Glen Arbor Arts Center and Interlochen put classical music in unique places

Sound Garden flutist Mei Stone performs in June 2021 at Clinch Park Marina in Traverse City with the sun rising over Old Mission Peninsula. Photos courtesy of Interlochen Arts Academy

By Jacob Wheeler

Sun editor

Have you ever heard a live classical music quintet while on the slide at a playground? Or while ordering a drink at the local coffee shop? Have you been serenaded by a flute, a clarinet, an obo, a bassoon, and a horn while renting a bicycle or while checking your mail at the post office?

If not, then you’re in luck. Interlochen Arts Academy’s “Sound Garden Quintet” plans to “take over” Glen Arbor this June and bring free classical music pop-up performances to various public spaces and businesses. The goal of Sound Garden, which launched in the Grand Traverse area last summer, is to “plant music in unexpected places.”

Between May 31 and June 22, you’ll hear them performing in the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s (GAAC) parking lot in the morning and the evening, interacting with children at the Glen Arbor Township Park Playground, and making music at local businesses including the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company, Becky Thatcher Designs, Northwoods Hardware, and Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate. (Find a full schedule at the conclusion of this story.)

“With classical music, people are often intimidated,” said Matthew Schlomer, conductor of the Academy Wind Symphony and an Interlochen Arts Academy instructor who conceived the Sound Garden concept in 2021 and worked together with Peter Payette, executive director of Interlochen Public Radio (IPR), to bring live classical music to the region.

“Classical music typically belongs in concert halls. But these days people who go to concert halls are already acolytes. What about people that enjoy classical music but have young kids and can’t go out to a concert? How do we bring classical music into their lives? There are few access points to get to know this art form if you weren’t brought up with it. There’s no ‘tasting room’ for classical music, like there is with wine.”

Sound Garden launched as a chamber music incubation program for early professionals who graduated from Interlochen and are currently freelancing musicians. The woodwind quintet including flutist Mei Stone, clarinetist Shihao Hugh Zhu, bassoonist Khalil Gray, French horn player Jaimee Reynolds, and oboist David Norville met as students at the Arts Academy and performed in “unexpected places” around Traverse City last year. They played at a hardware store, a skateboard shop, a church, a winery, a brewery, and even while standing in Lake Michigan.

“We were trying not just for shock value,” said Schlomer. “We were trying to create relationships. We went to places where people felt empowered to make artistic decisions. We went to Ace Hardware (on Front St.) and met customers at the paint swatches aisle and asked if we could play for them. We asked if they could pick a color that matched the music. We had blue-collar workers covered in paint who were noticing changes in the music they heard. We went to a skateboard shop and played for the teenage skater crowd.

“Through the experience we examined our performance anxiety. Before playing, we’d go hang out with the crowd and relax with them. It helped us perform better. It helped us think about how we can establish a relationship through music.”

IPR’s Payette reached out to Glen Arbor Arts Center executive director Sarah Kime and asked if the local arts hub could host Sound Garden in 2022. The quintet wanted to expand from one-off, guerilla-style pop-up performances to a several-week long “musicians in residency” program. The Arts Center will host the quintet and house them in board member Susan Kettering’s home located next door at Pine Street Studio. They’ll have full access to the Arts Center’s facility and grounds, said Kime. “It will be an interesting collaboration.”

The Arts Center will present Sound Garden for three weeks in June as part of its Manitou Music series, which launched in 1991 as a chamber music series in venues throughout Leelanau County. Those performances stopped in 2020 with the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic.

“COVID shut us down,” said GAAC gallery manager Sarah Bearup-Neal. “That imposed rest gave us a year to take a step back and reimagine things. We couldn’t do exhibitions or concerts in enclosed spaces. But we had this wonderful space where the building is; why couldn’t we do more things outside? And how could we reimagine the legacy of the Manitou Music series?”

The conclusion was to engage in creative collaborations and place free art everywhere. The Arts Center will be piloting a Learning in the Arts Mentoring Program (L.A..MP.) for students ages 16-22 from Benzie, Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties for 2-week sessions all summer long. The Arts Center will kick off summer with their “Six Feet Apart” summer popups , art al fresco outdoor installation, clothesline gallery and 100 mini masterpieces; an Up North Pride outdoor exhibit on June 4 will close down the lane to Lake Street; the TC Dance Project will return July 30 and perform at the Nash Road Red Barn farm near Maple City, and the Beach Bards will lead an evening of poetry, storytelling and music about flags on Aug. 2. The GAAC is working on a collaboration with Glen Arbor galleries called Art After hours in the summer and will host a creative wellness retreat this fall for grief survivors.

“The pandemic forced us to pivot and evolve,” said Kime. “What’s missing in this community are cultural music experiences that celebrate how we got to this place. We want art everywhere. When we had to pivot and go online, our access to art increased 70 percent. Now it’s outside, online, or in person.”

The Sound Garden collaboration will allow the Arts Center to reach its youngest audience, too.

Schlomer is particularly excited about the quintet performing on four consecutive Wednesday afternoons in June at the Glen Arbor playground.

“We’re excited about trying to bring music to the kids on their terms,” he said. “We’ll perform sophisticated music. We’ll ask them if they like this piece better on the slide or on the merry-go-round. We’ll play a piece that has a story, then we’ll ask the kids to make up their own story that goes with it.”

The quintet aspires to take over the town with their pop-up Sound Garden Shenanigans.

“We hope that every person in Glen Arbor will hear classical music and be our friend by the time we’re done,” said Schlomer. “Who knows, we might do some impromptu shenanigans on the beach. Or we might show up and perform at your barbecue.”

Where to catch the Sound Garden Quintet

Sunrise and Sunset Sounds:

You will be serenaded by a different live performance each day at 9:00 am and 9:30 pm in the Glen Arbor Arts Center lot. When you meet one of the musicians around town, feel free to make a request!

Open rehearsals in the Glen Arbor Arts Center parking lot:

Tuesday, May 31, 6-7:30 pm
Thursday, June 2, 6-7:30 pm
Tuesday, June 7, 6-7:30 pm
Thursday, June 9, 6-7:30 pm
Monday, June 13, 5-6:30 pm
Tuesday, June 21, 6-7:30 pm

The Sound Garden’s Musical Playground (for KIDS!): will be interacting and performing WHILE kids play at the Glen Arbor Township Park Playground

Wednesday, June 1, 3-4:30 pm
Wednesday, June 8, 3-4:30 pm
Wednesday, June 15, 3-4:30 pm
Wednesday, June 22, 3-4:30 pm

The Sound Garden in concert dates:

Wednesday, June 8, 5:30-6:45 Glen Arbor Arts Center Front Porch
Wednesday, June 15, 5:30-6:45 Glen Arbor Arts Center Front Porch
Wednesday, June 22 5::45pm Leelanau School Auditorium – free tickets available on www.glenarborarts.org
Thursday, June 23, 5:30-6:45 pm, Leelanau School Auditorium (sold out)

Sound Garden Shenanigans: The Sound Garden Quintet’s mission is to “plant music in unexpected places at select locations around Glen Arbor and Empire from 2- 4pm. Below is a listing of venues:

Date	Time	Location #1	Location #2	Location #3
31 May	2-4pm	Leelanau Coffee	Synchronicity Gallery
2-Jun	2-4pm	Grocers’ Chocolate	Glen Lake library
6-Jun	56:30pm	Cottonseed
9-Jun	2-4pm	Becky Thatcher	Inn and Trail Gourmet	Northwoods Hardware
13-Jun	2-4pm	Crystal River Outfitters Cyclery	Post Office	Sleeping Bear Visitors Center
20-Jun	2-4pm	Cherry Republic	M 22 wine patio