Heather Powers is a Associate Director of Digital Content in University Marketing and Communications (UMC) at Michigan Technological University. Powers is responsible for all content aspects of UMC's recruitment and reputation web properties and proactively improves and maintains quality, benchmarks, and tests to innovate key sites and pages to meet integrated marketing, brand awareness and reputation, and recruitment goals.
Mary Muncil Jennings, Director of the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $2,000 grant from the Arts Midwest Touring Fund.
The title of the project is “Cirque Mechanics, Pedal Punk” and could potentially total $4,000.
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The Rozsa Center welcomes the choirs of Michigan Tech which will present their year-end concert, “Bon Voyage South Africa,” at 7:30 p.m. tonight (April 21).
The concert will feature music that has been prepared for the Michigan Tech Concert Choir international tour to South Africa. According to Choirs Director Jared Anderson, “The evening will include performances of sacred motets, African-American spirituals, American folk songs, music about the displaced as well as beloved songs from South Africa.
The two wind bands of Michigan Tech, Superior Wind Symphony and Campus Concert Band, will present their yearly combined concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday (April 20) in the Rozsa Center.
This year’s theme is “En Fuego!” — a concert featuring music that is imbued with heat. Mike Christianson, director of bands, will first lead each band individually, finishing with the two combining into a “megaband” of 120 musicians.
According to Christianson, “The music is by composers who hail from exotic climes such as Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, France, Germany and Saginaw.” Music will range from South American symphonies, Spanish jazz arrangements, Afro-Cuban and Latin music, and even a favorite by Stevie Wonder.
Highlights include Handel’s “Overture from Music for The Royal Fireworks,” “Mambo in F” arranged by Cico O’Farrill, “Cucurrucucu Paloma” with a guest performance by Jared Anderson-voice, “The Maids of Cadiz” featuring guest Aaron Christianson on trumpet and favorites “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing,” by Stevie Wonder, “Amparito Roca” and “Malaguena.”
Tickets for “En Fuego!” 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 or at the Rozsa Box Office the evening of the performance. Note that the Rozsa Box Office only opens two hours prior to performances.
WLUC TV6 ran a story on the Michigan Tech Theatre Company’s production of “West Side Story.” The show opened last night at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts with additional performances tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. Watch the TV6 story.
The Michigan Tech Theatre Company and the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra bring the musical “West Side Story” to the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. The legendary musical opens today with additional performances Friday and Saturday. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. each evening.
“West Side Story” changed the very nature of American musical theatre. With music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by a young Stephen Sondheim, the play was grounded in a distinctively modern sound with a passionately poetic statement — place where everyone can grow beyond the confines of hate and poverty, a safe and beautiful place.
A modern adaptation of a quintessential tale of star-crossed lovers, “West Side Story” isn’t performed often for a very good reason. According to director Patricia Helsel, “It’s simply a very difficult play to perform. The show requires many different dance styles ranging from jazz, to 50s “hipster beat,” to Latino and ballet. The music is also challenging with complex rhythms and styles for the ensemble, matched with a call for operatic technique for the young lovers. Overall, this is not your typical, run-of-the-mill golden era musical comedy.”
The subject matter is highly charged with racial tension, fear, hate and love — some pretty intense emotion that is intricately woven in textures throughout the play, taking the audience on a meaningful journey.
Comedy plays a matching role in the show, with memorable numbers like “Officer Krupke” and “America.”
Tickets are on sale now, $19 for adults, $6 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 Student Development Complex or the night of the event, one hour before show time, at the Rozsa Center Box Office.
The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts and the Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) announce their semi-annual student showcase, “Measure“.
The exhibit features works of art created by Michigan Tech students who are participating in Project Learning Lab, an innovative arts classroom based inside of Rozsa gallery b. Pieces on display were created by students in Lisa Gordillo’s traditional sculpture, advanced sculpture and advanced drawing classes. Students from many campus disciplines are represented, including forestry, materials science and theatre arts.
The exhibition opens Monday and runs through April 22. A reception will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday (April 20). The reception is free and all are welcome. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday – Friday and 1 to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Students in Traditional Sculpture study traditional ways of making art around the globe, including Guatemalan kites, Shona carving and Italian clay work. Students in Advanced Sculpture are encouraged to work with the gallery’s architecture and to create large-scale installations in the gallery. Students have been inspired by artists such as Alberto Giocometti, Tara Donovan, Do Ho Suh, Ai Wei Wei and Maurizio Cattelan. Also on display, in the Rozsa Gallery’s adjoining A-Space, is the ongoing exhibition Amusement Park Avenue: Works by VPA faculty and staff.
Student artists represented:
For more information Lisa Gordillo at 7-3096 or by email lijohnso@mtu.edu.
All faculty, staff and community members with children in middle or high school are invited to sign students up for “STEAM Punk: The Science Behind the Cirque.”
Mind Trekkers, the Rozsa Center, FIRST Robotics, and Cirque Mechanics are teaming up to show area 6-12 graders the science behind the Pedal Punk show.
Cirque Mechanics describes themselves “Cirque Mechanics, although inspired by modern circus, finds its roots in the mechanical and its heart in the stories of American ingenuity. The shows, rooted in realism, display a raw quality, rarely found in modern circus, that makes their message timeless and relevant. The stories are wrapped in circus acrobatics, mechanical wonders and a bit of clowning around.”
Not only will this be a show that the whole family will enjoy, middle and high school students will have an opportunity to go behind the scenes of the show.
Students will meet the pro-BMX biker and creator of Pedal Punk during a behind the scenes visit. They will also spend an hour with Mind Trekkers and FIRST Robotics engaging in hands-on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) demonstrations. A pizza dinner and a ticket to the show is included.
The event begins at 3:30 Saturday, April 22 with a backstage tour of the Rozsa. After this is when we will have our STEAM demonstrations with Mind Trekkers and FIRST Robotics.
Then the students can enjoy a pizza dinner right before the show starts at 7:30pm. Parents are asked to drop their students off for the STEAM part (students only), and can meet up with their children for the start of the show.
More information and ticketing info is available here.
(Note the event is now open to 6th-12th graders not just 6th-8th graders as stated on the flyer)
The Copper Country Community Arts Center presents “Gestures and Facture,” recent work by Hancock artist and Michigan Tech faculty member Tomas Co in the Kerredge Gallery April 6-29.
A gallery talk is scheduled for 6:20 p.m. Thursday, April 13. Co’s recent work includes sculpture in stone and bronze as well as sumi-e (black ink) paintings.
This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The public is invited to a reception and gallery talk on from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, April 13. Refreshments will be provided.
The Copper Country Community Arts Center is located at 126 Quincy Street in Hancock. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday. For more information call 482-2333 or visit the website.
“I found that gestures in the sculptures and gestural strokes in paintings provide an interesting, raw, tension between the hidden and the exposed, both within the subject and within the artist. Moreover, based on the facture (or manufacture) of the pieces, all the ingredients: the materials, texture, weight and time allow different approaches for the artist to communicate and negotiate with the physical world in the attempt to extract the invisible. My personal struggle is to find a place in which the banal, pretentious and clich’d constructs in my works (and there are plenty) are balanced with enough honesty, raw (even primal) aesthetics and personal attachments to make the art still worthwhile to make.”
Join us for a concert featuring the renowned Canadian group “Orchid Ensemble,” who will join conScience: Michigan Tech Chamber singers, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (April 1) in the McArdle Theatre, on the second floor of the Walker Arts and Humanities Center.
Established in 1997, the JUNO-nominated Orchid Ensemble is comprised of Lan Tung on the erhu/Chinese violin, Yu-Chen Wang on the zheng/Chinese zither and Jonathan Bernard on percussion.
The ensemble blends ancient musical instruments and traditions from China and beyond, creating a beautiful new sound. They have embraced a variety of musical styles to thier repertoire, ranging from the traditional and contemporary music of China, world music, new music to jazz and creative improvisation.
The energetic yet endearing performance style of the ensemble consistently intrigues and delights its audiences. Acclaimed as “One of the brightest blossoms on the world music scene” (Georgia Straight), the Orchid Ensemble has been tirelessly developing an innovative musical genre based on the cultural exchange between Western and Asian musicians.
Students from conScience: Michigan Tech Chamber Singers will join the ensemble for three selections in the concert.
Tickets are on sale now, $22 for adults, $6 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 Student Development Complex or at the Calumet Theatre Box Office.
Why do we love amusement parks? From side-shows to ferris wheels, we’re drawn to the excitement of the buzz, the sounds, the bright colors, the sensory extravaganza.
The Department of Visual and Performing Arts and the Rozsa Center announce “Amusement Park Avenue: The 2017 VPA Faculty & Staff Exhibit.“ Faculty and staff of VPA will exhibit a variety of works of many different media and concepts, touching upon all five senses and inspiring curiosity, as if walking through an amusement park avenue.
Fifteen artists will be represented: Jared Anderson, Anne Beffel, Mary Cyr, Kent Cyr, M.C. Friedrich, Terri Frew, Lisa Gordillo, Roger Held, Bethany Jones, Susie Kilpela, Jeremy Littlefield, Josh Loar, Elizabeth Meyer, Christopher Plummer, and Jess Portfleet.
The opening reception is at 4 p.m. Friday, March 31 in the Rozsa Gallery A-Space. The exhibit will run until April 28 and is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Anne Beffel is asking for volunteer participants in her “Every Color of Eyes” art project. This project makes visible our differences and our common humanity through the metaphor of eye color. Beffel, along with assistants Rebekka Guyon, Alex Pohl, J.P. Rewer and Phillip Wildner, are gathering eye color samples as the basis of a long scroll painting of color-filled circles.
Beffel is asking those who want to help to either email pictures of their eyes to info@EveryColorOfEyes.org or submit them here. Volunteers can also stop by the Studio for Here and Now, located in Wadsworth Hall G04W, from 3 to 5 p.m. today (March 22) or Wednesday, March 29
Beffel’s “Every Color of Eyes” will become part of the faculty and staff gallery exhibition, “Amusement Park Avenue,” from March 31 to April 31 in the Rozsa Gallery A-Space. An opening reception will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, March 31. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 8 p.m. Saturday.
For more information, contact Beffel at 7-1732.