Artful Events to Kick Off the New Year

By Jessica Steinhoff | Photo courtesy Yamato

There are plenty of artful things to do to kick off the new year.

LIVE MUSIC

SAMORA PINDERHUGHES
Feb. 6, Wisconsin Union Theater

Whether composing music, singing, playing the piano or making films, this Juilliard-trained jazz performer transforms art into powerful statements about structural injustice. His sophomore album, “Grief,” sprang from interviewing people of color who’ve survived incarceration, and he described his latest release, “Venus Smiles Not in the House of Tears” as a meditation on “what it means to love in the midst of a society that teaches us all the wrong lessons.” artsticketing.wisc.edu

BLIND PILOT
Feb. 14, Majestic Theatre

After facing their demons and overhauling their approach to songwriting, this indie folk-rock band released their first album in eight years, “In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain.” The joy of their creative breakthrough shows, especially on the opening track, “Jacaranda.” majesticmadison.com

ALAN WALKER
Feb. 18, The Sylvee

This Norwegian DJ and producer attracts massive crowds to Coachella and collaborators such as Bruno Mars to the studio. His current tour celebrates the release of his two-part “Walkerverse” album. thesylvee.com

YAMATO: THE DRUMMERS OF JAPAN
Feb. 22, Wisconsin Union Theater

Feel the thunderous vibrations of these taiko drummers’ instruments and marvel at the dramatic choreography that has accompanied this Japanese artform for hundreds of years. artsticketing.wisc.edu

MASTERWORKS III: DAVIS & DVOŘÁK
Feb. 28, Overture Center

Madison Ballet performs original choreography by artistic director Ja’ Malik as the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra presents Oliver Davis’ cinematic soundscape “Liberty Suite.” The program concludes with a chamber-music classic: Dvořák’s lovely “Serenade for Strings.” wcoconcerts.org

THEATER AND DANCE

“MARÍA DE BUENOS AIRES”
Jan. 31 & Feb. 2, Overture Center

Madison Opera teams up with Kanopy Dance to stage this surrealist gem by Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla. Entranced by this melancholy music, a woman takes up sex work and then proceeds down a perilous path. madisonopera.org

“SHUCKED”
Feb. 4-8, Overture Center

Devour the Wisconsin premiere of a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical about a young heroine and her journey to save her hometown’s crop of — you guessed it — corn. overture.org

“COMPANY”
Feb. 20-21, 27-28 & March 1-2, Overture Center

Helmed by Sarah Marty and Thomas Kasdorf of Four Seasons Theatre, this much-revived musical delivers chuckles with a side of contemplation as its protagonist gets grilled about his perpetual bachelorhood. fourseasonstheatre.com

VISUAL ART AND MORE

RICHARD MOSSE: “BROKEN SPECTRE”
Through Feb. 6, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

Mosse’s work often asks viewers to consider the ways they view human- made, environmental disasters. This show documents the Amazon rainforest on a microscopic level using multispectral aerial cameras, heat-sensitive analog film and other technologies the industries harming this crucial habitat often employ. mmoca.org

“YOU BELONG HERE: PLACE, PEOPLE, AND PURPOSE IN LATINX PHOTOGRAPHY”
Through March 7, Chazen Museum of Art

Curated by Pilar Tompkins Rivas of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, this exhibi- tion this traveling exhibition highlights experiences of togetherness from Latinx communities and expressions of feeling caught between two or more identities. chazen.wisc.edu