It’s now March, and even though the hottest ticket for the coming week is sold out, don’t let that fool you into thinking there aren’t plenty more great events worth your time. This week there’s world premiere music, a one-of-a-kind Texan musical and a US Poet Laureate to look forward to, so keep reading for our picks for this week’s best games.
It’s March, which means it’s officially Women’s History Month. One way to celebrate is with the Kinetic Ensemble’s Her Story, a program of works by all female composers, at 7.30pm on Friday 3 March on The MATCH. Musical works on the program include Amy Beach’s String Quartet in One Movement, Gabriela Lena Franks Legends for string orchestra, and the world premiere of “Home” by Kinetic’s current composer Nicky Sohn. The music and dance piece — conceived and developed by Sohn, Kinetic violinist Mary Grace Johnson and guest choreographer Kayla Collymore — was “inspired by a series of interviews the trio conducted with graduates of The Women’s Home, a Montrose-based rehabilitation and support facility for struggling women with addiction.” Tickets can be purchased here for $30 (and there will be $10 student tickets available at the door).
Friday 3 March at At 8 p.m., DACAMERA will welcome “the eminent jazz bassist,” Christian McBride and his quartet to the Wortham Theater Center for Christian McBride’s New Jawn. New York Times has called New Jawn – consisting of McBride, Marcus Strickland (tenor sax and bass clarinet), Josh Evans (trumpet) and Nasheet Waits (drums) – “one of McBride’s most satisfying bands”, describing them as “a non-chord quartet that convincingly manner encompasses elastic post-bop, dirge-like abstraction and strutting funk, sometimes uniting different strategies in the same piece.” Big praise for McBride, who “boasts one of the most impressive resumes of any jazz musician in his age group,” including “eight Grammy wins,” “hundreds of recording credits,” and “prominent roles as host of NPR’s Jazz Night in America and the Artistic Director of the Newport Jazz Festival.” Tickets can be purchased here for $42.50 to $72.50.
She has been declared Stephen King’s “most terrifying (human) villain”, and on Friday 3 March at 20:00 you can see Annie Wilkes in all her crazy glory when Dirt Dogs Theater Co. opens his production of William Goldman’s film. Misery. Based on King’s 1987 novel of the same name, which also inspired a Rob Reiner-directed film in 1990, the story centers on a writer who is rescued by his biggest fan—an apparently “all-seeing, omniscient entity disguised as a Cheetos-eating, middle-aged frump” – after a car accident only to find out that she might intend to keep him.Performances continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and March 13, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through March 18 at The MATCH Tickets can be purchased here for $30, and note that the performances on Sunday and Monday, March 13 will be pay-what-you-can.
Tai Murray joins the Houston Symphony to play Antonín Dvořák’s Violin Concerto.
Photo by Gaby Merz
With Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä at the helm, it is no surprise that the Houston Symphony on Friday 3 March at 20.00 deals with “one of the greatest composers of the 20th century” and “the first Finnish composer to reach an international audience”, Jean Sibelius. During Dvořák Violin Concerto & Sibelius 1, the symphony will also play the “indelible living sound” of Sibelius’ first symphony, Lotta Wennäkoski’s “Flounce” and welcome violinist Tai Murray for Antonín Dvořák’s Violin Concerto. Concerts are also planned for 8pm on Saturday 4 March and 2.30pm on Sunday 5 March. Saturday night’s concert will also be live streamed. A ticket to see the live stream can be purchased here for $20 and tickets to one of the three concerts at Jones Hall can be purchased here for $29 to $110.
Experimental music compositions and film are on the agenda when Musiqa and the Houston Cinema Arts Society present Musiqa on Film at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 4 and again at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 5 at The MATCH. Selections include a work by Sivan Eldar, which pairs silent film of conductors in sync with a new piece for violin and cello; JacobTV’s tribute to alto sax greats Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley and Art Pepper; and Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers’ “A Concerto is a Conversation,” in which Bowers uses the story of his grandfather to explore what it means to break into new spaces. On the cinema side are Musiqa commissioned films, made with local artists, including those from the Open Dance Project, from James Templeton (Moving pieces) and T Lavois Thiebaud (Capriccio). Tickets are pay-what-you-can (with a suggested retail price of $35) and can be purchased here.
We don’t need a reason to celebrate, but we’ll gladly take one. Sunday 5 March from 1 to 5 p.m., the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston gives us an excuse with their family-friendly community festival. The New Beginnings Spring Festival will celebrate the opening of the New Galleries for Art of the Islamic Worlds and Nowruz, or Persian New Year, an occasion “which for more than 3,000 years was observed as the victory of spring over darkness.” Although it’s a little early, since Nowruz is actually March 20, you can join the festival activities, an afternoon of live music, poetry readings, art, and many food options (Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Indian, and more), and get a head start on a holiday celebrated by “300 million people around the world”. There will be free entry to the festival and to the museum; you can order a free ticket in advance here.
The first Latina American Poet Laureate—not to mention the winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award and finalist for a National Book Award—Ada Limón, is coming to the Ballroom at Bayou Place at 19.30 on Monday 6 March, as part of this. of the 2022/2023 Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series. Limón will read from his sixth collection of poems, The bad kind, showing that the poet is “acutely aware of the natural world” and “has an ability to recognize its small mysteries to fully capture its history and abundance.” After the reading, Limón will join poet and author Roberto Tejada in conversation and then be present for a book sale and signing. Tickets are available here for $5, and if you can’t make it, you can always drop $5 to watch the online rebroadcast here.
COWBOY BOB, An Infamous New Musical, at the Alley Theatre, March 3 – March 26 from Alley Theater on Vimeo.
Meet “Texas’ most unlikely bank robber,” Peggy Jo Tallas, when the Alley Theater opens its production of Cowboy Bob Wednesday 8 March at 19:30 The musical, about the woman who “pulled off a string of five bank robberies in the suburbs of Dallas disguised as a bearded man in a ten-gallon hat” whom the police called “Cowboy” Bob,” was created by Jeanna Phillips, Annie Tippe and Galveston’s Molly Beach Murphy, who told Houston Chronicle that Tallas’ story “felt at once so bold and, oh my god, crazy about it, but also very mundane,” noting that “You can’t really answer why she did it. It’s so unknown. And isn’t that life, you know?” The performances continue until March 26 at 19.30 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8pm Fridays; 14.30 and 20.00 Saturdays, and 14.30 and 19.30 Sundays. Tickets can be purchased here for $26 to $69.
