COLUMBIA, MD, Sept. 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Howard Community College’s (HCC) Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center 2026-2027 performing arts season offers HCC students opportunities to learn from a Queen Elisabeth Competition silver medalist and to perform for a Metropolitan Opera soprano over two weeks this fall. 

Violinist Keng-Yuan Tseng and soprano Leah Hawkins will take the stage at the Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center and lead public masterclasses for HCC performing arts students. Their appearances are part of the HCC Concert Series, which anchors a 21st season featuring more than 60 performances, screenings and exhibitions across the college’s arts programs.

Tseng, a silver medalist at the Queen Elisabeth Competition and professor of violin at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. He will lead a masterclass on Friday, Oct. 2, at 3 p.m., before presenting “Tradition and Transformation: Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms” on Saturday, Oct. 3, at 7:30 p.m.

Hawkins, a graduate of Morgan State University, Yale University and an alumna of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, has sung Musetta in La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera and made her debut there as Leonora in Il trovatore. The Metropolitan Opera presented Hawkins with its Beverly Sills Artist Award in 2024, following her receipt of the Marian Anderson Award in 2023. Hawkins will perform a voice recital on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 8 p.m., and return on Friday, Oct. 16, at noon, for a masterclass open to students and the public.

“The 2026-27 season invites our students and audiences into a wonderfully diverse musical world,” said Hsien-Ann Meng, professor of music and director of the HCC Concert Series. “From the expressive beauty of Chinese art songs to 12 hands at a single piano, there is something to discover at every turn. No passport or suitcase required.”

More Season Highlights

HCC Concert Series

  • The fifth annual Music Alumni Spotlight Concert brings graduates back to campus on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 4 p.m.
  • Other faculty programs include “Perspectives: Stylistic Synthesis and Musical Identity in Chinese Art Songs” on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m.
  • “Excursions: Around the World with Patagonia Winds” on Sunday, Nov. 22, at 4 p.m.
  • “88 Keys, Countless Hands” on Sunday, April 11, at 4 p.m.

HCC Theatre

  • The HCC Theatre program presents Thornton Wilder’s Our Town Thursday through Sunday, Nov. 19–22, following its fall production Oct. 8–11.

Musical Theatre

  • “Changing Tunes: A Broadway Celebration” comes to the Horowitz Center on Sunday, April 18, at 4 p.m.

HCC Dance

  • The annual Dance Showcase features nine original works, with performances on Friday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 7, at 2 and 7 p.m.
  • The HCC Dance Company Concert follows on Friday, March 12, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, March 13, at 2 and 7 p.m.

Children’s Theatre

  • “Mouse on the Move” returns to the Horowitz Center Dec. 12–20, featuring HCC students in an Imagination Stage play.

Film

  • The Columbia Film Society presents 10 weekends of film for $35.
  • A horror film discussion series explores nearly 80 years of the genre, from Nosferatu to The Others, with six screenings remaining on select Fridays at 7 p.m.

For the complete season calendar and event information, please visit: HowardCC.edu/HorowitzCenter/Season

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ABOUT THE HOROWITZ CENTER
Howard Community College’s Peter and Elizabeth Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center opened in the fall of 2006 and quickly became a cultural hub for Columbia and greater Howard County. As an educational and production venue, the center offers community members the opportunity to engage with the arts as patrons and as students. Featuring state-of-the-art instructional facilities for the college’s Liberal Studies Division, the center serves credit and noncredit students studying visual and performing arts. Home to three performance venues and two art galleries, the Horowitz Center annually welcomes more than 30,000 patrons to performances and exhibits at the student and professional levels. Through a combination of resident and partnership programming, the Horowitz Center serves as a gathering place where students and community members are invited to connect with each other.
ABOUT HCC
Since 1970, Howard Community College (HCC) has been a preferred college choice for students and families in Howard County, Maryland. HCC offers associate degree and certificate programs, as well as workforce development training and continuing education classes, to nearly 22,000 credit and noncredit students each year. The college has been recognized as one of the nation’s top community colleges in two leading 2025–2026 rankings, named the #1 Community College in Maryland and the #1 Community College in the Baltimore Area by Niche, and ranked #32 nationally by WalletHub in its annual Best & Worst Community Colleges study.

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Jarrett Carter
Howard Community College
443-518-4073 
JCarter2@HowardCC.edu

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