The Cornell Museum ends the year in the “Red,” Nu Deco Ensemble fuses soul and classical, and Itzhak Perlman goes klezmer. Plus, Pentatonix and more in your week ahead.
WEDNESDAY
What: “Season of Red” exhibition
Where: Cornell Museum at Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach
When: Noon to 5 p.m.
Cost: Free, but donations requested
Contact: 561/654-2220, delrayoldschoolsquare.com
The Cornell Museum is seeing “Red” this season. The museum’s latest group exhibition, which opened this past weekend, gathers artists whose deployment of the bold and versatile color is central to their visions. While red may be associated with anger, it is also affiliated with pride, love and the holiday spirit, from Christmas on through Valentine’s Day, and if there’s anything that connects the disparate artists on display, it’s a sense of passion. The work spans abstract to figurative to everything in between, including Suzanne Barton’s remarkable and whimsical “Music of Life,” which features a red-tailed mermaid playing violin underwater. “Season of Red” runs through Feb. 4, 2024.
THURSDAY
What: National Geographic Live: “Mesoamerica Illuminated”
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $35-$45
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
Mesoamerica, the fabled historical region spanning from central Mexico through most of Central America, housed many of the world’s ancient and pioneering civilizations, from the Olmec to the Maya to the Aztec. Its mysteries and its extraordinary achievements are still being mined and interpreted by experts such as art historian and microarchaeologist Dr. Diana Magaloni-Kerpel. In “Mesoamerica Illuminated,” she’ll take the audience on an illustrated journey to the region, exploring the creation of the iconic Olmec heads of Mexico, plumbing the hidden meaning behind the impressive Teotihuacan pyramids, and offering insights into the culture of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza.
What: Pentatonix
Where: Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $95
Contact: 866/502-7529, myhrl.com
The joyous quintet Pentatonix has carved a chart-topping niche in the sometimes-square style of a cappella music, lifting the vocal genre to popular heights through beatboxing, verbal percussion and faux-strings, and other high-wire acts of vocal dexterity in addition to their soaring voices. From the inception of this Texas-based group, holiday music has been integral: Including compilations, Pentatonix has released no less than eight holiday albums since 2014, from religious carols to secular pop classics to renditions of children’s favorites. This tour, subtitled “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” will showcase many of them.
FRIDAY
What: Nu Deco Ensemble
Where: Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $35-$115
Contact: 305/949-6722, arshtcenter.org
Birthed in Miami in 2015, the Nu Deco Ensemble has distinguished itself among regional symphonies for its boundary-erasing approach to genre and collaboration. The group has expanded the definition—and, crucially, the audience—for classical music by bringing its rigorous standards to pop, R&B, rock and reggae fusions. The music world has noticed; Nu Deco has performed exclusive Miami concerts with Ben Folds, Macy Gray, Stephen Marley and other luminaries, and this weekend’s year-ending show is no exception. The electric southern soul group St. Paul and the Broken Bones and operatic baritone Will Liverman will perform with the Ensemble in a typically eclectic program that includes Nu Deco’s spin on Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” and a suite dedicated to the music of Tina Turner.
SUNDAY
What: Itzhak Perlman: “In the Fiddler’s House”
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
When: 2 p.m.
Cost: $45-$170
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
For his latest Kravis Center appearance, violin virtuoso Perlman will revisit one of his most infectious and personal programs: “In the Fiddler’s House,” a joyous selection of klezmer-meets-classical favorites that won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Cultural Music-Dance Program in 1996. Perlman, of course, is no stranger to such awards; he’s a four-time Emmy and 16-time Grammy recipient, with audiences ranging from state dinners for British monarchs to presidential inaugurations. He will lead a group of six classical musicians and an additional six-piece Klezmer Conservatory Band in a performance that, in its mid-1990s premiere, “capture[d] the careening, infectious spirit of klezmer with style and grace,” according to a review from AllMusic.com.
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