Visual and Performing Arts News

The choirs of Michigan Tech will perform a joint concert entitled, “Music for a Sacred Space,” at 7:30 p.m. Sunday (March 1), at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Lake Linden. 

The concert has been a tradition for the choirs for a number of years.  The Michigan Tech Concert Choir will sing repertoire from the German literature by Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn. They will also perform “Behold! I Build An House” by Lukas Foss, “Otche Nash” by Nikolai Golovanov, as well as two American folk hymns.  The Michigan Tech Chamber Singers, conScience, will perform both traditional and contemporary anthems, including music from Renaissance Italy as well as selections from England, Canada and the United States.

“This concert provides our singers and the audience with an opportunity to experience sacred choral music in a space that is appropriate for the genre, together with a stunning acoustic that matches other sacred spaces where the music may have been first heard. The choirs look forward to this concert each year,” said Jared Anderson, conductor of both choirs.

The concert is open to the public. A free-will offering will be collected with all proceeds from the concert to benefit the local chapter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

Adam Meckler (VPA) has been tapped to headline two big national jazz festivals in the next few days. First, Meckler will head to Coe College, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the largest annual jazz festival in Iowa, the Coe College Jazz Summit today (Feb. 27) through Saturday (Feb. 29).

More than 90 high school bands participate, and Meckler will coach the high school bands for the first few days of the festival. He will then rehearse and perform as the featured guest artist with the Coe College Jazz Ensemble, doing a mix of his original compositions and other big band music for the big Grand Finale Concert at 7 p.m. (CST) Saturday in Marquis Hall on the Coe College campus.

Then on Monday (March 2), Meckler will travel to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for Augustana College’s 46th annual Jazz on the Upper Great Plains Festival, set for Monday and Tuesday in Augustana’s Hamre Recital Hall.

The festival features Meckler and host of PBS’s Sound Field, Arthur “L.A.” Buckner. Buckner is one of the top drummers and educators in Minneapolis and is gaining national recognition for his drumming and his work with PBS. Interestingly, Buckner is a former student of Meckler’s at McNally Smith College of Music, his previous teaching position.

Buckner and Meckler will perform Meckler’s compositions with the Augustana University Jazz Ensemble after a few days of tag-team coaching area high school groups who attend the festival.

Meckler’s compositions being performed are: “Sparkly Eyes” (which Lab Band will perform on the Don Keranen Jazz Concert at the Rozsa Center on March 20) “Tao of Heavy D” (from his 2019 album on Ropeadope Records, “Magnificent Madness”), “Magnificent Madness” (title track from same album) “Jennsong” (from the same album) “Open Your Eyes” (from Meckler’s critically acclaimed 2014 release “When The Clouds Look Like This”) and “Once Upon a Sunrise” (which the Research & Development Band will perform at its March 20 concert).

For more information about both festivals, concert dates, and tickets, please visit their websites: 

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.