Visual and Performing Arts News

Lisa Johnson Interviewed on the Project Learning Lab

Published December 1, 2015

HOUGHTON — Michigan Tech students are taking their creativity outside the classroom.

The university’s sculpture class is learning hands on in the Rozsa Gallery’s Project Learning Lab.

“In the gallery the students are able to really respond to the space,” said assistant professor Lisa Johnson. “They’re able to transform the space in almost any way they like and really get some hands on practice doing design and collaboration and visual arts all together.”

Minnesota Ballet, Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, local student dancers to perform “The Nutcracker” Dec. 4, 5 at Rozsa Center

Published November 30, 2015

By College of Engineering

HOUGHTON — The snowflakes, the beloved Christmas music, the magical tale: Come to the Rozsa Center to experience the timeless Christmas tradition that is The Nutcracker ballet! Minnesota Ballet and Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra (with Joel Neves conducting) will present a fully-staged production, with live orchestra, of Tchaikovsky’s enchanting Nutcracker ballet at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 4 and 5, 2015.

The performance is presented with support by Minnesota Public Radio.

Student dancers from many area schools, including Houghton, Hancock, Baraga, Lake Linden-Hubbell, C-L-K, Michigan Tech, Gogebic CC and others will take the stage to create this magical Christmas fairytale with the Minnesota Ballet and Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra. Tickets are on sale now: $25 for adults, $10 for youth.

Special for The Nutcracker performances only, a $55 “family package” includes two adults and two youth tickets. Additional youth tickets can be added on for $6 each. No charge for Michigan Tech students with a Student ID/ Experience Tech fee. Advance reserved seating is now available. Tickets may be purchased by phone at 487-2073, online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex or at the Rozsa Box Office the evening of the performance.

From Keweenaw Now.

KSO Fall Recital

Published November 18, 2015

By College of Engineering

Did you know that every fall, the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra (KSO) performs more intimate, free (dontaion suggested), informal concerts at a local church?

The symphony continues their “Fall KSO Recital Series” tomorrow. The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, with Joel Neves, conductor, has been a mainstay of the Upper Peninsula arts scene for more than thirty years.

The KSO counts among its musicians Michigan Tech students, faculty, staff, community artists and guest professionals from throughout the Upper Midwest.

The Fall Recital Series continues at 7 p.m. Thursday, November 19, 2015, at the Portage Lake United Church in Houghton. The suggested donation is $5, taken at the door.

From Tech Today, by VPA.

C2E2 Award for Kent Cyr

Published November 17, 2015

By College of Engineering

At the recommendation of the C2E2 Committee, David Reed, vice president for Research, announced the Century II Campaign Endowed Equipment Fund (C2E2) awards. Kent Cyr received $5,000 for Media Server Equipment.

“Collecting Small Things,” Superior Wind Symphony in Concert

Published November 16, 2015

By College of Engineering

The Superior Wind Symphony will perform “Collecting Small Things” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, November 14, 2015, in the Rozsa Center.

The Superior Wind Symphony is the only Michigan Tech music ensemble composed entirely of non-music majors: chemists, engineers, physics and math majors make up the band. From bassoons to oboes, trumpets to saxophones, you’ll get to focus alternately on all of the wind and percussion families of instruments, while enjoying the prowess of the entirely non-music-major ensemble.

From Tech Today, by Bethany Jones.

Among the performers from VPA is Aaron Christianson, Theatre and Entertainment Technology major.

Local Student Dancers to Perform

Published November 11, 2015

By College of Engineering

Student dancers from many area schools, including Houghton, Hancock, Baraga, Lake Linden-Hubbell, C-L-K, Michigan Tech, Gogebic CC and others have begun rehearsals for their upcoming performances of “The Nutcracker.”

Young dancers will take the stage to create this magical Christmas fairytale with the Minnesota Ballet and Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra on Dec. 4 and 5, at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are on sale now, $25 for adults, $10 for youth.

Special for the Nutcracker performances only, a $55 “family package” includes two adults and two youth tickets and additional youth tickets can be added on for $6 each. No charge for Michigan Tech students with a Student ID/ Experience Tech fee. Advance reserved seating is now available. Tickets may be purchased 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.

From Tech Today, by the Rozsa Center.

Tech Theatre Presents Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Published November 9, 2015

By College of Engineering

The Tech Theatre Company presents “Haroun and the Sea of Stories.” The chldren’s classic by Salman Rushdie is in the tradition of “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

“What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true?” This is the question Haroun asks her father, the famous storyteller Rashid Khalifa, when her mother Soraya runs away with another man. Rashid then loses his unique talent, the ability to tell stories, and Haroun decides she must help her father recover his powers. She sets off on a remarkable journey to the fabled Sea of Stories, where many of Rashid’s outlandish yarns turn out to be not only true but alive.

“Haroun and the Sea of Stories” opens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, November 12, 2015, in the McArdle Theatre in the Walker Building. Additional performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday with a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee.

Tickets at $13 for adults, $5 for youth and Michigan Tech students are free with Student ID/Experience Tech Fee.

From Tech Today, by Tech Theatre.

See New York’s “Reigning String Quartet” at the Rozsa Center

Published November 2, 2015

By College of Engineering

Experience the electrifying concert and multimedia meditation that is ETHEL: Documerica at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. Acclaimed as “unfailingly vital” (The New York Times), “brilliant,” “downtown’s reigning string quartet” (The New Yorker) and “one of the most exciting quartets around” (Strad Magazine), ETHEL invigorates the contemporary music scene with exuberance, intensity, imaginative programming and exceptional artistry.

Documerica features video projections that parallel the music, based on the 1971 Environmental Protection Agency’s Project Documerica photographs, which capture America’s sometimes fabled, sometimes fraught relationship to its land. The imagery of Project Documerica is the inspiration for ETHEL’s Documerica, which taps the archive’s rich evocation of time and place and brings its visual and emotional impact into dialogue with the 21st century.

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. Visit here for more information.

From Tech Today, by the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

Chamber Singers Perform at ACDA-MI Conference

Published October 28, 2015

By College of Engineering

conScience: Michigan Tech Chamber Singers performed at the American Choral Directors Association Conference in Flint last Saturday, October 24, 2015. The ensemble was selected to perform by blind audition. ACDA-MI is the professional organization for choral conductors from Michigan. The choir presented a program entitled “Reflections on the Mass” that consisted of music fitting the spirit of each of the movements of the Mass Ordinary. The choir performed music of Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Josef Rheinberger, Ronald Staheli, Dale Trumbore and Roland Pitt.

From Tech Today, by VPA.

Little-Big Landscapes Exhibit

Published October 27, 2015

By College of Engineering

The Little-Big Landscapes exhibit is a collaboration between artist Danielle Clouse, Visual Arts 2D Design students, and their instructor, Lisa Johnson.

The exhibit can be found through most of February 2015 on the second floor of Rekhi Hall at Michigan Tech, between the internal rotunda and the Department of Computer Science.

For more information about this and other campus arts projects, contact Lisa Johnson, lijohnso@mtu.edu.