Anne Arundel County

The Maryland Renaissance Festival runs from late August to the middle of October, in Crownsville (yes, really) just outside Annapolis.

Annapolis

The Annapolis Opera presents professional opera in the state capital, with a regularly changing bill.

The Ballet Theatre of Maryland provides serious ballet for serious fans, including holiday favorite The Nutcracker, and a regularly changing slate of ballet through the year, plus a school for students of the art.

Howard County

The Howard Center for the Arts provides a venue for several performing and static arts, including the Columbia Orchestra in Howard County, a local well-regarded orchestra, the Black Box Theater, and an educational program including summer camps and adult and children's classes.

The Candlelight Concert Society plays mainly chamber and other small group classical, and includes a classical music children's education program.

The Horowitz Center for Visual and Performing Arts, at the local community college, is a venue for many musical and theatrical performances.

Ellicott CIty

The Howard County Ghost Tour shows the spooky side of the county, with tours available from April to November. Howard County has been settled for hundreds of years, and has collected a lot of ghost stories, and this is an opportunity to see the supernatural kind of spook.

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company presents a full slate of the Bard with other classics shaking up the bill. The Company also provides after school, summer, and college level theater education programming.

Montgomery County

AFIDOCS (formerly Silverdocs) is a film festival for documentaries, traditionally held in Silver Springs, Montgomery County.

AFI Silver Theatre is an American Film Institute affiliated movie theater in Silver Springs with a focus on classic films.

The Silver Spring Jazz Festival is held in September, and generally features jazz masters from around the country.

Baltimore

Performing arts in Baltimore are represented in the Baltimore Symphonic Orchestra, Lyric Opera House of Baltimore, Centerstage Baltimore, and Everyman Theatre.