Each year Grinnell College hosts several major performances of significant cultural import. The Committee for Public Events, a body composed of both faculty and students, selects between four and six noted performers to visit Grinnell.

• Bela Fleck/Zakir Hussain/Edgar Meyer: October 15, 2009; Tickets available October 12.
• St. Lawrence Quartet: November 5, 2009; Tickets available November 2.
• LINES Ballet: February 3, 2010; Tickets available January 29.
• Evelyn Glennie: April 9, 2010; Tickets available April 6.

(brief stories below)

Performances are free, but tickets are required. Tickets are available to the public beginning four business days prior to the performance and are distributed until no tickets remain. Tickets are distributed from the box office in the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts at the corner of 6th and Park in Grinnell.

Tickets are free to those present at the box office during open hours between noon and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Phone reservations are not accepted, though you may call the box office at 641-269-4444 during open hours to determine if tickets are still available.

A limited number of tickets are also available beginning at noon on the first distribution date from the Pioneer Bookshop in downtown Grinnell.

• Kevin Engel, Chair
  Faculty, staff and student suggestions should be directed to the chair.
  
  
• Rachel Bly (ex officio)
  All agents should contact Rachel for information.

Three masterful genre-benders and the leading virtuosos on their respective instruments, Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer move with ease among the worlds of classical, bluegrass, and world music. This year, they join together for the first time in trio concerts of original music. Three of the most limitless creators and composers in the history of music, Fleck, Hussain, and Meyer share an unprecedented array of projects and pairings among them, which touch every geographical and stylistic corner of the musical world. The trio's latest recording in fall 2009 features music performed on the tour alongside their innovative Triple Concerto for Banjo, Tabla, and Double Bass.

The St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) is among the world-class chamber ensembles of its generation. Since winning both the Banff International String Quartet competition and Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1992, the quartet has delighted audiences with dynamic performances. The quartet includes violist Lesley Robertson, cellist Christopher Costanza, and violinists Geoff Nuttall and Scott St. John. "Play every concert like it's your last, every phrase like it's the most important thing you've ever said," Nuttall asserts. "Remember that the only reason you're there is to make people cry and sweat and shiver, and give them that incredible sense of creation happening before your eyes."

Alonzo King's celebrated LINES Ballet of San Francisco has a uniquely global artistic vision. Collaborating with noted composers, musicians, and visual artists, King creates works that draw on a diverse set of deeply rooted cultural traditions and imbue classical ballet with new expressive potential. The visionary choreography connects audiences to a profound sense of shared humanity-of vulnerability and tenderness, but also of furious abandon and exhilarating freedom.

Evelyn Glennie is a full-time solo percussionist. As an eclectic and innovative musician, she presents more than 100 performances a year worldwide, working with the world's greatest conductors, orchestras, and artists. Glennie composes and records music for film and television, and constantly explores other areas of creativity -from writing a bestselling autobiography, Good Vibrations, to collaborating with renowned director Thomas Riedelsheimer on the film Touch the Sound, to appearing on television across the world, including Late Night with David Letterman, Sesame Street, and more. In 1993, Glennie was awarded the OBE (Officer of the British Empire)-one of her more than 80 international awards.