Sarah Vowell & Many More Announced At Benaroya Hall This Spring!

The Live @ Benaroya Hall stage plays host to best-selling author Sarah Vowell and Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino for a unique conversation about pop culture and history titled "The Old & the Dead." Tickets for their lecture and all the music events are on sale now, prices vary. Additional spring and summer shows for the 2018 season will be announced in the coming weeks.

Visit www.benaroyahall.org or call (206) 215-4747. The Benaroya Hall Ticket Office is on the corner of Third Avenue and Union Street. Ticket Office hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Saturday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m.

An Evening with Sarah Vowell & Michael Giacchino Saturday, April 7, 8pm; Tickets $50Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall www.barclayagency.com/site/speaker/sarah-vowellmichaelgiacchino.com

Topic: "The Old and the Dead"

Join bestselling author Sarah Vowell (The Wordy Shipmates, Lafayette in the Somewhat United States) and film composer Michael Giacchino (The Incredibles, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) for an amusing evening in conversation about history and pop culture. And what is their irresistible topic of choice? "The Old and the Dead." Vowell and Giacchino sit down together to discuss their shared 1970s-bicentennial childhoods as well as a unique perspective on colonial and pop culture touchstones. They arrive armed with an arsenal of personal experiences, fascinating Hollywood anecdotes and unbelievable tales from American history.Sarah Vowell is the New York Times bestselling author of seven nonfiction books on American history and culture. By examining the connections between the American past and present, she offers personal, often humorous accounts of everything from presidents and their assassins to colonial religious fanatics, as well as thoughts on American Indians, utopian dreamers, pop music and the odd cranky cartographer. Her most recent book is entitled Lafayette in the Somewhat United States. Vowell was also a contributing editor for the public radio show This American Life (1996-2008), where she produced numerous commentaries and documentaries and toured the country in many of the program's live shows.Composer Michael Giacchino has credits that feature some of the most popular and acclaimed film projects in recent history including Inside Out, The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Zootopia and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which marked the first score to be composed for a Star Wars film following John Williams. Giacchino's 2009 score for the Pixar hit Up earned him an Oscar, a Golden Globe, the BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Critics' Choice Award and two GRAMMY Awards. Upcoming projects include two highly anticipated sequels, The Incredibles 2 and Jurassic World 2, both being released in summer 2018.

Sera Cahoone

Friday, April 20, 8pm; Tickets $20-$29, Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall www.seracahoone.comZoe Muth, opener

The world of American roots music is no stranger to Seattle songwriter Sera Cahoone. Even though her last three albums were on Sub Pop Records and she spent years at the top of the indie charts, she's always had a streak of Americana that ran through her music, a love of the humble folk song that bolstered her art. She's returning now to these earliest influences with her latest album, From Where I Started (2017). Growing up, Cahoone first found her voice in Colorado dive bars, backing up old blues musicians at age 12 on the drums. Her father, a Rocky Mountain dynamite salesman, took the family along to mining conferences and old honky-tonks in the state. The sounds she heard there-the twang of country crooners, cowboy boots on peanut shells-have stayed with her all the way to Seattle, where she lives now, and the seminal indie rock bands she's been a part of in the city (Carissa's Weird, Band of Horses).

Bettye Lavette

Monday, April 23, 7:30pm;

Tickets $40-$55Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall http://www.bettyelavette.com/

Bettye Lavette is no mere singer. She is an interpreter of the highest order. Whether the song originated as country, rock, pop or blues, it is pure R&B when she gets through with it. She gets inside a song and shapes and twists it to convey all of the emotion that can be wrought from the lyric. Her career began at the tender age of 16, recording for labels like Atlantic, Epic and Motown from the 1960s through the 1980s. Her very first single, "My Man - He's a Lovin' Man" became a Top Ten R&B hit. Now, with 50+ years of show business under her belt, she is as busy as ever. She has garnered three Grammy nominations with her latest recordings and has released her autobiography, A Woman Like Me.

Angélique Kidjo's Remain in Light

Wednesday, May 2, 7:30pm; Tickets $50-$80S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium www.kidjo.com

Critically acclaimed, three-time Grammy Award winner Angélique Kidjo is one of the greatest artists in international music today. In her latest project, Kidjo reimagines The Talking Heads' classic album, Remain in Light. Released in 1980, Remain in Light was a revolution of pop music innovation, pushing sonic boundaries with sampled and looped grooves inspired by legendary Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. Kidjo, who is herself from Benin, explains: "As Remain in Light was influenced by the music of my continent, I want to pay back the homage and create my own African take on Talking Heads' songs." The album demonstrates that both the Talking Heads and producer Brian Eno experimented with African polyrhythms while simultaneously drawing lyrical inspiration from African academic literature.

Alan Cumming: Legal Immigrant

Thursday, May 3, 7:30pm;

Tickets $40-$80S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium www.alancumming.com

Alan Cumming is beyond eclectic. He has hosted the Tony Awards, designed a perfume, made films with Stanley Kubrick, voiced a Smurf and appeared in a Jay Z video. He has been described by Time Magazine as one of the most fun people in show business, by The New York Times as a 'bawdy, countercultural sprite' and by The Guardian as 'European, weird, and sexually ambiguous.' Alan Cumming is many things to many people - renaissance man, style icon, social activist, bon viveur - but to himself he is a storyteller and provocateur for hire. Cumming originally trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and went on to work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. Since then, he has made an indelible mark on theatre, TV, film, publishing and more. He has won over thirty awards for his humanitarianism and social activism, received both the Great Scot and Icon of Scotland awards from his homeland and was made an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) for his contributions to the arts and LBGT equality by Queen Elizabeth II.

About Live @ Benaroya Hall

Launched in 2012, Live @ Benaroya Hall presents a diverse lineup of lectures, jazz, rock, blues, country, pop, alternative and world music concerts in downtown Seattle's acoustically superb Benaroya Hall - a world-class performing arts center that engages and serves the Puget Sound region. For additional information, including a full concert schedule, please visit www.benaroyahall.org.

Benaroya Hall is home of the Seattle Symphony and venue of choice for many local arts organizations. It is located on an entire city block in downtown Seattle and is surrounded by numerous restaurants, retail stores and parking facilities. The hall has two performance spaces - the 2,500-seat S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium and the 540-seat Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall - and a 430-stall underground parking garage. Over 450,000 people participate in public and private events annually, making Benaroya Hall the most-visited performing arts venue in Seattle. Benaroya Hall has received numerous awards, including a 2001 American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Honor Award for outstanding architecture. For additional information, including rental information, event listings and public tour schedules, please visit www.benaroyahall.org.

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