Composer Zina Goldrich has spent nearly two decades developing “Ever After,” a revisionist Cinderella story powered by human courage rather than magic — and Phoenix Theatre Company’s brand-new Stephenson Theatre is finally giving it the stage it deserves.
At 76, Phoenix singer-songwriter Sarah James is releasing original music, running a globally followed vintage guitar series, and donating Waylon Jennings’ Stratocaster to the MIM — proof that some stories take a lifetime to get started.
Singer-songwriter Jai Graves took the long road to Arizona — from Kentucky hockey rinks to Detroit dive bars — and found his country music voice in the Sonoran Desert, where a Rising Star Award and a debut album signal the moment everything clicks.
Vietnam veteran Doug Bradley has written a memoir organized entirely by its soundtrack — from doo-wop in postwar Philadelphia to Hendrix in Vietnam — tracing a life shaped by music and the extraordinary history it witnessed firsthand.
Adopted from Bulgaria and raised in Anthem, baritone Jacob Soulliere carries the Phoenix Boys Choir, the Boulder Creek choir risers and the mentors who shaped him to Carnegie Hall and the San Francisco Conservatory — and wherever the music takes him next.
Carefree jazz vocalist Shannon Wallace walked away from a grant application — and toward her true calling — when a single question forced her to reckon with what music is actually for.
Beyond its celebrated concert season, Arizona Musicfest quietly serves more than 5,000 people a year through Music Alive! — a year-round program of free seminars, instrument classes and community connection that has become the organization’s most essential work.
At Jubilate Conservatory of Music in Carefree’s Spanish Village, founder Laya Field is building something rare: a multigenerational musical community where toddlers discover rhythm, teenagers compose original works and everyone finds a seat at the table.
Craig Brewer’s “Song Sung Blue” is a five-star triumph — a soaring, heartbreaking and ultimately jubilant true story about two working-class dreamers who prove that love, music and resilience can conquer almost anything.
Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman brings his groundbreaking “Symphonic Blues Experience” to Arizona Musicfest, fusing Mississippi Delta authenticity with orchestral grandeur for an unprecedented cultural celebration.