New Jersey Ballet will present Twyla Tharp’s “Nine Sinatra Songs” at NJPAC in Newark, April 24-25, in addition to Harrison Ball’s “New Ancient Strings.”
Tickets to the following shows are available for free via NJArts.net. Winning entries will be chosen randomly from among those sending emails to njartscontest@gmail.com. Also, please send an email to this address if you are interested in offering tickets for a giveaway.
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New Jersey Ballet will present a show titled “Legacy and Vision,” April 24-25 at 7:30 p.m. at The Victoria Theater at NJPAC in Newark. The program will include Twyla Tharp’s “Nine Sinatra Songs” — a portrait of seven couples, set to Sinatra songs including “All the Way,” “That’s Life” and “Strangers in the Night” — and the world premiere of Harrison Ball’s “New Ancient Strings.” The latter is set to music by the Malian kora players Toumani Diabaté and Ballaké Sissoko, and features costumes by Zac Posen. Ball has said he sees the piece as an “opportunity to introduce new instrumentation to American ballet, to explore a new choreographic approach, and, most importantly, to create something with profound meaning — rather than merely glorifying the music and performance.”
For a chance to win two tickets, send an email to njartscontest@gmail.com with “ballet24” or “ballet25” in the subject line, depending on which show you would like to attend, by noon April 21.
THE YELLOWJACKETS
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Two-time Grammy winning jazz fusion group The Yellowjackets will perform at The Bell Theater at Bell Works in Holmdel, April 24 at 7 p.m. Current members include co-founder Russell Ferrante on keyboards; Will Kennedy on drums; Bob Mintzer on saxophone; and Dane Alderson on bass.
The group’s latest album, Fasten Up, came out in February. You can listen to its single, “Comin’ Home Baby,” below.
For a chance to win two tickets, send an email to njartscontest@gmail.com with “Yellowjackets” in the subject line, by noon April 21.
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MICHAEL WILSON
PATTY GRIFFIN
The Outpost in the Burbs will present singer-songwriter Patty Griffin at The First Congregational Church in Montclair, April 25 at 8:30 p.m.
In a new interview with NJArts.net, Griffin says that “music seems to be one of the things that keeps (the world) from blowing up altogether … That and all the people going about their lives creating goodness from what lives in their hearts and their histories. That’s something to try for.”
Griffin’s last album was Tape, in 2022. She calls it “for the most part, a pile of songs I found that I had written and forgotten about. I loved the sound of the recordings so I left most of them as I found them.”
For a chance to win two tickets, send an email to njartscontest@gmail.com with the word “Griffin” in the subject line by noon April 22.
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JOE PUG
Singer-songwriter Joe Pug will perform at the GabeGate house concert series in Vernon, April 26 at 5 p.m.
A Maryland native, Pug (né Joseph Pugliese) has been releasing albums since 2010 and, since 2016, has been recording a podcast, “The Working Songwriter,” that now has 260 episodes; other songwriters he has interviewed for it include Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Brandon Flowers of the Killers, and John Hiatt. (Pug will host the first Working Songwriting Forum — a conference with concerts, workshops, podcast recordings and more — in Chicago, May 23-25.)
For a chance to win two tickets to the GabeGate show, send an email to njartscontest@gmail.com with the word “Pug” in the subject line by noon April 23.
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