April 20, 2005
Students take in tango at Opera House
School programs, concerts part of City Opera House Jazz, Blues and Tango Series
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Students from Interlochen Community School were steeped in tango music Friday afternoon, where for an hour complex rhythms and sumptuous sounds wafted from the stage of the City Opera House.
The 150 fourth, fifth and sixth grade students learned about the history, sounds and instruments that make the distinctive Argentine dance beat thanks to the Fifth-Third Jazz, Blues & Tango Series. This three-part mini-series is a collaboration between the City Opera House Heritage Association and the Northwest Michigan Jazz Experience.
Some of the young people listening to the tango music were carried away by the sounds.
"It just kept me relaxed and when I closed my eyes I thought of a radio and it just seemed like the music was coming from the radio - it was really interesting," said Haley Lamson, a fifth-grade student at the school. "It just jumped out and made me listen."
Other sixth-grade students who are just beginning to study instruments said Friday's program inspired them musically.
Melissa Lakies, a sixth-grade student at the school, is learning the viola and said the Tango program made her take her instrument more seriously. Her classmate, Sierra Pierce, also found the trip to the City Opera House motivating.
"The man who was playing the violin, I play the violin too, it inspired me to get better so I could play like that," she said, adding that the music made pictures for her. "One of the more fast pieces that they played, when I closed my eyes I could picture people dancing to it."
Friday also featured an evening program for the community, which drew 125 people for an evening of music, dance and a reception at the City Opera House. Members of the Latin and Argentine Tango Club of Detroit demonstrated the intricate, sensual moves of the dance. They also led a dance lesson for interested participants after the show.
Both components of the Friday's event featured the music of Astor Piazzolla, a renowned Argentine musician and composer of more than 1,000 pieces who revolutionized the tango. The Phoenix Ensemble from Ann Arbor, with Peter Soave on the bandoneon, presented Piazzolla's music during both performances.
"Astor Piazzolla was interested in taking dance music and making it something you could listen to," said Derek Snyder, a cellist with the Phoenix Ensemble, told the Interlochen students. "He liked strong rhythms, but he also added parts to it so that you can sit and listen to it."
Snyder discussed the components of the Piazzolla sound, including the bass line that starts a song and gives it texture, the violin that begins 'scratchy' but moves into a smooth melody after the song starts, the figure by the bandoneon and the harmony line of the flute.
Termed a virtuoso of the bandoneon, an instrument Piazzolla played, Peter Soave discussed the history of this instrument as well as accordions with the students. Invented in Germany, the bandoneon traveled to Argentina with immigrants and became the instrument of tango music.
"It was originally intended for religious music because it can create very haunting resonances," said Soave, who demonstrated how the instrument could sustain notes and make sounds that typify music of different cultures.
The mission of the Jazz, Blues & Tango Series is to celebrate diversity through music. Part of that means not only offering programs to the community in general, but to under-served youth in the area. During the three programs, more than 450 upper elementary students from Interlochen Community, Blair and Glenn Loomis will listen to and learn about different types of music.
"I think the fact that we will be about to touch 450 students is very telling," said Gerie Greenspan, executive director of the City Opera House Heritage Association.
Greenspan added that the Jazz, Blues & Tango series dovetails with the overall mission of the City Opera House.
"Our entire campaign for the final sequence is wrapped up in the idea of program delivery, diverse program delivery," she said. "So that is exactly what we were trying to do, bring a showcase series, a mini series here. It's part of what we've raised the money for this capital campaign: to demonstrate to the community the current value of the Opera House."
The two other components of the Jazz, Blues & Tango series will be Blues Women of the 20th Century, on Friday, May 6, at 8 p.m. and The Music of Miles, Mingus and Monk on Friday, May 27, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 for general admission to each of the remaining two programs. They are available at Horizon Books, Border's, Oryana, the Downtown Traverse City Association and the Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau.