Mastodon + Gojira, Ricardo Arjona among five new shows booked for Santander venues

Jan. 22—Tickets are on sale for five new shows coming to Santander Arena and the Santander Performing Arts Center, including the Mega-Monsters Tour featuring Grammy-winning heavy rock band Mastodon and Grammy-nominated French heavy metal luminaries Gojira on May 11, and superstar artist and composer Ricardo Arjona's "Blanco y Negro" tour on June 10, both at Santander Arena.

Also on sale at ticketmaster.com are tickets for Dreamcatcher at Santander Arena on March 6, Elton John and Billy Joel: Face to Face — The Tribute Concert at the Santander Performing Arts Center on March 18 and Girl Named Tom at the Santander Performing Arts Center on April 22.

Mastodon will hit the road in support of its critically acclaimed ninth studio album, "Hushed and Grim." Meanwhile, Gojira is supporting its seventh full-length album, "Fortitude," which garnered a Grammy nomination for best metal performance for "Amazonia."

Mastodon's album "Leviathan" landed on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time list. Following the seminal "Crack The Skye," named one of the best albums of 2009 by Time, they earned three consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 with 2011's "The Hunter", 2014's "Once More 'Round the Sun" and 2017's "Emperor of Sand." Out of six career nominations, they received a Grammy for best metal performance for "Sultan's Curse."

Balancing metallic proficiency, primal grooves and otherworldly melodies, Gojira has earned three Grammy nominations and claimed a spot on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time with 2005's "From Mars to Sirius."

Their 2021 album "Fortitude" arrived at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Album Sales Chart and No. 1 on the Top Current Album Sales Chart as the week's best-selling album in terms of pure sales. It catapulted to No. 12 on the Billboard 200, marking a career high.

Arjona reached an audience of more than 3 million people with his "Hecho A La Antigua," the most viewed streaming concert in the history of music in Latin America and Spain. For "Blanco y Negro," he ventured to the legendary Abbey Road studios in London to produce 24 original songs, with a black and white aesthetic and a video for each song, recorded in the same studio.

With close to 100 shows between Europe, United States and Latin America, "Blanco y Negro" is one of the most popular tours in the market, attracting more than a million and a half people last year.

Theater

The acclaimed, record-breaking run of "Disney's Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation," created and directed by Jonathan Rockefeller, will be stopping at the Miller Center for the Arts at Reading Area Community College on March 28.

The celebrated family show will bring Pooh, Christopher Robin and their best friends Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit and Owl (and Tigger too!) to Reading. Tickets are on sale at winniethepoohshow.com.

Inspired by the beloved books by A. A. Milne and the classic Disney featurettes, "Disney's Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation" was welcomed in New York beginning in October 2021 and garnered rave reviews.

This fresh stage adaptation is told with life-size puppetry, telling exciting new stories featuring characters that have played roles in the lives of children for generations. Accompanying the magical, modern narrative is an original score from Nate Edmondson, which features some of the songs written for the animated feature from The Sherman Brothers, including "Winnie the Pooh," "The Blustery Day," "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers," "Whoop-De-Dooper Bounce" and "The More It Snows."

----Professional cabaret artist Corinna Sowers Adler is looking for 12 to 15 high school students to join her in her show, "Something Beautiful," to be performed at the Walk In Art Center, Schuylkill Haven, on April 15. Auditions will be held at 5 p.m. Feb. 1-2 for students ages 13-18.

Those chosen will perform in the show and receive two three-hour master classes as part of the process. This opportunity for students wishing to improve their voice and performance is free of charge.

Sowers Adler is a Schuylkill Haven native who has been nominated for the special Excellence in Theatre Education Tony Award every year since its inception in 2015 and made her solo New York Cabaret Debut in 2010 at the Laurie Beechman Theater in "Stories...A Cabaret".

Since then, she has been in high demand, performing solo shows in New York City. She has also performed her concert entitled "Corinna Sowers Adler in: Something Beautiful" around the United States and in The Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center to rave reviews.

Those wishing to audition should prepare one verse and chorus of a song and bring either a background track or sheet music to the Walk In Art Center on Feb. 1 and 2 at 5 p.m. Tickets are availalbe for the April 15 performance for $30. For more details, visit walkinartcenter.org.

Books

Berks County author Andrew Farrara has released an eight-book series entitled "The Modern Divine Comedy," available in both book and e-book versions. The book version runs from $32.99 to $48.95 at amazon.com and the e-book with Kindle costs $9.95.

The series is based on Dante's "Divine Comedy," written in the early 14th century with the current hero being the fictional contemporary early 21st century journalist named Andrea Romano, who is cast back to the late 19th century in a dream or nightmare where he will be experiencing the trials and tribulations of this mysterious After-World while using the ancient 6th century BC Persian prophet named Zarathustra as a tour guide.

Farrara spent 18 years completing this book series and is working on a few other book projects. A previous release, "Around the World in 220 Days: The Odyssey of An American Traveler Abroad," consists of travel memoirs in 21 countries

from an overseas trip from December 1987 to August 1888.

A Reading native, Farrara has operated an independent insurance agency in Reading since 1988 and spends his free time writing, observing, traveling, painting and learning.

Music

The Friends of Chamber Music of Reading will present Brass: Out of Time at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 3, at Albright College's Memorial Chapel, 13th and Union streets.

This brass ensemble is made up of Jeffrey Wohlbach and Hugh Williamson, trumpets; Shari Gleason-Mayrhofer, horn; Daniel Neuenschwander, trombone; and Allen Frank, tuba. The program includes brass chamber music works by Maurer, Andre LaFosse, John Stevens, Alexander Arutiunian and more.

Admission is free. For more information, visit chambermusicreading.org.

----The Reading Philharmonic Orchestra, a group of volunteer musicians from all parts of Berks County, will play a concert at Reformation Lutheran Church, Reiffton, at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 5. The program, directed by Michael Slechta, will spotlight favorites from classical and show repertoire as well as new musical themes. A free-will offering will be received.

Art

Yocum Institute for Arts Education, West Lawn, will host the 2023 Annual Senior High School Juried Art Exhibit next Sunday through Feb. 12, with an opening reception and awards ceremony next Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Holleran Gallery.

Each year, Yocum invites aspiring young artists from Berks County to submit their work for this juried exhibit. The competition is open to all full-time high school students that reside in or attend school in Berks County. The original work presented will include oil, watercolor, mixed media, acrylic paint, sculpture and 3D art.

The exhibit will be judged by local artist, Jennifer M. Harding, a Shillington-based freelance artist known for her skull illustrations, which pair dark skull images with colorful dried flowers, reflecting her love of Mexican folk art and Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.

----Grandview Gallery, 2601 Grandview Blvd., West Lawn, will host an exhibition of works by Wilson High School AP Art and Design students, from Feb. 5 through March 31, with an opening reception Feb. 5 from 2 to 4 p.m.