Art Project Grant
Art Project Grant
Lake Wobegon Brass Band: 30-member brass ensemble performs in concert at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts in Grand Marais, Minnesota.
Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kayla Aubid: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; Ariana Daniel: mixed media artist, arts instructor; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Emily Swanson: arts administrator at Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community.
Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner.
ACHF Arts Access
Our short-term measurable outcome for this project is to offer our community a musical performance by an exceptional ensemble in a format that will be fresh and unique for many of our audience members. There just aren't many brass ensembles of 30+ players on tour these days, and the array of musical genres performed by the Lake Wobegon Brass Band -- from compositions by Martin Luther and Johann Sebastian Bach, to more modern works such as jazz songs by Pat Metheny and the "Toy Story" theme by Randy Newman -- include something to satisfy every musical appetite. Our long-term measurable outcome of this project is to add something new (we've never before hosted a large brass ensemble like this) to the wide array of excellent, diverse music we present our community each season, thereby deepening our populace's appreciation of and appetite for the vast smorgasbord of exciting artistic and cultural experiences that are out there. Project outcome evaluation will include a count of concert attendees by number of tickets sold, and assessment of post-event feedback both verbal and written (surveys filled out by audience members and comments sent via social media, email, and letter). 70 or more performance tickets sold and a survey consensus of high satisfaction will be the marks of a successful project. The NSMA Director will present numbers and feedback to the Board of Directors for evaluation and discussion. We will use this information to design future programming that effectively meets the expectations and needs of our audiences.
Our goal for this project was to offer our community a musical performance by an exceptional ensemble in a unique musical style and format that we had not presented before, thereby adding to the array of great, diverse music that we present each season. Lake Wobegon Brass Band truly is a top-notch professional ensemble, and it's quite a unique style of band to find in the Midwestern US. A traditional British-style brass band (though not all their repertoire is British), they spend time every year in England working with British composers and conductors. In fact, conductor Michael Halstenson shared, this summer they are headed to compete in their first British brass band competition, something they haven't dared before because the competition is so stiff. After the concert, which was finished off with a resounding romp through "William Tell Overture Finale," people exclaimed to Michael and band members that they clearly had a strong chance of placing high in the contest.
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