Curtain Call is your front-row seat to the unique, lively, and memorable performances shaping Kalamazoo’s arts scene. Supported by the I.S. Gilmore Foundation, this series highlights the creativity and community that make each show something special.
Connecting Chords brings an eclectic mix of global music, dance, film, and cultural traditions to Kalamazoo, continuing a 25-year mission of connecting audiences through the shared power of art.
Kalamashoegazer, Kalamazoo’s 17-year-old celebration of dreamy, guitar-heavy shoegaze, proves the genre is less about standing sadly in a corner than getting lost together in a transcendent wall of sound.
From youth rock bands to funk, hip-hop, reggae, and blues, Beats on Bates has turned a humble alley into the soundtrack of Kalamazoo's summer Wednesdays.
On Friday nights at Martini's, The Birdseed Salesmen's jazz drifts across the wildflower-edged patio where conversations about sled dogs, art weirdos, punk rock, and everyday life reveal the quirky sense of place that makes Vine unlike anywhere else in town.
At the Gilmore Piano Festival finale in Kalamazoo, Grammy-winning pianist Sullivan Fortner and fellow jazz innovators delivered a daring, emotionally charged performance that proved the city’s audience is sophisticated enough to embrace adventurous modern jazz.
Las Cafeteras transformed a Sunday afternoon into a high-energy celebration, blending centuries of musical tradition with a joyful call for unity and shared humanity.
Blending symphony, rap, poetry and dance, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra’s “Symphonic Beats” celebrated women in hip-hop culture while showcasing the strength of Kalamazoo’s local scene.
WMU Theatre’s intimate staging of Keith Bunin’s “The Coast Starlight” captures the restless hope, impulsiveness and emotional rawness of youth, showcasing how college theater turns a deceptively simple train ride into a poignant exploration of growth, connection and exhilarating uncertainty.
With intimate shows that blend punk, experimental music, performance art, and fundraising, Glow Hall’s founder is betting that Kalamazoo’s crowded creative scene still has room for events that are deliberately small, collaborative, and a little extra.
Check out our youth review of the Kalamazoo Academy of Rock's showcase at Bell’s Backroom.
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