The Force is strong with the Alexis de Tocqueville Society! Members of the United Way of Southern Nevada's (UWSN) philanthropic group got a special behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood’s most famous film scores as the Las Vegas Philharmonic rehearsed "The Music of John Williams" inside Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center in downtown Las Vegas.
I met Fawnia Mondey at an eWomen Network event I attended recently. She graciously invited me to attend one of the classes she teaches. Her charisma convinced me to take her up on the offer. Now, let me tell you what her class was, and for those who personally know me, here is where you get to have a great laugh … pole dancing!
Sunlight pours through Rita Deanin Abbey’s monumental "Wall of Creation," scattering blues, golds and desert tones across the gallery walls. As the first notes of music rise into the room, the glass-like surface seems almost to breathe, with color shifting gently with rhythm and light responding to sound. There are moments in art when the boundaries between disciplines quietly dissolve.
I have never seen - nor heard - so many young (jazz) hands clapping with such appreciation as I did during Jazz Outreach Initiative’s (JOI) “Jazz for Young People” Concerts at Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center! Over three thousand enthusiastic students from the Clark County School District were bussed in to experience two back-to-back performances with the acclaimed Jazz Vegas Orchestra and world-renowned saxophonist and vocalist Camille Thurman. She definitely answered this year’s theme, “Who is Ella Fitzgerald?” and then some.
As The Composers Showcase of Las Vegas approaches its 20th anniversary, the milestone feels less like a measure of time and more like a testament to conviction. What began as an after-hours gathering of writers and performers took shape in a city celebrated for spectacle, yet quietly lacking space for original voices. From those early evenings grew an enduring institution, sustained by creative risk, shared belief and the courage to bring new work into the open.
During his hit Las Vegas show, “Hypnosis Unleashed” at Four Queens Hotel & Casino, hypnotist Kevin Lepine sometimes uses his skills to hypnotize select audience volunteers into thinking he is a rock star. Offstage, however, Lepine doesn’t need to hypnotize anyone into realizing just how great of a guy he is in real life.
A full house is always a promising sign, but what unfolded during "Broadway Reimagined: A Chamber Music Tribute" at the Rita Deanin Abbey Art Museum was something rarer. The room was so completely captivated that time itself seemed to suspend. From the first notes to the final cadence, the audience was wholly with the performers, so engaged and emotionally tethered that one sensed a collective reluctance for the afternoon to end.
Step inside an evening that blends memory, music, and modern Las Vegas elegance. In this reflective blog, we revisit the newly reimagined Doberman Drawing Room, once the beloved Artifice, through a night curated by United Way of Southern Nevada’s Passport to the City series. From the soulful resonance of live piano, cello, and vocals to the intimate conversations, the experience captured how Las Vegas continues to evolve while honoring the spaces and stories that shaped it.
It didn’t take a Christmas miracle for the 2025 Youth for Youth Holiday Concert to break its fundraising record. Clark High School junior violinist Skai Jones shined as chairwoman of this year’s event, which was created by her older sister, pianist Roxy Jones, a newly selected U.S. Presidential Scholar and Yale freshman.
The Art of the Book Why Some Volumes [...]
