Anything I write today can be held against me, and I invite you to do just that. Duluth, MN, is a community that is north of the Canadian border for much of the United States, even though International Falls is still 150 miles north of Duluth. For all of the past twenty years, Duluth has been pretty consistent with a population around 85,000 residents, which has seemed to be a number difficult to supercede. The hilarity, of course, is that 70,000 of those residents are practicing artists, which makes Duluth quite unique in the North American perspective.

No Artist Can Avoid Engagement

As a performing keyboardist, I managed to reside in Lake County for three months before I was hired as a rather conspicuous musician in the Two Harbors community. Who would believe that? It makes more sense that I might have been engaged in changing light bulbs for the city of Two Harbors itself. I’ll take the piano/organ path, thank you very much.

Visual Arts Jumps Out at Us Wherever We Might Be

Over and over I love the flip-flops of the Arrowhead Region. Our visual artists have shared their work with statues near Lake Superior, as well as a  couple dozen (or more) sites where art is regularly displayed in this region. Many restaurants, banks, churches, as well as galleries welcome displays from painters and sculptors who live in the area. I’m sure that anyone living in Minneapolis can find public display space anytime they want it, right?  Is this an April joke, or what?

Music Overwhelms the Local Population

At times we have had four different opera companies presenting stage events in Duluth over the past 20 years. With a potential audience of about 2,000, that means folks are split in four directions. Who could imagine all this operatic energy way up next to Lake Superior? As a matter of fact, Les Uncomfortables, first unveiled in 2001, is coming back to Duluth at the end of this June. Tyler Kaiser’s exciting opera based on the history of Duluth should be on your list, April Fool or not. I saw this opera twice in 2001, and I look forward to the new production. Duluth is clearly home to people with opera on the mind.

Coming up on April 9, the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, led by Dirk Meyer, will present Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 2, as well as the Maurice Ravel G major Piano Concerto (with pianist David Kadouch). A little bit of Igor Stravinsky will start off the April hilarity. I suppose the whole first ten days of April are supposed to be filled with practical jokes  – what is indeed practical about a practical joke???
Meanwhile, Ed Martin will offer a lute recital at the College of St. Scholastica on Saturday evening, April 2, staring at 7:30. The play, Boy Meets Girl, will open on April 15, with or without hormones. Over at UMD, the Jazz Cabaret will offer a dazzling show on Friday April 1, and Saturday April 2, 7:30pm at Weber Music Hall.

What Kind of Fool Am I/Are You?

In a small community of 85,000 those of you who choose to stay home and watch the TV world are missing the best of Duluth. I could say that entertainment was better in the Twin Cities, but I would be wrong. It is bigger, but not better. No matter what kind of an April Fool you want to be, you have made the right decision to be in Duluth, and be supportive of the whole range of live arts taking place up here, still considerably south of the arctic circle.

Don’t let April Fool you!!  The snow will fall, but the arts will warm you, and your presence at any of the live performances will help perpetuate the folly of life at the absolute end of Interstate 35.