Arts & Culture

The United San Antonio Pow Wow is February 1-2 and the once-a-year gathering is unlike any other in San Antonio. The event is presented by the group American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions.

"People who come out will be able to enjoy traditional Native American dancing, be able to taste traditional American Indian food," said Executive Director Ramon Vasquez.

The San Antonio Pow Wow is held at the Alzafar Shrine Temple on Loop 1604 in the Stone Oak area and is free to all who come.

Conspirare is a choral group that works out of Austin and a few times a year they make it to San Antonio. But calling them an Austin choral group though isn’t entirely accurate..

"Actually only a small number of the singers are here in Austin," said Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson. "This is an ensemble of singers from around the country, really. Each of them is a soloist in their own right. They may be performing art songs, or operatically, or on Broadway, or in faculty positions, and yet come together and form a choir of soloists, in a sense."

A movie stuffed with squirrels behaving badly, “The Nut Job” dilutes its kid-friendly message of working together to get things done by stuffing its cast full of fuzzy animals that are pretty mean to each other for nearly the entire length of the movie. Set in a vaguely 1940s-era urban landscape (the one thing I did enjoy), the movie opens on the denizens of a park worrying about having enough food for the winter.

There are two concerts this weekend that are sure to pack some surprises for those attending. You may know Mark Wood as the guy who decided violins just had too stuffy an image, and who created music like this.

A staple of easy listening radio throughout the latter half of the 20th century, Henry Mancini’s gifted songwriting abilities often overshadowed the films he scored. Despite winning an Oscar for his score for “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” (in addition to another Oscar he shared with Johnny Mercer for “Moon River” from the same film), the complete score for the picture has gone largely unheard on compact disc until now.

The new Tobin Center for the Performing Arts is scheduled to open in September and will be the new home venue for the San Antonio Symphony, Ballet San Antonio and other arts companies. The high-tech performance venue is said to be one of the must-have parts of making the city world class in the arts. As Tobin Foundation Chair Bruce Bugg notes, the Tobin started with the voters.

"Bexar county voters overwhelmingly by a 65 percent vote supported the Bond Election," Bugg said.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, and the Carver Cultural Center has found an interesting way of celebrating. They’re doing so with a play called "The Mountaintop."

"'The Mountaintop' is truly a fantastic piece that takes you through what possibly the last night of Martin Luther King’s life was like," said Danielle King, president of the Renaissance Guild, "San Antonio's black theater company."

As you likely know, the city-wide Dvořák Festival finds several classical music assets doing live concerts of the composer’s music. The yearly one-composer focus was begun by the San Antonio Symphony, and this is its fourth year.

"This week is the only week where we have two different programs on Friday and Saturday so you have to come twice this weekend if you want to hear the entire Dvořák cycle," said Symphony Music Director Sebastian Lang-Lessing.

Acclaimed soloist Michel Dalberto performs with the symphony first.