Music

There will be two “Twist & Shout” Musikfest Sunday Brunches in Hotel Bethlehem's Grand Ballroom — Aug. 4 and Aug. 11.

Wheatus, best known for its 2000 single “Teenage Dirtbag,” will perform at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 22 in Musikfest Cafe at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks, it was announced.

The celebration of the Isla del Encanto in Allentown was organized by the Puertorrican Culture Preservation and held on Sunday, July 28.

Musikfest 2024 begins with a preview night on Thursday. The 11-day festival will feature more than 422 artists and more than 500 concerts. Headliners include Greta Van Fleet, ZZ Top, Ludacris and Jowell & Randy.

College Hill PorchFest, a celebration of music and community across the Easton neighborhood, will return in September, with applications for performers and porches being accepted until July 31.

Tickets for the 50 shows in the new season go on sale to theater members at 10 a.m. Aug. 1 and to the public at 10 a.m. Aug. 8 at www.statetheatre.org, or at the box office at 453 Northampton St., Easton.

Erica Silver, a music teacher with the Allentown School District, is the youth chorale's newest conductor and Alaina Swartz is the new director of education and community engagement.

Diana Ross, who with The Supremes had a dozen No. 1 hits in the 1960s, then a half dozen more as a solo artist in the 1970s and ’80s, will perform at the center at 8 p.m. Oct. 18.

ArtsQuest, in partnership with Trans-Bridge Lines and Penn State University, on Monday announced a new satellite parking lot will be established at Penn State Lehigh Valley.

The opening night (the fest continues 2-11 p.m. today) offered New York gospel-blues trio The Harlem Gospel Travelers as headliners, and they offered an enthusiastic set. But it was some of the supporting acts that elevated the experience.

Live Nation, the huge entertainment company that will run the Archer Music Hall, will hold a job fair Thursday and Friday, Jan. 23-24. It has said it expects to fill more than 200 permanent jobs at the venue in nearly 20 categories.

The Burt Bacharach Songbook Live is coming in April to Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem.

Pop-soul group Lawrence, best known for its Top 40 Pop chart hit "Whatcha Want," will perform in the venue on Oct. 11, it was announced.

Chicago, which is among the Top 30 bestselling music acts of all time, with more than 120 million copies of its 46 albums sold worldwide, will perform on Musikfest's main Steel Stage on Aug. 5.

The broad range of shows coming to Allentown's new Archer Music Hall includes an all-star revue of New Orleans musicians that headlined Musikfest's main stage, an iconic original punk band and an early 2000s teen chart-topper.

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers tribute band Damn the Torpedoes will perform Friday, Jan. 17, at Musikfest Cafe at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem.

A top-priced $99 ticket for country star Darius Rucker at Musikfest on Aug. 3 normally would come with a $10 service fee, a $8.50 Musikfest venue fee and a $1 ticket vendor fee. So normally, you'd pay $19.50 in fees (a 19.7% upcharge) per ticket. But not today.

In the last year and a half, Allentown School District spent more than $1.4 million on new instruments and hired 34 educators to teach the related arts, which include band, choir and orchestra, among others.

The Three Kings celebration at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks will feature a children's story time, distribution of toys, and an appearance by Einstein the camel.

Operators of The Archer Music Hall — Live Nation — very soon should be announcing the downtown Allentown venue's first shows, especially with February pegged as the opening month.

Starting with a show at Lehigh University's Stabler Arena in 1981, Dylan played the Lehigh Valley 10 times — some of them significant shows.

Ditch the Chinese food and the sweatpants: Here are some fun ideas to help you and yours ring in the New Year in the Lehigh Valley.