CLEVELAND, OH – The upcoming Cuyahoga Community College Performing Arts season will feature a wide array of jazz and dance performances from artists around the world.

Tickets are on sale for all six shows that will run from October 2024 through April 2025. Free parking is available in lot 5 for the shows taking place on Cuyahoga Community College’s (Tri-C) campus.

The 2024-2025 shows include:

Amina Figarova Sextet and the Matsiko World Orphan Choir

Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Tri-C Metropolitan Campus Auditorium

Tickets: $35

Azerbaijani pianist and composer Amina Figarova and her sextet will be joined by the Matsiko World Orphan Choir, an ensemble of at-risk Liberian children.

Hélène Simoneau Danse (presented in partnership with DANCECleveland)

Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Mimi Ohio Theatre (Playhouse Square)

Tickets: $10 to $60 via Playhouse Square

The French-Canadian choreographer is coming to Cleveland for a performance that explores themes of identity, sexuality, romance and the world around us.

John Beasley’s MONK’estra

Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Tri-C Metropolitan Campus Auditorium

Tickets: $35

MONK’estra is a smashing big band that captures the spirit of Thelonious Monk’s singular music in fresh arrangements flavored with contemporary sounds, ranging from Afro-Cuban rhythms to hip-hop.

Matthew Whitaker

Feb. 8, 2025, at 7:30 p.m.

Simon and Rose Mandel Theatre

Tickets: $35

Matthew Whitaker started playing keyboard at age 3, and by 13, he became the youngest artist to be endorsed by Hammond in its 80-plus-year history. He studied at the Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School in New York City, the only community music school for the blind and visually impaired in the U.S.

The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra, directed by Scotty Barnhart

March 26, 2025, at 7:30 p.m.

Tri-C Metropolitan Campus Auditorium

Tickets: $45 general admission, $75 premium seats

In its 90-year history, the Count Basie Orchestra has won 18 Grammy Awards, performed for kings, queens and other world royalty, appeared in several movies and television shows and played every major jazz festival and concert hall in the world.

Raphael Xavier: Skiff (presented in partnership with DANCECleveland)

April 12, 2025, at 7:30 p.m., and April 13, 2025, at 2 p.m.

Tri-C John P. Murphy Foundation Theatre

Tickets: $25 and $45 via DANCECleveland

Raphael Xavier will perform Skiff, an hour-long work features guest artists including some of Northeast Ohio’s own dancers. The unique piece explores the aging body, race, privilege and power while encouraging conversations of identity, legacy and lineage. The work is contextualized through the lens of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.

Tickets for all shows are on sale now. For more information, visit the Tri-C Performing Arts Series webpage or call 216-987-4444.

This story was written with the assistance of AI.

This weekend brings us a meeting between ranked Big Ten rivals, one looking to earn its first conference win and another hoping to win a second league game, as No. 19 Illinois goes on the road to Happy Valley against No. 9 Penn State in college football’s Week 5 action on Saturday night. 

Illinois already boasts a road victory against a ranked Big Ten opponent after taking down Nebraska last week and defeating a then-ranked Kansas team a few weeks ago.

Penn State is perfect through 3 games and is coming off a 56-0 domination against Kent State, embarking on the first of an expected three Big Ten games against ranked opponents this season.

What can we expect in the matchup this weekend?

Let’s turn to the SP+ prediction model to get a preview of how Penn State and Illinois compare in this Big Ten football game under the lights.

As expected, the simulations are siding more with the home team this weekend.

SP+ predicts that Penn State will defeat Illinois by a projected score of 33 to 15 and will win the game by an expected 18.6 points.

The model gives the Nittany Lions a strong 88 percent chance of outright victory in the game.

SP+ is a “tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency” that attempts to predict game outcomes by measuring “the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football.”

How good is it this season? So far, the SP+ model is 105-91-1 against the spread with a 53.6 win percentage.

Penn State is a 17.5 point favorite against Illinois, according to the lines at FanDuel Sportsbook.

FanDuel lists the moneyline odds for Penn State -1200 and for Illinois at +720 to win outright.

And the book set the total at 47.5 points for the game.

If you’re using this projection to bet on the game, you should take …

Other analytical models also favor the Nittany Lions to take down the Fighting Illini.

That includes the College Football Power Index, a computer prediction model that uses data points from both teams to simulate games 20,000 times to pick winners.

Penn State is projected to win the game in the majority 86.3 percent of the computer’s updated simulations.

That leaves Illinois as the expected winner in the remaining 13.7 percent of sims.

Penn State is projected to be 16.9 points better than Illinois on the same field in both teams’ current composition, according to the model’s latest forecast.

Penn State is second among Big Ten teams with a 59.2 percent chance to qualify for the College Football Playoff and will win 10.2 games this season, according to the FPI’s metrics.

That model gives Illinois a 9.1 percent shot at the playoff and a win projection of 8 games.

When: Sat., Sept. 28
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET | 6:30 p.m. CT
TV: NBC network

More … Penn State vs. Illinois prediction: What the analytics say

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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, please call 1-800-GAMBLER.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Perhaps more than any other position in football, wide receiver is one that is fueled by ego.

The stereotypical wide receiver wants the ball. He demands the ball. He lets his quarterback know, he lets his coordinator know, he lets his head coach know he’s the guy to move the sticks.

If a team has a talented receiver, he can take them far. One need only look at Maryland, Indiana’s  opponent on Saturday.

Terrapin wide receiver Tai Felton gets the ball in ways most receivers would dream of. He has 41 catches for 604 yards and 5 touchdown catches. Per game, that works out to 10.25 catches, 151 yards and 1.25 touchdowns per game. That makes Felton one of the most productive receivers in all of college football.

Accepting that we don’t know about Felton’s ego or how much he demands the ball, his level of production would be the envy of any receiver motivated by such things.

Meanwhile, Indiana does things differently.

In contrast to Maryland, where Felton accounts for 37.2% of the Terrapins’ total receptions, Indiana spreads the wealth.

Elijah Sarratt leads the Hoosiers with 15 receptions, but three other receivers – Myles Price (14), Omar Cooper Jr. (12), Miles Cross (12) – are right behind Sarratt. Two more – Ke’Shawn Williams (8) and tight end Zach Horton (7) have also been frequent targets.

No one Indiana receiver accounts for more than 19.4% of the Hoosiers’ reception total. It’s receiver-by-committee, just as the running backs operate under the same principle of sharing the ball.

It only works if you have buy-in from a position group where the individual players often demand the ball. So far, Indiana has been able to achieve that goal.

“It’s not as difficult when you’re about the team and you want the team to be successful,” Williams said. “We have a group of guys in our room who are extremely talented. Anybody that’s on that field can go out there and start and make plays.”

Price, who came to Indiana after four seasons at Texas Tech, said putting his ego aside isn’t a problem.

“It’s about winning. Everyone wants to win. When you win, everyone gets looked at,” said Price, who peaked at 51 receptions while he was with the Red Raiders.

So suppression of ego for the good of the team can also be good for the individual? Price thinks so.

“You look at those teams that go on to win championships. They have 15-20 players that may get drafted and that’s just because they’re winning,” Price explained. “So it’s bringing more attention, it’s bringing more eyes. That’s how we look at it.”

Williams said he’s used to the dynamic of sharing the ball. He played regularly at Wake Forest from 2021-23. Williams never had less than 27 catches in any of those seasons, but he never ranked higher than third on the Demon Deacons in receptions.

“If you’ve watched over my career, I’ve been in crowded receiving rooms since I’ve been in college. I’ve been surrounded by great receivers,” Williams said.

For Williams, who is a fifth-year receiver getting his last chance to prove himself, he admitted it can be tough to be in sharing mode.

“Being a fifth-year guy, it’s definitely challenging,” Williams admitted. “You know, if I don’t go about it the right way, I only do nothing but hurt myself and hurt the team. Me doing the right thing while waiting for my turn allowed me to be successful and help the team win games once I got out there.”

Price, who led Texas Tech with 43 catches in 2023, believes the high tide of team success raises all boats in the end.

“We just continue to win. If it’s in God’s plan (for individual success), it’s in his plan. So I just kind of let that work itself out,” Price said.