Past Events › The Green Room

Featuring the premiere of a brand-new work for wind quintet by George Lewis, commissioned by the ensemble, the City of Tomorrow sets the audience inside a kaleidoscope of culture and memory. Composer, musicologist, and winner of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, George Lewis is currently the Artistic Director of the International Contemporary Ensemble and has written extensively on American experimental music, race, and the decolonization of contemporary music. His music is presented alongside another masterpiece for the modern quintet, De Memorias by Cuban-American composer Tania León. The City of Tomorrow’s specialty is creating immersive experiences, in which audiences are carried from one piece to the next in a transformative musical art installation. 

The Crosstown Strictly Jazz Series, presented by Crosstown Arts in collaboration with Strictly Jazz Entertainment, is designed to salute classic jazz music as contemporary musicians perform the work of the legends.

Lawrence Matthews’ 7:30 pm concert this Friday has sold out, but never fear! By popular demand, a second show for Lawrence Matthews’ return to the stage has been added! ⁠

Crosstown Arts presents Lawrence Matthews in The Green Room.
The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Friday, January 26, 2024
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $10
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
On Friday, January 26, at 7:30 pm, the multi-hyphenated artist Lawrence Matthews will perform for the first time since retiring his former stage name Don Lifted at the Overton Park Shell in 2022. Independent and sitting on an album and a half of new material, ….

Jazz alto and sopranino saxophonist Wessell “Warmdaddy” Anderson played jazz early on at the urging of his father, who was a drummer. He played in local clubs from his early teenage years, and studied at the Jazzmobile workshops with Frank Wess, Charles Davis, and Frank Foster. He also met Branford Marsalis, who convinced him to study with Alvin Batiste at Southern University in Louisiana.

Soul/jazz/funk sax player and vocalist Hope Clayburn is on a mission to move the people. Her unique style has allowed her to perform with an eclectic mix of artists around the world, including The Temptations, The Allman Brothers Band, and Valerie June.

Hope can be found in Memphis, Tennessee, recording and performing with a variety of bands like Lucky 7 Brass Band, Frog Squad, Marcella Simien, and Obruni Dance Band. She has her own funk soul ensemble, Hope Clayburn’s Soul Scrimmage, performing her original music. Their new single and music video “Nobody” is out now on YouTube, and their new album and vinyl record Y’all So Loud is coming this December.

Ho, ho, ho here they come, come, come! The Sissy Dicks are home for the holigays, playing their first Memphis show in over a year at The Green Room at Crosstown Arts! Four-time Grammy ineligible, nationally tolerated, and locally endured, they’re the queer country that no one asked for, but that your single uncle Richard definitely listens to alone in his truck after choir practice. Come on out and get your stocking absolutely stuffed at the xxxmessiest spectacle of the season and find out why The Sissy Dicks are on everyone’s prayer list!

Memphis-based, Arkansas-born singer-songwriter Mark Edgar Stuart performs a very special concert with Blueshift Ensemble, a Memphis-based contemporary chamber music ensemble dedicated to bringing artists and audiences together through artistic collaboration.