The Dulcimer 55th Edition Release Party
2022-04-22 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | McEachern Art Center, 332 2nd Street, Macon, 31201
Get a free copy of the Mercer literary magazine, The Dulcimer, at the 55th edition release party at the McEachern Center for the Arts! The event will be catered.

Mercer Jazz Ensemble Presents "Milestones"
2022-04-22 19:30 - 20:30 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
Dr. Monty Cole, conductor
Closing the season with a concert featuring works by Miles Davis, Marcus Miller, and Chick Corea.
This performance will take place in Neva Langley Fickling Hall in the McCorkle Music Building on Mercer’s Macon Campus. If unable to attend this performance it will be live streamed on Facebook.

Nikky Finney: Thomas Robinson Prize for Southern Literature
2022-04-23 13:00 - 14:00 | Presidents Dining Room, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
Mercer University’s Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies will award the 2022 Thomas Robinson Prize for Southern Literature to renowned poet, professor and author Nikky Finney.
The prize will be presented April 23 at 1 p.m. in the Presidents Dining Room inside the University Center on the Macon campus.
“Words come and go. But the word that remains the great shark in the Atlantic Ocean, that is my life, is the word ‘Southerner.’ This word that fits and begins me, that also knows how to camouflage, deep dive and create its own myth, while also possessing the right historical teeth for the futuristic job of writing,” said Finney. “I read southern writers as a girl poet. They became the nexus of humanity for me. I learned the true altitude of southern worlds from Ernest Gaines and Yusef Komunyakaa then took off on my own trail. To be invited to stand with these former Thomas Robinson honorees, as well as all the others of the past 10 years, those who have engaged and wrestled with this complicated land, sea and air is truly an extraordinary moment in my life.”
Finney was born by the sea in South Carolina and raised during the Civil Rights, Black Power and Black Arts movements. She has been a faculty member at Cave Canem summer workshop for African American poets; a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, a particular place for poets of color in Appalachia; poet and professor for 23 years at the University of Kentucky; and visiting professor at Berea and Smith colleges.
In her home state of South Carolina, she involves herself in the day-to-day battles for truth and justice while also guiding both undergraduates and MFA students at the University of South Carolina, where she is the John H. Bennett Jr. Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters, with appointments in both the Department of English Language and Literature and the African American Studies Program.
“Nikky Finney writes powerfully and rhapsodically about the experiences, memories, families and communities of Black people living in the U.S. South,” said Dr. Davis A. Davis, associate director of the Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies. “Her poems explore the beauty and the sorrow found in experiences and objects, and they celebrate the stories of people who have survived and achieved. We are immensely proud to present her with the Thomas Robinson Prize.”
Finney’s work includes the arenas of Black girl genius unrecognized, Black history misplaced and forgotten, and the stories of women who prefer to jump instead of ride the traditional tracks of polite and acceptable society. In her full body of poetry and storytelling, she explores the whispers and shouts of sexuality, the invisibility of poverty in a world continually smitten by the rich and the powerful, the graciousness of Black family perseverance, the truth of history, the grace and necessity of memory, as well as the titanic loss of habitat for all things precious and wild.
She won the PEN American Open Book Award in 1996 and the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award for the Arts in South Carolina in 2016. She edited Black Poets Lean South, a Cave Canem anthology (2007), authored On Wings Made of Gauze (1985), Rice (1995), Heartwood (1997), The World Is Round (2003), and Head Off & Split, winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry. Her work, in book form and video, is on display in the inaugural exhibition of the African American Museum of History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
Her latest collection of poems, Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry, was released in April 2020 from TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press.

“One, No One and One Hundred Thousand.” Guise and disguise in the character piece
2022-04-23 19:30 - 21:00 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
I believe that identity is a fluid that flows between diversity and uniqueness. It changes and adapts depending on the events and context. For its unpredictable and changing nature, the “character piece” is one of the composers’ favorite devices for finding, embracing, transforming, or hiding their identity through music. This program proposes some of these examples. It starts with a set of preludes by Louis Ballard, a 20th-century Quapaw-Cherokee composer. He embedded his Native idiom in the atonal Western language, trying to fuse two irreconcilable worlds. Then, I will perform a selection of preludes by Claude Debussy, who has always firmly rejected the Impressionist label that musicians and historians often attempt to put on his music. Next, a set of four pieces by Clara Wieck smash the quite sexist and condescending attitude of those who see her as only a composer influenced by the men in her life—her husband, then Brahms, or even Chopin—but somehow not capable of originality and uniqueness herself. In the end, Carnaval by Robert Schumann shows that identity is ultimately a parade of masques we decide to wear like colorful dresses—to play hide-and-seek with the secret code that defines our authentic individuality. I hope you enjoy the music, whether you will recognize a bit of yourself in one, none, or in all the pieces presented.
This performance will take place in Neva Langley Fickling Hall in the McCorkle Music Building on Mercer’s Macon Campus. If unable to attend this performance it will be live streamed on Facebook.

The Voices of Spring
2022-04-24 15:00 - 16:00 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
Dr. Stanley L. Roberts, conductor
Final choral concert of the year featuring Mercer Women’s Chamber Choir.
This performance will take place in Neva Langley Fickling Hall in the McCorkle Music Building on Mercer’s Macon Campus. If unable to attend this performance it will be live streamed on Facebook.

Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra
2022-04-25 19:30 - 21:30 | The Piedmont Grand Opera House, 651 Mulberry Street, Macon, 31201
Ward Stare, conductor
The season concludes with the winner of the Townsend School of Music Concerto competition, along with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 and Macon hip-hop artist, Bob Lennon. Written just after losing his hearing, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 was composed during one of the most depressed times of his life, but Beethoven shows little sign of his obvious despair and end with an explosive finale. Maconite Bob Lennon also takes to the stage in this final concert of the year to perform his commission, “Don’t You Look at Me.”
Symphony Tickets:
Tickets: $30 premium supporter seats / $20 adults
Free with any valid student ID
Save with season tickets or bring a group (10+) for special pricing!
Call (478)301-5470 or visit mcduffie.mercer.edu/symphony for tickets.

The Sams Workshop: An Evening of Students' Poems
2022-04-26 19:00 - 20:30 | Presidents Dining Room, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
Sams Distinguished Writer in Residence Rose McLarney, the Enflish Department, and Creative Writing at Mercer present a free reading by student poets in the Sams Writing Workshop (April 26, 7 p.m.) in the President’s Dining Room of the University Center.
Rose McLarney’s poetry collections are Forage and Its Day Being Gone, from Penguin Poets, and The Always Broken Plates of Mountains, published by Four Way Books. She is co-editor of A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia, from University of Georgia Press, and of the journal Southern Humanities Review. She has been awarded fellowships by the MacDowell Colony and Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences; served as Dartmouth Poet in Residence at the Frost Place; and won the National Poetry Series in 2014). Among the prizes she has won are the Chaffin Award for Achievement in Appalachian Writing and the Fellowship of Southern Writers’ New Writing Award for Poetry. Her work has appeared in publications including The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, Missouri Review, and The Oxford American. Rose earned her MFA from Warren Wilson’s MFA Program for Writers. Currently, she is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Auburn University.
For more information, contact Gordon Johnston by phone at (478) 301-2588, or by e-mail at johnston_gg@mercer.edu.

Mercer Jazz Combo Concert
2022-04-26 19:30 - 20:30 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
Dr. Monty Cole, conductor
The students of the Mercer Jazz Combo continue their exploration of the music of great American Jazz Artists. Join us for an evening of Grover Washington Jr., Spyro Gyra, and Joseph Zawinul.
This performance will take place in Neva Langley Fickling Hall in the McCorkle Music Building on Mercer’s Macon Campus. If unable to attend this performance it will be live streamed on Facebook.

Festive Flutes
2022-04-28 19:30 - 21:00 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
Kelly Via, conductor
Join the Mercer Flute Choir as they perform an exhilarating musical contribution to the sounds of spring!
This performance will take place in Neva Langley Fickling Hall in the McCorkle Music Building on Mercer’s Macon Campus. If unable to attend this performance it will be live streamed on Facebook.

Farewell Concert
2022-04-30 19:30 - 21:00 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
Dr. Stanley L. Roberts, conductor
Final choral concert of the year featuring Mercer Singers. Our farewell to our seniors and master students who are graduating from the program.
This performance will take place in Neva Langley Fickling Hall in the McCorkle Music Building on Mercer’s Macon Campus. If unable to attend this performance it will be live streamed on Facebook.

Choral Society of Middle Georgia and Mercer University Choir Present "The Peace of Wild Things"
2022-05-01 16:00 - 17:30 | First Baptist Church of Christ, 511 High Place, Macon, 31201
Stanley L. Roberts, conductor
A musical tapestry where human emotion connects to the natural world. Tickets are $10. Call (478)200-1064 or visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-peace-of-wild-things-tickets-307320262177 to purchase tickets.

Alexa Kleinbard: Storm Songs
2022-09-08 16:00 - 20:00 | McEachern Art Center, 332 2nd Street, Macon, 31201
Mercer University’s McEachern Art Center (the MAC) hosts “Storm Songs,” an exhibition of paintings and drawings by artist Alexa Kleinbard. The exhibition will remain on display through Nov. 5. Admission is free and open to the public during gallery hours, 4-8 p.m., Thursdays-Saturdays.
Alexa Kleinbard, a painter from Tallahassee, has decades of experience creating work about what human beings must protect in nature’s remarkable garden of biodiversity. As the destruction of wild lands all over the world escalates, she is driven to work on paintings that create a visual statement concerning the irreplaceable heritage of wildlife sanctuaries and biodiversity hotspots. The pieces in Kleinbard’s exhibition will serve as reminders of the delicate interdependency between water, air, land and all living beings on the planet, hinting at the silence that will be left in our remaining habitats if mankind’s war against the environment is not subdued.

Townsend Symposia on Music, Philosophy and the Arts: David Mallette
2022-09-16 10:00 - 23:00 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
The nonprofit arts field is in the midst of multiple tectonic shifts, including demographic changes, the natural evolution of art, digital delivery platforms, labor challenges, EDIA values and other challenges. Strong, savvy leadership has never been more important. David Mallette, president of Management Consultants for the Arts, will speak about the leadership skills needed in today’s nonprofit arts organizations. He will highlight elements in search processes conducted by the volunteer boards seeking top artistic and executive leadership.

McDuffie Center Young Artists Concert
2022-09-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Bell House Jennings Salon, 315 College Street, Macon, 31201
McDuffie Center Young Artists Concert
7 p.m., Bell House
Enjoy a free evening of music! Recitals are held in the Bell House Jennings Salon, 315 College St., at 7 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first-served. Doors open 30 minutes beforehand.

Premier Performances: An Evening of Original One-Acts
2022-09-22 19:30 - 21:00 | Tattnall Square Center for the Arts, 1096 College Street, Macon, 31207
For Mercer Bears, by Mercer Bears – most of all, this show is for you! An evening of original one-act plays from the 2021 playwrighting class. These never-before-seen plays promise to be fun, original and crazy. This show will be only $5 to attend, a 50% savings over most Mercer Theatre tickets.

GABBA Fest 2022 – Life Is Peachy
2022-09-23 19:00 - 21:00 | The Piedmont Grand Opera House, 651 Mulberry Street, Macon, 31201
GABBA Fest 2022 – Life Is Peachy
7 p.m., Grand Opera House
Georgia Allman Brothers Band Association celebrates its 30th Anniversary and the 50th Anniversary of “Eat A Peach.”
Friday – The Danielle Nicole Band; EG Kight Trio opens. Lobby at 5:00, Doors at 6:00, Show at 7:00.
Saturday – Brother & Sister featuring Vaylor and Melody Trucks; Parts & Labor open.
FREE tickets to Mercer Students with ID at the door.

Fabian Concert Series – “Going Big”
2022-09-27 19:30 - 21:30 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
Fabian Concert Series – “Going Big”
7:30 p.m., Fickling Hall
Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin
Lawrence Dutton, viola
Daniel Tosky, bass
Principal Winds of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
We begin this fabulous 16th season with a memorable concert of the music of Bruch and Spohr. Several principal winds of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will join violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti, bassist Daniel Tosky and McDuffie Center for Strings Young Artists to kick off this concert. The opening will also bring the audience up close and personal with multi-GRAMMY award winning violist of the Emerson String Quartet, Lawrence Dutton. Tickets $20; Mercer ID/Student ID free

Broadway Does Pride
2022-09-28 19:30 - 21:30 | The Piedmont Grand Opera House, 651 Mulberry Street, Macon, 31201
Broadway Does Pride
7:30 p.m., Grand Opera House
Broadway Does Pride is an upbeat cabaret-style performance blending Broadway-inspired vocal stylings with the eclectic atmosphere of an intimate lounge show in downtown Macon. From Rent reminding us to “measure your life in love” to songs like “I’m Coming Out” from Diana Ross and “Vogue” from Madonna, we will spotlight music important to the LGBTQ+ community. These will be performed by Macon’s very own talent with a fresh and campy twist, making it a night of fun, freedom and love. Part of Macon Pride 2022. $10.

Mercer Singers Family Day Concert
2022-10-08 11:15 - 13:00 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
Mercer Singers Family Day Concert
11:15 a.m., Fickling Hall
A gala concert featuring students of the School of Music, hosted by
the Mercer Singers.

Mercer Wind Ensemble Presents “New Beginnings”
2022-10-10 19:30 - 21:00 | The Piedmont Grand Opera House, 651 Mulberry Street, Macon, 31201
Mercer Wind Ensemble presents “New Beginnings”
7:30 p.m., Grand Opera House
Brittan Braddock and Nate Gay, conductors
Please join the Mercer University Wind Ensemble for an evening of wind band music celebrating the past and the present at the Grand Opera House. This concert will mark the first with new faculty member and director of bands, Brittan Braddock. Nathan Gay (Director of Athletic Bands) will guest conduct a piece on the program. Featured on the program will be works by Gustav Holst, Kevin Day, William Himes, Nelson Jesus, and more. Please join us for an exciting evening of wind band music featuring the talented students of Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music. This is a FREE concert! There is a suggested donation of $10 that can be taken in the lobby before or after the concert. We hope to see you there!

Jubilee Artist Series: Curtis on Tour, Eric Owens, Bass-Baritone with Curtis Opera Theatre
2022-10-14 19:30 - 21:00 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
Curtis on Tour is the Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative of the Curtis Institute of Music.
Eric Owens, one of America’s leading bass baritones, joins a quartet of emerging artists from the Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative of the Curtis Institute of Music, one of the world’s leading conservatories, to perform gems from the lieder and song repertoire — anchored by Brahms’s lilting and pensive Neue Liebeslieder waltzes for four voices and four-hand piano — followed by operatic arias and ensemble pieces.

Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra
2022-10-17 19:30 - 21:30 | The Piedmont Grand Opera House, 651 Mulberry Street, Macon, 31201
Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra
7:30 p.m., Grand Opera House
Roderick Cox, guest conductor
Smetana Bartered Bride Overture
Ravel Daphnis and Chloé Suite no. 2
Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
To open the second season of Macon’s smash success symphony, we celebrate the homecoming of Roderick Cox, the Macon-born superstar conductor garnering worldwide recognition. This lighthearted program borrows from epic love stories across a number of cultures, from Smetana’s comic opera The Bartered Bride to Ravel’s mythic ballet Daphnis et Chloé to Bernstein’s Broadway West Side Story. $25-35, students FREE at the door. Mercer faculty/staff subscription only $60. BUY NOW

Guest Artist Recital: Amanda Russo Stante, Voice, and Kimberly Carballo, Collaborative Piano
2022-10-18 19:30 - 21:00 | McCorkle Music Building, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
Exciting performances by Amanda Russo Stante, an experienced and versatile mezzo-soprano, who is a faculty member at Susquehanna University, and Kimberly Carballo, collaborative pianist and coordinating opera coach at Indiana University’s Opera and Ballet Theater and serves on the faculty in the Chamber Music and Collaborative Piano department.

Master Classes with Hsin-Yun Huang and Julie Albers
2022-10-24 18:00 - 21:00 | Bell House Jennings Salon, 315 College Street, Macon, 31201
Master Classes with violist Hsin-Yun Huang (6:00 – 7:00 pm) and cellist Julie Albers (7:00 – 9:00 pm) in the Jennings Salon of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings located at 315 College Street in Macon.

Jazz Combo, Conducted by Dr. Monty Cole
2022-10-24 19:30 - 21:00 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
Conducted by Dr. Monty Cole, professor of saxophone and clarinet, the student jazz combo will perform works by Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, and other jazz greats.

Fabian Concert Series: "All American" featuring Amy Schwartz Moretti, Hsin-Yun Huang, Julie Albers, and Elizabeth Pridgen
2022-10-25 19:30 - 21:00 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
The all-female team of violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti, violist Hsin-Yun Huang, cellist Julie Albers, and pianist Elizabeth Pridgen perform the works of two talented female composers, Jennifer Higdon and Amy Beach.

Choral Society of Middle Georgia and Mercer University Choir Present "Our Spirits Sing"
2022-10-30 16:00 - 18:00 | Mulberry Street United Methodist Church, 719 Mulberry Street, Macon, 31201
The human experiences of love, joy, yearning, hope, thanksgiving, and peace are woven into this choral tapestry, conducted by Dr. Stanley Roberts, Arthur Lowndes Rich Director of Choral Conducting.
Tickets are $10.00, please email the Choral Society at admin@csmga.org, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/our-spirits-sing-tickets-444190384397?aff=ebdssbdestsearch, or call 478-200-1064 to hold for pick up/payment at the door.

Mercer Harp Ensemble: Serenade
2022-11-04 19:30 - 21:00 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
A program filled with the elements and aspects of love expressed through music, including works by Bizet, Faure, and Bernstein.

Treble Voices Unite!
2022-11-06 17:00 - 19:00 | Fickling Hall, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, 31207
A collaborative concert with the Mercer Women’s Choir, Mary Persons High School Intermediate/Advanced Treble Choir, and the Farragut High School (TN) Advanced Women’s Chorale

Women’s Rights are Human Rights: International Posters on Gender-Based Inequality, Violence, and Discrimination
2022-11-08 14:00 - 17:00 | Plunkett Gallery, Hardman Hall, GA, United States
The Art Department is proud to present this powerful poster exhibition, curated by Elizabeth Resnick, Professor Emerita, Graphic Design at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. Please join us for the opening reception on Nov. 8, between 2 and 5 p.m. For more information about the exhibition, please visit www.womensrightsarehumanrights.org.
