When Mandy Harvey walked onto the stage at Opperman Music Hall, most of the elementary and middle school students clapped to welcome her. But some students raised their hands, spread their fingers and shook their hands back and forth — the American Sign Language symbol for applause. The musician, who is deaf, performed for about 50 […]

As a graduate of the China Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and Young Concert Artist, Hanzhi Wang’s career has already taken her around the globe with performances in Europe, America and Asia. Opening Nights partnered with the FSU Center for Global Engagement to host Hanzhi Wang as part of the center’s Engage Your World Series: Intercultural Dialogue […]

Mimi Herman, a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist and the 2017 North Carolina Piedmont Laureate, spent a week in 4th and 5th grade classrooms at Apalachee Tapestry Magnet School of the Arts in the Fall of 2017 to teach students and teachers to fall in love with writing, especially their own. Fourth grade students in Ms. Laing’s […]

Glenis Redmond, an award-winning performance poet, praise poet, educator, and writer from North Carolina, focuses on providing teachers techniques to help improve student’s writing and speaking skills through poetry. During June 2017, teachers studied ways to involve students memorizing and performing their poems to further communicate the written word with appropriate voice projection, physical stance […]

Opening Nights and Leon County Schools teamed up to offer about 40 elementary and middle school teachers a creative new tool to teach math, in partnership with the John F. Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education program. Stacy Weaver, a performing arts teacher who leads the dance program at Raa Middle School in Tallahassee, said she […]

Austrian brass septet Mnozil Brass performed for students at the School of Arts and Sciences at The Centre on Friday, March 2, 2018. The founding members of the ensemble are graduates of the renowned Vienna College of Music. Their formal training, combined with their Viennese style of humor, made for an insightful and educational performance […]

Feb. 26, 2018 Opening Nights at Florida State University provided 320 Fort Braden students with a unique music educational performance in February. Fourth through eighth grade students enjoyed music while learning about Latin culture and music from Orkesta Mendoza, one of the touring bands of globalFEST on the Road: The New Golden Age of Latin […]

North Florida – School Tour November 3, 15 & 17 Echoes of Nature introduced traditional Chinese art and music to people from other cultures. Dr. Nan Liu is the associate art professor at Florida A&M University. Award-winning zheng master Haiqiong Deng is the director of Chinese Music Ensemble at Florida State University and has given […]

Oct 16, 17 & 18 The New 76ers are an acoustic folk trio from Tallahassee, Fla. A family band, by all accounts, the music and the bond run deep. While adept at crafting songs and harmonies, they believe the true beauty of what they do is to create a lasting connection with their listeners, while […]