Question of the Month: What are Your Summer Arts Plans?
Posted: 6/7/10 -- 3:39 pm
by Jim Leija
We’d love to know what arts activities your summer plans include? Are you going to Europe to see the Edinburgh Festival? Up to Stratford? Or staying closer to home for the Ann Arbor Summer Festival? What plays, concerts, and other arts activities will you be attending this summer?
Jim Leija is UMS Director of Education & Community Engagement. He's an alumni of the University of Michigan College of LSA, School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and School of Art & Design. Jim lives in Ann Arbor with his partner Aric and two dog-children named Olive and Maisie.
about 4 days ago 
about 7 days ago 
We have been living in Hermance, Switzerland since the end of February. So we have been to many of the great art museums in Europe. This includes, but isn't limited to, the Louvre, the D'Orsay, museums and churches in Florence, Rome, Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Paris, Basel, Krakow, Madrid, and many many others! We attended an amazing concert to dedicate a huge new arts complex in Lugano, Switzerland. It was a night of opera, orchestral music (mainly opera overtures), dance (a la Cirque de Soleil style), fireworks, food and fun. We just happened to arrive in Lugano, eat dinner, take a walk and wander into this amazing evening. This weekend is a weekend of street music in Geneva, near the village we are living in. And then when we return to A2 we'll be gearing up for all the Art Fair and Summer Festival events awaiting us! A summer of art and music!
LJS
Interlochen/Traverse City will be a destination for a few events including the Punch Brothers, who performed at UMS and the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Other plans definitely include the Summer Solstice Jazz Festival in East Lansing to hear Somi in a couple of weekends, who I have heard wonderful things about and of course, Joe Lovano. The Montreal Jazz Festival is also a blast, so I hope to make it back this year!
DCJ
I am so jealous you are seeing the Punch Brothers again! I am really bummed to be missing their Ark show in July as I'll be out of town. I'm hoping to catch them in Grand Rapids. I can't wait for their new CD release next week! I'd love to hear how the show was!
Liz Stover
Taking my 9 year old Shakespeare fan to the Michigan Shakespeare Festival in Jackson for the third year in a row. Taking the whole family to Wayne State's Hilberry Theater to see Robin Hood (every summer they provide a high-quality children's theater performance).
Elizabeth
Well we went to the University of Toronto for the Chester Cycle…28 plays based on the Bible from when they were performed in Chester England over 500 years ago. Numerous colleges in USA and Canada participated and they all performed on hay wagons with portable sets so as to approximate the wagons of acting troops that used to go from town to town in England. U of M Residential College did Noah's ARK. Most everyone stayed in the dorms @ Victoria College…rate there in the Summer is $35/night…included breakfast in the dinning hall. Matter of fact, I've stayed at Canadian school from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the Summers.
Bob
Long-time friends will get together for three operas including Verdi's Macbeth at the Des Moines Metro Opera festival in early July: http://www.desmoinesmetroopera.org. Then two plays at the Michigan Shakespeare Festival in Jackson, MI later in July: http://www.michiganshakespearefestival.com/ and two more at the Stratford Shakespeare festival in August: http://www.stratfordfestival.ca
Linda
Well we went to the University of Toronto for the Chester Cycle…28 plays based on the Bible from when they were performed in Chester England over 500 years ago. Numerous colleges in USA and Canada participated and they all performed on hay wagons with portable sets so as to approximate the wagons of acting troops that used to go from town to town in England. U of M Residential College did Noah’s ARK. Most everyone stayed in the dorms @ Victoria College…rate there in the Summer is $35/night…included breakfast in the dinning hall. Matter of fact, I’ve stayed at Canadian school from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the Summers.
Jacqueline
Michigan Renaissance Festival. Don't laugh. Some high quality musical treats–Owain Phyfe, Circa Paleo. Some incredibly witty banter during creative stage shows (though not all).
Sunfest in London, Ontario.
DSO to hear Yo-Yo Ma & Silk Road.
Susan
The annual theater marathon with friends at Stratford, Ontario. We maximize the time with 6 plays in three days! i look forward every year to indulging in one play after another, after another, after another……
Dody
I went to the Detroit Symphony's Salute to America at Greenfield Village on Friday night. I had never been before and really enjoyed it!! The weather was perfect and the fireworks were great. Nice way to spend the holiday weekend.
On Saturday I saw Caravan Palace, presented by the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. Did anyone else see them? It was SUCH a great show…they were so much fun. Check out their latest music video here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9qqvl_caravan-p…
Liz Stover
I stayed in Ann Arbor and was involved in the Ann Arbor Dance Works 25th Anniversary. I will be headed to the Bates Dance Festival in Maine to work with Dance Professionals for three weeks and seeing a number of dance concerts by professional companies.
Briana
We're going to England the last two weeks in July for two Russian classical dance companies:
the Mikhailovsky Ballet of St Petersburg performing at the Coliseum Theatre and the Bolshoi Company of Moscow performing at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
jpc
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