Cara Lieurance

Bruce Uchimura, professor of cello at Western Michigan University, Grace Field, a Suzuki cello instructor, and WMU junior Becca Spurbeck talk to Cara Lieurance to preview a day of workshops, masterclasses, music-making and concerts for cellists of all ages: the 2019 Michigan Cello Festival. It will be held Saturday, Nov 2 in the Dalton Center at WMU. A public concert will take place at 4 pm in the Dalton Center Recital Hall, and all masterclasses and workshops are free to attend.

Festival activities include master classes by Bruce Uchimura and Anthony Elliott, an orchestral excerpts class with Igor Cetkovic, and a performance by cellist/songwriter Jordan Hamilton.  

Velvet Brown, a top concert tubist and educator in the US., could easily make her recitals "by-the-book" affairs for tuba and piano. But for years, Brown has crafted her concerts to open up in several ways. On Wednesday, Oct 9, she will bring her project MOJATUBA to the Dalton Center Recital Hall for a concert at 7:30 pm. 

Professional dancer Briana Bunkley will dance to Brown's playing on several pieces, from the mournful spiritual "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," to the ecstatic "Mambo-Cha" by Alice Gomez. Percussionist Jimmy Finnie will add color to the program, as will pianist Anthony Leach and audio-visual artist Daniel Burdick. Brown will also celebrate Black American music in her program. These pieces include her transcription of William Grant Still's Suite for Violin and Piano, Roger Kellaway's Dr. Martin Luther King, In Memoriam, and "Take My Mother Home," a song written for soprano Kathleen Battle by jazz/classical composer/conductor Andre Previn.

Mike Marchak says he thinks the essence of film boils down to the relationships on screen, regardless of the language, culture, or geographical location of the story. As president of the Kalamazoo Film Society, Marchak's main task has been to help select which films to bring to west Michigan each month. His tenure will be ending in December, and Dhera Strauss, a documentary filmmaker and professor emerita of Kalamazoo College, will become the Society's president. For her, the essence of film is story.

To illustrate, Strauss and Marchak talk about the four films presented by the KFS in October. They are the documentary For Sama, featuring the personal footage of a Syrian filmaker as she grappled with documenting war in Aleppo and her own pregnancy; the Milwaukee-set comedy of misfits Give Me Liberty, helmed by a self-referencing Russian-American director; the comedy Tel Aviv on Fire, a cross-border story of an Israeli man who finds himself working on the set of a Palestinian soap opera; and Monos (opens Oct 18), a thriller in which a child guerilla group armed with maching guns abducts an American tourist.

The Kalamazoo Film Society and Crossroads Cinema Celebration in Portage partner to present at least one showing a day. For tickets and more information, visit the Kalamazoo Film Society website or the theater's website.

Two weeks before school starts in the fall, Western Michigan University music students start marching band practice for the football season. When classes begin, it's also time to work on concert repertoire for the University Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band, and Concert Bands. The three directors - Dr. Scott Boerma, (Wind Symphony); Dr. Mary Land (Concert Band) and Dr. Trey Harris (Symphonic Band & Bronco Marching Band) - joined Cara Lieurance to let listeners know about two upcoming concerts and their repertoire. 

First up is the Wind Symphony on Sunday, Oct 13 at 3 pm, then the Concert and University bands will hold a joint concert on Monday, Oct 14 at 7:30 pm. Both concerts are free, and will be held in Miller Auditorium.