Almond Blossom Entertainment

Photo provided by Andrea Polmear

Enjoy the Arts During Blossom Season!

The lure of Modesto goes far beyond the orchards. The wide variety of live entertainment options earned the #1 ranking in “America’s Hidden Gems Live Music Scene” — truth be told, we weren’t surprised — we know live entertainment! International muralists are invited annually to add to the larger-than-life art collection downtown. Mix that with classic films, theatre productions, local festivals, and there’s not a chance of being bored in Modesto.

Arts

Van Gogh Photo Challenge

Are you an aspiring or professional photographer? Then join our Van Gogh Photo Challenge this spring! We invite all photographers to flex their creative muscles and capture the true beauty of almond blossom season.

JOIN IN!

Almond Blossom Cruise Arts & Entertainment

Plein Air in the Orchard

Art Classes with Edem Elesh

Edem will take aspiring and cultured artists on a journey of painting Plein Air on small canvases while ‘in the air of the orchards surrounded by blooms.’ With classes for youth in the morning and adult classes in the afternoon, participants will have an option of oil pastels or acrylic paints with canvas supplied, or may bring their preferred medium. “My goal is to create a visceral response from the viewer – using visual triggers, representing queues that act as metaphors for the piece’s concepts.” says Edem.

PURCHASE PLEIN AIR – KIDS CLASS

PURCHASE PLEIN AIR – ADULT CLASS

PURCHASE OIL PASTEL KIT

Looking for some painting inspiration before you hit the orchard? Check out this painting by an artist from Australia who reached out to us for photo use – that’s right, this was painted based on photography from Modesto. Andrea Polmear was kind enough to send us a photo of her finished product and it’s AMAZING! Check out more of her artwork and her blog HERE.

Entertainment

Modesto Symphony Orchestra

Gershwin’s

An American in Paris

Led by conductor Nicholas Hersh, the symphony will perform Gershwin’s American in Paris followed by D’un Matin de Printemps (Of a Spring Morning) accompanied by an Almond Blossom video presentation celebrating Modesto’s favorite spring blossoms. While you’re planning your own Almond Blossom Cruise, check out the Symphonic ABC playlist from Modesto Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director Nicholas Hersh – meant to evoke feelings of spring and be experienced in the exact order it’s laid out in, so please don’t shuffle!

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Gallo Center for the Arts

This Land is Our Land

with Martha Redbone & American Patchwork Quartet

Martha Redbone , known for a ‘gumbo of folk, blues, and gospel’, and the American Patchwork Quartet perform in the first Modesto Goes Global performance. The music will draw on Redbone’s American Roots musical selections and old American folk songs made anew by APQ.

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Marta Pereira da Costa & Special Guest Duarte

Lisbon-native Marta Pereira da Costa is an award-winning and distinguished Portuguese guitarist, as well as the first and currently only professional female fado guitarist in the world. Performed in a quartet format, delving deep into the past, present, and future.

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The State Theatre

Monet to Matisse EOS

This film covers Claude Monet, arguably the most important painter of gardens in history, and other great artists like Van Gogh (who painted almond blossoms for two years), Bonnard, Sorolla, Sargent, Pissarro and Matisse, who all saw the garden as a powerful subject for their art.

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