July 2020
This FREE community event is presented in partnership with the Grand Rapids Area Library.
Presented indoors in the Wilcox Theater
Social distancing required
Masks required
Limited to 176 seats
No ticket required
“Styx” depicts the transformation of a strong woman torn from her contented world during a sailing trip.
Purchase Tickets
Outdoors (covered) under the Jerry and Shirley Miner Family Multi-Use Pavilion at the IRA Civic Center!
Limited to 250 tickets
Social distancing required
Masks encouraged
Festivities begin at 5 p.m. with opening acts Steve Solkela’s Overpopulated One Man Band and Torn and Frayed!
THANK YOU TO SPONSOR
Mollie B, the multi-instrumentalist and award-winning vocalist who is the host of the Mollie B Polka Party TV show, has been performing music all her life. Mollie started her career performing with the Jim Busta Band when she was only a child and due to her hard work and dedication, Mollie B now performs nation-wide — live performances, as well as on TV and the movie screen, most often, but not exclusively with the band SqueezeBox. Mollie not only has performed on over 35 recordings, she has shared her many God-given talents with fans in over 30 states and eleven countries and continues to inspire young musicians with her love for music.
In July of 2011, the first Mollie B Polka Party aired on RFD-TV. Mollie was a creative director and co-producer of these shows. The Mollie B Polka Party currently airs in over 55 million homes on RFD-TV on Wednesday at 6:30pm and Saturday at 10:00pm ET. The show will soon be available on Farm and Ranch TV, a streaming network that can be viewed on all devices linked to the internet.
In 2018, Mollie B & SqueezeBox appeared as “Mollie B & her band” in a scene of the Warner Brothers movie, “The Mule,” directed and starring Clint Eastwood. In this scene Mollie plays piano, trumpet, sings, has one line, and dances with Clint Eastwood.
Mollie’s talents have also been showcased in front of a live audience during The Mollie B Christmas Shows both at RFD-TV the Theatre and the Jim Stafford Theatre in Branson, Missouri; as well as the CAL Center in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. The holiday special took place in 2011-2014, 2016-2018. Mollie has performed, directed, wrote, produced, choreographed, and hosted these two+-hour live performances. Mollie’s cast has featured up to 36 renowned musicians and artists in front of audiences up to 1300.
Mollie has won the title of the “Favorite Female Vocalist” award numerous times, both from the United States Polka Association and the International Polka Association. She has also won multiple awards from the Polka America Corporation for her polka recordings with Ted Lange. Additionally, Mollie has won the “2013 Polka Promoter of the Year” award, from the Wisconsin Polka Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Iowa Polka Hall of Fame in 2015. In 2018, she became the youngest inductee into the International Polka Association Hall of Fame.
MOLLIE B POLKA PARTY!
IRA CIVIC CENTER PAVILION
Rain or shine
Bring a chair
No outside food/drink
No re-admission
Designated smoking areas
No firearms
No Tents
FREE PARKING!
This FREE community event is presented in partnership with the Grand Rapids Area Library.
Presented indoors in the Wilcox Theater
Social distancing required
Masks required
Limited to 176 seats
No ticket required
A Chinese man moves illegally to Japan in order to improve his life and gain opportunity. He buys and assumes a false identity at considerable cost and is, therefore, more than happy to accept a job offer meant for someone else.
SOCIAL DISTANCING REQUIRED
Olivia Skaja will be a senior at St. Olaf College this fall, where she is pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance. She is in the first violin section of the St. Olaf Orchestra, and has toured every year with them, notably to Carnegie Hall and Norway. Olivia began private violin lessons at age nine, and has studied with Mary LaPlant, Alex DePue, Nathan Cole, Francesa Anderegg, and Natsuki Kumagui. Olivia was the first place winner of the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition in 2017, a soloist with the St. Olaf Orchestra on their 2019 fall tour, and most recently performed the complete Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Itasca Symphony Orchestra. She has spent many summers out of state studying at music festivals, including Northern Lights Music Festival, Meadowmount School of Music, and Interlochen Arts Camp. Additionally, Olivia is an avid fiddler, and has been fiddling since the age of ten. In 2019, she won her third state title at the Minnesota State Fiddle Championship, and additionally placed first at the Minnesota State Fiddler’s Association contest at the Minnesota State Fair.
Deena Skaja majored in music at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. Since moving to the Grand Rapids area in 1995, she has played with the Itasca Symphony, the Coleraine City Band, and the Itasca Brass Quintet. She has been in the pit orchestra for many Grand Rapids Players musicals and has frequently performed for the Grand Rapids Summer Concert Series. She performs regularly with the Bemidji Symphony Orchestra and has been in the orchestra for the Northern Lights Music Festival in Aurora, Minnesota for several summers.
SOCIAL DISTANCING REQUIRED
from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, Midori’s Partners in Performance, MRAC, and SEMAC for performance and educational projects. Members of the quartet are the founders and directors of the Artaria Chamber Music School, a weekly coaching program for pre-college age string players; Stringwood, a three week festival and camp held in Lanesboro, MN each June; and the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition, an annual national event that showcases America’s finest high school string quartets from around the country.
| Mozart Eine Kleine Nachtmusik K.525 |
| Jessie Montgomery Quartet “Source Code” |
| Haydn Quartet in G major Op.77/1 |
| Wolf “Italian Serenade” |
This FREE community event is presented in partnership with the Grand Rapids Area Library.
Presented indoors in the Wilcox Theater
Social distancing required
Masks required
Limited to 176 seats
No ticket required
Ulysses, fifty-five years old, is a Contemporary artist. Four years ago, Ulysses ran away from his family and put an end to his career. Nowadays, he lives alone, with his dog Joseph, in an old manor in the middle of the forest. He spends his days playing tennis on his own against a pitching machine or listening to horror movies soundtracks. In short, Ulysses is bored to death, but he is too proud to admit it. Mona is twenty and is an arts student. Her life as an artist couldn’t be more uneventful, between still, nude drawing workshops or theory classes, taught by geriatric teachers. Mona decides out of the blue to go and meet Ulysses. After a laborious first attempt and some misfortune, both of them will end up on a journey that will change their lives forever.
We’re bringing our popular Drive-In Concert Series to the Hibbing Memorial Building Parking Lot!
Only $20 per vehicle and tickets must be purchased in advance.
In order to experience this concert, your vehicle must be equipped with an FM radio.
THANK YOU TO SPONSORS
Drive-in Concert Rules
- If a patron feels sick or has COVID-19 symptoms they must turn around and go home
- Cars must be parked 6’ from other cars
- Only patrons that reside together at home should be in a vehicle together
- No more than 10 people per vehicle
- Restroom facilities are not available (if there is an emergency, we will allow)
August 2020
Friday, August 7th | 4:30 p.m. on the Central School grounds.
As part of the First Friday Art Walk.
Saturday, August 8th | 2 p.m. outside at the Reif Center.
Tickets are not needed for this event
Bring a chair.
FREE!
Reif Education is known for offering professional instruction in theatre and dance. The goal is to nurture a passion for the arts in local youth so they can carry the torch for coming generations.
A lofty goal in a “normal” year but add the regulations and restrictions brought on by a pandemic and you have a real challenge on your hands.
This challenge was accepted by Reif Education Director Katie E. Smith and her band of brave creators. For the past few weeks they have been hard at work collaborating and creating a show from scratch.
“The first couple of days we just brainstormed ideas and played improv games,” Smith said. “These kids are very creative and they were full of great ideas. A couple of themes that really got the group excited were Medieval times and Scooby-Doo. When you have fifteen kids agree on an idea, you run with it! So, our show is a Scooby-Doo inspired mystery that takes place at a medieval fair, titled The Medieval Maniac.”
The students have helped to write the story and jingle, choreograph a dance, coordinate costumes and build and paint props and sets.
“This is very much a team project. Everyone has contributed ideas and the kids have learned how to work together. I am always blown away by what kids will come up with if you give them a chance to be creative,” Smith said.
The three-week workshop will culminate in two performances of The Medieval Maniac.
Both performances are free to the public and will be held outdoors. Everyone is encouraged to bring a chair a support local youth and the arts.
The Reif Arts Council and Woodland Bank are excited to announce a special Thursday, August 20 fundraiser outdoors (covered) at the Jerry and Shirley Miner Multi-Use Pavilion at the IRA Civic Center in Grand Rapids; featuring the popular duo Deuces Wild – Dueling Pianos (DWDP). Proceeds directly benefit the Reif Arts Council general fund.
DWDP features internationally renown artists David Charles Eicholz and Ted Manderfeld.
Son of a miner from the northern woods of Minnesota, Eichholz is a versatile, self taught musician who plays the piano, guitar, saxophone, harmonica, trumpet and countless other instruments. Eichholz was also part of the “Pringles” Award winning band “City Pretty” as well as the band “Rave On!”.
Eichholz was featured internationally on the Swedish television show ‘Christine’. He was then recruited by Little Ditty’s, Dueling Piano Bar at the Mall of America in Minnesota where he performed four nights each week for five years. He also recorded and produced the sound track to the “Prime Target” video game (50,000+ copies sold), and was also featured in an issue of WorldTraveler Magazine, the in-flight publication of Northwest Airlines.
Eichholz has been performing the dueling piano concept for over 18 years and prides himself on being able to hold the attention of his audience from the moment he takes the stage till the last note of the encore. You won’t find a more polished entertainer with such a wide variety of skills.
Manderfeld got his start in Deuces Wild by walking out of his day-job and demanding an audition. Although he hadn’t previously played in a dueling piano style show, his amazing showmanship and obvious ability to perform as a world class entertainer blew away the competition! Since then he has played thousands of dueling piano shows with performances all over the country!
When not on the road with DWDP, Manderfeld spends his time as a producer of sold out shows, including the Billy Joel and Elton John tribute show “Eye 2 Eye,” and the ever popular annual “Rock n Roll Xmas Spectacular,” which he co-produces with former Jonny Lang guitarist Paul Diethelm.
Manderfeld also spends time in the studio as jingle writer, recording artist, and producer of both his first CD “Gather Us In,” and his Rock and Roll Xmas CD, “Trim My Tree.” and “RRXS – Live at The Paramount” CD. He’s been an actor and a game show host! Whether it be in front of thousands of people opening for HBO’s Dennis Miller, or selling out theaters with Deuces Wild nationwide… Manderfeld has consistently proven that he truly is a showman’s showman and musician’s musician.
Limited to 250 tickets
Social distancing required
Masks encouraged
Bring a chair
Rain or shine
No outside food/drink
No re-admission
No firearms
No Tents
FREE PARKING!
THANK YOU TO SPONSOR
October 2020
The Barley Jacks sing original vocals and play jaw–dropping instrumentals in a spirit of excitement and fun. They are masters of the fiddle, guitar, bass and drum who meld their divergent backgrounds of blues and bluegrass, classical and Celtic, R & B, and bebop to inspire each other and create something entirely new. Front man and fiddler Brian Wicklund is joined by Mike Cramer–guitar, Keith Yanes–bass, and Joel Arpin–percussion. Their 2010 debut recording “Either Side of Night” and 2011 recording “The Lighthouse” has been met with great praise by reviewers. Virtuosity, magic and a little danger combine to make every performance unique. Audiences are struck with how much fun the Barley Jacks have when they perform.
THANK YOU TO SPONSOR
Outdoors (covered) under the Jerry and Shirley Miner Family Pavilion at the IRA Civic Center.
- Please bring your own chair.
- 250 people maximum at the event.
- All ticket holders will be ushered to individually distanced pods.
- Three people maximum per pod.
- Remain inside your pod at all times, unless utilizing facilities/concessions.
- Masks and social distancing required when outside of your pod.
- No outside food or drink.
- If you have health or safety concerns, please notify a Reif staff member.
- Rain or shine
- No re-admission
- No firearms
- Free parking