Voices is a series of artist-cultivated concerts at The Ark conceived and created by Ann Arbor musician Kyler Wilkins, AKA vocal looping artist Ki5. Each show, intentional time will be taken to get to know each artist in the form of brief interviews and musical breaks to have them speak about their journey as musicians and performers with the hope that people in the audience are more connected to and inspired by those voices.
Emily Slomovits began playing violin at the age of seven, and has been joining her father and uncle (the duo Gemini) on stage since she was eight years old. She studied classical violin for more than ten years, adding jazz and folk fiddle styles to her repertoire along the way. In her early teens she began singing and playing guitar and has since then been performing solo, with Gemini, and in groups ranging from classical string quartets to folk and country bands. Emily will be joined by Billy King, Jen Sygit, San Slomovits, Peter Madcat Ruth, Tyler Driskill, and Marlene Inman.
When Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Grammy nominee Jimmie Dale Gilmore made the album Downey To Lubbock together in 2018, they wrote the title track as a sort of mission statement. “I know someday this old highway’s gonna come to an end,” Alvin sings near the song’s conclusion. Gilmore answers: “But I know when it does you’re going to be my friend.” Six years later, they’re serving notice that the old highway hasn’t ended yet. “We’re still standing, no matter what you might hear,” they sing on “We’re Still Here,” the final track to their new album Texicali. Due out Jun 21, 2024 on Yep Roc Records, Texicali continues to bridge the distance between the two troubadours’ respective home bases of California (Alvin) and Texas (Gilmore).
Living Thing, the newest full-length album from Oregon-based songwriter Anna Tivel, is an arcing dive into the existential. Written through the tumultuous eyes of 2020 and recorded in Eau Claire, WI in profound collaboration with long-time friend and producer Shane Leonard, these are songs of struggle and aliveness expressed with great joy.
Internationally recognized author and spoken word artist Shane Koyczan has emerged as a creator of poetry that dares to belong to the people and speak directly to them in their own voice. In 2013, he collaborated with animators to make the anti-bullying viral video “To This Day” which has had over 13 million views, and he performed a customized version “For the Bullied and the Beautiful” to acclaim at the 2013 International TED Conference in Long Beach, California. Shane shapes his words and delivers in multi mediums from authored, video, spoken word, operatic, and musically performed.
Sisters Natalie (cello) and Brittany (fiddle) Haas began their musical lives together, filling their childhood home with Bach suites and old-time tunes alike. It was on their own, however-following divergent paths through disparate musical traditions, countries, and cultures-that they both arrived as virtuosi and composers at the highest levels of contemporary string music. Fans of acoustic music can hardly mention one without referencing the other's work.
When it comes to movers and shakers in the bluegrass world, Full Cord is a super-group on the rise. After winning the prestigious 2022 Telluride Bluegrass Band Competition in Colorado, the Michigan-based group followed that with another much-coveted honor when the International Bluegrass Music Association named Full Cord its “Momentum Award Band of the Year.” While mandolinist Brian Oberlin notes the band’s music “is new and fresh to the ears of seasoned bluegrass fans,” the bluegrass traditions in Full Cord have deep roots.
Laura Cortese has built a career weaving together a musical tapestry as diverse as it is masterful, highlighted with experiences like playing the Newport Folk Festival with Pete Seeger in 2009, standing onstage at the iconic Carnegie Hall in New York with Band of Horses in 2009, and a stint touring alongside Uncle Earl in 2007. She has recorded with artists ranging from Aoife O’Donovan and Brittany Haas to Rose Cousins and Session Americana, and has released 7 albums under her own name.
This concert/lecture brings to life a twentieth-century world of Jewish responses to the pervasive climate of race prejudice that gave birth to the Scottsboro trials—and injustices to come—through a performance of Yiddish and English poems from the era newly set to music. Presented by the Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies.
COLIN QUINN (Writer/Performer) is a stand-up comedian from Brooklyn (okay, Park Slope), who has been a part of your whole life even though you never asked for it. From MTV’s “Remote Control” to SNL to Comedy Central’s “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn,” Mr. Quinn is not one to take a hint and bow out gracefully. He’s been on Broadway with Colin Quinn: An Irish Wake and Colin Quinn: Long Story Short and Off-Broadway with his show Colin Quinn: Unconstitutional, Colin Quinn: The New York Story, directed by Jerry Seinfeld, Colin Quinn: Red State, Blue State, Colin Quinn: The Last Best Hope, and most recently Colin Quinn: Small Talk. Recent credits include Trainwreck, Girls, and his web series “Cop Show,” streaming now on Colin’s YouTube channel.
Raw, soulful, and with plenty of swagger, Town Mountain has earned raves for their hard-driving sound, their in-house songwriting, and the honky-tonk edge that permeates their exhilarating live performances, whether in a packed club or at a sold-out festival. The hearty base of Town Mountain's music is the first and second generation of bluegrass spiced with country, old school rock ‘n’ roll, and boogie-woogie. It's what else goes into the mix that brings it all to life both on stage and on record and reflects the group's wide-ranging influences – from the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia and the ethereal lyrics of Robert Hunter, to the honest, vintage country of Willie, Waylon, and Merle.
Merging evocative folk, melodic pop and an edgier roots rock sensibility, singer/songwriter/guitarist Jonatha Brooke began releasing music in the early 1990s, first as a member of the duo the Story and more enduringly as a solo artist. After four major label releases, she started her own independent label, Bad Dog Records in 1999, and has since released ten more albums - including the companion CD to her critically acclaimed, one woman, Off-Broadway musical, My Mother Has Four Noses.
