Tag: piano

Complementary Colors

On Saturday, May 6, 2023, we’ll present Complementary Colors, our spring concert program exploring the use of color in many different artistic disciplines from music to painting to poetry and beyond. It’s a dynamic program of chamber music, spoken word, and visual art that… Continue Reading “Complementary Colors”

Winter Songs & Carols: Our 2017 Concert Program

Thank you to everyone who came to hear Manitou Winds’ 2017 Winter Songs & Carols program. Each year, we put together a unique collection of songs in various styles performed on many different instruments to inspire you to embrace the entire season of winter.… Continue Reading “Winter Songs & Carols: Our 2017 Concert Program”

What the Stars Saw on the Prairie

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” — Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) from The Rest is Noise When my paternal grandmother passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in December 2005, I had recently moved to Chicago and was unable to travel… Continue Reading “What the Stars Saw on the Prairie”

Variety: It’s the Spice!

Our September 24th concert was an experiment: a test to see just how much variety could be crammed into a single concert program performed by a single ensemble. To up the ante, we also added an element of chance; allowing the audience to play… Continue Reading “Variety: It’s the Spice!”

Conferring with the Sun

This post was written in preparation for our May 2017 concert, Music Speaks In our 2017 spring concert, Manitou Winds explores the meandering, mystical path connecting music and words. Words were created to communicate. Whether spoken or written, we need words to translate, convey,… Continue Reading “Conferring with the Sun”

One Ambivalent Shepherd

We explore one of Franz Schubert’s most celebrated lieder and learn how music and words can become inseparable.

A Manitou Christmas Medley

In our annual winter concert, Manitou Winds presents a program of music, poetry, and prose inspiring you to embrace winter. As creative director of Manitou Winds, I spend a lot of time searching through titles and listening to music, curating the individual pieces that… Continue Reading “A Manitou Christmas Medley”

Three Fiddle Tunes

This post was written in preparation for our September 2016 summer program. “The Secret Life of Barns (Cedar)” by Ellie Harold, 2016 Collaborating Artist For our Summer Fantasies concert, we invite you to join us in a colorful journey for the imagination as we… Continue Reading “Three Fiddle Tunes”

Summer Fantasies: Three Reveries

Within our Summer Fantasies concert program, there are three pieces I’ve dubbed “reveries”. I refer to them this way primarily as an intentional nod to their French origins, but also because each was inspired by or intended to evoke a dream-like fantasy.

New Voices: Jason McKinney

“I did not sit down, one day, and decide I would write “Three Narratives,” says Jason McKinney. “The piece just happened to come together during a very difficult time in my life. The structure of the piece, the melodies inside the structure—these were all comforts to me, a way of coping.”