MainStage Live
Ruckus with Davóne TInes in
“What is Your Hand in this?”
Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 7:30 PM
August Wilson African American Cultural Center, 980 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Ruckus makes its Pittsburgh debut, joining forces with bass-baritone Davóne Tines, “one of the most powerful voices of our time” (Los Angeles Times).
As we mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and reflect on our shared history, how can the American traditions of artistic expression and cultural evolution guide our interconnected future? Traveling through four centuries of reimagined songs, hymns, and ballads, early music band Ruckus and path breaking vocalist Davóne Tines offer a meditation on and interrogation of the American legacy through its revolutionary musics.
Ruckus makes its Pittsburgh debut in this remarkable program, bringing an utterly unique approach to early music that is “achingly delicate one moment, incisive and punchy the next” (The New York Times). The band joins forces with Tines to ask: how can our fragile American experiment hold?
The Ruckus early music band features Doug Balliett on violone and electric bass, Elliot Figg on harpsichord and synthesizer, Keir GoGwilt on violin, Manami Mizumoto on violin and viola, Paul Holmes Morton on banjo and theorbo, and Clay Zeller-Townson on reeds & percussion.
DOUG BALLIETT Steps to Compassion
TRADITIONAL (arr. Tines) Jesus Lover of My Soul
GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL Convey Me to Some Peaceful Shore (1748)
TRADITIONAL Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes
ANONYMOUS What Mean Ye (1720/1837)
JULIUS EASTMAN Buddha (1983)
JOHN DICKINSON (arr. Balliett) The Liberty Song (1768)
JOSHUA McCARTER SIMPSON (arr. Tines & Ruckus) To The White People of America (1854)
BENJAMIN CARR (arr. Balliett) The Federal Overture (1793)
GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL Why Do the Nations (1741)
CLYDE OTIS This Bitter Earth (1960)
DOUG BALLIETT Knowledge
EARL ROBINSON/LEWIS ALLEN The House I Live In (1942)
DAVÓNE TINES/DOUG BALLIETT What is My Hand in This?
Presented in partnership with the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC)
Learn More About AWAACC
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a nonprofit cultural organization that generates artistic, educational, and community initiatives that advance the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. One of the largest cultural centers in the country, focused exclusivelxy on the African American experience and the celebration of Black culture and the African diaspora, the Center welcomes more than 100,000 visitors locally and nationally. Through year-round programming across multiple genres, such as the annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Black Bottom Film Festival, AWCommunity Days, TRUTHSayers speaker series, and rotating art exhibits in its galleries, the Center provides a platform for established and emerging artists of color whose work reflects the universal issues of identity that Wilson tackled, and which still resonate today.