Folk singer/songwriter Cheryl Wheeler is performing a fundraising/benefit concert for Bellwether Harbor - Animal Shelter at the Dogwood Center!

You may not be familiar with Cheryl, but you have probably heard her music.  She is a gifted and respected songwriter with her songs being covered by artists as diverse as Dan Seals, Peter Paul and Mary, Garth Brooks, Suzy Bogus, Bette Midler, Kathy Mattea, and Holly Near.  In 2009, Kenny Loggins recorded her song “Ghandi/Buddha” for his recent Disney project called All Join In.

Main Stage.  Tickets $15 in advance, $20 day of show. Performance at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets available beginning January 11.

The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

The Borogoves are an eclectic folk duo from Howell, Michigan.  With influences ranging from blues and jazz to acoustic rock, Danny “Finn” Cheyne and Erin Cheyne have created a strong, organic blend of raw vocals and percussive guitar spiked with a dash of ukulele. 

The name “Borogoves” was pulled from the works of Lewis Carroll, whose whimsical style is mirrored in the duo’s lighthearted lyrics.

The Borogoves have recently been nominated for the 11th annual WYCE Jammie Awards.  Go to www.grcmc.org/radio/ to find out more!

7:30 p.m.  Black Box. Tickets: $10.

The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

Come enjoy St. Patrick’s Day with The Wren Boys!  If you enjoy the sounds of Celtic music loud and fast, come and check these guys out!

The band was a WYCE 2008 Jammie Award “world beat”winner and is favorite of many in West Michigan.  Band members include Terry Lancaster, Jesse MacIntosh, Jeremy Hill and Dave Smith.

The instrumentation by the band is amazing.  Check out several samples of their music at:   http://www.myspace.com/thewrenboys

We hope you and your friends come enjoy the music of The Wren Boys and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at the Dogwood!

7:30 p.m.  Black Box.  Tickets $10.  Beer and wine will be available for purchase.

The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

After six seasons at The Metropolitan Opera, numerous engagements on the stage of Carnegie Hall, touring the world with Leonard Bernstein, and thousands of performances as a solo artist, contralto Gwenneth Bean decided to come back home to Michigan, near her family and friends, where she now resides.and she will be performing on the Dogwood Center’s Main Stage on March 20! 

Ms. Bean’s program at the Dogwood Center will include classical pieces from Copland, Schubert and Handel to more contemporary pieces from Gershwin, Bernstein, and Rogers and Hammerstein.

Michigan born contralto, Gwenneth Bean, is a graduate of Mona Shores High School.  Her 17 year career has taken her to opera stages and concert halls throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan.  She has sung numerous roles with the New York Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, and opera houses in Dallas, Miami, Santa Fe, Toronto, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Vienna, Rome, Paris, London, and more.

Bean toured Japan with the Metropolitan Opera, and toured Europe and the United States with the late Maestro Leonard Bernstein.  She has worked with conductors Zubin Mehta, Leonard Slatkin, Seji Ozawa, Andrew Davis, Hugh Wolf, James Levine, Charles Dutoit, and of course the late Bernstein, to name a few.

Gwenneth Bean has shared the stage with Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Renee Fleming, Sherill Milnes, Sam Ramey, Jerry Hadley, Jessye Norman, and many others. 

Locally, she has performed with Opera Grand Rapids in Faust, Romeo and Juliet, and The Flying Dutchman and was the alto soloist for Handel’s Messiah at DeVos Hall.  Ms. Bean sang Mahler’s Eighth with the Grand Rapids Symphony and was featured in Night of the Opera with the Holland Symphony.

Ms. Bean resides in Grand Rapids, teaching private voice and is the Director of Music and Worship at Spring Lake Christian Reformed Church.  She sings as much as possible including the national anthem at many sporting events.  She is often seen performing benefits for the charities and issues she supports.

Tickets $15.  Main stage.  7:30 p.m.

http://photos.mlive.com/grandrapidspress/2010/02/gwenneth_bean_profile_1.html

Wikipedia trivia:  A contralto voice is a type of classical female singing voice with a vocal range between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano;  it is the deepest female singing voice.

Michael Cooper is a Poet of the Stage - an eye-popping visual artist and a virtuoso mime whose exquisite performances of humor and poignancy, nimble speech and eloquent gestures have dazzled audiences of all ages for almost thirty years. 

Combining the mythical and the autobiographical, Michael’s one-man extrvaganza features his breathtaking handcrafted masks, original stories of courage and wonder, outlandish stiltdancing (yes…stiltdancing!), and a physical repertoire that ranges from the madcap to the sublime.  The result is “moving sculpture”.  Some of the masks he uses in the performance have taken him over 300 hours to create.

Cooper spins tales and weaves stories using an unusual and colorful cast of characters.  Creating a world where dogs wear hats, wild stallions are tamed, giant noses sneeze and fish bait candy to catch children in a pond, Masked Marvels &Wondertales is an unforgettable experience.  Cooper captivates his audiences with tales of thrilling adventure, silly antics and outlandish possibilities.  A show for all ages, Masked Marvels & Wondertales is sure to capture hearts and stimulate imaginations.

Michael recieved his B.A. in Peace Studies from Goddard College.  He then went on to complete six years of theater training with Tony Montanaro in Maine and Etienne Decroux in Paris.  For almost thirty years, he has spent time crisscrossing the world, performing over 8,000 times for audiences of every age.  A portion of his credits include the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Hong Kong International Children’s Festival, The Comedy Story in Los Angeles, the Dublin Theater Festival, Great Woods, The Eugene O’Neill Theater, Bass Performance Hall and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

Main Stage. 7:30 p.m.  Tickets: $15 for adults, $5 for children 18 and under.

On Wednesday evening, March 31, 2010, the Grand Rapids Symphony will provide a full concert performance!  This concert will bring the Grand Rapids Symphony to the Dogwood Center for the first time.  As of March 30, 2010, this performance is sold out.

The program will bring the best of classical music to our area while celebrating life in Newaygo County.  The program will feature “A Day in the Life of Newaygo County” where the music selected will be accompanied by projected images of artwork and photographs conceived and produced by the young people of Newaygo County.

Associate conductor John Varineau will lead the orchestra in such pieces as Carnaval Overture - Dvorak, Appalachian Spring - Copland, Egmont Overture - Beethoven, Adagio for Strings - Barber, and La Grand Vitesse by contemporary composer James L. Stephenson.

The Grand Rapids Symphony presents more than 400 concerts each year and is pleased to include this performance for the people of Newaygo County in their concert schedule.  If you haven’t attended one of their concerts before here are some tips from the Symphony:  “Open yourself to the music.  Let it trigger your emotions - maybe even your memories.  Feel the rhythms; follow the tunes.  Watch the musicians and the conductor, and see how they interact with each other.  Notice how the music ebbs and flows - surging and powerful at some times, delicate and ephemeral at others, and everything in between.”

Program sponsors for the performance are Fremont Area Community Foundation and Nestle Nutrition/Gerber Products.

The Dogwood Center is encouraging everyone attending the Grand Rapids Symphony concert to “Help the Arts Help the Community” by bringing in canned goods and non-perishable food to the Dogwood lobby area when they arrive.  The food collected will be brought to local food pantries that help Newaygo County families in need of food assistance.

Main stage.   7:30 p.m.  This performance is sold out.

The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.