Organizations carefully choose what shows do and do not go on

Amid several cancellations and postponements (see below), the Michigan State University College of Music is proceeding with several scheduled events.

This Friday at 8 p.m. in the Fairchild Theatre, the Khemia Ensemble will present contemporary classical chamber music. They’ll present a program called “Intersections.”

As a performance group committed to commissioning new works and mentoring the next generation of music, their concert here will feature recently composed pieces by MSU alumnus Phillip Sink, Nick Benavides, Nina Shekhar, Stefan Freund, and MSU Associate Professor of Composition David Biedenbender.

Artists include singers and instrumentalists.

On Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Fairchild, the MSU College of Music will host one of its most beloved annual events, Joanne and Bill Church West Circle Series: Happy Birthday, Mozart. It celebrates the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom many consider one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.

This year, the program includes Tema con Variazioni in G major for piano four hands, the Quintet in Eb major for piano and winds, and vocal selections from “Le nozze di Figaro,” “Don Giovanni” and other compositions.

MSU artists performing in the concert include artists Jane Bunnell, mezzo-soprano; Marc Embree, bass-baritone; Rick Fracker, tenor; Michael Kroth, bassoon; Elden Little, piano; Deborah Moriarty, piano; Anne Nispel, soprano; Sarah Southard, oboe; Zhihua Tang, piano; Corbin Wagner, horn; and Mingzhe Wang, clarinet.

Musique 21, MSU’s contemporary music ensemble, will perform next at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 31 at Fairchild. Their concert is called “The Devil’s Tale.” The music and text of this piece is by James Stephenson. It’s written as a sequel to Igor Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire du Soldat,” that depicts a modern-day journey of Joseph, the devil told in reverse.

On Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m. there will be a celebration of the Lunar New Year at the Cook Recital Hall. The concert will present works by composers of Asian descent, including Keiko Abe, Paul Chihara, Chia-Yu Hsu, Zhou Tian and Han-Ki Kim.

Performing artists include Yvonne Lam, violin; Mingzhe Wang, clarinet; Gwen Dease, percussion; Chen-Yu Huang, harp; pianists Zhihua Tang and Young Hyun Cho; and I-Fu Wang, violin.

Canceled and postponed events

With uncertainties about the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus swirling about, many arts organizations are either postponing events or cancelling them entirely. A few announcements that have been made:

●The Ten Pound Fiddle board of directors voted unanimously to postpone all weekly concerts through early March. The Mid-Winter Singing Festival has been cancelled. The next show will be Friday, March 11, when the Fiddle hosts the Irish quartet Teada.

● Ixion has cancelled its March show, “Begets: Fall of a High School Ronin.” Rehearsals would have had a cast of 20 in close contact for hours a day working on such things as stage combat which was deemed unsafe in the current environment.

●The MSU College of Music-hosted concert the Accorda Trio has been rescheduled for Feb. 20. The St. Olaf Choir, originally scheduled for Jan. 30 has been cancelled.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Organizations carefully choose what shows do and do not go on