Arts and Entertainment

Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion

April 17 2025

7:30 PM

Perry Pavilion 451 Bank St, Norfolk, Va 23510 Email: info@vafest.org; Phone number: 757-282-2822 Price: Tickets start at $35

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Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion
Zakir Hussain, tabla
Melissa Hie, djembe
Anantha Krishnan, mridangam & vibraphone
Shikhar Naad Qureshi, multi-instrument percussionist
Sriram Ramesh, khanjira
Featuring Tabla Choir

Presented by Virginia Arts Festival. Known globally for his mastery of the tabla—“the drum with a thousand voices”—Zakir Hussain has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including Yo-Yo Ma, Béla Fleck, Van Morrison, and George Harrison. For this Festival return engagement, Hussain has gathered a dream team of percussionists representing music and cultures from around the world, including Indian sarangi player Sabir Khan; Colombian-born jazz master Tupac Mantilla; balafon, barra, djembe, and conga player Melissa Hié, and master of the dholak and tabla, Navin Sharma. A global journey in sound!

Arts and Entertainment

John Moreland, singer-songwriter

May 4 2025

7:30 PM

Perry Pavilion 451 Bank St, Norfolk, Va 23510 Email: info@vafest.org; Phone number: 757-282-2822 Price: Tickets start at $25

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Co-presented with North Shore Point House Concerts and Virginia Arts Festival. After clamoring acclaim and a run of hit albums established him as a y’alternative superstar, this fiercely independent Tulsa-born singer-songwriter stopped working, turned off his cellphone, and unplugged to rest, heal and reflect. Faithful fans are thrilled that Moreland has emerged from his self-imposed silence with an “incredibly powerful and timely album” (Americana Highways), filled with deeply personal, moving songs that beg to be heard again and again. Catch this iconic artist live at the Perry Pavilion!

Arts and Entertainment

Béla Fleck, Edmar Castañeda, Antonio Sanchez Trio

May 14 2025

7:30 PM

Perry Pavilion 451 Bank St, Norfolk, Va 23510 Email: info@vafest.org; Phone number: 757-282-2822 Price: Tickets start at $25

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Presented by Virginia Arts Festival. Never content to rest on his laurels as the world’s greatest banjo player—and with 17 Grammys out of 38 nominations, he surely could– Béla Fleck has spent a lifetime innovating through collaborations that have taken him from bluegrass to jazz to music of many continents. His newest adventure explores an entirely new sound as he joins with Grammy-winning drummer and composer Antonio Sanchez and Colombian harpist Edmar Castañeda. Fleck fans, prepare to have your mind blown (again!).

Arts and Entertainment

Attucks Jazz - Stephanie Nakasian, vocals

January 18 2025

7:30 PM

Attucks Theatre 1010 Church St, Norfolk, Va 23510 Email: info@vafest.org; phone number: 757-282-2822 Price: Tickets start at $25

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Stephanie Nakasian, vocals
John Toomey, piano
Jim Masters, bass
Frank Russo, drums

Co-presented with SevenVenues and Virginia Arts Festival. With a well-seasoned voice and a gift for finding the heart of a song, Stephanie Nakasian brings a lot more to a performance than just a set of albeit perfect pipes. Her knowledge of music generally and jazz specifically spices up a set with backstage stories that enliven and endear, including tales from her own career, from her early days scatting with Jon Hendricks to gigs up and down the club circuit and beyond.

Arts and Entertainment

Attucks Jazz - Steve Wilson, saxophone

February 22 2025

7:30 PM

Attucks Theatre 1010 Church St, Norfolk, Va 23510 Email: info@vafest.org; Phone number: 757-282-2822 Price: Tickets start at $25

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Steve Wilson, saxophone
John Toomey, piano
Jim Masters, bass
Emre Katari, drums

Co-presented with SevenVenues and Virginia Arts Festival. Sought-after sideman in studio and onstage, as well as a bandleader in his own right, Steve Wilson has had a storied career; you can hear his distinctive sound on more than 100 recordings with such artists as Chick Corea, Dianne Reeves, Joe Henderson, and many more. A Hampton, Virginia native, Wilson studied at VCU before hitting the road—but once he hit New York the city’s jazz scene claimed him as one of their own. Catch this home-grown giant of jazz at the Attucks!

Arts and Entertainment

Attucks Jazz - Walter Blanding, saxophone

March 22 2025

7:30 PM

Attucks Theatre 1010 Church St, Norfolk, Va 23510 Email: info@vafest.org; Phone number: 757-282-2822 Price: Tickets start at $25

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Walter Blanding, saxophone
John Toomey, piano
Jim Masters, bass
Frank Russo, drums

Co-presented with SevenVenues and Virginia Arts Festival. A member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra since the 1990s, Walter Blanding carves out a saxophone sound like no other. Born into a musical family (both parents played in the house band at New York’s Village Gate jazz club), he started playing professionally at age 16—and it was around that age that the dreadlocked youngster was first heard by Wynton Marsalis, who says, simply, “I always loved him and his playing. He plays with deep blues feeling, harmonic sophistication and directness.”

Arts and Entertainment

Jessie Montgomery, violin & composer; Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players

April 15 2025

7:30 PM

Robin Hixon Theater, Clay and Jay Barr Education Center 440 Bank St, Norfolk, Va 23510 Email: info@vafest.org; Phone number: 757-282-2822 Price: Tickets start at $25

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Jessie Montgomery, violin & composer
Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players

Presented by Virginia Arts Festival. Composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery has won accolades across the U.S. and around the world, creating vibrant works that engage audiences and are defining a new classical canon. As she completes her residency as the Virginia Arts Festival Composer in Residence, Montgomery will curate and perform in a program that includes her own chamber music and works by her contemporaries. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear this important composer’s engaging works!

Arts and Entertainment

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

April 16 2025

7:30 PM

Norfolk Academy 1585 Wesleyan Drive, Norfolk, Va 23502 Email: info@vafest.org; Phone number: 757-282-2822 Price: Tickets start at $35

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Co-presented with Tidewater Classical Guitar and Virginia Arts Festival. With a repertoire that ranges from Bach to bluegrass, this dazzlingly gifted ensemble plays to sold-out houses around the world, bringing “unrivaled joy, technical élan, and a questing spirit” (Los Angeles Times) to every performance. Their musical appetites encompass music from every age and nearly every corner of the earth, and “the effect is astonishing. If it’s true that variety is the very spice of life, it follows that the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet is a habañero chili pepper” (The Berkshire Edge).

Arts and Entertainment

Alcée Chriss III, organ

May 11 2025

7:30 PM

Christ & St. Luke's Episcopal Church 560 West Olney Road, Norfolk, Va 23507 Email: info@vafest.org; Phone number: 757-282-2822 Price: Tickets start at $25

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Co-presented with The Tidewater Chapter of The American Guild of Organists, Church & St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and Virginia Arts Festival. For the organ aficionado, Alcée Chriss is the real deal: impeccably trained, a veteran of some of the world’s great organs, rooted in the classics but adventurous in his choices of repertoire…and all this by the age of 24. “He plays with clarity, imagination, musicality, virtuosity, and yes, personality” (American Record Guide). Hear this young star reveal the beauties of Christ & St. Luke’s great organ in this Sunday afternoon concert.

Arts and Entertainment

Zemlinsky Quartet with Olga Kern, piano

May 22 2025

7:30 PM

Robin Hixon Theater, Clay and Jay Barr Education Center 440 Bank Street, Norfolk, Va 23510 Email: info@vafest.org; Phone number: 757-282-2822 Price: Tickets start at $35

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Co-presented with The Feldman Chamber Music Society and Virginia Arts Festival. So much of the great string quartet repertoire has come from Czech composers; there has come to be a deep appreciation among chamber music fans for what is known as “the Czech tradition.” The Zemlinksy Quartet has become a much-lauded example of that tradition, winning top prizes in international competitions and releasing a library of critically acclaimed recordings. In their Virginia Arts Festival debut, Van Cliburn Gold Medal-awarded pianist Olga Kern joins the ensemble for an evening of chamber classics, including Dvořák’s fiery Piano Quintet No. 2.

Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion

April 17 2025

7:30 PM

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May 4 2025

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Béla Fleck, Edmar Castañeda, Antonio Sanchez Trio

May 14 2025

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Attucks Jazz - Stephanie Nakasian, vocals

January 18 2025

7:30 PM

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Attucks Jazz - Steve Wilson, saxophone

February 22 2025

7:30 PM

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March 22 2025

7:30 PM

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Jessie Montgomery, violin & composer; Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players

April 15 2025

7:30 PM

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Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

April 16 2025

7:30 PM

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Alcée Chriss III, organ

May 11 2025

7:30 PM

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Zemlinsky Quartet with Olga Kern, piano

May 22 2025

7:30 PM

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