Tulsa Symphony Orchestra to open with Ravel and Tchaikovsky | Arts Scene (2024)

The Tulsa Symphony Orchestra will open its 19th annual season Sept. 14 with a gala concert featuring popular guest conductor David Lockington and award-winning pianist Sean Chen.

Chen won the Crystal Award (the equivalent of third place) in the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2013, the same year he also won the top prize at the American Pianist Awards.

Chen, who currently is the Jack Strandberg/Missouri Endowed Chair Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, will be the soloist for the Piano Concerto in G Major by Ravel.

It will be his first performance in Tulsa since he appeared with the Tulsa Symphony in February 2020, where he performed the Grieg Piano Concerto. The Tulsa World’s review of that concert described Chen’s playing as being “expressive without being showy, shaping... phrases with a kind of casual elegance that made them crackle with freshness, building the first movement cadenza into a display of focused energy and pianistic brio, and bringing a contemplative sensitivity to the quietest sections of the concerto’s slow movement, which faded into a whispered silence before the thunderclap start of the rousing finale.”

The concert will also feature “Umoja: Anthem for Unity,” a composition by Valerie Coleman. Coleman originally created the work as a simple song for a women’s choir, building on the meaning of “umoja,” the Swahili word for unity and the first principle of the African Diaspora holiday Kwanzaa.

Coleman later arranged the work to be performed by the wind ensemble the Imani Winds, of which she is a member. Some two decades later, Coleman created the orchestra version of the work, which the Tulsa Symphony will perform at its concert.

Rounding out the program will be the Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, by Tchaikovsky, a work that the composer feared was a failure upon its debut but which has become one of his most popular and most performed symphonies.

The concert begins at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at the Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St. Tickets are $25-$80. 918-584-3645, tulsasymphony.org.

‘Waitress’

If only life was as “easy as pie.” That’s one reason why Jenna, a waitress at a small-town diner, takes solace in pie-making, because it helps her escape from the messiness of her real life.

That is the basis of the story told in “Waitress,” the acclaimed musical featuring songs by Grammy Award-winner Sara Bareilles. Theatre Tulsa opens its production of the show at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, at the Tulsa PAC, 110 E. Second St.

Directed by Liz Bealko, who helmed the company’s all-woman production of “1776,” the musical stars MaKayla Baxter as Jenna, with Kristen Simpson, Caitlin Gibbons, Andrew Barker, Fletcher Gross and Nicholas Cains.

Performances continue through Sept. 21. Tickets are $29.25-$47.50. tulsapac.com.

‘The Deaf Girl’ book launch

Magic City Books and the Gathering Place will present Abigail Heringer, best known for her stint as a contestant on the TV series “The Bachelor,” to launch her new memoir, “The Deaf Girl: A Memoir of Hearing Loss, Hope, and Fighting Against the Odds.”

The free event will be 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, in the Williams Lodge at Gathering Place, 2650 S. John Williams Way.

Heringer, who appeared in season 25 of “The Bachelor,” describes her journey of navigating life with a profound hearing loss and her transformation from merely accepting her disability to embracing it wholeheartedly.

Born profoundly deaf, Heringer received a cochlear implant when she was 2 years old and embarked on her journey of navigating the intricacies of a hearing world. She has been an advocate for the deaf community, using her platform to shed light on the triumphs and challenges of living with a cochlear implant. Abigail is currently engaged to her fiancé Noah Erb, whom she met on “Bachelor in Paradise.” They reside in Tulsa.

Heringer will discuss her memoir, take questions from the audience and sign copies of her book, which will be exclusively for sale at the event, two days before publication. More information at magiccitybooks.org.

Tulsa Town Hall

The 90th season of Tulsa Town Hall will open with a presentation by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, 10:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 13, at the Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, is best known as the chief medical correspondent for CNN, as well as the author of several books, the most recent of which is “Keep Sharp and Build a Better Brain at Any Age,” which offers insights from cutting-edge research to enhance and safeguard brain function, promoting cognitive health across all ages.

His talk is titled “Medicine in the Media.”

Tickets to Tulsa Town Hall are by subscription only. To purchase and for more information: tulsatownhall.com

TV legend Tim Reid

Actor Tim Reid, who first came to national attention as the disc jockey known as “Venus Flytrap” on the classic sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati,” will discuss his career as an actor, producer and director in a special one-man show titled, “Baby, If You’ve Ever Wondered.”

Performances are 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Sept. 13-14, at the Tulsa PAC, 110 E. Second St. Tickets are $15-$45. Reid’s appearance is presented by World Stage Theatre. tulsapac.com

Ok, So Grand Slam

Ok, So Tulsa, the city’s premier storytelling competition, will host its first “GRAND Grand Slam,” celebrating 10 years of captivating stories, by bringing together the top 10 storytellers from the past decade for a unique, one-night-only live storytelling showcase.

The event will be 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13, at the Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N. Main St.

Founded by Michelle Bias and Branda Piersall in 2013, the competition has spotlighted hundreds of storytellers over the years in events where participants must deliver a compelling, risqué, humorous or poignant true story from their life, with no notes and with only six minutes to make their mark.

The 10 storytellers to be featured are Tony B. (2014), Ryan Howell (2015), Sloan Davis (2016), Bill Hader Sr. (2017), Angela Evans (2018), Josh Baker (2019), Rachel Dennis (2020), Jordan Price (2021), Kristee Barlow (2022) and Matthew Weatherbee (2023).

Audience members will vote for the evening’s best storyteller with their wallets, with all proceeds going to support Ok, So Tulsa’s mission to promote live storytelling.

Tickets for the show are $25. For more: oksotulsa.com

‘Shrine to the Feminine’

The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, 2021 E. 71st St., is hosting “Shrine to the Feminine,” an exhibit of work by the late Ruth Lebow and her son David Lebow, now through Nov. 15.

Both mother and son are accomplished artists, with Ruth Lebow preferring to follow a more traditionalist path, while David Lebow works with more imaginative, surreal and expressive subject matter.

This collection of paintings is a culmination of the artist’s jumble of emotions caused by the 2020 lockdown. Primarily using his family members as models, Lebow explores the themes of uncanny and magical happenings and absurd dream images, as well as meditations on loss and mourning.

Due to subject matter, “Shrine to the Feminine” is recommended for mature audiences only.

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