Arts Tour Minnesota

The Northern Lights Music Festival toured both chamber music and opera productions to Duluth, Chisholm, Virginia and Ely. Minnesota artists were included in both the chamber music and opera performances, with a payroll or more than $40,000 for freelance players and singers who live on the Iron Range, in the Duluth area, and in the Twin Cities. In Duluth, Duluth musicians were included in the chamber music program: Jeremy Craycraft, percussion professor at the College of Saint Scholastica, and his protégé, Chris Belich, were the percussionists for the Minnesota/United States premiere of Nikolai Kapustin’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion. In Virginia, opera star Yevgeny Shapovalov created a sing-along with the audience. In Ely, Minnesota chamber musicians had an opportunity to perform in a professional venue. The opera chorus included more than thirty Minnesota amateur and professional singers from the region, standing shoulder to shoulder with professional artists from around the world. A pre-opera lecture was provided at every location, attended by more than 300 persons. The increase in audience size at the lectures was immensely important to us, showing that our audiences are eager for more educational programming. 2: Chisholm was a new community to us, and the attendance and interest at every level--civic and musical—was gratifying. We sold 350 tickets in this first effort. The Chisholm auditorium is very large, and we had hoped for a higher number; however, the Chisholm administration informed us that we had the highest attendance in recent memory for an event held in that venue. We look to the West Range as an area for further development, artistically and administratively. We have already identified board members from the Chisholm/Hibbing/Pengilly areas who have expressed interest in supporting our organization and its activities.