Beginning with the 2017-18 academic year, all performances by Muskegon Community College music ensembles, as well as those by the West Michigan Concert WINDS, the Shoreline Symphony, and the Honors Orchestra, will take place in the Frauenthal Center in downtown Muskegon.
MCC Music Director Daniel M. Meyers made the announcement at the April 19 MCC Board of Trustees meeting on campus. In doing so, he praised the collaboration between the Frauenthal Center and the MCC Music Department, the Concert WINDS and the Honors Orchestra, which are for-credit courses at MCC, and the Shoreline Symphony, which is a continuing education class at MCC.
“The benefits to our students, faculty, and staff are the opportunity to have a permanent home in one of the finest performance halls in our state,” said Meyers. “The same benefits, of course, are there for the Concert Winds and Orchestras, allowing all of us to have a fabulous home venue.”
Meyers said the move from the Overbrook Theater, which is the home to MCC’s Center for Theater, to the Frauenthal Center will help him in recruiting and retaining musicians “who will look forward to performing regularly on this stage.”
“We are very excited to have Muskegon Community College concerts at the Frauenthal Center next season,” said Ricki Levine, the Frauenthal Center managing director. “We think it’s a win-win for the Frauenthal, for the college and for the community.”
“It’s a game changer for building audiences,” added Howard Meade, the executive director on WINDS and president of the Shoreline Community Orchestra Board of Directors. “It’s an exciting opportunity for community orchestra performance in a super music venue.”
Downtown Muskegon should benefit from an estimated additional 4,500 attendees to the annual 15 afternoon and evening concerts that will now take place in the Frauenthal Center, said Meyers.
“Add to this the future new music teaching and rehearsal facilities here on campus,” said Meyers, referring to the MCC Arts and Humanities Center which will occupy the vacated Applied Technology space on the main campus in 2018, “and I know MCC will stand as a model for music at comparable-sized community colleges across the nation.
The first MCC concert of the 2017-18 season scheduled for the Frauenthal Center will feature the MCC Wind and Jazz Ensemble on Wednesday, Oct. 18, at 7:30 p.m. The list of performance ensembles includes: College Singers, Collegiates, Jaywalkers, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Jayhawk Sound, Concert Winds, Shoreline Symphony, and the Honors Orchestra. The MCC conductors are: Thomas Clark, Tim Froncek, Gail Brechting, Annette Jurcevic, Phil DeYoung, and Daniel M. Meyers. Faculty Performers are Dr. Solee Lee Clark and Beth Adkins.