72nd Michigan Philharmonic Season 2017 - 2018

2016: Women take Strides!

While the Michigan Philharmonic embraced women composers in their 2016/2017 concert and lecture series, the Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed deemed 2016 to be classical music’s “year of the woman.”  Du Yun became the seventh woman to win a music Pulitzer Prize for her operatic composition Angel’s Bone this year and history was made as all three music Pulitzer Prize finalists were women. Congratulations to all women working towards breaking the universal glass ceiling!

This season the Michigan Philharmonic continue its support for Women Composers as they will be preforming works by Mary Watkins, Alice Gomez, Peggy Glanville-Hicks and Gloria Estefan this upcoming season!

2017/2018 Season:

Last season, the Michigan Philharmonic focused on the promoting Women composers through lectures series and their concert series in the 2016/2017 season. This year, the Michigan Philharmonic is excited to broaden their focus as they plan to host speakers and composers that embody diversity. Look out for our upcoming lectures featuring speakers who’ll discuss Art Advocacy as the Michigan Philharmonic embraces art education, local artists, and diverse cultures and audiences.

Community/ Local Artists

The Michigan Philharmonic has a long-standing tradition of embracing the Plymouth-Canton-Livonia community as well as featuring composers form around the world at their concerts throughout each season. As they maintain their tradition embracing world class talent and local artists, this year the two of the three guest composers, Zhou Tian and Ricardo Lorenz, will be from the Lansing area. Look out for these groups and local composer/musicians in these upcoming concerts:

·       Hail to the Veterans (November 10^th, 2017) featuring:

–       The Detroit Children’s Choir

–       Main Street Opera Theatre

–       Plymouth Counselors Youth Chorale

–       MPYO Sinfonia in the concert

·       Miniature Masterpieces (January 2017) featuring:

–       Dennis Carter, Michigan Philharmonic’s own flutist and prominent musician in the metro-Detroit area

·       Tchaikovsky Spectacular (Sunday March 18th, 2018) featuring:

–       Zhou Tian and this composition,  A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

·       Danzones y Tangos: A Cabaret Café (April 14^th, 2018)

–       Ricardo Lorenzo and his composition, Habanera Science

Hektor, Jane, and the Michigan Philharmonic Youth Orchestra

"My father was the first inspiration. He was a pro trumpet player” says Hektor Qyteti, our Principal second violin. He started in a musical family that inspired him to continue the music world footsteps. For Hektor, music has been part of his life since he can remember. At a very young age, Hektor wanted to play the trumpet as his father did, but at such young age, 6 ½ years old, it’s practically impossible, so he took the violin. For Hektor playing violin has been fun and he enjoys playing any note, any music and at any concert. Music is his world.

Hektor is native from Albania where he was the Concertmaster of Korce Philharmonia Orchestra, during which time he performed as soloist in the Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and other major concertos. For 10 years in Albania, he was the Music Director of the Board of Education at the prestigious Korce Tefta Tashko K-12 and High School.

Hektor also conducts the Michigan Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, “Its fun to direct the Youth Orchestra and teaching them (the children) privately". Hektor is a busy musician; he also plays the Assistant Concertmaster of the Grosse Pointe Symphony as well as other orchestras in the region such as Dearborn Symphony, Warren, Rochester and Pontiac.

It is exciting to witness how much a young person can achieve in a short period of training. “It thrills me to hear how much they accomplish in such a short period and Hektor is a great musician, who engages with the youth with so much care that the kids like to work with him”, affirms Jane Libbing, Manager of the Michigan Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and Education Coordinator. It is important for an orchestra organization to be able to channel the need of the community. The youth orchestra was created to satisfy the demand of our Plymouth Canton community. According to Libbing, “the schools were not providing enough opportunities for children to experience and make music. The demand was big”.

The League of American Orchestras and the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) have provided many researches on the topic of how music education is beneficial for children. Certainly, music is a catalyst for imaginative expression and prepares students to learn, facilitating concentration practices. According to the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) study, “music education enhances fine motor skills, improves recall and retention of verbal information, advances math achievement, improves average SAT scores, and strengthens perseverance”. For the Michigan Philharmonic organization, it is very important the realization of young children as musicians, not just as a part of another check list item, but truly the satisfaction of success that benefits our community in the long run.

The Michigan Philharmonic started its Youth Orchestra many years ago with a handful of children. Today the Orchestra hosts more than 100 children. “The need is big in our community for Youth Orchestras and ours provides the space, the energy and the quality to our youth” says Libbing. Jane has been a long time resident of Plymouth and has been very active with the Youth Orchestra since its beginning. In 2004, the Michigan Philharmonic hired her as the Education Coordinator to administer the CLASSical Music Outreach program in the schools and to manage the Michigan Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

As Hektor experienced as a child, music can be the world.

The Michigan Philharmonic Youth Orchestra Winter Concert will be on December 8 at 7 pm at Canton’s Village Theater. For tickets call 734.451.2112 or visit www.michiganphil.org.

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Up Next:

Holiday Pops with the Phil, December 10, 6 and 8 pm at Penn Theater in Plymouth.

You can find more on Music Education at www.americanorchestras.org and www.aep-arts.org