The Shadow
After a 21-month hiatus, the Alleghany Highlands Arts Council is bringing the joy of live performance back to local audiences with encores from three of its most popular artists.
The reopening event will be Monday, Dec. 6, with a beloved local tradition, Roanoke Symphony’s Holiday Pops. Fifty musicians, a guest soloist, and the incomparable Maestro David Wiley will fill the hall with the jubilant spirit of the holidays.
Expect classical and traditional favorites, a Rock & Roll Santa, and the usual audience sing-along. The mix of expert musicianship and exuberant energy combined with a familiar format will signal the end of pandemic gloom and the return of a more normal holiday season. Please note the venue for this event is changing from past years. The concert will be presented at the Historic Masonic Theatre, 510 Main Street in Clifton Forge, beginning at 7 p.m.
The Holiday Pops will be followed by another blockbuster event, the Celtic Angels on Saint Patty’s Eve, March 16, 2022, at the Historic Masonic Theatre.
These talented performers peaked the Arts Council’s 2019-20 season with a record crowd just two days before the nationwide COVID-19 quarantine caused all stages to fall dark in March of 2020. Now, two years later, this rousing show highlights the vocal talents of the five Irish-born ladies to comprise the Celtic Angels but is enhanced by the rhythm and athletic precision of The Celtic Knight Dancers and authentic Irish Triad instrumentals by the Trinity Band Ensemble of Dublin.
The season will close with the brilliant Neil Berg and Company. Berg, a Broadway composer and producer, has been bringing actors from the Broadway stage into the Alleghany Highlands since 2009 with his 100 Years of Broadway series.
But a new and different concept has been waiting in the wings with “Neil Berg’s Fifty Years of Rock & Roll.” Postponed in April of 2020, they will return on Sunday, April 3, 2022, for a matinee performance at 4 p.m. The venue for this show will be identified in February 2022.
An evening of hits created by artists like Chuck Berry, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Aerosmith, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Janis Joplin, Carol King, Aretha Franklin, Journey, Elton John, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen will be interspersed with some unknown tales for the history of Rock & Roll.
The lineup is underwritten by a grant from The Alleghany Foundation with supplemental funding provided by the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Covington, County of Alleghany and Town of Clifton Forge.
All tickets are $20 adults and $10 students and will be available beginning November 20 online at www.Arts4Allalleghanyhighlands.com or at the door before each performance. All curtain times are 7 p.m. Anyone interested in more information on these events or in becoming more involved with the Alleghany Highlands Arts Council can call 962-ARTS (2787) for further information.
