News & Articles

You know that I heartily encourage you to buy tickets, make contributions, and offer whatever financial assistance you can to artists throughout the Twin Ports and the Arrowhead communities. We are quite fortunate with the quantity of artists who choose to live in this region, but your support is essential to keep our lives enriched by making it possible for so many artists to live and create their passions in our neighborhoods.
That being said, I hope you choose to attend music festivals, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, Duluth Playhouse(Guys and Dolls), Lundeen Productions(Titanic musical), Northshore Philharmonic, Renegade Theatre, and other music, drama, and art presentations this summer. Your support guarantees the future of the artistic presence in northeastern Minnesota.

From France to China to Vienna and Back

The second concert by the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra featured five pieces of music, two from the nineteenth century and three from the late twentieth. A little known French woman, Mel Bonis, created a four-movement work in 1898 which she called a Suite en forme de valses - a musical collection of waltzes. This was rich music, very much in the French tradition of Franck and Faure, full of melody and creative harmonies.
Another set of French dances was envisioned by Welsh composer Adam Gorb, using the full resources of the LSCO. Based on a Bach theme, Gorb created a six movement dance collection, imitating music of the eighteenth century. The Sarabande, a slow, passionate movement shared by oboe and French horn was particularly rich.
Back in 1999, California/Michigan composer Michael Daugherty created a jazz romp he called Sunset Strip. With Tom Pfotenhauer and Charles Leibfried playing rambunctious trumpets from the outer sides of the stage, this work captured the sounds of the Mexican restaurants, piano bars, gas stations, and jazz lounges of the 50s and 60s in southern California.
The piece I want to visit again was the Five Faces of Joy, by Chinese/American composer Wang Jie. She says the music contains a playful smile, a jolly smile, a lover’s smile, a dancing Godzilla smile, and a sweet smile before the goddess Ondine swims away. All these moods were captured well by conductor Warren Friesen, and the music sparkled right from beginning to end. The composer was in the audience and acknowledged the applause.

Duluth string talent at center stage

Finally, Paul Bagley, violin, and Aleks Tengesdal, cello, both calling Duluth home at the moment, shared the passionate Concerto for Violin and Violoncello by Johannes Brahms, one of the most amazing double concertos ever created. These two young artists are part of what classical music is all about in Duluth, MN.  The intensity of Brahms, along with the variety of the whole LSCO program, are part of the uniqueness of the summer musical experience in Duluth. There are two more LSCO performances in this season.

The well-known magic between guys and dolls

At the Duluth Playhouse, I attended a performance of Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls back in the late nineties which was pretty embarrassing. I avoided the Playhouse musicals for several years after that production. The current run of Guys and Dolls is at the other end of the spectrum. The combination of Jason Scorich (Nathan Detroit), Louisa Scorich (Adelaide), Cal Metts (Sky Masterson), Carolyn Pine (Sarah Brown), and Andy Roemhildt (Nicely Johnson) offered a production at the top of the charts. The timing, the acting, the singing, the humor, was all right on target in this riveting performance of a well-known show. Patrick Colvin, leading the pit band, was crisp and clean, and the show was one of the most precise musicals I have seen the Playhouse produce over the past two decades.
I still object to the use of microphones and a central speaker for the tiny ten row house at the Depot, but I can’t win that battle. The story,the pacing, and the dancing was as fresh as a new production, and the show runs Thursday through Sunday until August 2. Get there if you can!