Arts & Humanities, Diane Sauter
In Swing with the Performing Arts Series

What does the crystalline soprano of folk- singer Joan Baez have in common with the invigorating Salsa rhythms of Jimmy Bosh's trombone and ten-piece band? Both are exciting bookend performances this season for the Performing Arts Series sponsored by Northern Michigan University. The Series brings a wide range of outstanding artists to the Marquette community at prices reasonable for community residents, N.M.U. students and faculty.
  Wayne Francis has been the coordinator of the series for eleven years. From his N.M.U. office bright with artistic memorabilia, Francis also directs N.M.U. Art Gallery exhibits. Coordinating the series in the U.P. has its challenges, he remarks. Sometimes the performers' planes are delayed by weather, and sometimes their luggage arrives at other destinations. Bringing the artists to our more remote area frequently requires cooperation with other northern states arranging performances. Many of the artists schedule appearances in Marquette as part of a northern area tour.
  As series coordinator, Francis brings "world class performers" who appear internationally to our pocket of the world. To see them in New York City would require fifty dollar tickets. Here in Marquette, the price for the entire series is about the price for a single evening in a metropolis. In addition, here the artists perform in a smaller setting, where audiences can be closer to them. Francis notes that the artists are very enthusiastic about the warmth of the Marquette audience.
  This year's series begins on October 9 with a concert by Joan Baez at Kaufman Auditorium. The concert sold out in the first two days of ticket sales. Those who had purchased season tickets were fortunate. Baez is well known for her leadership in the cultural renaissance of the 1960s. Her singing style greatly influenced American music, reintroducing folksongs and acoustic guitar. Baez's work continues to support the strength of the female principle in art and culture. In addition, she constantly reinvents her performances and sponsors new song-writing talent. The London Times credits her with "one of the most significant musical renaissances in recent memory." The sold-out concert is a typical Marquette- area audience response, according to Francis. At this point, he emphasizes that pro-rated season tickets are still available for the rest of the performances.
  Peter Schickele will be the next performer, on November 16 at Kaufman Auditorium. Under the alias of P.D.Q. Bach, Schickele composed music which has kept music lovers laughing for three decades. He has composed over 100 works for orchestras, movies and television and has been praised as a leader of composers who "unselfconsciously blend all levels of American Music." Francis says that in Marquette, Schickele will play his own compositions on the fine "Gershwin" piano used at the Kaufman Auditorium. His piano will be accompanied by "various interesting instruments," Francis adds, with a mysterious twinkle in his eyes.
  "How this for variety?" he asks, indicating that the powerful and intense blues singer Shemekia Copeland is the next performer in the series, appearing November 18 in the intimate Great Lakes Rooms in the N.M.U. University Center. A strong voice in the new generation of Blues singers, Shemekia is twenty-one years old, and the daughter of blues guitar legend Johnny Clyde Copeland. She grew up in Harlem, and her performance is unique in its wide variety of urban influences, from gospel to street performance. Shemekia's passion for the blues is matched by her huge voice and precise timing in a performance that sets the audience afire. It is not surprising that her new CD is titled "Turn the Heat Up!" She has been declared "the next great female Blues singer."
  The Peter Sparling Dance Company will lift Marquette spirits on January 20 at the Forest Roberts Theatre with the lyrical physical forms and music of modern dance. Choreographer Peter Sparling is recognized internationally as a modern dance classicist, a principal dancer with Martha Graham and master teacher. Sparling's company consists of seven performers who interpret Sparling's unique blend of music and form. Highly inventive, the combination of dance and music brings the beauty and brilliance of physical movement to the stage just when there is a tendency for Marquette area residents to get bogged down in winter. Francis comments that particularly at this time, a fine dance performance will be very refreshing.
  Folks here really appreciate the style of performers on February 9, Francis says.
  The group is Gaelic Storm, and they are aptly named. They take the audience by storm with rumbling rhythms and a delirious fury, playing Irish style instruments and singing. This is the band that appeared in the steerage party of the movie Titanic. Director James Cameron told the band that their music was "the heartbeat of this film." The Gaelic Storm evening in NMU's Great Lakes Room will be a "real party," Francis says, with refreshments, dancing and cabaret seating.
  One of the most "adventurous pianists to arrive on the Jazz scene in years," according to the Los Angeles Times, Brad Mehldau and His Trio, takes the stage at Forest Roberts Theatre on February 22. His music is described as eloquent and subtle, with a personal style all his own. Mehldau was nominated for a Grammy and Down Beat magazine voted him the number one talent deserving wider recognition three years in a row. This will be a special evening for jazz lovers and music appreciators, according to Francis. It is a special experience to hear performances by artists with a new style who are rising to fame. You experience their specialness before they become cultural icons, and find yourself one of the elect who are "in on the best of things."
  The Series rounds up on March 9 with Jimmy Bosh's Salsa Dura Band which means "Hard Salsa!" This is spicy, invigorating music. Jimmy Bosh's Salsa trombone and Latin music band will take you into a spontaneous Latin atmosphere in the confines of the Great Lakes Rooms. The room will be set up for dancing, so wear those special shoes. Lauded as "one of the most devastating forces in Latin music today" by the L.A. Times, Bosh's audience can look forward to a creative musical energy that gets the spirit (and the feet) celebrating.
  To get in on the action, the general public price for pro-rated season tickets is just sixty-five dollars for the remaining six performances; faculty and student prices for rest of the season are sixty and thirty dollars respectively. Individual performance tickets are still available too.
  Wayne Francis deserves a round of applause for bringing world class culture to Marquette for just a few dollars an evening.

—Diane Sautter