Arts & Culture

A tuba establishes the simple, five-note motif. Woodwinds respond. The full ensemble quickly joins the fray. On Thursday, April 25, the Washington University Wind Ensemble will perform Gustav Holst’s celebrated Second Suite for Military Band, along with works by Aaron Copland, Cécile Chaminade and others, in the 560 Music Center.

For its 2019-20 Great Artist Series, Washington University in St. Louis will present four affordably priced concerts by some of today’s finest performers.

The Performing Arts Department presents the world premiere of “Florida,” a new play by recent alumnus Lucas Marschke, April 11-14 in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre. Workshopped last fall as part of the A. E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival, the play recounts a dysfunctional vacation for the ages.

Praised for his “silvery tone” (Washington Post) and “gleeful command” (New York Times), Gil Shaham is among today’s foremost violinists. At 7 p.m. April 7, Shaham will join pianist Akira Eguchi for an evening of classical and contemporary duets as part of Washington University’s Great Artists Series.

Choreographers Harrison Parker and Rachael Servello will present a pair of new works March 23 in Edison Theatre as part of “Reel2Real,” the 2019 MFA Student Dance Concert.

A light flashes. A wing rustles. A feather floats gently to the floor. Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” features some of the most indelible images in American theater. From Feb. 22 to March 3, the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will stage Kushner’s epic drama for six performances in Edison Theatre.

Senior Hannah Gilberstadt leads the Jazz Band at Washington University through a rendition of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s 1962 classic “Só Danço Samba” (“I Only Dance Samba”). The Brazilian composer was among the 20th century’s most influential songwriters, and a pioneer of the bossa nova style.

The Performing Arts Department will debut its production of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” Feb. 22 in Edison Theatre. “At the heart of the play is a question about who gets to be a citizen of this country,” said dramaturg Paige McGinley. “Gay people, people with AIDS, the addicted — these are often seen as society’s most disposable. Kushner puts them at the center of the American story.”

Virtuoso pianist Nikolai Lugansky, praised for his “plush sound and plenty impetuosity” by The New York Times, will open Washington University’s third Great Artists Series Feb. 10 with works by Claude Debussy, Alexander Scriabin and Sergei Rachmaninoff.