Yocum's new season of Jazz on the Avenue begins with tribute to 'Doc' Mulligan [Spotlight]

Oct. 2—The Yocum Institute for Arts Education, Spring Township, has announced its upcoming series of Jazz on the Avenue concerts, which begins Friday at 7 p.m. with Mike Eben's tribute to the late Robert "Doc" Mulligan, a local composer and trombonist. Joining saxophonist Eben will be Rob Diener on trumpet, John Loos on trombone, Greg Wilson on sax, Carl Zeplin on guitar, Marty Mellinger on piano, Steve Meashey on bass and Dave Lazorcik on drums. The ensemble will be performing Mulligan's arrangements of music from the Great American Songbook. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

Here are the rest of the concerts in the series, all starting at 7 p.m.:

Nov. 12: Members of the award-winning trio Three Flights Up are coming home from their respective colleges for the holiday break, allowing them to reunite and perform together for the first time since their 2021 Jazz on the Avenue performance. Featuring drummer Aaron Rudderow, bassist Cormick Costello and pianist Isaiah Nygard, Three Flights Up was the 2021 winner of the prestigious Chuck Loeb Memorial Scholarship presented by the Reading Musical Foundation and the Boscov's Berks Jazz Fest.

Dec. 17: Celebrate the holiday season with an evening of hot jazz courtesy of The Hot Club of Reading featuring Josh Taylor, Chris Heslop, Ken Gehret, Trey LaRue and Mike Nikolidakis. In addition to the music of legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, The Hot Club of Reading blends in early New Orleans jazz such as trumpeter Louis Armstrong and his counterpart on soprano saxophone and clarinet, American-turned-Frenchman Sidney Bechet.

Feb. 24: The Seth Ebersole Quintet featuring Gina Benalcazar, Colin Mekeel, Jack Synoski and Austin Wagner will present a homecoming concert for saxophonist Ebersole, a Gov. Mifflin graduate who now is a member of the prestigious U.S. Air Force's Airmen of Note, based in Washington, D.C. Ebersole holds a bachelor's of music degree in jazz saxophone from Temple University, where he studied with Dick Oatts and Timothy Warfield. He earned a master's of music from Michigan State University.

For more information and tickets, see yocuminstitute.org.

Venues

The ASM Global managed Santander Arena and Santander Performing Arts Center in downtown Reading kicked off the two venues' 2022-2023 with a record number of events in July and August that contributed to strong rankings on Pollstar's Quarterly Worldwide Ranking based on ticket sales.

Q3 Worldwide Pollstar Rankings listed the Santander Performing Arts Center at No. 73 among theaters and the Santander Arena at No. 113 among arenas. Only factoring in venues within the United States, the Santander Performing Arts Center ranked No. 60 and the Santander Arena ranked No. 78.

Santander Arena hosted Reading's first sold out K-Pop show on Aug. 15, plus a sold-out show with Papa Roach/Falling in Reverse on Aug. 2, and the Santander Performing Arts Center hosted a sold-out show from Jowell Y Randy on July 29. The Q3 rankings put both venues highest among local Pennsylvania venues of similar capacity for the second time in a row.

Upcoming shows at Santander Arena include comedian Kevin Hart on Thursday and country singer Walker Hayes on Friday, and Santander Performing Arts Center shows include country band Home Free on Oct. 15, The Price Is Right LIVE on Oct. 19 and comedian Brian Regan on Oct. 20. Tickets for these and other shows are on sale at Ticketmaster.com.

Art

Birdsboro artist Steven J. White was awarded "Best In Show" for his oil painting "Sentinel" at the Berks Art Alliance's "43rd Annual Open Juried Art Exhibition."

The Juror of Awards, Patrick Rogers, a curator and exhibition developer, described the painting as a beautiful, moody, muddy, ruin of a scene that communicates drama between the earth and the sky, the works of humans and the power of nature and time.

White, who is also an accomplished watercolor painter, is a signature member of both the Philadelphia Water Color Society and the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society and an Associate Member of The Oil Painters of America.

The exhibition runs through Oct .10 at the Goggleworks Center for the Arts, Reading.

----The Penn State Berks Freyberger Gallery will present "The Magic Broccoli Forest," an immersive, interactive solo exhibition by artist Rosa Nussbaum that explores themes of friendship and depression. The exhibit runs October 10-28, with an opening reception on Thursday, Oct. 13, from 6 to 8 p.m. This event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Nussbaum and her friends used the broccoli emoji to represent depression when it was too hard to say the word. During this time, Nussbaum felt goal-oriented structures washing away, leaving behind kindness, joy and care. In this exhibition, she focuses on magical portraits of the people who helped her in her wanderings through the "broccoli forest" of depression.

The Freyberger Gallery is open noon to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.

Auditions

Berks Opera Company will hold auditions for its 2023 productions of "L'Enfant et les Sortileges" and "Gianni Schicchi" on Nov. 26. Lauretta, Rinuccio and Gianni Schicchi are cast; all other roles are available. Both works will be performed in English.

To be considered for an audition, send a recording of one piece in English to tamlouise@aol.com with AUDITION in the subject line. An accompanist will be provided for a live audition. They are seeking local singers only for this production. All singers must be over 18 by May 15, 2023.

Theater

Reading Community Players has postponed its upcoming production of "Calendar Girls" until Oct. 21-23. It will be presented at the George Baer Chapel, Sixth and Cherry streets, Reading, a 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 and 22 and 3 p.m. Oct. 23. Ticket are $18 at readingcommplayers.com.

Lecture

The acclaimed "Shroud Encounter," a big-screen experience using over 200 images as part of an in-depth exploration into the mysteries of the Shroud of Turin, is coming to Christ Episcopal Church, 435 Court St., Reading, on Oct. 15 at 4 p.m. Admission is free. A museum quality life-size replica will be on display. Admission is free.

"Shroud Encounter" is a production of the Shroud of Turin Education Project Inc. and will be presented by international expert Russ Breault. Using a CSI approach, audiences are taken on a thought-provoking adventure through early church history, ancient art, modern science and medical forensics.

The Shroud of Turin is a 14-foot-long linen cloth that has been in Turin, Italy, for over 400 years and bears the faint front and back image of a 5'10" bearded, crucified man with apparent wounds and bloodstains that match the crucifixion account as recorded in the Bible. Millions of people over the centuries have believed it be the actual burial shroud of Jesus.

Could the Shroud be the most important archaeological artifact ever found, or is it just a medieval fake? Does it provide clues to what happened during the crucifixion and resurrection, or is it just a pious art work created to represent these events? After thousands of hours of scientific analysis, the Shroud remains a profound mystery.

Breault has been featured in several national documentaries seen on CBS, History Channel, EWTN and Discovery. He has been interviewed for "Good Morning America" and "ABC World News Tonight" and was a consultant for CNN's "Finding Jesus" series. For more information, see www.ShroudEncounter.com.