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HOUGHTON, MI, August 24, 2016 – Did you know that Michigan Tech recently celebrated the fact that 29% of students are now women, the highest percentage in the history of the university? That we have a resident woman composer, Dr. Elizabeth (Libby) Meyer currently working, writing and teaching music, in Michigan Tech’s Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Michigan Tech? That students majoring in Engineering, Chemistry, Forestry, and Business currently also perform in the music ensembles-and take classes in music composition-at Michigan Tech? That there are many esteemed women composers out there in the world writing music today?
The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts is proud to present “Creators Among Us,” a concert presented by The Superior Wind Symphony, to celebrate the work of women composers who inspire creativity in all of us. The performance will be led by Michael Christianson, Michigan Tech’s Director of Bands, on Saturday, November 12th, 7:30 PM, in the Rozsa Center.
According to Christainson, “At a school in which our department exists to inspire creativity among science, where we recently celebrated reaching a student population of 29% women, where we recently performed the beautiful play Silent Sky (about the life and contributions of astronomy pioneer Henrietta Levitt), we thought it was high time to perform a program of wind music written by women that are living among us right now.”
Libby Meyer, Instructor, Visual and Performing Arts, Community String Program Director, first came to the Keweenaw in 1999 as an Artist in Residence at Isle Royale National Park and fell in love with the beauty of the landscape and wonderful arts community that exists here. She has been director of the Copper Country Suzuki Association since the fall of 2000 and has been teaching violin and viola to both children and adults for over 20 years. Libby is the Concert Master of the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, plays viola with the Marquette Symphony and teaches music history and theory at Michigan Tech. The concert will premier Meyer’s new work, written for Superior Wind Symphony: Shades of Blue and Green for Wind Symphony, 2 amplified Violins and Tap Dancer.
Another composer with local connections, Elena Ruehr, whose vibrant wind band composition Spin will be featured, grew up right here in Houghton and is now a professor at M.I.T. Maria Schneider, the third composer whose work will be performed, grew up in Windom, MN and is a 5-time Grammy winner with her jazz orchestra. Schneider lives in NYC now, and Christianson writes, “I was fortunate enough to play in her band many times while living there. We will perform her ballad, My Lament.” Kathryn Salfelder, attended HS in Fair Lawn, NJ (with Christianson’s children) and studied composition at New England Conservatory. The Superior Wind Symphony will perform her piece Cathedrals which borrows from the work of Renaissance composer Giovanni Gabrieli.
Of the additional five composers whose work will be performed, Christianson writes: “Jennifer Higdon is a Pulitzer Prize winning composer who has written several works for wind band. From her Road Stories suite, we will perform the movement “Winding Tree Lane”. “Beneath” is composed by Alex Shapiro, and uses an accompanying electronic track of whale song collected by her from her many aquatic outings in the Pacific Northwest. “Riften Wed” is composed by Julie Giroux for the action role-playing video game saga: Skyrim/Elder Scrolls. Carolyn Bremer’s “Early Light” is one of two pieces she has composed in honor of her love for baseball. In this one she uses the Star Spangled Banner as a source for variation and exploration. “5000 Austin Creek Road” is Mollie Budiansky’s ode to her love of summer band camps, specifically Cazadero Music Camp in Sonoma County, CA. Christianson adds, “We hope you’ll be with and among us for this creative evening!”
Tickets for Creators Among Us are on sale now, $13 for adults, $5 for youth, and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee, available by phone at (906) 487-2073, online at Rozsa.mtu.edu, in person at the Central Ticketing Office or at the Rozsa Box Office the evening of the performance. Please note the Rozsa Box Office only opens two hours prior to performances.
