See Who’s Coming to the Green Music Center this Summer

Sponsored content by The Green Music Center

Celebrating 10 years of  indoor-outdoor concerts and movies, Summer at the Green 2023 includes performances from R&B superstars Kool & The Gang; platinum-selling roots trio Nickel Creek in its first tour since 2014; Latin music icons Los Huracanes del Norte; the genre-crossing ensemble Pink Martini with its signature blend of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop; Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and blues guitar legend Buddy Guy in his Damn Right Farewell Tour; the Texican rock & roll of Los Lonely Boys and much more!

Concerts take place in Weill Hall, with seating in the hall and on the outdoor grass and terraces of Weill Lawn. Lawn tickets for most performances are $30 (kids 12 and under are half off).

New to Summer at the Green is Global Roots Sonoma—a two-day festival with multiple stages, music and food from around the globe, and a VIP area with an after party. Artists scheduled to perform include Las Cafeteras, Mariachi Herencia de México with La Marisoul, San Salvador, Tia Leah’s Neighborhood, Paula Fuga, Balsa de Fuego, and Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas. Global Roots Sonoma will have multiple indoor and outdoor stages with tickets starting at $65 for adults and $20 for youth.

View the full Summer at the Green lineup, and buy tickets at gmc.sonoma.edu

Santa Rosa Symphony
Michael Berkowitz, conductor
Transcendence Theatre Company
Tue, July 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets $40-$75

The biggest fireworks display in Sonoma County returns with a bang! Join us for a family-friendly celebration featuring Sonoma County’s own Transcendence Theatre Company and Santa Rosa Symphony in an evening of show tunes and patriotic classics, followed by a spectacular post-concert fireworks show! Bring the whole family—lawn tickets for kids 12 and under are half price! Families. Make sure to arrive early and check out our Kids Zone beginning at 4:30 p.m., complete with carnival games and bounce houses, plus food, music and more!

Supported in part by Clover Sonoma, Exchange Bank, and Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards

Sunday, July 9 at 7 p.m.
Tickets $30-$105
Tickets on sale now

Nickel Creek is the platinum-selling, internationally renowned roots trio of mandolinist Chris Thile, violinist Sara Watkins, and guitarist Sean Watkins. The Grammy-winning band has revolutionized folk and roots music since it broke through in 2000 with its Grammy-nominated self-titled LP, which showcased not just members’ instrumental virtuosity but their burgeoning songwriting prowess.

The tour—the band’s first as a group since 2014—adds to a landmark year for Nickel Creek, which recently released Celebrants, its first new album in nine years. Across the 18 tracks, the trio addresses love, friendship, and time with lyrics both poetic and plain-spoken, as they see bridges built, crossed, burned and rebuilt.

With special guest Thomas Lauderdale Meets the Pilgrims
Thurs, July 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets $30-$105

Drawing inspiration from music from all over the world—crossing genres of classical, jazz, and old-fashioned pop—Thomas Lauderdale founded Pink Martini in 1994 to provide more beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks for political fundraisers for causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, the environment, libraries, public broadcasting, education, and parks.

Lauderdale called China Forbes, a Harvard classmate who was living in New York City, and asked her to join Pink Martini. She has since written many of the band’s most beloved songs with Lauderdale, including “Sympathique,” “Lilly,” “Clementine,” “Let’s Never Stop Falling in Love,” and “Over the Valley” to name a few.

Thirty years later, Pink Martini continues to tour the world, singing in 22 languages at opera houses, concert halls, film festivals, museums, and fashion shows. In 2014, Pink Martini was inducted into both the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame.

Supported in part by The Press Democrat, Redwood Credit Union, Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards and Willow Creek Wealth Management

With special guest Eric Gales
Friday, August 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets $30–$105
Tickets on sale now

A genuine American treasure and one of the final surviving connections to an historic era in the country’s musical evolution, Buddy Guy is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a major influence on rock titans like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, a pioneer of Chicago’s fabled West Side sound, and a living link to the city’s halcyon days of electric blues.

Buddy Guy has received 8 Grammy Awards, a 2015 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, 38 Blues Music Awards (the most any artist has received), the Billboard Magazine Century Award for distinguished artistic achievement, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Presidential National Medal of Arts. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #23 in its “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

Supported in part by Balletto Vineyards

Saturday, September 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets $30–$105

Kool & the Gang has influenced the music of three generations and, at the age of 53, the band is a true recording industry legend.

Thanks to iconic songs like “Celebration,” “Cherish,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Summer Madness,” and “Open Sesame,” it has earned two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, 25 Top Ten R&B hits, 9 Top Ten Pop hits and 31 gold and platinum albums.

From Nairobi to Newark, Kool & the Gang has performed continuously longer than any R&B group in history and its bulletproof funk and jazzy arrangements have also made it the most sampled R&B band of all time. A reviewer recently called their performance “a 24-karat show” and every year, even after a half-century on the road, yields a non-stop schedule of shows across the globe.

Supported in part by Redwood Credit Union and Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards.

Movies at the Green

Supported in part by Sonoma State University Involvement and Sonoma State Alumni Association
Lawn tickets only $5 per person | 12 and under free

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever—Sat, June 17 at 5 p.m.
Frozen and Frozen II—Sat, July 22 at 5 p.m.
Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick—Sat, July 29 at 5 p.m. | 6:45 p.m.
Cars and Cars 2—Sat, August 12 at 5 p.m. | 6:45 p.m.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie—Sat, September 16 at 5 p.m.

View the full listing of performances including Los Lonely Boys, Mountain Stage with Kathy Mattea and more at gmc.sonoma.edu or call 707.664.4246.

About the Green Music Center

Nestled in the foothills of Northern California’s esteemed Wine Country, the Green Music Center (GMC) at Sonoma State University is a focal point for arts in the region. It is comprised of the spectacular 1,400-seat Weill Hall, an acoustically exceptional venue with a modular rear wall that opens to terraced lawn seating, providing picturesque views of the surrounding countryside, and the 240-seat Schroeder Hall, a cathedral-like recital hall designed specifically to accentuate instruments, organ and voice in a small, intimate setting. The Green Music Center presents year-round programming of top classical, contemporary, jazz, and world music artists and is home to the Santa Rosa Symphony.

View a complete listing of the Green Music Center’s upcoming events at gmc.sonoma.edu.
Weill Hall | Schroeder Hall
Green Music Center | Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave, Rohnert Park, CA 94928