The Festival Beat

When the Festival Boca team decided to go ahead with a virtual 2021 season, they knew they had to include Music Director Constantine Kitsopoulos and the Festival Orchestra, who have anchored the Festival’s programs over the last 15 years. But, in the age of social distancing and masking, that posed unusual challenges.

We are excited to announce the winners of the Festival of the Arts Boca Music Competition. Congratulations to all the winners! We will be hosting a special pre-Festival Winners Concert on March 4 at 7 pm.

At just 45, Ehnes has performed as a soloist with most of the world’s finest orchestras and conductors and has been called the greatest violinist of his generation. On March 7, he has is Festival Boca debut.

Nadine Sierra grew up in South Florida, found her love of opera here, and launched from here onto the international stage as one of the world's most acclaimed sopranos.

Festival of the Arts Boca will go forward in 2021, with virtual performances by Florida-based artists from iconic locations throughout Boca Raton from March 6 – 14, 2021.  Each program will stream once only on the Festival of the Arts Boca website. Access is free with advance registration.

Our 90-minute Virtual Gala was a huge success, raising over $25,000 for our music education programs. You can rewatch some or all of the program here.

It’s not every genre-bending, next-gen classical band that gets invited to perform at the host city’s Super Bowl party. But then Nu Deco Ensemble is not every band.

The very abbreviated story of the internet and international sensation known as Postmodern Jukebox, which went from zero to one billion views in just 7 years.

“The real key to success,” Amy Walters says, “doesn’t come from getting the right internship. It comes instead from knowing your own values and your own value. You don’t have to know what you want to do with the rest of your life today. But you need to know who you are and what matters to you.”

Finding the keys to happiness, says Dr. Laurie Santos, requires tapping into our primate brains, and observing the behavior and activities of those who report being very happy. And the results are often surprising, but also uplifting.
 

Roz Chast goes through the world with the eyes of a cartoonist, of a graphic storyteller who is constantly identifying and lampooning the ever anxious and self-conscious American middle class.

With the arrival of the final Star Wars film, we thought it would be a good time to share some interesting facts we have dug up on the franchise.