Category: Music

Did you know that “Geodesy” is the science of measuring the earth in all of the ways that it is possible to do so? There is music that speaks to that study, to the sheer power of the outdoors, the world we live in. As the wind and snow howl outside, take a step back and spend an evening celebrating the music that power inspires.

Please join Superior Wind Symphony’s 45 musicians inside the warm Rozsa theatre for a concert about the beauty, the science, and the expanse of the outdoors in their concert “Be Here Now” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 20 at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

From Tech Today, by Bethany Jones.

The William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning seeks input for its annual Distinguished Teaching Awards, which recognize outstanding contribution to the instructional mission of the University.

Based on more than 50,000 student rating of instruction responses, 11 finalists have been identified for the 2016 awards. The selection committee is soliciting comments from students, staff, faculty and alumni to aid in its deliberation process.

Among the finalists in the Associate Professor / Professor Category is Associate Professor Joel Neves.

Comments on the nominees are due by Friday, March 18, 2016, and can be completed online.

From Tech Today, by by Jackson Center For Teaching and Learning.

The Mikes: both Irish & Christianson (Northern Standard Time) will be swinging it at the Orpheum as a fundraiser for Mu Beta Psi, the national music support fraternity!

Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016
Orpheum, Hancock, MI
8-11PM

Jazz Night on the Town

Join the brothers of Mu Beta Psi for a benefit concert from 8 to 11 pm Thursday, February 4th in the Orpheum Theater in downtown Hancock.

The concert features jazz from Northern Standard Time and AstroSax and benefits the John Macinnes Student Scholarship. This scholarship honors applicants that have shown interest and participated in the musical organizations at Michigan Technological University.

Help support a great cause and listen to phenomenal jazz. Tickets are $10 for Adults and $7 for Students and Seniors.

From Tech Today, by Brothers of Mu Beta Psi.

HOUGHTON — The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts presents “Pete Seeger: The Storm King” — an evening of live music, poetry and video with a look back at the great hero of 60s, his music, peace activism and the counterculture movement. This beautiful collection of recorded stories, narratives, and poems spoken by the late Pete Seeger and longtime protege, producer and drummer Jeff Haynes, is set to live, multi-genre music that enhances Seeger’s marvelous reminiscences. “Pete Seeger: The Storm King,” comes to the Rozsa at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 22, 2016.

Read more at Keweenaw Now.

Michigan Tech’s 27th Annual MLK Banquet was held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, January 18, 2016, in the Memorial Union Ball Room. The event, open to the public with free reservations, featured a buffet dinner, musical performances from Tech’s Momentum Jazz band, spoken word poetry and a keynote address from William P. Jones, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the books The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights and The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South.

Read more at Keweenaw Now.

Time for a jazz check-up? Creative, fresh, interactive, soothing food for the soul and nourishment for the ears. Join Jazz Studies Program Director Mike Irish and the Michigan Tech Jazz ensembles for two nights of Jazz Cabaret: Backstage at the Rozsa, starting at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, January 15-16, 2016.

Let our in-house musicians make your evening memorable, enjoyable and enriching. The Rozsa stage becomes a pop-up jazz club, and the intimate club atmosphere is a perfect setting for the “jazz-med staff,” including Jaztec: A mainstream quintet that will stimulate all of your vital signs; Momentum: A 9-piece horn band providing the latest in soul treatments; and the Dan Fuhrmann Trio.

From Tech Today.

Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, Upper Michigan Chapter, hosted holiday meals served by community volunteers for senior citizens on Christmas Day in several Upper Peninsula locations.

The seniors who attended the Christmas 2015 dinner at the Church of the Resurrection in Hancock enjoyed a special treat of holiday music provided by members of the Michigan Tech Concert Choir, led by Jared Anderson, and a flute quintet.

Read more at Keweenaw Now.

Married musicians made their way into Michigan Tech Magazine.

Andrea (Walvatne) ’12 and Kristopher Falasco ’13
Music (and love) was in the air when Andrea, who plays clarinet, and Kris, who plays saxophone and oboe, met in the Michigan Tech Wind Symphony. When they married in Wausau, Wisconsin, the couple infused their home state with Michigan Tech pride. “We served pasties and KBC beer, and our grand entrance song was “2001,” the same song the Pep Band plays every game.” Paying homage to their beloved Copper Country, Andrea and Kris’s wedding bands are even made of copper.

Liz (Cloos) ’12 and Patrick Dreyer ’12
Liz and Patrick fell in love before classes even started. The pair hit it off over card games during LeaderShape, Tech’s intensive week long leadership development institute at the Ford Center in Alberta. Both musicians, Patrick went on to join the Pep Band and the couple participated in dozens of band events together. When they wed in June 2014, the Pep Band serenaded them with “You are My Sunshine” during the reception.

Read more at Michigan Tech Magazine Fall 2015, by Shannon Rinkenen.

Join the choirs of Michigan Tech as they present a concert entitled Songs of the Season. The concert will have a mixture of contemplative and celebratory music, featuring selections ranging from 16th century Spanish carols, to contemporary settings of favorite Christmas songs.

The Michigan Tech Chamber Singers, conScience, along with guitarist Pat Valencia, will perform Alf Houkom’s setting of an old Gaelic rune, entitled the “Rune of Hospitality” —a particularly poignant selection considering contemporary world events.

The Michigan Tech Concert Choir, accompanied by Leslie Dukes, will perform masterworks from the choral canon, including J.S. Bach’s “Lobet den Herrn,” and Francis Poulenc’s “Quem vidistis pastores dicite.”

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

Tickets for the “Songs of the Season” 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 or in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex.

From Tech Today, by Rozsa Center.

Michael Christianson joins the Department of Visual and Performing Arts as an assistant professor. Before becoming an assistant professor, Christianson was a visiting assistant professor and director for the Superior Wind Symphony, Campus Concert Band, Huskies Pep Band and Chamber Ensembles. Christianson received his Doctor of Musical Arts in wind conducting from Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey and his Master’s in Trombone Performance from Manhattan School of Music.

He has performed on Broadway in various shows including “The Book of Mormon,” “The Lion King,” “Mary Poppins” and “West Side Story.” He is a member of the National Association for Music Education and the College Band Directors National Association.

Read more at Tech Today.