‘There’s a buzz in this city’
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12 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015 507 MAGAZINE • www.PB507.com<br />
events<br />
ENTERTAINMENT<br />
Enterta<strong>in</strong>ment<br />
Briefs<br />
Arts group to host lecture<br />
Rochester Friends of the M<strong>in</strong>neapolis<br />
Institute of Arts will host a<br />
lecture Nov. 19 at the Rochester Golf<br />
and Country Club, 3100 Country<br />
Club Road SW.<br />
Patrick Noon, a curator at the<br />
<strong>in</strong>stitute, will talk about “Delacroix’s<br />
Influence: The Rise of Modern Art<br />
from Cezanne to Van Gogh.” Coffee<br />
is served at 10 a.m., with the lecture at<br />
10:30 a.m. The public is welcome.<br />
Mayo High School<br />
moves to ‘Chicago’<br />
Mayo Stage Door will present<br />
the hit musical “Chicago” Nov. 19<br />
through Nov. 22 at Mayo High School,<br />
1420 11th Ave. SE.<br />
The act<strong>in</strong>g program at Mayo is mark<strong>in</strong>g<br />
its 50th anniversary season <strong>this</strong><br />
academic year. The school opened <strong>in</strong><br />
1966.<br />
“Our program is, first, learn<strong>in</strong>g<br />
theater, so that students are empowered<br />
with grow<strong>in</strong>g skills and talents,”<br />
said Amy Monson, Mayo Stage Door<br />
director. “Along the way we hope to<br />
produce quality shows of a caliber that<br />
surpasses our audiences’ expectations<br />
of high school stage.”<br />
Performances are at 7 p.m. Nov. 19-<br />
21, and at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 22. Tickets<br />
are $12 and $9, and are available at<br />
www.showtix4u.com.<br />
For <strong>this</strong> production, the lobby will be<br />
decorated as if part of the stage, there<br />
will be a photo booth with show props<br />
available and Chicago-related concessions<br />
will be offered.<br />
Cross<strong>in</strong>gs hosts holiday art fair<br />
ZUMBROTA — Eight artists will<br />
display their work as part of the Holiday<br />
Art Fair Nov. 20 through Nov. 22<br />
at Cross<strong>in</strong>gs at Carnegie, 320 East<br />
Ave., Zumbrota.<br />
The artists are Amy Brooks, Jorie<br />
LePlavy, Lynn Lentz, Chris Whillock,<br />
Jenny Nunnelee, Ian Baldry,<br />
Liz Plambeck and Sheila Kehren.<br />
Hot cider and sweet treats will be<br />
served, and the current exhibits of<br />
mixed-media work by Missy Hagen<br />
and ceramics by Amy Cass will be<br />
displayed.<br />
Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 20,<br />
10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 21, and 11 a.m.<br />
to 3 p.m. Nov. 22.<br />
— Tom Weber<br />
Contributed photo<br />
The Shaun Johnson Big Band Experience performs with The Rochester Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21 at John<br />
Marshall High School<br />
Big band, orchestra pair<strong>in</strong>g quite an ‘experience’<br />
By Tom Weber<br />
weber@postbullet<strong>in</strong>.com<br />
The musical partnership between<br />
Jere Lantz and Shaun Johnson had<br />
an unlikely start.<br />
“I came <strong>in</strong>to the hall and saw a guy<br />
sett<strong>in</strong>g up mics and chairs, and then I<br />
was <strong>in</strong>troduced to <strong>this</strong> guy and it was<br />
Shaun Johnson,” said Lantz, director<br />
of the Rochester Symphony Orchestra.<br />
“He’s that k<strong>in</strong>d of guy. I like<br />
work<strong>in</strong>g with someone who has his<br />
feet on the ground and his head <strong>in</strong><br />
an artistic universe.”<br />
That’s good, because Lantz and<br />
Johnson are work<strong>in</strong>g together on the<br />
Nov. 21 concert that comb<strong>in</strong>es the orchestra<br />
with the Shaun Johnson Big<br />
Band Experience. It’s a relatively new<br />
undertak<strong>in</strong>g for Johnson, best known<br />
as a s<strong>in</strong>ger with the a cappella group<br />
Tonic Sol-fa. His Big Band Experience<br />
has performed Christmas shows <strong>in</strong> recent<br />
years, but play<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> front of a full<br />
orchestra is someth<strong>in</strong>g different.<br />
Johnson and his jazz band have<br />
done <strong>this</strong> once previously, with the<br />
South Dakota Symphony <strong>in</strong> Sioux Falls.<br />
“When there’s an orchestra beh<strong>in</strong>d<br />
you,” he said, “there’s noth<strong>in</strong>g to describe<br />
it. It’s so <strong>in</strong>spir<strong>in</strong>g.”<br />
But even that Sioux Falls concert<br />
probably would not have happened<br />
without the assistance of Lantz and<br />
the Rochester symphony.<br />
It all started last year, when Johnson<br />
had some music charts for jazz<br />
band and orchestra arranged by Dean<br />
Sorenson, a jazz <strong>in</strong>structor at the University<br />
of M<strong>in</strong>nesota. Sorenson advised<br />
Johnson to go through the charts with<br />
a symphony before do<strong>in</strong>g a concert.<br />
“He said, ‘You really have to f<strong>in</strong>d out<br />
what works and doesn’t work for the<br />
musicians,’” Johnson said.<br />
Sorenson suggested the Rochester<br />
symphony as a test orchestra. “So we<br />
went down there,” Johnson said. “It<br />
was an amaz<strong>in</strong>g exercise. It was so<br />
much fun to see Jere direct. He has so<br />
much passion.”<br />
Johnson’s not the first to come up<br />
with the idea of comb<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g a jazz band<br />
with an orchestra. “I love the sound of<br />
it,” he said. “But I don’t want to do it if<br />
you can’t br<strong>in</strong>g someth<strong>in</strong>g to it that’s<br />
your own. Take some songs people<br />
don’t expect.”<br />
For <strong>in</strong>stance, Johnson’s jazz band<br />
will play the theme from “Spider-<br />
IF YOU GO<br />
What<br />
The Rochester Symphony Orchestra<br />
and Shaun Johnson’s Big Band<br />
Experience<br />
When<br />
7:30 p.m. Nov. 21<br />
Where<br />
John Marshall High School auditorium,<br />
1510 14th St. NW, Rochester.<br />
Tickets<br />
$30 and $20 adults, $5 youth; 507-286-<br />
8742<br />
Man” with the orchestra. “That’s a<br />
different piece for a big band to do, but<br />
def<strong>in</strong>itely someth<strong>in</strong>g different for an<br />
orchestra to do,” Johnson said.<br />
They’ll also do a more traditional<br />
Billie Holiday piece, Leonard Cohen’s<br />
“Hallelujah” and Michael<br />
Buble’s “Haven’t Met You Yet.”<br />
“We do pieces from the ‘30s and<br />
pieces from less than five years ago,”<br />
Johnson said.