Category: Community Event

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Annie Humphrey and David Huckfelt in Concert

Annie Humphrey and David Huckfelt.

Headwaters Music & Arts hosts Annie Humphrey in concert with David Huckfelt,7:30 pm January 20, 2023. As part of their ongoing commitment to create a welcoming space, Headwaters established a land acknowledgement statement in March 2022 to pay respect to the Indigenous Peoples on whose ancestral homelands they gather and to celebrate the cultural significance that Indigenous music and arts bring to the community. Annie Humphrey, both a visual and musical artist, was commissioned to design, build and install indoor signage with both English and Ojibwemowin translations to be used throughout the Headwaters’ building.

Born and raised on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, Annie Humphrey performs both regionally and nationally. In addition to being an Anishinaabe singer and songwriter, Annie is a poet, teacher, and carpenter. She was named Artist of the Year at the 2018 Native American Music Awards. Her latest album, Eat What You Kill, was released in 2019 and is a meditation on accountability and gratitude. Annie frequently performs with Minneapolis folk-activist and songwriter David Huckfelt, founding member and front man for The Pines. His new record Room Enough, Time Enough is about restoring balance, space and attention, peace and equality, redeeming the marginalized, and remembering the forgotten.

Annie Humphrey with her original signs before they were hung.

Along with Annie’s original signs with translations, Headwaters Music & Arts celebrates the installation of a new outdoor sign featuring their latest logo and a welcome in both English and Ojibwemowin - Miigwech Bi-mawadishiweyan. The January 20 concert will be a chance to view and celebrate the outdoor sign and all of Annie’s interior signs.

Tickets for the concert are sold on a sliding fee, between $5-$20, to make the music event accessible to all. Funds raised will go to Headwaters scholarship fund. You can get your tickets here.

The signage and these activities are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Bemidji Area Arts Endowment, a component fund of the Northwest Minnesota Foundation. Midco Foundation provided funding to help build the new outdoor sign. Translations for the signs generously provided by Anton Treuer.

 

Headwaters' new outdoor sign.
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Headwaters celebrates the Anishinaabe Artisan Market Sale Dec. 16-17

Headwaters Rock Band Program (a.k.a., Bumble Grunge)

Bell Choir

Join us Dec. 16 & 17 for a weekend of special Bemidji events! Headwaters Music & Arts joins Watermark Art Center for a special weekend of shopping in support of the Anishinaabe Artisan Market Sale at the Historic Carnegie Library. Join us at Headwaters Music & Arts for hot chocolate and cookies during some awesome (and free!) music performances.

Friday Dec. 16

7pm • Bell Choir at Headwaters

Saturday Dec. 17

1pm • First City Singers at Headwaters
2pm • First City Singers at Watermark Art Center
6pm • Headwaters Rock Band at Headwaters

See the full schedule of weekend events at the Watermark Art Center's website and we'll see you out and about!

First City Singers

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Give to the Max 2022 kicks off!

We have done a lot since November 1, 2021. Thanks to a mixture of community contributions and grants, we have been able to:

👏Offer music and arts scholarships for ALL of our youth programming.
👏Increase our programming capacity by building a wall to separate our pottery and visual arts studios as well as build 2 additional private lesson studios.
👏Afford lighting improvements that both improved our buildings energy efficiency and made our space more welcoming for creative eyes.
👏 Make our space warmer and even more energy efficient with added heating in the pottery and visual art classrooms.
👏 And offer an even wider variety of programming and events for all.

It has been a productive twelve months! In the next twelve months we want to do more of the same. We rely on individual donations and sustaining membership contributions to keep us going, and to help us stay on solid ground as we fulfill our mission to provide opportunities for creativity through instruction and inspire the community through music and the arts.

GiveMN links donors with organizations that are working to make Minnesota a more generous place. This statewide, three week long, giving campaign starts November 1 and wraps up November 17. We invite you to join us for Minnesota’s giving holiday! And, as an added bonus, starting November 1 Schmitt Music commits to a cash match of up to $500 to Headwaters Music & Arts.

We are continually guided by our vision to Seek Music, Engage the Arts, and Build Community. This year we are celebrating 30 years of music and heART and we could not have got here without you!

You can give now here. THANK YOU for supporting Headwaters Music & Arts!

P.s. We are holding a ukulele giveaway through the month of november. The uke was generously donated by Schmitt Music and anybody can sign up to win but when you contribute any amount to Headwaters Nov. 1-17 in person or online you will automatically be added to the list.

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Dan Navarro Visits Bemidji September 3 & 4

Headwaters Music & Arts welcomes nationally touring musician and songwriter, Dan Navarro, to Bemidji September 3 and 4 with a concert and a guitar workshop for ages 13-adult.

Dan Navarro’s long and eclectic resume includes “songwriter,” “recording artist,” “singer,” “voice actor,” “road warrior” and “arts advocate” in its range of credits. His music probes life at its most resonant. In his rich baritone, he sings songs of heart and insight, steeped in experience, soulful tales from a long road well-traveled.

Dan started his career writing songs for a diverse array of artists including Pat Benatar (the Grammy®-nominated “We Belong”) The Bangles, Jackson Browne, Dave Edmunds, The Temptations, Dionne Warwick, The Triplets, Dutch star Marco Borsato, and Austin outlaw legend Rusty Weir.

In the 1990’s and 2000’s, Dan worked with Eric Lowen as they recorded and toured as the acclaimed acoustic duo Lowen & Navarro until Eric’s retirement in 2009. Dan has transitioned smoothly into a busy solo career over the past decade, touring nationally almost constantly.

Dan's long awaited first true studio-recorded album, "Shed My Skin" was released in 2019 and was well worth the wait. Recorded and produced by Steve Postell it, of course, features Dan Navarro / vocals, guitar, percussion, Steve Postell / Guitars, Jon Ossman / upright bass, Brendan Buckley /drums, Peter Adams / piano, Phil Parlapiano / accordion, David Glaser / mandolin and Debra Dobkin / percussion.

He has a parallel career as a voice actor and singer, in films like The Playmobil Movie, Pirates of the Caribbean 5, The Book Of Life, Rio (on the Oscar®-nominated “Real In Rio”), Happy Feet, The Lorax, Ice Age (2 & 3) ; TV series Turbo Fast, Prison Break, Family Guy and American Dad; records with Neil Young, Andrea Bocelli, Luis Miguel, Jose Feliciano, Janiva Magness, and Jon Anderson of Yes; hit video games Fallout 4 and Uncharted 4; and hundreds of TV ads for Subaru, Shakey’s, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Honda, Nationwide and more. Most recently, Dan sang on six Lin-Manuel Miranda songs in the Disney Film ENCANTO and, in Feb 2022, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart.

And now… Dan’s new album, "Horizon Line,” is finished and set for an August release. Produced by multiple Grammy®-winner Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Wilco, Dixie Chicks, as well as the first five Lowen & Navarro albums) over a dozen sessions in mid-2021 and a dozen more in spring 2022. You can pre-orders your album now at DanNavarro.com

Dan has a 26-year-old son, thinks sleep is for babies and is a known abuser of acoustic guitars.

You can see Dan perform live in concert Saturday, September 3 at 7:30 pm and you can join him for his guitar workshop for all levels of songwriters (beginners to advanced are all welcome!) 1-4 pm Sunday, September 4. Both the concert and the workshop will be held at Headwaters Music & Arts Performance Hall (519 MN Ave NW, Bemidji). Concert tickets cost $25/person and the cost to register for the guitar workshop is $50. Register or find out more about Headwaters workshops and music events here.

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jeremy messersmith Visits Bemidji

Twin Cities singer-songwriter, jeremy messersmith, comes back to Bemidji at the end of August. Headwaters Music & Arts hosts jeremy in a series of workshops and performances around Bemidji August 25-26.

Ukulele Workshop: Obscenely Optimistic Class for Beginning Ukulele Players with jeremy messersmith
4:00-5:00 pm Thursday, August 25 held at Headwaters Music & Arts Performance Hall
The event for ages 12-adult is free thanks to funding from Minnesota State Arts Board. Please RSVP to info@headwatersmusicandarts.org. jeremy is known in the ukulele community for a clever micro-folk album that is accessible to new players and engaging to players of all abilities. Includes a free copy of jeremy’s songbook, 11 Obscenely Optimistic Songs for Ukulele. Don't forget your uke!

jeremy messersmith House Concert Fundraiser for Headwaters Music & Arts
7:00 pm Thursday, August 25 held at a the private residence of David and Julie Hanson
An intimate concert and conversation with jeremy messsmith. Beverages and appetizers provided. The cost to attend is $30 per person and tickets can be purchased here.

Pop up concert at Paul and Babe at Bemidji Waterfront
Noon Friday, August 26
This concert is free and open to the public thanks to funding from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Invite a friend and bring a lawn chair!

Jam Session with jeremy messersmith
4:00-5:00 Friday, August 26 held at Headwaters Music & Arts Performance Hall (519 MN Ave NW, Bemidji)
During this ukulele performance and jam session, jeremy will play some songs, share stories, and lead players in a strum-along and singalong. Casual, and open to players of all ages and abilities! Bring your uke, or any other string instrument. This event is free thanks to funding from the Minnesota State Arts Board.  Please RSVP to info@headwatersmusicandarts.org.

jeremy messersmith in Concert
7 pm Friday, August 26 held at Headwaters Music & Arts Performance Hall (519 MN Ave NW, Bemidji)
$10 advance admission (free for students and seniors) and tickets can be purchased here.

jeremy messersmith is an indie pop singer-songwriter and one of Minnesota’s most recognized and celebrated artists, praised by The New York Times, NPR, USA Today, Paste Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Spin, and Rolling Stone among many others. A thoughtful, clever lyricist with a tender voice, the Minneapolis-based troubadour crafts songs that are catchy and relatable, and span the emotional gamut from poignancy to whimsy. jeremy is one of those rare artists who can break your heart one minute, and then put those fragile pieces back together again the next.

 

 

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Augmeanted holds it’s “Life, twice” Album Release this Thursday – proceeds to benefit Headwaters Music & Arts

7 pm, August 18
Historic Carnegie Library
426 Bemidji Ave N, Bemidji MN
$8 per person ($4 for seniors & ages youth 16 and younger)

Augmeanted’s debut album, Life, twice, was released June 21, 2022. Life, twice, takes its name from the Anais Nin quote, “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.” The 10-track recording, produced at Bemidji’s Supple Studios, is a mix of vocally-driven meditations on moments that leave us speechless, and violin-driven improvisations saying what’s impossible to say. The album was made possible in part by a Region 2 Arts Council Individual Artist grant with funding from the McKnight Foundation.

Augmeanted invites you closer to the transcendent power of living music with our distinctive classical rock vibe, crafting tales and tunes cut free by the saw waves of our sound.

Taking our cue from Victor Hugo, we write music to “express that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent,” giving voice to moments best carried along the heart’s strings.

As we spiderwalk the strings and sing through heart and keys, we hope you’ll find yourself feathered by the wings of the crescent moonrise, embraced by the concert hall’s symphonic swirl, or rib-tickled by Appalachian fireflies.

Though Augmeanted is new musical collaboration for us as cousins, we are both established musicians. Geoffrey Taylor orchestrates the strings of his fiddles, mandolin, and ukes in Missoula, Montana and Mary Overlie sings through her heart and keys in Mudsong, based in Bemidji, Minnesota.

In addition to our first album, we are also at work on a theatrical tale about the birthday festivities for a scrap of yet-to-be-born song.

You can purchase tickets for Thursday nights fundraiser here and also listen to an interview about the music done by Jazz88, the jazz radio station of the Twin Cities, here.

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Chris Hudson visits Bemidji

Headwaters Music and Arts hosts Chris Hudson for a workshop and a couple of performances in May. Chris is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter based out of Kansas City, MO. He’ll be bringing his guitar with him when he stops in Bemidji May 19 and 20 as a part of his Minnesota tour.

Leader and founding member of Gullywasher and Gullywasher Collective, the public will have a chance to hear Chris’ guitar stylings on May 19, 7-9, pm as he performs an intimate house concert at the home of Tom and Elisha Barry of Bemidji; attendance is limited to 25 guests. The event supports Headwaters’ Music Scholarship Program, and will include appetizers and beverages to pair with Chris’ music. Those who are not able to attend the house concert can plan to watch Chris live, on May 20 at Headwaters Music and Arts (519 Minnesota Ave, Bemidji) for a free will donation community concert at 7:30 pm. The event will follow a finger-picking workshop held 5:30-7 pm Friday, May 20 for guitar players of all ages. Both May 20 events are at Headwaters Music and Arts.

May 19 House Concert tickets are $30 per person while registration for the finger picking workshop is $10 per participant. The 7:30 pm May 20 Community Concert is free will donation at the door. Headwaters Music & Arts is an independent non-profit multidisciplinary organization whose mission is to provide opportunities for creativity through instruction and to inspire community through music and the arts.

 

 

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Bemidji Sings! Call for Vocalists

Headwaters Music & Arts invites amateur singers to take part in Bemidji Sings!, an annual vocal competition celebrating the musical talents of youth and adults who live, work or attend school in Bemidji.

Amateur singers 13+ who are interested in taking part must register to audition by 5 pm Monday, June 6. Auditions are scheduled for noon-6 pm Saturday, June 11 and and 10 am-2 pm Sunday, June 12, 2022. They will be in person, with the option to meet with judges via Zoom and will take less than one hour.

Bemidji Sings! is separated into two age divisions: 13-20 and 21 and over and up to 7 singers from each age division will be chosen to perform at the July 15 Bemidji Sings! Vocal Competition.

Singers will be chosen based on their audition performance where they will be asked to sing one song. Auditioning vocalists will be evaluated based on their vocal skills, presentation skills, audience response, and judge's overall impression. Only individual contestants are eligible – no multiple singers or additional instruments may be used.

Those that do move on to the July 15 Bemidji Sings! Vocal Competition will compete for cash prizes and the chance to compete at the Minnesota Sings Vocal Competition in October. The top two finalists in each age category will represent Bemidji at the statewide Minnesota Sings Vocal Competition October 1-2 in New Ulm, MN.

Bemidji Sings! is sponsored by Headwaters Music & Arts with support from Supple Studios.

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Headwaters Spring Planting Event

Headwaters Music & Arts has been celebrating brighter days with recent lighting projects at their downtown Bemidji campus. Having been the recipient of a 2022 Clean Energy Resource Teams Seed Grant for community-based clean energy efforts Headwaters has been doing their part with automated light switches and more efficient LED lighting throughout their building. In this eleventh round of CERT’s Seed Grants the group says, “CERT’s awarded seed grants to 74 innovative energy efficiency and renewable energy projects — over twice as many as last round — in communities from Warren to Winona, Morton to Mountain Iron, Long Prairie to Lindstrom."

Headwaters Music & Arts has taken concrete steps to reduce their carbon footprint and be more efficient in the last few years, including the CERT’s funded lighting improvements and their freshly installed mini split pump in the art studios. Headwaters invites the community to celebrate and learn more about these achievements on Earth Day April, 22, 2022 with a public native flora planting event at 4-5:30 pm. The fun, free, and educational event is a collaboration between Headwaters and Mississippi Headwaters Audubon Society that will include equal parts art and planting. Attendees will have the chance to plant native wildflowers and grasses that will be incorporated into Headwaters’ existing non-native perennial flower beds with the goal of beautification while also enhancing food, shelter, and nesting habitat for birds, native pollinators, and other beneficial insects. Participants will also have the chance to take part in a small painting project that day. This event may sound familiar to some who took part in a similar planting event that Headwaters and the Mississippi Headwaters Audubon Society held a few years ago. That successful project created a shady woodland pollinator garden right outside Headwaters’ front door to prevent erosion and offer habitat. Headwaters is excited and happy to create more flora spaces for the local fauna community and are pleased to have the public take part.

Headwaters Music & Arts is an independent non-profit multidisciplinary organization whose mission is to provide opportunities for creativity through instruction and to inspire community through music and the arts. For more information on the planting event contact Headwaters Music & Arts at 218.444.5606.

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Headwaters Music & Arts Holds Monroe Crossing Fundraiser Event

Headwaters Music & Arts (HMA) is excited to welcome Monroe Crossing back to Bemidji! For HMA’s biggest fundraiser of the year, world-class bluegrass entertainers Monroe Crossing will perform in concert at the Historic Chief Theater in Bemidji on Saturday, May 7, 2022. The show begins at 7 pm with an opening performance by No Rest for the Pickers followed by Monroe Crossing at 7:30.

Named in honor of Bill Monroe, Monroe Crossing dazzles audiences with an electrifying blend of classic bluegrass, bluegrass gospel, and heartfelt originals. Their airtight harmonies, razor sharp arrangements, and on-stage rapport make them audience favorites across the United States and Canada. The concert will highlight their most recent CD, “Monroe Crossing Plays Classic Country” honoring country legends such as Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams.

$25 tickets are available at Headwaters Music & Arts, 218.444.5606, online at HeadwatersMusicAndArts.org, or by stopping in at 519 Minnesota Ave NW, Bemidji. Admission is open seating, advance ticket purchase is recommended. Please consider becoming a sponsor for this fundraising event. Proceeds support our music scholarship fund and helps reduce student tuition based on financial need. Help us reach our goal to raise $5,000 to give the gift of creativity to kids in our community! Sponsors can expect VIP seating and recognition before and during the event.

“Everyone who came had the time of their life that evening. Your show was just incredible....one of the freshest and original groups I have experienced....I was just blown away.” — Bill Adams, Habitat For Humanity, Waldorf MD

Become a sponsor here.

Download or print the poster here.