Dive into the music of Carmen with conductor Ludovic Morlot, who joins Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean for a lively conversation about Bizet's bold and sensual drama.

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Ludovic Morlot on Carmen

Seattle Center

This is the sixth and final of six Norton Lectures with Steve McQueen. For all Lecture dates and information, visit the Mahindra Humanities Center website.

Norton Lectures with Steve McQueen: Pulse | Lecture Six

Harvard University

Opera Wilmington and Osher Livelong Learning Institute at UNCW continue their collaboration to bring you Opera Talks focused on two Met Opera Live in HD screenings in April and May.

UNCW opera historian and bassist Dr. Helena Kopchick Spencer again guides Opera Talk attendees through the stories behind the operas as well as the operas themselves.

Coming up next is Eugene Onegin, at times celebratory, at times poignant and heartbreaking. Timing is everything in this opera, which Tchaikovsky based on a verse novel by Alexander Pushkin. Onegin, a man of society, gets his timing all wrong, rejecting the love of Tatiana, a country girl, when they first meet.

When he sees her again five years later, he realizes that he loves her deeply. Tatiana is now married, however, and refuses to leave her husband even though she still harbors great affection for Onegin.

Expanding our understanding of the opera and the world in which it takes place is the purpose of Opera Talks. Kopchick Spencer brings her enthusiasm, vast knowledge and sense of humor to each one.

The final session, May 27, spotlights El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, a contemporary work by Gabriela Lena Frank. This “last dream” of the famous artists is fashioned as a reversal of the Orpheus and Euridice myth. Frida Kahlo leaves the underworld on the Day of the Dead to unite briefly on earth with her lover Diego Rivera.

Opera Talks

Cinemark Myrtle Beach

Mayfaire Town Center

University of Delaware Wilmington Campus

Ahead of your visit in the summer, discover more about Il ritorno d’Ulisse in this insight talk combining historical context from Katy Hamilton with musical excerpts performed by singers from our Emerging Artists’ Programme.

Presenter, musician and researcher Katy Hamilton is one of the most sought-after speakers on music and opera and provides programme notes for many leading arts organisations and festivals. Katy will give historical context to the piece and will tell us about Monteverdi and his musical world.

Insight Talk: Il ritorno d'Ulisse

Garsington Studios

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFe6mW6x9pc

The Artelize Podcast: 'Amplifying What Makes Us Human'. A conversation with Zuly E. Inirio

Podcast link: https://youtu.be/4hagYvrYbuM

The Artelize Podcast and Kasper Holten - Pedefining Opera for the modern world

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36M5Hi6O80

The Artelize Podcast - A legacy of innovation in Opera: Celebrating Marc A. Scorca

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59E40S_EQSY

The Artelize Podcast: A love letter that was never sent

Celebrate Interlochen Arts Academy's senior creative writing students in a special culminating reading. Enjoy works of poetry, prose, playwriting, and more in a variety of styles and genres.

Creative Writing Senior Recital Reading

Interlochen Center for the Arts

Breaking Bread is a new series presented by the Hobby Center in partnership with James Beard Award-winning chef and TV host Chris Shepherd. He trades his culinary jacket for a mic and sits down with creatives and thinkers who inspire him and who’ve influenced culture for unscripted chats about experiences that shaped them.

Breaking Bread: A Conversation hosted by Chris Shepherd with Joe Kwon

Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Join us at the iconic North Gregory Hotel in Winton for a lively panel discussion on opera’s unique role in regional life. Together we’ll explore how this multifaceted artform not only connects communities through music and storytelling but also drives cultural tourism when presented in regional spaces. The conversation will also consider how a commitment to sustainable, greener practices in the performing arts can strengthen this impact and help shape a vibrant, resilient future for regional cultural tourism.

Cultural Conversation

North Gregory Hotel

Spoleto Festival USA’s Jazz Curator Larry Blumenfeld speaks with artists from the 2026 Wells Fargo Jazz Series. Jazz Talks are free, though tickets to each talk are required.

Jazz Talks

College of Charleston

Eastman School of Music is proud to host the 50th Annual International Trumpet Guild Conference from Tuesday, May 26th through Saturday May 30th. 

International Trumpet Guild Conference

Eastman School of Music

A luminous celebration of America’s 250th year, this evening with acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns—creator of The Civil War, Jazz, and The Vietnam War—reflects on the struggles and ideals that shaped a nation and transformed the world. Through sweeping music, vivid imagery, and Burns’s signature storytelling, The American Revolution reveals a war for independence and a revolution of ideas—an upheaval whose promises and contradictions still echo today. Part conversation, part concert, this narrative and musical meditation honors the spirit of independence and the enduring pursuit of the principles on which America was founded.

An Evening with Ken Burns

The world premiere of George + George brings Festival favorites Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson back to Charleston for their third Spoleto collaboration. A comedic romp through the American Revolution, this inventive new work unfolds as a lively staged reading.  

Set at Valley Forge in 1778, George Washington rallies his ragtag troops by staging a British play about the fight for the Roman Republic, Addison’s Cato. There’s just one small problem: the play is forbidden! In fact, all theatre has been banned by the colonies. But seeing it as necessary to boost morale, George Washington commandeers his own troops to put on a show. They hold auditions. One by one the soldiers come in and vie for the juicy parts; and even though he’s not a very good actor, his men talk George into taking on the title role of Cato. After all, he’s fighting a tyrant in real life, certainly he can pretend to fight off the tyranny of Julius Caesar!

Meanwhile, there’s still a war to fight so these rehearsals are a bit of a challenge. Then, a bombshell. Someone (could it be Benedict Arnold?!) has blabbed to King George III that the rebels are performing Cato – only HIS favorite play – only the play in which he appeared as a 12 year old back in London! So KG3 decides he’s going to come incognito to catch the performance.  He also wants to meet this other George – to see what he’s made of – maybe they can sit down and talk things out – put all this nasty war business to bed.   

With sharp humor and theatrical flair, George + George playfully reimagines the founding era and the enduring ideals of democracy.

Join co-creators Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson for a talkback immediately following each performance of George + George.

George + George

Emmett Robinson Theatre at College of Charleston

Explore the world’s most hard-to-believe crimes with former forensics lecturer and police recruit trainer Jennifer Rees. This fascinating evening includes:

Strange But True Crimes

West Cliff Theatre

The discovery of an early hominid ancestor in 2008 by paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer Lee Berger helped clarify and complicate the origins of modern humanity. Lee is back in the headlines with an even more monumental find — a new species in South Africa that made tools, art, and even buried its dead. This glimpse into the past holds the potential to rewrite our family tree in real time and add to the story of our remarkable ancient ancestors.

Lee Berger: Cave of Bones

Arts Commons

Circle Jerks emerged from the punk underbelly of LA’s South Bay in 1979. After serving as a co-founder and lead vocalist of Black Flag during the recording of its essential Nervous Breakdown EP, Keith Morris joined forces with former Redd Kross guitarist Greg Hetson to form what would become Circle Jerks, along with bassist Roger Rogerson and jazz drummer Lucky Lehrer. Unlike much of the unapologetic hardcore that seeped through the cracks of American suburbia, the music of the Circle Jerks was thoughtfully steadfast, yet relentless and ferocious in nature. Bringing together a potent, articulate rhythm section with earnest yet oftentimes derisive lyrics and themes, the band was thereafter heralded as a leader of the pack - and a force to be reckoned with.

Circle Jerks x Repo Man

The Paramount Theatre

Rasmus Tantholdt takes us to the most current hot spots from a world in constant change. He gives us his personal account of, among other things, the Israel-Gaza conflict, which he has covered intensively since it flared up again in October 2023.

Talk events in Shipshewana, Indiana this month

Ludovic Morlot on Carmen

Seattle Opera

Norton Lectures with Stev...

Harvard University Department of Music

Opera Talks

Opera Wilmington

Insight Talk: Il ritorno ...

Garsington Opera

The Artelize Podcast: 'Am...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: A l...

Artelize

Creative Writing Senior R...

Interlochen Center for the Arts

Breaking Bread: A Convers...

Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Cultural Conversation

Opera Queensland

Jazz Talks

Spoleto Festival USA

International Trumpet Gui...

Eastman School of Music

An Evening with Ken Burns...

Spoleto Festival USA

George + George

Spoleto Festival USA

Strange But True Crimes

West Cliff Theatre

Lee Berger: Cave of Bones...

Arts Commons

Circle Jerks x Repo Man

Paramount Theatre Austin

Rasmus Tantholdt

Jysk Musikteater