Jobs Landed. filterD. Insider guides. What's with all the new features in Concentrate? And, come to think of it, what the heck is Concentrate trying to accomplish? Wonder why we do what we do? Write what we write? To paraphrase our favorite poet and playwright, "Read on, MacDuff."
Forget Nike, Al McWilliams is really the 'Just Do It' guy. From pro cyclist to all media mini emporer, the founder of Quack! Media has gotten his fingers into every nook and cranny of media content. Music, magazines, movies and marketing are his company's domains and he has no shortage of ideas and opinions about how to make them grow.
The University of Michigan continues to set itself apart from the pack when it comes to both art and audiences.Excerpt:Performances by the Berlin Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony orchestras, violinist Itzhak Perlman and London's Globe Theatre headline a 2009-10 season for Ann Arbor's University Musical Society that seems to defy the economic challenges that beset art organizations everywhere.Read the rest of the story here.
Ann Arbor's most famous record label has found a new home, luckily in its native city. Ghostly International is moving into a storefront on Maynard Street in downtown Ann Arbor. The storefront is the same location that the Obama campaign worked out of last year. The start-up record label plans to start the move in May. It's currently located in a small space in the second floor of the East Liberty Plaza building. For the time being, it's planning to just use the space for its office work, however, it's looking at the possibility of toying with some retail.Ghostly International is currently playing with a pop-up shop in Berlin. A pop-up shop allows the record label to see merchandise and records and other swag temporarily from a storefront. Such an idea is also a possibility for its Ann Arbor headquarters."If there is an interest then we would consider it," says Sam Valenti, CEO of Ghostly International.Source: Sam Valenti, CEO of Ghostly InternationalWriter: Jon Zemke
Who would trade New York or London for Ypsilanti? DJ and music producer Todd Osborn would. From owning a local record store once upon a time to filling the virtual vinyl bins of Ghostly International's ever-growing music scene, Osborn has carved out a successful career from his native soil. Oh, and he once built a hovercraft.
Ypsilanti isn't running away from the term "Ypsitucky" anymore, instead choosing to embrace it and turn the negative into a positive.Excerpt:A new bluegrass music event planned for Ypsilanti's Depot Town this summer will keep the name "YpsiTucky Jamboree" despite concerns it may be offensive to some residents, says the chief organizer.Erik Dotzauer, executive director of the Depot Town Community Development Corp., said he wants to educate people on the heritage behind "Ypsitucky" and hopes it can help expel the negative connotations of the term."We knew we'd get a little bit of a backlash," Dotzauer said. "We expected it. As of right now, that's the final decision."Read the rest of the story here.
Many music entrepreneurs try to go the Berry Gordy route of making it in the biz: Start an independent label, sign acts, tour, sell records, repeat. The dozen or so people behind Ann Arbor's MyBandStock.com look at things from a slightly different view point.MyBandStock.com's motto is to give music back to the people who are passionate about it: the artists and their fans. It does that by letting customers buy stock in the bands they like through their website. Think of it as viral grassroots funding."This is a business but it's not all about making money," says Taylor Hulyk, director of public relations for MyBandStock.com. "This is us out there to help spread the music. MyBandStock.com wants to put the focus back on the music. We want to give the power of the music back to the people who love it."Right now there are 11 active young people (and a few more behind-the-scenes investors) getting the website and its accompanying web-based community off the ground. The founders are all Michigan-based people who went to the likes of University of Michigan, University of Michigan-Dearborn and Michigan State University.They all work from their own virtual office (i.e. laptop) where they continue to labor away on their passion – music. Right now that's all about their local music scene, but they have big plans on growing that."We hope to expand regionally in the next year and nationally after that," Hulyk says. "It's going to be a slow process."Source: Taylor Hulyk, director of public relations for MyBandStock.comWriter: Jon Zemke
The Friends of Chamber Music at Pease are pleased to present its third concert of the 2008-2009 Pease Chamber Concert Series, featuring the Fu-Xi Piano Trio (Zhihua Tang, piano; Hai Xin Wu, violin; Robert deMaine, cello), joined by special guest artists from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (James VanValkenburg, viola; Alexander Hanna, double bass) in a chamber concert featuring Schubert's beloved "Trout" Quintet.
Even Stevie Wonder could see one of Ypsilanti's brightest stars shining during his performance at the White House.Excerpt:Wayne Brady wants to buy her CD. President Barack Obama praised her "lovely" voice. "He had his arm around me, he touched me," she screamed to her mother.The women wanted to know who - not what - she was wearing.The Washington Post gushed about her "pure, gleaming" soprano rendering of Stevie Wonder's 1970s ballad, "I Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer."Wonder himself wants her to coach him on technique.Ypsilanti's own Anita Johnson's life changed this week, and everybody who's paying attention in the music world knows it.Johnson, Ann Arbor-born and Ypsilanti-raised, is a New York-based lyric coloratura operatic soprano, the kind of light and agile soprano whose range can extend two scales above high C.She sang Wednesday night at the White House, at the request of¬¬ pop legend Wonder, who was honored by the Library of Congress and Obama with the Gershwin Lifetime Achievement AwardRead the rest of the story here and The Washington Post's coverage of it here.
The Internet mantra has long been you can work from anywhere. And A-list talent agency Fleming Artists is proof positive that even Ann Arbor can compete with the likes of L.A. and New York. Representing everyone from Ani DiFranco and Tom Paxton to Jeff Daniels and My Dear Disco, Fleming has been looking after world-class musicians for almost 30 years.
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