Some Tucson arts groups are jumping into fall seasons early

For music lovers, it means that the fall performing arts season is just around the corner.

Caliente will publish its annual fall arts preview on Sept. 22 — the first day of fall! — which means if you run a theater company, art gallery, music group, dance troupe or present Broadway plays, you should email us ([email protected]) with your fall schedules and photos by no later than Sept. 7.

Some groups have been in fall mode for weeks and even months, but Arizona Arts Live, the University of Arizona arts presenter, isn’t waiting until fall to get started.

It’s getting a head start when it co-sponsors Hoco Fest with Hotel Congress Sept. 1-4. The annual Labor Day boutique festival features dozens of local and national bands performing at Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Visit hocofest.com for tickets, lineup and more information.

Arizona Arts Live also is teaming up with UA Athletics to host a tailgate concert Sept. 10 with country singer Phil Vassar before the Wildcats football team plays its first home game of the season against Mississippi State. On Sept. 16, it’s presenting Grammy-nominated Mariachi Herencia de Mexico with guest vocalist Lupita Infante at Hotel Congress.

Other season highlights include “Impulse” Oct. 4-Nov. 8, a teeter-toter follow up to last year’s popular monthlong interactive swings exhibit “Mi Casa, Your Casa 2.0”; and a free screening Oct. 6 of “The Thief Collector,” a new docudrama about the 1985 theft of Willem de Kooning’s famous painting, “Woman-Ochre,” from the UA Museum of Art. The painting, which has been restored, finally comes home to the UA when the museum opens “Restored: The Return of Woman-Ochre“ on Oct. 8; the exhibit runs through May 2023.

Sergio Mendoza’s mamba band Orkesta Mendoza opens the Tucson Symphony Orchestra season Sept. 17 with their first-ever appearance with their hometown orchestra. “Orkesta Mendoza & the Magic of Mexico” will feature Mendoza, Salvador Duran, Brian Lopez and other guests joining TSO Conductor José Luis Gomez and the orchestra in an all-Latin program.

Other early season events, to be held at the Linda Ronstadt Tucson Music Hall, include the return of violinist Anne Akiko Meyers on Sept. 23 to perform Arturo Márquez’s Violin Concerto “Fandango” and the Oct. 29 “Coco” cineconcert, the first of two cineconcerts this season. Tickets are on sale now for the second, “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” which will be held in May as a follow up to last year’s sold out “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.”

True Concord Voices & Orchestra opens its season Sept. 30 with the Southwest premiere of a work penned by one of the professional choir’s longtime vocalists. Timothy Takach, who has sung with True Concord for years, penned “Helios,” described as “a heavenly display of the human voice.” The performance will feature visuals of the universe, something that was not included in previous performances, True Concord Music Director Eric Holtan said.

“Helios” is the first of two True Concord premieres this season. In January, as part of the 2023 Tucson Desert Song Festival, True Concord will premiere Jocelyn Hagen’s “Here I Am,” with soprano Susanna Phillips. The pair were set to perform the world premiere at the 2022 song festival but the event was postponed courtesy the pandemic.

True Concord commissioned the work from Hagen, who is married to Takach.

“True Concord has always been committed to new works,” said Managing Director Welz Kauffman. “Tim and Jocelyn are rock stars.”