For its third full season, the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts will continue to expand the number and diversity of performances offered to audiences and the community at Oregon State University.
“The goal of PRAx is something for everyone,” said Peter Betjemann, executive director of the center and associate vice provost of arts and humanities. “There are more concerts than last year because we had such great audience turnout, and we’re so grateful to our audiences.”
In the 2025-26 season, a total of 140 ticketed events took place at PRAx, and the center is on track to draw 40,000 or more attendees, up from roughly 30,000 the year before. For next season, PRAx staff are projecting 171 ticketed events with various partner organizations.
The 2026-27 lineup includes Thomas Lauderdale, founder and pianist of Portland-based band Pink Martini, who will be the season’s Patricia Valian Reser Artist-in-Residence.
As part of his residency, Lauderdale will collaborate with OSU’s music education program and local K-12 teachers to teach kids to play the melodica, a curious combination of wind instrument and handheld keyboard that PRAx will distribute to local students. During the 2026-27 season, some of Pink Martini’s lead vocalists will also perform their own concerts at PRAx.
Another guest who sings regularly with Pink Martini will give a solo show for the Provost’s Lecture Series in October: former NPR host Ari Shapiro, who will share songs as well as stories from his memoir.
In a shift this year, PRAx’s theme is concentrated in fall term rather than spread over the full year. The theme is “Polar Regions,” and one of the main events will be “Notes on the Cold,” an exhibition featuring works by artists who have gone to Antarctica as part of the Polar STEAM grant co-administered by OSU and the National Science Foundation.
Another development for the 2026-27 season is an artistic emphasis on mental health. PRAx has a new partnership with Carnegie Hall in New York City and OSU’s Contemplative Studies Initiative to deliver “Well-Being Concerts.” Once per term, with multiple small sessions per day, audiences will join world-class musicians onstage and experience the music from the comfort of meditation cushions and low chairs.
There will be plenty of dance this season, including AXIS Dance Company with enTaiko drumming next April. Both groups center disabled, neurodiverse and Deaf performers; enTaiko’s drumming is on such a low frequency that it can be felt as well as heard.
For the new President’s Residency, PRAx will host the world-renowned Nrityagram Dance Ensemble, an all-women group of Odissi dancers who have gone through a seven-year training and meditation apprenticeship in a village in India devoted to this traditional dance. The residency, including reduced-price tickets, is supported in part by the OSU Foundation via the INTO OSU Joint Venture Internationalization Fund and the President’s Excellence Fund.
The season will premiere with a red-carpet event in September with jazz master Delfeayo Marsalis and the 16-piece Uptown Jazz Orchestra, musicians who hail from the street-music traditions of New Orleans. The performance will be accompanied by special reserve seating at Detrick Hall and upscale food-and-beverage service.
There will also be two employee recognition concerts with reduced ticket prices, up from a single annual event after the raucous success of last fall’s Red Baraat show and the previous year’s Ranky Tanky. All-female Barcelona sextet Maruja Limón will perform in September and South Korean band Insun Park & Generals will perform in April.
Betjemann said the aim of PRAx’s programming is to explore things that matter in the world.
“The throughline is always to have not just decorative pieces, but pieces that are global and take on topics of the moment,” he said.
The center also has an updated ticketing system this year to streamline the process for audiences. Tickets are in presale now for attendees who have previously purchased season packages, and will open to the general public on May 8. View the complete 2026-27 season here and purchase tickets on the PRAx website.
By Molly Rosbach
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