| Arts
& Humanities
Rotary sponsors exchange students
There will be two new faces in the Marquette area this fall. Rotary Youth Exchange students Angie Arevalo from Columbia and David Cervantes from Mexico will be inbound students. Inbounds come into a country and live with three host families during their stay.
Cervantes’ first host family will be Rachel, John and Ben Harris. He is sponsored by the Marquette Rotary Club and is fifteen years old. He will attend MSHS and will be a member of the MSHS soccer team. He also enjoys playing the guitar.
Arevalo will be sponsored by the Marquette Breakfast Rotary. She is seventeen and her first host family will be Roger and Mary Bentlage. She also is a guitar player.
The Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) program includes students and host families from more than eighty countries and places more than 8,000 students each year. RYE has been a focus of Rotary International for more than seventy-five years. RYE involves volunteers and host families whose assistance helps keep the cost of the program to a minimum.
Rotary Youth Exchange students must be between the ages of fifteen to nineteen. Students are expected to serve as an ambassador for their home country, follow all program rules of the host Rotary Club and District, be an active family member with host families and actively participate in RYE programs before, after and during the exchange.
Each Rotary International District establishes an advisory committee that oversees the program. Marquette County Rotary Clubs are members of District 6220.
Kati Havel-Strid and Doug Strid of Woodruff (Wisconsin) oversee the RYE outbound students.
“Our district is sending eighteen students abroad this year,” Havel-Strid said. “District 6220 students had forty countries to choose from. We have several students going to Brazil, one to South Africa and many to Europe and South America. It is always amazing to see the transformation of the students we send. When they return they are cultured, more mature and much more self-sufficient. We are lucky to have so many kids from this area interested in the RYE program. It is truly the experience of a lifetime.”
To qualify for the program, students must be ranked in the upper fifty percent of their school class, demonstrate leadership, be open to new cultures and experiences, sponsored by a local Rotary Club and successfully complete an interview and extensive application process. Informational sessions about the RYE program will be held at Marquette Senior High School and Gwinn High School in early September. These sessions are held during lunch hours and are open to any student interested in learning more about the RYE program.
Students interested in being considered for the program are required to attend an information and interview session with a parent or guardian. This session will be held in late September. Local RYE officers conduct the interviews and explain the program to each potential RYE student. Former RYE students and parents also attend these sessions to share their experiences and answer questions. If the student is selected to continue with the process, the next step is to secure sponsorship from a local Rotary Club. Once these steps have been completed, the student and at least one parent or guardian must attend a mandatory fall conference to be held in Wausau (Wisconsin) on October 30 and 31. This fall conference is the first session in the year-long preparation process for RYE students. There also is a required session in March 2011.
The RYE student and his/her parents are responsible for round trip airfare, health and accident insurance, travel documents, clothing, spending money, emergency funds, ancillary travel and tours.
Retired educator Joe Meyskens has coordinated the Rotary Youth Exchange program for the Marquette Rotary Club for many years. Student participation in the program has been affected by the new Michigan standards for high school students. The graduation requirements have become so rigid that many students cannot easily graduate on time if they spend one school year overseas.
“We are seeing more students who participate in RYE as a fifth-year student after they have graduated from high school. This is an option for students who are willing to postpone college for one year while they live in another country.”
Shayle Murray is taking advantage of the fifth-year experience, as did his older brother Neil. Annika Olson, an outbound from Ishpeming, sponsored by Marquette West Rotary will be on exchange between her junior and senior years of high school. Olson already has left for her year in Germany. Her host family has a daughter the same age as Annika who will be a RYE student in Mexico.
Olson left at the end of July and will spend two weeks at the beginning of her exchange in a German language training camp with all of the RYE inbounds in Germany. Each Rotary district establishes a calendar for the students. District 6220 offers students a number of opportunities to meet other RYE youth and receive training.
Some RYE events are mandatory, while others are optional. RYE students also have the option to travel in the United States during their stay through RYE sponsored trips. An optional Florida trip in December and a Hawaii trip in April are available for students.
Ann Fuge of Clintonville (Wisconsin) is the Inbound Coordinator for District 6220. According to Fuge, the district is hosting twenty-three inbound students this year. Two students arrived in January 2010 and will leave at the end of the year. The other twenty-one students will arrive by September 5, 2010. “Seven students are from Mexico and South America, seven students are from Asia and the remaining students are from Europe,” Fuge said. “European students represent Finland, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic. A student from South Africa will arrive in January 2011.”
Most inbound students spend a school year in their host country.
“The countries in the Southern Hemisphere generally send students out in January,” Fuge said.
RYE programs are well organized and students, parents and host families receive excellent support from RYE officers. The program’s success really depends on the willingness of host families to welcome a student into their homes. Host families are asked to provide room and board, supervise the student just as you would a member of your family, involve the student in family activities and chores, enrich the student’s experience by involving him or her in family, community and cultural activities.
Many potential host families are concerned they cannot offer enough to a student, but this concern usually is unnecessary. Students are looking for a family experience first. They want to experience the same type of lifestyle as the average teen in the United States. Host families do not have to do anything out of the ordinary to host. A student needs to have his/her own bed, but can share a bedroom with a youth of the same sex. Host families are not expected to provide extra travel experiences or lavish gifts to the RYE student. Families can be single-parent families and do not need to have children. There is no financial payment made to host families, but they receive a wonderful cultural experience in exchange for hosting a student for approximately four months.
For details, visit www.rotary.org or call Joe Meyskens at 226-7370.
—Pam Christensen
Theatre family welcomes new director
The NMU theatre department welcomes a new director of theater, Ansley Valentine.
Valentine recognizes he has large shoes to fill, following James Panowski, who retired after thirty-two years at NMU.
“History is important,” he said. “I am a history buff of sorts and like to absorb the influences of the past that are part of my current surroundings. Change has occurred here before. Dr. Rapport was here after Forest Roberts. Dr. Panowski took on the reins after Daddy Bear, like I am now after our good friend Dr. P. There is real value in knowing the history of this special place.”
Valentine had an interesting journey to get to Marquette, after a decade in Ohio, where he served in a teaching and administrative capacity at Kent State University-Stark. Prior to that, he spent nine years at Wooster College as a professor of theatre and dance, as well as chairman of the school’s film students program and Black Arts Festival.
A seasoned actor, director, costumer and choreographer, recent productions include Hello, Dolly!; Annie Get Your Gun; I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; The King and I; The Sound of Music; and Mrs. Warren’s Profession. As a director/producer, his focus is in musical theatre and special events for charity fundraisers.
Valentine’s video production company has branched into training videos and educational experiences for young people. Other work he has done has been in curriculum and program development. His specialties include musical theatre and acting for the camera. His resume boasts professional and academic theatres across the country (including productions with the Indianapolis, Detroit and Alabama symphonies). He earned an MFA from Indiana University, and a B.A. from Wabash College.
Valentine wanted a new challenge and found out about the opening for director of theatre at NMU through a trade paper called Art Search. NMU and FRT faculty and staff pursued him until he accepted the position.
“I have been in a similar situation before, and I enjoyed the challenges of helping others through transitional periods for their department,” Valentine said. “For an example, here at the FRT, I think that it was good for the current faculty to know firsthand what it took to be director of theatre and how the business end of theatre is run.”
Valentine said NMU was the first program he saw that specifically mentioned sustainability in its ad—using less glue and more screws in scene building so elements can be reused whenever possible.
“I can’t take credit for these ideas, but we will certainly do more as we move forward with the Green Theater concept,” he said.
Valentine was involved in a theatre project with some friends in Indiana and realized that although he liked acting, it wasn’t his passion. He wanted to share his knowledge by helping young artists achieve success.
“I wanted to get back to what I felt was important and in some way also gain back some control,” he said. “An actor is at the mercy of the director, choreographer and the company. I needed some freedom and wanted to help hone the skills of young talent.”
Valentine said NMU is a perfect fit for him for many reasons.
“President Wong has developed an international focus that could be a stepping stone for FRT to pursue a production at the Fringe Festival at Edinburgh (Scotland), for example,” he said.
This and much more will help Valentine create new avenues to success for students at FRT.
The 2010 season marks the return of FRT’s involvement in the American College Theatre Festival. Several years ago, FRT was a major contender in its region. As a Region III cochairperson, Valentine is eager to help FRT reestablish the commitment to all the festival has to offer. Students will participate in the technical areas of design and acting. All productions this year at the FRT will be entered for possible selection to the regional and national festivals.
Not only will Valentine be director of theatre, but he will direct the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He also is going to teach a new class—Acting for the Camera—and will be designing costumes for the production of A Flea in Her Ear and possibly Peter Pan.
While Valentine will be forging a new theatre family at NMU, he said his family is affected by the move.
“It’s been difficult on Jake, but he’s adapting,” Valentine said. “He has had some unexpected alone time. We’ve been for walks and I am in the process of getting a fence up so he won’t escape.”
Jake is Valentine’s fox terrier.
Valentine said he loves the outdoors, but in recent years he hasn’t had the time to enjoy it. For him, Marquette offers that opportunity and much more.
“I don’t like to move,” he said. “And I’m not a big fan of chaos. I am generally an organized person, but when you move some things are just out of your control. I have settled into my new apartment, and I feel welcomed by the people here. So my plans are to stay in Marquette indefinitely.”
Valentine is a man of many talents; educated, professional, well respected in his craft and personable. Although he is an outsider, he offers a fresh perspective.
“I am here to help the FRT and its students excel and succeed,” he said. “It will require the help of many, from the students and faculty at the theatre, to our First Nighters boosters and the community. Change can be good, and I feel I am here to help bridge the gap. Input and communication is key, and I know we can do it if we strive together to keep the traditions alive as we proceed toward the future.”
Valentine said in the theatre world, there always will be Broadway and that pinnacle of success. But a lot of it relies on the technical and other production elements to sustain any success. Many times, the heart and soul of the actor is missing and he wants to help young actors develop healthy and marketable skills that will give them every opportunity, creatively in the classroom, their real life and in their community.
“It is a new philosophy and change in emphasis, but given the time, we can create a new mission that will help our students in the future,” Valentine said. “NMU has great resources and our department needs to take advantage of them, through collaboration and mutual understanding.”
Valentine is looking forward to the 2010-11 theatre season, which will offer a French farce, a Steinbeck classic, a movie-based musical and a journey to Neverland.
The season opens with A Flea in Her Ear, which runs from October 6 through 9. Paul Truckey will direct this classic French farce by Georges Feydeau. It is billed as a masterpiece of marital mayhem and mistaken identities.
John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men will be staged November 17 through 20. This play explores the fragile friendship between migrant workers George and Lennie as they pursue the American dream in Depression-era California. Shelley Russell will direct.
The musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, scheduled February 16 through 19, is based on the film of the same name. Swindlers Lawrence Jameson and Freddy Benson cross paths on a train ride to a small French village. Their greed turns into a rat race to see who will be the first to con $50,000 from heiress Christine Colgate. The show will be the first directed by Valentine.
Peter Pan is the last offering of the season, set for April 13 through 16. Russell will guide this nonmusical adaptation of the J.M. Barrie novel about the boy who could fly and how he leads the curious Darling children on an adventure to his mystical Neverland.
An additional event not included in the season ticket package is “The Haunted Theatre,” which runs from October 29 through 31. The full technical resources of the facility—lighting, props and costumes—will be put to use, raising Halloween spirits. This First Nighters Club fundraiser is directed by Marty Martello.
Season tickets are $42 for adults and the general public and $28 for NMU students, plus a $6 processing fee. Single-admission tickets will be sold in advance of each production. Season tickets are available at all NMU EZ Ticket outlets or online at www.nmu.edu/tickets
For details on the productions, visit www.nmu.edu/frt
—Bobby Glenn Brown
and press releases
NMU welcomes international acts
Shakespeare wrote that “All the world’s a stage,” but this year the world is coming to Northern Michigan University’s stage for the International Performing Arts Series. This eclectic and exciting series will open September 16 with the first performance featuring Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue and continue through April 2011. It will feature artists from New Orleans, Israel, Finland, Argentina, Quebec and British Columbia.
Sponsored by the office of the provost, the goal of the series is to provide high-quality world music and dance performances for the entire Upper Peninsula community.
The series begins on September 16, at Kaufman Auditorium with a performance by New Orleans jazz and funk artist Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue. Shorty, whose real name is Troy Andrews, is considered the up-and-coming musician in New Orleans today. Another Crescent City music great, Allen Toussaint, has said of Shorty, “Don’t get me wrong, we got it goin’ on in New Orleans; he’s just better.” Needless to say, this is a show not to be missed. For the second consecutive year, the opening concert will be part of NMU’s UNITED Conference.
The second concert of the season will be on October 16, at Forest Roberts Theatre, featuring the Israeli Ethnic Ensemble. This will be the first of two concerts during the season sponsored by Arts Midwest World Fest, which brought Beauty and Melody and Agatsuma to Marquette last season. This band of five musicians brings alive the cultural mosaic of Israel. Their sounds—drawn from Eastern European, Balkan, and Gypsy melodies—are at times rollicking and joyous, at others moving and mournful. But they always are vibrant, passionate and performed from the heart. In addition to their performance, they will be conducting workshops at Northern and at area schools throughout the week preceding the concert.
On November 5, the series will bring to the United States for its first tour the Finnish folk-jazz duo, Lepistö and Lehti. Former members of the Finnish folk super-group Värttinä, this duo has been wowing audiences across Europe with its contemporary mix of traditional sounds and jazz stylings. One reviewer said, “Lepistö & Lehti are those rare musicians whose performance so thoroughly engages that one quickly forgets they are a duo and hears, instead, a full, complete musical experience, an ensemble.” This performance will take place in 102 Jamrich Hall at NMU.
For the second year, the series has collaborated with the department of modern languages and literatures to bring a Latin music artist to Northern. This year’s installment, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is the Argentine folk-groove band, Los Pinguos. They will be performing in the Great Lakes Rooms of the University Center on February 12. The Los Angeles Times said of Los Pinguos, “If you can stop dancing long enough to listen to the festive, provocative rhythms of Los Pinguos, you might hear salsa or a bit of cumbia, a flamenco riff here and reggae beat there.”
The fifth concert is again part of Arts Midwest World Fest and features one of the most popular folk acts from Quebec, Mauvais Sort. This group creates a new musical style: folk ’n’ roll— “folk” for the inspiration and foot stomping, along with the accordion, fiddle and guitar; and “roll” for the arrangements, bass, drum, percussion and the energy. For this reason, the dance floor in the Great Lakes Rooms will be available for their performance on March 31. In addition, they will be conducting several workshops throughout the area.
The series concludes on April 14, with a special performance by the talented Canadian jazz trumpeter Ingrid Jensen. This concert is in collaboration with the NMU music department. On Thursday, Ingrid will perform a full concert with her own ensemble and the following night, she will perform with the NMU Jazz Ensemble as part of its annual Jazz Festival. Tickets will be sold separately for the performances. Jazz great Marian McPartland said, “Ingrid plays trumpet and flugelhorn with all the brilliance and fire of a true virtuoso, following the spirit of the muse as she creates…warm, sensitive, exciting and totally honest.”
Season and individual performance tickets are on sale at numerous locations, including the Superior Dome, Forest Roberts Theatre and the Vista Theater. They also can be purchased online at www.nmu.edu/tickets or by calling 227-1032. Season ticket prices are as follows: students (NMU and others), $37; NMU faculty/staff and seniors sixty and older, $82; general public, $107. Individual ticket prices vary. Tickets for concerts at Kaufman Auditorium include a $1 Kaufman Renovation Fee.
For details, visit www.nmu.edu/performingarts or call 227-1219.
—Dan Truckey
Folklife Festival set for September 10
The Beaumier Upper Peninsula Heritage Center will kick off the third annual Upper Peninsula Folklife Festival on September 10. The 2010 festival will begin at 7:00 p.m. with the Funky Folk Dance and will continue from 10:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on September 11.
Activities will take place on the lawn in front of the University Center and the DeVos Art Museum. Admission is free, although donations are appreciated. The festival is funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, Central Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Commission and the Finlandia Foundation.
The Upper Peninsula Folklife Festival celebrates the traditional arts practiced by people in the region. There will be dozens of art and craft demonstrations and performances by folk artists from throughout the Upper Peninsula, who represent many different ethnic and cultural groups. There will be two large demonstration tents, two performance stages (dance and song), a large dance floor and a chalk art area where people can create their own art. In addition, there will be an exhibition of folk art by the late Neil Haapala at the DeVos Art Museum and a children’s craft area. Lastly, there will be ethnic food booths and a beer tent provided by NMU Dining Services.
The event will offer two evening performances on both nights. On September 10, the festival will begin with the Funky Folk Dance, featuring Conga Se Menne and The PasiCats. On September 11, the headline group will be Frigg, the fiddle powerhouse from Finland.
Here is the schedule of activities for the Festival:
Friday, September 10
Funky Folk Dance
• 7:00 p.m.—The PasiCats
• 8:30 p.m.—Conga Se Menne
Beer Tent
6:30 to 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 11
Folk Art/Craft Demonstrations
Artisan Tents
• 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
April Lindala—Native Beadwork
Linda Cohen—Native Beadwork
Dan Choszczyk—Blacksmithing
Janet K. Bonnell—Basket weaving
Lorri Oikarinen—Rag rug weaving
Leonard Fieber—Furniture maker
Peter Olson—Finnish wood carving
Rick Oikarinen—Ski making
Steve Schmeck—Spoon carving
Sue Robishaw—Hand weaving
Yarn Winders Fiber Guild—Norwegian Krokbragd weaving, card weaving and inkle loom
Stuart Baird—Wood carving
Joe Masters—Hand drum making
Ethnic Foods for Sale/Food Tent
• 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Beer Tent
• Noon to 9:00 p.m.
Children’s Crafts/DeVos Art Museum
• Noon to 4:00 p.m.
Chalk Art Area/University Center Patio
• 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
DeVos Art Museum Exhibition
• 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.—Reception for Niel Haapala: An Illustrated History of Louds Spur and Other Small Histories from Alger County
Dance Stage
• 11:00 a.m. to 11:50 p.m.—Ethnic Dance lessons with the NMU International Dancers
• Noon to 1:15 p.m.—Summer Cloud Anishinaabeg singers and drummers
• 1:30 to 2:15 p.m.—Ethnic Dance Performance by Marquette Folk Dancers
• 2:30 to 3:20 p.m.—Wil Kilpela and Friends
• 3:30 to 4:20 p.m.—Maple Sugar Folk
• 4:30 to 5:20 p.m.—Tanya Stanaway
• 5:30 to 6:20 p.m.—Bette Premo and the Front Parlor Dance Band
• 6:30 p.m.—Upper Peninsula Folklife Award
• 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.—Frigg
Song Stage
• 11:00 to 11:50 a.m.—Rhythm Bones Workshop with Randy Seppala
• Noon to 12:50 p.m.—Lumber Jakki (Les Ross, Sr., Randy Seppala, Oren Tikkanen)
• 1:00 to 1:50 p.m.—Dave Berry
• 2:00 to 2:50 p.m.—Red Tail Ring (Michael Beauchamp and Laurel Premo)
• 3:00 to 3:50 p.m.—Bill Jamerson
• 4:00 to 4:50 p.m.—Trees (Lindsey Tomasic and Jesse Fitzpatrick)
—Dan Truckey
Players announces upcoming theatre season
Players de Noc celebrates forty-six years of live theatre in Escanaba with a season of gripping drama, musical legerdemain and laugh-out-loud comedy. The first show of the season, opening October 1 and continuing October 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9, Wit is one of the most emotionally challenging presentations by Players de Noc in recent memory.
Written by Margaret Edson about her own battle with cancer, Wit won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play.
Vivian Bearing, PhD, a renowned professor of English who has spent years studying and teaching the brilliant but difficult metaphysical sonnets of John Donne, has been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. Her approach to the study of Donne: aggressively probing, intensely rational, but during the course of her illness—and her stint as a prize patient in an experimental chemotherapy program at a major teaching hospital—Vivian comes to reassess her life and work with a profundity and humor that are transformative for her and the audience.
The December offering, opening December 3 and continuing December 4, 5, 9, 10 and 11 is from Canadian playwright, Norm Foster. Mending Fences is the story of Harry and Drew, a father and son estranged for thirteen years and Gin, Harry’s reluctant girlfriend and neighbor. The story appeals to us all as parents, children and lovers.
Drew cannot keep a successful relationship and questions his father as to why. Harry cannot figure out how to communicate, even with the most important people in his life, and Gin is afraid to love again after a tragedy. It takes all three to mend the fences in their hearts and the show unfolds this healing in the funniest way possible. Mending Fences takes place across generations, hockey games, and a mysterious mechanical issue that all somehow work together to create a family out of three disjointed people.
A sure cure for winter blues, The Drowsy Chaperone blows into town beginning February 25 with performances continuing Feb 26 and 27 and March 2, 3, 4 and 5. The Drowsy Chaperone is a new musical comedy with tons of laughs and the most 2006 Tony Awards for a musical on Broadway. Written by Bob Martin and Don McKellan with music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, it all begins when a die-hard musical fan plays his favorite cast album, a 1928 smash hit called The Drowsy Chaperone and the musical magically bursts to life. We are transported by a tale of a celebrity bride and her unusual wedding day, complete with thrills that take the cast (literally) and the audience (metaphorically) into the rafters. This will be the must-see musical of the year.
The Players de Noc season comes to a close in April with Escanaba In Love, Jeff Daniels hilarious prequel to Escanaba in da Moonlight. The Soady deer camp again is the setting for a tale told during World War II and featuring a whole new set of unique Yooper characters.
Eighteen-year-old Abner Soady Jr. is celebrating his final hunting season before he becomes a sharpshooter for the U.S. Army, when he falls head over heels in love with the legendary Big Betty Balou—the woman destined to become Ruben and Remmar’s mother. The question is does she have what it takes to become part of Escanaba’s “royal” family? Performances of Escanaba in Love are April 22 through 24 and 28 through 30.
Season tickets are $40 and available by writing Players de Noc Season Tickets, P.O. Box 45, Escanaba, MI 49829 or by calling Lynn or Jim Soderberg at 789-7468. Patrons should be aware that due to the availability of individual show tickets online this year, the local ticket outlet for individual performance tickets is now the Bonifas Fine Arts Center.
For details, visit www.playersdenoc.org
—Katherine LeDuc
Musicians mix it up at Sibelius festival
For the second consecutive year, the Finlandia University Sibelius Academy Music Festival is mixing it up. This September, three duos from the prestigious music academy of Helsinki, Finland, will present concerts in three music genres: folk, classical and contemporary.
In its first ten years, the annual festival, which started in 1999, featured classical music performances. Last year, festival organizers added folk and jazz.
“It was a great success,” said Finlandia president Philip Johnson. “Mixing up the styles of music was well-received. Attendance increased substantially at last year’s concerts.”
The 2010 Sibelius Academy Music Festival takes place September 19 to 25. A series of six concerts will be presented at locations in the western Upper Peninsula and in metropolitan Chicago.
Also notable this year is a robust international flavor: the six Sibelius Academy musicians represent three European nations. Here’s a look at the artists.
PAJU, a folk duo, is Pauliina Pajala, who plays fiddle, viola and nyckelharpa (a traditional Swedish string instrument), and Juulia Salonen, who sings and plays accordion and puhaltimet (a Finnish wind instrument). Both of them are Finnish. Versatile and colorful, since 2006 the duo has delighted audiences throughout Finland with its playful and spontaneous performances.
PAJU’s repertoire includes modern and traditional Finnish and Finnish-Swedish folk tunes and their own compositions. There is a strong living-in-the-moment feel to their playing and many of the songs are different each time.
Pajala said what she likes about folk music is that it lends a kind of freedom to be herself as a musician and as an artist.
“I like to combine different playing styles and genres and try to find my own ways to speak my musical language,” Pajala said. “For me, music gives an opportunity for storytelling or expression of feelings.”
Salonen played the piano as a child and at one time had dreams of becoming an actress. But when she began listening to folk music records, her path became clear.
“It was something I had never heard—so energetic, strong and emotional,” Salonen said. “I wanted to learn to sing like that and to play the instruments used in folk music. A duo is easy and also very challenging at the same time. In PAJU, I have role that is very different from other ensembles in which I play. That makes it interesting and fun, but also an intense opportunity to develop as a musician.”
“We like to improvise and this has a big role in our music making,” Pajala said. “Sometimes one performance can be very different from another, or a tune may take a surprising turn during a performance.”
From Spain, Duo Aguirre & León will perform selections from their contemporary music repertoire at this year’s Sibelius Festival. Accordionist Arantza Aguirre and clarinetist Ana León began their musical collaboration in 2008 when they discovered their aims in music performance were quite similar.
The duo has performed numerous concerts and music festivals in Barcelona and other cities in Spain. Of the six music competitions the duo entered in 2008 and 2009, Aguirre and León won four first prizes and two second prizes.
The duo plays both classical and contemporary music. Having performed in venues of many different kinds, they have had the opportunity to prepare a wide range of musical programs to suit each audience.
León and Aguirre agree that for a musician, it is quite important to study at Sibelius Academy.
“One reason is the international prestige of the academy,” León said. “Another is you can study whatever you want and whatever you feel, which is important to stay motivated.”
For Aguirre, the Sibelius Academy offers a robust opportunity to learn everything related to the accordion.
“It is difficult to find a university in which one can study improvisation, accompaniment, and accordion pedagogy,” Aguirre said. “And what makes the Sibelius Academy more interesting is the opportunity to study with many different accordion teachers. One of the things I most like about being a musician is the opportunity to visit other places and, with that, enrich yourself. That’s why we applied to perform in this music festival.”
León agrees that performing internationally is a wonderful opportunity for every musician.
“I’m looking forward to learning about the culture and people of the USA,” she said.
Classical musicians Maria Aru, piano, and Liis Joamets, violin, have been performing together for two years. Both from Estonia, their Sibelius Festival concerts will feature well-known and rarely-played musical compositions from the classical era to the twentieth century.
Joamets said it is a great gift to be a musician, and within music is a very powerful energy.
“In live performance you can sometimes feel that energy as a triangle between composer, performer and audience,” she said. “I believe that with that energy it is possible to make things better. For example, when you hear a beautiful or powerful performance, you will leave the concert hall with a nice feeling—maybe inspired, maybe loaded with power of will or maybe just feeling happy.”
Aru said the best part about being a musician is that the process of work is creative.
“I think it’s a blessing to be a musician or a person of art,” Aru said. “Every effort I make, each hour I practice or perform, enriches me and, hopefully, my audience.”
Aru is excited about the festival.
“We applied because we enjoy playing together and we were searching for performance opportunities,” Aru said. “I have never been to the USA, or performed there, so it is two-in-one event for me. I believe it will be a very exciting experience.”
To kick off the festival this year, a concert featuring all three duos takes place on September 19 at the Estonian House in Riverwoods (Illinois).
Here is the concert line-up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula:
• September 21, 7:00 p.m.—PAJU appears at the Finlandia University Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy Street in Hancock. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.
• September 22, 1:00 p.m.—The three duos will present a free concert for Ishpeming-area public school music students at Peterson Auditorium, 319 East Division Street in Ishpeming. The informal concert is open to the public; tickets are $5 for community members.
• September 23, 7:00 p.m.—Classical music duo Maria Aru and Liis Joamets will perform at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 1000 Quincy Street in Hancock. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.
• September 24, 9:00 a.m.—The three duos will present a free concert for Houghton County-area public school music students at the Calumet Theatre, 340 6th Street in Calumet. The informal concert is open to public; tickets are $5 for community members.
• September 25, 7:00 p.m.—The three duos will present a full-length concert at the Calumet Theatre. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.
Tickets are available at www.finlandia.edu and North Wind Books in Hancock, as well as at the door prior to each performance. Calumet Theatre performance tickets also are available at the theatre (www.calumettheatre.com). Finlandia University students may attend the concerts free.
For additional information about the twelfth annual Sibelius Academy Music Festival, please visit www.finlandia.edu, or contact festival coordinators Karen Johnson (karen.johnson@finlandia.edu, 487-7348) or Robin Bonini (robin.bonini@finlandia.edu, 487-7225).
—Karen Johnson
Caretaker confessions, personal introspection
As Nora Jo Fades Away:
Confessions of a Caregiver
by Lisa Cerasoli
One would not expect a memoir about caring for a person with Alzheimer’s to be funny or irreverent, but considering that thirty-something Lisa Cerasoli left her acting career in Hollywood to return to Upper Michigan to care first for a sick father, and then along with her husband and little girl, to take in her grandmother, she deserves a little leverage.
Cerasoli makes readers laugh out loud with the many funny stories of her grandmother’s antics as a result of increasing dementia, but we are laughing through tears as we read, understanding the underlying sadness of the situation. There is some humor in a woman who is convinced the Iraqis are breaking into her house to poison her lettuce, but it’s a different kind of humor when that same woman tells us, “There’s only one man I’ve ever loved. We met when I was fourteen and we were married for sixty-seven years. What the hell was his name?”
Cerasoli’s family and friends told her she wouldn’t be able to take care of her grandmother. She wasn’t sure herself, but to stem their comments, she told them it would be temporary. Years later, she still is caring for Nora Jo. Many people would not do the same, yet Cerasoli makes it clear despite the effort involved—no one can know just how much effort without experiencing it—she could not do otherwise. After all, her grandmother once was the most important person in her life, the one who let teenage Cerasoli live with her when she didn’t want to live at home, the one she was with when she found out who shot J.R., the one who introduced her to Lawrence Welk. With all the memories of the good times, and there still are good times even now as she cares for her grandmother, how could she do otherwise?
Beyond writing about her grandmother’s experiences, Cerasoli includes facts about Alzheimer’s, and she leaves room for the perspectives of her husband and her preschool-age daughter. The book concludes with a bonus section of many people remembering loved ones who suffered with Alzheimer’s—including several short passages written by U.P. residents.
With all this book’s humor, the reader never forgets the stark reality of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s. For me the most striking passage was:
“But the thing about dementia or Alzheimer’s (whatever the label) is the ‘funny’ fades as the need for care increases. So, as you work harder and harder and harder—to the point of severe fatigue and near insanity—your job grows increasingly less rewarding. The result at the end of this trial is not a promotion, a degree, a huge Christmas bonus, or even a little ‘congrats’ followed up by a pat on the back. It’s death. Your ‘job’ ends when your ‘caseload’ dies.”
Despite that reality, the author’s brother, Richard Cerasoli, whose grandmother cannot even recognize him most of the time, perhaps sums it up best when he says, “love can in no way be diminished by any disease.”
Cerasoli previously had an acting career in L.A., but despite success appearing on television shows like Diagnosis Murder and a regular role on General Hospital, she returned to Upper Michigan to care for her father and then stayed to care for her grandmother. Meanwhile, she has transitioned successfully into writing—earlier this year, As Nora Jo Fades Away won the 2010 Paris Book Festival for best biography/autobiography . . .
—Tyler Tichelaar
Editor’s Note: Tichelaar is the author of The Marquette Trilogy. All books reviewed in this column are available in local and online bookstores.
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