On Wednesday, February 5, at 7:30 p.m., the Weinberg Center for the Arts presents a music event certain to shake the chill off even the coldest of winter temperatures.

The double-header concert begins with Grammy Award-winning BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, the world’s best known and most highly respected Cajun band. The Lafayette, Louisiana group has released 20-plus albums in the last three decades, including the most recent Looking Back Tomorrow - BeauSoleil Live and the retrospective Best of the Crawfish Years 1985-1991. Each release preserves the rich Cajun musical traditions of BeauSoleil’s native Louisiana, while adding elements of zydeco, New Orleans jazz, Tex-Mex, country, blues, and more.

Among many accolades, including the 1998 Grammy Award, BeauSoleil is a nine-time winner of the Cajun Band of the Year category at the Big Easy Entertainment Awards.
The band features founder Michael Doucet on violin, guitar, accordion, mandolin, and vocals; his brother David Doucet on guitar and vocals; Jimmy Breaux on accordion; Billy Ware on percussion; Tommy Alesi on drums; and Al Tharp on bass, fiddle, banjo, and electric guitar.

Following BeauSoleil’s high-spirited performance, Marcia Ball turns up the heat with her sensational singing and powerhouse piano playing. Also a native of Louisiana, Ball is known around the country for her rollicking delivery of good ol’ Gulf Coast rhythm and blues. She received the 1998 W.C. Handy Blues Award for Contemporary Female Vocalist of the Year and was nominated again in 2000 as well, for Blues Instrumentalist-Keyboards. In 1999, Marcia and her band appeared in In Performance at the White House along with B.B King and Della Reese, which was broadcast nationally on WETA Public Television. More recently, Marcia’s first album for Alligator Records, Presumed Innocent, spent seven months on the Billboard Blues Charts and won the 2002 W.C. Handy Blues Award for Blues Album of the Year.

The BeauSoleil/Marcia Ball concert is one of three remaining events in the Weinberg’s Music Series, presented by Courtyard by Marriott, Fairfield Inn by Marriott & the Plamondon Companies, along with media sponsor Frederick Magazine. Upcoming music events include Ireland’s legendary Mary Black on Sunday, March 16 and jazz pianist extraordinaire Kenny Barron on Tuesday, April 1. The Weinberg's 2002-2003 Season is sponsored by Jeweled Season Presenter BB&T and Maryland Public Television, media presenter.

Tickets for the February 5 concert at the Weinberg range from $28 to $40, reserved seating. Discounts are available for members of AAA and Prestige Banking and groups of 10 or more. To purchase tickets, please contact the Box Office at 301-228-2828 (228-2838 TTY), Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-2 p.m., and one hour before performances. Tickets can also be ordered online at www.weinbergcenter.org.

The Weinberg Center for the Arts, a municipal facility of the City of Frederick, is located at 20 West Patrick Street in downtown Frederick, Maryland. The historic theatre opened in 1926 as the Tivoli, the grandest of three downtown movie palaces, and was donated to the City of Frederick in 1978. Today, as one of the region’s premier arts presenting facilities, the 1,160-seat Weinberg Center offers seven professional LIVE! series, including dance, music, theatre, family performances and films, weekday performances for students, and classic movies. In addition, the Weinberg Center makes performance space and professional services available to a variety of community arts groups, civic and business organizations, and other arts promoters. For more information, please contact the Box Office at 301-228-2828 (228-2838 TTY) or visit www.weinbergcenter.org.