Thursday, February 20 & Friday, February 21, 2025 SHOWTIME 7:30PM
Ahya Simone feat. Visual Artist WMCAT Teaching Artist Mike Saunders and WMCAT video production students.
Ahya Simone is a harpist, singer-songwriter femme queen who fuses R&B/soul, jazz, and experimental elements into a multi-faceted musical landscape.
Working across myriad disciplines, Detroit-based multidisciplinary artist, performer, filmmaker and harpist. Ahya Simone’s many pronged practice is bound by an exploration of black Identity, Aesthetic, and community building.
Simone’s engagement with music stems from a childhood spent in the Black church, where she learned to sing. In high school, she began to play the harp and became principal harpist for the Wayne State University Wind Symphony upon her graduation.
Thursday, March 13 & Friday, March 14, 2025 SHOWTIME 7:30PM
Slow Spell feat. Visual Artist Emily Hromi
Slow Spell is an experimental rock band from Traverse City, Michigan. The quartet creates music built from a vocabulary formed from their own unique chemistry. Knotted guitar, hypnotic bass, and dynamic drums weave together around the melodic and deeply powerful vocals of Laurel Premo.
The group was born out of lengthy improv sessions, with no planning or discussions; simply 4 musical voices venturing, together, on an unlit path. For this very special performance at the Grand Rapids Public Museum the band will be bringing their improvisational practice to a live audience for the first time. Each night's second set of music will be crafted live; with the planetarium's visuals and audience energy helping guide what's created on stage. Slow Spell consists of Laurel Premo (vocals), Chris Stefanciw (guitar), Peter Lepczyk (bass), and Will Thomas (drums).