What‘s up at Interlochen

Sept. 14, 2008

From the South African township of Soweto to the uncharted Gilligan’s Island, there are plenty of surprises percolating at Interlochen Center for the Arts this coming season.
Tickets are currently on sale for the fall-winter lineup, which includes the following:
The season kicks off Friday, September 19 with Trio Globo. An original voice in contemporary acoustic music, this trio of virtuoso musicians – cellist Eugene Friesen (Paul Winter Consort), pianist and master harmonica player Howard Levy (Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) and percussionist Glen Velez (Paul Winter Consort) – draw from global folk traditions, jazz, the classics and blues.
Interlochen will offer two performances of the perennial favorite Collage on Thursday and Friday, October 9 and 10. This rapid fire sampler of student performances encompasses music, dance, theatre, creative writing, visual arts and film.
• Enchantment Theatre Company presents The Velveteen Rabbit on Friday, October 17. Based on the beloved book by Margery Williams, this is a musical tale of the plush toy bunny that comes to life through the transforming power of a boy’s love. The production features larger-than-life puppets, a Grammy-nominated score and spectacular magic.
• On Sunday, October 19, the Soweto Gospel Choir delivers an inspirational program of tribal, traditional and popular African and Western gospel.
• Chase, one of the sponsors of Interlochen’s year-round performance series, will underwrite a Chase Community Concert by the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra on Saturday, November 15. The concert will be free and open to the public, with no ticket required.
• The Interlochen Arts Academy Theatre Company will present Little Women: The Musical, November 21-22 and December 5-7. Louisa May Alcott’s novel has been brought to life in a musical that follows the adventures of the four March sisters – Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth – and their beloved Marmee, while the family patriarch is serving as a Union Army chaplain during the Civil War.
• Leahy will celebrate their Irish and Scottish roots with “A Celtic Christmas Concert” on Monday, December 1.
• Interlochen’s Yamaha Recital Series presents the Eric Alexander Quartet featuring Billy Hart in the Dendrinos Chapel on December 4.
• December 12 through 14, the Interlochen Dance Ensemble and Orchestra will present the classical ballet, Coppelia. The lighthearted tale features a love triangle between a feisty village girl, her fiancé Franz, and a mischievous toymaker’s clockwork doll.
• Yamaha Performing Artist, Michael Philip Mossman, will join the Arts Academy Jazz Ensemble for an evening of great music on January 16. He is the lead trumpeter with the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.
• One the hottest young Latin bands today, two-time Grammy-nominated Tiempo Libre performs with the Arts Academy Orchestra on January 24.
• Leonard Slatkin, music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, will conduct National Symphony artist Lewis Lipnick and the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra on February 12.
• Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, a dynamic New York dance collective.
• From Sherwood Schwartz, the original creator of the television series, comes “Gilligan’s Island: The Musical” on March 12, featuring the eight castaways of the S.S. Minnow.
• Interlochen alumnus Peter Erskine has performed with such ground-breaking groups as the Stan Kenton Orchestra, Maynard Ferguson Band, Weather Report and the Yellowjackets. His Trio comes to Interlochen, April 8.
• The innovative and daring Harlem Quartet performs April 16.
• Concluding the season, the Interlochen Arts Academy Theatre Company will stage Seussical, May 7-10, with Dr. Seuss’ most colorful characters brought to life. The Cat in the Hat emcees a musical gumbo featuring Horton the Elephant, Gertrude McFuzz, Lazy Mayzie and all the Whos of Whoville.

Tickets are available online at www.tickets.interlochen.org. To purchase tickets over the phone, call the Interlochen Box office at 800-681-5920 or 231-276-7800 from 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday and noon to 4pm on Saturday.