowed for better use of the video elements. “It’s so much brighter and richer in color, and the amount of contrast and vibrancy really improved the visual aspect of the show a lot.” They did make a few tweaks to the content to make it more LED video wall appropriate.

The PixelFLEX FLEX Curtain LED video wall has allowed for better use of the video elements. Photo courtesy Mannheim Steamroller

A Well-Oiled Machine

Production Manager Robby MacLean brings to his job a deep sense of music, as early on in his career he was a professional composer writing music for theaters all over the country. He was drawn to the theater at an early age. By the time he was 18, he was writing music, sound designing, and mixing FOH for shows, and graduated with a theater degree. “It does help my work that I understand the needs of musicians and know how an orchestra works,” he says. In 1997, he was hired to mix sound for Stomp , eventually becoming production manager. Other shows he worked with include MythBusters , Gold Over America Tour starring Simone Biles, and The Illusionists Live .

This is MacLean’s fourth outing with Mannheim Steamroller. “It’s a great group of people, and the whole show runs like a well-oiled machine.” But he still must remain on his toes for every load-in: “We play a lot of old movie palaces, and some of those places are more complicated than others,” he notes.

Plans move forward once the set list is solidified, and that affects the timecode which affects everything else. “The lighting package is worked out every year with TMS, who has long been a vital part of the tours,” MacLean says. MagicSpace Entertainment, a production firm in Park City, UT, provides the LED package, and Sound Trak, founded by Davis, produces the music and multimedia content. It is a deceptively simple show, fitting into two trucks. MacLean says they travel with two overhead lighting trusses using Tyler Truss, and the PixelFLEX video wall. There’s a total of 15 performers and crew members traveling plus four drivers. Once they land at a theater, the six traveling performers bring in nine additional local musicians, and an afternoon rehearsal is followed by the evening’s performance. Some of those locals joining in have been doing so for a decade or longer.

The lighting package is worked out every year with TMS, who has long been a vital part of the tours. Photo courtesy Mannheim Steamroller

Huber credits MagicSpace Entertainment as a major component of the growth and success of TMS. “They have brought us in on other touring shows including Alton Brown’s culinary tours and The Bachelor — Live on Stage ,” he says. “We’ve been blessed with them and artists like Chip who have held on to us, and we in turn have held on to them. There’s a lot of loyalty all the way around.” He is not surprised by Mannheim Steamroller’s success and sees them continuing long beyond their 35th year. “They are always reinventing themselves, keeping the shows fresh and exciting.”

One exciting aspect of this tour is that in the second half of the show, Davis is performing—in its entirety—their first holiday album, Christmas , released in 1984. This gave Gotschel a chance to create moments beyond a single song. “When you do an album in its order, the visual aspects have to flow over the entire thing because that’s how the music was created.”

“We’re fortunate to have production team members who have been with us for many years,” Davis says. “They all know exactly what their role is and how their role interacts with their team members. And somehow they manage to accomplish production support night after night.”

Mannheim Steamroller is all about the band and the music. Photo courtesy Mannheim Steamroller

Crew ( Green Tour / Red Tour )

• Tour Manager: Will Brandstetter / Chelsea Langord
• Production Manager: Timmy Doyle / Robby MacLean
• Lighting Designer: Stephen Gotschel
• Stage Manager: Terry Seefus / Morgan Karmann
• Video Technician: Maxime Verdiere / Christian Behm
• Lighting Director: Jason Witty / Toby Gibson (both TMS)
• Lighting Tech / Crew Chief: Alex Bechdolt / Adam Zastrow (both TMS)
• Lighting: TMS/Mark Huber
• Video: MagicSpace Entertainment
• 1          MA Lighting grandMA2 light, grandMA2 onPC
• 1          Doug Fleenor Enhanced Isolated Splitter
• 10       Claypaky Sharpy Wash
• 7          Elation Colour Chorus 12
• 14       Martin MAC Viper Profile
• 10       Martin MAC Aura
• 10       Robe BMFL Spot
• 6          Robe Pointe

Rigging/Automation/Power:

• Tyler Truss GT 20.5” Truss
• CM 1-Ton and ½ Ton Chain Hoists
• Motion Labs Motor Control
• TMB Pro Power Distribution

Atmosphere/Effects:

• CITC Little Blizzard Snow Machine
• Martin JEM Glaciator X-Stream Low Fog
• MDG Touring Atmosphere Haze Machine

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Six things to know about the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas show

The neoclassical concert and light spectacle will play one night at the San Diego Civic Theatre on Dec. 30

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After taking 2020 off, Mannheim Steamroller returns to San Diego with its 36th anniversary Christmas tour next Thursday, presented by Broadway San Diego. For those unfamiliar with the band, founder-producer Chip Davis answered some questions via email about the 26-piece touring neoclassical ensemble’s tour.

Q: How did Mannheim Steamroller get its start?

A: Back in the 1970s, the multi-instrumentalist Davis produced a nontraditional album of rock-infused classical music that he recorded with just two fellow musicians and several synthesizers. No major record label would distribute the album, so Davis started his own label, American Gramaphone. In 1974, he released the album, “Fresh Aire,” under the pseudonym Mannheim Steamroller. Since then Davis has sold 41 million records. Of the band’s unique music style, Davis says: “I wanted to explore new ways of expressing music and created a sound I call ‘18th century classic rock.’ I don’t believe in all acoustic or all electronic, all digital or all analog. My style is where they all meet.”

Q : How did Mannheim Steamroller get its name?

A: “When it was time to start selling my band, I had to come up with a name to market,” Davis said. “At the time the big rock groups had interesting names like Jefferson Airplane or Iron Butterfly. So I came up with the name Mannheim Steamroller. It comes from Mannheim, Germany. That’s where Mozart and composer-music theorist Joseph Stamitz both lived. Stamitz came up with the idea of the crescendo: music building and getting louder in order to excite the audience. The 18th-Century musical phrase ‘Mannheim Valse’ literally meant, ‘roller,’ and people used to joke that the loud music would roll over the crowd and flatten them.”

Q: When did the Christmas music enter the picture?

A: In 1984, the band’s fame exploded with the release of the first “Mannheim Steamroller Christmas” album, featuring contemporary twists on holiday classics. Davis is one of the top-selling Christmas music artists in history. For its tours, the six-piece Mannheim Steamroller band travels with a 20-piece live orchestra and a high-wattage light and projections show.

Q: Does Davis still tour with the band?

A: Since he was seriously injured in a head-on car accident several years ago, Davis no longer has the physical mobility to be a touring music artist. Instead he lives full-time on a 150-acre farm in Ohio where he records new music and manages the tours.

Q: What else is Davis known for?

A: Davis created the fictional truck driver “C.B. McCall” for the song “Convoy” during the 1970s CB radio craze. He patented the Ambient Therapy music and audio system that’s used at the Mayo Clinic as well as at the National Intrepid Center for military veterans with brain injuries. He created Mannheim Steamroller-brand children’s books, food items, housewares and clothing. And he was invited by NASA to audio-record two Space Shuttle launches at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Excerpts from those recordings are on Mannheim Steamroller’s 2013 space-themed album “Music of the Spheres.”

Q: What can audiences expect at the show they won’t hear on a record?

A: “On a CD, you cannot see the band playing live with a 20-piece orchestra,” Davis said. “Additionally, the repertoire they perform is not on one single CD. It is a compilation of Christmas classics, so a completely fresh experience. And by the way — speaking of fresh — the concert has some selected tracks of Fresh Aire music which are not on any of our Christmas CDs.”

Mannheim Steamroller Christmas

When : 7:30 p.m. Thursday

Where: San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., San Diego.

Tickets: $35.50 and up.

Online: broadwaysd.com

COVID protocol: Proof of full vaccination required or negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of showtime or rapid antigen test performed by a medical professional within 12 hours of showtime. Masks required indoors.

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Home > About > Presenting History

Presenting History

Season 1 (1992-1993).

American Tap Dance Orchestra - Mixed Rep  Arkansas Repertory Theater:  Smoke on the Mountain The Australian Chamber Orchestra Buddy Holly Story CATS Chanticleer The Count Basie Orchestra David Bilger, trumpet Deborah Minkin, lute Dukes of Dixieland with NASO Dutton Family Either Orchestra Grand Hotel Guild Trio: violin, cello, piano Imago - The Theater Mask Ensemble John McCutcheon John Patterson as Langston Hughes Kyung Sun Lee, violin Landis and Company:  The Sorcerer's Apprentice & Other Tales Lark Quartet, The: string quartet Lauren Wagner, soprano Lend Me a Tenor Louise Mandrell Mark Whitfield Jazz Guitar Trio MOMIX -  Mixed Rep NEXUS North Arkansas Symphony -  Dukes of Dixieland Peter Pan The Pickle Family Circus Poncho Sanchez Preservation Hall Jazz Band Ravel Trio: cello, harp, flute Riders in the Sky Risa Jaraslow and Dancers, - Mixed Rep Sophisticated Ladies St. Louis Ballet -  Mixed Rep Stephen Prutsman, piano Steve Allen T. Graham Brown Theater Mask Ensemble:  Imago Turtle Island String Quartet Wood and Strings Puppet Theater

Season 2 (1993-1994)

101 Dalmatians AMAN Folk Ensemble Anderson String Quartet Anthony Padilla, pianist Arkansas Repertory Theater: Sing, Baby, Sing Billy B. Bobby Watson and Horizon CATS Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats and Magicians Christmas Carol Christopher Nomura, baritone Cinderella Danny Zeitlin and David Friesen Duo David Friesen and Danny Zeitlin Duo Faustwork Mask Theater Four for Phineas Gentleman Prefer Blondes George Winston Grandma Moses Great Dinosaur Mystery Hope Shiver, soprano Jennifer Paul Judy Collins Christmas Show L.A. Guitar Quartet Lost in Yonkers Manhattan Rhythm Kings, The Maria Bachmann Marilyn Horn Meridian Brass Arts Ensemble Mozart, Monsters and Matisse Mr. Jack Daniel's Original Silver Coronet Band Oakland Ballet -  Romeo and Juliet Once on This Island Rhythm in Shoes Sunday in the Park Tango En Skye Tito Puente Tom Barabas Vienna Boys' Choir Wizard of Oz

Season 3 (1994-1995)

Alan Chow and Jubilant Sykes with Kansas City Symphony American Indian Dance Theater The Animal Band Anything Goes Arkansas Jazz All-Stars Arkansas Repertory Theater:  The Rainmaker Bill and Pat Medley Camellia Johnson Chenille Sisters, The with James Dapogny and the Chicago All-Star Band Claude "Fiddler" Williams Cost of Living Daniel String Quartet Eugene Istomin Evita Festival of the Nile Gash/Voigt Dance Theater - Unheard Voice – The Ozarks Project Hal Galper Trio with Jerry Bergonzi The Harlem Spiritual Ensemble John Spelman, Solo Cast of Thousands Jubilant Sykes and Alan Chow with Kansas City Symphony Kansas City Symphony with Jubilant Sykes and Alan Chow MOMIX Mur Mur Oliver Paragon Brass Ensemble Poncho Sanchez Richmond Ballet Company -  Swan Lake Ronald Radford Seattle Mime Theater Secret Garden Semyon Fridman and Alan Chow Shining Time Station – Live! South Pacific The Yellow Boat

Season 4 (1995-1996)

42nd Street African Tales: Children's Theater Alan Chow with Miami String Quartet American Chamber Players Annie Anonymous 4 Arkansas Repertory Theater:  Always! Patsy Cline Asia Minor Ballet Hispanico -  Mixed Rep Christopher Taylor Crazy For You Crosspulse and Keith Terry Dave Brubeck Eliane Elias Five Guys Named Moe Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain Jesus Christ Superstar Keith Terry and Crosspulse Miami String Quartet with Alan Chow The Mozart Fortepiano Duo ODC/San Francisco Dance Company -  The Velveteen Rabbit and Mixed Rep Oomph! Puppets and Storytelling, Featuring the Lizard's Song River North Dance Company -  Mixed Rep Steve Turre : Sanctified Shells The Three Pigs:  Wildwood Park Musical Tommy Verdehr Trio William Bolcom and Joan Morris Cabaret

Season 5 (1996-1997)

African American Dance Ensemble and Chuck Davis Aladdin and His Magic Lamp Alan Chow Androcles and the Lion Ballet Folklorico Quetzali de Veracruz Carlota Santana Spanish Dance Christopher Parkening and Jubilant Sykes Chuck Davis and the African American Dance Ensemble Grease Having Our Say Jan Wolfe And Her Puppets Jubilant Sykes and Christopher Parkening Kiev Symphonic Orchestra and Chorus Kiss of the Spider Woman Mame Nai-Ni Chen Dance of China The Odd Couple Robert Bluestone Classical Guitar Rumpelstiltskin Sound of Music World of Mother Goose

Season 6 (1997-1998)

A Tuna Christmas Aladdin Ballet Florida - Firebird Carousel A Chorus Line Damn Yankees Danilo Perez Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater Company Hobey Ford and the Golden Rod Puppets Jimmy Dorsey Band with Jack Jones Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Kandinsky Trio Mighty Clouds of Joy NYC National Company -  Daughter of the Regiment The People Keep Comin' Pilobolus –  Mixed Rep Rainbow Street Circus Science Songs for Children with Tonja Evetts Weimer Sibikwa Players The Tannahill Weavers To Kill a Mocking Bird Tonja Evetts Weimer -  Science Songs for Children West Side Story

Season 7 (1998-1999)

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Accordion Kings & Santiago Jimenez, Jr. Andes Manta Arkansas Arts Center Tell-A-Tale Troupe:  Humpty Dumpty Arkansas Arts Center Tell-A-Tale Troupe:  Rikki-tikki-tavi Arkansas Arts Center Tell-A-Tale Troupe:  The Emperor's New Clothes David Dorfman Dance Company -  Mixed Rep Diávolo -  Mixed Rep Duckfeet Players:  Puss in Boots Dylan Pritchett:  The Storyteller Fiddler on the Roof Hot Mouth Idols of the King John McCutcheon and Tom Chapin: "Doing Our Job" Kayaga - Ugandan/African Folk The King and I Kurt Elling Les Ballets Trockadero de Montecarlo - Mixed Rep Marvin Hamlisch The Number 14 NYC National Company -  Madame Butterfly Rosita's Jalapeno Kitchen Santiago Jimenez, Jr. & Accordion Kings Second City Spirit of the Dance STOMP Tom Chapin and John McCutcheon: "Doing Our Job"

Season 8 (1999-2000)

1776 A Tuna Christmas Aquila Theatre:  King Lear Arkansas Jazz All-Stars - Duke Ellington Tribute Camelot Cashore Marionettes David Gonzalez:  Sofrito Don Sanders, The Sourdough Cowboy Donald Byrd Dance Company - Jazz Train Duckfeet Players:  Hansel and Gretel Duckfeet Players:  Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs Gaelic Storm Garden Party Gregory Hines Landis and Company Theatre of Magic:  Beauty and the Beast Martha Graham Dance Company -  Appalachian Spring Mermaid Theater of Nova Scotia:  The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the Very Quiet Cricket Millennium Musical, The MOMIX –  Orbit Nnenna Freelon Nutcracker, The - Moscow City Ballet NYC National Company -  The Barber of Seville Porgy and Bess San Jose Taiko Smokey Joe's Café St. Petersburg Ice Ballet –  Swan Lake Street of Dreams Tony Reedus' "Frontiers" Trinity Irish Dance Company Twelfth Night Uakti University Theatre -  She Loves Me Wolf at the Door Puppets:  Moon Pie Youthfest: Kid Choir Spring Concert Youthfest: Luann Youthfest: My Life Youthfest: Twelfth Night Youthfest: Winnie the Pooh

Season 9 (2000-2001)

Aeros Al Jarreau Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Arkansas Repertory Theater:  It's a Wonderful Life Art Party! Exhibit Opening:  Wiggle Works of Art The Baltimore Consort Bang on a Can Ensemble Berta Rojas Chicago, The Musical Christopher Parkening and Jubilant Sykes Cool Cats Jazz with Nancy King Eileen Ivers Forbidden Broadway Garden Party The Georgia Sea Island Singers Godspell It's A Wonderful Life  - Montana Rep. John Astin as Edgar Allen Poe –  Once Upon a Midnight Jubilant Sykes and Christopher Parkening London City Opera –  Carmen Man of La Mancha Nancy King -  Cool Cats Jazz North Carolina Dance Theater -  Mixed Rep Parson's Dance Company, The –  Mixed Rep President's Own, The - U.S. Marine Band The Reluctant Dragon Riders in the Sky: Holiday Spectacular Showboat Steffon Harris Steve Christofferson with Nancy King T.S. Monk Tell Me a Story  with Faye Hanson, storyteller Tony Bennett Trio Voronezh US Marine Band -  The President's Own Visible Fictions Theatre Company:  The Red Balloon Youthfest:  Alice in Wonderland Youthfest:  Antigone Youthfest:  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Youthfest:  Fairyfoot Youthfest:  The Importance of Being Earnest

Season 10 (2001-2002)

4 Tops Annie Get Your Gun Arkansas Arts Center Tell-A-Tale Troupe:  Sleeping Beauty Avalon String Quartet - Van Cliburn Medallist: The Winners Bill Cosby Bob Wills' Texas Playboys Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance Company Bucky Pizzarelli Christmas Carol Cirque Eloise  – Cirque Orchestra Claudia Acuna Copenhagen Danilo Perez: Motherland Tour Garden Party James Sewell Ballet Landis and Company:  Cinderella London City Opera -  The Merry Widow My Fair Lady Red Grammer Rennie Harris Puremovement Rhythm & Brass:  On Your Radio Dial Saigon Water Puppets Scottish Christmas The Acting Company:  The Taming of the Shrew Titanic Young Actors Repertory -  Hush: Interview with America Young Actors Repertory -  The Wrestling Season Youthfest:  She Stoops to Conquer Youthfest:  The Ice Wolf Youthfest:  The Velveteen Rabbit

Season 11 (2002-2003)

Amahl and the Night Visitors An Afternoon of solo piano with Robin Spielberg Anoushka Shankar Aquila Theater: The Importance of Being Earnest Blue Grassy Knoll’s “Sherlock Jr.” BodyVox – Mixed Rep Brian Torff & Randy Sabien CATS Claudia Burson Quartet Complexions Dance Company – Mixed Rep Conta Brasil & Kenny Barron David Sedaris Front Porch Blues Garden Party Go, Dog, Go! Goodnight Opus Hamlet James Sewell Ballet - Amahl and the Night Visitors Kenny Barron & Conta Brasil Kitty Margolis Late Nite Catechism Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba – Mixed Rep Magpie in Concert Martina McBride Midori with Robert McDonald Mouse and the Motorcycle Music Man Philip Hamilton Randy Sabien & Brian Torff RENT Robert McDonald with Midori Robin Spielberg - An Afternoon of solo piano Stephen Schwartz & Friends SWING! Terence Blanchard WOFA! Youthfest: Daisy Pull It Off Youthfest: Tom Sawyer

Season 12 (2003-2004)

Adventures of Tom Sawyer American College Theater Festival Aquila Theatre:  Othello Art of Wine Festival  Bobby McFerrin Bowfire Burhan Ocal & The Istanbul Oriental Ensemble The Capitol Steps Cashore Marionettes Chicago City Limits Cirque Eloize –  Nomade Comedy Pet Theatre Cyrus Chestnut Trio Dance Theatre of Harlem – Repertoire Night and St. Louis Woman: A Blues Ballet Fosse Groupo Corpo Brazilian Dance Theater Kiss Me Kate The Male Intellect Mass Ensemble Michael Cooper:  Masked Marvels & Wondertales Michael Martin Murphy Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel Miss Nelson is Missing Miss Saigon MOMIX –  Opus Cactus Montana Repertory Theater:  A Streetcar Named Desire Moscow Boys' Choir North Arkansas Symphony -  Peter & the Wolf Not Afraid of the Dark The Nutcracker  - Tulsa Ballet Oliver Peter Cincotti Samul Nori Terry Gross The Istanbul Oriental Ensemble - Burhan Ocal Vienna Symphony Orchestra Yellow Jackets

Season 13 (2004-2005)

42nd Street Ailey II Alexander is Not Not Not Not Not Not Going to Move Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater American College Theater Festival Art of Wine Festival  Aspen Santa Fe Ballet -  Mixed Rep Bernstein Beat - Jamie Bernstein Blind Boys of Alabama –  Christmas Show Blues Clues Live The Chieftains Coyote Tales Curtis Stigers Dan Zanes and Friends David Sedaris Dianne Reeves Directions in Music  - Featuring: Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker & Roy Hargrove Eliane Elias The Full Monty The Graduate Greg Osby Quartet Guess How Much I Love You Inti-Illimani Jamie Adkins! In Typo Kronos Quartet La Traviata Late Nite Catechism - The Mystery of the Magi's Gold Les Misérables Michael Bublé ODC/San Francisco Dance Company –  The Velveteen Rabbit Pilobolus Too Riverdance Ryan Cabrera Tony n' Tina's Wedding The Tuscan Sun Festival Orchestra Wonder Bread Years

Season 14 (2005-2006)

Amos Lee Ancient Dances  featuring Wu Man Anoushka Shankar, Ravi Shankar -  Festival of India III Art of Wine Festival  Ashlee Simpson Astral Project  Ballet Hispanico -  Mixed Rep BLAST! Brian Lynch & Conrad Herwig -  Latin Side of Coltrane Bunk Bed Brothers The Children of Uganda Cirque Eloize -  Rain Clifford, The Big Red Dog Doctor Dolittle Dynomo Theatre -  Me, Me, Me Frog & His Friends Garrison Keillor Harvey Korman & Tim Conway:  Together Again Jane Monheit Joffrey Ballet of Chicago -  The Nutcracker L.A. Theatre Works:  The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial  Lily Tomlin Los Folkloristas Luciana Souza Quartet Marcia Ball Mark Morris Dance Group Michael McDonald Miguel Zenon Quartet Oklahoma! Pablo Ziegler's Trio for New Tango Paul Taylor Dance Company Revenge of the Reindeer  - Chicago City Limits Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka Royal Philharmonic Orchestra  Snowflake Stinky Cheese Man and other Fair(l)y (stoopid) Tales Tap Kids  The Will Rogers Follies Turtle Island String Quartet Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favourites

Season 15 (2006-2007)

Ahn Trio:  Ahn Plugged AIDA Al Green Art of Wine Festival  Aspen Santa Fe Ballet -  Mixed Rep Badi Assad Ball in the House Ballet Folklórico de Mexico Bonnie Rideout Scottish Trio Canadian Brass Captain Louie Chiara Civello Daniel Bernard Roumain String Quartet (DBR):  A Civil Rights Reader Dave Brubeck Quartet & Ramsey Lewis Trio DBR: A Civil Rights Reader (Daniel Bernard Roumain String Quartet) Denmark's Det Lille Turneteater:  Hamlet  Discover Theater! Featuring Disney's  Cinderella Kids  &  The Jungle Book Kids Don Byron Plays Junior Walker Dorothy the Dinosaur's Dance Party East Village Opera Company Ed Simon Venezuelan Project Family Poetry Slam with The Mayhem Poets Felix Justice & Danny Glover: An Evening w/Martin & Langston Goodbye Mr. Muffin Hubbard Street Dance Chicago I Can't Stop Loving You I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change Jason Mraz Jeff Corwin, Tales from the Field  KODO LEGENDS! Mamma Mia! Marie Osmond's  The Magic of Christmas The Mayhem Poets -  Family Poetry Slam Michael W. Smith New Year's Eve "Eve" Party Not Afraid of the Dark The Nutcracker  - Moscow Classical Ballet One Man Star Wars Pat Martino Quartet Pirates of Penzance Pluck! The Producers Second City -  Truth, Justice or the American Way Star Keeper STREB – Wild Blue Yonder Tales from the Field  with Jeff Corwin THWAK  featuring The Umbilical Brothers Vince Gill

Season 16 (2007-2008)

7 Fingers (les 7 doigts de la main):  Traces A Year with Frog & Toad Addy: An American Girl Story African Children's Choir Annie Anonymous 4 –  long time traveling Arlo Guthrie Art of Wine Festival  Beakman Live! Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea & Jack DeJohnette Brooklyn Rider & Yo Yo Ma Cherryholmes Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin & Jack DeJohnette Dave Valentin Flamenco Vivo: On Stage! Fiesta Flamenca and Carmen: El Baile Flat Stanley, Musical Adventures of  Go, Dog, Go! Guy Davis – Family Blues Show Hairspray Houston Ballet –  Repertory Night and Madame Butterfly Imagine a Moment  Irish Chamber Orchestra Jack DeJohnette, Bobby McFerrin & Chick Corea Jesus Christ Superstar Karrin Allyson The Lascivious Biddies Late Nite Catechism 2 Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano:  Cinco de Mayo Mavis Staples / North Mississippi All-Stars MOMIX -  Best of MOMIX Movin' Out North Mississippi All-Stars / Mavis Staples Peter Pan Ravi Coltrane Quartet Ray Brown Tribute Band Ring of Fire Shaolin Warriors The Snow Dragon Solid Blues STOMP Swimmy, Frederick and Inch by Inch The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee The 5 Browns  Trisha Yearwood UA Schola Cantorum & Master Chorale – Handel's Messiah & Sing-A-Long Messiah Yo Yo Ma with Brooklyn Rider

Season 17 (2008-2009)

Aquila Theatre:  Comedy of Errors Aquila Theatre:  The Iliad Art of Wine Festival  Avenue Q The Beatles Experience -  RAIN Branford Marsalis - Marsalis Brasilianos CeCe Winans:  A Holiday Show Chris Thile – Punch Brothers Christmas Carol  – University Theatre Cirque Eloize  – Nebbia Complexions Dance Company – Mixed Rep David Michalek 's Exhibition:  Slow Dancing Drumline Live Fiddler on the Roof The Gruffalo Hot Club of San Francisco Ira Glass:  Radio Stories and Other Stories Itzhak Perlman Jamie Baum Septet Jason and the Argonauts Joey DeFrancesco Trio John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett – The Songwriters Tour John Mueller's  Winter Dance Party Jungle Jack Hanna LA Theatre Works: Top Secret:  The Battle for the Pentagon Papers  with Stacy Keach, John Heard, Susan Sullivan LA Theatre Works: W ar of the Worlds & The Lost World Les Grands Ballet Canadiens de Montreal -  Minus One Lionel Loueke Trio Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt – The Songwriters Tour MacHomer - Rick Miller Magic Tree House: The Musical Mariza  Marsalis Brasilianos - Branford Marsalis Monty Python's  SPAMALOT Mose Allison Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters National Symphony Orchestra Nobodies of Comedy The Passing Zone The Robert Cray Band San Jose Taiko ScrapArtsMusic Second City -  DeFace the Nation Sonny Rollins Spencer's Theater of Illusion Stellaluna Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Tango Fire –  Mixed Rep TheatreSquared presents  Fully Committed Trey McIntyre Project –  Mixed Rep US Navy Band Sea Chanters Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favourites Wizard of OZ

Season 18 (2009-2010)

A Year with Frog & Toad Afinidad  – Edward Simon & David Binney, Gretchen Parlato, Scott Colley, Antonio Sanchez, Adam Rodgers and Rogerio Boccato American Revival: Celebrating the New Stars of American Roots Music  - The Dixie Bee Liners, Sierra Hull & Uncle Earl Art of Wine Festival Aspen Santa Fe Ballet -  The Nutcracker Band of the Irish Guards and Pipes of the Royal Regiment of Scotland Bearfoot Bill Engvall Bo Eason -  Runt of the Litter Brooklyn Rider and Kayhan Kalhor Chanticleer Charlie Hunter Duo Cyro Baptista's "Banquet of the Spirits" Daisy Mayheim & Rani Arbo David Sedaris The Drowsy Chaperone Frederica von Stade & Samuel Ramey Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny Grease Hairspray Hiromi Uehara The Hobbit Hot Swing Quartet - Mark O'Connor Interpreti Veneziani Jason and the Argonauts Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis Kayhan Kalhor and Brooklyn Rider Keb' Mo' Ladysmith Black Mambazo Legally Blonde Little Big Town & The Lost Trailers Little House on the Prairie Lost Trailers, The & Little Big Town Luna Negra Dance Theater –  Mi Familia/My Dance Man Who Planted Trees Mannheim Steamroller –  Christmas Music Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Quartet Mike Rayburn's No Strings Attached MOMIX –  Botanica One Night of Queen Peter & the Wolf Rat Pack is Back for the Holidays Riverdance Farewell Performances! Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon Samuel Ramey & Frederica von Stade Second City –  50th Anniversary Tour South Pacific The Spaghetti Western Orchestra Sweet Can Circus Thank You Gregory : A Tribute to the Legends of Tap Tomie De Paola's  Strega Nona: The Musical Tower of Power TPO Farfalle (Butterflies) UA Schola Cantorum & Master Chorale –  Handel's Messiah University Theatre:  Death of a Salesman Wedding Singer ZUM

Season 19 (2010-2011)

100 Years of Broadway Academy of St. Martin in the Fields American Legacies: The Del McCoury Band and Preservation Hall Jazz Band Amy Grant Arlo Guthrie Arturo Sandoval Augusta Reed Thomas B.B. King Beakman on the Brain Beauty and the Beast Bill Bryson Blind Boys of Alabama Blue Man Group Canadian Tenors Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Chieftains, The Chris Isaak CND II Composer's Showcase Compania Nacional de Danza II Dala David Sedaris Drumline Live! Ferdinand the Bull Frank Vignola Fulbright Concerto Competition Giggle, Giggle, Quack Harvard Glee Club Icelandic Sheep (Kindur) by TPO Jason Aldean John Pizzarelli Trio Joshua Bell Jubilant Sykes and Alan Chow Julian Lage Group Kathy Mattea Christmas Kenny Barron Trio Kenny G King's Singers Kurt Elling Quintet Les Miserables Little Big Town Maceo Parker Mamma Mia! Martin Short Nobodies of Comedy Omara Portuondo Parson’s Dance Company – Remember Me Peking Acrobats Philharmonia Quartett Berline The Pink Floyd Experience Randy Newman Reasons To Be Pretty Ron White Room on the Broom Second City - Dysfunctional Christmas SONA Opening Concert SPAMALOT   Spring Awakening Susan Werner Swimmy, Frederick and Inch by Inch Tango Fire – Tango Inferno The Chieftans The Color Purple The Mikado TheatreSquared presents 39 Steps TheatreSquared presents Sundown Town Thomas & Friends Tierney Sutton Trey McIntyre Project – Mixed Rep UA Chrismas Carol University Theatre: Every Christmas Story Ever Told Vienna Boys Choir Young Frankenstein

Season 20 (2011-2012)

West Side Story Rock of Ages Million Dollar Quartet Circus Oz Mary Poppins Martha Graham Dance Company Munich Symphony-Mozart's  Requiem Emerson String Quartet Aquila Theatre:  The Importance of Being Earnest Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band Mark Morris Dance Group Time for Three TAO: The Art of the Drum San Francisco Jazz Collective:  The Music of Stevie Wonder Plus Original Compositions The Whiffenpoofs of Yale Diavolo:  Fearful Symmetries Artospher Festival Orchestra James Falea:  I Hate Rabbits Holiday Cocktails with Larry Miller Bring It On: The Musical In The Heights Original Tribute to The Blues Brothers The Midtown Men Loretta Lynn Kenny Rogers Christmas and Hits Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Manhattan Transfer-  Holiday Show Step Afrika! The Nutcracker  by The Moscow Classical Ballet Blue Man Group The Intergalactic Nemesis The Peking Acrobats Alice in Wonderland  by Theatre Tout A Trac Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical Harold and the Purple Crayon: A Dance Adventure  by Hubbard Street 2 A Brown bear, A Moon and A Caterpillar: Treasured Stories  by Eric Carle Milkshake Rene Marie Anat Cohen Tia Fuller Dala Lewis Black: In God We Rust

Season 21 (2012-2013) 

American Idiot Anything Goes Art of Wine Artosphere Festival Orchestra Billy Elliot The Musical Caravanserai: Majod Bekkas Gnawa Ensemble with Brahim Fribgane Caravanserai: Orchestra of Fes directed by Mohammed Briouel with Francoise Atlan Catch Me If You Can   Circa DanceBrazil Don Williams Eileen Ivers & Immigrant Soul An Evening with Garrison Keillor Grace Kelly Quintet Gregoire Maret Quartet Gretchen Parlato Guess How Much I Love You & I Love My Little Storybook HAIR Jack Hanna’s  Into the Wild LIVE Jane Bunnett & Hilario Duran with special guest Candido Camero Jim Brickman  On A Winter’s Night LA Theatre Works:  Pride and Prejudice Letters Home The Little Prince Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Memphis Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour “55th Anniversary Celebration” Moscow Classical Ballet’s  The Nutcracker ODC/Dance presents  Unplugged ODC/Dance presents  The Velveteen Rabbit One Night of Queen performed by Gary Mullen & The Works Plena Libre Popovich Comedy Pet Theater Potted Potter, The Unauthorized Harry Experience, A Parody by Dan & Jeff Preservation Hall Jazz Band:  Creole Christmas Sean Jones Quartet Second City for President Shrek The Musical   Sir James Galway, Flute and Lady Jeanne Galway, Flute with pianist Michael McHale and string trio STOMP Tokyo String Quartet War Horse We’re Going On A Bear Hunt Wynonna’s Rockin’ Christmas

Season 22 (2013-2014)

Aaron Diehl Quartet Aaron Neville AnDa Union Artosphere Festival Orchestra with Time for Three Beauty and the Beast Brian Regan Broadway on Ice Catherine Russell Group Cherish the Ladies Chicago Christian Howes Quintet Cirque Ziva Compagnie Käfig The Doobie Brothers Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio Edmar Castañeda Quartet Fluff I Love Lucy Live on Stage The Improvised Shakespeare Company Irving Berlin's White Christmas Jersey Boys LEO Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Mariachi Los Camperos:  Fiesta Navidad Mark O’Connor and Friends -  An Appalachian Christmas Mnozil Brass Moscow Classical Ballet -  The Nutcracker   One Man Lord of the Rings Pat Hazell -  The Wonder Bread Years RAIN: A Tribute to The Beatles Ramsey Lewis & John Pizzarelli:  Straighten Up & Fly Right - The Nat King Cole Tribute Ron White Ronnie Milsap Rosanne Cash Shatner's World Sing-A-Long Grease Sing-A-Long Sound of Music Soweta Gospel Choir Still Awake Still Trey McIntyre Project Willie Nelson The Wizard of OZ

Season 23 (2014-2015)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (Presented by Visible Fictions) Alonzo King LINES Ballet Artosphere Festival Orchestra The Australian Bee Gees Show The Bad Plus Ballet Arkansas: An Introduction Ballroom with a Twist Beth Stockdale: Trail Mix Bill Engvall Camelot Cameron Carpenter Clarice Assad Trio Clint Black Christmas with You Cyrus Chestnut Quartet: Brubeck Reimagined The Dan Band David Sedaris Disney's Cinderella Dover Quartet Dr. John & The Nite Trippers with Special Guests The Cate Brothers Elf the Musical Elvis Lives The Fruits Funkadesi The Gruffalo's Child Home Free The Hot Sardines I Think I Can Jake Shimabukuro Jayme Stone's Lomax Project Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis: Big Band Holidays Jeanne Robertson Joe Locke Quartet with vocalist Kenny Washington Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Band Kathleen Madigan - Madigan Again Koresh Dance Company Marc Cohn Mediaeval Baebes The Midtown Men Moscow Classical Ballet The Nutcracker MYTHBUSTERS: Behind the Myths New York Standards Quartet Nice Work If You Can Get It Once The Musical The Polar Express Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem Remembered and Rendered: A Ceramic Garden by Katie Sleyman Rhonda Vincent & the Rage The Rocky Horror Picture Show Second City: Nut-Cracking Holiday Review Sid the Science Kid LIVE! Sisters Sweet: Trail Mix Slava's Snowshow So Percussion Spot by Theater Terra Tangram Timber! Cirque Alfonse Ugly Duckling and Tortoise and the Hare Lightwire Theater Wendy Whelan - Restless Creature

Season 24 (2015-2016)

Aizuri Quartet Anat Cohen Quartet Annie Artosphere Festival Orchestra Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Octet BalletBoyz Barefoot Movement Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn Bike Zoo: Trail Mix Blue Man Group Branford Marsalis Brian Regan, presented by Live Nation Bridges of Madison County Cinderella Circa's Carnival of the Animals Classic Albums Live: Abbey Road Cyrille Aimee DakhaBrakha Danu Diana Krall Disney's Beauty & the Beast Egg Eldar Trio Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny Home Free Holiday Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Ira Glass Jim Brickman Holiday Keb Mo Kinky Boots LA Theatre Works: Bram Stoker's Dracula Love That Dog Malpaso Dance Mamma Mia! Mavis Staples with Nick Lowe Me & My Shadow, Patch Theatre Company Menopause the Musical Michael McDonald National Circus and Acrobats of the People's Republic of China A Night with Janis Joplin Okee Dokee Brothers Paragon Ragtime Orchestra Pat Martino Paul Thorn (West St. Live announcement event) Paula Fuga Paula Poundstone Pippin Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Salzburg Marionettes Simone Dinnerstein SoNA's The Snowman Sonos Handbell Ensemble Spin The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart Swingles

Season 25 (2016-2017)

The Acoustic Living Room: Songs and Stories with Kathy Mattea featuring Bill Cooley An Evening with Amy Helm and the Handsome Strangers Art Garfunkle: In Close Up Artosphere Festival Orchestra Barnstorm Theater Company's The Bockety World of Henry and Bucket BODYTRAFFIC The Book of Mormon An Evening with Buddy Guy Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet's The Nutcracker An Evening with Chris Botti Circus Oz Classic Albums Live: Led Zepplin - II Compagnia TPO: The Painted Garden Compagnie Herve KOUBI Croce: Two Generations of American Music The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage Dover Quartet with Avi Avital Edward Simon & Afinidad with Imani Winds Elizabeth Cook Etinne Charles Creole Soul Garrison Keillor A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder Greater Tuna Hip Hop Nutcracker, The Jane Monheit: The Ella Fizgereld Centennial Celebration Janoska Ensemble Justin Kauflin Trio Los Lobos An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt The Man Who Planted Trees Manual Cinema's Lula del Ray Marcia Ball Mermaid Theater of Nova Scotia: Brown Bear, Brown Bear and other Treasured Stories by Eric Carle Mnozil Brass MOMIX Opus Cactus Motown The Musical MVP Jazz Quartet Naturally 7 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Niyaz presents The Fourth Light Oran Etikin's Timbalooloo Oran Etkin: What's New? Reimagining Benny Goodman Patch Theatre Company's The Moon's a Balloon The Rocky Horror Picture Show Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man Sierra Hull SoNA's The Snowman Still on the Hill: Still a River Taj Express: The Bollywood Musical Revue Think Outside the Drum: An Interactive Family Concert Event with Third Coast Percussion Third Coast Percussion Tim Warfield's All-Star Jazzy Christmas A Very Electric Christmas The Way Back Home Wild Kratts - Live! Windmill Theatre's Grug & the Rainbow

Season 26 (2017-2018)

Alicia Olatuja Quintet An American In Paris At This Performance... Ballet Arkansas Beautiful: The Carole King Musical Bela Fleck with Brooklyn Rider Bria Skonberg Cabaret Classic Albums Live: Rumours Charlie Daniels Band Conrad Herwig Danu: Christmas Gathering David Sedaris Diana Krall Donny McCaslin Group Dublin Guitar Quartet Finding Neverland Hot Club of Cowtown I'm With Her Jake Shimabukuro Jason Mraz Jazzy Ash and the Leaping Lizards Joe Ely Duo John McEuen Duo Keb Mo & Taj Mahal The King & I The Latin Jazz All-Stars LeAnn Rimes Martin Sexton Mummenschanz: you and me My Funny Valentine National Acrobats of China Old Crow Medicine Show One Morning I Left... Pasadena Roof Orchestra Peter Yarrow PostSecret Raul Midon RENT Robert Earl Keen Rocky Horror Picture Show Rudolph: The Musical Secret Agent 23 Skidoo Secret Life of Suitcases Sense and Sensibility Shh! We Have A Plan Susan Werner Symphonie Dramatique The Huntertones The Sound of Music Trike Theatre's Charlotte's Web Trike Theatre's Lily's Purple Plastic Purse The Triplets of Belleville Voces8 VoiceJam Competition VoicePlay White Christmas

Season 27 (2018-2019)

6-Wire The Aeolus Quartet - Artosphere AirPlay Alfredo Rodríguez and Pedrito Martinez Duo An Evening with the Zukerman Trio Aquila Theatre - A Midsummer Night's Dream Artosphere Festival Orchestra Celebrates: The Moon Artosphere Festival Orchestra's Masterworks of Mendelssohn & Brahms with Corrado Rovaris, Music Director Artosphere Film Series: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Apollo 13, E.T., 2001 A Space Odyssey A Beautiful Planet in IMAX - Artosphere Bella Gaia - Artosphere Benny Green Trio with Veronica Swift Boz Scaggs Out of the Blues Tour A Bronx Tale Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet's The Nutcracker CATS Cirque Éloize Saloon Dixie's Tupperware Party Dorrance Dance Dover Quartet - Artosphere The Edge Effect Falsettos George Brooks' Aspada Gretchen Peters Hot Club of San Francisco's Cinema Vivant The Illusionists - Live from Broadway Indigo Girls Jay Leno Jersey Boys Jessica Lang Dance Jimmy Webb Joan Baez Fare Thee Well Tour John McCutcheon The John Patitucci Electric Guitar Quartet The King's Singers Late Nite Catechism Les Misérables The Lightning Thief - The Percy Jackson Musical Live from Crystal Bridges: Mozart in the Museum with Artosphere Festival Orchestra Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia's The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favorites Michael Andrew: Sinatra and the American Songbook Mission Temple Fireworks Revival feat. Paul Thorn & Band, Blind Boys of Alabama and The McCrary Sisters Molly Tuttle Monterey Jazz Festival 60th Anniversary Tour The Moon Project - Artosphere Mwenso & The Shakes On Your Feet! One Night of Queen Peter Bernstein, Larry Goldings & Bill Stewart Trio The Polar Express The Pump and Dump Show Ragamala Dance Company's Written in Water The Rocky Horror Picture Show Royal Wood Ruthie Foster Sam Reider and The Human Hands - Artosphere School of Rock Seraph Brass - Artosphere The Snowman: A Family Concert Stars and Songs by the Fire - Artosphere Still On The Hill: Cane Hill Stories The Story of Everything by Kealoha Take Me To The River: Live! Tall Stories' Emily Brown and the Thing Terrapin Puppet Theatre's You and Me and the Space Between Trike Theatre's Go, Dog. Go! Trike Theatre's Peter Pan Trout Fishing in America - Artosphere VoiceJam Competition Waitress Whose Live Anyway? with Dave Foley, Joel Murray, Greg Proops & Jeff B. Davis!

Season 28 (2019-2020)

A Christmas Story A Year with Frog and Toad Amy Ray Anastasia Ballet Trockadero Blue Man Group Catherine Russell Daniel Tiger Live David Sedaris Escape to Margaritaville Fred Hersch Trio Freddy Cole Quartet Jason Marsalis Jesse Cook Lyle Lovett Martha Redbone Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live Nobuntu Once on this Island Piff The Magic Dragon Randy Rainbow Robert Earl Keen Rocky Horror Picture Show Sideways Stories Socks in the Frying Pan The Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare (abridged) The Nace Brothers The Nature of Forgetting The Peking Acrobats The Play That Goes Wrong The Snowman The Swingles Tiempo Libre Tim Hawkins Trisha Yearwood

Season 29 (2020-2021)

Art Heist Charming Dover Quartet Emmet Cohen Jontavius Willis Natural State of Mind Paul Thorn The Exiled King The Gospel Truth

Virtual Abha Dixie’s Happy Hour Indie Films India

Screenings 42nd Street Coco Ferngully Fiddler: Miracle of Miracles High Anxiety Hocus Pocus Mia and the Migoo Pitch Perfect Polar Express Rocky Horror Picture Show Strings Attached The Greatest Showman The Sun is Also a Star White Christmas Zarafa

• Guided tour

Moscow: City Sightseeing by Car/Bus

• Description
• Choose date

Visiting a new city is akin to going on a first date, it is something you will never forget. Many people imagine Moscow as just a bunch of sporadic landmarks: Red Square, the Kremlin, Lenin’s Mausoleum and GUM. There is so much more to this wonderful city than that and even though we only have a few hours, we will do all we can to show you everything we know and love about our capital in one fell swoop. We will take you on a journey through the ages, from centuries ago, right up to the modern day, soaking in the sights of this vast and bustling metropolis. Bright, luxurious and both ancient and modern at the same time, Moscow invites you on a date you’ll never forget!

On our sightseeing bus tour of the city, you will see:

• The wonderfully historic city centre and its unique museums, magnificent cathedrals, the exquisite Chambers of the Romanov Boyars and of course, the famous towering red brick walls of the Kremlin, The charming beauty of the Alexander Garden awaits the capital's guests - a lush green oasis in the midst of the glass and concrete clad metropolis, basking in the etherial aura emanating from the whitewashed stone walls of the restored Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the world- renowned fairytale onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral and other impressive monumental buildings such as the library built in Lenin's honour - the Russian State Library - and the State Duma.
• The Lubyanka KGB headquarters is notorious to members of older generations and although nowadays, the face of the secret police has changed dramatically, the looming enigmatic building on the waterfront maintains its aura of mystery, shrouded in a variety of murky rumours and dark myths. Then, there’s another of Moscow's main attractions - the marvellous Bolshoi Theatre, yew simply cant leave Moscow without taking in its breathtaking architecture. Engrained in the fabric of Russia's cultural heritage, virtuoso performers such as prima ballerina Galina Ulanova, opera singer Feodor Chaliapin and pianist, composer and conductor Sergei Rachmaninoff once stood centre stage of this vaunted institution.
• The memorial complex on Poklonnaya Hill was constructed in the glory and honour of our heroes who defended our nation in the many crucial battles of the Great Patriotic War (WWII). This is a place that embodies a particularly acute and inextricable link between older ancf younger generations. Moving on to the Moscow International Business Centre, not dubbed ‘Moscow City' for nothing, a true glimpse of the future in the present. This incredible, rather jaw-dropping project in the capital has shown that Moscow has come to accept the age of the skyscraper. Finally, the stunning views from the observation deck at Sparrow Hills will leave professional and amateur photographers alike itching to capture them. How could one resist?

The most beautiful of all the world's cities - lady Moscow invites you out on a date!

The cost of an excursion with a personal guide for 1 person

Meeting point We'll pick you up at your hotel

St. Basil's Cathedral

House on the Embankment

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Vorobyovy Hills

Poklonnaya Hill Poklonnaya Gora

Moscow-City

Alexander garden

Russian State Library

Bolshoi Theatre

End of the tour

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• Excursion Moscow: City Sightseeing by Car/Bus
• Date and time:
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In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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