The Zeiterion Performing Arts Center is an inspirational gathering place in the heart of downtown New Bedford that connects you with the best in live music, theater, dance, comedy, film, education, and festivals. We are a place where people gather, varied perspectives are welcomed, and the performing arts are celebrated.
Bronspiegel Auditorium, New Bedford High School
Yaniv Dinur, conductor and emcee
Did you know that video games take their music very seriously? Major contemporary composers, themes from great classical works of the past, and the high energy and many moods that spring from the boundless imagination of virtual worlds will all come together and fill the concert hall. The program will include music from:
Starfield
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Return Fire
Saints Row IV
Forza Horizon 3
Cyberpunk 2077
Gerda: A Flame in Winter
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Final Fantasy VII
Call of Duty
Minecraft
Fallout 4
Super Mario Bros.
The Legend of Zelda
Come in costume to be entered in our gaming gift card raffle!
The Z invites musicians and music lovers to grab your instruments for a no-cost jam session led by sax player and music educator Emmanuel “Manny” Escobar!
Shed all your cares, enjoy live music, improv and jam out with us. Musicians, vocalists, visual artists ,and audience welcome. No prior jam experience or tickets necessary.
The free Jazz Jam take place on AHA! Nights on November 14 (7-8PM), February 13 (6-7PM), March 13 (6-7PM),and May 8 (6-7PM).
At the Co-Creative Center,137 Union Street, New Bedford.
Join us!
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Acushnet Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
The second annual HBCU College Fair returns!
Learn all about attending a Historically Black College or University. Admission is free and open to all. To save your spot, click the TICKETS button.
Join us to connect with graduates from 10 HBCUs, including:
• Claflin University
• Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU)
• Hampton University
• Howard University
• Morgan State University
• Norfolk State University
• North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T)
• Spelman College
• Tuskegee University
• Virginia State University
The event will take place from 11am - 2pm at Andrea McCoy Recreation Center, 181 Hillman St., Bldg. 8, New Bedford. Free pizza provided by Domino's.
Let us know you're coming! Click here to save your spot.
Snow date: Saturday, February 22.
Bronspiegel Auditorium, New Bedford High School
Yaniv Dinur, conductor
Bella Hristova, violin
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy - Overture
David Ludwig: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Manuel de Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat, Suite No. 1
Wouldn’t it be nice if a person who loved you wrote a song (or a whole concerto!) to celebrate who you are and how deeply they love you? Well, that might be asking too much for most of us, but not for our guest artist and her composer husband, Bella Hristova and David Ludwig. When they married, he wrote for her the concerto we are performing for you in this concert, and we’ve invited her to be the soloist. Let the sparks fly and feel the love on Valentine’s Weekend!
You might have heard of two other lovers named Romeo and Juliet. While things did not work out well for them, the longing and the passion they felt for each other (thank you, Shakespeare!) has been immortalized in Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. We guarantee this music will transport you. Come to the concert and find out where it will take you.
Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy is exactly what love is: quiet, soothing, joyous – and messy, loud, and chaotic! We really can’t call this one a love song, but it is a song about love. Of course, you will get to decide for yourself when you hear it.
The Z invites musicians and music lovers to grab your instruments for a no-cost jam session led by sax player and music educator Emmanuel “Manny” Escobar!
Shed all your cares, enjoy live music, improv and jam out with us. Musicians, vocalists, visual artists ,and audience welcome. No prior jam experience or tickets necessary.
The free Jazz Jam takes place on AHA! Nights on November 14 (7-8PM), February 13 (6-7PM), March 13 (6-7PM),and May 8 (6-7PM).
At the Co-Creative Center,137 Union Street, New Bedford.
Join us!
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Acushnet Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Join us for the 2024-2025 NBSO Season. We are YOUR Symphony!
This season, we will continue to present at the Bronspiegel Auditorium at New Bedford High School and will have our final concert of the season at Fireman Performing Arts Center at Tabor Academy. A listing of performances and descriptions is below.
Purchase a subscription to three or more performances and receive a discount for each performance.
To purchase a subscription to all seven shows, click here.
For a subscription of three, four, five or six shows, click here.
NBSO's 2024-25 SEASON
A New Bedford Collage
Saturday, September 28, 2024, 7:30PM
Bronspiegel Auditorium, New Bedford High School
Yaniv Dinur, conductor
Click here for tickets to A New Bedford Collage.
Jazz Quartet: Dino Govoni (tenor sax), Ben Cook (piano), Dave Zinno (bass), Max Goldman (drums)
Richard Wagner: Prelude to Tristan und Isolde
Jazz Quartet: Jamming on “Tristan Chord”
KabuJazz Ensemble: Love Each Other Through, Sodade
Giovanni Gabrieli: Canzon per sonar duodecimi toni a 8
Johann Sebastian Bach: Chaconne, featuring Ethan Wood
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4
We’ve all made collages as kids, or with our kids. In this concert we create a musical collage for you with some Cape Verdean music, some jazz, and of course some classical. The different groups will be set up around the auditorium so you will be part of the collage too, and hear the music all around you.
This concert features New Bedford-based jazz giant Dino Govoni, New Bedford legend Candida Rose, New Bedford resident (and NBSO Assistant Concertmaster) Ethan Wood, and (we suppose this goes without saying …) your New Bedford Symphony Orchestra! The concert ends with Brahms’ very large, emotional, and beautiful Symphony No. 4. It’s a perfect way to capture everything our community means to us.
In the art world, a collage gives the artist the freedom to create a beautiful visual experience using many different and even seemingly unrelated objects. We have created this New Bedford Collage to give you that experience through music. This concert celebrates the amazing talent we have in our community and the creativity that is unleashed when we break down barriers and join forces to express the joy and beauty inside every one of us. Immerse yourself in this experience and see what effect it has on you!
Dance the Night AwaySaturday, October 26, 2024, 7:30PM
Bronspiegel Auditorium, New Bedford High School
Yaniv Dinur, conductor
Click here for tickets to Dance the Night Away.
Newport Contemporary Ballet
Mathilde Wantenaar: Prélude à une nuit américaine
George Gershwin: An American In Paris
Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2
Whether it’s in the kitchen, at a wedding, or at a club, dancing is something we all do. Some of us took dance lessons as a child, some of us got up our nerve at a school dance, and some of us just can’t help moving when we feel the beat.
We hope you won’t be shocked to learn that classical music composers are no different than the rest of us. They feel that beat too, and they love to create motion and energy with their music. In this program, we dive into the power music has to make us want to move and express ourselves in motion. Each piece is inspired by dance and probably the best way to prepare for the concert is to watch Gene Kelly dancing in An American in Paris and watching the Sharks and the Jets dance it out in West Side Story.
The extraordinary Newport Contemporary Ballet will join us in the final piece of the concert. They will glide across the stage and around the auditorium to Ravel’s musical love story, Daphnis et Chloe. Let the motion in the music and the motion in the dance soothe you and inspire you.
Bridging Oceans
Saturday, November 16, 2024, 7:30PM
Bronspiegel Auditorium, New Bedford High School
Yaniv Dinur, conductor
Guest artist: Hector Del Curto, bandoneon
Click here for tickets to Bridging Oceans.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F
Astor Piazzolla: Oblivion (arr. Robert Longfield )
Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G
Astor Piazzolla: Aconcagua; Concerto for Bandoneon
Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite No. 2 in B minor
There are two oceans (and two centuries) between Argentinian Astor Piazzolla and German Johann Sebastian Bach, but there are strong connections between them. That is why this concert pairs the music of these two great composers. Bach’s music often uses forms developed from dances and Piazzolla caused quite a stir when he merged his love of the tango with his love of classical music. At an early age, Piazzolla discovered the music of Bach and couldn’t stop playing it on the piano. He then became a virtuoso bandoneon player (an Argentinian accordion-like instrument that was actually invented in Germany) and learned to play Bach on that. Even when he formed his own tango band and played in the clubs of Buenos Aires, he infused his music with both jazz and Bach-inspired fugues.
This concert will transport you back and forth between two worlds of music, worlds that are in some ways very different from each other but in the most important ways very connected to each other. We want you to feel that connection and help you create your own world for one night.
Holiday Pops
Sunday, December 15, 2024, 3:30 & 7:30PM
Bronspiegel Auditorium, New Bedford High School
Yaniv Dinur, conductor and emcee
Appearances by the Southeastern Massachusetts Youth Orchestra and the Showstoppers
Click here for tickets to Holiday Pops.
Celebrate the season with family and friends at our Holiday Pops concerts. You will be immersed in joyous music, laughter, and the spirit of the season. The festively-decorated auditorium and family-friendly atmosphere are just what everybody needs at this time of year. We have an amazing line-up of holiday entertainment with Yaniv, our musicians, and special guests, including The Showstoppers and the Southeastern Massachusetts Youth Orchestra. Both performances are about one hour long, with no intermission.
Super Mario vs. ZeldaSaturday, January 18, 2025, 7:30PM
Bronspiegel Auditorium, New Bedford High School
Yaniv Dinur, conductor and emcee
Click here for tickets to Super Mario vs. Zelda.
Did you know that video games take their music very seriously? Major contemporary composers, themes from great classical works of the past, and the high energy and many moods that spring from the boundless imagination of virtual worlds will all come together and fill the concert hall. The program will include music from:
Starfield
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Return Fire
Saints Row IV
Forza Horizon 3
Cyberpunk 2077
Gerda: A Flame in Winter
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Final Fantasy VII
Call of Duty
Minecraft
Fallout 4
Super Mario Bros.
The Legend of Zelda
Love and EcstasySaturday, February 15, 2025, 7:30PM
Bronspiegel Auditorium, New Bedford High School
Yaniv Dinur, conductor
Bella Hristova, violin
Click here for tickets to Love and Ecstasy.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy - Overture
David Ludwig: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Manuel de Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat, Suite No. 1
Wouldn’t it be nice if a person who loved you wrote a song (or a whole concerto!) to celebrate who you are and how deeply they love you? Well, that might be asking too much for most of us, but not for our guest artist and her composer husband, Bella Hristova and David Ludwig. When they married, he wrote for her the concerto we are performing for you in this concert, and we’ve invited her to be the soloist. Let the sparks fly and feel the love on Valentine’s Weekend!
You might have heard of two other lovers named Romeo and Juliet. While things did not work out well for them, the longing and the passion they felt for each other (thank you, Shakespeare!) has been immortalized in Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. We guarantee this music will transport you. Come to the concert and find out where it will take you.
Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy is exactly what love is: quiet, soothing, joyous – and messy, loud, and chaotic! We really can’t call this one a love song, but it is a song about love. Of course, you will get to decide for yourself when you hear it.
Yaniv Plays Beethoven
Friday, March 14, 2025, 7:30PM
Saturday, March 15, 2025, 7:30PM
Fireman Performing Arts Center, Tabor Academy
Yaniv Dinur, conductor & piano
Click here for tickets to Yaniv Plays Beethoven.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3
Adolphus Hailstork: Symphony No. 3
When your music director is an incredible conductor and a talented pianist, it only makes sense to put him to work doing both (at the same time). Yaniv has impressed us in the past as a musical multitasker. In this concert he once again brings his artistry performing as soloist and conducting the orchestra in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Beethoven’s music has been delighting people and touching their souls for a couple of hundred years. Come find out why.
Adolphus Hailstork is one of the most talented and beloved composers living in the United States today. His Symphony No. 3 is considered a masterpiece. The symphony’s music ranges from rousing brass marches to the sweetest of melodies. True story: When we played one of his pieces during the pandemic we sent him the video of the performance. He emailed back to us “OMG – what a sound your orchestra has!” We have to admit we love his music as much as he loves our orchestra.
For complete details on NBSO season and subscriptions, click here.
Fireman Performing Arts Center, Tabor Academy
Yaniv Dinur, conductor & piano
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3
Adolphus Hailstork: Symphony No. 3
When your music director is an incredible conductor and a talented pianist, it only makes sense to put him to work doing both (at the same time). Yaniv has impressed us in the past as a musical multitasker. In this concert he once again brings his artistry performing as soloist and conducting the orchestra in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Beethoven’s music has been delighting people and touching their souls for a couple of hundred years. Come find out why.
Adolphus Hailstork is one of the most talented and beloved composers living in the United States today. His Symphony No. 3 is considered a masterpiece. The symphony’s music ranges from rousing brass marches to the sweetest of melodies. True story: When we played one of his pieces during the pandemic we sent him the video of the performance. He emailed back to us “OMG – what a sound your orchestra has!” We have to admit we love his music as much as he loves our orchestra.
The Z invites musicians and music lovers to grab your instruments for a no-cost jam session led by sax player and music educator Emmanuel “Manny” Escobar!
Shed all your cares, enjoy live music, improv and jam out with us. Musicians, vocalists, visual artists ,and audience welcome. No prior jam experience or tickets necessary.
The free Jazz Jam takes place on AHA! Nights on November 14 (7-8PM), February 13 (6-7PM), March 13 (6-7PM),and May 8 (6-7PM).
At the Co-Creative Center,137 Union Street, New Bedford.
Join us!
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Acushnet Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
An eclectic group of sixth-graders arrives at the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, each eager to win for very different reasons. Sweet and shy Olive brings only her best friend (the dictionary) with her to the bee; bold and hyperallergic speller William Barfee uses his “magic foot” to propel him to greatness; former champion Chip is struggling with his burgeoning puberty; easily distracted Leaf is unconvinced that he’s smart enough to be a challenger; overachiever Marcy is disappointed by her consistent success; and politically aware Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre only wants to impress her gay dads. In hilarious, touching, and catchy songs, each speller reveals his/her hopes, struggles, and passions as they make their way through the competition. With an engaging, tuneful score by William Finn and a sweet, funny book by Rachel Sheinkin, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee causes audiences to fall in love, both with the show itself and its “perspicacious,” “jocular,” and “effervescent” spellers.
NOTE - this show is rated PG-13.
The Z is pleased to offer a number of complimentary shows and events each season. You can find these free events by clicking on FREE EVENTS under DEALS section of the EVENTS page.
Build your own package to experience the shows YOU want — at a discount! Choose from shows marked with the Bundle & Save icon, listed below. Then use code BUNDLE at check-out to save 10% with tickets to 3 or more eligible events.
Use the right arrow to scroll through eligible shows. Not sure which shows are eligible for Bundle & Save? The Z box office staff is happy to help!
Please note: discounts are not available on VIP tickets or tickets under $25.
Not sure which shows are eligible? The Z box office staff is happy to help.
Bring a group of 10 or more to a Zeiterion performance and save! Groups enjoy discounts up to 20% off tickets to most shows and pay no order or processing fees.
PLUS! Earn one free ticket for every 20 tickets purchased for most shows. Special group rates for students are available for most shows.
New Bedford Symphony Orchestra offers no fees, plus 10% of Section C and 15% off Sections A and B with a purchase of 10 or more tickets.
Even if a show isn’t eligible for a group discount, the order and processing fees will be waived.
To reserve your seats, give us a call! Group discounts are not available online. Promotional posters and social media graphics are available on request. Recommendations for restaurants, accommodations, and cultural destinations happily offered.
A deposit is required one week after you reserve your order. Full payment and final ticket count are due 30 days before the performance date. If your final ticket count falls below 10, the regular ticket prices will apply. You may add tickets to your order based on availability. We’ll do our best to seat your party as close together as possible.
— AGUSTINHO R.
When the curtain came down on performing arts in the spring of 2020, The Z was faced with an enormous challenge. Thanks to the generosity of our amazing community of supporters, The Z reopens its doors for the 2021/22 season.
That said, the road ahead is still uncertain. But we know we can navigate any challenge with your help.
Your support means The Z can continue to...
• Be a safe place for shared experiences that build community bonds and create connections
• Stimulate emotional healing through stories told on stage
• Make an impact on the learning and success of children through Pre K-12 Education Programs
• Offer life-long learning opportunities in The Z’s Creative Classroom
Performing arts education plays a vital role at The Z.
We believe the arts are an essential component of a well-rounded education.
From performances for grades Pre K-12 to life-long learning in our Creative Classroom, The Z uses the lens of performing arts to expand the hearts and minds of all ages.
As a place for learning at all ages, The Z offers:
• Classes in performing arts disciplines for many skill levels
• Pre K-12 performances
• Internships for teens
• In-school literacy projects
• Pre- and post-show discussions
For a full list and schedule, visit zeiterion.org/learn.
Over the last 96 years, the Zeiterion Theatre has been a much-beloved place in New Bedford’s history. In 1923, the Zeitz brothers opened the Zeiterion as a grand Vaudeville house, with the vision of creating a “palace for the people.” At the time, the Zeiterion was one of nearly twenty theaters operating in the city of New Bedford. Shortly after opening, it transitioned to a movie house, and was renamed “The State Theatre.” Countless memories were made as the theater hosted opening nights for films such as “Moby Dick” and “Down to the Sea in Ships.” As time passed and people began seeking their entertainment elsewhere, the theatre fell dark and faced an uncertain future. Thanks to some visionary leaders, organizations like WHALE, and the support of this community, the Zeiterion was saved from the wrecking ball. In 1982, the Zeiterion Theatre was restored and reborn as a non-profit performing arts center, fondly called “The Z.” Today, The Z is a thriving home for live music, dance, theater, and film. It is a beacon for some of the best and brightest artists from around the world, exposing audiences of all ages to the power of the performing arts. Once one of many, The Z is now the last operating theater serving the city and a treasured landmark in downtown New Bedford. With the continued support of the community, The Z will remain at the center of cultural activity, entertaining and inspiring audiences for generations to come.
THANK YOU FOR BEING PART OF THE Z’S STORY.
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