Tag: Singing

REVIEW: The Dicks and Janes- It’s Not Delivery, It’s DJorno and Album Release

kjtopor

The transition from the Polar Vortex couldn’t have been more wonderful. I went from walking from the Bursley-Baits busstop to the MLB, fighting face-biting winds and dangerously slippery sidewalks, to strolling across the diag’s grass in the light of the setting sun. Warmth. But last night, the sun wasn’t the only thing that put a smile on my face. I had the opportunity to attend The Dicks and Janes: It’s not Delivery, It’s DJorno and Album Release performance.

The concert was held in the MLB at 7:30pm on Friday, April 11, 2014. My friends and I walked in, greeted by excited grins and tables of t-shirts and albums. We walked into the auditorium to upbeat music which was quickly interrupted by Justin Wong, who introduced the Maize Mirchi, a South Asian, co-ed a cappella group. A 30 minute set by the Maize Mirchi sang a lively array of music, including both pop and cultural tunes.  Their chemistry was evident, and I found myself smiling throughout the entire performance.

Maize Mirchi
Maize Mirchi

After an amazing opener from the Maize Mirchi, the Dicks and Janes took the stage at 8pm. The a cappella crew, who took 3rd at the ICCA quarter finals this year, came out ready to sing. They began the night with a stunning rendition of Zedd’s Clarity. After their first song, they talked quickly about the concert, the songs, and their album! They moved swiftly through the next few songs, which included Happiness is a Warm Gun by the Beatles, Bottles by V.V. Brown, Delicate/I Won’t Give Up by Damien Rice/Jason Mraz, A cappella by Karmin, and OK, It’s All Right from the Dicks and Janes’ album- Flying Bicycles. I was disappointed to take an intermission after senior Sarah Szollar’s breathtaking solo in OK, It’s All Right.

While looking through the program, I was surprised to find a majority of six freshman! But the young group wasn’t defined by year, only by talent. Kait Mulder and Austin Terris tore up their solos! I was amazed by their range and solo in I Won’t Give Up and Happiness is a Warm Gun.  Throughout the next few songs, I was thrilled by their dancing, stomping, and incredible skrillex-like bass drops.

We learned, through small skits and jokes, that the Dicks and Janes album is compiled of 5 years’ worth of music and groups. We also learned that they went through many album names…from punny to downright hilarious! While names like  Barackapella, Falling From Grace Notes, and my personal favorite- Queen Jane and the Dicktators- were thrown around, they eventually settled on Flying Bicycles.

After a brief intermission, we were continually delighted the Dicks and Janes’ vocal ability. They had great range, great chemistry, and everyone had a good opportunity to showcase their voice.

The show continued with Bizness by Tune- Yards, Here We Go by Mat Kearney, Royals by Lorde, the groups ICCA set, which included Why Oh Why by Little Big Town, The Plains/Bitter Dancer by Fleet Foxes, and It Doesn’t mean a Thing by Club Des Belugas. My two favorite moments of the night were both in the ICCA set; I’m not at all surprised they received such a high ranking. During Bitter Dancer, all the men in the group really stepped forward and sang out. Now, maybe I’m just a sucker for guys who can sing, but that was an amazing musical moment. During the final song of the set, the group seemed to be huddling together, but much to my surprise, they exploded into musical and visual waves. Arms flew around as the Dicks and Janes incorporated a sick bass drop into their a cappella set. I was blown away!

The show ended with a small award presentation to Justin Wong, who has really gone above and beyond to make this group as good as possible, and followed up by a heartwarming sendoff for the three seniors in the group- Elise Coletta, Jeff Ferguson, and Sarah Szollar.

All in all, I would highly recommend listening to the Dicks and Janes if you have the chance! Check out their album- Flying Bicycles- which should be on iTunes shortly! The Dicks and Janes would like to thank the alumni of the group for all of their help on this album!

The Dicks and Janes
The Dicks and Janes

REVIEW: Women’s Glee Club Fall Concert

Chelsea Zabel
Photo from A Night of Premieres Facebook event page

A night of premieres and a night of transitions, the Women’s Glee Club fall concert was fantastic. As a celebration of Hill Auditorium’s 100th anniversary, each song the club sang was composed or arranged in the year 2013, and the styles ranged from classical to operatic to pop.

The song choices were not the only demonstration of range in this concert, however, because there were little kids! Little, elementary-aged kids from the Ann Arbor Youth Chorale Descant Choir; older, middle school-aged kids from the Ann Arbor Youth Chorale Concert Choir; and even older, high school-aged girls from the Ann Arbor Huron High School Bel Canto Choir. It was a shocking, adorable transition when the Women’s Glee Club left the stage after a few opening songs and the tiny Descant Choir entered. Their first song, “The Path to the Moon”, remains one of my favorites of the concert because they all looked and sounded so adorable on the massive Hill Auditorium stage.

Each choir took the stage—getting progressively older, taller, and more mature voices—until we were back to the Women’s Glee Club, which proceeded to add another level to their program in the second act. A graduate student in the school of Music, Theatre, and Dance, the immensely talented Elizabeth Galafa joined the club as a soloist for a beautiful piece titled “BeNevel Vekinor”, which was composed by University of Michigan doctoral student Asaf Peres.

This one concert told a tale of the passion for singing that can span across decades of life. It just might be that some of the children who performed that night and heard the college students sing will be inspired to pursue music. Perhaps the next U of M graduate student studying voice or the next composer was sitting in the seats tonight after performing with his or her school choir. Concerts like this are important not just for the students who participate in them, but for the community to see and hear the talent that surrounds them.

Also, I can’t end this without saying that these women did a kick-ass version of the Bellas Final from Pitch Perfect. I mean it. Top notch.

Moral of the story: check out a Women’s Glee Club concert sometime, you guys.

PREVIEW: Women’s Glee Club Fall Concert

Chelsea Zabel

Who: University of Michigan Women’s Glee Club

What: U of M Women’s Glee Club Fall Concert 2013: A Night of Premieres

When: Saturday, November 9 at 8:00PM

Where: Hill Auditorium

Why you should be there(!): The University of Michigan Women’s Glee Club is an organization composed of fantastically talented young women. The combination of beautiful voices and unique song choices always leads to musical performances that are definitely worth hearing. (This is apparent in their performance of “Frobisher Bay” in a 2012 concert, and no I am not biased just because I was in it.)

This concert will feature many songs written specifically for the Women’s Glee Club, as well as special performances from local youth choirs. Tickets for this event are $5 for students, or free when you use a Passport to the Arts! Check out the Facebook event page for even more details.

REVIEW: G-Fest

Gabriella

With an almost full lower level at the Power Center for the Performing Arts, student performance groups across Michigan pulled together October 18 for G-Fest, a 2-hour extravaganza of singing, dancing, comedy, slam poetry, percussion and glow-stick dancing. Each act brought something fresh and new to the 5th Annual G-Fest. Alumni G-Men from the inaugural show had the honors of opening this one. Not only were the acts solidly executed, but the ever quirky, comical G-Men introducing them kept the show’s momentum running strong throughout the entire program. Personal favorite included when two G-Men made dubstep with their mouths, including dubbing the beats to Snoop Dogg’s “Drop it Likes it Hot” and Ginuwine’s “Pony.” I think this was when the crowd cheered the loudest the whole time, although each group received a respectable amount of loud, rambunctious applause, and for good reason.

The G-Mens opening number
The G-Men's opening number

The Harmonettes killed it in black pumps and blue jeans.
The Harmonettes killed it in black pumps and blue jeans.

I found myself feeling like I was an extra cast member in Pitch Perfect when the G-Men and Harmonettes sang in harmony and pitch together. The G-Men pulled off a catchy Spanish number to open the show, followed by a mash-up of Maroon 5’s “Harder to Breathe” and Adele’s “Skyfall.” Pure ear candy. In the second part of the show, the self-proclaimed always classy, sometimes sassy Harmonettes brought their girl power with Little Mix’s “Wings,” my favorite number from their set. To quote the movie, both groups were “aca-awesome.”

Asante looks dapper in his top hat and jacket.
Asante looks dapper in his top hat and white jacket.

Asante, the only solo act on the bill, sang two original compositions at the piano. He described the process of creating his own music by visualizing different keys as different colors and putting it all together. His two pieces complemented each other perfectly well, and had the venue feeling like a small intimate jazz club. As a senior in the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, he was one of my favorite acts for his ability to silence and mesmerize the crowd with his smooth voices and even smoother piano playing. He’s got showmanship down, looking and sounding mighty classy. I loved every minute of it.

The Michigan Raas Team
The Michigan Raas Team
Photonixs eye candy
Photonix's eye candy

The first dance group, Michigan Raas Team, performed to traditional Indian music wearing traditional Indian costumes. Their fluid movements had me wanting to get up and dance too, if I knew how to dance like that. G-Fest ended with Photonix, a group that dances with glow sticks to create visual art with trippy trance music in the background. It takes a whole lot of talent to wave glow sticks up and down to create something magical, and Photonix’s did just that in this out-of-this-world finale.

Grooves jamming out on trash cans
Groove's jamming out on trash cans

Before intermission, Groove beat their trashcans and quad drums made of plastic bins to perform several numbers of carefully crafted percussion numbers. The intensity and speed at which these performers can go is remarkable, and I can only imagine how much time and practice they endure to get it just right. These guys nailed it, and the best part is all their instruments are random, common items one wouldn’t expect to find in a formal show. Groove’s ingenuity, coupled with their urban allure, made for a stylistic success to round out the first half.

ComCos improv players provided plenty to laugh about.
ComCo's improv players provided plenty to laugh about.

Not only did talent lie in the musicality of performances, but in comics and poets, too. The first half featured six ComCo. members, campus’s oldest improv comedy group, playing various games with audience participation. They pulled off one of comedy’s greatest exercises, telling a story with someone else’s hands behind them guiding the action. Another game had the game master control the flow of dialogue, interrupting a “mother/daughter” pair whenever he didn’t like what they were saying and making them redo the line in a different way. The best part about the players was the sheer improvisation–these guys can think fast on their feet and that makes it all the more enjoyable and entertaining. One of the highlights of the night for me was being able to laugh at the absurdity of the situations the players acted out.

Four members of the Slam Poetry Club read their poems on stage, giving the audience chills with their themes of growing up, being there for someone in tough times and a poem chronicling Adam and Eve’s experience in couple’s therapy. Each poet slammed really well, slowing and quickening their voices at the appropriate times and really speaking from the heart. It takes a lot of guts to speak like that in front of such a large audience, and these kids nailed it.

I couldn’t have asked for a better Friday night listening to and seeing all the great talent this campus has to offer. Each group shined, and it made me even prouder to be a Michigan Wolverine. Even though G-Fest was just a sampling of the many performance groups on campus, it accomplished its goal of entertaining attendees. Bravo, everyone, for your amazing performances.

REVIEW: Rachel Mazer

nina.j

Rachel Mazer

A few weeks ago, U of M School of Music Jazz singer/saxophone player extraordinaire Rachel Mazer performed her very own songs at the Canterbury House on 721 East Huron Street.With the accompaniment of a medley of musicians from the School of Music as well as several alums, Rachel amazed the intimate audience with her incredibly luscious voice. As classic as Billie Holiday and as fresh as Beyoncé, Rachel delivered five original songs and one inspired by the greats. In fact, after her performance I asked her what her vision had been for her show and she said something along the lines of  “to make jazz approachable, easy, and hip to our generation.” The possibility of adding  Jazz overtones to some Beyoncé covers is one of the projects she has up her sleeve- one day, after hopefully recording her own work first. I have heard Rachel play saxophone before, but until her show I had never had the pleasure of hearing her belt it out on stage.  It was a treat for all who were present, and I will definitely be waiting for her Beyoncé remixes to come out on vinyl.

REVIEW: Sprites and Satire at the Mendelssohn: UMGASS’s Iolanthe

Jackson Tucker-Meyer 1 Comment

In the director’s note for Robyn Tierney’s UMGASS production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe, she says “I could have manifested my own creative expression into the delivery of the show, but I believe Gilbert and Sullivan had enough creative expression of their own; mine would only complicate things…I would present Iolanthe in a more traditional environment, one that captures the original brilliance and wit of our two theatrical heroes.” It’s a long-running debate in the world of repertory-based music-theatre: should the director preserve “traditional” practices and try to produce the piece as it would have been on the night it premiered, or should they go in an uncommon direction to try and bring out an aspect of the work that has hitherto gone unnoticed by past interpreters? Directors who pursue either approach run the risk of losing sight of the paying public and alienating audiences. The traditionalist can present a performance that is pedantically attentive to the practices of a bygone age, and thus of interest only to historians. The nontraditionalist can craft an interpretation so radically different that the meaning of the piece is lost, and confuses both newcomers and audience members familiar with the piece. It takes a director with a strong sense of the heart of a particular theatrical work to bring any production to life, “traditional” or not.

Thankfully, Tierney understands Iolanthe very well. She brings out the edgy irony of the piece with aplomb, while not neglecting the slightly mystical unearthliness. This production of Iolanthe is the best kind of Gilbert and Sullivan production, one that has all of the charm and none of the quaintness, decidedly Victorian in atmosphere but with the slightest pinch of 21st-century irreverence.

A good supplement to Tierney’s traditionalist cause is the fact that Iolanthe is a Gilbert and Sullivan work that has aged reasonably well. The trademark Gilbertian social satire is simultaneously biting and absurd (although rather less subtle than in, say, The Mikado), with a plot concerning a painfully idiotic House of Peers having their political powers taken away by a crew of vengeful fairies. The jibes about the folly of having politicians vote based on which party they belong to, rather than what they personally believe, seem particularly pertinent in today’s political climate.

The cast, as per usual with UMGASS, gave thoroughly intelligent and charming portrayals of their characters. The two ensembles in particular brought everything that was needed. Each member of the House of Peers, plus the Lord Chancellor (Don Regan), brought a definite and different brand of buffoonery to each individual part, from Jon Roselle’s obsequious Lord Tolloller to Don Regan’s alternatingly intellectual and befuddled Lord Chancellor. The fairies were exceedingly animated and characterful as well, graceful and sardonic in equal measure. The contrast between the sassy sprites and the blustering bluebloods was terrific to watch. Amanda O’Toole brought a noble bearing and a truly glorious contralto voice to the role of the Fairy Queen. Joshua Glassman combined a gleefully goofy demeanor and a sterling tenor voice in his portrayal of Strephon. Alexandria Strother, as Phyllis, delivered her dialogue with a strikingly naturalistic bent and her lyrics with a pristine soprano tone. Tina Pandya’s choreography was exceedingly well-suited to the music and lyrics: very merry, somewhat silly and occasionally even witty, not something easy to pull off with dance. Not to be discounted are the lovely costumes by Marilyn Gouin and Tam Prentice, which clearly defined the personalities and stations of the various characters with economy and beauty. Also to be commended are the lovely sets designed by Cynthia Lempert and Laura Strowe, evoking the Arcadian environs of the fairies in the first act and creating a picturesque nighttime view of the London skyline in the second.

One minor quibble I had concerned the delivery of some of the lines. Gilbert’s deliberately arch and verbose style, while effective in its time at lampooning the artificial stage conceits that Gilbert so despised, needs a little something extra to come off properly today. The words, while extremely eloquent and clever, ought to be “sold” a little in order to come off properly; this is especially true in the long and intricate passages of dialogue delineating the paradoxes and puzzles of logic that were Gilbert’s forte. It’s a delicate balance, for if the lines or lyrics are too heavily exaggerated, then the wit is lost; however, if they are said too plainly, the import of the words is easy to miss. There should be just the slightest splash of Technicolor in the delivery, just a little something extra to make the words truly register. For the most part, the cast did very well at keeping this balance. Two cast members in particular achieved this clarity through very different methods: Glassman delivered his lines with a delightful silliness that somehow felt perfectly natural, stopping just short of too much; Regan spoke his lines with pinpoint diction and a terrific sense of timing, pausing ever so slightly in his monologues to give the jokes just enough time to set in before moving on. Still, there were a few occasions where some lines that ought to have won gleeful guffaws ended up getting a bit lost, receiving only a smattering of chuckles. But this was only the first night—now that the cast has played to a full audience, hopefully they will be able to easily find their oratorical bearings.

If you are looking to introduce yourself to the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, Iolanthe might be one of the best ones to see first. It has all the hallmarks of the Gilbert and Sullivan style in full effect: intricate absurdity wedded with music of beautiful sprightliness (ably conducted by music director Matthew Balmer and performed by the orchestra, which has too many members to name here). If that sounds at all appealing to you, Iolanthe will more than likely be well worth your time.

Iolanthe is running December 7-8 at 8:00 P.M. and December 8-9 at 2:00 P.M. at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. Tickets are available at www.umgass.org