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8 - Friday, January 19, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
CONCERT PREVIEW
Show marks 30 years
POETRY PREVIEW
Poet's road trip to stop
at the Power Center
By CATHERINE SMYKA
Daily Arts Writer
Though it may seem the only place to find
both a uilleann pipe-playing rock band and
a musical number by the cast of UMS's "The
Pajama Game" in the same room would be an
airport lobby (or maybe the Diag), the Music
School has prepared a single show featuring
these and 20 other diverse groups.
More than 300 students, headed by Music
School Prof. Paul Rardin, offer the Univer-
sity community what he
calls a "one-hour musical Collage
postcard from the School Saturday at
of Music, Theater and 8p.m.
Dance." In its yearly per- At Hill Auditorium
formance, the Collage
Concert, which will play $15-d$25, $9
Saturday at Hill Audito- with student ID
rium, incorporates all the disciplines of the
Music School into a melodious collection.
The Collage Concert was founded in 1976
by then-Music School orchestra director Gus-
tav Meier. It's a musical collaboration of every
creative element Music School students could
offer, stringing performers back-to-back in
an exhausting two-act production. While one
group is still moving off the stage, a different
part of it lights up, allowing the show to swiv-
el rightfromthe SymphonyBand's last note to
a solo pianist's opening chord.
"This is short-attention span theater for
those who love music," Rardin said. "If you
don't like something, in three minutes some-
thing else will be coming very quickly."
A panel of judges builds the annual Col-
lage Concert package, starting with the usual
larger ensembles - Symphony Band, Cham-
ber Choir, University Choir, Jazz Ensemble
From there, everything else is up to students'
imagination.
Students sent in recordings of their best
work, from four cellos playing a Britney
Spears song to a Bach solo piano piece, hoping
to earn a coveted spot in the show. Starting
just last year, theater and dance groups were
also welcomed into the Collage family.
"They enhance what we've already been
doing," Rardin said. "We are all about variety
and diversity in this show."
According to Rardin, the show features
contrasts of big and small, serious and fun and
Western and non-Western music and groups.
"It absolutely doesn't compare to any
other show. That's like comparing apples to
Beethoven," Rardin said. "There's no applause
in between numbers and we connect piece to
piece with lighting."
The concert's founding father, Gustav
Gustav Meiler, a tormer Music School orchestra
director, will he a guest conductor on Saturday.
Meier, will be guest conducting the orches-
tra.
"We would like to honor him and his idea,"
Rardin said. "We're allowing applause when
he comes on."
Since its beginning 30 years ago, the Col-
lage Concert hasn't changed its format.
According to Rardin, the idea isto "stick with
the formula and change the music."
"To think about the abilities of the stu-
dents next to you in the hall, that's amazing,"
Rardin said. "This concert really helps you to
embrace the diverse interests and talents of
the school."
BY ABIGAIL B. COLODNER
Daily Arts Writer
The roadtrip thatleads to self-under-
standing is a popular American myth.
For poet, teacher
and native. New the 51st
Yorker Sekou Sun- (dream)
diata, the decision s
to get on the road
was provoked by Saturday at
events that gave 8 p.m.
him a stunningly $14-$34
strong feeling of At the Power
national identity Center
and prompted a
road trip to try making sense of this
feeling.
Sundiata's two-year-long tour of
residencies at universities around the
nation resulted in a work called "the
51st (dream) state," which he brings to
the Power Center at 8 p. m. Saturday. In
conversations with a range of Ameri-
cans, the poet gathered a sense of how
the nation has changed since Sept. 11.
Instrumental music, singers, dance
and Sundiata's own poetry communi-
cate what he discovered.
In a public Brown Bag lecture at the
Institute for the Humanities Tuesday,
he described walking out of his down-
town New York office to the World
Trade Center site. The moment felt
surreal, bringing him a sense of true
"Americanness."
In his travels, Sundiata engaged
thosehemetinconversations aboutthe
current state of America. The personal
accounts he heard fueled this piece,
which looks critically at what he called
"the estrangement between Ameri-
can civic ideals and American civic
practice." A sense of shared emotions
after Sept. 11 suggested to the poet the
"dream state" or "common ground" as
he put it, which is the piece's title.
"Serious critique that's beyond com-
plaining is deep caring. I wanted to get
at the language of that," Sundiata said
during the lecture.
As part of his residency with the
University, Sundiata will also lead
workshops in today's day-long public
conference on the role of arts in the
community at the Michigan League.
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