A classical and contemporary pianist known for her concerts around the world will provide a free performance at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, at Kalamazoo College’s Dalton Theater.

Lucy Yao began studying piano at age 4 and has performed as a solo pianist, chamber musician, orchestral musician and collaborative pianist. She is one half of the toy piano duo Chromic, and the founder of Strangers in a Room, an interdisciplinary collective of dancers and musicians who give voice to forgotten women in literature and history.

Yao has held collaborative pianist positions at New York University, Interlochen Academy of the Arts, the University of Michigan and the Manhattan School of Music. She is currently based in New York City and her performances include electronics, projection and improvisation.

Her performance at K will feature works inspired by Chopin and the ocean including Mazurka Op. 17 No. 4 by Frédéric Chopin; Gustave Le Gray (2012) by Caroline Shaw; Let Zephyr Only Breathe by Alissa Voth; The Peculiar Purple Pie-man of Porcupine Peak by Angélica Negrón for piano and pre-recorded electronics (2011); The Currents (2012) by Sarah Kirkland Snider; Wait, What? by Leo Chang; and Barcarolle Op. 60 by Frédéric Chopin.

For more information about the concert, call the Music Department at 269.337.7070 or email Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu.

Three exciting days of concerts will feature music from jazz to percussion to classical collections as Kalamazoo College students showcase their talents in fall performances.

The International Percussion Ensemble will perform at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, in the Dalton Theater at Light Fine Arts. The ensemble unites individuals with varied musical backgrounds from K, nearby institutions and the general community in West African and Japanese Taiko drumming. Carolyn Koebel manages both of the International Percussion Groups. Nathaniel Waller helps instruct the West African group.

Kalamazoo College’s Jazz Band, led by Music Professor Tom Evans, will perform a free concert, themed “Autumn in Madrid,” at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15, in the Dalton Theater. The Jazz Band plays contemporary and classic jazz arrangements that deliver an enjoyable musical experience to delighted audiences. Dancing is encouraged by audience members, so have a wonderful time!

The Kalamazoo Philharmonia, under the direction of Associate Professor of Music Andrew Koehler, will perform a concert themed “Among Friends” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, in Dalton Theater. The performance will feature returning guest pianist Weiyin Chen, performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.  The orchestra will also perform works by composers Sir Edward William Elgar and Grażyna Bacewicz. Chen, a Taiwanese-American pianist who has studied with and received accolades from renowned masters such as conductor Leon Fleisher and pianists Richard Goode and Claude Frank, has performed recitals in France, Italy, Denmark, and India abroad, and New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Utah and Chicago in the U.S.

The Philharmonia is an orchestra of Kalamazoo College and the community. The group brings together students, faculty, and amateur and professional musicians. The group won the 2014 American Prize Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award for Orchestral Programming and has produced several CDs. It also has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, and collaborated with the Bach Festival Chorus, as well as many renowned soloists. Tickets are $5 for adults, $2 for children and free for K students, faculty and staff who present a College ID.

For more information on any of these concerts, contact the Music Department at 269.337.7070 or susan.lawrence@kzoo.edu.

A Korean-born professional pianist noted for her career appearances at venues such as Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and the Chicago Cultural Center will perform in a free concert at Kalamazoo College.

Sookkyung Cho will perform pieces by composers such as Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin and Alexander Scriabin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, in Dalton Theater at Light Fine Arts. A founding member of the New York-based Almava Trio, Cho has been featured in major music festivals including Yellow Barn, Norfolk and Sarasota, and was a performing associate at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine.

Before her appointment as an assistant professor of piano at Grand Valley State University in fall 2015, Cho was a member of the piano and chamber music faculty at New England Conservatory Preparatory in Boston and the music theory faculty at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Cho earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Juilliard, where she was honored with the prestigious John Erskine Graduation Prize. She also has a Master of Music degree from the Peabody Institute and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Juilliard.

For more information about this concert, please contact the Music Department at 269.337.7070 or susan.lawrence@kzoo.edu.

The Kalamazoo Philharmonia will welcome a world-famous cellist in one of two concerts taking place this weekend at Kalamazoo College.

Amit Peled, an Israeli musician acclaimed for his profound artistry and charismatic stage presence, will perform with the Philharmonia at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 1, in Dalton Theatre at Light Fine Arts. The concert, titled “True Virtuosity,” features Strum for String Orchestra by contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery, and Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski’s folk-inflected piece, Concerto for Orchestra.

The Philharmonia, directed by Kalamazoo College Associate Professor of Music Andrew Koehler, is an orchestra of Kalamazoo College and the community. The group brings together students, faculty, and amateur and professional musicians. The group won the 2014 American Prize Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award for Orchestral Programming and has produced several CDs. It also has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, and collaborated with the Bach Festival Chorus, as well as many renowned soloists.

Tickets for the Philharmonia concert will be available at the door. They cost $5 for adults and seniors, and $2 for students. Kalamazoo College students are admitted free.

The College Singers will also perform this weekend in a free concert titled “America: WTF,” exploring freedoms, fears and fairness as they relate to American democracy. The performance is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Sunday at Stetson Chapel. Admission is free.

The choir will sing a variety of songs ranging from selections predating American colonists, to a modern rhythm-and-blues selection from Janelle Monae titled Americans. The program, while weighty, entertains and informs, through the group’s 32 singers. Songs such as Thomas Tallis’ Audivi vocem di caelo will be performed in four-part polyphony interspersed with a chant to question concepts such as Manifest Destiny. Musical theatre repertoire from Jason Robert Brown’s New World, one of his earliest works, is also presented in a quartet of K seniors.

The College Singers is led by Assistant Music Professor Chris Ludwa, who is also the director of the Kalamazoo Bach Festival. The ensemble includes music majors and non-music majors alike, offering a different approach to choral singing.

For more information on either concert, email Susan Lawrence in the Music Department or call 269-337-7070.

The Academy Street Winds will put the zoo in Kalamazoo with a spring concert titled “Animal Crackers” at 8 p.m. this Friday. It’s one of two Kalamazoo College music ensembles scheduled to perform this weekend in Dalton Theater at Light Fine Arts.

This spring concert will feature pieces about animals, from Eric Whitacre’s The Seal Lullaby to Lion King Highlights by Elton John. Music Professor Tom Evans, serving as the ensemble’s conductor, will weave the animal world together from sky to land and sea to convey that animals provide us with great benefits we would otherwise miss in our lives.

The Academy Street Winds provides a performance outlet for woodwind, brass and percussion students. Community musicians joined the ensemble in winter 2016 to expand the group’s sound and capabilities.

The group performs one concert each term, playing exciting arrays of challenging band music. The ensemble is a favorite of audiences as the programs are coordinated around diverse themes, which allow for performances of much-loved pieces, both classic and contemporary.

A second ensemble, known for encouraging audience members to dance and twist at performances, will invoke a theme of “Dizzying” this weekend.

K’s Jazz Band will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday. This band, also directed by Evans, pulls together an eclectic collection of contemporary and classic jazz arrangements to provide both the student performers and the audience with an electric experience.

Evans, in an International Jazz Day interview, said the band’s play list will include some early jazz, swing, bop, fusion, funk and Latin varieties. Hear past performances through the music department’s Jazz Band website.

For more information on either spring concert, please contact Susan Lawrence in the Music Department at 269.337.7070 or susan.lawrence@kzoo.edu.

Samuel Nalangira, a world-touring musician famous for his performances on instruments such as the adungu from northern Uganda and the akogo from eastern Uganda, will perform with the Kalamazoo College International Percussion Ensemble in one of four winter concerts coming soon through K’s Music Department.

The International Percussion Ensemble will perform at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 5, in the Dalton Theater at Light Fine Arts. The ensemble unites individuals with varied musical backgrounds from K, nearby institutions and the general community in West African and Japanese Taiko drumming. The West African group is led by Percussion Instructor Nathaniel Waller. Instructor Esther Vandecar leads the Taiko drummers. Tickets are $5 for adults, $2 for children and free for K students, faculty and staff who present a College ID.

The College Singers is a choral ensemble featuring music majors and non-majors alike that offers mixed soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices. The group, led by Assistant Music Professor Chris Ludwa, will perform with Western Michigan University Adjunct Professor of Voice Rhea Olivacce and the Kalamazoo Bach Festival Chorus at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, at First Congregational Church in downtown Kalamazoo.  Tickets for the concert, themed “Love Is Love Is (Volume 2),” are available at KalamazooBachFestival.org or by phone at 269.337.7407.

Kalamazoo College’s Jazz Band, led by Music Professor Tom Evans, will perform a free concert, themed “Vortex,” at 8 p.m. Friday, March 8, in the Dalton Theater. The Jazz Band plays contemporary and classic jazz arrangements to provide enjoyable musical experiences to the students performing as well as to delighted audiences.

The Bayati Ensemble, uniting K students and community members, will perform a free concert at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 12, in Recital Hall at Light Fine Arts with the Kalamazoo College Chinese Chamber Ensemble. This group, led by Assistant Professor of Music Beau Bothwell, explores and performs the music of the broader Middle East, including music from the Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish and Persian traditions.

For more information on these concerts, call the Music Department at 269.337.7070 or email Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu.