Traverse City: – The Dennos Museum Center at Northwestern Michigan College will present the Cuban music group Tiempo Libre on Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 8:00 PM in the Milliken Auditorium. Tickets are $25 in advance, $28 at the door, $22 for Museum Members, plus fees. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Museum Box office at 231-995-1553 or on line at www.dennosmuseum.org. NMC Student can attend for free with their student I.D. Tickets for NMC students are available at Student Life or the box office.
The three-time Grammy-nominated Cuban music group Tiempo Libre is one the hottest young Latin bands today. Equally at home in concert halls, jazz clubs and dance venues, Tiempo Libre’s Miami-based members are true modern heirs to the rich tradition of the music of their native Cuba. Classically trained at Cuba’s premiere conservatories, today, the group is a hit in the U.S. and abroad, celebrated for its incendiary, joyful performances of timba, an irresistible, dance-inducing mix of high-voltage Latin jazz and the seductive rhythms of son.” The Miami New Times calls Tiempo Libre’s timba a “tribal, joyful, genial vibe that demonically possesses the body from the waist down.”
Tiempo Libre’s appearance in Traverse City and in eight other venues around the state is made possible with a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts applied for and received by the Dennos Museum Center to make the tour possible.
“I was completely blown away by this group when they performed at the Dennos in 2009 for schools in a project made possible by the Wharton Center at MSU,” says Gene Jenneman, Director of the Dennos Museum Center, “I wanted to find a way to bring them back to Traverse City and make them accessible to smaller venues like ours around the State. This grant allowed us to get the group to venues from Canton to Marquette, nine in all, and in doing so the Traverse City community will benefit and the Dennos will impact the state as a whole.” The grant will support part of the performing fees for both public and school programs in each community.
Tiempo Libre will offer a performance for schools on Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 9:30 and 11:30 AM in the Milliken Auditorium of the Dennos Museum Center. Teachers may call Jason Dake at 231-995-1029 or e-mail jdake@nmc.edu for information or to reserve tickets for the school performances.
With the purchase of a ticket to this performance, concert goers are invited to visit the museum’s galleries one hour before the concert and attend a post-concert reception with the performers.
The Dennos concert season is made possible with support from the Robert T and Ruth Haidt Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, the Begonia Foundation with media support from WNMC 90.7, CMU Public Broadcasting and TV 29&8. Housing for our performers is provided by the Cambria Suites and Days Inn.
The Dennos Museum Center is open daily 10 AM to 5 PM, Thursdays until 8 PM, and Sundays 1-5 PM. Admission is $6.00 adults, $4.00 for children and free to museum members. For more information on the Museum and its programs, go to www.dennosmuseum.org or call 231-995-1055. The Dennos Museum Center is located at 1401 College Dr., Traverse City, MI 49686, at the entrance to the campus of Northwestern Michigan College.