Chamber Music for Locals

The Culture Edit, May 19th-June 1st

Author

Susan Bannon
May 18, 2025

Come mid-May, the weather has run off the snowbirds and Miami’s cultural season is winding down, with major institutions like Miami City Ballet, Florida Grand Opera, and New World Symphony all having taken their final bows. But the hot weather also brings us one of Miami’s cultural gems, at least for chamber music lovers - the annual Mainly Mozart Festival by Miami Chamber Music Society.

Now in its 32nd season, the festival this year brings us some interesting collaborations (with dancers from the San Francisco Ballet, for instance) and new interpretations (is that an accordion?), along with its usual lineup of chamber masterpieces performed by musicians from some of the country’s best orchestras.

Also, this is your last week to see The Comeuppance, Zoetic Stage’s season closer playing at the Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theater through next Sunday. Critics are raving about this production, so catch it if you can.

Let’s get planning...

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Ongoing Theater

Zoetic Stage: The Comeuppance - Final Week!

Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is having quite a Miami year, with Zoetic Stage’s production of his award-winning play, The Comeuppance, following a great run of his Broadway hit Appropriate at Gablestage earlier this season. The Comeuppance follows a self-proclaimed "Multi-Ethnic Reject Group" that reconvenes for their 20th high school reunion. Over alcohol and other substances, they try to reconnect who they once were with whom they've become.

Performances through May 25th, Carnival Studio Theater at Arsht, $56-$61

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Actors’ Playhouse: The Girl on the Train

Actors‘ Playhouse presents The Girl on the Train, a new play based on Paula Hawkins’ internationally bestselling novel that will keep audiences guessing until the final moment (unless, of course, they’ve already read the book or seen the movie). The story revolves around Rachel Watson, a troubled woman entangled in a web of intrigue and deceit as she becomes intertwined with the lives of strangers she observes during her daily train commute.

Performances through June 8th, Actors’ Playhouse, $50

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Gablestage: Fat Ham

Gablestage presents the South Florida premiere of Fat Ham, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play that relocates the story of Hamlet from a windswept Danish castle to a fly-swatting North Carolina BBQ pit. The familiar storyline follows Juicy, a queer Black kid with a lot on his plate already before his father’s ghost shows up, demanding vengeance. Called “hilarious yet profound” by The New York Times, James Ijames’ play was a hit on Broadway after winning the Pulitzer in 2022.

Performances through June 15th, Gablestage, $40-$50

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Wednesday, May 21st

An Evening with Historian Rick Atkinson

Books & Books welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson to discuss The Fate of the Day, the second of his American Revolution trilogy, after the bestselling The British Are Coming. Beginning in the winter of 1777, Atkinson chronicles George Washington’s army, fighting on the knife’s edge between victory and defeat, having just barely survived annihilation by the world’s most formidable fighting force.

7pm, Books & Books, $48 includes admission for two and one book

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Thursday, May 22nd

A Miracle is a Reasonable Thing to Ask For

Nina Johnson Gallery presents A Miracle is a Reasonable Thing to Ask For, the first U.S. solo exhibition by Nigerian-born Fadekemi Ogunsanya, featuring a new body of hand-embroidered and beaded Adire textiles. The gallery will also be celebrating the opening of a solo show of new paintings by George Nelson Preston and new woven sculptural works by Chicago-based artist Dee Clements.

6-8pm, Nina Johnson Gallery, Free

Neighborhood: Little Haiti

Also on May 22nd:

  • Acclaimed accordionist Hanzhi Wang returns to the Mainly Mozart Festival for a concert of baroque masterpieces and her own contemporary compositions, at Sanctuary of the Arts at 8pm.

  • PAMM hosts vocalist Kaitlyn Eden for one of its Backroom Sessions of live music and happy hour specials on the terrace, 6-8pm.

Friday, May 23rd

Secret Mall Apartment at O Cinema

O Cinema presents an award-winning documentary about one of the strangest chapters in American retail history. Secret Mall Apartment tracks the, well, the secret mall apartment that a crew of artists and activists created inside the Providence Place Mall in 2003. The evolving prank/public art/gentrification protest required them to sneak in furniture, tap into the mall’s electricity, and somehow smuggle in 2 tons of cinder blocks to build themselves a privacy wall. Produced by Jessie Eisenberg, the film is a funny, heartfelt, stranger-than-fiction celebration of creative misadventure and sticking it to the man.

9:15pm, O Cinema South Beach, $12-$14

Neighborhood: South Beach

Saturday, May 24th

Mainly Mozart Fest: The Soul of the Danube

The 32nd annual Mainly Mozart Festival welcomes members of the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for a special concert at UM’s gorgeous new Knight Center for Music Innovation. The Soul of the Danube invites listeners on a richly woven musical journey along Europe’s most storied river, through the cultural heartlands of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia, with works for piano trio by the greats of the region: Mozart, Brahms, and Dvořák.

4pm, UM’s Knight Center for Music Innovation, $13-$40

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Nearby Eats: Beauty & The Butcher, Recoveco, Fiola | Drinks: Fox’s, Ivy Rooftop at THesis

Also on May 24th:

  • PAMM presents a special screening of Marking the Way Home, a new documentary on artist José Parlá, followed by a Q&A with the artist and the film’s director, at 2pm.

  • The Miami Beach Bandshell presents the 5th annual Miamibloco, with Bateria Saideira, an 80-piece samba percussion orchestra, plus cumbia and plena acts to unite “all the 305 party people,” at 7pm.

  • The Arsht Center presents Afro-Cuban sensation Cimafunk, the newest global ambassador of Cuban music, for a one-night-only concert, at 8pm.

Happening NEXT Week:

Because maybe your friends are busy this week. Or you're busy this week. Or this week just seems too soon to pull your act together and make a plan.

Monday, May 26th (Memorial Day)

Jaws Screening + BBQ

Coral Gables Art Cinema invites you to kick off your summer with the classics: hotdogs, beer, and total carnage in the waters of the fictional Amity, NY. Instilling terror in children and adults alike since 1975, Jaws combines a simple man vs. beast story and Spielberg’s impeccable filmmaking, with top notch acting and the most iconic horror score of all time. Crowd-favorite local brewery Tripping Animals will provide a complimentary craft beer tasting.

BBQ on the Plaza 1pm, Screening 2pm, Coral Gables Art Cinema, $15

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Nearby Drinks (since you just had hotdogs and popcorn): Bay 13 Brewery, Cebada Rooftop, Maíz y Agave

Tuesday, May 27th

An Immigration Education with Felipe Torres Medina

Books & Books presents an evening with comedy writer and author Felipe Torres Medina, discussing his new book, America, Let Me In: A Choose Your Immigration Story. Torres’ writing for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has earned him five Emmy nominations and now he’s turned his comedic eye on the seemingly not-very-funny U.S. Immigration system. He’ll be in conversation with award-winning author and playwright Carmen Pelaez.

7pm, Books & Books, Free

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Wednesday, May 28th

FilmGate Documentary Festival

FilmGate Miami presents their 2025 Documentary Festival, featuring 9 short works by local documentarians. These are hyper-local stories by all Florida-based filmmakers, as evidenced by the subject matter of the shorts, including Test of Time: The Big Cheese, about the beloved South Miami pizza joint and it’s late owner, Bill Archer.

6:30pm, Silverspot Cinema, $16 pre-sale, $20 door (use code INSIDER for 10% off)

Neighborhood: Downtown

Nearby Eats: Mr. Omakase, NIU Kitchen, Mangrove | Drinks: Margot, Over Under

Also on May 28th:

  • O Cinema presents a one-night-only screening of Maya and the Wave, about one woman’s quest to surf the biggest wave in the world, followed by a virtual Q&A with producer Rashida Jones, surfer Maya Gabeira, and director Stephanie Johnes.

Thursday, May 29th

Mainly Mozart Festival: Echoes in Motion

The Mainly Mozart Festival continues with this innovative blend of chamber music and contemporary dance at Sanctuary of the Arts. Four dancers and choreographers from the San Francisco Ballet have created work to chamber pieces including Dvořák, Liszt, and Brahms. Accompanying them will be four celebrated musicians, featuring soprano Maria Aledia and cellist Jonah Kim.

8pm, Sanctuary of the Arts, $13-$38

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Also on May 29th:

  • PAMM and Third Horizon Film Festival present an opening night screening of documentary Koutkekout, with an afterparty on the terrace, 7-11pm.

Friday, May 30th

Yandel: Sinfónico USA Tour

Puerto Rican reggaeton icon Yandel was in the vanguard of the genre’s takeover of global music in the 2010’s as one half of Wisin y Yandel (Me Estás Tentando, Rakata), then went on to a successful solo career with hits like Nunca Me Olvides and collaborations with Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, and Gloria Estefan. Now he’s taking the stage with a full symphony orchestra for his global Sinfónico Tour, reimagining his biggest hits for an unforgettable live performance. (Gotta say, the orchestral version of Nunca Me Olvides sounds pretty great.)

8pm, Knight Concert Hall at Arsht Center, $74-$232 ($150 add-on for pre-show meet & greet with Yandel)

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Also on May 30th:

Saturday, May 31st

Don Quixote Suite

Since 2006, the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami has worked to preserve and further the world-renowned traditions and technique of the Cuban Classical style for exiled dancers outside of Cuba. For it’s season finale, the CCBM presents the Don Quixote Suite, along with Marius Petipa’s Esmerelda Pas de Six and Narcizo, an original work based on the story of Narcissus.

8pm, The Fillmore Miami Beach, $64

Nearby Eats: Casa Tua, Aviv, Blue Ribbon Sushi | Drinks: Greystone Bar, Water Lion at the Sagamore

Also on May 31st:

  • The Mainly Mozart Festival presents Twilight and Fire, featuring five celebrated artists performing Schumann’s Piano Quintet, at New World Center at 4pm.

  • Andrew Reed Gallery celebrates the opening of two new exhibits by artists Kyle Staver and Nicole Burko with a reception from 6-8pm.

  • Dimensions Variable celebrates the opening of Murmur, a solo show of new paintings by Onajide Shabaka, with a reception from 6-9pm.

Planning Ahead:

The cultural calendar is getting a bit thin as summer approaches, but here’s at least one event to have on your radar now…

Friday, June 6th

Mainly Mozart Festival Finale

The 32nd annual Mainly Mozart Festival concludes with a celebration of the music of Vienna, featuring violinist Joshua Brown, a laureate of the 2024 Queen Elisabeth Competition, and pianist (and festival organizer) Marina Radiushina. Performed at UM’s gorgeous new Knight Center for Music Innovation, the program traces Vienna’s musical legacy from it’s Classical golden age through modernity, with pieces from Mozart, Schubert, Kreisler, and Brahms.

8pm, UM’s Knight Center for Music Innovation, $40 ($13 Students)

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Nearby Eats: Beauty & The Butcher, Recoveco, Fiola | Drinks: Fox’s, Ivy Rooftop at THesis

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