Four years ago in the midst of a Michigan winter, the Kalamazoo Concert Band offered a musical getaway with a program called "Arabian Nights." Music director Dr. Tom Evans joined Cara Lieurance to showcase the highlights, including Sam Hazo's Arabesque, James Hosay's Persis, and Brian Balmages' Arabian Dances.

The National Endowment for the Arts recently announced that Oliver Baez Bendorf, an assistant professor of English at Kalamazoo College, has won a 2021 Creative Writing Fellowship.

Monica Washington Padula is a trailblazer in Kalamazoo. The multi-instrument, classically trained musician and music educator of African-American and Indigenous descent operates her own piano studio. She’s on a mission to get more children of color fired up about playing instruments.

"Miniature Masterpieces" is set to be streamed by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra at 7 pm Friday, Feb 26. Resident conductor Daniel Brier and featured soloist Rachel Miller previewed the concert with Cara Lieurance.

Kama Tai Mitchell, of Kalamazoo, never set out to create a nonprofit, but says she’s proud that more than five years later her Rootead Enrichment Center devoted to doula training and the healing arts is still around. And, thanks to a $500,000 grant from the Stryker Johnston Foundation, the center is starting to explore having its own standalone building after sharing spaces. 

At 7:30 pm on Friday, Feb 26, Fontana will stream a concert by a young London-based ensemble called the Castalian String Quartet. Like the rest of their performing peers, the multi-award-winning group has had to contend with a year of lost opportunities due to the COVID-19 epidemic, including their March 13 debut at Carnegie Hall.