Food and music will share the spotlight at the Fox Tucson Theatre as local chefs and songwriters turn a common theme into original dishes and songs during the third annual Pairings · Music & Morsels fundraiser.
The Fox Tucson Theatre Foundation will host the event at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, in partnership with Tucson City of Gastronomy. The evening pairs three chefs with three singer-songwriters, challenging each duo to independently create food and music inspired by the same idea.
Fox Tucson Theatre CEO Bonnie Schock said the event has evolved since its debut as audiences have become more familiar with its unusual format.
“I think it has grown in terms of how we approach both the theme and the invitation to the audience into this experience,” Schock said. “People kind of get it now.”
This year’s theme, “Moments of Sweetness,” also marks a change in the culinary side of the event. Rather than focusing on appetizer-style dishes, the chefs will create desserts inspired by their conversations with their musical partners.
Schock said the idea behind Pairings grew from the Fox’s connection to Tucson and a desire to create a fundraiser that showcased multiple parts of the city’s creative community.
“The Fox is deeply rooted in the Tucson community,” Schock said. “It’s an icon. When people think about Tucson, they think about the Fox and vice versa.”
Tucson’s culinary traditions and music scene made the two art forms a natural combination, Schock said. The goal was to bring artists from different disciplines together and see what emerged from the collaboration.
This year’s chefs are Shuka Parker, Angela Garcia and Mathew Cable. Parker, who launched Shuka Sweets in 2023, combines heritage ingredients with her experience as a pastry chef. Garcia specializes in the culinary traditions and heritage foods of the Sonoran Desert, while Cable incorporates his Italian-American roots with Sonoran Desert ingredients and borderlands traditions.
They will be paired with singer-songwriters Sophia Rankin, Justin Fernandez of Tesoro and Gabrielle “Gabby” Pietrangelo.
The Fox staff selects the musicians, while Tucson City of Gastronomy helps select the participating chefs. Schock said organizers seek artists representing a variety of styles and cultural traditions before matching the chefs and musicians.
The collaborators meet for what organizers call a “creative conversation,” where they discuss the theme and what it could mean within their respective art forms. From there, each musician writes an original song while each chef develops a new dish.
“There’s no right, there’s no wrong,” Schock said. “It really is about what your response is and what you start to think.”
Guests will see more than the finished creations. Organizers document the collaboration and produce short videos introducing each pair and showing parts of their creative process before attendees hear the song and taste the accompanying dish.
“You get an idea of who this creator is before you experience the song and eat the food,” Schock said. “It kind of rounds out the whole idea of the process.”
Schock said that added context allows guests to better understand how each artist interpreted the theme rather than simply experiencing the finished song or dish.
For this year’s artists, “Moments of Sweetness” has developed into something more complicated than the name might initially suggest.
“The theme running through all three of the pairs is that, in one way or another, sweetness as a concept isn’t just sweet,” Schock said.
She said the artists have explored the tension between hardship and triumph, translating those contrasts into different tastes and musical ideas.
The participating artists also bring a range of cultural and creative influences. Schock said the musicians draw from traditions including flamenco, Spanish music, folk and rock, while the chefs bring influences from Japanese, Sonoran, Italian and Mexican culinary traditions.
All six are starting from the same central theme, but Schock said their backgrounds and artistic approaches shape where they ultimately take it.
For Schock, food and music also share a deeper connection because of the roles they play in bringing people together.
“They’re both fundamental to how we express ourselves as human beings, and I think they’re both very much at the heart of communities,” Schock said. “We have gathered around food and around music.”
The Fox itself plays a role in the experience. Instead of using the auditorium solely as a traditional performance venue, tables are placed between guests, food is served theatrically and performances unfold onstage.
“The other character in this play or this show is the Fox itself,” Schock said.
The format is intended to create an intimate, listening-room atmosphere and encourage guests to focus on the music, food and process behind each creation.
Pairings has received a positive response during its first two years, Schock said, including one attendee who described it as “the best fundraiser I’ve ever been to.”
For the Fox, however, Pairings is about more than raising money. Schock said commissioning original work allows the theater to support Tucson artists financially while giving them a platform to experiment and reach new audiences.
“This is a wonderful way for us to support local makers and to showcase and highlight all the different talent that exists in our community,” Schock said. “Ultimately, that’s what we’re here for.”
Proceeds from Pairings benefit the Fox Tucson Theatre Foundation and support the preservation and continued operation of the historic theater.
Schock said she hopes guests leave with a greater appreciation for the commitment Tucson artists put into their work and a sense that they have discovered an artist, flavor or idea they had not encountered before.
Attending also supports the future of the Fox itself, she said.
“They are supporting an arts organization that is a legacy institution in Tucson and that plans to keep being here for the next 100 years,” Schock said. “We’ve got to pay attention to the things that we want to preserve and ensure continue to thrive around us.”
