Coffee Concerts
Main Event Concerts
Special Events
Coffee Concerts at Hastings Arts Center
Coffee Concerts at the Hastings Arts Center have become a popular series. Audience members have come to hear many different performers through the years and it has become an enjoyable experience to look forward to each season. This year we have many performances to look forward to.
All Coffee Concerts are on Tuesday mornings at 10:30, with doors opening at 10:00 for coffee and treats. Audience members are encourage to enjoy the art gallery before and after the concert. Cash, Check donations to Friends of the Hastings Arts Center and VENMO @FriendsOfTheHAC are welcomed and appreciated. Thank you!
If you are unable to come in person, you may catch the livestream on our Facebook page by clicking here.
All Coffee Concerts are on Tuesday mornings at 10:30, with doors opening at 10:00 for coffee and treats. Audience members are encourage to enjoy the art gallery before and after the concert. Cash, Check donations to Friends of the Hastings Arts Center and VENMO @FriendsOfTheHAC are welcomed and appreciated. Thank you!
If you are unable to come in person, you may catch the livestream on our Facebook page by clicking here.
2025-2026 COFFEE CONCERT SCHEDULE
(All Concerts are on Tuesdays at 10:30am)
September 23, 2025: Nancy Earhart Burt, historical presentation on Amelia Earhart
October 7, 2025: Choro Borealis, Brazilian Choro music
November 4, 2025: Artu Duo--Ruth Marshall, cellist & Garret Ross, pianist
December 16, 2025: Hannah Flowers, harp
January 20, 2026: Sarah Lockwood-violin/viola & Gail Olszewski-piano
February 3, 2026: OboeBass duo
March 10, 2026: Jennifer Eckes presenting Broadway highlights
April 7, 2026: Amos Lucidi, pianist
May 19, 2026: The Paper Clips, trombone quartet
For more detail about these concerts, please scroll down further.
(All Concerts are on Tuesdays at 10:30am)
September 23, 2025: Nancy Earhart Burt, historical presentation on Amelia Earhart
October 7, 2025: Choro Borealis, Brazilian Choro music
November 4, 2025: Artu Duo--Ruth Marshall, cellist & Garret Ross, pianist
December 16, 2025: Hannah Flowers, harp
January 20, 2026: Sarah Lockwood-violin/viola & Gail Olszewski-piano
February 3, 2026: OboeBass duo
March 10, 2026: Jennifer Eckes presenting Broadway highlights
April 7, 2026: Amos Lucidi, pianist
May 19, 2026: The Paper Clips, trombone quartet
For more detail about these concerts, please scroll down further.
MAIN EVENT CONCERTS at Hastings Arts Center
Main Event Concerts are concerts with a ticket admission. We have curated an exceptional season for our patrons which includes a variety of genres: jazz, bluegrass, holiday pizazz, and a diverse palette to please all music tastes. We hope to transport you through educational and transformational experiences during your stay with us.
Season Tickets for the Main Event Concerts are now available. Season tickets include admission to 6 concerts at a 20-25% discount off the single ticket prices. Click below to purchase your discounted Season Ticket, today!
At most of the Main Event Concerts, there is an intermission to view the art gallery, partake in refreshments, and also mingle with the performers and perhaps purchase any of their merchandise. So, please plan for those extra costs when you come. We look forward to see you at the HAC!
Season Tickets for the Main Event Concerts are now available. Season tickets include admission to 6 concerts at a 20-25% discount off the single ticket prices. Click below to purchase your discounted Season Ticket, today!
At most of the Main Event Concerts, there is an intermission to view the art gallery, partake in refreshments, and also mingle with the performers and perhaps purchase any of their merchandise. So, please plan for those extra costs when you come. We look forward to see you at the HAC!
FREE COFFEE CONCERT
September 23, 2025 - 10:30am
Nancy Earhart Burt
Historical Presentation on Amelia Earhart
Free to attend
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Nancy Earhart Burt, 2nd cousin 3X removed from Amelia Earhart shares the amazing life story of Amelia. From growing up to how she found her joy of aviation, and her thoughts on women roles. And how did things go wrong for her on that final flight around the world?
Join us for this very special coffee "concert" historical presentation as the Hastings Arts Center kicks off its 11th season. This event is co-sponsored by Friends of the Hastings Arts Center, Hastings Senior Center, and the Hastings Area Historical Society and is a fundraiser for the three sponsors. Free-will cash or check donations of any amount are welcomed and appreciated. Checks can be payable to the organization of your choice. See you soon! |
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FREE COFFEE CONCERT
October 7, 2025 - 10:30am
Choro Borealis
Brazilian Choro Music
Free to attend
Choro Borealis
Choro Borealis brings together some of the Twin Cities’ finest musicians who share a deeply rooted passion for Brazilian music: Pat O’Keefe on clarinet, Tim O’Keefe on percussion and mandolin, Robert Everest on 7-string guitar and vocals, John Croarkin on flute, and David Burk on cavaquinho. Choro music is a lively instrumental genre native to Rio de Janeiro with strong European and African roots, and which developedat the same time as Ragtime and Dixieland Jazz in the US. Performing both choro standards and original compositions, the magic of Choro Borealis is the playful interplay among the musicians, and the many varieties of instruments they employ in bringing choro music to life for their audiences.
Choro Borealis brings together some of the Twin Cities’ finest musicians who share a deeply rooted passion for Brazilian music: Pat O’Keefe on clarinet, Tim O’Keefe on percussion and mandolin, Robert Everest on 7-string guitar and vocals, John Croarkin on flute, and David Burk on cavaquinho. Choro music is a lively instrumental genre native to Rio de Janeiro with strong European and African roots, and which developedat the same time as Ragtime and Dixieland Jazz in the US. Performing both choro standards and original compositions, the magic of Choro Borealis is the playful interplay among the musicians, and the many varieties of instruments they employ in bringing choro music to life for their audiences.
MAIN EVENT CONCERT
Friday-October 24, 2025
7:30pm
An Evening with the Jonah Walt Jazz Quartet
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Come Hear the Jonah Walt Jazz Quartet Live!
Join us for an eclectic night of jazz music put on by the Jonah Walt Quartet! Throughout the night, compositions from the post-bop era of jazz up to the present will be performed, including original compositions by Walt himself. With co-performers Jeremy Boetcher on bass, Patrick Adkins on piano, and Everett Needleman on drums, this quartet will bring the centerpiece of ambiance that one can only find at evening jazz clubs in the city. In his compositions, Walt explores the deep inner voices within us all and how they relate to the world around us. Recently in April, Walt and the UWEC Jazz Ensemble 1 played his composition for big band called “Poetics” at the headliner concert of the Eau Claire Jazz Festival. As he continues his musical journey, Walt’s plan is to go through graduate school to further his clarity of honest expression within his compositions and performances. The Hastings Arts Center is excited to host one of Hastings' own talents! Come hear the Jonah Walt Jazz Quartet live as we kick off our Main Event Concert Series! |
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FREE COFFEE CONCERT
November 4, 2025 - 10:30am
Artu Duo
Cello and Piano Duo
Free to attend
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Now in their 15th year as Artu Duo, pianist Garret Ross and cellist Ruth Marshall are based in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, MN, and enjoy concertizing and teaching together both on tour and at home.
Planned Program for November 4th Robert Schumann: Five Pieces in Folk Style (op. 102) Dorothy Rudd Moore: Dirge and Deliverance Sergei Prokofiev: Sonata for Cello and Piano (op. 119) |
MAIN EVENT CONCERT
Saturday-November 15, 2025
7:00pm
Rue & Sabien play Rue & Sabien
Gary Rue (guitar, piano and voice): Composer, lyricist, performer, songs recorded by Helen Reddy, Nick Lowe, Prudence Johnson. 2010 MN Music Hall of Fame inductee.
Randy Sabien (guitar, violin, mando, piano, and voice)
Jazz violinist of the Stéphane Grappelli school: hot club, blues and western swing.
A Rue/Sabien performance is an ad lib, rapid-fire affair, riddled with a melodic cascade of personally-penned favorites peppered with musical ideas (occasionally interrupted by an errant thought: they sometimes feel the need to explain the process), duologues on inspiration (and what does not inspire), oblique social commentary, and comic highs and lows (when good things happen to bad people), all thoroughly plumbed from the musical depths of piano, guitar, violin, mando and voices that soar, growl and bubble within a sardonic Robin Williams/Noel Coward sense of humor. Influenced by nearly anything and everything musical. Buckle up!~Charles Bunbury
Click here for more on the performers!
Randy Sabien (guitar, violin, mando, piano, and voice)
Jazz violinist of the Stéphane Grappelli school: hot club, blues and western swing.
A Rue/Sabien performance is an ad lib, rapid-fire affair, riddled with a melodic cascade of personally-penned favorites peppered with musical ideas (occasionally interrupted by an errant thought: they sometimes feel the need to explain the process), duologues on inspiration (and what does not inspire), oblique social commentary, and comic highs and lows (when good things happen to bad people), all thoroughly plumbed from the musical depths of piano, guitar, violin, mando and voices that soar, growl and bubble within a sardonic Robin Williams/Noel Coward sense of humor. Influenced by nearly anything and everything musical. Buckle up!~Charles Bunbury
Click here for more on the performers!
It's Thanksgiving weekend! Do you have family still in town and looking for something to do to get out of the house? What do you do after a day of shopping at local businesses? We have the answer: Come to the HAC for a fantastic holiday concert that will jumpstart your holiday season in style! It's ALWAYS a good time to have this group!
FREE COFFEE CONCERT
December 16, 2025 - 10:30am
Hannah Flowers, harp
Free to attend
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Hannah Flowers is a singer and harpist from St. Paul, Minnesota. Classically trained from a young age, she discovered Traditional Irish music as a teenager and hasn’t looked back since. Known for her sensitive and lyrical accompaniment of songs as well as her syncopated and rhythmic accompaniment of dance tunes, Hannah enjoys exploring the full depth of traditional Irish music and song. She holds a B.A. in music and a Master's Degree in Irish Traditional Music Performance from Maynooth University in Ireland.
Hannah will be presenting a holiday program for this coffee concert. |
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SPECIAL EVENT
January 16, 2026
9:00am-3:00pm
American Red Cross
BLOOD DRIVE
Donation Signup Posted Later
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FREE COFFEE CONCERT
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Gail and Sarah are longtime friends and collaborative pianist colleagues. They often are accompanying and performing with others, but this is the first time they have put together a full concert to perform together. They look forward to sharing a program with the coffee concert audience! The program will include works by Bach, Mozart, Clara and Robert Schumann, and Rachmaninoff.
MAIN EVENT CONCERT
Sunday-January 25, 2026
2:00pm
The Barley Jacks
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The Barley Jacks perform original vocals and jaw–dropping instrumentals in a spirit of excitement and fun. These masters of the fiddle, guitar, bass and drum meld their divergent backgrounds of blues and bluegrass, classical and Celtic, R & B and bebop and inspire each other to create something entirely new. Front–man, fiddler and mandolinist Brian Wicklund is joined by Mike Cramer–guitar, Keith Yanes–bass, and Joel Arpin–percussion. Their debut recordings Either Side of Night and The Lighthouse has been met with great praise by reviewers. Virtuosity, magic and a little danger combine to make every performance unique. Audiences are struck with how much fun the Barley Jacks have when they perform. These Minnesota–based veterans of years in the musical trenches enjoy making music together so much that they sometimes giggle like little kids!
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FREE COFFEE CONCERT
February 3, 2026 - 10:30am
OboeBass
Women's Works and other Wonders for OboeBass!
Free to attend
Carrie Vecchione, oboe, and Rolf Erdahl, bass, are OboeBass!, the world's only professional oboe/bass duo. Called “pioneers” by MPR, they concertize widely around the U.S., and toured Norway. They have commissioned over forty new oboe/bass pieces and recorded seven CDs, effectively creating the oboe/bass duo genre. They also perform educational outreach programs for elementary schools and senior residences. Major recent commissions include a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant for Valerie Coleman’s American Vein, a Harvard Fromm Foundation Commissioning Grant for Mary Ellen Childs' There is a Humming, and a Barlow Endowment LDS Commissioning grant for Common Ground by Alyssa Morris. Other awards include grants from the American Composers Forum and teaching and performing grants from MRAC, The MN State Arts Board, and SD Arts Council. In addition to their OboeBass! activities they freelance widely including substitute work with the Minnesota Orchestra and SPCO. Carrie teaches at the MacPhail Center for Music and in her home studio. Rolf teaches at Gustavus Adolphus College. www.oboebass.com facebook.com/oboebass
MAIN EVENT CONCERT
Friday-March 6, 2026
7:30pm
The Kaleidoscope Quartet
Four voices. Harmony in every hue.
Kaleidoscope Quartet sings a cappella music with joy, range, and soul.
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Kaleidoscope Quartet is a Twin Cities-based vocal ensemble known for its tight harmonies, layered textures, and bold musical range. With decades of experience between them, Ian Cook (tenor 2), Taylor Quinn (baritone), Dana Skoglund (bass 2), and Jack Vishneski (tenor 1) create four-part a cappella shows full of joy, range, and soul.
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FREE COFFEE CONCERT
March 10, 2026 - 10:30am
Jennifer Eckes and Friends
Broadway Musical Highlights
Free to attend
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Jennifer Eckes is a native of Hastings who has been singing professionally her entire adult life as a soloist in jazz/pop concerts and cabaret shows, as well as in countless theatrical productions, from operas to rock musicals. A versatile vocalist, she has enjoyed musical revue and solo appearances at Twin Cities venues large and small, such as the Ordway Center, Bloomington Center for the Arts, Hanifl Performing Arts Center, Park Square Theatre, Phipps Center for the Arts, Bryant-Lake Bowl, Honey Lounge, Crooners, Nicollet Island Inn, and the MetroNOME. She has previously performed at the Hastings Arts Center in several events, most recently in their Winter Solstice Concert. Touted by reviewers for her “strong, lovely voice” and an “engaging gift for song”, Jennifer has been called a “journeywoman musical artist” and loves performing contemporary music and Great American Songbook standards alike. You can find and follow her on YouTube (Jennifer Eckes), Facebook (Jennifer Eckes, vocalist), and on Instagram (@jennifer_eckes_sings).
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FREE COFFEE CONCERT
April 7, 2026 - 10:30am
Amos Lucidi, piano
Free to attend
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Amos Lucidi is an acclaimed Mexican pianist who has performed across Europe and the Americas, including solo appearances with the Yucatán Symphony Orchestra. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Minnesota and has taught at the Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán, sharing his passion for piano performance.
A program of Music by Manuel Ponce, Manuel de Falla, Frederic Chopin and Claude Debussy is planned. |
MAIN EVENT CONCERT
Sunday-April 12, 2026
2:00pm
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Sprig of That is a tabla, fiddle, and guitar trio playing a hearty Midwest-raised and globally inspired acoustic stew. In February 2023, they released bloom, their full-length, all-original debut album, produced by Wes Corbett (Sam Bush Band, Joy Kill Sorrow) and engineered/mixed by Dave Sinko (Punch Brothers, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer) recorded at Nashville’s legendary Sound Emporium studios over the course of a week in December 2021. Formed in Minneapolis, MN in 2018, the group has spent the last five years making a name for themselves across the country: playing legendary venues like Seattle’s Tractor Tavern, Minneapolis’ Cedar Cultural Center and NYC’s Rockwood Music Hall, sharing the stage with artists like Charlie Parr and Emilia Amper, and collaborating with organizations like Carnegie Hall, Minnesota Public Radio, and the Mile of Music Music Education Team to give educational workshops across the country. In 2021, they released “Eight Threads,” a cross-genre collaboration comprising 8 compositions written for the trio by eight very different Twin Cities-based music makers that was accompanied by an eight episode self-produced podcast. In addition to bloom and Eight Threads, they have also released two EPs of original compositions and arrangements: Sprig of That in 2019 and Untold in 2020. With an album comprising their best work yet and dates booked across the country, 2023 is looking to be the biggest year yet for Sprig. Grateful for what has been and excited for what’s to come, Sprig is, in a word, ready to bloom.
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SPECIAL EVENT
April 19, 2026
2:00pm
River Valley Community Orchestra
Chamber Music Concert
Come enjoy an afternoon of chamber music performed by the members of the newly formed RVCO!
Freewill donations to the RVCO are greatly appreciated!
Freewill donations to the RVCO are greatly appreciated!
FREE COFFEE CONCERT
May 19, 2026 - 10:30am
The Paper Clips
Trombone Quartet
Free to attend
The Paper Clips will bring a program featuring new music for brass by traditionally underrepresented composers like Tiffany Johns, David Wilborn, Reena Esmail, Zoe Cutler, Dayla Spencer, Chloe Rowlands, and more.
This Coffee Concert will conclude the 11th season. Come prepared to celebrate another great season at the HAC! We might even have cake!
This Coffee Concert will conclude the 11th season. Come prepared to celebrate another great season at the HAC! We might even have cake!