Grand Marais singer/songwriter Michael Monroe will be sharing his love of music with Great Expectations School students for a week. A community concert will be held Thursday, May 5 at 7 p.m. at Betsy Bowen Studio’s “What’s Upstairs at the Old Playhouse.”
Great Expectations School has been awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board “Arts In Education” grant which will allow performing artist Michael Monroe the opportunity to work with students in a week-long residency beginning May 2.
Grand Marais resident Monroe has been a state arts board roster artist since 2000 and has completed many K-12/college residencies in Minnesota and Wisconsin, his most recent at Lake Superior College in Duluth in April 2011 when he worked with LSC choir students and North Shore Community School students. He also performed for the college earth-centered event and in a community concert with the student choirs.
The grant is a special Arts in Education K-12 Arts Challenge Minnesota Grant, which is offered to schools outside the metro area to fund schools’ collaboration with artist residencies.
Monroe will present a concert for the GES students and faculty at the beginning of the week. He will work with all of the students, with the Fawns and Wolves comprising the two core groups, to create original compositions and practice with improvisational music using Monroe’s looping device which allows “recycling” musical notes as they are created.
A community concert is planned for Thursday, May 5 at 7 p.m. at “What’s Upstairs at the Old Playhouse” at Betsy Bowen Studio.
A regular on “best of ” lists, Monroe has earned his accolades over four decades of music-making. Monroe’s rustic sounds and eco-folk lyrics are instantly endearing and his unusual instruments (everything from bamboo to glass flutes) inspire awe in his audiences.
In February 2007, Monroe worked with the Sawtooth Elementary School as part of a Meet The Composer grant supported by the National Endowment for the arts.
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