Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh
Five times a year, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History — one of four Carnegie museums in Pittsburgh — stays open late for a 21-and-over party, where guests mingle among the museum’s sauropods and T. rexes.
Each After Dark event includes live music, drinks and hor d’oeuvres for purchase, and curated programming intended to allow visitors to see and experience the museum in a new way. Every event is designed around a specific pop-culture-inspired theme. The theme for the March event is “Beauty and the Beast After Dark,” with a focus on metamorphosis, real beasts and “transformative natural phenomenon” in the museum’s castlelike setting.
The Carnegie Museum of Art’s Third Thursday program often features both live music and DJs. In December, guests donned headphones to dance around the museum during a silent disco, and January’s event featured live performances of songs inspired by the museum’s #cmoarealday social media campaign, which invited people to contribute images that represent their daily lives.
www.cmoa.org
Penn Museum
Philadelphia
A few times a year, the internationally renowned group Relâche, a chamber ensemble dedicated to contemporary music, performs along with old silent films in Widener Hall at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. In February, the octet played the newly expanded live music score by Chris McGlumphy accompanying the recently discovered complete version of Max Linder’s 1921 silent film comedy “Be My Wife.”
The group opened its fourth season in residence at the Penn last fall with a program that included new music composed with inspiration from some of the museum’s oldest artifacts: Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets.
During the summer, the P.M. @ Penn Museum Summer Nights concert series kicks into gear with a live music performance every Wednesday evening in the outdoor garden courtyard. Last summer’s series featured performances from the West Philadelphia Orchestra, Zydeco-A-Go-Go, El Caribefunk and Trinidelphia.
High Museum of Art
Atlanta
The third Friday of every month, there’s one place to be in Atlanta: the High Museum of Art. During Friday Jazz, visitors can listen to live jazz concerts after or while exploring galleries that showcase works from the High’s 15,000-piece permanent collection.
Concerts are free with admission, and the lineup is diverse. Jazz performers and ensembles play in the Robinson Atrium while guests gather round the floor and balconies. January featured the sounds of experimental jazz group The Convergence, and Beverly “Guitar” Watkins, a legendary blues lady who has been playing guitar behind her head and belting out powerful songs for 50 years, is scheduled for February. March brings the swinging beats of drummer David Potter, and April will feature the soaring sounds of trumpeter Jason Collier.
