Penn Live Arts will feature a variety of timely and engaging performances this month. To see more details and buy tickets, visit https://pennlivearts.org/.

JACK Quartet: Beautiful Trouble

February 2, 8 p.m.

Known for “reliably surprising, and reliably impressive” (The New York Times) performances, the JACK Quartet makes its Penn Live Arts debut in the world premiere of Natacha Diels’ Beautiful Trouble. Based on a five-part video series for choreographed string quartet, this concert-length production merges experimental music, video, and theater to create a sensory experience that considers our ability and desire to consume media. Dr. Diels, an assistant professor of music at Penn, created the work to examine a moment in time through the power of abstract narrative and music, both heard and seen.

Cécile McLorin Salvant

February 3, 8 p.m.

Cécile McLorin Salvant is quite simply “the finest jazz singer to emerge in the last decade” (The New York Times). A three-time Grammy Award winner and 2020 MacArthur Fellow, this genre-defying, theatrical vocalist captivated a full house when she debuted on the Penn Live Arts stage in 2021 and now, she returns on the heels of a brand-new album, Mélusine. With her velvety and “elusively beautiful voice” on full display, Ms. Salvant combines her conservatory-honed technique with a prismatic gift for lyrical storytelling in this must-see live performance.

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir

February 8, 7:30 p.m.

One of the world’s finest choirs, the storied Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir comes to Philadelphia for the first time. These “pure and impassioned, astounding choral artists” (The Wall Street Journal) perform works by their countryman, Arvo Pärt, for whom they are the foremost interpreter, as well as by Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. A chance to hear the powerful, precise, and expressive voices of this virtuosic ensemble in one of Philadelphia’s most beautiful spaces is a rare treat.

Ballets Jazz Montréal: ESSENCE

February 9, 10:30 a.m. and 8 p.m.; February 10, 2 and 8 p.m.

One of the world’s most renowned dance companies, Ballets Jazz Montréal, celebrates its 50th anniversary with a landmark program including two Philadelphia premieres: Crystal Pite’s critically acclaimed Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue explores classic storylines that invite the audience to determine who exactly rescues whom, and We Can’t Forget About What’s His Name by company member Ausia Jones ruminates on feelings of uncertainty and how it influences moments of connection. Completing the repertoire, Aszure Barton’s Les Chambres des Jacques creates “a world of wonder” (The Boston Globe) that is “full of surprise and humor, emotion and pain” (The New York Times).

Negro Ensemble Company: Zooman and the Sign

February 15, 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.; February 16, 8 p.m.; February 17, 2 and 8 p.m.; February 18, 3 p.m.

“Arguably the most successful Black theatre group in the world” (American Theatre), the Negro Ensemble Company, a Penn Live Arts 23/24 season artist-in-residence, returns with a revival of Charles Fuller’s Zooman and the Sign. Set in Philadelphia in 1979, the play explores the effects of gun violence on a family and their struggle to convince apathetic neighbors to stand together to achieve justice. Mr. Fuller was born and raised in Philadelphia, and is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning work, A Soldier’s Play, originally produced off-Broadway by the Negro Ensemble Company. Now, Penn Live Arts brings the Obie Award-winning play home to celebrate this remarkable playwright and shed light on how his work still resonates today.

Balaklava Blues

February 25, 7 p.m.

Balaklava Blues is an activist-driven, genre-bending group mixing traditional folk music and transnational EDM with the echoes of revolution and war. A timely Philadelphia debut performance, this full-blown multimedia techno concert aims to build empathy and understanding when we need it most, spotlighting Ukrainian experiences and music with universal themes of identity, displacement, oppression and trauma. “Gorgeously sung and passionately played,” Balaklava Blues is “an evocation of human solidarity” (The Guardian).

Fima Chupakhin

February 29, 7:30 p.m.

Brooklyn-based Ukrainian jazz pianist and film composer Fima Chupakhin makes his Penn Live Arts debut with the world premiere of The Song of Tomorrow, a commissioned work dedicated to the resilience and perseverance of the Ukrainian people. Leader of the award-winning Acoustic Quartet jazz group in Ukraine, this rising star first came to the U.S. to study on a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and is now a versatile player and producer on the New York scene. Building on the success of his debut album, Water, Mr. Chupakhin’s performances are masterful and emotive, making for a stellar evening of jazz.