The Arsht Center's October Lineup: Buena Vista, Patti Smith, Chucho Valdés, and a Halloween Concert

October at the Adrienne Arsht Center is one of the stronger months the venue has put together in recent memory — a calendar that moves from Cuban jazz to punk poetry to family puppetry to a full-orchestra film screening on Halloween eve. Here is the full picture.

The month opens as September closes: Buena Vista Social Club™ continues its run at the Ziff Ballet Opera House through October 4, with six additional performances across Thursday through Sunday. The Arsht Plus: Rhythm & Roots outdoor series runs in parallel at Thomson Plaza for the Arts on all four evenings, free with RSVP — a rare opportunity to pair a world-class ticketed concert with a free community gathering on the same night.

On Saturday, October 3, Knight Concert Hall hosts something singular: a concert celebrating the 85th birthday of Chucho Valdés, the Cuban jazz pianist and composer widely regarded as one of the most important figures in Afro-Cuban music. Valdés co-founded Irakere, has won nine Grammy Awards, and has spent six decades reshaping the relationship between jazz and Cuban musical tradition. An 85th birthday concert at the Arsht is the kind of event that does not repeat.

On Friday, October 9, the Ziff Ballet Opera House presents An Evening of Songs and Stories With Patti Smith. Smith — poet, visual artist, and the figure most associated with the birth of punk as a literary form — has been performing these intimate evenings for years, and they remain among the most distinctive live experiences in contemporary music. The format is loose: songs, readings, stories, digressions. Tickets are available through the Arsht box office.

The weekend of October 10 and 11 brings Marionetas de la Esquina: Superheroínas to the Carnival Studio Theater — four performances of a Spanish-language puppet production aimed at families, with showtimes at 11 AM and 3 PM on both days. On Saturday evening, October 10, The French Horn Collective performs at Thomson Plaza for the Arts at 7:30 PM.

October 17 brings Fire · Guitar · Legend to Knight Concert Hall at 8:30 PM, followed the next evening by Singalong Broadway at 6:30 PM — a participatory concert format that tends to draw a crowd that already knows every word. On October 24, Cuban jazz drummer and bandleader Yissy García performs with her trio at Thomson Plaza for the Arts at 7:30 PM. García is one of the most compelling voices in contemporary Cuban jazz, and the outdoor plaza setting suits her.

The month closes on October 30 with Ghostbusters in Concert at Knight Concert Hall — the 1984 film projected on screen while a full orchestra performs Elmer Bernstein's score live. It is a Halloween-eve event in the most satisfying sense: genuinely cinematic, genuinely musical, and genuinely fun.

Tickets for all Arsht Center performances are available at arshtcenter.org or by calling 305.949.6722. The center is located at 1300 Biscayne Blvd, Miami.

For more upcoming events across South Florida, visit the Premier Guide Miami Events Calendar .