Visual and Performing Arts News

Category: Audio and Sound

Sound Design Student Samantha Palumbo Shares Her Story

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Samantha Palumbo seated at a sound board in an equipment room talking with another technicianTaking advantage of her sound design major with a focus in productions, Samantha Palumbo worked on eight (and counting!) productions in the past three years at Michigan Tech.

She says, “One of the great things about Tech’s undergraduate program is the Visual and Performing Arts Department allows students to work hands-on from the beginning…  That’s why I love going to school here. You can have a wide range of jobs on different productions.”

Samantha has worked a variety of positions – from hanging lights to being in charge of painting sets. After taking the Scenic Art and Illustration class, Samantha was the Scenic Charge Artist for Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

Read more about Samantha’s experience through Career Services.

 

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Acoustics and Noise Control Workshop on Rozsa Center Stage

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Lily WangLily Wang will lead a workshop on “Designing a Modular Stage Shell Ceiling” on the Rozsa Center Stage. The workshop will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday, March 1. In the afternoon, students will form teams and come up with design ideas for the modular ceiling. The workshop will continue from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday, March 2, when student teams will present their design ideas. Students, faculty and community members are invited to attend the workshop.

Wang will also present a lecture on “Theater Design Considerations.” Her visit is co-sponsored by the Visiting Women & Minority Lecturer Scholar Series (VWMLSS) which is funded by a grant to the Office of Institutional Equity and Inclusion from the State of Michigan’s King-Chavez-Parks Initiative, and the departments of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics and Visual and Performing Arts.

Wang is a professor in the, and associate dean for graduate programs and faculty development in the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. Her primary research interests are in room acoustics and noise control. Wang’s research group’s work on human perception and performance in noise, classroom acoustics, uncertainty in acoustic measurements and room acoustics computer modeling has been funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, among others.

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Faculty, Students Win at Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival

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IMG_1272.JPGKent Cyr was recognized at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) Region III with a faculty service award for Innovative Teaching. The KCACTF Region III festival was held in Indianapolis, Indiana, January 9-14 at the University of Indianapolis. The goal of the festival is to encourage, recognize, and celebrate the finest and most diverse work produced in university and college theater programs.

Also, a number of our Visual and Performing Arts students were recognized. Congratulations!

Design Storm!

Student consults with other designers, dramaturg, and director to create a key scene in a play, prepare initial sketches, basic ground plan/rendering, and discusses how the design illustrates personal ideas and production intention/concept.

  • Hunter Storie (Scene Design) and Ethan Troyer (Dramaturgy) Most Wretched Deathbed Dreams of Edgar Allen Poe

Regional Design Projects

Regional Design Projects are intended to serve Region III student designers with the opportunity to showcase their work for non-realized design projects, and to receive a response to their work that will help them improve their design skills and grow as designers. Seven students presented in Sound Design and two in Costume Design.

  • Sarah Calvert (Winner), His Dark Materials, Sound Design
  • Noah Schumaker (Finalist), Insurrection, Sound Design
  • David Brown (Finalist), Galileo, Sound Design

Realized Design Projects

National-eligible for consideration in all design areas. Winners are invited to present at the Kennedy Center National Festival in April.  Three students participated and two were finalists.

  • Chris Wilson (Finalist), Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Music Composition
  • Alex Weber (Finalist), West Side Story, Lighting Design

Tech Olympics Individual Best Times

Performance is judged on time and/or accuracy in setup, skill, and performance.

  • Kity Williams and Brendan Espinosa, Sound
  • Ryan Nickolas and Hunter Stori, Lighting
  • Alex Weber and Jack Horrigan, Knots
  • Lexa Walker and Jason Scott, Costumes and Props

The Games of The Technological Olympiad Overall

  • Alex Weber and Jack Horrigan, Third Place
  • Ryan Nickolas and Hunter Storie, Second Place
  • Lexa Walker and Jason Scott, First Place
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Scrambling all the Way: 50 Years of Be-striped Irreverence

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Football Homecoming 201510100226 1

Huskies Pep Band Concert Celebrates “50 Years of Be-Striped Irreverence!”

The Huskies Pep Band presents Scrambling all the Way: 50 Years of Be-striped Irreverence next Friday, October 13, at 7:30 PM in the Rozsa Center. The Huskies Pep Band (HPB) is a Michigan Tech point of pride and one of the most lauded (and loud!) pep bands in the Midwest. Members dressed in “bumble-bee” stripes perform in unscripted and unrestrained glory at concerts, athletic events, parades, and special events all around Houghton, and support Michigan Tech teams on the road as well. The Huskies Pep Band is a nationally-known Division I pep band of nearly 250 members that performs at all home football, basketball, and hockey games. The band was selected as the host band to the WCHA Final Five Tournament in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

What can you expect from the Pep Band “live and In-concert?” According to Director of Bands Michael Christianson,

“On this date, or likely some other one 50 years ago, Michigan Technological University’s Director of Bands Don Keranen decided to transform the Huskies Pep Band into a bestriped, scrambling, irreverent, annoying, distracting force for both good (for our athletic teams) and not as good (for the opposing teams). Since then, the HPB has performed at many arenas and stadiums (including some from which they have been banned for creating a “home atmosphere” for Michigan Tech’s teams), learned more than 8 songs, developed the capacity to breathe fire, been a P.E. credit for many movement-challenged students, and reached the age of 50 as a “Scramble” band!”

Christianson adds, “To celebrate, our yearly Pep Band Concert will feature tunes from all 50 years of scramblin’ (as well as several from our brand-new CD, plus photos and videos from many years. Our world-famous HPB Swag will be available for purchase at intermission, and we fully intend to have well-known guests with us for the event, as soon as they make bail. The concert is Friday October 13, there will likely be a ghoulish flavor to the evening…bwahahaha. Actual Quotes:

“I didn’t know such sounds were possible!”- Marlee Matlin.

 

“Vertical stripes aren’t always slimming.“- Anna Wintour.

 

“Will there be another taco eating contest?”-Taco Bell”

 

Tickets for Scrambling all the Way: 50 Years of Pep at the Rozsa Center 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 (906) 487-2073, online at Rozsa.mtu.edu, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex, or at the Rozsa box office the night of the show. Please note that the Rozsa box office opens only two hours before performances.

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Mike Christianson in the news!

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Michigan Tech’s very own Michael Christianson in the news. A great review of his Lincoln Center appearance with the legendary Fred Hersch two weeks ago.

“…Mike Christianson‘s trombone proved to be an indispensable voice, covering the low-middle ground with strength.”

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/fred-herschs-leaves-of-grass-at-jazz-at-lincoln-center-fred-hersch-by-dan-bilawsky.php

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Faculty Present Listening to Parks, an NEA Imagine Your Parks Project

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Photo taken at Isle Royal, by Christopher Plummer
Photo taken as part of the recording project on Isle Royale, by Christopher Plummer

What do you hear when you walk in the woods? What are the natural sounds and rythms of the forest? The lakes? The skies?

Christopher Plummer, Elizabeth Meyer, and Kent Cyr, faculty members in the Visual and Performing Arts Department of Michigan Tech, opened a multimedia and soundscape installation at the Duluth Children’s Museum this week, on Monday, September 25, 2017, in Duluth, MN, as a part of their “Listening to Parks” project, to explore those questions. The exhibit will be on display through October 15. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Park Service (NPS) announced $1,067,500 in support of 50 grants in 27 states, including an award of $20,000 to Michigan Technological University to support Listening to Parks, an Imagine Your Parks project. Visual and sound artists collaborated to create an immersive multimedia installation based on collected images, video, and audio recordings from the Keweenaw National Historic Park, Isle Royale National Park, and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. The installation will tour to sites in the Upper Peninsula region of Michigan, and then will culminate in an exhibition in the Rozsa Gallery A-Space, at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts in December. There will be an opening reception on Friday, December 2 from 5:00 -6:30 PM, which is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are M-F 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM and 1:00 PM – 8:00 PM on Fridays. The recorded sounds from this project will also be used for a composition for orchestra by Libby Meyer to be performed by the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra at the Rozsa Center on Saturday, December 9 at 7:30 PM.

 

NEA Chairman Jane Chu says “As part of the NEA’s 50th anniversary, this year we are celebrating the magnificence of America’s national cultural treasures through art, the Imagine Your Parks grant program unites our mission with the National Park Service by connecting art projects with the natural, historic and cultural settings of the National Park System and will inspire a new generation to discover these special places and experience our great heritage.”  “The ‘Imagine Your Parks’ grants are really helping us celebrate the NPS Centennial and the NEA’s 50th Anniversary with some incredibly diverse and interesting projects that continue to inspire more Americans of all backgrounds to connect with their national parks,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “The grants already awarded are already demonstrating the success of the program through a variety of inspiring projects. A new generation of artists is connecting to national parks through their work, and motivating others to do the same.”

 

According to Dr. Jared Anderson, Chair, Department of Visual and Performing Arts, “I am very proud to announce that Christopher Plummer, Elizabeth Meyer, and Kent Cyr, faculty members in the Visual and Performing Arts Department of Michigan Tech, received the first-ever award for Michigan Tech from the National Endowment for the Arts, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Parks Service as a part of the “Imagine your Parks” initiative.  This project will consist of gathering soundscape recordings from Isle Royale National Park and other National Parks in this region.  The recorded sounds will then be used for a composition for orchestra by Libby Meyer to be performed by the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra.  The sounds will also be integrated into a traveling multi-media art installation that will be presented at various park visitors centers and the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts in 2017.”

 

Please visit the Listening to Parks website for more details.   Follow “Imagine Your Parks” on Twitter @NEAarts and @NatlParkService, #ImagineYourParks #NEASpring16.

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Music-O-Rama: Celebrating Musical Variety at Michigan Tech

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Screen Shot 2017-09-29 at 8.32.41 AMPlease join us for Music-O-Rama, an annual musical variety concert, celebrating the diversity, history, and variety of music at Michigan Tech. Performers from all of the major Michigan Tech music ensembles:  Jazz Lab Band, Superior Wind Symphony, Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, conScience: Michigan Tech Chamber Singers, Michigan Tech Concert Choir, and AstroSax; will appear throughout the hall, playing music from around the globe:  From America to  Latvia, France to Mexico, Brazil to Italy.

The concert will begin on a patriotic note with Igor Stravinsky’s arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner, for band and choir. Then enjoy more band and folk music selections including Yankee Doodle, Old Man River, and a Brazilian folk song, Samba-lelê, to stir memories and evoke bygone days. The Department of Visual and Performing Arts presents Music-O-Rama on Saturday, September 30, at 7:30 PM in the Rozsa Center.

“This concert features performances from all of the auditioned music ensembles at Michigan Tech and shows how talented our students are.  Music-o-rama has become an audience favorite for the past number of years for its fast pace and varied repertoire.  I know that the audience will love the show.” There will be something for every musical taste, with composers including Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Ottorino Respighi, and Arturo Márquez.  The concert will end with the Superior Wind Symphony and the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra combining for a performance of “The Pines of the Appian Way” from Respighi’s Pines of Rome. — Jared Anderson, associate professor of music, director of choral activities, and chair of vpa

Superior Wind Symphony, from their 2016 concert "Be Here Now. Mike Christianson, Director of Bands, conducting.
Superior Wind Symphony, from their 2016 concert “Be Here Now”. Mike Christianson, Director of Bands, conducting.

Tickets 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 (906) 487-2073, online at mtu.edu/rozsa, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex, or the night of the show at the Rozsa Box Office, which opens two hours prior to performances.

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Yearning to Breathe Free: Free Outdoor Band Concert on the Rozsa Lawn

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36a3759f5b9f1ed8feb3d9d1573255db7f254918Bring your lawn chairs, bring your blankets: The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts is proud to present “Yearning to Breathe Free,” a free outdoor concert put on by Michael Christianson, Michigan Tech’s Director of Bands, with performances by the Superior Wind Symphony, in which they will celebrate the music of great composers who emigrated to the United States. Come spend a beautiful fall evening full of band music on Sunday, September 24th, 7:00 PM, on the Rozsa/Walker lawn. If it rains, the show will be inside, in the Rozsa Center.

According to Christainson, “Many of the great composers of iconic American band music came to the United States from overseas. They were drawn by the words of Emma Lazarus, inscribed in 1883 on the base of the Statue of Liberty:

 “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” 

We will perform mostly original works for winds by great composers who were immigrants to the US: Irving Berlin, Antonin Dvorak, Sergei Prokofiev, Darius Milhaud, Paul Hindemith, Igor Stravinsky, Percy Grainger, Chen Yi, Tania Leon , plus a Sousa march dedicated to his overseas friends! Bring your blanket, your dinner, and spread out on the lawn as you enjoy a classic Band moment with Michigan Tech’s Superior Wind Symphony! Concert starts at 7:00PM, sunset starts at 8:01.”

For more information please visit us online at mtu.edu/rozsa

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Rozsa Calendars for 2017-18 Season Now Available

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20170911_122723Rozsa Center calendars for the 2017-2018 season are now available — both full-size wall calendars and the handy pocket/desk calendars!

Featured this year are 12 Rozsa Presenting Series events, more than 33 Visual and Performing Arts events including music, theater and visual arts and the ever-popular 41 North Film festival.

Season Ticket Packages are on sale now, with the best discounts available on all the season has to offer! There are four Season Ticket Package options this year, offering savings of 18 to 37 percent off single-ticket prices.

Single-ticket sales begin Sept. 1. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Michigan Tech Ticketing Services at the Central Ticket Office (SDC), at 7-2073, or visit our website.

You can pick up one of each or both at the Rozsa Center or at any of the more than 120 local Houghton and Hancock businesses who display and distribute them each year.

For Michigan Tech faculty and staff, we would like to make it easy for you to get your copies of the calendars. If you would like a calendar delivered directly to your campus mailbox, please click on this link and fill out the google form. We will gladly send a calendar to you in inter-campus mail.

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Play the Cello? Love to Sing? Join a Music Ensemble at Michigan Tech!

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The music ensembles at Michigan Tech will hold annual ensemble auditions from August 30 – September 7th in preparation for the 2017-18 performance season.  The ensembles include opportunities for students and community members to perform band, choral, jazz, and orchestral literature in concerts from September 2017-April 2018.  Some ensembles only include students and others are open to participants from the community.

Michigan Tech Choral Auditions (Walker 209C)

Audition times are available on the following days:

  • Wednesday, August 30, 1:00pm-5:00pm
  • Thursday, August 31, 1:00pm-5:00pm
  • Friday, September 1, 8:00am-12:00pm
  • Tuesday, September 5, 9:00am-12:00pm
  • Rehearsals begin on Wednesday, September 6

Please prepare a vocal solo that highlights your voice.  Use our signup spreadsheet to sign up for a 20-minute audition appointment. Contact Dr. Jared Anderson (jaredand@mtu.edu) for more information. For general information on the choirs at Michigan Tech visit our Choirs page on the VPA Music website.

Superior Wind Symphony Auditions (Rozsa 208)

Auditions will be held Sunday, Sept. 3 from 10:00am to 9:00pm in the Band room. Please contact Dr. Michael Christianson (mchristi@mtu.edu) for more information. For general information on the Superior Wind Symphony please see our Bands page.

Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra Auditions (Rozsa 205)

Auditions will be held by appointment August 30 to September 5 in Rozsa 205. Please contact Dr. Joel Neves (jbneves@mtu.edu) for more information.

Michigan Tech Jazz Auditions (Rozsa 208)

Jazz auditions will be held by appointment during the first week of classes Tuesday, September 4 – Friday, September 7.  Audition sign up sheets and instructions will be located outside of the Visual and Performing Arts Department office (Walker 209) beginning on Monday, August 28.  Jazz rehearsals will begin on Monday, September 11, 2017. Please contact Mike Irish (mjirish@mtu.edu) for more information. For general information on the Jazz ensemble please see our Jazz page.

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