BIJOU PRESS RELEASES

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NEWS  FROMThe Bijou Orchestra

Contact: PO Box 336, Bay City Michigan, 48707 BOX OFFICE: (989) 892-2660

www.thebijou.org

November 1, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For information, contact Bay Musical Arts at 989-892-4200

Music with a Very Real Story

The Bijou Orchestra celebrates the 20^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall with a concert entitled “Berlin in Lights” to be held on November 21 at 8pm in the State Theatre in Bay City and on November 22 at 2pm in Rhea Miller Hall at Saginaw Valley State University.

“Whenever we talk about “classical” music, we nearly always begin with German composers,” says Leo Najar, artistic director of The Bijou. “While all the arts have been important in the development of German culture, music is arguably the most important art to Germans. The traditional “three B’s” of classical music were Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, and while the latter two spent much of their lives in Vienna, they were not natives of Austria, but rather North Germany. The first portion of our concert will include a feast of popular German concert music including the Bach Toccata in d minor, the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, a pair of Brahms Hungarian Dances, Waltzes by Richard Strauss from Der Rosenkavalier and 2 selections by Wagner including the Ride of the Valkyries.”

The music on the first half of the concert represents familiar concert staples. After its defeat in World War I, Germany no longer had the ability to support all of the orchestras and opera houses that it once had, and at the same time, the new American jazz and popular song styles were taking over popular taste. Kurt Weill will be represented by music from The Three Penny Opera (Mack the Knife, etc.) and Friederich Hollaender, whose songs became instant hits particularly after they were sung by Marlene Dietrich (Falling in Love Again) in theater and film. With the rise of National Socialism, many German artists left home, some forever. Their story, too, will be told here.

Soloist for the concert is Linn Maxwell. She has performed on the stages of major orchestras, opera companies and recital halls across the United States and 25 foreign countries. She now brings her worldwide experience and classical training to the musical theater and cabaret stages. Linn has performed cabaret and one-woman shows in New York City and in March 2006 made her European cabaret debut at the International Theater, Frankfurt, Germany. The Frankfurter Rundschau said of her show, “Linn Maxwell captured the hope within the songs and revived a bygone era…Her performance was marked with a glowing perfection.” Mx. Maxwell will be heard in several songs including selections from Weill’s Three Penny Opera, She will also be heard in several songs by Friedrich Hollaender incluing Falling In Love Again, Munchausen, and The Ruins of Berlin.

Concert-goers interested in learning more about this fascinating era will have two opportunities in advance of the concert. On Wednesday, November 18, Bijou Artistic Director Leo Najar will present a talk about the cultural shifts that completely re-structured German musical life. The talk will begin at noon in room 180 in Curtiss Hall at Saginaw Valley State University. A shorter version of this talk will be given prior to Sunday’s performance in the Rhea Miller concert hall. That talk will begin at 1:15 and will take place in the Olly classroom in Curtis Hall at SVSU. Both of these talks are open to the public and free of charge.

Tickets for the concert are $10, $20, $25 and $30. Ticket information is available at by calling the State Theatre Box Office at (989) 892-2660 or by calling the SVSU Box Office at (989) 964-4348 or online at www.thebijou.org. Tickets will also be available at the door.

The Bijou Orchestra takes its name from the Bijou Theater, one of the earliest Bay City theaters, which later became known as the Bay and eventually the State. The ensemble is composed of thirteen outstanding musicians drawn from Michigan and beyond to perform in this challenging medium in which every player is a soloist.

The orchestra is supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs and the Bay Area Community Foundation. Major corporate sponsors include Dow Corning and the Dow Chemical Company Foundation with additional support from Bay Regional Medical Center.

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NEWS  FROMThe Bijou Orchestra

Contact: PO Box 336, Bay City Michigan, 48707 BOX OFFICE: (989) 892-2660

www.thebijou.org

Sept. 22, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For information, contact Bay Musical Arts at 989-892-4200

great music from the great Depression

Music from Hard Times is Enlightening and Inspiring

The Bijou Orchestra opens its seventh season with a program entitled “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?” on October 10 at 8pm and October 11 at 2pm at the State Theatre in Bay City,

Broadway, Hollywood and the airwaves carried many popular songs created at this time. Some of these favorites to be heard in the concert include “I’m Sitting On Top of the World,” “Ten Cents a Dance,” “Pennies from Heaven” and “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” among others. The orchestra will also play the overture to the Gershwins’ political musical “Of Thee I Sing.” These popular songs represent the most familiar face of music in the 1930s.

But there was much more creativity going on at that time. One third of the nation was out of work when the Works Progress Administration was formed in 1933. The WPA had one primary goal: to put people back to work so that they could earn a living and revive the economy. To do this, it set out to build a new infrastructure of roads, bridges, dams, power plants, airports and the like. At the same time, it was decided to put unemployed artists, musicians, actors and the like back to work through Federal Project One, which was the “arts” project. Tens of thousands of artists of every kind were employed in the program and some of their work will be featured in this concert.

The WPA formed orchestras in several states. Michigan had one in Detroit and one in Grand Rapids. They had their own libraries of music that had been hand written by WPA copyists and bound by WPA binders. When the program closed in 1943, their libraries were given to the Detroit Symphony. Selections from this library were mostly forgotten over the years, until they were recently archived and restored by the DSO and Wayne State University. Many selections from this library appear to never have been used before and a few of them will be heard on this concert. These works include “Reverie” by Roderick White and “Romance on the Ferris Wheel” and “Snake Charmer” from “The County Fair” by Laurence Powell who was conductor of the WPA orchestra in Grand Rapids. In addition, The Bijou will play a movement from the 3^rd symphony by Florence Price, the first African-American woman to have ever had a piece performed by a major symphony orchestra. The work received its world premiere with the Grand Rapids WPA unit in 1938.

There were many other kinds of music developing at this time. The 1930s marked the first time that American folk music began to be studied seriously by academia. These studies made popular songs out of unknown tunes. Pieces to be performed include “Big Rock Candy Mountain” and other folk songs, as well as music from the labor movement.

Four vocal soloists will join The Bijou for the show. Bob Bloenk, Scott Sowinski and Kurt Miller are familiar to Bijou audiences from past performances including “Flivvers and Flappers,” “Noteable Women,” “Candy is Dandy and many others. They will be joined by Bijou newcomer Charissa Armon, who has appeared in many major productions in Chicago and has also been seen at BoarsHead Theatre in Lansing.

A film that will show works created under the WPA and the Civilian Conservation Corps throughout Michigan will precede the concert. The film will begin at 7:30.

This concert is presented in cooperation with the Bay County Historical Society. They will host a preview lecture at their “Second Saturday” Series on Saturday, October 10 at 1PM in the museum, located at 321 Washington in Bay City. The Society will also host a reception sponsored by Charles Walmsley, CFP following the concert at the museum where all exhibits will be open and the WPA film will be shown again. Admission to the reception is free to concert ticket holders.

Tickets for the concert are $10, $20, $25 and $30. Ticket information is available at by calling the State Theatre Box Office at (989) 892-4or online at www.thebijou.org. Tickets will also be available at the door.

The orchestra is supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs and the Bay Area Community Foundation. Major corporate sponsors include, Dow Corning, Bay Regional Medical Center and the Dow Chemical Company Foundation.

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The Bijou Orchestra PO Box 336 Bay City, Michigan 48707 (989) 892-4200 email:BijouOrchestra@msn.com