Category: Events

Experience the Music of ‘Carmen’ with Philharmonia

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The Kalamazoo Philharmonia will wrap up its 2023–2024 season with a semi-staged opera performance of Carmen this weekend in collaboration with the West Michigan Opera Project. 

Under the direction of Andrew Koehler, the Kalamazoo Philharmonia will perform Carmen on Friday in Grand Rapids and on Sunday in Kalamazoo. 

Carmen is one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon. Composer Georges Bizet died at just 36 years of age, only a few months after the premiere of his magnus opus, while early audiences in Paris were still scandalized by the way the topic and music broke conventions. 

According to the Philharmonia’s season brochure, “The verité grittiness of the story, full of soldiers, thieves, cigarette factory laborers; the disastrous (if compulsively watchable) choices of the male protagonist, Don José; the seductive qualities of Carmen, precisely because of her complete disregard for societal niceties; and, of course, the picaresque, effortlessly melodic music of Bizet: all of these combine to create one of the most arresting dramas ever created, one whose influence was felt in almost every opera that followed.” 

Andrew Koehler will conduct the Philharmonia in a performance of "Carmen."
Professor of Music Andrew Koehler will direct the Kalamazoo Philharmonia this weekend in a semi-staged opera performance of “Carmen” in collaboration with the West Michigan Opera Project.

Friday’s free performance will start at 7 p.m. at Fountain Street Church, 24 Fountain Street NE, Grand Rapids. 

On Sunday, May 19, the Philharmonia will play at 3 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 212 S. Park Street in downtown Kalamazoo. Tickets will be sold at the door and will cost $7 for general admission, $3 for students and free for Kalamazoo College students. Credit cards will be accepted. 

Founded in 1990 by Barry Ross as the Kalamazoo College and Community Orchestra, the Kalamazoo Philharmonia brings together students, faculty, amateur and professional musicians of all ages to perform great music. 

For more information on this concert, contact Susan Lawrence in the Department of Music at 269.337.7070 or Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu.   

Jazz Band Seeks Packed House for Retiring Director

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Music Professor Tom Evans says he has dreamed of seeing a standing-room only crowd for a Kalamazoo College Jazz Band performance since he arrived at K in 1995. 

He’s never truly had that experience. But if there’s ever a time for a packed house, it’s this Friday, May 10, during Evans’ last concert as the Jazz Band’s director. The free and open-to-the-public performance—aptly themed That’s All, Folks—will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Dalton Theatre at Light Fine Arts. 

The concert will leave its audience Feeling Good, which conveniently is the final tune on the docket. Other selections on the program have special significance as they were among the first songs Evans played in his high school jazz band. They include Fever, Soulful Strut, Kickin’ It, Blues for Percy, Intro to Art, Out of the Doghouse, Hard Right and Puente Ariba. Attendees are encouraged to bring their dancing shoes to swing and sway in the aisles should the music inspire them to do so. 

“Finding the right words to express my gratitude to all my students and colleagues, from 1976 to the present, is difficult,” Evans said. “Quite simply, my career has afforded me some of the best experiences of my life. As such, I am sincerely grateful to all who have supported me along the way. And I am especially grateful for those with whom I’ve had the pleasure of making music. While my years of teaching and conducting were meaningful and momentous, I also hope that they were meaningful and momentous for those who shared my journey. How lucky I am to have had something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” 

For more information on this concert and music events, contact Susan Lawrence in the Department of Music at 269.337.7070 or Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu.   

Kalamazoo College Jazz Band Director Tom Evans at Dalton Theatre
Friday, May 10, will be the final Kalamazoo College Jazz Band performance for its director, Music Professor Tom Evans.

College Singers Return to Northern Michigan

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Kalamazoo College Singers, under the direction of Associate Professor of Music Chris Ludwa, will present their spring concert tour this month with concerts in Grayling, Traverse City, Bellaire and Charlevoix, and a cabaret at Short’s Brewery.

The public performances are at:

As a part of the tour, the College Singers will also perform at the Shawono Center in Grayling, a secure treatment facility serving adjudicated male juveniles ages 12-21, thanks in part to a grant from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council. This special performance will aim to bring an enriching arts experience to an underserved population while providing valuable experiential learning for the students. 

The program is titled “Be Like Water” and will present songs from a variety of sources and styles from the Renaissance, folk and popular music, each one centered on a theme of water. The concert is designed to uplift, inspire and transcend the current climate around politics, economics and war, offering a bit of hope.

Some pieces include piano, while others are a cappella, and audiences will also enjoy music by smaller ensembles and soloists. Singers come from as far away as Texas and as close as Traverse City, reflecting the College’s diverse population and vibrant study abroad emphasis.

No tickets are needed for the public performances, but a free-will offering will be taken to help defray the tour bus expense for the ensemble. More specific questions can be directed to Ludwa at cludwa@kzoo.edu.

Kalamazoo College Singers outside of Light Fine Arts
The Kalamazoo College Singers will begin their spring concert tour this month with concerts in Grayling, Traverse City, Bellaire and Charlevoix and a cabaret at Short’s Brewery.

Day of Gracious Giving is Wednesday, May 8

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Kalamazoo College is holding its Day of Gracious Giving on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. The annual giving day is the biggest fundraising day of the year for the College, and the entire K community is invited to come together to provide vital support for the student experience.    

Last year’s Day of Gracious Giving raised over $486,000 from 1,472 donors, not including the anonymous matching pool. Contributions of all sizes support scholarships and financial aid, faculty resources and K’s highest priorities.  

This year’s theme is going back, way back to commemorate the 50 years of the Day of Gracious Living—the inspiration for the Day of Gracious Giving. The Day of Gracious Living falls on a date chosen by student representatives, a surprise that’s revealed when the campus-wide email goes out and the chapel bells begin to ring, signaling to all students: classes are canceled, gather up your friends and get your sunscreen and beach blankets ready.  

 “We believe that the Day of Gracious Giving encompasses the traditional spirit of Day of Gracious Living—one of joy, appreciation and gratitude—especially on its 50th anniversary!” said Laurel Palmer, director of the Kalamazoo College Fund.   

Palmer encourages everyone in the K community to be a part of the Day of Gracious Giving—get groovy and gracious by being a part of the largest alumni and friend giving day of the year. This day is about participation, and your engagement makes a difference! So keep a look out on K’s social media and in your emails on May 8 to check out what’s sure to be a groovy scene.     

Want to advocate for the day? Share your K testimonial via social media to encourage participation, leverage a match or a challenge to inspire other donors, or make a charitable contribution.  

“Making a gift—of any size—on the Day of Gracious Giving helps to ensure that students are able to participate in the experiences that make a K education distinctive and transformative,” Palmer said.  

If you would like to give to the Day of Gracious Giving, please visit www.kzoo.edu/dayofgraciousgiving. Your contribution makes it possible for Kalamazoo College to provide brighter opportunities for K students—preparing them to shine a brighter light into the world as alumni.  

Link to Advocate and share your K testimonial:

Image of orange flowers says Day of Gracious Giving
This year’s theme is going back, way back to commemorate the 50 years of the Day of Gracious Living—the inspiration for the Day of Gracious Giving.
Five students in a basement with wood paneling and a coffee table
The President’s Student Ambassadors stepped back in time to film this year’s Day of Gracious Giving video. Watch for it on Wednesday, May 8.

Kitchen Lecture Speaker to Audiences: ‘Question Everything’

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The University of Notre Dame’s math department chair will visit Kalamazoo College at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, to deliver the annual Kitchen Lecture. 

Professor David Galvin will deliver a talk titled “Question Everything: Paradoxes, Surprises and Counterintuitive Truths” in the Hornets Suite, 1600 W. Michigan Ave. He will discuss mathematics as an exact science that contains oddities and paradoxes that have serious implications and consequences in the real world. By the end of the discussion, attendees should expect to see that it’s a wise strategy to take nothing for granted and question everything. 

Galvin has been teaching at Notre Dame since 2013 since serving the University of Illinois, the Newton Institute and the University of Washington as a visiting professor. He also completed postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania after obtaining a Ph.D. in math from Rutgers University, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Cambridge University. 

The George Kitchen Memorial Lectureship was established at K in 1999 to honor the life of George Kitchen, a mathematician who had been an inspiration to students and fellow mathematics educators throughout his teaching career at Portage Northern High School. Kitchen believed that a love for mathematics and its applications could be cultivated in every student.  

The lectureship is supported through gifts from his students, friends and colleagues. It provides high school students and educators with an opportunity to hear mathematicians speak about their work at a level intended for high school students. The public is welcome to attend. 

More information on this event is available by contacting Physics, Math and Computer Science Office Coordinator Kristen Eldred at 269.337.7100 or keldred@kzoo.edu. 

Kitchen Lecture Speaker David Galvin
University of Notre Dame Professor of Mathematics David Galvin will deliver the Kitchen Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, in the Hornets Suite at Kalamazoo College, 1600 W. Michigan Ave.

Denison to Lecture at Kalamazoo Institute of Arts

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Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History James Denison will conduct a public lecture from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 11, at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts titled “Hogan-Minded: Race and Place in Georgia O’Keeffe’s Southwest.” 

Denison will discuss his recently completed dissertation, which argues that past interpretations of O’Keeffe’s New Mexican paintings have obscured her engagement with Southwestern indigenous cultures. He will highlight the influence of tourist contexts and period racial thinking on her work, describing how it relied upon and perpetuated romantic stereotypes about those cultures circulating within interwar New Mexico and the Manhattan avant-garde. Ultimately, her paintings and writings show that she saw the region much as countless others had before: as both deeply informed by the presence and history of its native peoples and as open, empty and ripe for claiming. 

Denison, a native of the Washington, D.C., area and a graduate of Bowdoin College, completed his Ph.D. in art history at the University of Michigan. He joined the KIA and Kalamazoo College last summer as the postdoctoral curatorial fellow. The event is presented jointly by KIA and Kalamazoo College. 

The lecture is free to attend, but registration is encouraged through the KIA website. 

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts postdoctoral curatorial fellow James Denison
James Denison is a postdoctoral curatorial fellow at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and a visiting assistant professor of art history at Kalamazoo College.

Events to Spotlight Faculty Member’s New Book

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Three upcoming events will spread the word of a new book by Kalamazoo College Assistant Professor of Religion and Director of Film and Media Studies Sohini Pillai titled Krishna’s Mahabharatas: Devotional Retellings of an Epic Narrative (the American Academy of Religion’s Religion in Translation Series at Oxford University Press, March 22, 2024). 

The ancient Sanskrit Mahabharata is recognized as the longest poem ever composed and tells the tale of the five Pandava princes and the cataclysmic battle they wage with their 100 cousins, the Kauravas. The story is among the most widely-told narratives in South Asia, and many Mahabharatas were created in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu, as well as other regional South Asian languages. 

Pillai’s book is a comprehensive study of premodern regional Mahabharata retellings, which argues that devotees of the Hindu god Vishnu and his various forms throughout South Asia turned the epic about an apocalyptic, bloody war into works of devotion focused on the Hindu deity Krishna. Krishna’s Mahabharatas examines more than 40 retellings in 11 regional South Asian languages composed over a period of 900 years while focusing on two of them: Villiputturar’s 15th-century Tamil Paratam and Sabalsingh Chauhan’s 17th-century Bhasha (Old Hindi) Mahabharat. 

Hear from Pillai on her book through: 

  • An in-person book celebration organized by K’s Department of Religion at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, in the College’s Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall. 
  • An online event through the Beneath the Canopy lecture and discussion series with Barkha Patel and Shachi Phene at 7 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, April 11. Aangan: South Asian Center for Art and Thought is organizing the event. Tickets are $15 and will soon be available at this link. 
  • A virtual book launch at 6 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, April 18, organized by University of Florida Distinguished Professor Vasudha Narayanan with Trinity University Assistant Professor of Religion Gregory Clines, University of Toronto Religion Professor Srilata Raman, and University of Chicago Associate Professor Tyler Williams. The event will be hosted by the Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions at the University of Florida. Participate in this free event through Zoom. 
Sohini Pillai with her dog, Leia the Ewok Princess, and her new book
Kalamazoo College Assistant Professor of Religion and Director of Film and Media Studies Sohini Pillai holds her dog, Leia the Ewok Princess, and her new book, “Krishna’s Mahabharatas: Devotional Retellings of an Epic Narrative.”

“I’m very excited about the publication of Krishna’s Mahabharatas,” Pillai said. “I started the research for this book as a first-year Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley in 2015, so I have been working on this project for nine years! The final avatara or ‘incarnation’ of this book came into being when I started teaching at Kalamazoo College. I am thankful for my supportive colleagues at K and for the many curious and enthusiastic K students I have had in my courses, and I hope that I have written a book that they will enjoy reading.” 

Start Spring with Worldwide Climate and Justice Education

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Worldwide Climate and Justice Education Week, scheduled for April 1–8, has inspired faculty, staff and the Kalamazoo College Climate Action Plan Committee to conduct a series of campus events that will target environmental awareness as students return for spring term.

Worldwide Climate and Justice Education Week is a global initiative sparking real dialogue on climate and justice on campuses and in communities around the world. Here’s what the campus community can do to participate.

  • All day Monday, April 1, is Meatless Monday at Welles Dining Center. Plant-based proteins are a promising alternative to traditional meat products because they impact the environment about 50% less than real meat. Explore a variety of proteins that you can integrate into your diet to determine what might work for you.
  • Fight climate anxiety from 5–6 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, at Bissell Theater by becoming an agent of progress against climate change. Participants will talk about the overwhelming feelings some have over environmental concerns. Discover how to channel anxiety into positive action and contribute to a more sustainable future.
  • Journey through K’s green spaces with a scavenger hunt from 11–11:45 a.m. Wednesday, April 3. Explore locations such as the Hoop House, Jolly Garden and the Grove. Gather stamps at every stop to track your path before heading to the Environmental Stewardship Center to redeem a reward. Prizes are limited and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Also Wednesday, from 4:15–6 p.m., follow trails and get a guided tour of K’s Lillian Anderson Arboretum. Meet at Red Square for transportation to the arboretum.
  • At 5:30 p.m. Thursday in Dewing Hall Commons, discover K’s array of student organizations dedicated to environmental sustainability in Klimate Fest. Connect with like-minded individuals seeking a sustainable future and learn about their initiatives aimed at fostering a greener campus and community. Afterward, stay for popcorn and a film screening of Inhabitants: Indigenous Perspectives on Restoring our World beginning at 6:30 p.m.
  • Conclude the week with a climate conversation in Friday’s community reflection from 11 a.m.–11:45 a.m. at Stetson Chapel. K students, faculty and staff will share experiences and discuss climate solutions in a collaborative gathering to foster understanding and dialogue while reflecting on everyone’s role in a sustainable future.
Hoop House for Climate and Justice Education Week
Kalamazoo College’s Hoop House will be one of three sites on campus utilized in a scavenger hunt from 11–11:45 a.m. Wednesday, April 3, during Worldwide Climate and Justice Education Week.
Three women set up electric fencing for grazing sheep
K’s Lillian Anderson Arboretum has recreational trails and is a great place for students to perform environmental research. Learn more about the arboretum in a tour from 4:15–6 p.m. Wednesday, April 3. Meet at Red Square for transportation.

For more information on these events, email the Larry J. Bell ’80 Environmental Stewardship Center at EnvironmentalStewardship@kzoo.edu.

Moritz Lecture to Feature University of Delaware Professor

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A writer, author and professor will visit Kalamazoo College to deliver the 2024 Moritz Lecture at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 18, in 103 Dewing. A livestream will also be available. 

University of Delaware Professor of English Martin Brückner will discuss “The Social Life of Maps in Early America: A Material History of Design, Technology and Nation-Building.” Brückner has been the acting director and director of the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, a co-director of the Center for Material Culture Studies, a co-director of the Delaware Public Humanities Institute, and a visiting curator of the Winterthur Museum. He also is known for writing more than 30 essays for journals such as American Quarterly, American Art, American Literary History and English Literary History; and two award-winning books, The Social Life of Maps in America, 1750-1860 (2017) and The Geographic Revolution in Early America: Maps, Literacy, and National Identity (2006). 

Brückner’s honors have included the Fred B. Kniffen Book Award, the Louis Gottschalk Book Prize, and numerous grants and fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Program in Early American Economy and Society at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Antiquarian Society and the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies at the University of Mainz in Germany. 

The history department’s annual Edward Moritz Lecture honors the late professor Edward Moritz, who taught British and European history at K from 1955–1988 and served for many years as the department chair. For more information, contact the Office of Alumni Engagement at alumni@kzoo.edu or 269.337.7300. 

2024 Moritz Lecture Speaker Martin Brückner
University of Delaware Professor of English Martin Brückner will be the featured presented in the 2024 Moritz Lecture.

Taiko, Steel Pan Drummers Plan Concert

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A new Kalamazoo College student organization will participate in the winter term’s International Percussion concert at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, in Dalton Theatre at Light Fine Arts. 

The Steel Drum Club—dedicated to classic rock, modern pop and calypso music—will play mainstream songs such as Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana and Story of My Life by One Direction. 

Separately, the music department’s Taiko Drums group, led by International Percussion Ensemble Director Carolyn Koebel, also will perform. The Taiko ensemble unites individuals with varied musical backgrounds from K, nearby institutions and the general community. The ensemble’s performances regularly include solos, group drumming and collaborations with other complementary instruments. 

The concert is free and open to the public. For more information on this event and others sponsored by the Department of Music, visit music.kzoo.edu/events, call 269.337.7070 or email Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu.  

International Percussion Taiko Drummers perform
Taiko drummers will be among the performers featured Wednesday, Marc 11, during the winter International Percussion concert.