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NEW SHOWS ON SALE!

This month, our “First Saturday” on sale event for members is Saturday, January 3. The following NEW shows go on sale to members at 10am for walk-up, at noon for phone and internet sales. Tickets on sale to non-members Saturday, January 17 at noon. To become a member, call (603) 766-2176 or email Lsaniuk@themusichall.org.

Hilarity @ The Music Hall MIRANDA SINGS

Thurs., April 23 • 7pm • Historic Theater

$27, $35, $65 (VIP Meet & Greet)

International YouTube sensation Miranda Sings is bringing you a hilarious night filled with comedy, hit songs, magic tricks, dramatic readings of hate mail, and never before seen video! The quirky superstar has over 60 million views on YouTube and has performed her one-woman show to sold-out crowds all over the world. You will not want to miss seeing this lipstick-wearing, epileptic eyebrowed, crooked-smiling beauty live and in person!

Writers on a New England Stage

DAVID BROOKS

Sun., May 3 • 4pm • Historic Theater

Tickets: $13.25

Book: The Road to Depth: The Humble Journey to an Excellent Life. For each 1-2 tickets sold, the purchase of a book voucher ($28, hardcover) is required. Vouchers can be redeemed on the event night for signed copies of the book.

The #1 bestselling author comes to town with his controversial and eye-opening look at our culture today, the value of humility, and how an engaged inner life is a prerequisite to a life of meaning and fulfillment.

Writers in the Loft

DENNIS LEHANE

Fri., March 13 • 7pm • Loft

Tickets: $42. Includes reserved seat, book (World Gone By, $27.99, hardcover), bar beverage, author presentation, Q+A, and book signing meet-and-greet

The NY Times bestselling author of Mystic River, Shutter Island, and Gone, Baby, Gone, visits Portsmouth with his latest – a novel of blood, crime, passion and vengeance set in Cuba and Florida during World War II.

Live

@ the Loft:

RED BARAAT

Sun., March 15 • 7pm • Loft • $24

The pioneering eight-piece band from Brooklyn fuse North Indian bhangra rhythms with New Orleans’ brass, jazz virtuosity, and soul. Their utterly unique sound and infectious energy draws an audience as diverse as the group itself and celebrates the spirit of joy, inclusion, and plurality.

Writers in the Loft/Innovation + Leadership

RON LIEBER

Mon., March 30 • 7pm • Loft

Tickets: $41. Includes reserved seat, book (The Opposite of Spoiled, $26.99, hardcover), bar beverage, author presentation, Q+A, and book signing meet-and-greet

The award-winning “Your Money” columnist for The NY Times shares solid, tested advice on how to help our children make smarter financial decisions and grow into grounded young adults with good values and habits.

The District Restaurant Singer Songwriter Series WILL

DAILEY

Sat., March 14 • 8pm • Loft • $14

A three-time winner of the Boston Music Award for Best Singer/ Songwriter, his songs have been featured on more than 50 shows and films. Critics agree that he holds his ground performing next to artists like Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews, and John Mellencamp.

The District Restaurant Singer Songwriter Series

BOBBY LONG

Fri., March 27 • 8pm • Loft • $12

Though England is his place of birth, the songs found on Bobby Long’s forthcoming sophomore album, Wishbone, are redolent with pieces of Americana. Long’s influences include country great Hank Williams, folk singer Woody Guthrie, and modern luminary Jeff Buckley.

The District Restaurant Singer Songwriter Series

CHRIS TRAPPER

Sat., May 16 • 8pm • Loft • $18

Boston based artist, Chris Trapper began his career as the front man for late-90’s alternative rock band The Push Stars. His music can best be described as lyrically driven roots-pop with a knack for telling everyday stories filled with extraordinary characters.

LIVE ON STAGE JAN

JIMMY TINGLE

Saturday, January 17 • 8pm • Loft • $22

Jimmy Tingle was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The social, political and economic diversity of that city laid the groundwork for his development as a performer and satirist. He started performing in 1980 during the early stand up comedy scene in Boston and quickly rose through the ranks from openmike performer to paid engagements, headlining at comedy clubs, theaters and colleges nationwide. He is now regarded as one of the top social commentators and humorists in the country.

SERIES SPONSORS:

JILL LEPORE

Tuesday, January 20 • 7pm • Loft • $44

Includes reserved seat, book (The Secret History of Wonder Woman, $29.95), bar beverage, author presentation, Q+A, and book signing meet-and-greet

Join New Yorker staff writer, Harvard historian, and celebrated author Book of Ages Jill Lepore as she reveals our favorite female superhero’s secret identity and shows how Wonder Woman is the missing link in the history of women’s rights. Guest moderator: Mary Jo Brown of Brown and Company Design, and Chair of the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation.

“…brilliance...we are lucky to go along for the ride.”

— NY Times Book Review

“...has nearly everything you might want in a page-turner...and something else that secretly powers even the most “serious” feminist history - fun!” — Entertainment Weekly

SERIES SPONSOR: EVENING SPONSOR: The Sound

SONGWRITERS IN THE ROUND

Saturday, January 24 • 8pm • Loft • $10

This Round Robin features four immensely talented songwriters. Guest curated by Guy Capecelatro III, this special evening will showcase the talents of Mary Lou Lord, Mark Schwaber, and Drew O’Doherty. For more information on each artist, visit TheMusicHall.org, and see our interview with Guy Capecelatro III on page 9!

MEDIA SPONSORS: Live Free Photography – [Liv] Frame Print; WOKQ & The Shark

COMING IN FEB

RENÈE FLEMING

Wednesday, February 11 • 7pm • Historic Theater • $42; $95; $138

One of the most beloved and celebrated musical ambassadors of our time, soprano Renée Fleming captivates audiences with her sumptuous voice, consummate artistry, and compelling stage presence. She brings her amazing talent to the Music Hall stage with songs from the Great American Songbook and a repertoire of Classical favorites.

SERIES SPONSORS:

EVENING SPONSORS:

Jenn Madden Realtors; NH Public Radio; PARMA Recordings; Clear Eye Photo

NATALIE MACMASTER & DONNELL LEAHY Visions from Cape Breton & Beyond

Friday, February 20 • 8pm • Historic Theater $33; $41

Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy have created a new show to bring their fans the next chapter in their musical and personal journey. The evening will highlight the unique talents, influences, and stories of the first family of traditional fiddlers through dancing, singing, and, of course, world-class music-making.

EVENING SPONSORS: Beswick Engineering; Northeast Delta Dental; SIS Bank

AMY CHUA & JED RUBENFELD

Thursday, February 5 • 7pm • Loft Ticket package: $31 includes reserved seat, book (The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America, $17), bar beverage, author presentation, Q+A, and book signing meet-and-greet

“Tiger Mom” Amy Chua and her co-author husband discuss their controversial and provocative book looking at the success of various cultural groups in America today. Join the discussion!

SOLD OUT!

MICHAEL FRANTI

Thursday, February 12

7:30pm • $35; $43 Historic Theater

Opener: Ethan Tucker Get ready to dance at the One Heart One Soul concert!

SERIES SPONSORS:

EVENING SPONSORS: Secure Planning, Inc.; Clear Eye Photo

SINKANE

Saturday, February 21 8pm • Loft • $16

CURATOR’S PICK See page 9!

Sinkane’s signature sound is a melting pot of influences- including Afrobeat grooves mixed with earthy R&B undertones, doo-wop harmonies, and even a little country-music slide guitar. It’s soul music with an ultramodern feel! Their sound is universal, uniting rhythm and styles from the world over to help you move, relate, and be.

ON SCREEN JAN

extraordinary cinema

PRIDE R • 120min • UK

1/2, 1/3, 1/6, 1/8 @ 7pm

Inspired by an extraordinary true story. It’s the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike, prompting a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists to raise money to support the strikers’ families. Initially rebuffed by the Union, the group identifies a tiny mining village in Wales and sets off to make their donation in person.

DEAR WHITE PEOPLE

1/9, 1/10, 1/13, 1/14, 1/15 @ 7pm

R • 108min • US

The unexpected election of activist Samantha White (Tessa Thompson) as head of a traditionally black residence hall sets up a college campus culture war that challenges conventional notions of what it means to be black. Winner of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent, Dear White People is a sly, provocative satire of race relations.

WHIPLASH

R • 106min • US 1/16, 1/17, 1/20, 1/21 @ 7pm • 1/18 @ 1pm

Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite east coast music conservatory. Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. Andrew’s passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher continues to push him to the brink of both his ability-and his sanity.

ANTARCTICA:

A YEAR ON ICE PG • 91min • NEW ZEALAND

1/23, 1/27, 1/28, 1/29 @ 7pm

A visually stunning journey to the end of the world with the hardy and devoted people who live there year-round. The research stations scattered throughout the continent host a close-knit international population of scientists, technicians and craftsmen. Isolated from the rest of the world, enduring months of unending darkness followed by periods when the sun never sets, Antarctic residents experience firsthand the beauty and brutality of the most severe environment on Earth.

CITIZENFOUR

R • 114min • US

1/2, 1/3, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8 @ 7pm • 1/4 @ 1pm

In 2013, highly-acclaimed documentarian Laura Poitras was years into making a film about surveillance in the post-9/11 era when she started receiving emails from someone identifying himself as “citizen four,” who was ready to blow the whistle on massive covert surveillance programs run by the NSA and other intelligence agencies. Poitras brought her camera along when she finally met with Edward Snowden.

NATIONAL GALLERY

NR • 180min • FR 1/9, 1/10, 1/13, 1/14, 1/15 @ 7pm

London’s National Gallery, one of the world’s foremost art institutions, is itself portrayed as a brilliant work of art in this documentary by Frederick Wiseman. Wiseman listens raptly as a panoply of docents decode the great canvases of Da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Turner. We experience the joy of spending time with these masters as well as Vermeer and Caravaggio, Titian and Velázquez, Pissarro and Rubens, and listen to the connoisseurs who discourse upon the aesthetic, historical, religious and psychological underpinnings of these masterpieces.

PELICAN DREAMS

1/16, 1/21 @ 7pm

G • 80min • US

Why do we need wildness in our lives, and how can we protect it? What’s it like trying to get to know a flying dinosaur? Sundance-and-Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker Judy Irving follows a wayward California brown pelican from her “arrest” on the Golden Gate Bridge into care at a wildlife rehabilitation facility, and from there explores pelicans’ nesting grounds, Pacific coast migration, and survival challenges.

THE HOMESMAN

1/23, 1/27, 1/29 @ 7pm

R • 122min • FRANCE

When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by harsh pioneer life, the task of saving them falls to the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank). Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa, she soon realizes just how daunting the journey will be, and employs a low-life drifter, George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones - who also directs), to join her. Also stars Meryl Streep.

Film tickets: $10 Adults; $8 Seniors 60+, Students & Military

ON SCREEN JAN

the met @ the music hall

HD BROADCAST: DIE MEISTERSINGER VON

NÜRNBERG (WAGNER)

Sun., Jan. 4 @ 12pm • Historic Theater

$27.50; $15 for 18 & under James Levine returns to one of his signature Wagner works conducting this epic comedy about a group of Renaissance “master singers” whose song contest unites a city. Johan Reuter, Johan Botha, and Annette Dasch lead the superb international cast in this charming and magisterial celebration of the power of music and art.

the met @ the music hall

AWAKE: THE LIFE OF YOGANANDA

PG • 86min • US

1/22 @ 7pm • Historic Theater

A film by Oscar-nominee Paola di Florio and Sundance winner Lisa Leeman about Hindu mystic Paramahansa Yogananda who brought yoga and meditation to the West in 1920 and wrote the spiritual classic “Autobiography of a Yogi,” a go-to book for seekers from George Harrison to Steve Jobs. By personalizing his own quest for enlightenment and sharing his struggles along the path, Yogananda made ancient teachings accessible to a modern audience and led millions onto the path of self-realization.

WILDCARD SERIES SPONSORS: Cocked Hat Ventures, LLC; RAM Printing

HD BROADCAST: THE MERRY WIDOW

(LEHÁR)

Sat., Jan. 17 @ 1pm • Historic Theater

$27.50; $15 for 18 & under Renée Fleming stars as the beguiling femme fatale who captivates Paris in Lehár’s enchanting operetta, seen in a new staging by Broadway virtuoso director and choreographer Susan Stroman (The Producers, Oklahoma!, Contact), whose art-nouveau setting climaxes with singing and dancing grisettes at the legendary Maxim’s.

EXPLORE + LEARN

the met @ the music hall

HD

BROADCAST:

LES CONTES D’HOFFMAN (OFFENBACH)

Sat., Jan. 31 @ 1pm • Historic Theater

$27.50; $15 for 18 & under Vittorio Grigolo plays the tortured poet and unwitting adventurer of the title. The three heroines are played by an impressive lineup, including Hibla Gerzmava, Erin Morley, and Christine Rice. Yves Abel conducts Offenbach’s sparkling score. Opera Connection at 11:30am in the Loft with opera expert Dennis Neil Kleinman!

The Music Hall is a committed community partner all year round, getting back as much as we give from working with many wonderful nonprofit organizations, corporate sponsors, and visiting artists. During the recent holiday season, we were especially grateful for their generosity, and for the opportunity to engage some special young people with the arts. For more details on each of these community outreach events, visit our blog at TheMusicHall.org/blog!

On November 24, The Music Hall hosted PMAC students in the Loft (in conjunction with PMAC’s Departmental Workshop Week) to meet with DakhaBrakha, the Ukranian world-music and ‘ethnicchaos’ group, following the band’s stupendous November 23 performance in The District Restaurant Singer Songwriter Series.

A terrific cause for a magical time of the year: On December 10 the young (at-risk) residents of Portsmouth’s Chase Home for Children enjoyed dinner at the River House Restaurant on Bow Street, followed by a performance of The Ogunquit Playhouse production of Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins The Broadway Musical, at The Music Hall’s Historic Theater.

Our annual Messiah Sing on December 22 is always a joyful community gathering, and it was even more special this year with the participation of the Portsmouth High School Concert Choir singing Handel’s Messiah alongside several other area community choruses.

Support Those That Support The Music Hall!

January is Corporate Appreciation month and we want to take this opportunity to highlight all of our corporate partners who help make The Music Hall thrive. As you head out this winter to shop, dine, or do business in the area, we encourage you to support those that support us!

Avery Insurance*

B2W Software, Inc. *

Beswick Engineering** Carpe Diem Coffee Roasting Company**

Allergy Associates of NH Bigelow LLC

Bottomline Technologies*

Bridge Street Bistrot and Wine Bar

Cocked Hat Ventures*

Demeters Steak House

Blue Mermaid Island Grill

Digital Prospectors

DTC Lawyers Donahue, Tucker & Ciandella, PLLC**

Season Sponsors

$15,000 to $24,999

$10,000 to $14,999

$5,000 to $9,999 *

Churchill’s Garden Center *

D.F. Richard Energy **

Hampton Ford & Hyundai Leone, McDonnell & Roberts, P.A.*

IOS Business Centers*

Jenn Madden Realtors

Mad*Pow

Northeast Delta Dental** Optima Bank & Trust* Pax World Investments**

Harbour Women’s Health**

Jackson Lewis, P.C.**

Leddy Group Martin’s Point Healthcare*

Baker Newman Noyes Black Trumpet Bistro* Eastern

Drift Contemporary Art Gallery

PARMA Recordings

Piscataqua Landscaping & Tree Service**

Regency Mortgage RMC Research Corporation**

$2,500 to $4,999

Piscataqua Savings Bank** The Port Inn*

Prime, Buchholz & Associates, Inc.* Private Client Underwriters & Chubb Group of Insurance Companies Radici*

$1,500 to $2,499

Riverwoods at Exeter**

Robert’s Maine Grill*

Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors

Strawbery Banke Museum*

The Flower Kiosk* Joya Beauty Puttin’ on the Glitz Ristorante Massimo* Sierra Designs**

Seacoast

Secure Planning, Inc.**

SIS Bank Wells Fargo Advisors**

Regal Limousine**

Rudi’s Portsmouth* Veris Wealth Partners* Wheelabrator Technologies* Whole Life Health Care**

Troiano Wealth Advisory Group Vigilant Capital Management LLC*

Extraordinary Cinema White Bird in a Blizzard 3pm

The Met @ The Music Hall Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg 12pm