Category: Music

New Funding

Published August 6, 2018

Libby Meyer is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $3,800 public service grant from the Arts Midwest Touring Fund. Mary Jennings is the Co-PI on the project, “Minnesota Ballet Performance.”

The Minnesota Ballet offers productions ranging from full-scale broadway-style productions to small-scale, intimate repertoire dances. The Minnesota Ballet has a bountiful selection of full-length story ballets such as Coppélia, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Dracula, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and—of course—the holiday tradition of The Nutcracker!

Rozsa 2018-2019 Season Tickets on Sale

Published May 1, 2018

By Heather Powers

The Rozsa Center announces its 2018-19 season ticket sale. Season ticket packages are on sale early this year, in fact starting today, 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. A full season ticket package—a pass to all the arts at Michigan Tech—gives you the biggest discount available off the single-ticket price on all Rozsa and VPA events. The popular “Pick 6” Season Ticket Package has returned and is an even better value this year.

We continue to offer the “Pick 3” option, and we have brought back the very popular “Family Pack” option that will let you bring the whole family to a big show at an affordable price.

We hope there is a package that works for you. To all of our long-time season-ticket holders, we’re holding your seats, now through Aug. 1. For new season ticket buyers, we look forward to seeing you this season.

Featured this year are 12 Rozsa Presenting Series events, including five distinguished lecturers and more than 33 Visual and Performing Arts events including music, theater and visual arts events, and the ever-popular 41 North Film festival. Visit our Calendar of Events for a complete list of all our 2018-19 season events!

Not interested in a season ticket package? Single ticket sales also begin early this year, on Aug. 1. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Michigan Tech Ticketing Services at the Central Ticket Office (SDC), call 7-2073 or go online.

Research Excellence Fund (REF) Awards Announced

Published April 30, 2018

By Heather Powers

The Vice President for Research Office announced the 2018 Research Excellence Fund (REF) awards and thanked the volunteer review committees, as well as the deans and department chairs, for their time spent on this important internal research award process.

This year we congratulate, Lisa Johnson de Gordillo, Ann Beffel, Libby Meyer, and Patricia Helsel for receiving Scholarship and Creativity Grants (SCG).

The REF Scholarship and Creativity Grant (SCG) provides support to encourage faculty to engage in scholarly research, learning, and creative activities to enhance professional development.

KSO Wraps Up Tour at Rozsa

Published April 21, 2018

By Heather Powers

The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Joel Neves, wraps up its current tour at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. The Tchaikovsky’s Fifth program features Tchaikovsky’s triumphant “Fifth Symphony” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “liturgical Russian Easter Festival Overture.”

The KSO began the concert tour Thursday (April 19), at the Crystal Theatre in Crystal Falls, with additional stops in Algoma, Wisconsin and Ironwood.

Our orchestra tour provides a special opportunity to highlight the impressive quality of the arts at Michigan Tech to a wider community. Our musicians embrace the chance to perform some of the greatest orchestral music to underserved communities in the U.P. and Wisconsin. — Joel Neves

Tickets for the concert at the Rozsa Center are on sale now. Tickets are $19 for adults, $6 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee.

Tickets are available by phone at 7-2073, online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex or at the Rozsa Box Office the evening of the performance. Note the Rozsa Box Office only opens two hours prior to performances.

Superior Wind Symphony Celebrates Contemporary Composers

Published April 20, 2018

By Heather Powers

The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts and Department of Visual and Performing Arts present a concert by the Superior Wind Symphony and Campus Concert Band under the direction of Mike Christianson (VPA).

The concert, “Right Now,” is a celebration of music written by contemporary composers. The concert is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (April 21) in the Rozsa Center.

The Superior Wind Symphony and Campus Concert Band once again combine for their year-end wind concert, ‘Right Now,’ the music of living composers. These 14 composers are people who walk among us and who you could conceivably meet. Join us for a fresh and invigorating evening. Two have been on this campus, two are jazz bassists and they range in age from 33 to 94.

I have met five of them and performed with two of them. They write in a wide range of styles, so there is bound to be something you will love. The composers include John Mackey, Shelley Hanson, Chris Brubeck, Eric Whitacre, Michael Daugherty, Fred Hersch, Rufus Reid, Esperanza Spalding, Radiohead, Bjork, Andrew Boysen, Jr., Tan Dun and Sammy Nestico. – Mike Christianson

Tickets for “Right Now” 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 87-2073, online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex or at the Rozsa Box Office the evening of the performance.

Note the Rozsa Box Office only opens two hours prior to performances.

Can’t make the performance? You can listen via our live-streaming!

Michigan Tech Choirs Present “Beyond the Veil”

Published April 18, 2018

By Heather Powers

The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts and Department of Visual and Performing Arts present “Beyond the Veil,” a concert by the Michigan Tech Choirs: conscience: Michigan Tech Chamber Singers and the Michigan Tech Concert Choir. The concert takes place at 7 p.m. Friday (April 20) in the Rozsa Center.

Jared Anderson, chair of VPA and the choir’s director, says, “The choirs at Tech have been working hard to prepare a concert that includes a number of interesting themes. The title of the concert refers to themes that seem to be opposites as if on two sides of a veil: love and loss, life and death, health and sickness, slavery and freedom, youth and old age.”

Anderson says there will be something for everyone at the concert, “love songs, spirituals, folksongs and sacred motets.”

Tickets for “Beyond the Veil” are on sale now, $13 for adults, $5 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee.

Can’t make the performance? You can listen via our live-streaming!

Rozsa Center Listed Among Best in US

Published April 4, 2018

By Heather Powers

Michigan Tech’s Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts has been named one of the best university performing arts centers in America.

The 1,067-seat venue was among “The 35 Best University Performing Arts Centers in the US” as chosen by the website ClickitTicket.com.

The centers were listed alphabetically and not ranked in any particular order.

In listing the Rozsa, the website said, “This awe-inspiring facility schedules performances by both national and University performers in the mediums of dance, theatre, music and film.“

The venue’s ability to withstand harsh Keweenaw winters did not escape notice. “This 80,000 square-foot facility might be the toughest building on our list. Its roof can hold 450 pounds of snow per square foot.”

The listing also includes a photograph of a “Backstage at the Rozsa” performance. The Rozsa Center was the only university performing arts center in Michigan to make the ClickitTicket list.

Scrap Arts Music Presents “Children of Metropolis” at the Rozsa

Published March 14, 2018

By Heather Powers

Announcements

Scrap Arts Music, Canadian-born and globally enjoyed, has performed in more than fifteen countries on five continents for audiences of all backgrounds, with a family-friendly presentation of music and movement. Innovation. Energy. Rhythm.

If you’re looking for a feel-good, adrenaline-packed experience—look no further. Take some scrap, transform it through the arts with welding, sculpture and choreography, and then—with five extraordinary and athletic percussionists—create beautiful music. The result? Musical works that are intricate, playful and powerful, and that delight the eyes and the ears.

The Rozsa Center is proud to present the US debut of their latest production, new in 2018, “Children of Metropolis,” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 28.

Scrap Arts Music is deeply rooted in an eco-friendly sensibility: all their instruments are hand- made from industrial scraps. Often compared to STOMP and Blue Man Group, Scrap Arts Music’s philosophy is a bit different—they insist on building full-blown artistic instruments from literal pieces of scrap. Each instrument is a one-of-a-kind creation that doubles as both music-maker and artistic sculpture.

High energy original choreography makes artistic director and instrument maker Gregory Kozak’s nuanced compositions powerfully come to life—performed with passion by Scrap Arts Music’s five award-winning multi-instrumentalists. Each production is a rich blend of serious, sophisticated ensemble percussion music paired with humorous moments that fill theaters with laughter.

Tickets for Scrap Arts: “Children of Metropolis” at the Rozsa Center are on sale now, $22 for adults, $10 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee.

Tickets are available by phone at 7-2073, online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex or at the Rozsa box office the night of the show. Please note that the Rozsa box office opens only two hours before performances.

Jazz Legend Fred Hersch Headlining Michigan Tech Jazz Festival

Published March 12, 2018

By Heather Powers

Announcements

The three-day festival celebrates more than 50 years of jazz at Michigan Tech. Things get started Thursday, March 22, with the showing of the film “The Ballad of Fred Hersch,” at 7:30 p.m. in the Rozsa Center. The documentary recounts Hersch’s role as a jazz pianist icon — he’s led and co-led more than 30 albums and received eight Grammy nominations — and his experience coming out as gay and HIV-positive in the early 90s. The New York Times described Hersch as “singular among the trailblazers of their art, a largely unsung innovator of this borderless, individualistic jazz — a jazz for the 21st century.”

The Don Keranen Memorial Jazz Festival will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 23 in the Rozsa Center. The festival features the Research & Development Big Band and the Jazz Lab Band. According to Mike Irish, director of jazz studies, “Don originated the Jazz Lab Band in 1967, and since then, it has grown into one of the most respected non-major jazz programs in the country.”

The festival will conclude with a performance by the Fred Hersch Trio at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 24, offering a chance to see “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade” in action, as per Vanity Fair magazine.

Tickets for the film “The Ballad of Fred Hersch” are free; tickets for the Don Keranen Memorial Jazz Concert are $15 for adults, $5 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee. Tickets for the Fred Hersch Trio concert are $22 for adults, $5 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee.

Tickets are available by phone 7-2073, online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the SDC, or at the Rozsa Box Office the evening of the performance. Note the Rozsa Box Office only opens two hours prior to performances.

Carnival of the Animals Concert Saturday

Published February 22, 2018

By Heather Powers

The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra presents “Carnival of the Animals,” 7:30 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 24) in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

One of the great zoological works in the orchestral canon, “Carnival of the Animals,” by Camille Saint-Saëns, includes humorous depictions of elephants, donkeys, lions, hens, roosters, tortoises, kangaroos and the famous “swan” for solo cello.

This concert also features two Russian masterworks: Dimitri Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture” and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”

Tickets are $19 for adults, $6 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech Fee. Tickets are available online, by phone at 7-2073, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex or at the Rozsa Center Box Office the evening of the performance. The Rozsa Box Office opens two hours prior to performances.

This concert is sponsored by a gift from John and Biruta Lowther.

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