By Erik Higgins, Artistic Director – ehiggins@NebraskaMusicFest.org
Announcing the 2025 Nebraska Crossroads Music Festival Season
Music and Storytelling Across the State
Dear friends,
It is with deep gratitude that I am able to write to you today and unveil the 2025 season of the Nebraska Crossroads Music Festival—a joyful, genre-blending celebration of music, poetry, and community that will blossom in Lincoln and Omaha this summer. Curated by Syrian clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh, this year’s festival invites audiences of all ages to gather around music and stories by artists who push the boundaries of genre and geography.
From Arabic jazz with microtonal tinges, cult-classic reunions, Nordic-folk hymns to immersive electronic landscapes, slam poetry and a newly-minted festival orchestra, Crossroads 2025 is packed with boundary-breaking performances and community-centered events that celebrate the electric creativity of cultural exchange. Read on for more!
Crossroads Showcases: Lincoln & Omaha
Music, poetry, food trucks, and family fun
Spread out a blanket and get ready for a dazzling evening of live music and poetry under the sky. This year’s Crossroads Showcase heads to two unforgettable venues—the Sculpture Garden in Lincoln and Gene Leahy Mall in Omaha—with performances by the cult-classic trio Dawn of Midi, Arabic-tinged jazz with Layale Chaker and Sarafand, and clarinetist-composer Kinan Azmeh, live poetry from Nebraska State Poets, current and former, Jewel Rodgers and Matt Mason – and a festive vibe with food trucks and interactive activities for kids.
See selections from the 2024 showcase and a clip from Kinan Azmeh’s Suite for Improvisor below to get a feel for what you can expect!
Family Day and Art-Tastic Saturdays
Music and storytelling for all ages
Bring the whole family to a day of fun and discovery at the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln and The Joslyn in Omaha. Designed with families in mind, you’ll experience joyful children’s concerts, a mesmerizing performances by the Nordic-folk duo ííS, live poetry by Nebraska State Poets, current and former, Jewel Rodgers and Matt Mason and a hands-on storytelling-through-poetry workshop with Matt Mason for curious minds of all ages.
Sarafand: Radio Afloat
Arabic microtonality meets contemporary jazz
Back for her fourth Crossroads appearance, Layale Chaker returns with her acclaimed ensemble Sarafand, performing selections from their evocative new album Radio Afloat. Melding Arabic maqam, simmering jazz, and classical finesse, Chaker’s work tells deeply personal stories of memory, migration, and belonging.
Erdem & Friends: Immersive Soundscapes
A cinematic world of sound
Experience music like never before with Turkish composer and electronic artist Erdem Helvacioglu. Known for transforming acoustic instruments into lush, rhythmic environments, Erdem invites festival artists to join him in two site-specific improvisational sets: one at the brand-new Music Box in Lincoln and one at Omaha’s iconic KANEKO.
The Composer’s Mind: Dinuk Wijeratne
Creativity Insights with a master composer
What sparks creativity? How does collaboration shape a composition? Get a rare glimpse inside the creative mind of award-winning composer Dinuk Wijeratne in this intimate conversation exploring imagination, process, and artistic risk-taking at Gallery 1516 in Omaha.
Dawn of Midi: Dysnomia Live
A cult classic returns to the stage
After a ten-year hiatus, Dawn of Midi reunites to perform their landmark album Dysnomia—a hypnotic, genre-defying work that blurs the lines between electronic grooves and acoustic performance. This special live show at Gallery 1516 in Omaha promises to be a highlight of the season.
Cello Spectrum: Raga to Reverb
Hindustani Roots & Electric Loops
Experience an extraordinary double billing of cello virtuosity with Jake Charkey, master of Hindustani classical music, and David Downing, known for his looping, genre-melding soundscapes. After two unique solo sets from each artist, the concert concludes with a collaborative improvisation—a conversation between two musical worlds.
Festival Finales: Our First Ever Orchestral Showcase
Get the full orchestral experience
This year marks the debut of the Crossroads Festival Orchestra, uniting visiting and local musicians for two powerful finale concerts: at UNL Glenn Korff School of Music’s newly revitalized Kimball Hall and UNO School of Music’s Christensen Hall at Strauss Performing Arts Center in Omaha.
Featuring soloists Layale Chaker, Jake Charkey, Dinuk Wijeratne and Kinan Azmeh, the program features works of those artists and more, conducted by pianist/composer Dinuk Wijeratne and led by a rotating cast of concertmasters, including the Omaha Symphony’s own Susanna Perry Gilmore and Olga Smola.
Program Highlights include:
- Kareem Roustom: Dabkeh
- Layale Chaker: Hints on Memory (for solo violin and string orchestra)
- Dinuk Wijeratne: Gajaga Vannama (for solo piano and orchestra)
- Stan Charkey: J/J, with Jake Charkey, solo cello
- Kinan Azmeh: Suite for Improvisor and Orchestra
We can’t wait to welcome you all back for a week of unforgettable music and transformational culture experiences. See you in July!
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