W&L’s Lenfest Center for the Arts Presents 2024-25 Season, ‘Expand the Arts!’

Washington and Lee University's Lenfest Center for the Arts is pleased to present its 2024-25 season, "Expand the Arts!," featuring stimulating artistic alliances, creative outreach, community engagement collaborations and engaging performance experiences. Tickets for the entire season are available to buy online at my.wlu.edu/lenfest-center or in person at the Lenfest Box Office beginning Sept. 9.

W&L will welcome a family-friendly daredevil circus to open the season, with "Afrique en Cirque" on Sept. 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Keller Theatre. "Afrique en Cirque," by Yamoussa Bangoura, is inspired by daily life in Guinea and shares the beauty, youth and artistry of African culture. The audience will marvel as acrobats execute gravity-defying moves and human pyramids, accompanied by the contemporary sounds of live Afro-jazz, percussion and kora (a long-neck stringed instrument that combines elements of a harp and lute). Tickets are required.

W&L's SonoKlect Series, a program dedicated to bringing modern music to local audiences in Lexington, will open with the "Music of Royce Campbell" on Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. in the Wilson Concert Hall. Campbell, a titan among jazz guitarists and composers, will be accompanied by the Vosbein Magee Big Band, and this electrifying concert will transcend the boundaries of genre. No tickets are required.

Other events this season include Spain's Quarteto Casals; W&L's Concert Guild series; the King's Singers; the Bentley Musical "The Prom;" and a 90-minute adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," titled "Hamlet 50/50" and directed by Jemma Alix Levy, associate professor of acting and directing at W&L. Performances by the university's student ensembles will round out the season.

Outreach and Engagement Series
"Expand the Arts!" will also offer unique and engaging opportunities for the W&L community and audiences to connect with the artists on stage through the Lenfest Center's Outreach & Engagement (O&E) Series. The O&E series is focused on fostering immersive and collaborative university-community interactions, and audiences will have the opportunity to interact in open dialogue and conversation with artists and speakers during several events presented in conjunction with the performances.

The O&E series will present the Lenfest Center's first Indigenous-centered and Indigenous-led event with "A Night of Miigis Moments" on Oct. 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Keller Theatre. "A Night of Miigis Moments" is presented by Red Sky Performance, a leading company of contemporary Indigenous performance based in Canada. The performance will feature excerpts from Red Sky's acclaimed "Miigis: Underwater Panther" production, which is inspired by the formidable odyssey of the Anishinaabe along the water routes from the Atlantic Ocean's shores to the Great Lakes. Tickets are required.

Red Sky Performance's campus visit will be accompanied by the exhibit "Indigenous Dress and Culture," on view in the Stan Kamen Gallery beginning Sept. 1, as well as a series of lectures featuring W&L student researchers, Washington state's first Indigenous Poet Laureate and the artistic director of Red Sky Performance. These inter-disciplinary events in this year's O&E series offer opportunities for W&L's campus to celebrate Native American histories and cultures leading up to Indigenous Peoples' Day on Oct. 14, Native American Heritage Month in November, and beyond.

For a full list of performances, visit the Lenfest Center's website.

The Lenfest Center for the Arts, home of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Film Studies and the Department of Music and Department of Art and Art History is a multi-use facility designed and equipped to accommodate a broad spectrum of the performing arts, including theater, musical theater, opera and operetta, choral and band music, dance and performance art in one energizing complex.

Jordan Peimer Selected as Next Lenfest Center Director

The Lenfest Center is pleased to welcome Jordan Peimer, former executive director of ArtPower at the University of California, San Diego, as its next director.

Peimer began his new appointment on July 1, 2024, succeeding Rob Mish '76, who had served as the director of the Lenfest Center since 2005.

"I am excited to be joining the incredible people of Washington and Lee and to build upon the great work that the Lenfest Center has already done," Peimer said. "With almost a decade of experience working with students at UC San Diego, I look forward to bringing some of what I have learned and tailoring it to the needs of the university and community. I am particularly looking forward to bringing artists-in-residency so they can share their knowledge, experience and artistry with our students. One of my fundamental beliefs is that the arts raise the curtain on a world of experience beyond our own and help build empathy. I was taken with how welcoming everyone was at Washington and Lee and I look forward to joining the community and sharing ideas."

Learn more about Peimer here.

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