Arts Advocacy Day

Tomorrow is Michigan Arts Advocacy Day! We stand with the arts because we understand the important role that the arts play in society on all levels. Whether your attending a museum, a gallery, or a Michigan Philharmonic concert, you are supporting the local arts. It is important to support creativity in and around your community to ensure that the arts thrive across Michigan. For many years the arts have relied on patrons to support works that you enjoy every day, and funding today is no different. One of the biggest funders of the arts is the State. The State knows the impact that the arts has on the economy and supports the arts because of such. You can read more about the impact of the arts on the economy and a community here: http://www.creativemany.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Fast-Facts_V4.pdf.

Luckily the proposed 2019 Michigan Budget has the $1 million one-time funding from the previous budget carried over to this year, but Creative Many is pushing for increased funding for the MCACA (Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs) to $12.5 million. Even if you can’t join us in Lansing tomorrow, you too can help fight for the arts by contacting your lawmakers. You can follow this link to find all the ways to support the arts: https://creativemany.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2692ade5856ed83d5b391ddc3&id=a1ea49118d&e=3524097f9c

We stand with the arts and @CreativeMany to support the arts and culture in Michigan. Join the conversation using the hashtags #ArtsMeanMore and #CreativeMIVotes and share why art is important to you.

Cabaret

A cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring music, dance, drama, or recitation, that is distinguished by the performance venue which is most often a pub, restaurant, or nightclub with a performance stage. The entertainment—performed in front of an audience who is often dining or drinking—is done by an ensemble and often but not always oriented towards an adult audience. Early cabarets in 16^th century Paris were much like the ancestors of the modern restaurant. Although there was no formally programmed entertainment, the customer might sing if enough wine had been consumed during the meal. In the 18^th century the café-concertor café-chantant appeared which offered food and wine like the early cabarets but also featured music, singers, and musicians. The cabaret continued to evolve, becoming a venue that combined music and entertainment with political commentary and satire. Competition from Music Halls and later motion pictures forced cabarets to put on more complex and spectacular shows. Although other cultures like Germany, the Dutch, and the British developed similar cabarets, it was the French cabaret scene that was imported to America in 1911 by Jess Louis Lasky—founder of Paramount Pictures. The American cabaret clubs turned to different styles due to the influence of jazz music and the big band scene, and Chicago cabaret especially peaked during the 20s where they were often featured as speakeasies and steakhouses during the Prohibition Era. The American cabarets never developed the social commentary level of its French predecessor, and the cabarets were soon overtaken in popularity by rock concerts, television variety, shows, and comedy theaters. Cabaret survives today in Vegas-style dinner shows, drag performances, and burlesque shows and even solo vocalist and pianist style performances in bars.

The Michigan Philharmonic is certainly not underground, and our concerts can be enjoyed by all ages, but we are throwing our own Cabaret Café April 14^th at 7:30pm with Danzones y Tango. Join us at P.A.R.C. for a night filled with great music, some delicious South American coffees and liquor, and a whole bunch of fun.

Photo via: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret

Tango

Tango music is the style of music that accompanies the tango style of dance whose present forms can originated in the Río de la Plata during the mid-19^th century. While there are also styles that originated in Cuba and Spain in the 19^th and early 20^th century, all forms stress the influence of African communities on the tango dance and music, as well as the use of instruments and techniques brought by European immigrants. In its early years the tango was mostly played by and for the lower classes, but in the 20s tango spread in popularity across Europe, then the United States, and was soon considered a more respectable form of music and dance performed by and for the upper and middle class. This led to the “Golden Age” of tango music, often considered to be from 1935 to 1952. During this period tango music was performed by orquestas tipicas—orchestras that specialized in popular music of the time. These groups often included over a dozen performers. The orquestas tipicas existed very parallel to the big band era of the United States, with the most popular band leaders like Osvaldo Pugliese and Carlo di Sarli recorded many pieces with their orchestras.  Tango nuevo came to dominate the later age of tango, with composers like Ástor Piazzolla trying to create a more academic form. This style of tango music sought to break classical tango forms and create a jazz-fusion style. One of the most recent styles to emerge is the neotango style which features anything from a subtle to a dominant electronic influence pioneered by groups like Tanghetto and Gotan Project.

Join the Michigan Philharmonic April 14^th at 7:30pm in P.A.R.C. for our Danzones y Tango: A Cabaret Café as we celebrate the rhythm, passion, and soul of Latin music and feature performances from Principal Cellist Amy Kuras and vocalist Kathryn Calzone. The orchestra will be playing music from Ástor Piazzolla and Leonard Bernstein to Gloria Estefan as well as a piece by our special guest composer Ricardo Lorenz.

Photo via: https://www.flickr.com/photos/prayitnophotography/15868911669/

Ricardo Lorenz

Venezuelan-born composer Ricardo Lorenz is praised for his fiery orchestrations, harmonic sophistication, and rhythmic vitality. His compositions have been performed by many orchestras around the world, and Ricardo has served as Composer-in-Residence in several programs as well, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Armonía Musicians Residency Program, the Billings Symphony, and the Music in the Loft chamber music series. Ricardo Lorenz has resided in the United States since 1982, but he has always kept close ties with Latin America. While he was Interim Director of the Indiana University Latin American Music Center he established a network of composers from Latin America and compiled the sourcebook Scores and Recordings for the Latin American Music Center.  This was nominated to receive the 1996 Best General Reference Source Award by the Association of Recorded Sound Collections. He’s also worked with many well-known Latin-American musicians including Tito Puente, David Sánchez, and Claudia Pérez. He holds degrees from and has taught at both the University of Chicago and Indiana University, and is currently Associate Professor of Composition at Michigan State University. The Michigan Philharmonic will be performing Ricardo Lorenz’s piece Habanera Science during the April Concert Danzones y Tangos: A Cabaret Café on April 14^th at the P.A.R.C. at 7:30pm.

photo via: Sergei Kvitko