Create
Looking forward: The month of February in the arts
Singer Kelsea Ballerini, who’s been successfully navigating the waters between country and pop for a decade, will perform at Amalie Arena Feb. 22.
Ballerini, is also a coach on the new season of NBC’s The Voice (premiering Feb. 3). She set a record in 2014 with her first single “Love Me Like You Mean It.” It reached No. 1 on the Billboard country chart – the first time that had happened since Carrie Underwood’s “Inside Your Heaven” in 2005.
Her million-selling hits include “Dibs,” “Peter Pan,” “Yeah Boy,” “Legends,” “The Other Girl” (with Halsey), “Half of My Hometown” (with Kenny Chesney), “Hole in the Bottle” and others.
This is Ballerini’s first headlining arena tour.
Amalie Arena also welcomes the great Mary J. Blige Feb. 8. The R&B icon’s 2025 tour is called “For My Fans”; it follows the November release of her album Gratitude. No-Yo and Mario open.
Willie Nelson: Feb. 15, Baycare Sound. Photo: Wiki Commons.
Other concert highlights for February include rock guitar icon Robin Trower (Feb. 23, Jannus Live); Willie Nelson (Baycare Sound, Feb. 15); the B-52s’ Kate Pierson (Feb. 26, Capitol Theatre); Burton Cummings (Feb. 7, Ruth Eckerd Hall); They Might Be Giants (Feb. 28, Jannus Live); Staind’s Aaron Lewis (Feb. 11, Seminole Hard Rock Event Center), Alice Cooper (Feb. 8, Baycare Sound); the annual Listening Room Showcase (Feb. 23, Palladium Theater); and Rod Stewart (Feb. 26, Seminole Hard Rock Event Center).
The classics
Yo-Yo Ma will play at The Florida Orchestra’s gala anniversary concert Feb. 28 at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Publicity photo.
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma guests at The Florida Orchestra gala anniversary concert Feb. 28 at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Garth Neustadter’s Seaborne, featuring the Percussion Collective, is on the program for Feb. 6 at the Mahaffey Theater, along with Debussy’s La Mer, and Sibelius’ The Oceanides. The Music of John Williams (Feb 14, Straz Center; Feb. 15, Mahaffey) includes Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park themes and more. Pianist Olga Kern is the guest soloist on Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (Feb. 22 and 23, Mahaffey), on a program with William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, featuring baritone Donnie Ray Albert and The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.
February’s Tampa Bay Symphony concert, “Scandinavian Romance,” includes Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 with Quang Vo, piano, and Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39 by Sibelius. Performances are Feb. 14 at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center, Feb. 16 at the Straz Center’s Ferguson Hall, and Feb. 18 at the Palladium Theater.
The Mile-End Trio continues the Palladium Theater’s Chamber Music Series Feb. 12 with Franz Schubert: Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op.100, D. 929, and Gabriel Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1 in c minor, Op. 15. Vocalist Chauncey Patterson guests.
The best of the rest (concerts)
Feb. 2 Kansas, Seminole Hard Rock Event Center
Feb. 2 Toby Mac, Amalie Arena
Feb. 6 Arturo Sandoval, Straz Center Ferguson Hall
Feb. 6 Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Capitol Theatre
Feb. 7 Drive-By Truckers, Tampa Theatre
Feb. 8 Johnny Mathis, Ruth Eckerd Hall
Feb. 8 Wood Brothers, Capitol Theatre
Feb. 12 Gipsy Kings, Ruth Eckerd Hall
Feb. 13 Andrea Boccelli, Amalie Arena
Feb. 14 Paula Poundstone, Capitol Theatre
Feb. 15 Katt Williams, Amalie Arena
Feb. 15 Chris Botti, Ruth Eckerd Hall
Feb. 16 Judy Collins, Capitol Theatre
Feb. 16 Jo Koy, Amalie Arena
Feb. 20 Midland, Seminole Hard Rock Event Center
Feb. 20 Robert Cray, Capitol Theatre
Feb. 20 Ella & the Bossa Beat, Palladium Side Door
Feb. 21 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Capitol Theatre
Feb. 21 “Wild Kratts Live,” Mahaffey Theater
Feb. 22 AJ Croce, Capitol Theatre
Feb. 23 Jess Hilarious, Seminole Hard Rock Event Center
Feb 24 Count Basie Orchestra, a Warehouse Arts District Association show at the SPC Gibbs Campus Music Center (tickets at this link)
Feb. 25 Paul Anka, Ruth Eckerd Hall
Feb. 27 Elvis Crespo, Seminole Hard Rock Event Center
Feb. 27 Tom Rush, Straz Center Jaeb Theatre
Feb. 27 Asleep at the Wheel, Capitol Theatre
A touring production of “MJ The Musical” opens Feb. 25 at the Straz Center. Publicity photo (Broadway version).
Theater
The Straz Center’s Broadway Series is all over the pop star planet in February, with productions of the Neil Diamond story – Beautiful Noise – set for the 11th through the 16th. And MJ the Musical, which salutes the late Michael Jackson, visits Feb. 25 through March 2.
Performed Feb. 11 at the Dali Museum is the 2021 “choreopoem” Until the River Never Grieves by St. Pete’s own Bob Devin Jones, a series of observations on the historical African experience, through the words of poet, artist and politician activist Aimé Césaire and Jones himself.
Another re-visit from earlier this decade is Tampa playwright Natalie Symons’ The People Downstairs, running Feb. 7-23 at Stageworks Theatre. Symons herself has one of the starring roles in this new productions.
Coming to freeFall Theatre Feb. 14: Road Show, one of Stephen Sondheim’s lesser-known musicals, with book by John Weidman. It’s the company’s fifth Sondheim show.
In the art world
Gallery opening confirmed as of Feb. 1. Survey the West: A Cross-Continental Reflection opens Feb. 15 at the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art. It’s new abstract paintings and sculptures by bay area artist Ya La’Ford, the culmination of her recent three-month exploration of the American West.
On Feb. 20, the Gallery at Creative Pinellas will debut iMagine Nation, an exhibition of new works by the St. Pete artist iBOMS (a.k.a. Jabari Reid), produced in collaboration with the Woodson African American Museum of Florida.
Websites
James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art
New Tampa Performing Arts Center
Seminole Hard Rock Event Center
