Throughout the year Mankato will enjoy, by way of The Carnegie Arts Center and bassist Liz Draper, high-caliber live music performances as well as talks from a wide variety of artists.
Carnegie Executive Director Charlie Leftridge and Draper, after successfully collaborating on producing a Tim Erikson performance last November, decided to use some existing grant money from the Carl and Verna Schmidt Foundation as well as funds from a private donor to consecrate an indefinite series of monthly performances.
The series begins Saturday, Feb. 17, with Soul Trouvere, a Minneapolis duo featuring accordion, violin and voice. The performers have roots in New Orleans and Transylvania, which are musical traditions southern Minnesota objectively does not have the opportunity to hear often enough.
Draper, as curator, is hoping to bring artists through Mankato who offer something that, even in a larger market, would be unique.
“I would love to plant a lot of seeds,” Draper says, “to provide introductions to different music, and a lot of the artists that will be coming through have ties to other parts of the world and cultures other than what is readily available here.”
March 16 will see a performance from Twin Cities Bronze, a group performing with English bronze handbells as well as a few other instruments. The group has been active for over 20 years and has performed across the country. This will be a larger ensemble, and it will play more heavily to the acoustics of the venue, which is something Leftridge is excited about showcasing.
“It’s exciting because not only do I feel like we’ve set ourselves up for success,” Leftridge says, “but we’ve been adjusting the facility to make the space a little bit more open, a little more malleable, and I think will lend itself to some really excellent listening experiences.”
On April 6, Matthew Rahaim will perform. Rahaim teaches Middle Eastern music and also has performed oud, Afro-Cuban drumming, sinulog, shape-note singing and Javanese gamelan. At the Carnegie, Rahaim will perform Hindustani vocal music.
The evening performances will start at 7:30, but there will also be afternoon sessions for audiences to interact with the visiting performers. These afternoon sessions were a must for Leftridge.
“I think it’s so valuable to not just have the opportunity to experience live music,” he says, “But you have the opportunity to interface with the creators to hear about their stories, and maybe the why of the music or the art.”
The value is certainly not lost on Draper, either.
“There’s an opportunity to meet artists of a caliber that if you connect with them,” Draper says, “and exchange information with them — maybe they can recommend a book. Or maybe they’re on the faculty of a college you want to apply to. These are resources, but they could be friends in the making.”
The final scheduled performance — for the time being — is set for May 4 and will feature the diverse and very sought-after cello pair Jacqueline Ultan and Michelle Kinney, who perform as Purple Orange.
Throughout a 20-plus year partnership the duo has redefined, in different collaborations, what cello music can achieve. Between 2007 and 2017 they created the music for eight different productions written by Twin Cities storyteller Kevin Kling and renowned puppet master, Michael Sommers, not to mention working or records and live performances with pop and world music acts.
The founder of The Southern Minnesota Jazz Society, Hannah Bretz, has performed in the Carnegie as well as in most other venues in the Greater Mankato area and sees it as a huge positive that the Carnegie will be consistently hosting live music.
“I think the increased number of live music performance spaces has a great impact on the arts community,” Bretz says. “I credit Charlie Leftridge with bringing his musical expertise and background to the Carnegie. He has a deep love for music and that, in combination with the visual arts of The Carnegie, offers a winning combination.”
“I think the biggest positive about the Carnegie,” Bretz says, “is the audience. You have a group of people who are already arts appreciators. When you perform in the Carnegie, those people are so supportive.”
Leftridge also is excited the Carnegie can hopefully build bridges between the live music events and other features of the space.
“We’re using our gallery space for the performances,” Leftridge says, “so it becomes an interdisciplinary space just by the nature of it. I think we’re going to be connecting new audiences not only to the performing arts but also to the other art forms that are represented in the space. I think it’s going to grow our audiences organically for different kinds of programming that we offer.”
Leftridge is passionate about presenting unique live music experiences.
“Tim Erikson was a great example,” he says, “because hearing overtones in person, and being part of the demonstration where you got to try it out yourself, you can’t experience that in the same way in a digital format. You can be within 10 feet of a high-caliber performer and be completely immersed so that you’re integrally involved in the concert experience.”
For Draper the experience is reciprocal between the performers and the audience.
“When you experience music live,” she says, “your skin literally feels the vibrations. You can feel the energy. And as a musician, performing for an audience, that feels a lot different than practicing in my studio or recording in my studio.”
As of now Draper and Leftridge are planning to schedule performing artists one Saturday a month, taking a break for the summer and resuming in the fall. Both the afternoon sessions and the evening performances are free, all-ages and open to the public.