The Glen Arbor Arts Center and Interlochen Public Radio are once again bringing free community pop-up performances to businesses and public locations around the region. Between June 3-15 the Fivemind Reeds Quintet will play at spots including the Glen Lake Narrows (pictured here), the Arts Center front porch, the Leelanau School beach, and the Glen Lake Library in Empire. For more information, click here.
The Leelanau Peninsula, with its saturated colors and resplendent landscape, has long been a magnet—and perhaps, even a torment—for countless artists. This magical corner of northern Michigan offers a rich, resonating color palette: from the azure blues of Sleeping Bear Bay to the chartreuse fields of Port Oneida to the lavender orchards flanking Center Highway. George Peebles of Grand Rapids is one such artist who has long been drawn to Leelanau County, and who so masterfully depicts its terrain with his vibrant, bold oil paintings. In recognition of Peebles’ enormous artistic talent, the Glen Arbor Arts Center has selected his work, Empire Bluffs, as the image for the annual Manitou Music Poster. Empire Bluffs—like the whole of Peebles’ body of work—is distinctive for its blazing, almost electric color. It is a kaleidoscopic tapestry of sorts. Indeed, the employment of high-octane hues is very much Peebles’ signature. That his work is so deeply color-driven is especially remarkable given that Peebles is colorblind.
The Traverse City Dance Project returns as part of the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s (GAAC) 2023 Manitou Music lineup. The performance is July 29 at 7 pm at Nash Road Red Barn, located at 9805 Nash Road near Maple City. Sponsored by the GAAC and Interlochen Public Radio, and hosted by Pine Street Studios, the Traverse City Dance Project’s performance will feature original choreography, live music, and professional dancers from around the country.
A variety of sounds will fill the air during the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s Manitou Music series this year, from piano to saxophones to drums, drums and more drums. The series kicks off April 28 with pianist Tyler Faruzzi, and concludes Aug. 24 with New Music Detroit’s take on chamber music, featuring works by 20th-century composers.
Grand Rapids artist Randi Ford’s acrylic-on-canvas painting “Path Through Time” is the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s 2023 Manitou Music poster image. Ford’s painting was selected by the GAAC’s Manitou Music Poster Committee from a field of 40 entries. The 2023 poster can be viewed and purchased online at GlenArborArt.org and the GAAC office.
The Glen Arbor Arts Center’s Manitou Music series opens Thursday, June 30, with QuinTango, performing at 5 p.m. at the Glen Lake School indoor auditorium. QuinTango’s woman-powered quintet and male Argentine bandoneon player reimagine traditional tango using classical chops, jazz harmonies, and arrangements. The concert is free, but guests are asked to pre-register at GlenArborArt.Org/events/quintango.
If Maria Ulrich is the wizard at the sound board (or more likely these days, at the tablet and monitors), then lucky listeners and presenters alike can relax under her professional support. Ulrich will run Glen Arbor’s Manitou Music series starting next year.
The Chatham Rabbits hop onto the Lake Street Studio Stage on Sunday, August 4, at 8 pm to perform the next Manitou Music series concert.
The Glen Arbor Arts Center’s Summer Singers will “Talk About Art” during a short program of conversation and songs about home and place on August 4, at 2 p.m. at the GAAC, located at 6031 S. Lake St., in Glen Arbor. This program is open to the public at no charge.
May Erlewine is a contemporary folk singer and songwriter based in Traverse City whose pastoral, socially conscious music has won a sizable and growing following throughout the Midwest and beyond. Erlewine performs on Lake Street Studio Stage as part of the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s Manitou Music series on Sunday, July 28, at 8 pm.