South Bend’s annual Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration concert will take place on Sunday, November 8, at 3 p.m. at the Morris Performing Arts Center. The concert is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the City of South Bend’s Equity in the Arts program, the concert is the final event in a collaboration among the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, the South Bend Museum of Art, and La Casa de Amistad.

Día de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday during which families remember and celebrate loved ones who have died. South Bend’s celebration will bring the community together through music, dance, art, and cultural traditions.

The concert will feature the South Bend Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Music Director Alastair Willis. The program includes Moño by composer Marina Lopez. Commissioned in 2023 through the League of American Orchestras’ Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program, Moño is part of a national initiative developed in partnership with the American Composers Orchestra. The South Bend Symphony is one of the consortium orchestras supporting the commission and bringing the work to audiences across the country.

Lopez will speak from 2 to 2:30 p.m. in the Equity in the Arts Gallery at the Raclin Murphy Encore Center. The concert will also feature the University of Notre Dame Mariachi Band and the Ballet Folklórico Azul y Oro dance troupe.

Special guest Sones de México Ensemble will bring the sounds of Mexican folk music to the stage. Founded in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood in 1994, the ensemble performs regional styles of son, including huapango, gustos, chilenas, and son jarocho. The group has toured nationally and internationally, performing at venues including the Getty Museum, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center.

A series of ofrendas, or altars, will be installed throughout South Bend during the week of November 2. Created by artists through the South Bend Museum of Art under the direction of Kolton Sizer, each ofrenda will have its own theme. Locations include the South Bend Museum of Art, La Casa de Amistad, the Equity in the Arts Gallery at the Raclin Murphy Encore Center, the St. Joseph County Public Library’s Main Library, and City Hall.

La Casa de Amistad will also host a celebration on Saturday, November 7, beginning at St. Adalbert Catholic Church. A parade and street fair will follow.

Free tickets are available at the Morris box office or at morriscenter.org.