Upper Peninsula concert series expands below the bridge  

A longstanding spring and summer concert series from the Upper Peninsula has expanded south to reach audiences below the Mackinac Bridge. 

Beacon Arts Michigan’s “Tales, Legends & Legacy” series –- which has been performing in Manistique, Curtis and Escanaba –- has added Clinton’s Macon Creek arts campus to its locations. Beacon Arts is a non-profit organization with a mission to bring artists to Michigan’s rural communities. The series dates back to 1968, presenting music inspired by stories and exploring how music and art carry history and impact our present and future. Performances started in March and will continue through August.

“I’m delighted to be able to offer the same kind of artistry at Macon Creek,” said Emily Olson, who is artistic director of Beacon Arts Michigan. “We are meeting these rural communities with premiere chamber music, educational opportunities and community engagement.”

Founded in 2021 by John Goodell and Kim Tucker-Gray, Macon Creek is a collaborative non-profit working space for artists, entrepreneurs and educators, situated in a former boarding school on 215 acres of farmland. Goodell and Tucker-Gray have been steadily renovating the property – including its 17 buildings – and increasing the organization’s community offerings. They’ve done one-off or pop-up classes and gatherings, but this is the first time they’ve done a series at this scale. 

“As we’ve worked to build out some of the infrastructure, we’re now really wanting to get folks to come in…” Goodell said. “What we’re building is built by and for community.”

The Upper Peninsula and Macon Creek performances will have much of the same lineup. Featured artists include the Bayberry String Quartet, the True North String Quartet, and the Beacon Arts Trio, as well as Amy I-Lin Cheng and son Alexander Burrow performing both solo and four-hand works for piano. 

Macon Creek will also present the Bayberry String Quartet and a live painting and performance event with the electroacoustic chamber music group the Myriad Project and muralist Chris “Chilly” Rodriguez, who will create a live painting during the concert.

“We’re really looking at the intersection of composition from a visual arts standpoint as well as a musical approach…” Olson said. “It’s a little bit more outside the box in terms of a community experience.”

The Macon Creek series will also be the first to introduce masterclasses, which will be available to intermediate and advanced music students in Lenawee County. The classes will accompany select performances, including the Bayberry String Quartet May 16 and Cheng July 18. The series will also include a poetry and writing workshop June 7 and a composers and creators workshop Aug. 15. 

Tucker-Gray said with funding cuts to the arts, especially within the last couple of years, programs like “Tales, Legends & Legacy” are important.

“There is absolutely a need to provide both the space and the content and the performances for this education,” she said.

While the partnership between Beacon Arts Michigan and Macon Creek is new, Olson, Goodell and Tucker-Gray have known each other for years.

“Many creative things came from sitting down and having discussions about what we want to be spending our time on,” Tucker-Gray said. “[It’s] what we have heard and believed the needs are in the area and within our collective circles…how we can pull something together that would be unique and beneficial to both of our organizations, commitments and also to the community.”

Olson said the Beacon Arts partnership and series expansion was a natural fit. 

“I’ve been wanting to help support the work that they’re doing and the artistry that they want to also bring to the campus,” she said. “This really is a true partnership between the things that I am passionate about and the artistic engagement that I’ve been invested in here in Southeast Michigan as well as up in the UP as well as supporting the work that they’re doing in Macon Creek.”

All three said live concerts like those in “Tales, Legends & Legacy” offer a communal experience that creates much-needed unity in society right now. Goodell said they want to bring positivity to the world.

“The people we work with and the people who come out and are attracted to Macon Creek are people who have joy, and they want to share that joy with other people,” he said. “It’s palpable in their performances, and in their hands-on master class work and their teaching. These are things that are a common language… that can be shared with people of all ages from all socioeconomic backgrounds, from all religions, from all races, everything, it cuts through all of that.”