Category: Music

Spring Symphony Concert

KYSO:Keweenaw Youth Symphony Orchestra

Wednesday, April 15, 2015, 6:00 pm
Calumet Theatre

Free Admission

KYSO and Preparatory Strings present Bach, Beethoven, Sousa and more in a Spring Symphony Concert, directed by Dr. Milton Olsson, Michigan Tech Professor Emeritus.

For over 40 years, the Copper Country Suzuki Association (CCSA) has been teaching students in the Keweenaw Peninsula music. The mission of the CCSA is to enrich the lives of people with high quality, affordable music instruction for young artists of all backgrounds.

In the fall of 2002, the CCSA established the Keweenaw Youth Symphony Orchestra (KYSO). It is comprised of the more advanced string students and students from the local public school band programs and has grown to include more than 30 young artists.

The event is made possible through the continued support of Michigan Tech and Finlandia University.

The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra concludes its 44th season with a performance comprised entirely of concert suites: short multi-movement orchestral works that tells a story. The Golden Cockerel is based on a Russian fairy tale; L’Arlésienne is the incidental music to Daudet’s “The Girl from Arles;” Water Music is music written for King George I. The KSO performs this repertoire during its inaugural concert tour of Chicago in April 2015. More information is available online.

Thursday, April 16: Crystal Theatre (Crystal Falls, MI) at 7:30 pm

Friday, April 17: Algoma Performing Arts Center (Algoma, WI) at 12:00 pm [noon]

Friday, April 17: UW Oshkosh Music Hall (Oshkosh, WI) at 7:00 pm

Saturday, April 18: Beverly Arts Center (Chicago, IL) at 1:00 pm

Questions? Contact Joel Neves jbneves@mtu.edu

From TechAlum Newsletter.

Visiting Jazz vocalist Kathy Kosins will be giving a jazz vocal master class on Friday, March 27, from 4-5PM on the Rozsa Stage. She will work with three local vocalists, and demonstrate a variety of helpful information. This event is free and open to the public. She will be accompanied by members of the Michigan Tech Jazz Lab Band.

Ms. Kosins will perform in concert the following evening. Michigan Technological University’s Jazz Studies program presents the Don Keranen Jazz Memorial Jazz Concert with Special Guest Kathy Kosins at the Rozsa Center on Saturday, March 28, 2015, at 6:00 PM. Please note this time changed due to a possible Portage Lift Bridge Closure.

Kathy Kosins is an American singer specializing in jazz and R&B; she has shared the stage with many jazz greats, and most recently she performed with contemporary jazz legend Herbie Hancock. She is also an ASCAP award winning songwriter and modern abstractionist painter. Kosins has recorded several CDs under her own name and was first known as a singer of soul, rock, and pop singer having worked extensively with the bands Was (Not Was), Slingshot and recording artist Michael Henderson. In more recent years she has become an internationally known jazz singer; as a multi-media artist she also incorporates her painting into those live presentations. For more details: http://www.kathykosins.com/bio.php

Tickets are $13.00 for adults, $5 for youth (17 and under), and free for Michigan Tech Students with the Experience Tech fee. To purchase tickets, call (906) 487-2073, go online at rozsa.mtu.edu , or visit Ticketing Operations at Michigan Tech’s Student Development Complex (SDC), 600 MacInnes Drive, in Houghton. SDC box office hours are 8:00 AM – 9:00 PM, Monday-Friday, and 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM Saturday and 12:00 noon – 8:00 PM on Sunday. Please note the Rozsa Box Office is closed during regular business hours, and will only open two hours prior to show times.

For more details, please contact Michael Christianson, 906-487-2825, mchristi@mtu.edu.

Mu Beta Psi in conjunction with the Michigan Tech Jazz Association presents Jazz Night on the Town, on Thursday Feb. 5, from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. at the Orpheum in Hancock. There will be a $5 minimum donation at the door.

The night will be opened by one of Michigan Tech’s Jazz Groups, AstroSax, consisting of some of the best student jazz musicians at Tech. Closing/headlining the night will be Northern Standard Time, consisting of Michael Christianson on trombone and tuba and Michael Irish on guitar. Mike and Mike are both professors in the Department of Visual Performing Arts. Michael Irish is a well-known guitarist and Michael Christianson has traveled around the world, been on Broadway and played with many famous bands.

This concert supports the John MacInnes Memorial Scholarship, an award presented by Mu Beta Psi to Tech students involved in music programs.

From Tech Today.

Andrea Walvatne ’12 talks about her marriage to Kristopher Falasco ’13, whom she met in the pep band and wind symphony.

Read more at TechAlum Newsletter.

Sandy Shaw ’76 tells us about Snow Memories: The Pep Band Performance that Wasn’t in the November 18, 2014, issue of TechAlum Newsletter.

KSO to Present a Free Fall Musical Recital Thursday

The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra will present a free fall music recital on Thursday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. at Portage Lake United Church (PLUC). This recital’s theme, “Night at the Movies,” invites beautiful and compelling vocal and instrumental music, including performances of opera arias and art songs, a woodwind quartet, a string quartet and a premiere of a new composition.

Though tickets are free of charge, a $5 donation toward the KSO and PLUC will be accepted at the door. A reception will follow the performance.

From Tech Today.

Joel Neves, assistant professor in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, was awarded 3rd place in The American Prize in Conducting – College/University Orchestra Division. The submission included videos of him conducting the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra in Brahms, Debussy, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Shostakovich.

The American Prize is an annual national music competition for American musicians and musical organizations, ranging from opera companies to choirs to bands to composers to conductors. Joel’s division includes conductors of college and college-community orchestras.

KSO director wins award

Winning this prize is merely a side effect of all the passion Neves puts into his work. “I love music, it’s in my DNA and I love people. Being able to work with people to make music is a glorious calling. I go home happy,” said Neves. He has been conducting for 13 years now and has taken KSO to many new places during his career at MTU.

Read more at the Michigan Tech Lode, by Andrea Spencer.

Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra Fall Recital Series
Fantasies and Fairy Tales
Thursday, October 16, 2014, 7:00 pm
Portage Lake United Church

“The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra presents a free Fall Music Recital. This recital’s theme—Fantasies and Fairy Tales—invites beautiful and compelling vocal and instrumental music, including performances of Canadian fiddle, opera arias and art songs, woodwind quartet, string quartet, piano solo, and flute solo.

There is no ticket price for the recital, but a $5 donation toward the KSO and PLUC is accepted at the door. There will be a nice reception after the performance.”

Mike Christianson (director of bands, trombone), Libby Meyer (VPA music composition, viola) and Mike Irish (director of jazz studies, guitar) were hired as members of the Wayne Newton Orchestra and performed with Wayne at the Lake of the Torches Resort in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin this past weekend. The show consisted of an 18-piece orchestra, 4 backup singers and Newton.

From Tech Today.