Meijer Main Stage

4:30 p.m.

Bill Miller

(Native American folk)

A Mohican Indian from northern Wisconsin, Bill Miller has long been one of the most admired figures in the Native American music arena and beyond. As an award-winning recording artist, performer, songwriter, activist and painter, he has been a voice for the voiceless, a link between two great and clashing civilizations. Miller (whose Native name, Fush-Ya Heay Ka, means "bird song") learned traditional songs at an early age and picked up a guitar at age 12. He began to play folk music and bluegrass, as well as taking up the Native American flute, which he came to master.

For Miller, the turning point came when he attended a Pete Seeger concert shortly after leaving the reservation to study art at the Layton School of Art and Design in Milwaukee. The experience inspired him to move to Nashville to pursue a career as a singer/songwriter. In the early days, Miller often faced virulent racism because of his Native American heritage, but he persevered. In time, he made tremendous inroads, writing songs with the likes of Nancy Griffith, Peter Rowan, and Kim Carnes, and sharing the bill with such diverse artists as Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, the BoDeans, Richie Havens, and Arlo Guthrie. He is a multiple Grammy Award winner.

www.billmillerarts.com

6:30 p.m.

Kenge Kenge

(Kenyan benga)

Perhaps the foremost sound in Kenya is the benga rhythm, and Kenge Kenge is among the foremost of the younger generation exploring the music. The name, which comes from the Luo language, means "fusion of small, exhilarating instruments.” Symbolizing all that is great about African traditional music, Kenge Kenge is the guardian and master of an ancient but living tradition. It breathes new life into Kenya's Luo musical roots, continuing its evolution from the hand-made instruments of the past, through the popular guitar-based benga, and now returning to both re-explore the acoustic origins of benga and embrace its Luo musical heritage.

http://www.eyefortalent.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/artist.detail/artist_id/149

8:30 p.m.

Don Was Detroit All-Star Revue

Detroit’s native son, multiple Grammy winner and co-founder of Was (Not Was), Don Was, is your master of ceremonies for a series of performances by classic and contemporary Detroit acts. Was is a master collaborator, best known for producing mega-watt musicians including Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson and Bonnie Raitt, whose Was-produced Nick of Time scored the 1990 Album of the Year Grammy Award. Was also took home the 1995 Grammy for Producer of the Year. Guaranteed to thrill! Click here to read more about the Detroit All-Star Revue artists.

These performances are recorded for a series of music videos on the Don Was Cavalcade of Recorded Music at www.mydamnchannel.com/don_was/ (2008 and 2009 Revue videos still reside there). This third edition of the Detroit All-Star Revue features:

• Alberta Adams
• Dennis Coffey
• Marshall Crenshaw
• Doop & The Inside Outlaws
• Electric Lion Sound Wave Experiment
• Ingray
• Motor City Horns
• Mayaeni
• Andre Williams
• Outrageous Cherry
• The Satin Peaches
• SRC Gary Quackenbush
• Jere Stormer
• Sun Messengers (30th anniversary this year!)
• Kim Weston

• All-Star Revue House Band
• Don Was, bass
• Luis Resto, keyboard
• Terry” Thunder” Hughley, drums
• Brian “Roscoe” White, guitar

• Shantelle Hawkins, back up vocals
• Margaret King Ahmed, back up vocals
• Consuela Lopez, back up vocals

3:45 p.m.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra Simon Shaheen, oud Tito Muñoz, conductor

Simon Shaheen dazzles his listeners as he deftly leaps from traditional Arabic sounds to jazz and Western classical styles. His soaring technique, melodic ingenuity, and unparalleled grace have earned him international acclaim as a virtuoso on the oud and violin. Shaheen is one of the most significant Arab musicians, performers, and composers of his generation. His work incorporates and reflects a legacy of Arabic music, while it forges ahead to new frontiers, embracing many different styles in the process. Shaheen returns to perform his composition commissioned by the DSO, Concerto No. 1 for Oud and Orchestra.

Conductor Tito Muñoz is currently Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra, appointed by Franz Welser-Möst in April 2007, and a League of American Orchestras Conducting Fellow. He previously served as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. An alumnus of the National Conducting Institute, Muñoz made his professional conducting debut in 2006 with the National Symphony Orchestra.

The internationally acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the fourth-oldest symphony orchestra in the United States, is known for trailblazing performances, visionary maestros and collaborations with the world’s foremost musical artists. Esteemed conductor Leonard Slatkin, called “America’s Music Director” by the Los Angeles Times, became the 12th Music Director of the DSO during the 2008-09 season. The DSO offers a year-round performance schedule that includes classical, pops, jazz, young people’s concerts and festivals. The DSO makes its home in historic Orchestra Hall, one of America’s most acoustically perfect concert halls, and actively pursues a mission to impact and serve the community through music.

www.detroitsymphony.com and www.simonshaheen.com and www.titomunoz.com

6:15 p.m.

Southwest Detroit Latin Super Session

Straight outta Mexicantown, Detroit’s hottest Latin musicians light up the Orchestra Hall stage. Lineup TBA soon; bookmark this page and check back.

Artists in picture: (L to R)

Eddie Caraballo - bass & vocals
Armando Vega - vocals
Dennis Schinzel - congas
Eduardo Brinquez - trumpet
Dulce Checkler - vocals
Consuela Lopez - vocals & dance
Ozzie Rivera - percussion
Alina Morr - piano & vocals
Chris Kaercher - saxophone

Other affiliated musicians not pictured:
Benny Cruz - vocals, piano & guitar
Ismael Duran - vocals & guitar
Mickey Figueroa - vocals & percussion
Doris Perez - vocals
Aaron Barndollar - percussion
Javier Barrios - drum set & timbales
Mauro Cruz - guitar
Mel Rosas - bomba drumming

8:30 p.m.

Mavis Staples

(R&B/soul legend)

Born in Chicago in 1939, Mavis Staples began her career with her family group, the Staple Singers, in 1950. Initially singing locally at churches and appearing on a weekly radio show, the Staples scored a gigantic hit in 1956 with "Uncloudy Day" for the Vee-Jay label. Upon her high school graduation in 1957, the Staple Singers took their music on the road. Led by family patriarch Roebuck "Pops" Staples and including Mavis and siblings Cleo, Yvonne and Pervis, the Staples were often referred to as "God's Greatest Hitmakers."By the mid-1960s, the Staple Singers, inspired by their close friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., became the spiritual and musical voices of the civil rights movement.

Mavis Staples recorded her first self-titled solo album for Stax in 1969. After another Stax release in 1970, she released a soundtrack album, A Piece of the Action on Curtis Mayfield's Curtom label in 1977. A 1984 album (also self-titled) preceded two albums under the direction of Prince: 1989's Time Waits for No One and 1993's The Voice.

www.mavisstaples.com