Schedule of events
Hamilton
•Turtle Island Quartet with special guest, Mike Marshall at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 24. Tickets $15, $20 and $22.
•Tim O’Brien and Bryan Sutton at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28. Tickets $15, $20 and $22.
•The Masters of Mali: Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba Nov.19. Tickets $20, $18 and $12.
•The Gibson Brothers with special guests, NewFound Road 7:30 p.m. Feb. 25. Tickets $22, $20 and $15.
•Jon Anderson (lead singer of Yes) 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 3, 2012. More Info.
Shows are at Parish Auditorium, Miami University Hamilton, 1601 University Blvd.
MIDDLETOWN
•Nnenna Freelon and Earl Klugh: An Intimate Evening Oct. 22. Tickets $27, $25 and 18.
•The Sam Bush Band on 7:30 p.m. Nov. 5. Tickets $15, $20 and $22.
•The Grascals, with special guest Josh Williams 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3. Tickets $15, $20 and $22.
•Aaron Neville Feb. 4. Tickets $20, $28 and $30.
Shows are at Middletown High School, 601 N. Breiel Blvd.
OXFORD
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones—The Original Lineup 7:30 p.m. April 20 at Millett Hall, Miami University. Tickets $30 and $50
Purchase tickets by calling (513) 529-3200 or online at www.tickets.muohio.edu
By Eric Robinette
Staff Writer
Some A-list entertainment will be coming to the Artist Series in Middletown, Hamilton and Oxford this year — but in Middletown’s case, a kind of “Plan B” will be enacted.
That’s because the Artist Series will move to a new venue while Dave Finkelman Auditorium at Miami University undergoes renovations that will render it unavailable until next year. Therefore, the series will movie across the street, to another auditorium: the Middletown High School auditorium at 601 N. Breiel Blvd.
Middletown’s superintendent, Greg Rasmussen, offered the venue after learning that Finkelman was being renovated, said Howard Epstein, the coordinator of the series.
“At the high school it’s a bit more challenging because we had to watch some of the technical issues. Given that, though, we’re happy with what we have.”
Middletown will actually gain seating capacity this year. Finkelman holds 749 people, the high school seats 925. Finkelman might actually lose a few seats in the renovation to make room for handicapped accessible seating, Epstein said.
The Middletown series is coming off a particularly successful year. The concerts by Randy Newman, Keb Mo and Arlo Guthrie all sold out. It’s rare for the Middletown’s series to have one sell-out, let alone three, Epstein said.
One of the big attractions this year in Middletown will be Aaron Neville of the Neville Brothers, who will perform Feb. 4 2012.. One of the other big draws will be a concert in Oxford, featuring Bela Fleck and the Flecktones in their original lineup.
“We haven’t had a Flecktones show since 1998 because they got too big for us. He sells out 400 seats at Hamilton,” Epstein said.
Another show at MUH has a connection with Fleck: It’s the November show with Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba, African musicians who have previously performed in Hamilton with Fleck, Epstein said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.