2008-2009 Season Events
Rozsa Center Box Office • Find Rozsa Center • Tour Rozsa
Find McArdle Theatre (207 Walker) • Campus Parking •
Rent Rozsa or McArdle
Rozsa/SDC E-mail tickets@mtu.edu •
Rozsa Ticket Office 906-487-3200
Visual and Performing Arts events are FREE to Michigan Tech students with their Experience Tech fee.
Spring 2009 Event List (PDF)—subject to change. See below for current information.
Wednesday |
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Mars and Beyond Sunshine and music—After a long winter, grab some of both when the Superior Winds and the Michigan Tech Concert Band play the Rozsa Center, starting at 7:30 pm. Director Nick Enz says the bands have wonderful music in store, at their springtime best for this their last concert of the year. Displaying the vivid tone colors of all great symphonic band music, the "Mars" section of Gustav Holtz's "Planets" suite will be one of the Superior Winds' highlights. "It's so well known, and the asymmetric heartbeat that drives the music is so infectious," Enz says of Holst's masterpiece. In high spirits, too, are Rossini's "Barber of Seville" overture, David Bennett's "The Four Hornsmen," and music of the inventive, ever-popular Leroy Anderson. The percussion section of the Concert Band also has an unusual treat in store. One of their pieces requires two sets of "antiphonal bowls," in this case bowls selected at a local store after the percussionists tested all the available products to find just the right richness of tone and resonance. All this to capture some of the qualities of music played in ancient churches and cathedrals for a piece by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Colgrass. The Concert Band will vary the mood with "Vaquero" by Sammy Nestico, best known as a jazz composer and arranger for the Count Basie Orchestra, a set of "Sea Songs" by the prolific English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Aaron Copland's all-American "Down a Country Lane." General $10, Children age 18 and under $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Monday-Friday |
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McArdle Theatre becomes an art gallery to display the work of Michigan Tech student artists, created in Visual & Performing Arts classes during the 2008-09 academic year. Ceramics, sculpture, watermedia, drawing, two-dimensional and three-dimensional design are all included. Some works are available for purchase. |
Saturday |
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Season of Memories Finale Two of the Keweenaw's finest musical organizations, the 90-voice Michigan Tech Concert Choir and the 65-member Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, join forces on Saturday, April 18, at 7:30 pm in the Rozsa Center to present their final joint concert under the baton of music director Dr. Milton Olsson, who retires this summer after 33 years at Michigan Tech. Organist Eric Hepp of Rochester, New York, soprano Victoria Walker of Lansing, mezzo-soprano Lorna March of Iron Mountain, tenor Anthony Beacco of Negaunee, and bass Wayne Hanmer of Marquette join the choir and orchestra to present three pieces of soaring beauty which are dear to Olsson's heart: the "Mass in A" by German-American composer Gustav Gundlach, which was orchestrated by Olsson on commission from the Gundlach family; Olsson's own "Mass for Chorus and Orchestra" composed in 2000 for the opening season of the Rozsa Center; and Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Serenade to Music," a setting of Shakespeare's hymn to music from "The Merchant of Venice." A public reception in the Rozsa Lobby will follow the concert. "Milt's deep connection with the musicians and soloists makes this a truly unique and wonderful event," Roger Held, chair of Visual & Performing Arts, says in describing the April 18 plans. "Both the community members who've been in the choir or orchestra for years and the students who've been part of this only recently express a great deal of emotion about this concert. I know they want to convey in the music the great appreciation they feel for Milt." All four of this year's orchestra concerts, beginning with the Bergonzi String Quartet's appearance last October, have been a "Season of Memories" for Olsson. "I've been acutely aware that this is my final season as professor of music and music director," Olsson wrote last October. "Naturally, I've been reminiscing and thinking about the many players, singers, and guest artists who have been central to the orchestra, the choir, and me. I decided to present treasured music with these ensembles and to invite back some of our most special guest artists." The April 18 concert is sponsored by a grant from Copper Range Abstract & Title Agency, Inc., and produced by the Visual and Performing Arts department. General $15, Children age 18 and under $7. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Friday |
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The Robber Bridegroom The Tech Theatre Company will present a rascally, rollicking musical in the Rozsa Center on April 10 and 11 as Patricia Helsel directs "The Robber Bridegroom," by Alfred Uhry and Robert Waldman, in two performances, both at 7:30 p.m. Leading the cast of twelve are Lucy Kurtz playing the coquette Rosamund, Andy Johnson as the dashing rogue Jamie Lockhart, Trish Goggin as Rosamund's conniving step- mother, and Adam Sommerfield as her rich, clueless father. Joining them as a troupe of sidekicks, accomplices, outlaws and not-too- upstanding citizens are Mitch Schuh, George Wagner, Jake LaJeunesse, Nikki Kangas, Laura Larsen, Mollie Trewartha, Brian Gilbert, and Terra Schneider. The score of "Robber Bridgegroom" features bluegrass, good ol' country ballads and fiddle tunes. The singers will be accompanied by Mike Irish on bass, Pat Valencia and Josh Martin on guitar, Craig Kurtz on banjo, and Libby Meyer and Emily Petersen on fiddle. Nick Enz is the show's music director. Michigan Tech's production of "Robber" will bring a number of innovations to the Rozsa stage. Helsel and her design crew set the show in a derelict but once-thriving Mississippi River town, abandoned after the river changed course leaving it high and dry. Now the ruins—once a rich, important place but now literally no place—are home to a shifting group of oddballs and misfits surviving by their wits, living in cast-off trailers, using the townsite as a haven. Among them are unemployed actors who now find the decayed barns, buildings, and refuse piles of the old town a treasure trove of useful items, if you know how to improvise. They stage "The Robber Bridegroom," a tale of the legendary Harp Gang who lived a Robin Hood-style existence on the Nachez Trace in the early days of the country. It's a tale of chicanery, greed, wit, deception, and hilarity, with a little terror thrown in, about a set of characters who, like the actors themselves, live by their wits. Playing actors who in turn play rascally backwoods characters requires all the traditional musical theatre skills of acting, singing and dancing, with room for lots of improvising and comedy, Helsel says. Luckily, the land of Da Yoopers provides just the props needed for the "Robber Bridegroom" set. Finding an old trailer and pickup truck were easy, Helsel says--the Copper Country grapevine turned up lots of candidates. Yoopers also understand about a make- do life in a tough place, and savor olden days tales of our own. "The costumes and props are often hilarious, because they come straight from what you'd find in an abandoned townsite or farm anywhere, if they fall into the hands of someone spunky and resourceful." "Robber Bridegroom" was originally developed by John Housman's Acting Company in New York, and staged on Broadway in both 1975 and 1976, with casts including Raul Julia, Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, and Barry Bostwick (the latter two winning Tony Awards for their performances). It was nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Book, among other honors. Michigan Tech staged the show as dinner theatre at the Onigaming Supper Club in the early 1980's, directed by Richard Blanning. The new production features a set designed by Kalen Larson, costumes by Mary Carol Friedrich, sound by Ben Boeshans, and lights by Frank Sopjes. Larson and Friedrich are faculty members in Visual and Performing Arts; Boeshans majors in Audio Production and Technology and Sopjes in Theatre and Entertainment Technology. Michael McKeller, senior in Theatre and Entertainment Technology, is stage manager. General $14, Children age 18 and under $7. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Friday |
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Don Keranen Memorial Jazz Concert Hot jazz and spicy Caribbean rhythms will chase away the late-winter blues as Michigan Tech's Jazz Lab Band and R&D Big Band present the annual Don Keranen Memorial Jazz Night in the Rozsa Center. The two bands are at their Spring Semester peak of performance, and eager to celebrate a great jazz tradition. For more than 40 years, Tech students have played jazz under the leadership of just three directors: Don Keranen (1967-88), Rob Wernberg (1989-91) and Mike Irish (1991-present). Through the years, Tech's jazz ensembles have warmed many a cold winter night in Keweenaw clubs and auditoriums, and also toured widely, showcasing both jazz and Michigan Tech throughout Michigan and Wisconsin, and winning awards at Midwest jazz festivals. Last week, the Jazz Lab Band demonstrated again how cool and complex they can be in their annual concert with the Northern Michigan University Jazz Ensemble, staged this year in the Rozsa Center. In addition to directing the rich menu of jazz on April 3, Irish will announce the winners of this year's Don Keranen Awards for outstanding jazz musician and most improved player. General $10, Children age 18 and under $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Friday |
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The Northern Lights Film Festival brings independent films and filmmakers to the campus and surrounding community. Friday Featured Presentation: Bob Brown of Michigan-based Charity Island Pictures will discuss the Michigan Film Industry and the impact of recent state tax incentives. A screening of one of Brown's productions will follow. Saturday Featured Presentation: MTU alum Suzanne Jurva will be on hand to present her new documentary. Jurva spent several years filming guitarist Billy McLaughlin as he performed the nearly unthinkable task of retraining himself to play after losing the function of his fretboard hand and arm to an incurable neuro-muscular disorder. For more information, contact Erin Smith (smitherin@mtu.edu) or call (906) 487-3263. All screenings are free and open to the public. THE NORTHERN LIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL IS SPONSORED BY THE DEPARTMENTS OF HUMANITIES AND VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS, AND CIN/OPTIC MEDIA ENTERPRISE. |
Wednesday |
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MTU & NMU Jazz Bands Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan University both have outstanding jazz programs, with bands which regularly get rave reviews and awards at college jazz festivals. Each spring, they continue a tradition of “home and home” concerts. This year, it’s Northern’s turn to come to Houghton to share the stage with MTU’s Jazz Lab Band. This “battle of the bands” is sure to mean truly wonderful music. This mid-March joint performance, alternating between the Houghton and Marquette campuses, is a highlight of both schools' seasons, not to mention a midwinter spirit booster for everyone who attends. Both bands are at the peak of their powers this time of year and play in a variety of styles, from Count Basie classics to the latest Latin rhythms. Directors Mike Irish of MTU and Mark Flaherty of NMU are well-known throughout the Midwest for the strength of jazz studies programs that they lead. Contact Director of Jazz Studies Mike Irish for more information. General $10, Children age 18 and under $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Wednesday |
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One of the seminal plays of modern American theatre will be staged this week in Michigan Tech's McArdle Theatre as the Tech Theatre Company presents A.R. Gurney's "The Dining Room" directed by Roger Held. First produced in New York City in 1981, "The Dining Room" is classic Gurney, a witty comedy-plus-drama that showcases his remarkable talent for character and finely-tuned dialog, as well as pin-point insight into human relationships. Through a series of vignettes criss-crossing the decades of the 20th century, actors play multiple roles to create a multi-generational family whose values, assumptions, and lifestyle change radically through the years. A powerful symbol is the dining room in the family home, a room whose purpose, atmosphere and meaning, along with its carefully-chosen furnishings, both persist and change along with the lives within its walls. Gurney, who also taught at MIT, has written many successful comedy/ dramas including "Love Letters," "Buffalo Gal," "Sylvia," and "Scenes From American Life." "The Dining Room" secured his reputation as a deft creator of thoughtful and superbly written comedy. The New York Times summed up the reviews, calling it "funny and rueful and, by the end, very moving." Director Roger Held says the Tech Theatre Company—faculty, students and staff who form the production company for Visual & Performing Arts—choose plays like "The Dining Room" particularly because they're relevant to the lives of everyone who will come to the play. "Designing and producing a play is a hugely rewarding educational endeavor for everyone involved," he notes. "But most of all we know four live theatre productions a year can make a difference in the lives of people who come to see them, on many levels. We're investing in plays that make a difference." Michigan Tech's production is designed by Mary Carol Friedrich (lights and costumes) and Kalen Larson (stage setting), faculty members in Visual & Performing Arts, and staged in the round with a cast of ten led by actor Dennis Kerwin. Sound design with original music are by Jose Cordero-Medina, senior in Audio Production and Technology. Frank Sopjes, junior in Theatre and Entertainment Technology, is stage manager. Tickets for "The Dining Room" are available at the door and in advance (487-3200, www.tickets.mtu.edu). General $10, Children age 18 and under $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Saturday |
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Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra Double bassist and composer Evan Premo headlines the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra's winter concert playing Jukka Linkola's stunning concerto plus his own compositions. Also featuring the U.P.'s favorite musical ensemble, White Water. READ MORE. Evan Premo is an active chamber musician performing regularly at Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, doing outreach performances around New York City as a member of Ensemble ACJW. Evan performed concerti with numerous orchestras and has collaborated with such artists as Andrés Cárdenes, Yizhak Schotten, Katherine Collier, and the Formosa String Quartet, in addition to performing his own arrangements for piano and double bass at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. A graduate of the University of Michigan where he earned degrees in double bass performance and composition, Evan was a winner of the school's concerto competition in 2006 and, that same year, premiered his own Concertino for Bass Fiddle and Winds with the University of Michigan's Symphony Band. Evan's double bass teachers include virtuosos Diana Gannett and Gary Karr, and he has studied composition with Michael Daugherty, Susan Botti, and Evan Chambers. He is also a member of Duo Borealis with soprano Mary Bonhag. Please visit Evan's website at www.evanpremo.com for more information. About Jukka Linkola - In Quest of the Great Synthesis General $15, Children age 18 and under $7. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Wednesday |
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Superior Wind Symphony Dr. Frank Tracz, band director at Kansas State University, visits Michigan Tech this week to share his expertise with Michigan Tech's Superior Winds and area high school bands. Hosted by Visual and Performing Arts and director of bands Nick Enz, Dr. Tracz brings expertise as Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Kansas State to three days of intensive workshops in the Rozsa Center, polishing the skills of the area's best high school and college musicians. At 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 11, he will conduct Michigan Tech's Superior Winds in concert as they showcase what they've learned. A graduate of Ohio State and UW-Madison, Dr. Tracz coordinates the undergraduate and graduate conducting programs at Kansas State, teaches classes in music education, and administers and guides all aspects of the K-State band program, which includes the Symphony Band, Concert Band, University Band, Athletic Pep Bands, and Marching Band. Under his direction the Symphony Band has performed at the Kansas Music Educators Association Conference, the MENC Conference as well as regional and international tours. The “Pride of Wildcat Land” Marching Band has enjoyed the privilege of traveling to nationally acclaimed bowl games in support of the University. Dr. Tracz has served as an adjudicator, clinician and guest conductor for all-state and honor bands across the nation, as well as in Canada. He is a past member of the Music Education Journal Editorial Board and is a contributor to the series Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. He also researched and developed a Master of Music Education/Band Conducting program that is now in place at K-State. Dr. Tracz is past President of the Big XII Band Directors Association and has received many awards and recognition including the prestigious Stamey award for Outstanding Teaching at K-State, and has been recognized as a Mortar Board Outstanding Faculty Member. Most recently he was honored with the Outstanding Bandmaster Award from the Kansas Bandmasters Association and Phi Beta Mu. The program includes "Gavorkna Fanfare" by Jack Stamp, "Blues for a Killed Kat" by Jack End, "Prelude and Fugue in G Minor" by J.S. Bach, Eric Whitacre's "October," "Four Scottish Dances" by Malcolm Arnold, and "The Klaxon" by Henry Fillmore. General $10, Children age 18 and under $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Friday |
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Warm your winter body and soul with some hot jazz at the Jazz Club Cabaret. Mike Irish, director of jazz studies, says three dynamic groups will perform each night. On Friday, the Calumet High School Jazz Experience directed by Scott Veenstra joins Michigan Tech's finest combos, Jaztec, and Momentum. On Saturday night, Jaztec opens the show, followed by the On The Spot Blues Band, and closing with Momentum. The On The Spot Blues Band is preparing for their performance at the Invitational Blues Festival in Memphis in two weeks. They have a great set planned that will highlight their festival tunes. Jaztec continues in their great tradition of jazz standards and contemporary jazz, with their own unique creative twist. Momentum will be performing some of the deepest grooves and funkiest tunes in the area. Irish promises, "The atmosphere is great, the jazz is hot, and the vibe is relaxing!" McArdle Theater will feature cabaret seating at tables, and concessions are available. General $10, Children age 18 and under $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Sunday |
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Chamber Music Series—Bach to Bach Bach's Concerto in A minor for Violin and Orchestra is featured, played by soloist Jared Cregg and an ensemble of area musicians led by Dr. Elizabeth Meyer, concertmaster of the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra. Sunday's concert, titled “Bach to Bach,” will also present the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto Grosso for Two Flutes and Orchestra with flute soloists Susan Byykkonen and Bryan Suits. Fourteen musicians will perform. Jared Cregg is a highly accomplished violinist from Eden Prairie, Minnesota. A junior majoring in biomedical engineering, he is a Goldwater Scholar as recipient of the prestigious national award for undergraduates. Among his extracurricular activities, he is principal in the Keweenaw Symphony and a member of Michigan Tech's nordic ski team. General $6, Children age 18 and under $3. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Saturday |
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Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra Pianist Susan Byykkonen of Calumet will perform Frederic Chopin's much-loved Piano Concerto No. 1 in a concert with the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra which also features the lush romantic music of Georges Bizet, Gabriel Fauré, and Hector Berlioz. This is the second of four special concerts in the KSO's "Season of Memories," celebrating Dr. Milton Olsson's final season as music director. Susan Byykkonen is well known throughout the Keweenaw as both pianist and flutist, and was featured soloist in the KSO's performance of Jiri Antonin Benda's concerto in G minor for piano and orchestra in October 1998, as well as in numerous chamber music concerts at Michigan Tech during the past fifteen years. She is Associate Director for the Michigan Tech Concert Choir, which she has accompanied since 1994, and also performs frequently with Studio North Opera. A graduate of Cedarville University, Ohio, her teachers were Joan Luehrs and Connie Anderson. "Susie and I have worked together with the KSO and the Concert Choir for many years," Olsson notes, "and to showcase her as a concert pianist is very meaningful for both of us." The Chopin concerto, epitomizing the expressive, emotion-driven music of the European romantic period, is a prized part of the piano repertoire. The orchestra will complement the Chopin with three works by 19th century French composers: Berlioz's "Marche Hongroise" from his opera "The Damnation of Faust," based on a Hungarian folk melody, Fauré's "Pavane for Orchestra," which Olsson describes as "a gorgeous, sumptuous piece of music that deserves its popularity," and, finally, Bizet's "L'Arlesienne Suite No. 1." Bizet , best known for his opera "Carmen," which is performed frequently in orchestral suites, similarly demonstrates his mastery of the orchestra in "L'Arlesienne." The alto saxophone solos in the "L'Arlesienne Suite" will be performed by Nicholas Enz. General $15, Children age 18 and under $7. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Friday |
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Join the combos from Michigan Tech's fine jazz program for this evening of music and dancing in an informal cabaret setting. General $10, Children age 18 and under $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Sunday |
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Michigan Tech Concert Choir Michigan Tech's ninety-voice Concert Choir, led by Dr. Milton Olsson, presents its annual concert, titled "Eyes to South America," featuring pieces prepared for the choir's 2009 concert tour to Argentina and Chile. The best of American music, as well as pieces from the home countries of the tour's audiences, all prepared with meticulous skill by the choir, promise to make this a rare evening. Olsson's international tours always include a capsule of choral music from the United States. This year, the program features favorite compositions by David Dickau, Vincent Persichetti, and Morten Lauridsen, as well as several arrangements of American folk music and spirituals. "Brazeal Dennard's wonderful arrangement of the spiritual "Hush" has been on every one of our previous international tour programs," Olsson says. "When we performed "Hush" in St. Petersburg, Russia, the standing-room-only audience insisted that we sing it again, and again, and by the time we were singing it for the fourth time, the audience sang along. It doesn't get much better than that!" Another moving choral work that has been a regular part of tour repertoire is Vincent Persichetti's "Song of Peace." "Whether in Russia, the Ukraine, China, or other nations that we have visited, the message of this music is paramount, the ultimate people-to-people communication," Olsson affirms. Other selections include "Arroz con leche," a well-known folk song, in a special arrangement by Argentinean composer Carlos Gustavino. "Libertango" is a composition by Astor Piazzolla based on two of his favorite words, liberty and tango. Oscar Escalada's arrangement for choir and piano brings this dance to life. World renowned, Escalada is one of the leading figures in Argentinean choral music. The Concert Choir makes international tours every three or four years, the most recent being to China in 2006. About eighty singers and guests are expected to make the Argentina/Chile tour next summer, presenting performances in cathedrals and concert halls in five major cities. The Choir will also tour cultural sites and parks, and meet and perform with musicians from the host countries. General $10, Children age 18 and under $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Friday |
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Superior Wind Symphony Michigan Tech's Superior Winds and Sax Quartet will join forces for their fall concert, which director Nick Enz describes as a tribute to the energy and change that's in the air in this season of the year. Enz has chosen a mix of styles to showcase the many different woodwind and brass instruments which make up Superior Winds. Featured composers George Gershwin, William Schuman, and Richard Wagner experimented with the variety of sound that wind instruments make—from trumpets, trombones, French horns and euphoniums to oboes, clarinets, flutes and bassoons—alone and in multi-layered ensembles. In addition to pieces by those renowned composers, the concert will include contemporary pieces: Michael Sweeney's "Rumble on the High Plains," Eric Whitacre's "Sleep," and Anthony Suter's "Dancing at Stonehenge." The Sax Quartet adds the mellow contemporary harmonies Henry Mancini to the classic precision of Orlando Gibbons. "We hope students and community members will join us to enjoy this music, and to celebrate November in the Copper Country," Enz says. "The musicians have looked forward to this concert since early September, and can't wait to share the music they've come to love." General $10, Children age 18 and under $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
November 6-8 |
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Edward Albee’s comedy Seascape features two couples who meet by accident on a beach, one of them human and the other from a completely different world—in fact, a pair of giant sea lizards who swim ashore and stay to chat. Left: Stephen Martin plays Leslie, one of the talkative sea lizards in Michigan Tech's production of "Seascape." Dieter Rudolph plays the astonished Charlie. A real beach and ingenious sea-creature costumes, plus an array of special sound and lighting effects, bring Seascape vividly to life in this Visual & Performing Arts department production. The talkative sea lizards signal one of Albee’s favorite themes: "As difference increases, reality fades.” Albee’s ground-breaking plays, which include “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” “The Zoo Story”, and “The American Dream,” focus on communication among characters quite different from one another. In Seascape, that includes people and lizards, and men and women. As director Roger Held puts it, Seascape shows the difficulty and triumph of contact, of understanding, and the “how” of communication, as the humans decide what to do about frightening new creatures who happen to speak to them in perfectly civilized English. The lizards, who’ve reached an advanced stage of evolution, are debating the possibility of life out of water. They’re excited by their first contact with land life, their first chance to ask urgent questions about what it’s really like. The humans, by contrast, are as stolid, ordinary, and inarticulate as we can imagine. The result? One critic calls it “humorous, eloquent, warm, with emotional and intellectual reverberations that linger long after the play has ended.” The seashore provides a perfect situation for a play like this, Held observes. A seascape is dangerously exposed, always in flux, the land and water constantly shifting, everything shaping everything else. What better landscape to represent the human condition? “The shore looks simple but is actually complex, composed of a variety of rocks, shells, sands, and plants clinging tenaciously to a constantly changing environment. Some animals on the beach are soft, and give with the flow, while others are hard-shelled to survive the shocks. Some are both at different times. Animals on the shore have to be wary and adaptable as conditions change from warm and reassuring to wild and threatening.” Capturing all this on stage is the job not just of the four actors, but also of Michigan Tech’s designers of scenery, costumes, lighting and sound effects. The six performances are a final exam for MTU’s student designers and technicians, many of them majors in Theatre and Entertainment Technology or Audio Production and Technology, whose creative solutions to the play’s many technical and artistic challenges will be on display. Tickets for Tech Theatre Company productions are available at the Rozsa Box Office (487-3200), www.tickets.mtu.edu, and also at the door an hour before curtain time. Audience members are encouraged to come early; performances start promptly at 7:30. General $10, Children age 18 and under $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Friday |
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Michigan Tech's outstanding jazz program opens its season when four ensembles present the annual Jazz Showcase in McArdle Theatre. It's jazz in many styles, from cool blues to the latest funk, played by the Jazz Lab Band, R&D Big Band, Momentum (on Friday) and Jaztec (on Saturday), all directed by Mike Irish. "This fall concert is always a high," Irish says. "You can feel the excitement. The bands are so charged up to share this music!" General $10, Children age 18 and under $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Saturday |
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Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra The Bergonzi Quartet and the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra will present what Milton Olsson calls "one of the truly unusual programs in the annals of modern orchestras." The Bergonzis will perform the "Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra" by Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859) as well as the "Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra" by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), a piece which is based on a concerto grosso by George Frideric Handel. The Bergonzis are well-known to this community through their twelve-year residency with the Pine Mountain Music Festival. Members are Glenn Basham, violin, Scott Flavin, violin, Pamela McConnell, viola, and Ross Harbaugh, cello. All are faculty members at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. The concert will open with Richard Wagner's "Prelude to Die Meistersinger," which displays the skills and power of the KSO's wind musicians and this year's outstanding string section. General $15, Children age 18 and under $7. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
Friday |
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BandaRama! with Huskies Pep Band, Jazz Lab Band, Wind Symphony A rousing hour of great music as three MTU bands play in fast rotation, including the Huskies Pep Band playing all your favorites, ditto the Jazz Lab Band and the Superior Wind Symphony. Pep band photos by Mitchell Schuh. Free to MTU students with ID and to children age 18 and under. All other seats $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE |
Thursday |
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Houghton Turn On the Heat is a benefit concert to raise additional money for heat assistance for Copper Country residents in need. Committed performers are Keweenaw Brewgrass, Uncle Pete's All Star Barbeque Blues Band with special guest, and the MTU Jazz Lab Band. General $10. BUY TICKETS ONLINE |
Friday |
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Vol. 3 This is the third annual installment of "Hitchhikers"; each year brings a leap forward in technology and skill as new students in the audio creative lab class take up the challenge of staging new adventures and outdoing last year's class. More about "Hitchhiker's Guide" is available from Visual and Performing Arts, 487-2067. General $10, Children age 18 and under $5. BUY TICKETS ONLINE Free to MTU students with ID. |
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2007-2008 Season Events
2006-2007 Season Events
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