Category: Music

The former area of Yugoslavia conjures up images of war and civil unrest for many people, but for some members of the Michigan Tech Concert Choir, the Eastern European region is where many great memories were recently made.

“It was a lot of preparation, a lot of logistical and administrative kinds of things we had to prepare for, but the tour was very successful from beginning to end,” said Jared Anderson, third-year director of the choir. “… There were remnants of communism in some ways, but you could also see some countries really flourishing.”

The choir, previously under the leadership of Milton Olsson, has taken trips to Mexico City, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Brazil and China, and Anderson said the group will likely travel again in three to four years.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Stephen Anderson.

VIDEO PLAYLIST

The Michigan Tech Concert Choir is currently touring the Dalmation Coast.

Watch a video of the Concert Choir in Bosnia. (Video courtesy of Debra Bruch.)

http://youtu.be/ronSQKuy02Q

T.V. coverage of Monday’s choir concert (MICHIGAN TECH CONCERT CHOIR – KONCERT U SABORNOM HRAMU U TREBINJU 13. MAJA 2013.) includes a playlist of choral segments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJvkC7IRTQ4&list=PLv_lK26dTMP5ZRcxdjnt7Q-9K94RLUGbQ

2012-13 Concert Season finishes with “Springtime Voices”

The first half of the concert will feature the Chamber Choir, “conScience,” a 12-member, student-only, auditioned ensemble, and focuses on what director Jared Anderson calls “Aspects of Imagination.”
The chamber choir’s selections will include the six chansons of Paul Hindemith, “staples of the chamber choir repertoire,” according to Anderson.

The second part of the concert will feature the Concert Choir, an 85-member group split about equally between students and community members, and will feature “a real eclectic mix” of songs. The first set is a “mystical kind of set,” including “Lion of the Heart,” another setting of a Rumi text composed by J. David Moore, as well as a piece called “Past Life Melodies” by Australian composer Sarah Hawkins.

Read more at the Michigan Tech Lode, by Nick Blecha.

Welcome Spring with “Springtime Voices” at the Rozsa!

According to Jared Anderson, assistant professor of music and director of choral activities at Michigan Tech, “…the concert will include both sacred and secular music from peoples and places around the globe–with a mix of traditional classical standards to more contemporary music for the stage and concert hall.”

From Tech Today.

Symphony and Concert Band Present a Concert Inspired by Water!

Is water important in your life? This Friday, April 5, at 7:30 PM, The Michigan Tech Superior Wind Symphony and Campus Concert Band will present, “An Homage to Water,” at the Rozsa Center. The concert will be directed by Mike Christianson and the SWS will perform original works inspired by: oceans, ice, rain, rivers, glaciers, ships and sailors, by great composers such as George Friederich Handel, Clare Grundman, John Mackey, George Gershwin, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Robert Russell Bennett.

Tickets are $12.75 for adults, and free for Michigan Tech Students. To purchase tickets, call 7-2073, go online at http://www.rozsa.mtu.edu , or visit Ticketing Operations at Michigan Tech’s Student Development Complex. SDC box office hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Please note the Rozsa Box Office is closed during regular business hours, and will only open two hours prior to show times.

From Tech Today.

Superior Wind Symphony to welcome pianist Cameron Kardel, Campus Concert Band and Sax Quartet for final concert of the season.

On Friday, April 5, the MTU Superior Wind Symphony, under the direction of Dr. Mike Christianson, will present their final concert of the season. The concert is entitled: “An Homage to Water”, and almost all of the music has been composed in tribute to water, and what happens in and around it. The Concert is at 7:30PM at the Rozsa Center for Performing Arts, Houghton, MI. The admission is $12.75 but is free for Tech students.

The program will consist of:

Campus Concert Band
William Latham: Brighton Beach
Clare Grundman: Fantasy on American Sailing Songs
Frank Ticheli: Shenandoah
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Sea Songs
John Mackey: Undertow

Sax Quartet
John Mackey: Strange Humors

Superior Wind Symphony
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, Cameron Kardel, Piano solo
George Frederick Handel: Water Music Suite
Robert Russell Bennett: The S.S. Eagle March

Cameron Kardel is a senior Chemical Engineering major at Michigan Technological University.

The Superior Wind Symphony is the premier wind band at Michigan Technological University. It is an auditioned ensemble that performs multiple concerts and tours yearly.

Campus Concert Band is a non-auditioned ensemble that meets and performs in the spring.

The Saxophone Quartet is: Randall Bufanda, Matt Kiekinveld, Claire Allison, and Danielle Terry, with special guest Matthew Jones on percussion.

From Mike Christianson.

Not surprisingly, this weekend is a big one for the Irish Times Restaurant in Laurium.

Local musician Libby Meyer and four or five other musicians will play Irish fiddle music from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. today.

“They jam and have a good time,” she said.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Kurt Hauglie.

Cheap Therapy to play for “Customer Appreciation” in Rozsa Lobby Mar. 15

Come to the Rozsa for a free concert with Cheap Therapy this Friday night, during “Customer Appreciation” week at Michigan Tech. Cheap Therapy, a local band that plays a wide variety of classic rock tunes, will play from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, March 15, in the Rozsa Lobby.

Cheap Therapy features Joel Tepsa on guitar and vocals, Mike Irish on bass, Denny McKaig on guitar and vocals, Paula McKaig on keyboard, accordion, vocals and trumpet, Dave Rulison on guitar and vocals, and Tom Collins on saxophone and vocals.

Read more at Keweenaw Now.

Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra Celebrates Wagner’s 200th Anniversary

The most revolutionary and influential musician of his day, Wagner reinvented musical styles to the extreme, the capstone being his epic 17-hour opera, Ring of the Nibelung. Wagner’s penchant for incredibly long music, supersized orchestras, emotionally charged music drama, and dark themes, invariably changed music history.

Read more at Tech Today.

Celebrating Wagner’s 200th anniversary

Read more at the Michigan Tech Lode, by Nick Blecha.

KSO celebrates 200 years of Wagner

Read more at the Michigan Tech Lode, by Nick Blecha.

Join Sibelius Academy professor Glenda Goss, the Finlandia Foundation Lecturer of the Year, for Kalevala Day lectures based on her extensive research on Finnish national composer Jean Sibelius. Lectures at 2 pm and 6 pm on Thursday, February 28, 2013. Free and open to the public.

Hosted by: Finnish American Heritage Center
Finnish Theme Committee/ Finlandia Foundation Copper Country Chapter

With generous support from
Finlandia University’s Campus Enrichment Fund
Michigan Technological University Department of Visual and Performing Arts
Finlandia Foundation National
Anonymous Donor

Read more at the Finnish American Heritage Center Facebook Event.

Finlandia Foundation Lecturer of the Year at Heritage Center Feb. 28

Finland experienced an unprecedented Golden Age of music and art late in the 19th century. Among the crowning achievements of this age were the compositions of Jean Sibelius, whose works served as a soundtrack to Finland’s growing sense of cultural independence. As the Finns enjoyed this flourishing of the arts, a political awakening resulted, while Finland was still an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire.

Read more at Keweenaw Now.

This Friday, Feb, 22, at 7:30 p.m., Michigan Tech’s Superior Wind Symphony, under the direction of Mike Christianson, will present a concert at the Rozsa Center titled, “RE: Location,” that will send listeners on a musical journey from New York City to the forests of the Upper Peninsula. Be swept away while sitting in your seat.

Tickets are $12.75 for adults, and free for Michigan Tech Students. To purchase tickets, call 487-2073, go online at rozsa.mtu.edu , or visit Ticketing Operations at the SDC. SDC box office hours are 8 a.m.–9 p.m. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.–7 p.m. Saturday, and noon-8 p.m. on Sunday. Please note the Rozsa Box Office is closed during regular business hours and will only open two hours prior to show times.

From Tech Today.

Superior Wind Symphony Returns to the Rozsa

Read more at the Michigan Tech Lode, by Alex Saari.

Jazz Cabaret: Backstage at the Rozsa

See the Rozsa stage transformed into an intimate jazz-club atmosphere for the Jazz Cabaret: Backstage at the Rozsa. The Rozsa stage will become a jazz lounge with cocktail tables and cash bar, and of course hot jazz provided by two Michigan Tech jazz ensembles, Momentum and the Research and Development Big Band. Experience live jazz at 7:30 p.m. this Friday and Saturday, Jan. 25 and 26.

Read more at Tech Today.

Cold nights, hot jazz

Read more at Michigan Tech Lode, by Alex Saari.

Jazzin’ it up at the Rozsa

“I’ve had people tell me it’s like a jazz buffet,” said Mike Irish, director of jazz studies at Michigan Technological University. “There’s really something for everyone and I like to give that wide variety.”

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Zach Kukkonen.