Festival Events

February 20 - through22

Event Start Time: 7:30 PM

February 23

Event Start Time: 2:30 PM

In a 1920’s Berlin nightclub (Kit-Kat Klub), the Emcee welcomes audience members, assuring them they will forget all their troubles – at the cabaret. With the Emcee’s songs as wry commentary, Cabaret explores the dark, heady, and tumultuous life of Berlin’s natives and expatriates as Germany slowly yields to the emerging Third Reich. The story revolves around the relationships between American writer Cliff Bradshaw and British cabaret singer Sally Bowles – and older boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and Jewish fruit vendor Herr Schultz. Musical numbers include such wonders as Willkommen, Cabaret, Don’t Tell Mama, and Two Ladies.

Location: Loca Lee Buckner Theatre

Cost: Adults: $18, Students: $9

This event is open to the public

Event Start: 7:00 PM

In her encaustic paintings, Janet Siegel Rogers translates the aura of time and place into layers of oil paint suspended in beeswax. Through her subtle use of pulsating shifts between different color hues, Rogers explores the nuances of color, creating the illusion of movement as light shines through her works. Ethereal and contemplative, Rogers’ animated environments evoke her family’s experiences along the shimmering shores of Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, and more recently, South Florida. Inspired by the interactions between light and environment, Rogers' expansive color fields and expressive mark-making invite viewers to meditate on light, mood, and the transience of our everyday experiences.

Location: Melvin & Burks Art Galleries

This event is open to the public

Event Start: 7:30 PM

Just think: The “wedding” of words with music – and music with words – evokes feelings that at times are difficult to describe, yet absolutely undeniable. These emotions allow us to be human, and they are a marvelous gift. This evening’s performance is a concert of songs that weave a rich tapestry of feelings through our lives that becomes more complex as time moves on – and life is lived. Explore these feelings through songs and arias by a variety of composers, including Robert Schumann, Jules Massenet, Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, to name but a few.

Location: Anne MacGregor Jenkins Recital Hall

This event is open to the public

Event Start: 7:30 PM

The Russian National Ballet returns to Florida Southern College to present its marvelous setting of the children’s fairy tale, Cinderella, composed by Russian giant Sergei Prokofiev between 1940 and 1945. This is a full-length ballet in three acts, replete with beautiful costumes, grand scenery, elegant dancers, and of course, the famous glass slipper. While the music is dark and brooding, the story is comedic – and audiences embrace it for its visual beauty and artistic classicism. Please come enjoy this wondrous fairy tale ballet, presented in Branscomb Auditorium.

Location: Branscomb Auditorium

Cost: Adults: $18, Students: $9

This event is open to the public

Event Start: 7:30 PM

Come and enjoy an evening dedicated to exploration of Chinese music through piano and pipa with Fen-Fang Chen. This evening’s interactive recital will provide opportunities for you to experience various Chinese compositions, ranging from famous traditional Chinese tunes to contemporary Chinese dance musical arrangements – performed on two very different instruments (piano and pipa) that illustrate differences between American and Chinese approaches. The program will include pieces like Thunder During the Drought, Great Waves Washing the Sand, Flute and Drum at Sunset, and The Mermaid Suite.

Location: Anne MacGregor Jenkins Recital Hall

This event is open to the public

Event Start: 7:30 PM

We are so pleased this evening to bring back the youthful enthusiasm and savvy musicianship of our Florida Southern College Jazz Ensemble under the expert leadership of Jeff Benatar. For this special performance, Jeff has engaged internationally known jazz trumpeter Clay Jenkins as guest Artist-in-Residence – to work with the students for a few days and perform with them for this concert. As a premiere jazz trumpeter, composer, and arranger, Jenkins has toured, recorded, and/or performed with the big bands of Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Count Basie, and the Clayton/Hamilton orchestra – and also shared the stage with folks like Milt Jackson, Joe La Barbera, and Diana Krall. You won’t want to miss a note!

Cost: Adults: $8, Students: $4

This event is open to the public

Event Start: 7:00 PM

As you may have noticed from past exhibitions, Florida Southern’s senior graphic design students are challenged each year to create a fictitious company. They are then responsible for creating its print and digital materials, products, and storefront displays in the Melvin/Burks Art Galleries as part of their thesis. At times humorous, clever, and surprising, the ideas presented by our students still maintain the professionalism needed to enter the graphic design field. Awards are presented at the opening reception to our top three talented students.

Location: Melvin & Burks Art Galleries

This event is open to the public

Event Start: 7:30 PM

Concluding her first year as conductor of Florida Southern College’s Symphony Orchestra and strings program, Martha Placeres leads her ensemble through an evening of music designed to showcase the diversity of orchestral repertoire and the hard work of her students. Through varied pieces by a variety of composers, you’ll hear some familiar pieces, yes – and others that will simply command your attention for the first time. Please join this gifted conductor as she presents the rich range of timbres, expression, and styles characteristic of this treasured musical medium, the symphony orchestra.

Location: Branscomb Auditorium

Cost: Adults: $8, Students: $4

This event is open to the public

Event Start: 7:30 PM

The members of the Hollingsworth Trio have been invited to return to the FSC Faculty Artist Series this spring to lead a performance celebrating strings – and other things – in performance. Certainly, the Trio (Parsché, Sedloff, and Thielen) has become rather well-oriented to that concept with over 30 years of performing as a piano trio with 2 stringed instruments and a piano. But they are especially excited to surprise you in this concert as they engage other musicians to broaden the range of musical interpretation and collaboration with Strings – and Other Things. Come join them to see what they have in mind!

Location: Anne MacGregor Jenkins Recital Hall

This event is open to the public

March 28

Event Start Time: 7:30 PM

March 29

Event Start Time: 2:30 PM

It is spring – and the annual spring dance concert is up again, featuring works and choreography by FSC Dance Program faculty and invited guest artists that celebrate the dynamic exchange of inspiration, manifestation, and sharing that encompass the creative process. The first act of this exciting program includes an abbreviated performance of the mystical and ethereal romantic-period ballet Giselle, followed by innovative and riveting original contemporary works in the second act – all performed by the gifted students of the FSC Dance Program, under the revered leadership of Erin LaSala.

Location: Branscomb Auditorium

Cost: Adults: $18, Students: $9

This event is open to the public

April 2 - through4

Event Start Time: 7:30 PM

April 5

Event Start Time: 2:30 PM

April 9 - through11

Event Start Time: 7:30 PM

April 12

Event Start Time: 2:30 PM

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, and Critics Circle Award, this poignant classic is an essential part of how we remember one of the darkest periods of human history. The Diary of Anne Frank tells the story of Anne, a young Jewish girl, forced to hide for nearly two years in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. This story of resilience, optimism, and a young girl’s extraordinary spirit transcends time and continues to resonate deeply.

Location: Loca Lee Buckner Theatre

Cost: Adults: $18, Students: $9

This event is open to the public

Event Start: 7:00 PM

Our final student exhibition showcases artwork created by Florida Southern College’s own senior studio art students. Each senior explores a unique central idea over the course of a year and creates a thematic body of work that conveys the technical and experiential nature of artist expression and creation. Their refreshing artistic approaches are celebrated at the opening reception, culminating with the presentation of the John R. Reuter Award.

Location: Melvin & Burks Art Galleries

This event is open to the public

Event Start: 7:30 PM

Tonight Jo Jossim and the Florida Southern College Symphony Band invite you to join them on a special musical journey exploring light and its infinite destinations into space. Among the selected pieces that will assist this musical ensemble in taking their journey are John Mackey’s Aurora Awakes, a piece about the heralding of the coming of light; Julie Giroux’s Journey Through Orion, a piece that enables travel with music 1,500 light years away through sections of outer space – where stars and ideas are born; and other musical works relying on technology to move forward. You won’t want to miss Jo Jossim and her students on this mystical journey, so come join them!

Location: Branscomb Auditorium

Cost: Adults: $8, Students: $4

This event is open to the public

An opera about ghosts, witches, and curses – oh my! Long ago, a witch’s curse was cast upon the family Murgatroyd, commanding that each successive Baronet of the Murgatroyds must commit a horrible crime every day – or die in agony. Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera Ruddigore opens, revealing that the one true Baronet, Sir Ruthven, has gone into hiding, allowing his younger brother, Despard, to assume the title … and the curse! However, the rightful heir is soon discovered – and as family ghosts display their disgust with the situation, Sir Ruthven attempts to find a way to lead the honest life and marry the woman he loves. Please join FSC’s Opera Theatre and Orchestra as they perform this wonderful Gilbert and Sullivan gem!

Location: Branscomb Auditorium

Cost: Adults: $8, Students: $4

This event is open to the public

Event Start: 7:30 PM

In a world often filled with great division, it is crucial that we focus more on what unites us. Fortunately, we are aided by the universal language that is music – so we celebrate our oneness with musical selections in many different languages and styles, knowing that the picture is broad, and that we are all part of it. Please join Beth Gibbs and both the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers of Florida Southern College as we rejoice in our unity.

Location: Branscomb Auditorium

Cost: Adults: $8, Students: $4

This event is open to the public

Event Start: 6:00 PM

For over thirty years, the Melvin and Burks Galleries have partnered with the Lakeland Art Guild to host their annual spring exhibition. Founded in 1952, the Lakeland Art Guild is the oldest local community arts organization in Polk County. We are pleased to exhibit works created by local artists, both established and emerging, and to bring together the members of our community to recognize “homegrown” talent. Join us at the opening reception for the announcement of awards given by select judges.

Location: Melvin and Burks Art Galleries

This event is open to the public