Western's Stages Pack November Into Two Weeks Before Thanksgiving Break

From Tuesday, November 10 to Monday, November 23, Western Washington University has public events on nine separate days. The lineup includes a percussion ensemble, a full orchestra with choir, a Hindustani music and dance program, a guest lecture, a wind symphony, a visiting Russian pianist, five performances of Macbeth, a choral afternoon and a night of student composers. On November 25 the university starts its Thanksgiving Break, which runs through the 29th. If you live on Sehome Hill, South Hill or along Samish Way, this is the busiest stretch of the year on the stages you can walk to, and a good share of it is free.

The two weeks on one page

The College of Fine and Performing Arts keeps the full list on its What's Happening calendar, and that page is the one to check for late additions.

Free nights open and close the run

The two weeks start and end with free concerts. The WWU Percussion Ensemble Fall Concert on November 10 is listed as open to all at no cost. So is Composers of Western on November 23, a 7:30 p.m. program the department calls C.O.W. In the middle, on November 18, NowHearThis! and the Harp Studio Recital are both listed at 7:30 p.m. with no admission charge.

That makes four free performances, on three different weeknights, all in the Performing Arts Center. All of them start after 4:30 p.m., and that time matters for parking more than for anything else, as covered further down.

What a ticket buys, from $8.50 to $62

Ticketed nights in the run range from $8.50 to $62 a seat.

The Wind Symphony on November 19 is the cheapest ticketed event of the run, with the ticket link set at $8.50. The Western Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir on November 13 comes to $20 for general admission on Tickets.com, which is a $17.50 ticket plus $2.50 in fees. Students get in at no cost. If a college student in your household comes along, the ticket math changes in your favor.

The Sunday afternoon Concert of Hindustani Music and Dance on November 15 is a single price of $23.25. The top of the range is pianist Mikhail Voskresensky on Friday, November 20, priced from $26.25 to $62. A masterclass is listed for November 21, with the time and location still to be announced.

Macbeth is a WWU Theatre and Dance production, according to its Tickets.com listing. Each performance runs 2 hours 30 minutes on the Performing Arts Center Mainstage. The schedule has five shows:

1. Friday, November 20, at 7:30 p.m.
2. Saturday, November 21, at 2 p.m.
3. Saturday, November 21, at 7:30 p.m.
4. Sunday, November 22, at 2 p.m.
5. Sunday, November 22, at 7:30 p.m.

Opening night of Macbeth and the Voskresensky recital both start at 7:30 p.m. on November 20, so that Friday means choosing one. If you want both, Macbeth's four weekend performances give you another chance at the play.

November 18 is the night to plan around

Wednesday the 18th is the only date with events in two buildings, one after the other. At 5 p.m. the Western Gallery hosts "Reckoning with History and the US Empire," a guest lecture by Professor Moon-Ho Jung that ends at 6 p.m. The lecture is tied to the gallery's current exhibition, Rajkamal Kahlon's "Are My Hands Clean?" Then at 7:30 p.m., NowHearThis! and the Harp Studio Recital start at the Performing Arts Center, both free.

That leaves a 90-minute gap between the lecture and the recitals, enough for dinner and a walk back up the hill. The lecture page also offers complimentary event parking in Lot 17G, which covers the first stop.

After 4:30, parking costs less than the concert

Every event in the run starts after 4:30 p.m. on a weekday or falls on a weekend. Under WWU Transportation Services' visitor rules, that window has its own parking setup. After 4:30 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends and holidays, the C lots, 12G, 27R and the off-campus Lincoln Creek lot are free.

Paid after-hours spaces are in 6V, 7G, 9G, 11G and 19G, and you can pay at a pay station or through ParkMobile. Lot 6V sits near the Viking Union and the Performing Arts Center. The main campus visitor rate is $2 an hour or $14 a day. For a 2-hour-30-minute Macbeth, three hours in 6V comes to $6. That's not far below the $8.50 Wind Symphony ticket, and it's more than the free percussion, harp and composers nights cost to get in. A C lot costs nothing in the same hours.

Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11, falls inside the run and follows weekend parking rules, and WWU applies the same rules on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26. The weekend of November 20 to 22 is the busiest of the run: five Macbeth shows, the Voskresensky recital and the Sunday choral concert. If you live within walking distance of the Performing Arts Center, that's the weekend to leave the car at home.

The gallery stays open after the stages go quiet

Kahlon's exhibition is the one piece of this season that lasts past the two weeks. "Are My Hands Clean?" runs from October 8, 2026 through January 23, 2027 at the Western Gallery. It shows recent paintings by the South Asian American artist, who enlarges and paints over images of anonymous women taken from early 20th-century German anthropological and scientific books. She dresses her subjects in contemporary fashion, with accessories inspired by radical feminists and armed revolutionaries.

Admission is free. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m., and it closes during university holidays and breaks. Those weekday hours end at 4 p.m., before free parking starts at 4:30. The Saturday hours line up well with the Macbeth matinee on November 21: an hour at the gallery after noon, then the 2 p.m. curtain on the Mainstage, all inside weekend parking rules.

Thanksgiving Break runs Wednesday, November 25 through Sunday, November 29, and the 25th is listed as a day the university is open but has no classes. Because the gallery closes during breaks, Saturday, November 21 is the last weekend gallery visit before Thanksgiving. The fall term ends December 11. The exhibition stays up into January for anyone who misses the November run.

Being able to walk from your front door to the Concert Hall on a Tuesday night is a real part of what a home near campus is worth, and buyers notice it. If you'd like to know what your home near Western would bring in today's market, Michelle Harrington can walk you through it, staging and all. Get Your Instant Home Valuation and start with a number.