Category: News

The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, its director Joel Neves, and special guest conductor Xun Sun bring you a captivating evening of orchestral masterworks, including Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” and Tchaikovsky’s thrilling “Symphony No. 4.”  The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow (Feb. 29) in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

Since 2001, Xun Sun has been director of Orchestral Activities at Southern Utah University where he conducts the University Symphony Orchestra and String Ensemble and teaches courses in both conducting and playing music. He has conducted the Henan Symphony Orchestra, Anhui Symphony, Hunan Symphony, Hubey Symphony Orchestra, and the world-renowned China Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Sun comes from Taiyuan, China, where he began showing his musical talents at a very young age. When he was 11, he began training at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music, an intensive education that led him to further studies in the United States. He earned his Master’s degrees in Instrumental Conducting and Violin Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and his Doctoral degree in Education from Teacher’s College in Columbia University. He continues to play, conduct, and educate at Southern Utah University today.

Neves and the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra have been awing the Midwest with music ranging between orchestral masterworks, choral-orchestral, music theatre, ballet, opera, and pops since its founding in 1971. It is made up of Michigan Tech students, faculty and staff, and community members, and is one of five symphony orchestras around Lake Superior.

Tickets are $19 for adults, $6 for children, or no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee. To buy your tickets, call (906) 487-2073, go online, or in person at the Central Ticketing Office or Rozsa Box Office.

Please note: The Rozsa Box Office is only open two hours prior to performances.

Adam Meckler (VPA)  and the Michigan Tech Jazz Lab Band were featured in ChicagoJazz.com. On Jan. 8, Meckler played one set with the Tech Jazz Lab Band and a second set fronting his own Adam Meckler Orchestra at the Jazz Record Art Collective in Chicago. The brief article featured several pictures of the Jazz Lab Band set.

The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra (KSO) returns to the historic Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church in Lake Linden for “Harmonie Sacre,” an all-German program of sublime religious works. The concert takes place at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow (Oct. 25) at 701 Calumet St. in downtown Lake Linden.

The KSO, under the direction of conductor Joel Neves, joined by Guest Conductor Brandon Matthews, presents a program of Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,” Brahms’ “Saint Anthony Variations” (“Variations on a them by Haydn”), and “Wagner’s “Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral from Lohengrin.”

The concert also features Mendelssohn’s “Reformation Symphony” (Symphony No. 5 in D major, Op 107). Mendelssohn composed the symphony in the winter of 1829-30, completed the work in April, and conducted the first performance on Nov. 15, 1832, in Berlin. The score calls for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings. In 1830, the Lutheran Church was marking the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, a fundamental document of the Protestant faith. Mendelssohn decided to participate in the celebration by writing a grand symphony incorporating Martin Luther’s chorale “Ein’ feste Burg” (“A Mighty Fortress”).

Founded in 1970, the KSO is the Upper Peninsula’s oldest orchestra. It is a college-community ensemble comprising Michigan Tech students, faculty and staff, and community musicians. Most of the musicians pursue something other than music as a career, with engineers, scientists, mathematicians, educators, and retirees filling the roster. Students occupy about 60 percent of the orchestra; none are music majors.

The KSO presents four to five concerts per year—including choral-orchestral, opera, ballet, and pops—in both the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, and In St. Joseph’s Church.

Tickets are on sale now, $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 door of the church the evening of the performance. Note the ticket staff will be present at the church only one hour prior to the performance.