March is mad with cultural events

By Rebecca Petersen | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, March 1, 2008

March is madness with The Big Read, and many other wonderful programs happening concurrently in Fergus Falls.

But there’s time to fit it all in — especially if you keep a running calendar and stick around town. This weekend the MSCTC play, “Taming of the Shrew,” opens and continues for two weekends.

Then there’s the Middle School musical, “Guys and Dolls” in a couple of weeks, and the Church of the Nazarene has a theatrical production here at A Center for the Arts on Palm Sunday.

Today, we kick off the month with Magical Moments In Music, at 2 p.m. at A Center for the Arts. It’s free and open to the public and an informal performance that includes food, a little bit of talking between musical numbers and time for questions and answers.

March is significant for other reasons, too. There’s a touch of the Irish on March 17, when we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a return visit from Piper’s Crow. What talented musicians they are. Dick Hensold plays a variety of pipes — more commonly known as bag pipes, but the variety is enormous.

Laura MacKenzie also plays many varieties of pipes including flutes and whistles from Ireland. If you want a demonstration of true Irish music from the Emerald Isle, these folks are the ones to do it for you. They’ve travelled far and wide throughout the island studying and acquiring new tunes that they have brought back to the states to share with us.

Add to their piping prowess the talents of Karen Mueller on guitar and autoharp, along with Irish fiddler Zach Kline, and you’ve got quite a sweet quartet of musicians.

In 2007, they were named the Twin Cities’ “Best Acoustic Musicians.” And, if you don’t believe me, here’s more to convince you. "An all-star Celtic band.....Certainly the quartet's mix of jigs, slides and hornpipes is infectious, frisky, expert and crowd-pleasing.....Old World dance music energy, haunting traditional balladry and room-filling greatpipe duets." — Minneapolis Star Tribune

Plus, March is Women’s History Month, so we’ve tied it in with The Big Read and “The Joy Luck Club,” and a visit from The Biddies — Eccentric Older Women Telling Stories.

“The Biddies are three of the most talented women singer/songwriters in the Midwest. Kitty Donohoe, Jan Krist and Claudia Schmidt have been individually wowing audiences for years. Now as a trio, they have braided together their notable talents as songwriters, their stunning voices and the wealth of their experiences.

The uninitiated are in for a wicked good time from the Sunday-go-to meetin’-testifying-vocals of Claudia Schmidt to the elegant Celtic lilt of Kitty Donohoe’s voice and the literary lyrics of Jan Krist. The Biddies spin a spellbinding web. Strong melodies, infectious rhythms, and compelling lyrical stories of hope, disenchantment, courage and love as sung by three women who “have been there, done that, and were too hip for the t-shirt.” You dig?

March is a month set aside to recognize women’s issues and women’s history. Kitty, Claudia and Jan will be presenting a program of music and storytelling, about women whose lives have inspired and illuminated the world in which we live.”

Join us throughout March for music and film and reading and more.

Check out the other community programs for more music and theater and fine visual arts exhibits. Currently at A Center for the Arts we have Kevin and Judy Flicker from Morris, exhibiting their ceramics and pottery.

Next month it will be Christine Gyolai and Lori Charest with their paintings and pottery exhibit. It’s a great duet of work.

Rebecca Petersen is the director of A Center for the Arts in Fergus Falls.