WBFO Arts & Culture Desk

A little bit R&B. A little bit EDM. A little bit funk. The multi-instrumentalist producer and performer GRiZ is a little bit of a lot. He’s playing music off his new album 'Ride Waves' at Buffalo Riverworks Thursday night. WBFO’s Nick Lippa spoke with the artist about his sound, influences, and what exactly “future funk” is.

A first draft of what will be the transformation of Buffalo's LaSalle Park into the future Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park was put on display on the University at Buffalo's South Campus Friday morning, as images and as a large model laid out for viewing. Planners say it's not a done deal, and more public input is sought.

Most area theaters are going for laughs this week with the highly irreverant BOOK OF MORMON at Shea's, the ultra-clever EQUIVOCATION at the Kavinoky, and an all-female 1776 at O'Connell & Company.

Caroline Mallonee's compositions are often inspired by science, such as her previous collaboration with BPO 'cellist Feng Hew and conductor Chris Weber's Camerata di Sant'Antonio string orchestra called "Whistler Waves" (an atmospheric phenonmenon). The triple threat is back to premiere "Portraits of Andromeda" this Sunday, May 5.

Expo 68 Art and Design Gallery, located in the Eastern Hills Mall, turns one year old this month. The gallery often provides exhibitions centered around collaboration. For this anniversary, artists are teaming up with writers to provide a visual of the written word.

Following a long winter of ice and wind, an array of detritus can be found along the region's beaches. Cleaning those beaches has become a passion for artist Alexis Oltmer. On WBFO's Press Pass, Jessica Marinelli and Newell Nussbaumer discuss how Oltmer is recruiting volunteers to help with the cleanup and her plans to transform beach debris into a work of art.

Just as the Artie Award committee thought it might begin deliberations, area stages are exploding with openings such as EQUIVOCATION (about "The Gunpowder Plot"), THE UNDENIABLE SOUND OF RIGHT NOW (an aging rocker confronts new musical tastes) and ANNAPURNA (ex-wife returns).

He didn't have a traditional start in theater, but that hasn't slowed him down. Jacques C. Smith, coming to Buffalo in the touring musical THE BOOK OF MORMON at Shea's Performing Arts Center April 30 to May 12, talks about the acting life.

Thursday Night Terrors is labeled as a monthly horror and cult classic film series at the Dipson Amherst Theatre in Buffalo created by Peter Vullo. But it’s much more than that. Terrors has brought together a community of individuals looking for others who also love zombies, werewolves and sometimes killer security droids. WBFO’s Nick Lippa went to last month’s showing of Joe Dante’s “The Howling” to see what has made Terrors so popular.

Buffalo's Hamlin Park is an historic city neighborhood adjacent to Canisius College. The May issue of Buffalo Spree finds out why more and more people want to live there. In this week's Press Pass with WBFO's Mark Scott, Spree Editor Elizabeth Licata says the neighborhood is named after a family that once ran a horse racing track in that neighborhood.

Making Buffalo Home is a WNED|WBFO multi-year project looking at the impact immigrants and refugees are having in our community. As WBFO's Nick Lippa reports, Dr. Peilun Vicky Chang has played pipe organ at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lancaster for 16 years now. The internationally renowned musician and composer has come a long way since leaving Taiwan.

Short play festivals abound! The Alleyway continues BUFFALO QUICKIES, highlighting eight local playwrights. At Buff State, the focus is on local, student directors with six one-acts. At the Manny Fried Playhouse, Raices Theatre presents locally written bilingual musical (yes!) shorts in their DESDE EL PUENTE series.

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo is hosting a visiting exhibit created by a Burmese artist who, along with hundreds of subjects he has met through his project, are former political prisoners in their homeland. His exhibit, a Show of Hands, features plaster casts of each former prisoner's hand. Some of them are of individuals who have since settled in Buffalo after spending years as refugees.

Music is…healing. Fun. Unifying. These were some statements made by nearly 200 students Monday night at a collaborative music concert at Kenmore East High School. Bands from Hutch Tech, Buffalo Performing Arts and Cheektowaga Central High School came together to perform and stress the importance of music education, especially in urban settings.

Three films with Buffalo connections are going to be shown this month to audiences at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival. They feature Buffalo as a stand-in for Los Angeles, Toronto as a stand-in for Buffalo, and a documentary on cheerleading in the NFL. Buffalo Niagara Film Commissioner Tim Clark discusses the films with Pat Feldballe on WBFO's Press Pass.

The internationally renowned Janoska Ensemble will be performing tonight in Olean at the The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. What makes the group stand out is their improvisational arrangements of classical pieces and on their new album, Revolution, they mix Bach with the Beatles. WBFO’s Nick Lippa spoke with the group’s double bass player Julius Darvas.

The Alleyway Theatre created a "Playwrights Circle" to nurture and develop local playwrights. Members include j. Snodrass, Bella Poynton, Mark C. Lloyd and Jennifer Tromble each of whom has one new one-act play as part of Buffalo Quickies 2019 with the other four selected by Festival Director Joyce Stilson from over 280 scripts (note adult content).

The latest designs for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery's planned expansion were unveiled Thursday. The museum will close for an extended period of time once construction begins later this year.