Kent County Arts and Entertainment Events- February 2020

January 12 – February 9th
Gallery Artist Winter Exhibition
February First Friday Reception – February 7, 5-7:30 pm

Intimate Generations features contemporary artists working broadly around themes of family connection. Artists chanan delivuk, Roxana Alger Geffen, Aimee Gilmore, Khánh H. Lê, Kalen Na’il Roach, and Aaron Wax reimagine family narratives, illuminating and re-envisioning lives and identities. Selected works communicate an array of contradictory emotions, demonstrating how each person’s relationship with their family is a uniquely complicated issue. Visit our website for gallery hours, location and additional information.

Feeling the love? Come make a special project to brighten someone's day. Ages 5+

Whether your aesthetic is sophisticated, silly, or sweet, this is your opportunity to create truly unique one-of-a-kind valentines for the special people in your life.

Happiness Hour is a time for grown-ups to explore their powers of creativity.  Join us to try your hand at something new and leave a little happier than you arrived!

All supplies will be provided, though you are welcome to bring favorite quotations or other inspiration.  Space is limited and registration is required for this FREE program.

Kate Bernheimer is the author of two story collections, including How a Mother Weaned Her Girl from Fairy Tales and Horse, Flower, Bird, as well as three novels, and editor of My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales and xo Orpheus: 50 New Myths. She both founded and edits Fairy Tale Review. She is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she teaches creative writing and fairy tale classes.

Join RiverArts' First Friday opening reception for "Amazing People" , an oral history exhibition curated by Gordon Wallace and Lani Seikaly. The show features stories of the challenges and the impact poverty has on children through adulthood as told by local, young men and women who have experienced it. The story tellers are all amazing people from whom we have much to learn. The exhibit will include portraits, highlighted excerpts from interviews and short videos.

SPARKY AND RHONDA RUCKER perform throughout the U.S. as well as overseas, singing songs and telling stories from the American folk tradition. They are internationally recognized as leading musicians, authors, and storytellers. They accompany themselves with fingerstyle picking and bottleneck blues guitar, blues harmonica, old-time banjo, piano, spoons, and bones. Sparky and Rhonda will deliver an uplifting presentation of toe-tapping music spiced with humor, history, and tall tales.

The Christiana Hundred Choir, Delaware, sings each Sunday during the program year and performs at many other services at the historic parish church.

Hosted by our own Joe Holt at the piano, our featured guest tonight is Pres Harding. Pres is a long standing musical fixture in Kent County, having performed just about everywhere you can imagine throughout the county and the greater region. His recent performances have included a series of concerts in greater DelMarVa titled: A Boy in the Boatyard: Wingate Stories with Pres Harding with original music regional classics inspired by his experiences growing up in the maritime community of Wingate in the mid-20th century.

TWO WEEKENDS:
Feb 14 - Feb 23

By Jaston Williams, Ed Howard and Joe Sears
Directed by Steven Arnold

Fridays & Saturdays @ 8pm
Sundays @ 2pm

$20 General Admission
$15 Senior/Military
$10 Students*
*Some adult language. May not be appropriate for children under 13.

February 15 – March 8, 2020

Intimate Generations II at Massoniart
a collaboration with Kohl Gallery / Washington College
Art Crawl and Gallery Receptions – Saturday, February 22, 10-5 pm

The Cleveland Wind Trio is a reed ensemble consisting of bassoon, clarinet, and oboe, formed at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2018. They will perform works by Mozart, Canteloube & Villa-Lobos

Join RiverArts and The Mainstay in a warm and welcoming community singalong to the score of the sensational Broadway musical Hamilton! Singers and listeners of all ages and skills are welcome. Request a featured role in your favorite song by emailing mainstaysingalong@gmail.com. Or join in from the audience.

The city operates as a complicated confluence of uneven political, economic, cultural, and environmental interests. Critical geographers and sociologists have documented how the inequitable power dynamics governing these relationships have led to segregated cities. This public lecture builds upon this research to illustrate how communication infrastructure is a fundamental element of urban planning, and how an emphasis on communication can help us to design better cities capable of combating racism and other forms of systemic discrimination.

Hosted by our own Joe Holt at the piano, our featured guests tonight are Scott Silbert, Amy Shook and Steve Abshire. Together, they form a quartet, paying tribute to the collaboration of Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio, iconic in jazz history. Scott Silbert worked as a professional musician at Walt Disney World before joining the Navy Band Commodores in 1991 on baritone sax. Amy Shook is one of the most in-demand acoustic bassists in the mid- Atlantic. Steve Abshire was the guitarist/featured soloist with the Commodores, the U.S. Navy's premiere jazz ensemble.

The exhibition Intimate Generations features works by artists chanan delivuk, Roxana Alger Geffen, Aimee Gilmore, Khánh H. Lê, Kalen Na’il Roach, and Aaron Wax. All are contemporary artists working broadly around themes of family connection. The reception will feature in-gallery artist talks and performances of original dances made in response to works on display by Washington College dance composition students. The reception is free and open to the public, and all are warmly invited to attend. Light refreshments will be served.

TWO WEEKENDS:
Feb 14 - Feb 23

By Jaston Williams, Ed Howard and Joe Sears
Directed by Steven Arnold

Fridays & Saturdays @ 8pm
Sundays @ 2pm

$20 General Admission
$15 Senior/Military
$10 Students*
*Some adult language. May not be appropriate for children under 13.

Come Out and enjoy an evening with friends as you create a one of a kind Chester Gras mask. Bring your favorite adult beverage, some snacks and come have a great time while creating something unique and fun. If you bring a friend, both parties will get $5 OFF! Hope to see you there.

Perennial Mainstay favorite and national treasure jazz guitarist Gene Bertoncini and his musical cohorts Steve Abshire and Steve Herberman will recreate the sounds of the original "Great Guitars" supergroup that featured Mainstay hero Charlie Byrd.These three fabulous guitarists will present an unforgettable program of guitar mastery, swinging improvisation, and stories from the history of jazz. Don't miss this incredible one-night-only performance!

TWO WEEKENDS:
Feb 14 - Feb 23

By Jaston Williams, Ed Howard and Joe Sears
Directed by Steven Arnold

Fridays & Saturdays @ 8pm
Sundays @ 2pm

$20 General Admission
$15 Senior/Military
$10 Students*
*Some adult language. May not be appropriate for children under 13.

The United States Naval Academy Band Reed Quintet and Brass Quintet will present a joint concert of cutting-edge and modern chamber music in Hotchkiss Recital Hall, Gibson Center for the Arts at Washington College on Sunday, February 23 at 4:00 p.m.

The Naval Academy Band’s newest ensemble, USNA Reed Quintet is a vibrant group, producing a rich blend of colors from its unique instrumentation of oboe, clarinet, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, and bassoon. The popular and versatile USNA Brass Quintet promotes brass chamber music through education and performance. Program highlights include George Gershwin’s Three Preludes, selections from “West Side Story,” and works by contemporary composers Anthony DiLorenzo, Marc Mellitts, and John Steinmetz.

The Naval Academy Band has been providing music for the Brigade of Midshipmen and the surrounding community since 1852. Located at the Naval Academy, in Annapolis, this premier military band offers world-class ensembles which perform a variety of musical styles, ranging from classical to contemporary.

Naval Academy Band concerts are free and open to the public. For more information about the band, including its history and performance schedule, please visit www.usna.edu/usnaband

This is a FREE concert. There are no tickets required.

The Baltimore-based Ann Street Trio is devoted to performing chamber music from the classical era to the 21st century. Comprised of several of Baltimore’s finest musicians, the Ann Street Trio believes in engaging their audience through creative programming and conversation, and strives to give them an up-close look at the creativity and excitement of chamber music. The Ann Street Trio reaches audiences through chamber music series in the region including university engagements and private salon concerts.

TWO WEEKENDS:
Feb 14 - Feb 23

By Jaston Williams, Ed Howard and Joe Sears
Directed by Steven Arnold

Fridays & Saturdays @ 8pm
Sundays @ 2pm

$20 General Admission
$15 Senior/Military
$10 Students*
*Some adult language. May not be appropriate for children under 13.

Join us for Mainstay Monday, where eclectic evenings happen every Monday night, hosted by our own Joe Holt at the piano. Our featured guest tonight is Dave Robinson, a recognized and respected authority on traditional jazz. He joins Joe for an evening of historic musical treasures. Dave has performed and toured with the top DC-area traditional jazz and swing bands for over 30 years and currently leads the Conservatory Classic Jazz Band. Join us for a joyous evening of traditional jazz and swing.

Born to a Filipino mother and Malayali Indian father, Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of four books of poetry: Oceanic, Lucky Fish, At the Drive-In Volcano, and Miracle Fruit. Her collection of nature essays, World of Wonder, was published by Milkweed in 2018. With Ross Gay, she co-authored Lace & Pyrite, a chapbook of nature poems. World of Wonder, Nezhukumatathil’s first nonfiction book, is an illustrated collection of nature essays. Nezhukumatathil serves as the poetry editor for Orion magazine.

Based on the iconic 1969 rock concept album, The Who's Tommy is an exhilarating story of hope, healing and the human spirit. The story of the pinball-playing, deaf, dumb and blind boy who triumphs over his adversities has inspired, amazed and puzzled audiences for more than 40 years. This five-time Tony Award-winning musical was translated to the stage by theatrical wizard, Des McAnuff, into a high-energy, one-of-a-kind theatrical event.

After witnessing the accidental murder of his mother's lover by his father, Tommy is traumatized into catatonia and, as the boy grows, he suffers abuse at th

The Mainstay welcomes back inaugural scholarship winner Zach Lambert and his quartet for an exciting evening of jazz! He began performing professionally in 2017, and since then has played hundreds of gigs ranging in a wide variety of styles, including jazz combos, solo guitar, big bands, pit orchestras, songwriter duos, and original and cover bands. uartet includes Mike Paxton on saxophone, Brendan Brady on drums, & Warren Louie on upright and electric bass.

Neal Tilghman, who was lost to us late last year, had a special relationship with The Mainstay and with Tom McHugh, founding executive director of The Mainstay. Neal had exquisite taste and a special passion for the great jazz classics of the 20th Century Songbook- what Charlie Byrd called the good stuff. This concert features artists who had a special relationship with Neil and will be an evening of jazz classics. For this special event, we welcome back to our stage bassist and recording artist Tommy Cecil, veteran jazz performer & composer Vince Lewis, & veteran guitarist Dick Morgan.