The Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Performing Arts announced its 2025-26 season on April 30, with an increased slate of events and exhibitions to keep its many venues booked and busy.
Standout events include the new artist-in-residence, percussionist and steel pan musician Andy Akiho, along with several performances and lectures exploring the new season’s theme of “Arts + AI.”
After opening last April with a brief festival season for its first few months, PRAx hosted about 160 events in its 2024-25 season. That includes those presented by the center itself as well as events by other artistic organizations that share the space, like the Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra and Corvallis-OSU Piano International.
Center staff had projected they would sell 19,000 tickets in their first year. As of April, they’re on track to sell more than 32,000 for the season.
With many events selling out, one of the main goals of the new season was to expand ticket offerings so more people can experience more art, and to maintain a good balance between content that is joyful and content that is meaningful, said Peter Betjemann, executive director of the center and associate vice provost of arts and humanities.
“Variety is the life-blood of PRAx; no doubt about it,” Betjemann said. “We ask people to step outside of their comfort zone. If we can get someone to try out a genre of music they haven’t tried at least once per year, that’s great.”
Another goal for the new season is to streamline the audience experience with clearer guidance and assistance for ticketing and for getting into and out of the venue.
PRAx is also making it easier for people to donate their tickets to hopeful attendees waiting on standby when they end up unable to attend a show. Box office hours are expanding so patrons can call and release tickets the day of the event; they can also email [email protected] at any time to alert staff and release their ticket.
For the new season, visitors may purchase individual tickets, create their own package of three, five or seven events, or choose from several multi-event packages:
- The Andy Akiho series includes all three of Akiho’s performances, one per term, for $75. The winter performance will include OSU student musicians, with whom Akiho will be teaching and collaborating throughout the year. The spring show will include the Imani Winds quintet and spotlights the experiences of prisoners in an immigrant detention facility.
“The Director’s Package is the quickest and easiest way to a super varied arts season,” Betjemann said. “If people want to just hit one button and have an entire season ready to go, the Director’s Package is the way.”
Several musical acts are making repeat appearances on the PRAx stage, including Indigenous jazz artists Julia Keefe and Delbert Anderson.
Anderson is bringing a unique project called “The Long Walk,” a composition performed one note at a time over four-and-a-half years — the same length of time the Navajo people were forced to walk 450 miles when they were displaced by the U.S. government in the 1860s. Attendees are invited to bring instruments and play or sing the note together.
Keefe will perform with her Indigenous Big Band, which includes artists Mali Obamsawin and Quinn Carson who performed in PRAx’s first season.
A capella ensemble Kings Return will return with a special performance to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. And Chicano band Las Cafeteras will be back with a new kind of show, incorporating musical theater, for Dia de los Muertos.
“This season is really trying to not just reproduce the kind of opportunities we’ve already had, but create new kinds of opportunities,” Betjemann said.
The season booklet this year is 70 pages long. Tickets are on sale now at prax.oregonstate.edu, and almost all events offer student tickets for $5 apiece.
If an event is sold out, Betjemann said that so far, PRAx has always been able to accommodate everyone who comes to the standby line before the start time.
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