Over the past fifty years, Canterbury House has hosted musical performances by a wide variety of forward-thinking, innovative “prophetic voices.” In the mid 1960s and early 1970s, the Concert Series featured now-legendary performers such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, and Gordon Lightfoot. More recently, the Series has featured regional acts, student and faculty ensembles, and internationally known artists drawing from jazz, contemporary classical, electronica, and other forms of improvised music. Artists such as Steve Sewell, Oliver Lake and Peter Kowald are a sampling of the high level of music featured in this series.  If you are interested in playing at this historic, exciting and progressive venue, please review our booking policy (in PDF or in MS Word format) and contact our Concert Coordinator.

Concerts begin at 8 p.m.  Admission is $10 or $5 for students/seniors.

The Mill Stone

with special guests, Charlene Kaye and Laurel Premo
Friday, January 11

The Mill Stone was formed in the summer of 2007.  A collaboration between singer/songwriter Alex Brumel and vocalist Janel Elizabeth, the band was born of a shared passion for acoustic music and classic vocal harmonies.  Alex, a 2007 University of Michigan graduate, has shared stages with songwriters such as Dispatch's Pete Francis and Grammy-Nominee Duncan Sheik (with whom he worked extensively on developing his Tony Award-winning "anti-musical," SPRING AWAKENING), and co-written material with Ari Hest.  Janel has most recently performed alongside Bruce Springsteen, and is the featured vocalist in the Max Weinberg 7, of "Conan O'Brien" fame.  For more information, please head to www.myspace.com/themillstonepage, www.myspace.com/alexbrumel, and www.myspace.com/janelspage.

Opening act Charlene Kaye and Laurel Premo are two local songwriters in the area who will be collaborating to perform their original songs.  The duo draws from the roots of folk, each coming from different areas of music but both skilled multi-instrumentalists with a knack for arrangement and vocal harmony. Their songs, sometimes gritty and fiery, sometimes delicate and heart-wrenching, are sure to hold listeners captive with their sparkling musicianship and soulful, earnest approach.

Sonic Circus w/ DJ Dubble8
Friday, February 1

Currently fixated somewhere along the East Coast, Sonic Circus consists of Dana Jessen (bassoon) and Michael Straus (saxophones). Dedicated to today's music, their combined individual efforts include the premiers of over forty new works with performances at New York City's The Stone, Boston's Jordan Hall and Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center. Always looking to collaborate with non-traditional artists and musicians, they will be joined this show by turntablist DJ Dubble8. These three musicians, having all dabbled in the institutionalized world, hold graduate degrees in music from the likes of Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and the New England Conservatory of Music. New music performed tonight will fuse electronics with live acoustic instruments and visual projections.

More Artist Info: www.mstraus.net, www.danajessen.com, www.dubble8productions.com

Red Arrow Highway EP Release Party
Friday, February 15

Red Arrow Highway is a new folk rock group in Ann Arbor.  The group is led by Theo Katzman, of My Dear Disco fame, and Andrew Kratzat, borrowed from the jazz scene.  Theo is the band's multi-instrumentalist contributing vocals, guitar, piano, and his writing skills.  Andrew contributes his writing skills as well as upright bass.  The backing band consists of guitarist and vocalist Luke Gyure and multi-percussionist Mike Shea.  This show will be the release of Red Arrow Highway's first ep.

Mostly Other People Do the Killing

wsg. The Angry Ape Quartet

Monday, February 18, 8:30pm

Mostly Other People Do the Killing is a quartet founded on the idea that not only is Jazz still alive and vibrant, but it can and should be fun, engaging and thoroughly contemporary. The group features Peter Evans on trumpet, Jon Irabagon on alto sax, Moppa Elliot on bass and Kevin Shea on drums. Under the playful pseudonym, "Leonardo Featherweight," Elliott writes, "Rather than settling into one style or historical period, MOPDTK fuses the entire spectrum of Jazz and the various forms of improvised music it has spawned into a single, seamless melange of Uber-Jass."

For more info, please visit: www.myspace.com/mostlyotherpeopledothekilling

The Angry Ape Quartet is a quasi-chamber ensemble with their sensibilities spread through the cosmos of  music, and directed towards a synthesis which defies simple categorization and appeals to a wide range of tastes. The Angry Ape Quartet is Doug Stuart and Scott Brown (basses), and Danny Fisher-Lochhead  and Greg Lindgren (saxes and flutes).

Creative Arts Orchestra + Locksmith Isidore

Friday, March 28

The University of Michigan's Creative Arts Orchestra will perform with special guests, The Jason Stein Trio.

LOCKSMITH ISIDORE:

Jason Stein’s trio, Locksmith Isidore consists of Stein (Chicago) on bass clarinet, Jason Roebke (Chicago) on bass and Mike Pride (New York) on drums. The instrumentation of bass clarinet, bass and percussion makes for a very interesting and unique group sound.   In the trio setting, Stein is able to explore the expressive and improvisational capabilities of the elusive bass clarinet.  Stein is focused on breaking down the boundaries of conventional composition and improvisation.  Given the instrumentation and personnel, Locksmith Isidore is able to traverse a wide range of styles and
wavelengths.  JASON STEIN

"Stein stands apart from the standard instrumental lineage. Whereas a player like Eric Dolphy or Michel Portal builds on wide intervallic leaps and verticality, Stein (like Michel Pilz, Rudi Mahall or John Tchicai) operates in a horizontal fashion, favoring a breadth of twists and turns more sideways than anything else, woven into a post-Ornette fabric."
- Clifford Allen (All About Jazz)

"Stein is exhilarating, a young master of his fiendishly difficult horn. Stein is a player to look out for." - Chris May (All About Jazz)

"wonderfully odd" - Time Out Magazine

Yuganaut

Tuesday, April 1

Yuganaut: innovative jazz group, tours in support of "This Musicship" on ESP-Disk

Yuganaut is: Stephen Rush (Fender Rhodes, MiniMoog, trombone, toys and effects Tom Abbs (bass, tuba, violin, cello, percussion Geoff Mann (drums, mbira, cornet, mandolin).

Yuganaut will tour from April 1st through April 9th in celebration of the release of This  Musicship on the legendary avant-jazz label, ESP-Disk'.  The trio is on its seventh stateside tour, having last toured on behalf of the multimedia epic: The Lost World, in  which they performed live soundtracks to the classic 1925 film of the same name.

Seminal musicians Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong eschewed the term "Jazz" as a strange and inconvenient term for their music, an eclectic mix of African, Caribbean and  European influences.  Yuganaut is similarly without category.  These are trained musicians who create their own material free of idiomatic or conceptual limitations, drawing on the immense canvas of music-making practices the world over. Their outlook is as global and pluralistic as the world they inhabit.  Some particularly meaningful influences are Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra, as well as European Free music, Indian Classical Music and  Western European Classical Music. They move fluidly between these sonic worlds with finesse, humor, and, of course- with a keen sense of improvisation ("Yuga" is an Indian  term for cosmic time cycles).

This tour is sponsored by Yuganaut's current label - ESP-Disk' (http://espdisk.com).  ESP-Disk's entire catalog will be on sale at every stop on the tour, with profits going  to the Yuganaut tour fund. The musicians would like to express gratitude to ESP's founder Bernard Stollman for his support and guidance.