Tickets on sale for new WSCC Performing Arts Series. 

Scottville native Marty Erickson will perform on Oct. 20.

Tickets on sale for new WSCC Performing Arts Series. 

WSCC News is presented by West Shore Community College in partnership with Mason County Press. 

Craig Avery of Brena

VICTORY TOWNSHIP — West Shore Community College has announced the lineup for its 2023-2024 Performing Arts Series. The series kicks off on Friday, Sept. 8 with Joscho Stephan and special guest band, locally based Third Coast Swing. The concert will be an evening of “Gypsy swing” music, the style pioneered in the 1930s by the legendary jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, to be held at Center Stage Theater at 7:30 p.m.

The next performance will be The Millennium Brass featuring Scottville-native tubist Marty Erickson on Friday, Oct. 20, also at Center Stage Theater. Erickson is a 1965 graduate of Mason County Central High School who served 26 years in the U.S. Navy Band and then recently retired as an instructor of tuba/euphonium and chamber music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. 

Read more about Erickson here.

Showcasing jazz and pops styles as well as the classical idiom, the members of the Millennium Brass display a rare versatility in their playing. Collectively, they have performed as solo and section members with many of America’s leading orchestras.

For theater enthusiasts, the WSCC theater department will present the beloved “Charlotte’s Web” Nov. 9 -12, with evening performances at 6:30 p.m. and matinees at 2 p.m. on select days. The Children’s Literature Association named this “the best American children’s book of the past two hundred years.” The production will be directed by Michelle Kiessel.

Struble, left, with the late Kenny Rogers during a performance at Interlochen Fine Arts Academy in 1991. Photo by Rob Alway.

Back by popular demand, the WSCC Holiday Rock Spectacular will be held at Center Stage Theater on Dec. 2, with an afternoon and evening performance, as well as Dec. 3 with an afternoon performance.  The production will feature guitarist Lou Musa from the Verve Pipe, Craig Avery and Kevin DePree from the popular Grand Rapids based band Brena, along with special appearances from Edgar Struble, Chloe Kimes, the WSCC Drumline and many more regional artists. Avery, Struble and Kimes are also MCC High School alumnus. 

Kicking off 2024 on Jan. 19 will be Western Michigan University’s Gold Company.  The internationally regarded and award-winning vocal jazz ensemble from WMU is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students whose majors range from jazz studies to vocal performance, music education, music therapy and more.

WSCC’s theater department will present “Fun Home” on Feb. 29, Mar. 1-3, and Mar. 8-10, with evening and matinee performances.  The winner of five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life.  Recommended for ages 15 and up.

Concluding the series will be The Kenny Rogers Band presenting “Through The Years,” featuring Don Gatlin with special guest, Edgar Struble. This is not a tribute band – it is the band who toured with Kenny Rogers for over 40 years entertaining audiences world-wide! The band delivers not only the sound that backed Kenny over the years, but in addition, narrated by Kenny’s long-time musical director Struble, they offer first-hand stories of adventure while on the road with Kenny as well as a viewpoint of his music that can’t be proffered by anyone else.

Rounding out the series will be performances by WSCC’s Concert Choir, Wind Symphony, Drumline, and Jazz Ensembles.

“Our team is extremely excited to offer an outstanding array of talent to our audiences and a wide variety of programming in the coming year.  Our goal is to ensure we select performances that entertain, enrich and reach out to area PK-12 schools, our students, and the surrounding communities,” said Ted Malt, director of the Performing Arts Series and professor of music studies.

For more information on all of the performances and to purchase tickets, visit the college’s web site at westshore.edu/performingarts.