Here’s a quick guide to some upcoming arts and cultural events happening around Missoula.
A new play at UM tackles difficult issues
(Oct. 2-5, 9-12)
The first play of the season for the UM School of Theatre and Dance is new enough that this is the first full production ever, coming after staged readings and workshops. Playwright Jenny Connell Davis’ script is set among high-schoolers brainstorming a memorial for a local hometown hero. As things progress, events “force the group to wrestle with questions of romance, the line between chivalry and coercion, male role models, dating abuse, and sexual assault,” according to an email from UM.
Theater professor Pamyla Stiehl is directing a cast of five students for the 90-minute show, which contains adult themes and language.
Details: Masquer Theatre, go to umt.edu/theatre-dance/season for tickets and times.
Missoula Symphony’s ‘Viva Americas!’
(Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 4-5)
The first proper concert of the 2025-26 season, “Viva Americas!,” surveys pieces by Latin American composers.
The centerpiece is “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,” by Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, who brought the timbres and rhythms of tango into the concert hall, and in this case, a Vivaldi classic. Their guest soloist on that piece is Kerson Leong, a Canadian violinist who last visited Missoula in 2024 to perform with the String Orchestra of the Rockies. Leong won the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition for young violinists in 2010 and has since earned rave reviews around the world.
Music director Julia Tai will open the evening with a piece by Gabriela Ortiz, a Mexican composer, titled “Kauyumari,” which premiered in 2021 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. That’s balanced out by an older composition, Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Sinfonietta No. 1, “A Memoria de Mozart,” and Mexican composer Arturo Márquez’s La Conga del Fuego Nuevo.
Details: Dennison Theatre, Saturday, Oct. 4, at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 5, at 3 p.m. for tickets go to missoulasymphony.org.
Nation of Language at the Wilma
(Sunday, Oct. 5)
This Brooklyn band has found wearied kindred spirits in 1980s post-punk and synth pop with a distinct anglophile bent. They’re sharp enough with songwriting, some clutch falsetto at key moments and production (including modern synths and drum programming) that takes on its own compelling voice rather than sending you back to “Power, Corruption & Lies.” If you needed any more endorsements, their new album was produced by Nick Millhiser of LCD Soundsystem’s live incarnation and DFA Records act Juan Maclean Soundsystem. They’ve blown up enough that this show sold out its originally scheduled venue, the Top Hat, and was moved to the Wilma. Their opener is Greet Death, a Michigan rock band with a swooning, gothic tone.
Details: The Wilma, 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show. $32 and up, logjampresents.com.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS Feed | Omny Studio
Remembering Missoula artist George Gogas
(Tuesday, Oct. 7)
A memorial will be held at the Missoula Art Museum for George Gogas, a Missoula painter who passed away on Sept. 6 at age 96.
Like another western Montana artist, Bill Ohrmann, Gogas found wide recognition for his art later in his life. After decades of teaching in Missoula County high schools, he dove into art full time and developed what became his signature, “The Judith Basin Encounter” series. They were an unlikely, homespun and humorous tribute to his two main influences: Charlie Russell and Pablo Picasso. He merged scenarios from Russell’s iconic Western canvases rendered with ideas about abstraction from the great Spanish artist.
The works earned him a following, including high bidding at the MAM’s auctions, and were exhibited around Montana.
The memorial at the MAM will include an exhibition of some of his paintings and remarks by speakers including curator emeritus Stephen Glueckert.
Details: Missoula Art Museum, 5-7 p.m.
A renewed Autio sculpture will be unveiled
(Wednesday, Oct. 8)
Rudy Autio, the late Butte-born ceramic sculptor who had a lasting influence on the form around the U.S., also explored other mediums, like the bronze grizzly bear statue at UM, where he taught for most of his career. A less widely acknowledged campus sculpture called “Signal” has been faithfully reproduced after the original work deteriorated and was taken out of public view, according to a UM news release.
The Montana Museum of Art and Culture, along with Autio’s family and friends, privately raised more than $70,000 to reconstruct the sculpture based on the artist’s models and other resources. Autio collaborator Hugh Warford worked on the ceramic parts and Nick Chaussee of DCF Manufacturing handled the steel.
Details: Montana Museum of Art and Culture’s south lawn, 4-5:30 p.m., free.
In brief
Germanfest: The annual celebration of Missoula’s sister-city relationship with Neckargemünd, Germany, returns to Caras Park with Bayern beer, pretzels and other German fare, a tuba band and more, organized by Arts Missoula. Saturday, Oct. 4, 12-5 p.m., Caras Park, free, all ages.
Jonathan Richman at the ZACC: The frontman of the legendary post-punk band The Modern Lovers returns to Missoula for an intimate show, accompanied by his drummer Tommy Larkins. ZACC Show Room, Saturday, Oct. 4, 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show, $25, standing room only.
Dance on Location at UM: Dance students kick off the fall season with site-specific works that take you around UM’s scenic campus. This year, they’ve invited choreographer Rachel Oliver Young, a Missoula native who’s been based in Denver after attending graduate school at the University of Colorado Boulder. She’s been back before to work with Bare Bait Dance; this time she’s got her pick of outdoor sites to develop new ideas. Saturday, Oct. 4 at 5:30 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 5 at noon. Starts at the Mansfield Mall, $10 minimum donation suggested, umt.edu/theatre-dance/season.
Tell Us Something at UM: The storytelling event returns to the Dennison Theatre on the theme “Walk on the Wild Side,” with original anecdotes from local residents shared without notes. Tuesday, Oct. 7, 7 p.m. Check for tickets in advance, this event often sells out.
Cory Walsh is the arts and entertainment reporter for the Missoulian.
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