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.
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.
“Backstage at the Rozsa” opens its doors to the groovin’ sounds of big band jazz this weekend. The Rozsa stage becomes a pop-up jazz club, and the intimate club atmosphere is a perfect setting for Michigan Tech’s Research and Development Big Band and the Jazz Lab Band to loosen the reins on creativity and capture the flow of jazz.
Join Jazz Studies Program Director Mike Irish and the Michigan Tech jazz ensembles for Jazz Showcase: “Backstage at the Rozsa” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, October 30, and Saturday, October 31, in the Rozsa Center. Visit online for more information or tickets.
From Tech Today, by Rozsa Center.
Backstage Jazz Returns to Rozsa Oct. 30, 31
According to Irish, “Jazz was born in the tonks and joints of Storyville in New Orleans and has always found a home in the small but lively entertainment venues throughout the world: the ‘speakeasies’ of Chicago, the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan, Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, Birdland in New York, Ronnie Scott’s in London, the Town Tavern in Toronto, the A – Trane in Berlin, the Shaft in Istanbul, the Blue Note and Vanguard in New York — and the Orpheum in Hancock, Michigan. Jazz is now enjoyed and practiced all over the world and is one of America’s greatest cultural exports. So sit back, and immerse yourself in the music! In the words of jazz legend Art Blakey, ‘Jazz washes away the dust of everyday life.'”
Lisa Johnson (VPA), participated in the public engagement conference, “Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life,” Sept 30 to Oct 3, 2015, in Baltimore. Johnson and other participants worked to re-envision assessment practices, develop new methods for publicly-engaged scholarship, work towards diversity and equity and to connect universities and their communities in mutually beneficial relationships. For more information on Imagining America visit their website.
The 2015 National Conference, entitled America Will Be! The Art and Power of “Weaving Our We,” was hosted by University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
The members of Imagining America advance a vision of the world in which publicly engaged artists, designers, scholars, and culture workers play critical roles in enacting the promise and ideals of a democratic society.
“t.b.d.,” a mid-semester showcase of student work-in-progress by visual arts students, will host public receptions 5-7 p.m. Thursday, October 22, 2015, and 2-4:30 p.m. Saturday, October 24, 2015. See the arts process, talk with students about their work and ideas, enjoy the new Rozsa “gallery b.”
This event is part of “Project Learning Lab,” an innovative, alternative arts classroom developed by Visual Arts faculty for 2015-16.
From Tech Today, by Visual and Performing Arts.
To Be Determined…
Michigan Tech students in Lisa Johnson’s sculpture class walk visitors through their unfinished works at the student exhibition “t.b.d.” Sunday.
Aquila Theatre is returning to Michigan Tech with the world’s greatest love story, Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
The story is so well known—star-crossed lovers who are doomed from the start—so why is this production special? This minimal adaptation is a joy of the senses: simple, pared-down and shadowy, Aquila’s “Romeo and Juliet,” directed and adapted by Desiree Sanchez, is a completely new way to experience one of the Bard’s most iconic plays. Shakespeare’s eight-plus actors are cut down to five, the original seventeen roles reduced to eight. The story is condensed, focused and chiseled away at until it stands out in uncluttered relief.
Experience the beauty of Aquila Theatre’s new production of “Romeo and Juliet,” at 8 p.m. Thursday, October 22, 2015, at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. There will be a pre-performance discussion with Aquila Theatre tour members at 7 p.m. in the Rozsa lobby. Tickets for Romeo and Juliet are on sale now, $24 for adults, $10 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with a student ID via the Experience Tech fee.
Click here for more information or to order tickets.
From Tech Today, by the Rozsa Center.
Aquila Theatre to present “Romeo and Juliet” Oct. 22 at Rozsa
According to a recent review by Sam Hall, of DC Metro Theater Arts, “This is a very real and very serious production, full of shadows and chiaroscuro light. Romeo and Juliet step onstage as more than horny teenagers or conventionally doomed lovers. They are two young persons come together burning ardently within the flame of life, snuffed out in heedless misunderstanding…. We have here a remarkable fusion of design, text, and performance; of consciousness, scenery, sound, light, space, meaning, and movement. This is Romeo and Juliet as high tragedy, a balletic dream sculpted in moonstone ghost; a lighted candle melting in wax from mise-en-scène to mise-en-scène; a grandeur of poetry and high art. It is beautiful and disturbing. Deeply moving, without a trace of sentimentality.”
The Huskies Pep Band invites you to a night of music and wacky shenanigans as they celebrate 40 years of Monty Python. A mix of classic tunes and current jams will be featured in addition to several Pythonesque skits. This event will be from 7:30-9 p.m. Friday, October 16, 2015. in the Rozsa Theater. Adult tickets are $13.00, youth tickets are $5.00 and students are free with ETF.
“Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,” a play by Rajiv Joseph, explores how the lives of two American Marines and an Iraqi translator are forever changed by an encounter with a quick-witted tiger who haunts the streets of war-torn Baghdad attempting to find meaning, forgiveness and redemption amidst the city’s ruins.
“Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” will be performed by Tech Theatre in the McArdle Theater for six performances, Thursday, October 15, 2015, through Saturday, October 17, 2015, and October 22 – 24, 2015. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. each evening.
“Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” examines both the power and the perils of human nature.
From Tech Today, by Tech Theatre.
Tech Theatre Company to perform “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” Oct. 15-17 and 22-24 in McArdle Theater
The New York Times writes, “Set in the chaotic first days of the American invasion of Iraq, this boldly imagined, harrowing and surprisingly funny drama considers the long afterlife of violent acts, as well as the impenetrable mysteries of the afterlife itself.”
According to Director Roger Held, “While depicting a devastatingly cruel and venal world [the tiger] offers hope of redemption and meaningful life after a history of complacency and compliance. What we must do is not easy; we must find and risk being ourselves…”
Happy Birthday Husky Statue
Michigan Tech’s iconic husky dog statue is turning one year old. Join us at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, October 14, 2015, for a special celebration. Members of the Pep Band will be on hand to play the birthday song and help mark the first anniversary of the statue’s dedication. The event is also a great way to thank Joan and (the late) Dan Lorenzetti, whose generosity made the husky statue a reality.
There will be a gallery reception for the exhibit “Senses of Land” from 6-7:30 p.m. Saturday at The Rozsa Center Gallery in the lower level of the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.
Three artists and one writer explore different ideas of landscape and our interactions with it in the Rozsa Gallery’s exhibit. The reception is come-and-go but curator Lisa Johnson (VPA) will give a gallery talk at 6:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served and all are welcome.
“Sense of Land” features the artworks of Allen Morris (photography) Sage Dawson (map making) Cathleen Faubert (scent and memory) and the poetry of David Ebenbach.
Rozsa Center to host “Senses of Land” Gallery exhibit, Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra “Violapalooza” concert Oct. 10
Senses of Land features work by three contemporary artists who focus on landscape, ecology, and our place in nature and community. Artists will feature work that explores our sensory and personal connections to diverse landscapes and how we find our ways among the places where we live.