ENTERTAINMENT BRIEFS - Sept. 20

■ Music through the

Ages at Brainerd library

Carrie Vecchione and Rolf Erdahl, a husband and wife instrumental duo, will appear at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 20, at the Brainerd Public Library.

They will present a recital of music through the ages up to the engaging new repertoire composed for them, with classical crossovers infused with jazz, tango and folk songs. Hear Carrie Vecchione, oboe/English horn, and Rolf Erdahl, double bass, perform music that “grabs your ear as the ink dries and sends you out the door humming a new tune.”

Together they create classical music as they teach about their genre of music including chamber orchestras and symphony orchestras.

They’re committed to perform as arts advocates bringing music into the community.

They both have extensive performing and teaching experience including performances at many schools through the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s CONNECT Program, Young Audiences of Minnesota and the Duluth-Superior Symphony’s Community Engagement Program. Vecchione and Erdahl also are an award-winning performing duo. They’ve worked with many composers to create music for the oboe and bass to play together and have quite a repertoire built up.

This free Legacy Program is funded in part or in whole with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on Nov. 4, 2008 which dedicated funding to preserve Minnesota’s art and cultural heritage.

■ eBook collection kick-off

Brainerd Public Library will kick-off its eBook collection with a training from 2-5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 20. Staff will help people discover the library’s new eBook collection throughout the day with special times for training with specific devices:

2 p.m.: Introduction of 3M Cloud Library.

2:30 p.m.: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android-based tablets or smartphones.

3 p.m.: PC (running XP or higher).

3:30 p.m.: All Nook Devices.

4 p.m.: Other eReaders: Sony, Kobo, Pandigital and Literati.

4:30 p.m.: KindleFire.

■ Hornheads to open

Staples-Motley arts season

STAPLES - The Hornheads will present a concert at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 29 at Centennial Auditorium in Staples. The concert will kick off the Staples Motley Area Arts Council’s new season.

This group of horn players has been gathering international acclaim from artists and critics alike, since 1991. Top session players all, the Hornheads have performed and/or recorded with artists such as Prince, Janet Jackson, Rod Stewart, Babyface, James Brown, The Jonas Brothers, Jimmy Jam, Aretha Franklin, Pedro Abrunhosa, Louie Bellson, Ray Charles, Sammy Davis Jr., Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Doc Severinsen and many others.

As members of Prince and the New Power Generation, the Hornheads recorded on 20 CDs and performed for more than two million concert goers in 20 countries. Q Magazine, London, described them as “a peerless horn section...playing in bare brilliant syncopation.”

As a solo ensemble, this a cappella group brings their distinctive flair to jazz and funk music, combining virtuosic improvisation with sizzling ensemble work to create a truly unique music experience. They delight audiences with their artistry, versatility, musicality and precision, covering American masters from Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, to Leonard Bernstien, Rodgers and Hammerstein and Stevie Wonder, while completing their repertoire with dynamic Hornheads’ originals.

The concert is underwritten by Ernie’s Market of Staples.

Also on the docket for this year’s arts council season are: The Accidental Hero, a one-man show about a grandfather’s nearly-lost reminisces of World War II; Alison Scott, a singer with a rising star; perennial favorite, Monroe Crossing; and Collman & Miller, a piano duo featuring Richard Collman, the former pastor of the United Methodist Church of Motley, in an intimate night of chamber music.

Tickets are $12 for adults in advance or $15 for adults. Students are $1 at the door. Tickets are available online, at the arts council’s website or at the Staples Motley Public Schools Community Education Office at 218-894-2497. Anyone purchasing five or more advance sale tickets to any event or series of events at the Community Education Office will receive a special season price of only $10 per ticket. The five ticket discount is not available online.

For more information go to the Arts Council’s website at www.staplesmotleyarts.org .

■ Kurtz to highlight Mexico’s

‘Day of the Dead’ Oct. 4 at CLC

A closer look at Mexico’s traditional “Day of the Dead” will be featured from noon to 12:50 p.m. Oct. 4 in the Chalberg Theatre for Cultural Thursday at Central Lakes College (CLC) in Brainerd.

Jan Kurtz, who has traveled to Mexico numerous times, will illustrate the observance that occurs annually Nov. 1 and 2 but is prepared for, as our Halloween, a month ahead of time.

Kurtz said she specifically arranged part of her sabbatical from Spanish teaching at CLC to afford the opportunity to observe Day of the Dead. She participated in rituals in Tepotzlan and Octopec, small villages with indigenous roots.

She and her traveling companion Jamy Olson, a former CLC student, chose to arrive before official programs began, visiting markets, cemeteries and downtown displays and parades in advance of Nov. 1 and 2 events. They lived with families and attended language classes at the Spanish Language Institute in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

They watched as traditional foods were prepared and noted how individual families erected altars honoring their loved ones who had passed on. Much of the symbolism associated with the observance contains a mixture of the Catholic religion and Indian beliefs.

“It creates an observance of life, connected to those who came before us,” she said.

Kurtz said she wants to create a new look for this time of year to be more of a period of honoring and remembrance rather than “scary Halloween and sugar distribution.”

The focus on heritage and ancestry carries over to students in the Many Faces of Mexico class that is part of Kurtz’s course load at CLC. She has assigned students the task of researching their family trees to be rewarded by knowledge of previous generations and the culture in which they existed. “Where are the roots in our culture?” She asks. “How do we honor the work, decisions and love that were the foundation for where we are today?”

Decorations, recipes and sugar skulls will accompany Kurtz’s showcase of Mexican culture relating to respect for those who came before.

Information about participating as a presenter or otherwise supporting the series is available from Kurtz, who coordinates the first Thursday of the month series, Cultural Thursday. She may be reached at 855-8183 or jkurtz@clcmn.edu .

■ YAR talent show Oct. 4

Youth As Resources is holding its annual Brainerd’s Got Talent at 7 p.m. Oct. 4 at Tornstrom Auditorium at the Washington Educational Services Building in Brainerd. The talent is open to all age groups. If you sing, dance, tell stories, play music, recite poetry, juggle and/or other talents you can share it at the talent show.

To participate in the Talent Show, you must audition. Auditions will be held on Sept. 27 at the Little Theater at Brainerd High School (BHS) beginning at 4 p.m. Sign up at the BHS main office for an audition spot. Entry fee to perform will be $5. Entry fee’s will be used for cash prizes for first, second and third place.

■ New exhibit opens Friday in Aitkin

AITKIN - “The Talent of Teachers” exhibit will open Friday and run through Nov. 3 at the Jaques Art Center in Aitkin.

An opening reception will be held from noon-3 p.m. Saturday. The exhibit offers a variety of artwork by art instructors who enrich the lives on their students and “deserve an A+ for their time and talents.”

■ Artist-made tile exhibit

at Ripple River Gallery

AITKIN - Now through October, Ripple River Gallery near Bay Lake will feature the work of 12 artists who create handmade tiles. An artists’ reception will be held in conjunction with the gallery’s annual fall open house and raku pottery firing on Oct. 6.

Curator for the exhibit is ceramic artist Karin Kraemer. Most days you can find Kraemer at Duluth Pottery, Superior Division, in the historic old City Hall in Superior, Wis., now the Trade and Commerce Marketplace. She works with red earthenware clay and Maiolica glazes to create functional pottery and tile for custom work in the home and public spaces. “My tiles are wall pieces, taking after the box-like terra cotta building elements used through history to face buildings.”

For the exhibit at Ripple River Gallery, Kraemer recruited regional tile artists who use a variety of materials and techniques in their work.

Included in the exhibit are:

• Luke Krisak, Duluth, who pit fires his clay to allow smoke to penetrate the tiles and create fossil-like images on the surface.

• Jamie Lang, former exhibitions director at Northern Clay, Minneapolis, now works in Denver, Colo. Lang incorporates adobe clay, plaster, pigments and encaustic into his minimalist, geometric sculptural tiles. “Each subsequent layer asserts the passage of time and our ability to bury and recover memories.”

• The husband and wife team of Richard Gruchalla and Carrin Rosetti, Duluth, collaborate to create colorful tiles with landscape imagery inspired in part by the Arts and Crafts pottery of the earlier 1900s.

• Jan Andler, Duluth, enjoys the decorative element of tile-making, especially adding details to the leather-hard clay before it is fired.

• Mary Jo Schmith, Front Avenue Pottery and Tile Co., Minneapolis, known for her dinnerware, is introducing a new line of decorative tiles.

• For Martye Allen, Lake Nebagamon, Wis., tiles offer a canvas for images of animals, both real and imagined.

• Dave Lynas, Duluth, considers tile a “canvas” for brush drawing and painting.

• Using symbols drawn in clay, Marty Pearson, Danbury, WI, lets his tiles tell stories and relate dreams, poems and sounds.

• John Onkka, Baldwin, Wis., makes sculptural wall tiles which reflect the beauty and harshness of the rural midwest landscape.

• Josh Blanc, Clay Squared to Infinity, Minneapolis, creates art tiles that take their inspiration from astronomical images, weather phenomena, clouds and other environmental elements. Noting that handmade tiles have adorned buildings for more than 2000 years, Blanc, president of the Handmade Tile Association, said, “Even a single tile can transform a space.”

Ripple River Gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays (other times by chance or appointment).

For more information call 218-678-2575 or e-mail ripriv@mlecmn.net .

Below: “Maple and Birches” tile by Karin Kraemer, Duluth. Maiolica glaze on red earthenware.