Music

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.

Cheap Trick, which was to be the opener for a show by rock band Heart, was announced Friday as the replacement for Heart as grandstand opening-night headliner at 7 p.m. Aug. 28. It will be joined for the show by another 1970s hit rock group — Blue Oyster Cult, best known for its 1976 hit "(Don't Fear) The Reaper."

It's been two weeks since rock band Heart canceled its opening-night headline concert at Allentown Fair, and it looks like the fair is set to announce a replacement.

For the first time, the two-day festival will feature a barbecue competition, along with 11 blues performers. It will take place Friday, July 19 and Saturday, July 20 at SteelStacks.

Singer-songwriter Joshua Radin will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at Sellersville Theater 1894. Tickets, at $35 to $72, are available on the theater's website and are expected to be available at the door.

Country Music Hall of Fame quartet The Oak Ridge Boys will perform at Easton's State Theatre on Sunday, March 15, it was announced.

The Menzingers, who in 2026 will observe 20 years as a band and have released seven critically acclaimed albums, will perform at Archer Music Hall on Saturday, Jan. 24. Tickets are on sale now.

Paying tribute to their South African roots, the Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir filled Lehigh University’s arts venue with soaring harmonies, faith and movement in a nearly sold-out performance Saturday night.

Professor Louie and The Crowmatix will perform some of those songs when it performs at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 12, at the Bell Tower Cultural Center, 2904 Church Road, Lower Mount Bethel Township. Tickets, at $20, are available in advance at the Bell Tower website. They will be $25 at the door.

Martin Guitar welcomed guests from across the music industry to talk about protecting the environment at its first Sustainability Summit on Thursday.

Tesla, best known for its 1989 Top 10 gold hit "Love Song" and its 1991 Top 10 hit cover of Five Man Electrical Band’s “Signs,” will perform at 8 p.m. Jan. 23.

Hardy, whose 2023 album "The Mockingbird & The Crow" topped the Country Albums chart and produced the platinum hits "Wait in the Truck" (featuring Lainey Wilson), "Truck Bed" and "Sold Out," will perform at 7 p.m. March 26.

KC and The Sunshine Band, who had the hit “Boogie Shoes” in a run of six No. 1 songs and five others that hit the Top 40 from 1975 to ’79, will play State Theatre on Saturday, March 28.

Allentown Symphony's New Chamber Music Concert series will start with "Innovation" in the Da Vinci Science Center's Curiosity Center at 7 p.m. Oct. 28.

Saves The Day, whose albums "Stay What You Are" in 2001 and "In Reverie" in 2003 were the prototype for emo-punk, will perform at Archer Music Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 9. Sharing the bill will be Glassjaw and Soul Blind.

"Kinky Boots," whose six Tony wins came from 13 nominations, and which also won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album, will be performed Saturday, March 7, and Sunday, March 8, the theater announced.