This year, the art world’s ability to rally and produce engaging and vital works has been a constant glimmer of hope amidst global turmoil. With the revived Friday Five, we bring you our weekly choice of the top five things to check out in the near future—highlights from all over, as well as from the Flynn. And as you enjoy, please consider supporting these artists and arts organizations. Every donation counts. We hope these diverse works from all corners of the art world ignite your curiosity, fuel your imagination, and help strengthen and energize our community.
In addition to these weekly selections, we also keep a more comprehensive rolling list of ongoing and upcoming happenings at our ONLINE ARTS GUIDE.
The fall Movement for Parkinson's students will hold a virtual performance open to the community on Monday, December 28 at 5 pm. The event will begin with a 20 minute class that the audience is invited to participate in, followed by an informal performance where students exhibit what they've been working on over the course of the semester, and finally, a Q&A. If you would like to attend, please fill out this form to receive the zoom link and password!
Pianist/composer/educator extraordinaire Marcus Roberts has come through Burlington a number of times over the years with his acclaimed, long-running trio. Now, he presents a different facet of his incredible musicianship with a solo piano virtual performance, on demand through December. A quintessential musician's musician, Roberts crafts a set that expresses the full range of his instrument, covering a mind-boggling array of idioms—gospel, blues, swing, ragtime, and familiar jazz standards, plus a pristine take on a holiday staple ('tis the season, after all)—all gelled together by his intelligence and his fluid, intuitive technique. With just Roberts and his signature Steinway on stage, this is a pure showcase for his range and his chameleonic playing. It's the most fun you can have while getting schooled on 20th-century American music. Like the man himself, this program is witty, warm, welcoming, and dazzling.
This performance will stream through the Flynn website. The pre-taped show is available December 20 at 7 pm through December 31. Tickets can be purchased and redeemed any time within that period.
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis continues a beloved New York tradition that plays to sold-out audiences every December. Big Band Holidays is renowned for showcasing some of the most exciting and charismatic players and vocalists on the scene. This virtual edition of Big Band Holidays welcomes Rubén Blades, Catherine Russell, Kurt Elling, and Ashley Pezzotti.
Featuring soulful, big band versions of classics like Jingle Bells, Joy to the World, and Brazilian Sleigh Ride, Big Band Holidays is an uplifting program with holiday cheer for jazz fans of all ages. It’s the most wonderful time of year in the House of Swing!
Catch the premiere performance on December 19 at 7 pm or watch on-demand through December 26. A portion of each ticket purchased through this unique link at the JLCO site goes to support the Flynn.
This Christmas season, the Flynn has teamed up with the MacMaster-Leahy clan and invited the world into their home, to witness their music, life, and preparation at Christmastime. Mostly music—with musicians Mac Morin (piano), Mark Kelso (drums), Remi Arsenault (bass), and Elmer Ferrer (guitar) stopping by for a few numbers—it will also include candid moments around the kitchen, decorating the tree, and other bits of holiday chaos!
A portion of each ticket purchased through this unique link at HomePlay.Live goes to support the Flynn. The pre-taped show is available December 12 at 8 pm EST through December 31. Tickets can be purchased and redeemed any time within that period.
In this world premiere online event created for audiences of all ages, interdisciplinary performance collective Manual Cinema takes on Charles Dickens’s holiday classic with a visually inventive adaptation made to broadcast directly to your home. An avowed holiday skeptic, Aunt Trudy has been recruited to channel her late husband Joe’s famous Christmas cheer. From the isolation of her Chicago apartment, she reconstructs his annual Christmas Carol puppet show—over a Zoom call while the family celebrates Christmas Eve under lockdown. But as Trudy becomes more absorbed in her own version of the story, the puppets take on a life of their own, and the family’s call transforms into a stunning cinematic adaptation of Dickens’s classic ghost story.
Highlight “House Party” is Burlington City Art's new virtual home for New Year’s Eve! To ring in 2021, the celebration will welcome hundreds of Vermont-grown performers to live-stream from their own stages at our new virtual festival grounds! Imagine entering this new space and journeying through hundreds of unique stages—watch a live concert, have tea with an artist, dance with an acrobat, take your kids to a make-your-own-art workshop, or tune in to a cooking class with an amateur chef (and yes, there will still be fireworks this year!). At this house party, you can do it all! It’s your house.
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