May 16, 2025 • 33 mins
MAURY AND JAINELLE SHARE DETAILS OF THE UPCOMING GREAT LAKES MUSIC FESTIVAL, THE ARTISTS THAT ARE FEATURED AS WELL AS COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN THE FESTIVAL AND OTHER ARTS LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Light up the D, a focus on what's
happening in our community from the people who make it happen.
Here's your host, iHeartMedia Detroit Market President Colleen Grant.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, and thank you for joining me. I'm your host,
Colleen Grant, and welcome to Light Up the D. Joining
me today in support of the upcoming Great Lakes Chamber
Music Festival are Maury Oakin and Janelle Robinson. Maury Oakin
is president and co founder of the Great Lakes Chamber
Music Festival, the Detroit Chamber Wins and Strings, and art Ops.
For thirty five years, he served as principal trombone at
(00:35):
Detroit Opera and teaches at Michigan State University. A Detroit native,
he holds degrees from Northwestern University and the Eastman's School
of Music.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
His prizes include a.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Eugene Miller Fellowship from the McGregor Fund and a Bernard
Moss Prize from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. And
Janelle Robinson, our other guest, is the Community Engagement Officer
for art Ops, an organization that provides consulting services to
non pits, allowing them the time and freedom to concentrate
on their artistic product so important. Janelle's focus is creating
(01:07):
engagement activities, such as leading a community arts development program
that connect art ops partner organizations to diverse audiences across
southeast Michigan. She's also an accomplished artist and trained restorative
practice facilitator. More information on the Great Lakes Chamber Music
Festival can be found at Great Lakes Chambermusic dot org.
(01:27):
So you can get a little advance on our conversation.
That's Great Lakes Chambermusic dot org. Welcome Marian Janelle, thanks
for joining me today.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
Thanks for having us.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Thank you, it's nice to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, let's get right to the very basic heart of
our conversation. Tell us what is the Great Lakes Chamber
Music Festival. What's set it apart from other music festivals
in Michigan.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
I'll go first. A Great Lakes Chamber of Music Festival
focuses around a two week time period in the middle
of June each year where we bring together artists chamber
of musicians from all over the world and they collaborate
with some of the finest musicians who live here and
we present something like thirty to forty events during that period.
We also do a bunch of community engagement activities throughout
the region really throughout the year, but most of the
focus is in June.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Just for those of us who are not as musically inclined.
What is the difference between chamber music and other forms
of music?
Speaker 5 (02:14):
When you think about the orchestra, you think about classical music.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
So start with classical music. Most people know that genre.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
The orchestra means basically, there are multiple people playing the
same instrument. So you'll have a section of violins. When
you get to chamber music, you'll have one instrument per
one person I should say playing per instrument. So that's
like kind of the basic definition of When I first
heard it, I was like, what chamber are they lacking
(02:41):
people that like?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I was really freaked out.
Speaker 5 (02:44):
But no, And it also started by people who were
professional semi professional who decided to get together play the
music that they liked with the people that they liked.
You know, someone's home, like a chamber or a room,
a smaller setting.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
How big can a chamber music group be?
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Oh, it can be quite big. There are groups are
called chamber orchestras that would have twenty five people but
mostly you were talking about music that would be between
two and ten, and Jenelle sort of hit it on
the head at the end, which is that when the
art form became most popular, like in the eighteenth century,
it was nobility who made that work and they hired
musicians to come in and play for their events. It
(03:24):
was based on the size of the chamber, which is
the room. Orchestral stuff came around a little bit later,
and it's obviously way more expensive because it allows way
more people.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
And you said this festival in particular has thirty to
forty events.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, right, and it's in June.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
But it's known for its upclose settings, you know, and
you're acclaimed performers.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Tell me more about that.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
So one of the things that we're able to do.
One of the things about chamber music is you can
bring terrific musicians from all over the place because you
don't have to bring too many of them, right, So
from an economic perspective, it makes sense because you don't
have to bring one hundred people, you can bring twenty
and mix and match. The musicians have great careers all
over the world, and oftentimes that's in front of a
(04:03):
symphony orchestra as a soloist or as an opera soloist.
But here in a smaller setting, you're seeing you're in
a room with one hundred people or one hundred and
fifty people and a great artist, as opposed to a
room with two thousand people and a great artist. And
I've been doing this for a really long time, and
it's a really there's still a little kid in me
that's jumping up and down with excitement when you see
somebody up close and personal like that. There's an experience
(04:25):
that you can't quite replicate in a big, big theater.
Speaker 6 (04:28):
I see.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
It's kind of like reminiscent of like MTV unplug like
years ago.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
I love I used to do that.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
You kind of remove a lot of the barriers between
the audience and the performer, and then the performers get
to play with people who you know, maybe they even
looked up to, and they get to play music that
they don't usually get to play. They're able to kind
of share that experience and create really unique concerts for
our patrons.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
How is the music selected?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
We have an artistic director whose job is to do
just that. His name is Paul Watkins. He's in our world.
Are really famous, but he knows all the artists who
he knows most of the artists, and one of the
things he does he comes up with a theme every year.
But then he will pull the artists who are come
in and ask them if you have anything you'd like
to play that's within that theme. And obviously when you
do that, you and gen there's some really good will
(05:15):
with the artists, right, and so they're playing pieces they
want to play, and they're playing those pieces with people
they want to play it with. That's a great thing.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So the theme, speaking of the theme is Blueprints and Sound.
Tell us about how you came up with that, what
it means, what you're expecting from the artists in relation
to that kind of theme.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
I was excited this morning thinking about it because I
studied interior design.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
You know we were talking about earlier.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
I don't know what I want to be when I
grew up yet, so at one point I was studying
interior design. And if you know anything about building a building,
you know you have to have kind of sound construction plans.
Everybody has to be on the same page. But when
you're creating the idea of what the building should be like,
an architect.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
Those guys the limit.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
They can make whatever they want, and everyone needs to
have a dwelling place to stay, or a place to
grocery shop and all these type of things. In order
to convey that idea that they've come up with, they
need to draft a blueprint. The same thing with music.
Everyone wants to experience it. We all have different emotions
that we go through as humans, you know. In order
for that composer to be able to convey that to others,
(06:18):
they need to be able to write it down on
a sheet of music. And that's really important for those
who are going to execute that idea and plan, for
those construction workers, and for those musicians. They have to
be able to have that sheet music in front of them.
And so that kind of parallel and the creative, you know, universe.
(06:38):
They really need to be able to do that. And
so we saw that and the patron artist that we
have this year is Ruth Adler Schnee. She was a
really creative designer. She also was a founding member of
the Great Like Chamber Music Festival. So it was like, oh, dope,
we're able to do both at once. We can kind
of honor her legacy. She just recently passed away. But
(07:00):
we can also honor the work that she did outside
of her design, which was helping us with music.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
So but help us understand Ruth Adler Shne a little
bit more so.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
She was a designer.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Her family fled the Nazis in the late nineteen thirties,
and I knew her well right, and she came here
intending to become an architect, but it was a time
when women could not become architects. She had great training,
she was brilliant, so she became a designer and said,
because that was sort of kosher, you could do that
being a woman back then. So she was always ahead
of her time. She went to Craanbrook Art Institute, and
(07:35):
she just had a great career as a designer, starting
in the nineteen fifties and going all the way up
till when very late in her life. Maybe you've been
in town long enough, there used to be a store
in town called Schnee and Shnee that had all kinds
of stuff for your house, all sort of contemporary things
that they built this she and her husband built this business.
And what happened for us is seven or eight years ago,
we decided each year one of the things we should
(07:57):
do is reach into the visual arts community. As we
started to have more success in the area in which
we lived, we thought one of the things we should
do is start to really play a role in the
visual arts community. So we started to pick a different
visual artist every year. That has to happen quite a
long time in advance so that we can pick the
music that meets that theme. When Ruth died, we thought
this was time that we should focus some energy on her,
(08:19):
and that's how we came to this and the blueprint
sort of it was an obvious thing. There's a great
collection of her work both at Cranbrook and at the
Henry Ford in Dearborn.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Oh that's great to understand where one might be able
to see her work as well.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
There's some amazing things. Cranbrick is having a show of
it that's concurrent to the festival. We just got lucky
that that happened there. Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So her work inspired the season's programming. Tell us a
little bit about what audiences can expect from this year's performances.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
What are the standout concerts? You want a spotlight?
Speaker 5 (08:47):
I have a favorite, So I'm excited about Marion Hayden's
concert at three three three Midland in Highland Park. The
former name that she had for it was Up South,
but is talking to about her family story of the
Great Migration, and I felt like it kind of really
went with the theme because there is that kind of,
(09:08):
you know, the blueprint of you know, African Americans moving
from the South and moving up to a better life.
And you know, I'm excited to hear this concert. She
did it for a different organization, Detroit Chamber Wins and Strings,
back in twenty nineteen, and so it's nice to kind
of revive it for the great like Chamber Music Festival.
(09:28):
Three through three Midland is a community partner that we've
had for the past few years. It's owned by Robert Onis,
who's New Zealand. He used to actually run a radio
show too, but he sold everything that he had moved
to Detroit. He's definitely somebody worth interviewing, but he sold
everything he had moved to Detroit landed in Highland Park.
(09:51):
I think that was like a map situation, but he
ended up Island Park and he has this great foundry
space and it's open studios for for artists and he
also has a gallery over there and that's where we're
going to have It's such a long like story about
relationships and winding turns and everything. But at the end
of the day, that's one of the concerts I'm excited about,
(10:13):
just to see, you know, learn about her life and
how things came about.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
What.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Yeah, and we got lucky because it's a great concept
whenever we do it, but it so happens that it's
happening on juneteen.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Oh yeah, oh wow, that's great.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Yeah. We did this six or seven years ago in
a different context. It was really interesting because so many
people there. It was like telling their family story right
in a way that and I don't know if you
know Mary and Hayden. People probably know her. She just
won the Krizky Eminent Artist Awards. She's a bass player,
sort of a Detroit icon And I've known this woman
for a long time and she's sort of the social
(10:45):
conscience of the Detroit jazz community. And so she's pulling
this together for us, and it's her family story. There's
visuals that go with it and all kinds of interesting things.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
She's got a poet and when she did it before,
it was really dope. So it's definitely mashup of artistic
disciplines all in one show.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
It sounds absolutely fascinating.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Yeah. Well, her cousin is the is the narrator and
her son is the drummer, right.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
I mean, and they'll be food if you're an house
for nothing else.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
But wow, what a combination.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Yeah. So one of the things we're I think we're
most interested in is we can bring great artists all
over the world. We have there's a MacArthur Prize when
they're coming, there's people who won Grammys who are coming.
There's all kinds of famous, famous people coming back and
Janelle's But in addition we have there's such an opportunity
for great talent that's here that we can mix and match.
(11:41):
And curiously, Paul Watkins, who's a Welsh cellist, wanted to
play jazz a couple of years ago and we introduced
him to Mary and that started this. They did a
great concert last summer that brought this about. Because different
disciplines that there's an overarching thread of great musicianship that
crosses them and if you can if you can touch
that thread, you can create a really beautiful tapestry, which
(12:02):
is what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah, I mean the magic that can happen when you
when you walk that line and bring them together.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Yeah, that's right, that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
The Tapestry bridget our marketing person will be happy to
hear that because Tapestry, you know, Ruth Etler Schne made
a lot of fabrics, so we're going back to like
kind of our things.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
She was a incredibly beautiful fabric.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Actually, wow, so interesting. And you mentioned Highland Park. So
the concerts I think people should know that happened many
different places.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Let's talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Yeah, so the concerts take place over Metro Detroit. So
we have a traditional concert that would be in a
church where you know, you have the chamber musicians come
up and they play a traditional piece. And then we
have other venues like Wasserman which is like an art
gallery kind of gathering space.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
We have you know, three through three Midland.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
We actually also go to like some senior centers and
you're gonna ask us some questions about those things too.
So we're kind of all over so you don't have
to drive forever to get there. You can find something
in your neighborhood. And like Maury said, we have so
many events for people to choose from, you know, you
can kind of find what flows your boat and is
good on gas.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
I guess yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
I think what happened with the festival was founded as
a partnership involving Saint Hub were the Hills and Temple Bethel,
two congregations, a Jewish congregation and a Catholic congregation in
Bluefield Hills, and they added Kirk in the Hills, which
you know, I mean, these are all incredibly beautiful venues.
So then it became a Protestant, Catholic and Jewish congregation
was behind us. But once the organization started to have
(13:35):
some success, then it seemed clear to everybody that our
role in the community, in returning to the community the
gifts that people were giving to us, was to do
things throughout the community. Now listed to a bunch of them.
We also do stuff at quite a bit of stuff
at the Trade Institute of Arts.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
And as far as Anna Arber, there's a Carrytown concert
House in ann Arbor's a long standing partner of us.
So we're just looking at friends are too, that's right?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Also, yeah, well, what's wonderful about that? Is it's accessible
to people wherever they might be, and sometimes transportation is
an issue for people, so that makes it a better
opportunity for them to see the wonderful musicians not only
here but internationally that you're bringing in.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Yeah, that's right, in different spaces. It actually it actually
kind of works. It's a lot of moving of stuff around.
Speaker 6 (14:19):
Yeah, it's so easy, am, That's just the easiest thing
we've ever.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, I would think the spaces is kind of what
makes it interesting too, because you walk in and you get,
you know, a certain feel in a different space and
different sound.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Right, a different sound.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Of course, the acoustics is probably challenging some places and
easier some places.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Well, we have to actually plan the programs some to
meet the space. I mean, we're doing an organ can
shadow this year for the first time I think in
the thirty years we've been doing it, and we're bringing
this organist who actually this is the guy who put
Queen Elizabeth in the ground. He was the organist of
Westminster Abbey. Wow. And but you can only do this
and one there's only one place that has the organ
and the place to do this together. That's that say Hugoes,
(14:59):
which has a as you may know, a beautiful organ
like an unbelievably beautiful organ. So we just have to
sort of mix and match. The community has given us
a lot of opportunity, resources and goodwill and sort of
open hearts, and that's such a great place for us
to find ourselves.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Wow, so inspiring.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Let's talk about some of the international renowned artists you
have coming in. We've talked a little bit about some
of the local artists. What about our international ones? Give
us give us some international player.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
The only person I know is Pool our district actor.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Paul Watkins is originally from Wales. He was the cellist
for the last fourteen years with the existence of the
Emerson String Quartet, which is in the chamber of music
world like the pinnacle of the I mean they were
Jackson like the Jackson five. They won nine Grammy Awards.
I mean, they've done a lot of great things. So
that's Paul. Is a wonderful violinist named Leila Joe Sephwiz who,
(15:53):
as I mentioned, one that MacArthur Prize and Avery Fisher
Prize and she goes all over the world mostly playing
new music and this people like that. All through the
festival and again, you know, we're doing an evening at
the DIA with entirely focused on Robin Bollinger, who's the
concert master of the Detroit Symphony, and a visual that
she did. She's the only person on the stage with
(16:14):
basically a video that she created following the history of
a certain musical form for solo violin. So we're just
trying to find interesting resources and trying to give musicians
a place that they can express themselves. One of the
things about playing in an orchestra is you don't get
to pick the repertoire, right, you get to pick when
you play it or who you play it with. But
here we try to give as much flexibility to the
(16:37):
artists as we can and while still you know, maintaining
our own you know, still got to say blueprints. And actually,
one of the funny things about blueprints, I'm the one
who ends up sending out the information to the artists,
and I couldn't believe how many great responses I got
about pieces that fit in that it's like expands your
imagination in ways you just don't expect. Can you give
me an example, Well, sure, I mean, there's a famous
(16:58):
Bach piece called the Goldiberg variations, which is Bach took
one theme this has been in maybe seventeen forty one theme,
and then he did everything he could at different variations
of that theme. But that fits so much into the
blueprint and structure idea it would that would not have
crossed my mind, and I got the same reaction from
three different musicians about that.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
That's the kind of idea because it's.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Like, what if I did it this way? What if
I played it this way? What if I featured this
at this time? What if I changed the tempo a
little here?
Speaker 4 (17:25):
And the brilliance of it, from my perspective is the
more you know, the more interesting it is. But if
you don't know anything, it's still interesting. You just listen,
it's still cool. But when you start to really understand
what's going on, it's like, who can think.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Of that Bach?
Speaker 4 (17:38):
That's what he was famous.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Well, I'll say this as a which I said earlier
my eighth grade saxophone dropout, and it keeps my attention,
you know. So there's something for everybody, say for everybody,
there's something for everybody. We even have early professionals. I
know we're going to talk about that we're talking about
who's coming. But one of the artists I'm excited to
see is Dylan Scott. So he is early professional Shous
(18:01):
Institute member. He goes to Curtis Institute of Music and Philadelphia.
You know, I kind of threw him until the Wolves.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Last year.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
We went to a community engagement event at a senior center.
I think maybe somebody else was supposed to be there
with him and ended up being like a solo show.
And he was a great showman. So he was like,
you know, what else do you want me to play?
I said, well, know what else you got? And he said,
I wrote this one piece. I said, oh yeah, play it.
So he plays there for the people, they ask him questions,
all this stuff, and now he's coming back this year
to actually perform some of his original work. So that
(18:32):
kind of development also happens. And of course he told
me later, I've never played this piece for anyone before.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I love that special that you got.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
That yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
One of the nicest programs that Janelle is alluding to
as a program for groups young groups that are emerging
to professional status that people in the community have helped
us nurture along over the last twenty five years or so,
and it's incredible some of those groups have gone on
to becoming really famous, I mean in our little world.
I mean they win grant I mean is they win
all kinds of prizes. But it's interesting for the most part.
(19:03):
We bring them for two years, two different summers. And
what's incredible about you forget about this. If you're young
and talented and you work really hard, how much you
improve from the first year to the second is pretty amazing.
And it always sort of astonishes me because I forget that.
I forget that if you take it like somebody's in
their early twenties and you just say here, go work
really hard and they have the talent to do it,
(19:24):
great things can happen you never you're likely, Yeah, we don't.
It's sort of an amazing thing. And that's become a
real centerpiece of what we do because we incorporate those
young groups into the general fabric of the festival.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
And that's through your Schause Institute.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Is that right?
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Yeah? Shause a woman named Catherine Phileen Shause who inherited
all the money from the Fileine's department store Filine's Basement
in Boston, and she had a foundation that helped people
in the time of transition, and they gave us money
to help start this program twenty five years ago.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Why specifically music.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
It wasn't only music, like she would help like women
coming out of prison get jobs. It was always about
transition for k shows. I never met her, but our
founding artistic director James Toko was one of the people
that she helped nurture and that's how the relationship spawned.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Wow, how interesting.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Let's talk about accessibility because I had mentioned that you're
you know, you're you're really all over the metro Detroit area.
You mentioned ann Arbor. How can someoney who's never been
to a Chamber of Music concert getting involved or attend, Like,
let's talk about getting people there. Let's get people. There's seats,
let's do it. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:27):
So, well, the first thing, they can visit our website
and learn about the great concerts that that work within
their schedule.
Speaker 6 (20:34):
So that would be the first thing.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
We have two weeks to choose from.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
You said, yeah, two weeks of programming to pick from.
I just encourage people to try it out because in
your mind you kind of build up different barriers to injury, like, oh,
you know, you gotta get super addressed up or I
gotta you know, set with a bunch of people I
don't know, and you know, all this kind of stuff.
But you know, our staff is very welcoming. You know,
(20:57):
we help you out. If you're lost, you don't know,
you can just turn to anybody and say please. So
that's the first thing. But also we have like curtain
speeches that you know, can kind of tell you what's
about to happen. We have a dynamic program book with
notes that explain everything about what you're going to see.
We have a lot of social media stuff youtubes that
you can kind of look and get kind of behind
(21:19):
the scenes information about the tasting notes that are coming
up on our schedule. Those are for people who you know,
I want to have this experience, but I don't want
to feel as you know, there's there's certain protocols too
for going to concerts, and you know we've been in
the pandemics, so we're trying to get back to you know,
going outside again. So if you haven't you know, learned
(21:42):
all those protocols, like me I clap in between movements,
you know, sure on tide of foolish, Yeah, you won't
even know it. I wouldn't know. I noticed when I
was the only person clapping, like oh were But you know,
but the tasting notes are kind of you know, low risk,
you know, way you can have food, you can sit
with friends and kind of get close up and personal
(22:03):
to the music and get prepared go ahead.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
It's sometimes people think of it as elitist. Our job
is to try and both pay homage to the music
and the composers, but also make it accessible to as
many people as we can. So that's an ongoing dialogue
that we go through as an institution, is what can
we do to make people feel like they're part of this?
Speaker 6 (22:21):
I mean the other part about it too.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
I mean, if you think chamber of music, like you're
talking about the origin of it, it was done in
people's homes with friends, right, So you know, make sure
bring a friend with you.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
If you're really freaked out or whatever, you give me
a call.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
You know, I'll find a way to get you a
little something or whatever to get you and your friend
in there and have this experience. I mean, you can
come in by yourself and leave with friends because there's
other people that enjoy that music with you.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
In middles too.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
People are always looking for something different to do, you know,
like what breaks up the normalcy of my life? And
there is something about sitting and listening to music when
you just take that breath and that quiet and you're
preparing to hear and listen, and then what happens in
your like in your heart and your head when you're
just listening and you can tell like the expression that
(23:10):
you're feeling while they're they're literally moving you.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
It's so wonderful when it works. It really, it really does.
You walk out and you're like wow, you know, oh
something really like breathe the air into my lungs today.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Yeah. I actually also think that if people are really
nervous about it, you know, everybody in town has been
to the DA or if they haven't, they need to go.
And we have the conscience they are free and people
sometimes wandering and out. I mean it's you can sit
in and just enjoy the whole Diego rivera mural and
listen to the concert and look around so you can.
So everybody brings their own history, and our job is
(23:45):
to be as open as we can to recognize that
and to try and touch that in our own way
and we consciously think about it. We don't always succeed,
but we try.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
Yeah, you know you're talking about that reaction to music
because everything is so synthesized, and you know, we watch
everything digitally, but we also have programs that we do
with kids, and you know, watching older adults and watching kids,
you know, hear live music I call in real life music.
It definitely has an effect. You'll see an adult, they'll
close their eyes, they'll you know, really be absorbing and
(24:15):
being moved. And then a kid who might be jumping
all around and doing the most in the auditorium, Well,
what was that sound? You know, because it's a sensory
experience that's different from you know, where you can control
like a volume on your phone. You can't control when
that trumpet, trumboblar or whoever that violin you know doesn't.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
You can't do anything about it, you know.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
So it helps us to help, you know, with the
next generation and even you know, the current generations that
are are listening to this music so well.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And you guys do a lot to ensure your impact
reaches beyond traditional concert venues. With all the different places
that you're doing at, how else do you reach into
the community.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Well, the other thing I would say about follow up
again on what Janelle said is the young groups that
we talked about, the shous groups. Yeah, we do public
coachings of those groups that are free and that occur
in the Bloomfield Public Library, which a beautiful building on
the corner of Telegraph Road and Long Long Pine Long Pine.
And it's actually really interesting because unless you're a really
(25:10):
really sophisticated listener, you won't know that these are not
like the best groups in the world, because they're really
good and how they interact with the more senior person
is pretty interesting. And they're free to attend these. They
occur on Monday, Wednesday and Monday, and the library is
a great resource. Again, so people come and we try
not to call it a class because we don't think
of the groups as students, but that's the feel.
Speaker 6 (25:31):
Of it right in the interaction in environment.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Yeah, the interaction between the groups and the people my
age and the young people is pretty pretty interesting.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Artistic encounters, that's what we call it.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
I love it. If you're joining us today, I want
to make sure you know that we are speaking with
Maury Okun Oakan and Janelle Robinson from the Great Lakes
Chamber Music Festival, so that you can find their schedule
coming up. It's Great Lakes Chambermusic dot org. What else
do you guys have going on that you really spotlighting
performance wise at the events in particular, talk to me
(26:04):
a little bit about the different styles of music that
are going to be presented.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
Well, the champion of music is a really broad description.
I mean, we talked about Bach and then it goes
across centuries and centuries. One of the things I'm most
proud of myself is that we have at least three
pieces that are beginning to be given their world premieres
at this wow, and some very famous composers of women
by the name of Joan Tower, who is sort of
(26:30):
a generation above me, who made incredible opportunities available to
women when people weren't giving those opportunities to women at all.
We're sharing commissions of a number of composers that that
particular concept, I think is on June twelfth, it's the
piece for percussion quartet and violent a third Coast percussion.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Yes, that sounds very interesting.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Yeah, they've won a bunch of at least a number
of Grammys. That's part of the thing I know. The
last concept we're doing is it's a Seligman Center at
Detroit Country Day School, and the featured piece on that
is an arrangement of the symphonic dances from West Side Story,
which everybody knows, and for two pianos and two percussionists.
Speaker 6 (27:12):
I'm not going to start almost.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
You know, you can't help it.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
I played it a million times at the Opera Company,
but when I heard the record, I thought, too, pianos
and percussion, it's kind of weird. But when I started,
but I had to listen to a little of it
because it's my job. Once I turned it on, I
just couldn't turn it off because this is so interesting
to watch and listen to.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
And then back to Marians concert is jazz.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
So you know, we will open up a terrible long
debate about what chamber music is, you know, because I
definitely as an outsider, if you will have different views
because that definition, you know, could be a rock band
as far as like one instrument per you know, one
person playing one instrument, it could be a rock band.
It could be anyone. So I'm not going to get
(27:59):
into it because I know some the phone lines will
light up. Whatever I know what every They used to say, Well.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
It's a legitimate question. I mean because Chamber of Music
America is a service organization for jazz.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Oh really, yeah me, love me some jazz.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I do. Yeah that in there's somewhere I'm one right.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (28:20):
Well.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Also, I would say our opening night at Seligman is
a really wonderful concept, more traditional chamber of music. Paul
Watkins our cellis is playing a concerto for by Hiden
for cello and chamber orchestra, and I think people would
love that.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Oh that's great. And that's your opening night, which.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Is it's actually on a Sunday, It's at five o'clock
in the afternoon.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
Unighth eight. Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Is there anything else before we wrap it up that
we want to highlight? I want to make sure that
if there's anything else that you're like, they have to
know about this, I must tell them.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
This The thing that I would say for all nonprofits,
you know you can financially support us, right because right
now there's a lot of things happening with funding for
the arts, meaning is going away, and weird Way is
one thing that will always be there are the artists,
their creativity and the people that love and benefit from it.
So if you want to hear, you know, good music,
(29:08):
you want to hear great moving art and have times
with your friends in a space where you're not at
work or doing something superstructured. You want to support the arts,
so you can support us the Greatly Shame of Music Festival.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
We have several partners.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
Go to a gallery, go to a concert, find an artist,
give them some food, give them some Kroger.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Card or whatever it is, they can get gas.
Speaker 5 (29:31):
Money like support artists because now more than ever our community,
we need people to stand a solidarity with the arts.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Yeah, yeah, I think mostly I would encourage people to come,
and if you come and you have feedback, to give
it to us, because we're just trying to figure out.
You know, it's been thirty some years. We're still trying
to figure out how to do this as well as
we can.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Thirty some years and you're still trying to be well.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
I think it's going to be figured out every day
till long past.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
I'm going that's the artist, right, There's never an end,
is always another possibility.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
The other way, I love that, there's always another possibility.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
It's true.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
So if somebody wants to donate or become a sponsors.
Let's say they show up and their interests there said,
this is amazing, and I understand how they're trying to
reach into the community's hearts.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
How would they do that?
Speaker 4 (30:14):
Well, I think there's two ways, too easy ways. First
is our website, Great Lakes Chamber Music dot org, and
the other is our phone number two four eight.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
Five five nine two zero nine seven one more time
frequency please than two four eight five five nine two
zero nine seven.
Speaker 6 (30:31):
Great Les Chamber Music Festival.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Tell us about tickets available online or by calling, and
the concerts go from I mean some of the concerts
are free. They are all over the map, depending on
where we're doing the performance, whether there's food, all kinds
of things. But that's all on the list.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
They're out about sixty bucks.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
But the sixty bucks are definitely getting something you do
with that.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
We just want people to come and bring their friends
and bring a friend and where do they find out
more information on the whole schedule.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
If you get on the website, you'll have all the information.
It's pretty pretty basic. Or they can call the office
and we'll send them.
Speaker 6 (30:59):
Some We actually answer the phone probably within two rings.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Hey, you're not an automated people.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Call call them, get a real person, somebody, Actually, Janelle
let me a call. Her name is Janelle. Ask for Janelle,
Ask for Mariy. What do you guys hope people walk
away with after experiencing the festival? What do you want
people to believe or feel when they when they're done well?
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Last year I had one of my friends who's a
visual artist come. He had never been to a classical
music concert before Detroiter.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
He really enjoyed it.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
I think coming being open and just taking a moment
for yourself. We live in a very busy, chaotic world,
and I think it's important to take time to hear
all of the creativity that's maybe in you coming out
in another person. I would want them to to take
something away for themselves, and I can't say what that
(31:53):
thing is, but I think being refreshed, being encouraged, you know,
finding some sort of peace in that moment I think
is really important. We have some of that the greatly
same way is astible.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
How about you, Mary.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
I think that's an eloquent way of saying it. I
think I think everybody experiences art in their own way,
and I want it when I when I experienced a
work of art, even if I don't know anything about it,
I wanted to help me think about in a broadest sense,
is what is my place in the world. Usually I
don't know the answer, right, but this makes me think
about what's what is the world I go in? And
oftentimes that gives me joy, but oftentimes it gives me
(32:26):
sadness and whatever emotion seems to be expressed, and trying
to understand why the artists are expressing it and why
they so.
Speaker 6 (32:34):
Okay to feel emotion. That's the main thing. We don't
have to be robots.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
We can right, and it's okay not to too right.
It's what everybody brings. If we can somehow touch whatever
somebody brings in, that's a win for us. That's what
I think about it.
Speaker 6 (32:46):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Thank you guys so much for the beautiful words that
you've used and the invitation that you've extended to our
community to experience what you've created. We're very much looking
forward to. The dates are June eighth to June twenty.
June eight's through June twenty. First, there's something for everybody.
There's lots of locations where you can attend. Check out
the website Great Lakes Chambermusic dot org. Great Lakes Chambermusic
(33:10):
dot org. There's something for you, just waiting to inspire you.
Our guests today have Ben Maury Oakin, President and co
founder of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and Janelle Robinson,
community Engagement officer for art Ops.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Oh thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I'm having best of luck to you for a wonderfully
successful show.
Speaker 6 (33:26):
We'll see at the concert.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Sounds good.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
This has been Light Up the D a community affairs
program from iHeartMedia Detroit. If your organization would like to
get on the program, email Colleen Grant at iHeartMedia dot com.
Here are all episodes on this station's podcast page.
Welcome to Light up the D, a focus on what's
happening in our community from the people who make it happen.
Here's your host, iHeartMedia Detroit Market President Colleen Grant.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, and thank you for joining me. I'm your host,
Colleen Grant, and welcome to Light Up the D. Joining
me today in support of the upcoming Great Lakes Chamber
Music Festival are Maury Oakin and Janelle Robinson. Maury Oakin
is president and co founder of the Great Lakes Chamber
Music Festival, the Detroit Chamber Wins and Strings, and art Ops.
For thirty five years, he served as principal trombone at
(00:35):
Detroit Opera and teaches at Michigan State University. A Detroit native,
he holds degrees from Northwestern University and the Eastman's School
of Music.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
His prizes include a.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Eugene Miller Fellowship from the McGregor Fund and a Bernard
Moss Prize from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. And
Janelle Robinson, our other guest, is the Community Engagement Officer
for art Ops, an organization that provides consulting services to
non pits, allowing them the time and freedom to concentrate
on their artistic product so important. Janelle's focus is creating
(01:07):
engagement activities, such as leading a community arts development program
that connect art ops partner organizations to diverse audiences across
southeast Michigan. She's also an accomplished artist and trained restorative
practice facilitator. More information on the Great Lakes Chamber Music
Festival can be found at Great Lakes Chambermusic dot org.
(01:27):
So you can get a little advance on our conversation.
That's Great Lakes Chambermusic dot org. Welcome Marian Janelle, thanks
for joining me today.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
Thanks for having us.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Thank you, it's nice to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, let's get right to the very basic heart of
our conversation. Tell us what is the Great Lakes Chamber
Music Festival. What's set it apart from other music festivals
in Michigan.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
I'll go first. A Great Lakes Chamber of Music Festival
focuses around a two week time period in the middle
of June each year where we bring together artists chamber
of musicians from all over the world and they collaborate
with some of the finest musicians who live here and
we present something like thirty to forty events during that period.
We also do a bunch of community engagement activities throughout
the region really throughout the year, but most of the
focus is in June.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Just for those of us who are not as musically inclined.
What is the difference between chamber music and other forms
of music?
Speaker 5 (02:14):
When you think about the orchestra, you think about classical music.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
So start with classical music. Most people know that genre.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
The orchestra means basically, there are multiple people playing the
same instrument. So you'll have a section of violins. When
you get to chamber music, you'll have one instrument per
one person I should say playing per instrument. So that's
like kind of the basic definition of When I first
heard it, I was like, what chamber are they lacking
(02:41):
people that like?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I was really freaked out.
Speaker 5 (02:44):
But no, And it also started by people who were
professional semi professional who decided to get together play the
music that they liked with the people that they liked.
You know, someone's home, like a chamber or a room,
a smaller setting.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
How big can a chamber music group be?
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Oh, it can be quite big. There are groups are
called chamber orchestras that would have twenty five people but
mostly you were talking about music that would be between
two and ten, and Jenelle sort of hit it on
the head at the end, which is that when the
art form became most popular, like in the eighteenth century,
it was nobility who made that work and they hired
musicians to come in and play for their events. It
(03:24):
was based on the size of the chamber, which is
the room. Orchestral stuff came around a little bit later,
and it's obviously way more expensive because it allows way
more people.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
And you said this festival in particular has thirty to
forty events.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, right, and it's in June.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
But it's known for its upclose settings, you know, and
you're acclaimed performers.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Tell me more about that.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
So one of the things that we're able to do.
One of the things about chamber music is you can
bring terrific musicians from all over the place because you
don't have to bring too many of them, right, So
from an economic perspective, it makes sense because you don't
have to bring one hundred people, you can bring twenty
and mix and match. The musicians have great careers all
over the world, and oftentimes that's in front of a
(04:03):
symphony orchestra as a soloist or as an opera soloist.
But here in a smaller setting, you're seeing you're in
a room with one hundred people or one hundred and
fifty people and a great artist, as opposed to a
room with two thousand people and a great artist. And
I've been doing this for a really long time, and
it's a really there's still a little kid in me
that's jumping up and down with excitement when you see
somebody up close and personal like that. There's an experience
(04:25):
that you can't quite replicate in a big, big theater.
Speaker 6 (04:28):
I see.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
It's kind of like reminiscent of like MTV unplug like
years ago.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
I love I used to do that.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
You kind of remove a lot of the barriers between
the audience and the performer, and then the performers get
to play with people who you know, maybe they even
looked up to, and they get to play music that
they don't usually get to play. They're able to kind
of share that experience and create really unique concerts for
our patrons.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
How is the music selected?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
We have an artistic director whose job is to do
just that. His name is Paul Watkins. He's in our world.
Are really famous, but he knows all the artists who
he knows most of the artists, and one of the
things he does he comes up with a theme every year.
But then he will pull the artists who are come
in and ask them if you have anything you'd like
to play that's within that theme. And obviously when you
do that, you and gen there's some really good will
(05:15):
with the artists, right, and so they're playing pieces they
want to play, and they're playing those pieces with people
they want to play it with. That's a great thing.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So the theme, speaking of the theme is Blueprints and Sound.
Tell us about how you came up with that, what
it means, what you're expecting from the artists in relation
to that kind of theme.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
I was excited this morning thinking about it because I
studied interior design.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
You know we were talking about earlier.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
I don't know what I want to be when I
grew up yet, so at one point I was studying
interior design. And if you know anything about building a building,
you know you have to have kind of sound construction plans.
Everybody has to be on the same page. But when
you're creating the idea of what the building should be like,
an architect.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
Those guys the limit.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
They can make whatever they want, and everyone needs to
have a dwelling place to stay, or a place to
grocery shop and all these type of things. In order
to convey that idea that they've come up with, they
need to draft a blueprint. The same thing with music.
Everyone wants to experience it. We all have different emotions
that we go through as humans, you know. In order
for that composer to be able to convey that to others,
(06:18):
they need to be able to write it down on
a sheet of music. And that's really important for those
who are going to execute that idea and plan, for
those construction workers, and for those musicians. They have to
be able to have that sheet music in front of them.
And so that kind of parallel and the creative, you know, universe.
(06:38):
They really need to be able to do that. And
so we saw that and the patron artist that we
have this year is Ruth Adler Schnee. She was a
really creative designer. She also was a founding member of
the Great Like Chamber Music Festival. So it was like, oh, dope,
we're able to do both at once. We can kind
of honor her legacy. She just recently passed away. But
(07:00):
we can also honor the work that she did outside
of her design, which was helping us with music.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
So but help us understand Ruth Adler Shne a little
bit more so.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
She was a designer.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Her family fled the Nazis in the late nineteen thirties,
and I knew her well right, and she came here
intending to become an architect, but it was a time
when women could not become architects. She had great training,
she was brilliant, so she became a designer and said,
because that was sort of kosher, you could do that
being a woman back then. So she was always ahead
of her time. She went to Craanbrook Art Institute, and
(07:35):
she just had a great career as a designer, starting
in the nineteen fifties and going all the way up
till when very late in her life. Maybe you've been
in town long enough, there used to be a store
in town called Schnee and Shnee that had all kinds
of stuff for your house, all sort of contemporary things
that they built this she and her husband built this business.
And what happened for us is seven or eight years ago,
we decided each year one of the things we should
(07:57):
do is reach into the visual arts community. As we
started to have more success in the area in which
we lived, we thought one of the things we should
do is start to really play a role in the
visual arts community. So we started to pick a different
visual artist every year. That has to happen quite a
long time in advance so that we can pick the
music that meets that theme. When Ruth died, we thought
this was time that we should focus some energy on her,
(08:19):
and that's how we came to this and the blueprint
sort of it was an obvious thing. There's a great
collection of her work both at Cranbrook and at the
Henry Ford in Dearborn.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Oh that's great to understand where one might be able
to see her work as well.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
There's some amazing things. Cranbrick is having a show of
it that's concurrent to the festival. We just got lucky
that that happened there. Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So her work inspired the season's programming. Tell us a
little bit about what audiences can expect from this year's performances.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
What are the standout concerts? You want a spotlight?
Speaker 5 (08:47):
I have a favorite, So I'm excited about Marion Hayden's
concert at three three three Midland in Highland Park. The
former name that she had for it was Up South,
but is talking to about her family story of the
Great Migration, and I felt like it kind of really
went with the theme because there is that kind of,
(09:08):
you know, the blueprint of you know, African Americans moving
from the South and moving up to a better life.
And you know, I'm excited to hear this concert. She
did it for a different organization, Detroit Chamber Wins and Strings,
back in twenty nineteen, and so it's nice to kind
of revive it for the great like Chamber Music Festival.
(09:28):
Three through three Midland is a community partner that we've
had for the past few years. It's owned by Robert Onis,
who's New Zealand. He used to actually run a radio
show too, but he sold everything that he had moved
to Detroit. He's definitely somebody worth interviewing, but he sold
everything he had moved to Detroit landed in Highland Park.
(09:51):
I think that was like a map situation, but he
ended up Island Park and he has this great foundry
space and it's open studios for for artists and he
also has a gallery over there and that's where we're
going to have It's such a long like story about
relationships and winding turns and everything. But at the end
of the day, that's one of the concerts I'm excited about,
(10:13):
just to see, you know, learn about her life and
how things came about.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
What.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Yeah, and we got lucky because it's a great concept
whenever we do it, but it so happens that it's
happening on juneteen.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Oh yeah, oh wow, that's great.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Yeah. We did this six or seven years ago in
a different context. It was really interesting because so many
people there. It was like telling their family story right
in a way that and I don't know if you
know Mary and Hayden. People probably know her. She just
won the Krizky Eminent Artist Awards. She's a bass player,
sort of a Detroit icon And I've known this woman
for a long time and she's sort of the social
(10:45):
conscience of the Detroit jazz community. And so she's pulling
this together for us, and it's her family story. There's
visuals that go with it and all kinds of interesting things.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
She's got a poet and when she did it before,
it was really dope. So it's definitely mashup of artistic
disciplines all in one show.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
It sounds absolutely fascinating.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Yeah. Well, her cousin is the is the narrator and
her son is the drummer, right.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
I mean, and they'll be food if you're an house
for nothing else.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
But wow, what a combination.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Yeah. So one of the things we're I think we're
most interested in is we can bring great artists all
over the world. We have there's a MacArthur Prize when
they're coming, there's people who won Grammys who are coming.
There's all kinds of famous, famous people coming back and
Janelle's But in addition we have there's such an opportunity
for great talent that's here that we can mix and match.
(11:41):
And curiously, Paul Watkins, who's a Welsh cellist, wanted to
play jazz a couple of years ago and we introduced
him to Mary and that started this. They did a
great concert last summer that brought this about. Because different
disciplines that there's an overarching thread of great musicianship that
crosses them and if you can if you can touch
that thread, you can create a really beautiful tapestry, which
(12:02):
is what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah, I mean the magic that can happen when you
when you walk that line and bring them together.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Yeah, that's right, that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
The Tapestry bridget our marketing person will be happy to
hear that because Tapestry, you know, Ruth Etler Schne made
a lot of fabrics, so we're going back to like
kind of our things.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
She was a incredibly beautiful fabric.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Actually, wow, so interesting. And you mentioned Highland Park. So
the concerts I think people should know that happened many
different places.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Let's talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Yeah, so the concerts take place over Metro Detroit. So
we have a traditional concert that would be in a
church where you know, you have the chamber musicians come
up and they play a traditional piece. And then we
have other venues like Wasserman which is like an art
gallery kind of gathering space.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
We have you know, three through three Midland.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
We actually also go to like some senior centers and
you're gonna ask us some questions about those things too.
So we're kind of all over so you don't have
to drive forever to get there. You can find something
in your neighborhood. And like Maury said, we have so
many events for people to choose from, you know, you
can kind of find what flows your boat and is
good on gas.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
I guess yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
I think what happened with the festival was founded as
a partnership involving Saint Hub were the Hills and Temple Bethel,
two congregations, a Jewish congregation and a Catholic congregation in
Bluefield Hills, and they added Kirk in the Hills, which
you know, I mean, these are all incredibly beautiful venues.
So then it became a Protestant, Catholic and Jewish congregation
was behind us. But once the organization started to have
(13:35):
some success, then it seemed clear to everybody that our
role in the community, in returning to the community the
gifts that people were giving to us, was to do
things throughout the community. Now listed to a bunch of them.
We also do stuff at quite a bit of stuff
at the Trade Institute of Arts.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
And as far as Anna Arber, there's a Carrytown concert
House in ann Arbor's a long standing partner of us.
So we're just looking at friends are too, that's right?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Also, yeah, well, what's wonderful about that? Is it's accessible
to people wherever they might be, and sometimes transportation is
an issue for people, so that makes it a better
opportunity for them to see the wonderful musicians not only
here but internationally that you're bringing in.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Yeah, that's right, in different spaces. It actually it actually
kind of works. It's a lot of moving of stuff around.
Speaker 6 (14:19):
Yeah, it's so easy, am, That's just the easiest thing
we've ever.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, I would think the spaces is kind of what
makes it interesting too, because you walk in and you get,
you know, a certain feel in a different space and
different sound.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Right, a different sound.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Of course, the acoustics is probably challenging some places and
easier some places.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Well, we have to actually plan the programs some to
meet the space. I mean, we're doing an organ can
shadow this year for the first time I think in
the thirty years we've been doing it, and we're bringing
this organist who actually this is the guy who put
Queen Elizabeth in the ground. He was the organist of
Westminster Abbey. Wow. And but you can only do this
and one there's only one place that has the organ
and the place to do this together. That's that say Hugoes,
(14:59):
which has a as you may know, a beautiful organ
like an unbelievably beautiful organ. So we just have to
sort of mix and match. The community has given us
a lot of opportunity, resources and goodwill and sort of
open hearts, and that's such a great place for us
to find ourselves.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Wow, so inspiring.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Let's talk about some of the international renowned artists you
have coming in. We've talked a little bit about some
of the local artists. What about our international ones? Give
us give us some international player.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
The only person I know is Pool our district actor.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Paul Watkins is originally from Wales. He was the cellist
for the last fourteen years with the existence of the
Emerson String Quartet, which is in the chamber of music
world like the pinnacle of the I mean they were
Jackson like the Jackson five. They won nine Grammy Awards.
I mean, they've done a lot of great things. So
that's Paul. Is a wonderful violinist named Leila Joe Sephwiz who,
(15:53):
as I mentioned, one that MacArthur Prize and Avery Fisher
Prize and she goes all over the world mostly playing
new music and this people like that. All through the
festival and again, you know, we're doing an evening at
the DIA with entirely focused on Robin Bollinger, who's the
concert master of the Detroit Symphony, and a visual that
she did. She's the only person on the stage with
(16:14):
basically a video that she created following the history of
a certain musical form for solo violin. So we're just
trying to find interesting resources and trying to give musicians
a place that they can express themselves. One of the
things about playing in an orchestra is you don't get
to pick the repertoire, right, you get to pick when
you play it or who you play it with. But
here we try to give as much flexibility to the
(16:37):
artists as we can and while still you know, maintaining
our own you know, still got to say blueprints. And actually,
one of the funny things about blueprints, I'm the one
who ends up sending out the information to the artists,
and I couldn't believe how many great responses I got
about pieces that fit in that it's like expands your
imagination in ways you just don't expect. Can you give
me an example, Well, sure, I mean, there's a famous
(16:58):
Bach piece called the Goldiberg variations, which is Bach took
one theme this has been in maybe seventeen forty one theme,
and then he did everything he could at different variations
of that theme. But that fits so much into the
blueprint and structure idea it would that would not have
crossed my mind, and I got the same reaction from
three different musicians about that.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
That's the kind of idea because it's.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Like, what if I did it this way? What if
I played it this way? What if I featured this
at this time? What if I changed the tempo a
little here?
Speaker 4 (17:25):
And the brilliance of it, from my perspective is the
more you know, the more interesting it is. But if
you don't know anything, it's still interesting. You just listen,
it's still cool. But when you start to really understand
what's going on, it's like, who can think.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Of that Bach?
Speaker 4 (17:38):
That's what he was famous.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Well, I'll say this as a which I said earlier
my eighth grade saxophone dropout, and it keeps my attention,
you know. So there's something for everybody, say for everybody,
there's something for everybody. We even have early professionals. I
know we're going to talk about that we're talking about
who's coming. But one of the artists I'm excited to
see is Dylan Scott. So he is early professional Shous
(18:01):
Institute member. He goes to Curtis Institute of Music and Philadelphia.
You know, I kind of threw him until the Wolves.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Last year.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
We went to a community engagement event at a senior center.
I think maybe somebody else was supposed to be there
with him and ended up being like a solo show.
And he was a great showman. So he was like,
you know, what else do you want me to play?
I said, well, know what else you got? And he said,
I wrote this one piece. I said, oh yeah, play it.
So he plays there for the people, they ask him questions,
all this stuff, and now he's coming back this year
to actually perform some of his original work. So that
(18:32):
kind of development also happens. And of course he told
me later, I've never played this piece for anyone before.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I love that special that you got.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
That yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
One of the nicest programs that Janelle is alluding to
as a program for groups young groups that are emerging
to professional status that people in the community have helped
us nurture along over the last twenty five years or so,
and it's incredible some of those groups have gone on
to becoming really famous, I mean in our little world.
I mean they win grant I mean is they win
all kinds of prizes. But it's interesting for the most part.
(19:03):
We bring them for two years, two different summers. And
what's incredible about you forget about this. If you're young
and talented and you work really hard, how much you
improve from the first year to the second is pretty amazing.
And it always sort of astonishes me because I forget that.
I forget that if you take it like somebody's in
their early twenties and you just say here, go work
really hard and they have the talent to do it,
(19:24):
great things can happen you never you're likely, Yeah, we don't.
It's sort of an amazing thing. And that's become a
real centerpiece of what we do because we incorporate those
young groups into the general fabric of the festival.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
And that's through your Schause Institute.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Is that right?
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Yeah? Shause a woman named Catherine Phileen Shause who inherited
all the money from the Fileine's department store Filine's Basement
in Boston, and she had a foundation that helped people
in the time of transition, and they gave us money
to help start this program twenty five years ago.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Why specifically music.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
It wasn't only music, like she would help like women
coming out of prison get jobs. It was always about
transition for k shows. I never met her, but our
founding artistic director James Toko was one of the people
that she helped nurture and that's how the relationship spawned.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Wow, how interesting.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Let's talk about accessibility because I had mentioned that you're
you know, you're you're really all over the metro Detroit area.
You mentioned ann Arbor. How can someoney who's never been
to a Chamber of Music concert getting involved or attend, Like,
let's talk about getting people there. Let's get people. There's seats,
let's do it. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:27):
So, well, the first thing, they can visit our website
and learn about the great concerts that that work within
their schedule.
Speaker 6 (20:34):
So that would be the first thing.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
We have two weeks to choose from.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
You said, yeah, two weeks of programming to pick from.
I just encourage people to try it out because in
your mind you kind of build up different barriers to injury, like, oh,
you know, you gotta get super addressed up or I
gotta you know, set with a bunch of people I
don't know, and you know, all this kind of stuff.
But you know, our staff is very welcoming. You know,
(20:57):
we help you out. If you're lost, you don't know,
you can just turn to anybody and say please. So
that's the first thing. But also we have like curtain
speeches that you know, can kind of tell you what's
about to happen. We have a dynamic program book with
notes that explain everything about what you're going to see.
We have a lot of social media stuff youtubes that
you can kind of look and get kind of behind
(21:19):
the scenes information about the tasting notes that are coming
up on our schedule. Those are for people who you know,
I want to have this experience, but I don't want
to feel as you know, there's there's certain protocols too
for going to concerts, and you know we've been in
the pandemics, so we're trying to get back to you know,
going outside again. So if you haven't you know, learned
(21:42):
all those protocols, like me I clap in between movements,
you know, sure on tide of foolish, Yeah, you won't
even know it. I wouldn't know. I noticed when I
was the only person clapping, like oh were But you know,
but the tasting notes are kind of you know, low risk,
you know, way you can have food, you can sit
with friends and kind of get close up and personal
(22:03):
to the music and get prepared go ahead.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
It's sometimes people think of it as elitist. Our job
is to try and both pay homage to the music
and the composers, but also make it accessible to as
many people as we can. So that's an ongoing dialogue
that we go through as an institution, is what can
we do to make people feel like they're part of this?
Speaker 6 (22:21):
I mean the other part about it too.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
I mean, if you think chamber of music, like you're
talking about the origin of it, it was done in
people's homes with friends, right, So you know, make sure
bring a friend with you.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
If you're really freaked out or whatever, you give me
a call.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
You know, I'll find a way to get you a
little something or whatever to get you and your friend
in there and have this experience. I mean, you can
come in by yourself and leave with friends because there's
other people that enjoy that music with you.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
In middles too.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
People are always looking for something different to do, you know,
like what breaks up the normalcy of my life? And
there is something about sitting and listening to music when
you just take that breath and that quiet and you're
preparing to hear and listen, and then what happens in
your like in your heart and your head when you're
just listening and you can tell like the expression that
(23:10):
you're feeling while they're they're literally moving you.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
It's so wonderful when it works. It really, it really does.
You walk out and you're like wow, you know, oh
something really like breathe the air into my lungs today.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Yeah. I actually also think that if people are really
nervous about it, you know, everybody in town has been
to the DA or if they haven't, they need to go.
And we have the conscience they are free and people
sometimes wandering and out. I mean it's you can sit
in and just enjoy the whole Diego rivera mural and
listen to the concert and look around so you can.
So everybody brings their own history, and our job is
(23:45):
to be as open as we can to recognize that
and to try and touch that in our own way
and we consciously think about it. We don't always succeed,
but we try.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
Yeah, you know you're talking about that reaction to music
because everything is so synthesized, and you know, we watch
everything digitally, but we also have programs that we do
with kids, and you know, watching older adults and watching kids,
you know, hear live music I call in real life music.
It definitely has an effect. You'll see an adult, they'll
close their eyes, they'll you know, really be absorbing and
(24:15):
being moved. And then a kid who might be jumping
all around and doing the most in the auditorium, Well,
what was that sound? You know, because it's a sensory
experience that's different from you know, where you can control
like a volume on your phone. You can't control when
that trumpet, trumboblar or whoever that violin you know doesn't.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
You can't do anything about it, you know.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
So it helps us to help, you know, with the
next generation and even you know, the current generations that
are are listening to this music so well.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And you guys do a lot to ensure your impact
reaches beyond traditional concert venues. With all the different places
that you're doing at, how else do you reach into
the community.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Well, the other thing I would say about follow up
again on what Janelle said is the young groups that
we talked about, the shous groups. Yeah, we do public
coachings of those groups that are free and that occur
in the Bloomfield Public Library, which a beautiful building on
the corner of Telegraph Road and Long Long Pine Long Pine.
And it's actually really interesting because unless you're a really
(25:10):
really sophisticated listener, you won't know that these are not
like the best groups in the world, because they're really
good and how they interact with the more senior person
is pretty interesting. And they're free to attend these. They
occur on Monday, Wednesday and Monday, and the library is
a great resource. Again, so people come and we try
not to call it a class because we don't think
of the groups as students, but that's the feel.
Speaker 6 (25:31):
Of it right in the interaction in environment.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Yeah, the interaction between the groups and the people my
age and the young people is pretty pretty interesting.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Artistic encounters, that's what we call it.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
I love it. If you're joining us today, I want
to make sure you know that we are speaking with
Maury Okun Oakan and Janelle Robinson from the Great Lakes
Chamber Music Festival, so that you can find their schedule
coming up. It's Great Lakes Chambermusic dot org. What else
do you guys have going on that you really spotlighting
performance wise at the events in particular, talk to me
(26:04):
a little bit about the different styles of music that
are going to be presented.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
Well, the champion of music is a really broad description.
I mean, we talked about Bach and then it goes
across centuries and centuries. One of the things I'm most
proud of myself is that we have at least three
pieces that are beginning to be given their world premieres
at this wow, and some very famous composers of women
by the name of Joan Tower, who is sort of
(26:30):
a generation above me, who made incredible opportunities available to
women when people weren't giving those opportunities to women at all.
We're sharing commissions of a number of composers that that
particular concept, I think is on June twelfth, it's the
piece for percussion quartet and violent a third Coast percussion.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Yes, that sounds very interesting.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Yeah, they've won a bunch of at least a number
of Grammys. That's part of the thing I know. The
last concept we're doing is it's a Seligman Center at
Detroit Country Day School, and the featured piece on that
is an arrangement of the symphonic dances from West Side Story,
which everybody knows, and for two pianos and two percussionists.
Speaker 6 (27:12):
I'm not going to start almost.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
You know, you can't help it.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
I played it a million times at the Opera Company,
but when I heard the record, I thought, too, pianos
and percussion, it's kind of weird. But when I started,
but I had to listen to a little of it
because it's my job. Once I turned it on, I
just couldn't turn it off because this is so interesting
to watch and listen to.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
And then back to Marians concert is jazz.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
So you know, we will open up a terrible long
debate about what chamber music is, you know, because I
definitely as an outsider, if you will have different views
because that definition, you know, could be a rock band
as far as like one instrument per you know, one
person playing one instrument, it could be a rock band.
It could be anyone. So I'm not going to get
(27:59):
into it because I know some the phone lines will
light up. Whatever I know what every They used to say, Well.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
It's a legitimate question. I mean because Chamber of Music
America is a service organization for jazz.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Oh really, yeah me, love me some jazz.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I do. Yeah that in there's somewhere I'm one right.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (28:20):
Well.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Also, I would say our opening night at Seligman is
a really wonderful concept, more traditional chamber of music. Paul
Watkins our cellis is playing a concerto for by Hiden
for cello and chamber orchestra, and I think people would
love that.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Oh that's great. And that's your opening night, which.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Is it's actually on a Sunday, It's at five o'clock
in the afternoon.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
Unighth eight. Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Is there anything else before we wrap it up that
we want to highlight? I want to make sure that
if there's anything else that you're like, they have to
know about this, I must tell them.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
This The thing that I would say for all nonprofits,
you know you can financially support us, right because right
now there's a lot of things happening with funding for
the arts, meaning is going away, and weird Way is
one thing that will always be there are the artists,
their creativity and the people that love and benefit from it.
So if you want to hear, you know, good music,
(29:08):
you want to hear great moving art and have times
with your friends in a space where you're not at
work or doing something superstructured. You want to support the arts,
so you can support us the Greatly Shame of Music Festival.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
We have several partners.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
Go to a gallery, go to a concert, find an artist,
give them some food, give them some Kroger.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Card or whatever it is, they can get gas.
Speaker 5 (29:31):
Money like support artists because now more than ever our community,
we need people to stand a solidarity with the arts.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Yeah, yeah, I think mostly I would encourage people to come,
and if you come and you have feedback, to give
it to us, because we're just trying to figure out.
You know, it's been thirty some years. We're still trying
to figure out how to do this as well as
we can.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Thirty some years and you're still trying to be well.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
I think it's going to be figured out every day
till long past.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
I'm going that's the artist, right, There's never an end,
is always another possibility.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
The other way, I love that, there's always another possibility.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
It's true.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
So if somebody wants to donate or become a sponsors.
Let's say they show up and their interests there said,
this is amazing, and I understand how they're trying to
reach into the community's hearts.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
How would they do that?
Speaker 4 (30:14):
Well, I think there's two ways, too easy ways. First
is our website, Great Lakes Chamber Music dot org, and
the other is our phone number two four eight.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
Five five nine two zero nine seven one more time
frequency please than two four eight five five nine two
zero nine seven.
Speaker 6 (30:31):
Great Les Chamber Music Festival.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Tell us about tickets available online or by calling, and
the concerts go from I mean some of the concerts
are free. They are all over the map, depending on
where we're doing the performance, whether there's food, all kinds
of things. But that's all on the list.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
They're out about sixty bucks.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
But the sixty bucks are definitely getting something you do
with that.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
We just want people to come and bring their friends
and bring a friend and where do they find out
more information on the whole schedule.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
If you get on the website, you'll have all the information.
It's pretty pretty basic. Or they can call the office
and we'll send them.
Speaker 6 (30:59):
Some We actually answer the phone probably within two rings.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Hey, you're not an automated people.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Call call them, get a real person, somebody, Actually, Janelle
let me a call. Her name is Janelle. Ask for Janelle,
Ask for Mariy. What do you guys hope people walk
away with after experiencing the festival? What do you want
people to believe or feel when they when they're done well?
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Last year I had one of my friends who's a
visual artist come. He had never been to a classical
music concert before Detroiter.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
He really enjoyed it.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
I think coming being open and just taking a moment
for yourself. We live in a very busy, chaotic world,
and I think it's important to take time to hear
all of the creativity that's maybe in you coming out
in another person. I would want them to to take
something away for themselves, and I can't say what that
(31:53):
thing is, but I think being refreshed, being encouraged, you know,
finding some sort of peace in that moment I think
is really important. We have some of that the greatly
same way is astible.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
How about you, Mary.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
I think that's an eloquent way of saying it. I
think I think everybody experiences art in their own way,
and I want it when I when I experienced a
work of art, even if I don't know anything about it,
I wanted to help me think about in a broadest sense,
is what is my place in the world. Usually I
don't know the answer, right, but this makes me think
about what's what is the world I go in? And
oftentimes that gives me joy, but oftentimes it gives me
(32:26):
sadness and whatever emotion seems to be expressed, and trying
to understand why the artists are expressing it and why
they so.
Speaker 6 (32:34):
Okay to feel emotion. That's the main thing. We don't
have to be robots.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
We can right, and it's okay not to too right.
It's what everybody brings. If we can somehow touch whatever
somebody brings in, that's a win for us. That's what
I think about it.
Speaker 6 (32:46):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Thank you guys so much for the beautiful words that
you've used and the invitation that you've extended to our
community to experience what you've created. We're very much looking
forward to. The dates are June eighth to June twenty.
June eight's through June twenty. First, there's something for everybody.
There's lots of locations where you can attend. Check out
the website Great Lakes Chambermusic dot org. Great Lakes Chambermusic
(33:10):
dot org. There's something for you, just waiting to inspire you.
Our guests today have Ben Maury Oakin, President and co
founder of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and Janelle Robinson,
community Engagement officer for art Ops.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Oh thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I'm having best of luck to you for a wonderfully
successful show.
Speaker 6 (33:26):
We'll see at the concert.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Sounds good.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
This has been Light Up the D a community affairs
program from iHeartMedia Detroit. If your organization would like to
get on the program, email Colleen Grant at iHeartMedia dot com.
Here are all episodes on this station's podcast page.
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The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.