Month: April 2016

2016 REF Grants for VPA Faculty

The Vice President for Research Office announces the 2016 REF awards and thanks the review committees, the deans and department chairs for their time spent on this important internal research award process. Among the recipients are:

Infrastructure Enhancement (IE) Grants

Jared Anderson, Visual and Performing Arts – Yamaha CL5 Digital Mixing Console

Scholarship and Creativity Grants

Mike Christianson, Visual and Performing Arts
Christopher Plummer, Visual and Performing Arts

Read more at Tech Today, by VPR.

Choirs Present “Songs of the Earth” Friday

Songs of the EarthJoin the choirs of Michigan Tech as they present the final Rozsa event of the season, a concert entitled “Songs of the Earth.”

The concert celebrates Earth Day with music inspired by nature or includes themes relating to the natural world.

The Michigan Tech Concert Choir will perform music from Haydn’s “Creation,” paired with a setting of poetry of George MacDonald, titled “Communion,” by René Clausen.

Other selections include American folk-songs “Sourwood Mountain,” “Black Sheep” and “Shenandoah.”

Music by contemporary composers Jeff Cobb and David Evan Thomas provide variety to the program with the setting of the tongue-twister “Esau Wood” and Emily Dickenson’s description of a storm, titled “An Awful Tempest.”

ConScience: Michigan Tech Chamber Singers will premiere a new work by Elizabeth Meyer (VPA), titled “To What Listens,” for choir, trombone, piano and percussion.

Other selections include two choral soundscapes, “Tundra” by Ola Gjeilo and “The Whole Sea in Motion” by Dale Trumbore.

Another set, titled “Flower Songs,” will feature the music of Chen YI, John Clements and Carlos Guastavino.

The show will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 23, 2016, at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

Tickets for “Songs of the Earth” are on sale now, $13 for adults, $5 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee.

Tickets are available by phone at 7-2073, online or in person at the Central Ticket Office in the Student Development Complex.

From Tech Today, by Bethany Jones.

Michigan Tech, the Keweenaw Celebrate Earth Day

Today, April 22, 2016, marks the 46th anniversary of Earth Day. It was established in 1970 by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, in response to massive oil spills and growing environmental hazards from industrial pollutants.

Earth Day is an international observance with more than 192 countries working together to find solutions for our world. From education in the schools on green solutions to Adopt a Highway programs, there is something each of us can do to join the campaign to protect the planet.

Michigan Tech is presenting the Rozsa Center season’s final concert titled “Songs of the Earth,” a musical presentation inspired by nature at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow (April 23).

Read more at Tech Today, by Mary LaDoux, Student Writer.

KSO Presents “Shakespeare at the Symphony” at Calumet Theatre

KSO ShakespeareThe Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra returns to the Calumet Theatre to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. The concert takes place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 15, 2016, at the Calumet Theatre.

The KSO performs orchestral music inspired by several of the Bard’s plays, including “The Tempest” (Sibelius), “Hamlet” (Berlioz), “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Mendelssohn) and “Romeo and Juliet” (Berlioz and Prokofiev).

Music Director Joel Neves (VPA) says “the KSO is excited to perform at the historic Calumet Theatre for the first time since 2011. The music of Shakespeare is dramatic, expressive, colorful, inventive — the perfect companion to his plays. Our concert will be a revelatory experience for those who enjoy the fusion of music and literature. I look forward to sharing this with our patrons.”

Tickets are on sale now, $19 for adults, $6 for youth, no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee. Tickets are available by phone at 7-2073, online, in person at the Central Ticket Office in the Student Development Complex or at the Calumet Theatre Box Office.

From Tech Today, by Bethany Jones.

17th Annual Don Keranen Memorial Jazz Concert Friday

Don Keranen49 years of great jazz and counting. Join Jazz Studies Program Director Mike Irish and the Michigan Tech Jazz ensembles for the 17th Annual Don Keranen Memorial Jazz Concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 15, 2016, at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

The R&D Big Band will perform “Little Sunflower” with the addition of interesting sound effects and a woodwind quintet. The Jazz Lab Band will feature vocalists Kattie Riutta and Kevin Rocheleau singing “Used To Rule The World” and “Diggin’ On James Brown,” respectively. The Jazz Lab Band will perform a classic composition from the library of the Buddy Rich Big Band entitled “Groovin’ Hard” written by Don Menza. In a more contemporary style, the R&D Band will funk-out on the Tower of Power classic “Soul Vaccination.”

In 2003, Jay Keranen developed an endowed award program in his father’s name. Two $500 amounts are awarded for Outstanding Jazz Musician and The Most Improved Jazz Musician. This year’s recipients will be announced during the evening’s concert.

Tickets for the Don Keranen Memorial Jazz Concert are on sale now, $13 for adults, $5 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee. Tickets are available by phone at 7-2073, online, in person at the Central Ticket Office in the SDC or at the Rozsa Box Office the evening of the performance. Note that the Rozsa Box Office only opens two hours prior to performances.

From Tech Today, by Bethany Jones.

Superior Wind Symphony Presents “Pageantry”

SWS PageantryPageantry” is an evening of music created for large celebrations! From the music of Charles Gounod and John Philip Sousa to John Mackey and Winton Marsalis, come listen to music designed to make you feel the grandness and the thrill of important occasions.

Never been to a Superior Wind Symphony concert? It is the only Michigan Tech music ensemble composed entirely of non-music majors: chemists, engineers, physics, even math majors, make up the band.

Come to the “Pageantry” concert this at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 9 in the McArdle Theatre, and enjoy the show.

Tickets for “Pageantry” are on sale now, $13 for adults, $5 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee. Tickets are available by phone at 7-2073, online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the SDC or at the McArdle Theatre door the evening of the performance.

From Tech Today, by Bethany Jones.

Tech Theatre Presents Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale”

Winters TaleThe Tech Theatre Company presents “The Winter’s Tale” by William Shakespeare this week.

One of the Bard’s later plays, it is a comedy which also provides intense psychological drama. “The Winter’s Tale” follows the story of two kings, childhood friends Leontes and Polixenes. The plot involves jealous rages, seeming betrayals, accusations of infidelity and Leonte’s refusal to accept his wife’s child as his own. Eventually, love reunites the characters in the end and all are redeemed.

“The Winter’s Tale” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, with a 2 p.m. Sunday Matinee at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $6 for youth and Michigan Tech Students are free with the Experience Tech Fee.

From Tech Today, by VPA.

“The Winter’s Tale” Opens Tonight

The curtain will go up tonight for the Tech Theatre Company’s latest production, “The Winter’s Tale,” in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. tonigh (April 7, 2016)t, tomorrow (April 8) and Saturday (April 9) with a 2 p.m. Sunday (April 10) matinee.

Published in 1623, “The Winter’s Tale” is one of Shakespeare’s later plays. Considered a comedy, it is also sometimes labeled one of the Bard’s late romances.

Providing both intense psychological drama and comedy, “The Winter’s Tale” leaves audiences with a romantic and happy ending as it follows a story of two kings who are childhood friends. There are violent storms, an insistence to abandon a child and even 16 years pass before love reunites the characters in the end and all are redeemed.

According to Director Roger Held, “The dreary English days twixt November and March are invariably cold, dark and damp. While snowfall is light, the east wind blows very cold and the wind from the south and west brings chilly rain. During the English Renaissance, the lack of central heating encouraged early bed times under multiple covers. Not-sleepy-children may have prompted the development of traditional Winter Tales … stories most often set in the long ago and far away and were cautionary tales, warning against bad behavior. The romantic writers and the Grimm brothers are descendants of this folk tradition that Shakespeare borrowed for [this] play.”

General admission is $15, youth tickets (17 and under) are $6, and Michigan Tech student tickets are free with the Experience Tech fee.

To purchase tickets, call the Central Ticket Office 7-2073, go online or visit Ticketing Operations at the SDC.

Tickets will also be available at the Rozsa box office two hours before each show.

From Tech Today, by Bethany Jones.