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Bay College kicks-off music festival on Oct. 3

ESCANABA — The Fifth Annual Beethoven and Banjos music festival kicks-off at Bay College’s Besse Theater on Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m. Since its inception, the festival has drawn together folk and classical music and musicians from around the country and world.

Brother and sister Evan and Laurel Premo grew up in the Upper Peninsula making music together and are now professional musicians: Evan, a classical bass player and composer and Laurel a folk fiddler, banjo player and composer. Though they reside on different branches of the musical tree these days, their music grows from common roots and they renew their synergy during the annual Beethoven and Banjos festival. Each year, the siblings bring their musical colleagues from around the world to the U.P. and put together a program that combines folk and classical music in new and exciting ways. This year, Beethoven and Banjos will feature the music of Evan and Laurel themselves.

Laurel Premo will perform music from her new instrumental album, The Iron Trois. This work dives deeply into traditional and new fiddle music and musically reveals a bloom of underlying harmonic drones, minimalist repetition, and rich polyrhythms. Responding to Premo’s fiddling is the metrical yet wave-like sustain of electric and acoustic guitar and an extreme double fiddle – double bass. Laurel Premo is fully leaning into the archaic fiddle melodies and in-between intonations that connect folk sounds to the mystic and unknown. For these pieces Laurel will be joined by Evan Premo on the bass and Joshua Davis on the guitar.

Evan Premo will present his song cycle, “Songs from a Mountain Recluse” for piano, flute, double bass, and soprano. This cycle includes five musical settings of Vermont poet, David Budbill that describe his life as an artist living in a rural place: making art, working in the woods, self-sufficiency, natural beauty, financial struggle, and gratitude for a full life. Also on the program will be Evan’s recently completed “Rumi Songs” for soprano and double bass and a setting of Rudyard Kipling’s “When Earth’s Last Picture is Painted” for soprano and piano. Evan is joined by his wife and musical collaborator, soprano Mary Bonhas as well as New York City’s Decoda members David Kaplan (piano) and Catherine Gregory (flutes).

Finally, both Evan and Laurel Premo will put their own spin on Sacred Harp shape-note hymns. This uniquely American style of Hymnody characterized by open chords and full-out singing has inspired both siblings. This year’s Beethoven and Banjos festival is an opportunity to hear their takes on this tradition.

Tickets for Beethoven and Banjos at Bay College may be purchased online at https://baycollege.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=1152940 or by calling the Box Office at (906) 217-4045. For more information about Beethoven and Banjos and other upcoming events contact events@baycollege.edu.

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