January 2020
The Reminders are a rare and remarkable musical duo seamlessly blending soulful sounds and roots music with insightful messages and thoughtful lyrics. The duo consists of Brussels-born emcee Big Samir and Queens-born emcee/ vocalist Aja Black, a collective creative force that’s hard to beat. Big Samir weaves intricate rhythmic patterns with a bilingual French/English flow, displaying his street-smart credibility in both his lyrics and cool demeanor. This is beautifully complimented by Aja Black’s confident delivery, diverse cadences, and unique vocal stylings. The two have an undeniable magical chemistry as they share more than lyrical abilities and stages; the couple shares a partnership in both music and life as Samir and Aja have been married for almost a decade.
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An evening of new works composed by Aby Wolf, in collaboration with Eric Mayson and Grant Cutler, and performed by a cast of renowned musicians as comfortable in experimentation as virtuosity. Through a creative process based in improvisation resulting in atypical song structures, Champagne Confetti is a practice in embracing uncertainty. It blurs the lines between ambient neo-minimalism, chamber music, and electro-R&B. It is inspired by the imminent universal need to find footing in an unstable world, and on both a personal and global scale, these new compositions explore that uncertainty.
MPR members receive $2 off per ticket by using code MPR at checkout.
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February 2020
Kevin Spencer is a teaching artist, researcher, speaker, consultant, and award-winning film producer as well as faculty in the Special Education program at Carlow University (PA) where he teaches a course on the intersection of the arts for special populations. He is also a world-renowned illusionist with dozens of accolades to his credit. He and his wife, Cindy, were the recipients of the Merlin Award for International Magicians of the Year (2009) and six-time recipients of Performing Arts Entertainer of the Year. Most recently, the Milbourne Christopher Foundation honored them as Illusionists of the Year (2015) for their unique contributions to the art of magic.
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Larry Gatlin is known for his rich falsetto singing style and for the unique pop-inflected songs he wrote and recorded in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of Gatlin’s biggest hits include “Broken Lady”, “All the Gold in California”, “Houston (Means I’m One Day Closer to You)”, “She Used to Be Somebody’s Baby”, and “Talkin’ to the Moon”. During this time, country music trended heavily towards slick pop music arrangements in a style that came to be known as Countrypolitan.
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Grab your compass and join our intrepid explorer across unchartered territories to discover a pre-historic world of astonishing (and remarkably life-like) dinosaurs. Meet a host of impressive creatures, including every child’s favorite flesh-eating giant, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Triceratops, Giraffatitan and Segnosaurus, to name a few!
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March 2020
Catapult (as seen on Season 8 of America’s Got Talent) is an interactive shadow dancing and storytelling you have to see to believe! Catapult Entertainment is a dance company created by Adam Battelstein in 2008. The talented Catapult dancers have the skills to transform their bodies into seemingly impossible images. Catapult has made films and performed live for corporate events around the U.S. and as far away as Stockholm, Sweden. They hope their shadow dances will amaze audiences and make them fall in love with the human body and its ability to transform. Heading to Broadway in 2020!
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April 2020
Started in 2005 as an off-shoot project between Minneapolis based musicians and friends Chan Poling (piano), Steve Roehm (vibes) and John Munson (bass), TNS has grown into a globe-spanning adventure, filling theaters and clubs around the world, spawning several CDs, videos, cartoons, dance/theater projects, and ancillary gewgaws that have charmed and delighted an ever-multiplying legion of faithful fans. Score is a charming musical tour through their favorite songs from movies. With featured singers Cameron Kinghorn, Chris Koza & Aby Wolf.
This activity is made possible by voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
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The Rainbow Fish enchants children of all ages with his silver scales and heart of gold, from the award-winning book about the beautiful fish who learned to share his most prized possession. Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia brings this tale to life with their enchanting puppetry.
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Inspired by the famous Canadian troupe “Cirque du Soleil”, the show is rich in various stage effects using the latest laser technologies, snow cannons, soap bubble tornadoes, theatrical fog, gigantic smoke rings, smoke-filled soap bubble machines, optical illusions and many other surprises. All the performance is enriched by a live video shooting connected to a large LED screen (35 sq. meters – 380 sq. Feet) that acts as a background and allows for better visibility even in the largest of auditoriums. Adults and children alike will enjoy the show, thanks to the high interactivity and audience participation, the extremely visual content (there are no spoken words as all the show is musical) and the different level of interpretations that that will make adults and children smile.
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This engagement is supported by the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Crane Group.
May 2020
Shaun Boothe is an award-winning hip-hop artist, TEDx speaker and creator of “The Unauthorized Biography Series.” This series is a critically acclaimed musical project that celebrates the world’s greatest cultural icons through biographical rap songs known as “Repackaging History through Hip Hop.” Each chapter of the series captures the legacy of a positive and influential iconic figure in a documentary-style music video. Icons featured in the series include Bob Marley, Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama, Bruce Lee, Oprah Winfrey, Tupac Shakur, Terry Fox, Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai and more.
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