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The Woodland Sky Native American Dance Company will perform in the “Watershed Moment.” (submitted photo)
The Woodland Sky Native American Dance Company will perform in the “Watershed Moment.” (submitted photo)
CRYSTAL FALLS — This year the Beethoven and Banjos music festival musically celebrates the watersheds of the Upper Peninsula and the Earth with a program that combines classical, folk, and Indigenous music and dance. The program is called “Watershed Moment.”
Musicians from Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Mississippi River, Lake Champlain, and Atlantic Ocean watersheds will come together for this one-of-a-kind collaboration. Concerts are presented this year in collaboration with the Woodland Sky Native American Dance Company and the Aeolus Quartet.
Programs will be presented in Marquette, Crystal Falls and Houghton. On Thursday, Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. (Eastern) an outdoor concert will be held at the Elwood Mattson Lower Harbor Park in Marquette. Attendees are asked to bring chairs.
On Saturday, Aug. 28, at 7 p.m. (Central), the group will perform at the Crystal Theatre. Attendees will be required to wear masks as a safety precaution.
Finally on Sunday, Aug. 29 at 2 p.m. (Eastern), the concert will be held at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts on Michigan Tech campus in Houghton. The Rozsa Center performance will also be live streamed and available for viewing on the Rozsa Center and Beethoven and Banjos Facebook pages.
The programs are “come as you are, pay as you can.”
Woodland Sky consists of Native American dancers from the Ojibwe, Sioux, Potawatomi and Apache Tribes. This award-winning group portrays all styles of dancing in this region which include traditional, fancy, jingle, grass and hoop. Iron County resident and co-founder of the Woodland Sky Native American Dance Company, Michelle Reed, performs with the dance company, along with her son Hunter and her daughter Lauren among others.
The Aeolus Quartet was formed in 2008 with a vision to share the permanent power of the string quartet repertoire with wide-ranging audiences. Based in New York City, the Quartet brings an equal dedication to all of its artistic endeavors, placing new and lesser-known works side-by-side with the time-honored masterworks. The festival also welcomes back soprano Mary Bonhag, multi-instrumentalist Laurel Premo and artistic director and bassist Evan Premo. The music will include compositions and arrangements by Evan and Laurel Premo as well as traditional Native American song with dance interpretations by Woodland Sky.
Beethoven and Banjos music festival is sponsored by Northwoods Music Collaborative with donations from Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, Marquette West Rotary, Superior Watershed Partnership, Community Foundation of Marquette County, and the Keweenaw Coop as well as many individuals and businesses.
For more information and details about this festival, visit their website or the Beethoven and Banjos Facebook page.