In this issue of Culture Picks, we shine the spotlight on Purchase grads at the Grammys, highlight a few exceptional Black History Month events, and remember American composer, musical educator, and parodist Peter Schickele.
Proof of Purchase: Former students and alums are nominated for Grammy Awards
Tune into this year’s show on Sunday, February 4
Airing live on the CBS Television Network (8-11:30pm) and streaming on Paramount+
Last year, Samara Joy won not only Best New Artist but also Best Jazz Vocal Album for Linger Awhile. This year, she is nominated for Best Jazz Performance for “Tight.”
Watch the official “Tight” music video
Watch Samara Joy’s Acceptance Speech for her Best New Artist award in 2023
Kendric McCallister is nominated for Best Arrangement, Instruments, and Vocals for “Lush Life.”
Watch the official music video of Samara Joy’s “Lush Life”
Ice Spice received her first four nominations and is the only rapper up for Best New Artist. The other nominations are Best Rap Song and Best Song Written for Visual Media Categories for her “Barbie World” collaboration with Nicki Minaj, (for which RIOTUSA was also nominated) as well as Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for her “Karma” collaboration with Taylor Swift.
Watch the official music video of Taylor Swift’s Karma, featuring Ice Spice
The Metropolitan Opera in association with PBS and The WNET Group presents
Great Performances at the Met – X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X
Premieres beginning Sunday, February 4, at 2pm on PBS (check local listings)
Experience Anthony Davis’s groundbreaking opera directed by Tony nominee Robert O’Hara. The new staging portrays Malcolm as an Everyman whose story transcends time and space. Supported by a cast of young Met stars, Will Liverman sings Malcolm X.
Learn more about “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” on PBS.org
Urban Bush Women
at The Purchase PAC
Saturday, February 24, 8pm
Urban Bush Women commemorates its 40th Anniversary with Legacy + Lineage + Liberation. This dynamic evening of dance celebrating the power of Women(+) features iconic works by UBW Founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and a brand new work by Co-Artistic Directors Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis. Each of these works transcends genres and amplifies the voices of Women(+) of color, resonating in this time of reflection around equity and justice, and lifting up the Black experience.
Watch the Legacy + Lineage + Liberation trailer and get tickets
The New York Public Library presents
Christian McBride with Nelson George: The Movement Revisited
Monday, February 26, at 7pm
In-person: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Celeste Bartos Forum, 476 Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, NY, NY 10018
Livestream using the link below
Grammy Award–winning bassist and composer Christian McBride speaks with author and critic Nelson George about his work at the intersection of art and advocacy. Last year Christian McBride reissued his landmark 1998 composition, The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons. The album is dedicated to Black history and the work of four key figures of the Civil Rights Movement: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and Muhammad Ali.
Access the livestream of Christian McBride with Nelson George: The Movement Revisited
In Memoriam Peter Schickele (1935-2024)
From his obit in The New York Times 1/19/14: Peter Schickele, an American composer whose career as a writer of serious concert music was often eclipsed by that of his antic alter ego, the thoroughly debauched, terrifyingly prolific, and mercifully fictional P.D.Q. Bach, died on Tuesday at his home in Bearsville, a hamlet outside Woodstock, N.Y. He was 88.
P.D.Q. Bach | The Latest Sensation | Peter Schickele | The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
P.D.Q. Bach – Konzertshtick for Two Violins mit Orchestra: Itzhak Perlman and Peter Schickele with the Boston Pops Orchestra led by John Williams
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Culture Picks celebrates the performing arts. In each post, PAC staff member Coni Guhl shines the spotlight on work by artists you know and love from their appearances at The Purchase PAC, and offers recommendations about other performing arts events that you should not miss. Experience them all!
All times are EDT unless otherwise noted.
Pictured: Urban Bush Women: Women’s Resistance (c) Ian Douglas
