WMU

The Twin Cities-based choral group Border CrosSing, founded by Dr. Ahmed Anzaldua, a graduate of Western Michigan University, will offer a free community sing and a public concert in Kalamazoo this week. 

In an interview with Cara Lieurance, Anzaldua explains that the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, which is sponsoring the Border CrosSing tour, was one of the reasons he chose to apply to school in Kalamazoo, where he earned a master's degree in piano and another in choral conducting. For his PhD in choral conducting, Anzaldua moved to the Twin Cities to attend the University of Minnesota. That's where he founded a choir to showcase the rich music of Latin American composers from the 1500s to the 2000s, drawing on his personal and scholarly background. Border CrosSing was recognized as an important project from the start, as a model for how music and community can learn from each other. 

The era of social media is only about 20 years old. But a Western Michigan University journalism professor says it's already changing our brains. Sue Ellen Christian writes about that in her new book, Everyday Media Literacy: An Analog Guide to Your Digital Life (Routledge, 2019).

Western Michigan University hopes to recoup a badge of environmental honor: the distinction of being a Tree Campus, as defined by the nonprofit Arbor Day Foundation.

A concert of works for two pianos is set for 7:30 pm Wednesday, Jan 15 in the Dalton Center Recital Hall at WMU. School of Music professors Lori Sims and Yu-Lien The will play Ravel's Rhapsodie espagnole, Debussy's En blanc et noir, and Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (arr. John Musto). They talk to Cara Lieurance about the ease of their chemistry and their choice to situate the pianos side-by-side, rather than facing the other. 

Picture this: You walk into a room and lie down on a yoga mat. Musical instruments sit at the front of the room. You close your eyes and hear a sound that's somewhere between a gong and a bell. Then a few rings of an actual bell, like the “all aboard” on a trolley if the conductor wanted you to focus on your own consciousness. Then a chime like a grandfather clock with an intriguing resonance. By this time, if all is going well, you’re in a bit of trance.