The Mondavi Center is proud to announce our school matinees for the 2026-27 season!
From a high-flying cirque homage to America’s iconic amusement parks and one of Mexico’s most revered folklorico companies, to the journey to the end of the age of dinosaurs, we have something for students of all ages to enjoy. Order early as some performances will sell out.
Ruth Rosenberg
Mondavi Center Director of Arts Education and Artist Engagement
How To Buy Tickets
Please fill out the online request form and you will be contacted to arrange payment.
Tickets are $11 for students, $15 for adults (1 adult for each 10 students required)
Purchasing questions? Contact Group Sales Coordinator at 530.754.4658 or email us
Cirque Mechanics: Tilt! A Circus Thrill Ride
Monday, October 26, 2026 • 11:00am-Noon
Location: Jackson Hall
Recommended Grades: K-12
Length: 60 minutes
Step right up to the dazzling world of Tilt! A Circus Thrill Ride. Journey back to the 1980s and experience a high-flying homage to America’s amusement parks, where a giant Ferris Wheel surrounded by mechanical creations reimagines classic rides and games . Bursting with acrobatics, aerial feats, juggling and nostalgic charm, this theatrical circus adventure brings the sights, sounds and spirit of the era to life.
Sewam American Indian Dance
Monday, November 16, 2026 • 11:00am-Noon
Location: Jackson Hall
Recommended Grades: K-6
Length: 60 minutes
Sewam American Indian Dance showcases well-known American Indian dances. Wearing traditional regalia, the performers use American Indian Sign Language, dance, live singing and live drumming to reveal the empowering and inspiring nature of Plains Indian culture. Every song, dance and gesture illustrates a part of Native American heritage as a people with roots in the distant past.
Ballet Folklorico dé Mexico de Amalia Hernández
Friday, February 12, 2027 • 11:00am-Noon
Location: Jackson Hall
Recommended Grades: K-12
Length: 60 minutes
Celebrating its 75th anniversary, Amalia Hernández's Ballet Folklórico de México is the most emblematic folkloric dance ensemble in Mexico and around the world, having performed in more than 80 countries. Ballet Folklórico brings together the music, dance and costume of Mexican folklore from pre-Colombian civilizations through the modern era.
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Friday, February 19, 2027 • 11:00am-Noon
Location: Jackson Hall
Recommended Grades: 7-12
Length: 60 minutes
Join us for this special matinee performance with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, in his final season as the center’s artistic and music director. Featuring 15 of today’s most accomplished jazz soloists, ensemble players and arrangers, the Orchestra performs new works alongside timeless classics by Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and others.
Yamato
Monday, April 12, 2027 • 11:00am-Noon
Location: Jackson Hall
Recommended Grades: K-12
Length: 60 minutes
Celebrated the world over for its “physical music,” Japanese Taiko drumming group Yamato looms (and booms) large, with more than 40 Taiko drums on stage representing different characters. At once intense, then sad and even comforting and comical, you’re more than a bystander when you experience Yamato — you’re engulfed in the sound of Taiko.
National Geographic: Death of the Dinosaurs
Monday, April 19, 2027 • 11:00am-Noon
Location: Jackson Hall
Recommended Grades: 3-12
Length: 60 minutes
Join paleontologist and National Geographic Explorer Tyler Lyson for an extraordinary journey to the end of the age of dinosaurs. Tracing the asteroid impact that toppled Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex, Lyson reveals the story of how birds and mammals survived and adapted. Lyson, who has a Ph.D. in geology and paleontology from Yale, oversees the fossil reptile collection at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
California Arts Standards
The California Arts Standards provide guidance toward a common goal: for all California students to fully participate in a rich and well-rounded arts education. The standards are based on the artistic processes of creating; performing/producing/presenting; responding; and connecting. Our school matinees correspond to responding and connecting:
- Responding—Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and Analyze Artistic Work; Standard 8: Interpret Intent and Meaning in Artistic Work; Anchor Standard 9: Apply Criteria to Evaluate Artistic Work
- Connecting—Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and Relate Knowledge and Personal Experiences to Make Art; Anchor Standard 11: Relate Artistic Ideas and Works with Societal, Cultural, and Historical Context to Deepen Understanding
Common Core Standards
Common Core broadens the definition of a “text,” viewing performance as a form of text, so students are experiencing and interacting with a text when they attend a performance. Seeing live performance provides rich opportunities to write reflections, narratives, arguments etc.
What Students Can Expect
A theatre is a charged space, full of energy and anticipation. When the house lights (the lights that illuminate the audience seating) go down, the excitement level goes up!
By watching attentively, the audience shows respect for the performers. Audience members may feel like laughing if the action on stage is funny, crying if the action is sad, or sighing if something is seen or heard that is beautiful. Sometimes the audience will clap during a performance, as after a featured solo.
Applause is the best way for audience members to share their enthusiasm and to show their appreciation for the performers. Applaud at the end of a performance!
Please note that food and drinks are not permitted in the theatre during a performance.
Contact Us
Ruth Rosenberg
Director of Arts Education and Artist Engagement
[email protected]
530.752.6113
School Matinee Ticket questions:
Madi Miguel
Group Sales Coordinator
[email protected]
530.754.4658
Other School Matinee questions:
Jennifer Mast
Business Services and Arts Education Coordinator
[email protected]
530.754.5431
Thank you to our Arts Education Sponsors
Les and Mary Stephens Dewall
MC Friends K-12 Arts Education Fund