Visual and Performing Arts News

Author: Tanya Maki

Air Play at the Rozsa Center

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Described as a “visual poem, using no words,” Air Play will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 23 at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

This fun-for-all ages circus-style event includes flying umbrellas, larger-than-life balloons, giant kites floating over the audience and the biggest snow globe you’ve ever seen.

Air Play brings to life the very air we breathe. The circus-style adventure follows two siblings’ journey through a surreal wold, transforming ordinary objects in uncommon beauty. Fabrics dance in the wind, balloons have a mind of their own, confetti turns into the night sky and an enormous canopy of hovering silk forever alters their future.

Tickets for Air Play are on sale now at $16 for adults, $6 for youth and free for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech Fee. Tickets can be purchased online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the SDC, by phone at 487-2073 or at the Rozsa Center Box Office the evening of the performance.

Note: The box office opens two hours prior to the start of the show.

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Annual Don Keranen Memorial Jazz Concert March 22

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The jazz ensembles at Michigan Tech present the annual Don Keranen Memorial Jazz Concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 22 in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

This annual event pays tribute to Keranen, originator of the Michigan Tech Jazz Studies Program. Featured in the concert will be the Jazz Lab Band and the Research and Development Band.

The Jazz Lab Band will perform works by Duke Ellington, including music composed for the film “Anatomy of a Murder.” In addition, it will play music by Gabriel Fauré, Steely Dan, Professor Emeritus Mike Irish (VPA), George Gershwin, Bob Brookmeyer and Chick Corea.

The Research and Development Band will perform works by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Horace Silver and more. Each of the large jazz ensembles will perform a piece featuring vocalist Clara Peterson, a Michigan Tech student. Also featured will be the premier of an original work composed by the Full Send Combo.

Tickets are on sale now, $15 for adults, $5 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee. Tickets are available online, by phone at 487-2073, in person at the Central Ticket Office in the SDC or at the Rozsa Box Office the evening of the performance.

Note: The Rozsa Box Office opens two hours prior to performances.

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Artist Lisa Gordillo Receives ND Human Rights Festival Award

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Assistant Professor Lisa Gordillo, Visual and Performing Arts, received an award for “Best Three-Dimensional Work” for her work of art, “Las Cordinadas/The Coordinates,” as part of the 2019 North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival. The work of art, which was first developed on Michigan Tech’s campus as part of Gordillo’s 2017 Rozsa Gallery exhibit, ChickenBus, traveled through North Dakota during the human rights festival this spring.
Gordillo’s sculpture commemorates 26 of the 440 Mayan villages that were destroyed during Guatemala’s 30-year genocide, which was partially funded by the United States. Gordillo worked with her collaborator and partner Hugo Gordillo to develop the piece, which is composed of plaster casts of human hands, and a wall text that lists the villages destroyed and the actions taken to destroy them. The piece will be on display through March in Grand Forks, ND at the High Plains Fair Housing Center.
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“Music For a Sacred Space” Sunday

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The Michigan Tech Choirs present “Music For a Sacred Space,” an evening of sacred choral music in its natural habitat, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph Catholic Church, in Lake Linden.

The Michigan Tech Concert Choir and conScience: Michigan Tech Chamber Singers combine for a concert of sacred music to benefit the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Conductor Jared Anderson (VPA) said this year’s music selection will be celebratory in nature.

“This event has become a tradition in the community. It’s an opportunity to hear music composed for sacred spaces in one of the most beautiful, resonant places for choral music in the Copper Country.”

The Michigan Tech Concert Choir is composed of 60 voices from the college community, with 24 singers comprising conScience. The concert will feature Leslie Dukes on the organ for three numbers, accompanying the concert choir, and will also have a number of a cappella performances.

“Music for a Sacred Space” is open to the public. There is no admission, but money collected from free-will offering will be donated to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

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‘Agnes of God’ Opens Thursday

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Questions of faith, motherhood and determination arise as three women with vastly different ideologies are faced with a supposed virgin birth.

The investigation of the nun who was found to have given birth, and ensuing controversies and debates over the possible miracle — and subsequent death of the infant — are explored as Tech Theatre presents John Pielmeier’s 1979 play “Agnes of God.”

The Department of Visual and Performing Arts, presents six performances of “Agnes of God,” tomorrow through Saturday (Feb. 21 – 23 ) and Feb. 28 to March 2.  Performances are at 7:30 p.m. in the McArdle Theatre on the second floor of the Walker Arts and Humanities Center.

Pielmeier’s dramatic script poses challenging questions for its three characters — Dr. Livingstone, an atheistic psychiatrist, the pius Mother Superior and young Sister Agnes, mother of the deceased child she claims to have immaculately conceived.

The cast of three experienced performers is directed by Patricia Helsel (VPA).

Tickets are on sale now, $15 for adults, $5 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee.

Tickets are available by phone at 906-487-2073, online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex or one hour prior to show time at the McArdle Theatre the night of each performance.

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An Interview with Sound Design Alum Steven Green

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Steve Green (BA Sound Design 2014) initially started at Michigan Tech as a geology major. After two years, he realized it wasn’t his passion, so he transferred into the sound design department at Tech. “Tech has a very thorough sound design department that allowed me to learn what I needed to graduate, as well as learn my own skill set that went toward my career path. I think some of my most memorable experiences were with my professors, Dr. Jared Anderson, Josh Loar, and Chris Plummer.”

Green has helped with projects ranging from virtual reality titles to exploratory games, and has launched approximately six games. Green’s game ‘ABZÛ’ was nominated for a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award and other awards. The game ‘What Remains Of Edith Finch’ is currently nominated for a few awards as well.

Green was interviewed last February by Los Angeles sound designed Colin Andrew Grant: Growth and Guidance: An Interview with Steven Green

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Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo to Perform at the Rozsa

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The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts presents Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. The all-male comedy ballet company, beloved internationally since 1974, sacrifices comfort to perform en pointe, tutus and all. Confirming why audiences flock to see them year after year. The “trocks” are witty, fun and above all, masterful in the art of ballet.

The Les Ballets Trockadero De Monte Carlo is performing at the Rozsa Center at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16. This event is made possible with support from WGGL Minnesota Public Radio, Keweenaw Pride, and with funding from the Michigan Humanities Council — an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Arts Midwest Touring fund, a Program of Arts Midwest, generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts with additional contributions from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the Crane Group.

Tickets for adults are $28 and  youth $12. Michigan Tech Students are no charge with the Experience Tech Fee.

Tickets are available by phone at 487-2073, online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex, or at the Rozsa box office the night of the show. Note: the Rozsa box office opens two hours before performances.

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Visual & Performing Arts Students Receive Numerous Awards at Theatre Festival

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Sound and Theatre students from the Visual and Performing Arts Department recently attended the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival (Region III) in Madison, Wisconsin. Started in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, the Kennedy Center’s founding chairman, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide which has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States. The KCACTF has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country, where theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment by KCACTF respondents.
Visual and Performing Arts students presented their work to a jury of professionals and received a number of awards.  Top award winners in the design competition will travel to Washington, D.C. to compete in the national festival design competition.
The award recipients were as follows:
Jason Bates: Recipient Regional Sound Design Competition top prize
Joseph Styers: Honorable Mention Regional Sound Design Competition
Makenzi Wentela: Honorable Mention Regional Lighting Design Competition, Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas Don Childs Award
David Brown: Honorable Mention Allied Design and Technologies Award
Sarah Calvert: Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas Don Childs Award, Finalist for the National Award for Theatrical Design Excellence, Honorable mention team for Design Storm for their design of Chicago
Students also participated in the Tech Olympics, team competitions showcasing skills in areas of technical theatre.  Michigan Tech Students took top prizes in a number of categories:
Overall first place: Lexa Walker and Zep Elkerton
First place Sound: Lexa Walker and Zep Elkerton
First Place Props: Lexa Walker and Zep Elkerton
First Place Costumes: Lexa Walker and Zep Elkerton
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New Music for a New Year

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“New Music for a New Year: Music from the North Woods,” a festival of three unique concerts will take January 19th and 20th. The event is presented by the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, the Department of Visual and Performing Arts and Libby Meyer (VPA) director of the Music Composition Program.

The festival is a series of concerts of contemporary music written by composers either from or who have lived in the Upper Peninsula. The concerts feature Houghton native Elena Ruehr, composer and award-winning faculty member at MIT.

Elena Ruehr

There will be a Master Class presented by Ruehr at 3 p.m. January 19th in the McArdle Theatre in the Walker Arts and Humanities Center, featuring a recital of music by student composers.

The festival continues that evening with an intimate evening “Backstage” performance at 7:30 PM in the Rozsa Center, featuring the music of Evan Premo, Libby Meyer, Thomas LaVoy, Abbie Burt Betinis, Carrie Biolo,  Patrick Booth, Christopher Plummer and featuring Elena Ruehr’s Third String Quartet.

The final concert will take place at 3 p.m. January 20th in the McArdle Theatre with music by Griffin Candey, Josh Loar, Sarah Rimkus, Milton Olsson, Stephen Rush and featuring the piece “Lucy” by Ruehr.

The Upper Peninsula has produced and inspired many talented composers and performers. “New Music for a New Year” will feature a number of these composers whose work is as diverse and beautiful as the landscape that inspired them.

Ruehr’s recent two-CD release was selected as Gramophone Critic’s Choice in December. Gramophone, the world’s leading classical music publication, described Reuhr as “A new, living master of the quartet medium.”

The concert will feature the Superior String Alliance String Quartet, ConScience Chamber Singers, and two works by Ruehr performed by her Third String Quartet (Saturday) and “Lucy” (January 20th) a work which will feature ConcertCue, a web application developed at MIT for streaming synchronized program notes during a live musical performance.

Meyer’s interest in natural soundscapes, conservation of special places and curiosity about the relationship between the arts and the natural world fuel her work. She is a co-founder of the Keweenaw Soundscape Project established to aurally document the Keweenaw region and surrounding lands for ecological, social and artistic value, has served as an Artist in Residence at Isle Royale National Park and has written a number of compositions inspired by the landscape.

Note the Saturday matinee concert is free. Tickets for the Saturday evening and Sunday New Music for a New Year festival concerts are on sale now. Tickets are $15 General Admission, $5 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee.

Tickets are available by phone at 487-2073, online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the SDC or at door before the performance. The box office opens approximately one hour prior to performances.

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Ken Steiner Memorial Benefit Concert

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When longtime local resident Ken Steiner passed away suddenly two years ago, family, friends, and the entire community came together for a memorial to celebrate all the lives he touched through his decades of good work to make the Keweenaw, and the world, a better place. From a long list of friends playing the music to the majority of area restaurants where he worked providing food, there was an overwhelming outpouring of love, support and good will. And, above all a strong sense that the work Ken championed, the positive energy and creative spirit he inspired, would continue, carried forward by those who knew and loved him.

This year, the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, Michigan Tech’s Dining Services, the Visual and Performing Arts Department, and National Honorary Musical Fraternity Mu Beta Psi, want to extend that spirit and good will, by hosting the second annual benefit in Ken’s honor for his favorite charity: Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, featuring good food, a cash bar, and once again a host of Ken’s friends and former band mates making the music, on Friday, January 11 at 6:30 pm to 11:30 pm, in the Rozsa Center Lobby. Ticket prices are in a range of “donation levels,” so that everyone who attends can support the fundraiser at a level they choose.

Musicians featured:

  • Tom Katalin at 7:00 PM
  • Uncle Pete’s All Star BBQ Blues Band at 8:15 PM
  • The Mike Christianson Quartet at 9:30 PM

Ticket prices are: $10/$20/$30/donation of your choice. 100% of ticket sales will be donated in Ken’s name to Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly.

Tickets are available online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the SDC, by phone at 7-2073 or at the Rozsa Center box office the night of the concert.

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