Center For The Arts at George Mason University Announces 2022/2023 Season

The Center for the Arts at George Mason University announced today its 2022/2023 season of mainstage performances, featuring a diverse lineup of artists and ensembles across many genres, as part of Great Performances at Mason and the Family Series. Season subscriptions are currently on sale to Friends of the Center for the Arts at cfa.gmu.edu/subscriptions or by phone at 703-993-2787. For the general public, subscriptions go on sale Tuesday, May 24 and tickets for individual events go on sale Monday, August 1. More details are available on the Center for the Arts' website.

"The sheer joy of being together in a shared performance space still feels precious to me after these past two years, and I wanted to fill next year's season with artists who will ensure that we all remember just how special it is to witness artistic brilliance live on stage," shares Director of Programming Adrienne Bryant Godwin. "From kicking off the season with Kristin Chenoweth to presenting the Mason debut of Chloé Arnold's Syncopated Ladies LIVE! to the return of audience favorite taiko drummers KODO from Japan, this season celebrates the unbridled joy of the performing arts."

Great Performances at Mason launches with Emmy and Tony Award-winning performer Kristin Chenoweth, whose celebratory program For the Girls will serve as part of the ARTS by George! Benefit, an annual fundraiser supporting the arts at Mason.

Virginia Opera returns to the Center for the Arts with a thrilling season of performances including Wagner's epic The Valkyrie, Gilbert and Sullivan's beloved The Pirates of Penzance, Verdi's sumptuous La Traviata, and a moving contemporary work by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce, Fellow Travelers, called "one of the most accomplished New American Operas" (Chicago Tribune) and "a near-perfect example of fast-flowing musical drama" (The New York Times).

The Center's classical music offerings include a holiday performance by sibling superstar pianists The 5 Browns, who have had three albums hit #1 on Billboard Magazine's Classical Album Chart. The Munich Symphony Orchestra will perform Beethoven's ebullient Symphony No. 7 and Brahms's only violin concerto featuring GRAMMY-nominated Robert McDuffie. Fellow violinist Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra will bring their charismatic program America, with iconic works by Copland, Barber, Ellington, Price, Gershwin, and more. The Center will co-present a special performance with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra featuring Rachmaninoff's epic Piano Concerto No. 2 with pianist George Li, known for his "staggering technical prowess...and depth of expression" (The Washington Post).

The Center welcomes three 2022/2023 Mason Artists-in-Residence: Nrityagram Dance Ensemble, Bangalore-based "rock stars of the dance world" (New York Post); Native American collective with hip-hop influence Indigenous Enterprise; and GRAMMY-winning, radical cultural collaborators Silkroad Ensemble, who embrace a language of musical difference to create a more hopeful, inclusive world. Each residency will feature curated opportunities for Northern Virginia to get to know these artists with workshops, conversations, and events surrounding their performances.

Godwin notes, "Our three Mason Artists-in-Residence are all deeply rooted in cultural traditions, but each of them brilliantly presents their work through a unique contemporary lens. One of the premier Indian classical dance ensembles, Nrityagram will collaborate with Sri Lanka's Chitrasena Dance Company, weaving together two dance vocabularies - Odissi from India and Kandyan from Sri Lanka. Indigenous Enterprise, who burst onto the scene only a few years ago, are honoring the Native American identity through high-profile appearances on mainstream television and collaborations with superstars like the Black Eyed Peas. I'm particularly excited to announce that the Silkroad Ensemble will be participating in a three-year residency, during which will support some of their ambitious projects under the new artistic direction of Rhiannon Giddens."

Diverse dance performances in the Center's season include the "uproarious fun" (Philadephia Inquirer) of dance-illusionists MOMIX in celebration of their 40th anniversary , and the electrifying Chloé Arnold's Syncopated Ladies LIVE!-created by D.C.-native and Emmy Award-nominated tap dancer and choreographer Chloé Arnold along with sister Maud. The Center welcomes back Doug Varone and Dancers, hailed by The New York Times for deftly combining "thought and gutsy, imaginative movement," for an evening of works featuring students from Mason's School of Dance. State Ballet of Georgia will also perform a beautiful iconic works by George Balanchine and Ukrainian choreographer Yuri Possokhov. The Washington Post has praised their "diplomacy through dance-a great and hopeful gift."

Havana Cuba All-Stars will transport the audience to their homeland featuring the band Asere with special guest Brenda Navarrete, "a new vanguard of women in Cuban Jazz" (The New Yorker). The Acting Company delivers a witty, swashbuckling production of The Three Musketeers, and a cappella sensation Voctave's program The Corner of Broadway and Main Street highlights favorite tunes ranging from Broadway musicals to Disney films. Japanese taiko drumming ensemble KODO will showcase exhilarating athleticism and "primal power" (Chicago Tribune) in celebration of its 40th anniversary, with One Earth Tour 2023: Tsuzumi, while the gravity-defying acrobatic troupe Cirque FLIP Fabrique tackles-literally-issues of gender archetypes in its whimsical, wondrous show, Muse, complete with live onstage vocals.

Returning favorites to the Center for the Arts also include joyful holiday performances by the world's foremost children's choral group Vienna Boys Choir, building on six centuries of tradition; virtuoso fiddlers Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy and their musical, step dancing children in A Celtic Family Christmas; and the American Festival Pops Orchestra, who will deck the halls with Holiday Pops: Songs of the Season under the baton of newly appointed Artistic Director and Conductor Peter Wilson. For more than 25 years, Keyboard Conversations with Jeffrey Siegela??has delighted Center audiences, and Siegel returns with four programs of his trademark piano concerts with commentary. The Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra also returns to the Concert Hall with Hammond organist and GRAMMY nominee Bobby Floyd, featured keyboardist for Ray Charles, Doc Severinsen, and the legendary Count Basie Orchestra.

The Center for the Arts Family Series returns with The Queen's Cartoonists' Holiday Hurrah!, a festive combination of holiday-related cartoons, films, and jazz, with live projected clips in sync with the music. Enchantment Theatre Company's wildly imaginative production of The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon, based on the beloved children's book, features life-sized puppets, pantomime, dance, magic, and original music. The Passing Zone-two-time finalists on America's Got Talent who hold five Guinness World Records and 18 gold medals from the International Jugglers' Association-will also bring their zany and hair-raising juggling, comedy, and daredevil act The Passing Zone Saves the World to amaze the whole family.

Unless otherwise noted, these performances take place at the Center for the Arts located at 4373 Mason Pond Dr, Fairfax, VA 22030.

Programs, artists, and dates are subject to change. For the most up-to-date programming information, please visit the Center for the Arts' website.

2022/2023 Center for the Arts season attendance protocols are subject to change based on the policies of the CDC, Virginia, and George Mason University. See current policies at cfa.gmu.edu/expect.

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