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In addition to concert footage from the Singing Hoosiers 2011 Spring Concert, directed by Dr. Michael Schwartzkopf, the program goes behind the scenes to rehearsals, auditions, road-trips, and even college classrooms and apartments featuring interviews with student performers and the director.

Inspiring, entertaining and informative, Make Your Own Kind of Music proves that the magic of the live performance is only possible through the commitment, hard work, talent and training of scores of the most dedicated college students on campus.

In addition to concert footage from the Singing Hoosiers 2011 Spring Concert, directed by Dr. Michael Schwartzkopf, the program goes behind the scenes to rehearsals, auditions, road-trips, and even college classrooms and apartments featuring interviews with student performers and the director.

Inspiring, entertaining and informative, Make Your Own Kind of Music proves that the magic of the live performance is only possible through the commitment, hard work, talent and training of scores of the most dedicated college students on campus.

Wilderness Plots: Tales About the Settlement of the American Land contains fifty brief tales that trace the settlement of the Ohio Valley between the American Revolution and the Civil War, while meditating on the cost of that transformation to native people, enslaved people, wildlife, and forests. The collection of songs and later theatrical production based on the book were created through the collaborative work of an ongoing songwriting group comprised of Krista Detor, Tim Grimm, Carrie Newcomer, Tom Roznowski, and Michael White.
The group took up the challenge, and after a year or so of sharing ideas and hard work, in spring 2007 these five very different singer/songwriters released an album of their songs based on Wilderness Plots. Soon the group created a fully staged show with Scott Russell Sanders as narrator. Popular and critical acclaim has led the group to perform Wilderness Plots many times across the Midwest. In 2008, it also led to a nationally broadcast public television special about the creation of the show, called Wilderness Plots: Songs and Stories of the Prairie.
Because of the creative collaboration of these remarkable artists: Sanders, Detor, Grimm, Newcomer, Roznowski and White, audiences have been introduced to a treasure trove of preachers and profiteers, generals and journalists, hermits and healers, farmers and bone-collectors, loves, liars, layabouts and other high spirited characters – the kinds of people who, in all ages, have made history. Like the riches American folklore, these tales and songs witness to life on a wild, dangerous, and glorious continent and songs witness to life on a wild, dangerous, and glorious continent.

Wilderness Plots: Tales About the Settlement of the American Land contains fifty brief tales that trace the settlement of the Ohio Valley between the American Revolution and the Civil War, while meditating on the cost of that transformation to native people, enslaved people, wildlife, and forests. The collection of songs and later theatrical production based on the book were created through the collaborative work of an ongoing songwriting group comprised of Krista Detor, Tim Grimm, Carrie Newcomer, Tom Roznowski, and Michael White.
The group took up the challenge, and after a year or so of sharing ideas and hard work, in spring 2007 these five very different singer/songwriters released an album of their songs based on Wilderness Plots. Soon the group created a fully staged show with Scott Russell Sanders as narrator. Popular and critical acclaim has led the group to perform Wilderness Plots many times across the Midwest. In 2008, it also led to a nationally broadcast public television special about the creation of the show, called Wilderness Plots: Songs and Stories of the Prairie.
Because of the creative collaboration of these remarkable artists: Sanders, Detor, Grimm, Newcomer, Roznowski and White, audiences have been introduced to a treasure trove of preachers and profiteers, generals and journalists, hermits and healers, farmers and bone-collectors, loves, liars, layabouts and other high spirited characters – the kinds of people who, in all ages, have made history. Like the riches American folklore, these tales and songs witness to life on a wild, dangerous, and glorious continent and songs witness to life on a wild, dangerous, and glorious continent.

“There was an element of fate, there was an element of serendipity.” This is how Tim Grimm, folk singer and songwriter, describes his discovery of Wilderness Plots, a book by Indiana author Scott Russell Sanders. The book is a collection of brief tales about the settling of the American frontier. Grimm, together with other musicians began writing songs inspired by Sanders’s stories. What resulted was an innovative venture that blends genres into a complete experience.

WILDERNESS PLOTS: SONGS AND STORIES OF THE PRAIRIE features a selection of these songs in performance and readings by Sanders, all complemented by interviews with the artists and views of the Southern Indiana scenery. The interviews provide background information and offer insight into the artists: their work, their perspectives, their love for music, writing and history.

The idea of the Wilderness Plots songs started with Tim Grimm who was fascinated by the characters described in Sanders’ book. He challenged himself and four fellow Indiana songwriters to write songs that capture the realities, ironies, and aspirations of early pioneer life. Aside from Grimm, WILDERNESS PLOTS features Carrie Newcomer, Krista Detor, Tom Roznowski, and Michael White.

Early pioneer life was more simple than it is today but it was not necessarily easier, and it was frequently violent and beset with danger. Wilderness Plots contains lessons for today and holds appeal for people of all ages. “It’s about dwelling more consciously in the present by learning more deeply about the past,” Sanders said.

The program offers a glimpse into the creative collaboration of these artists. The footage was shot in the historic Mitchell Opera House (built in 1902) and at other scenic and historic sites: a one-room school house, a quarry, an old log home, a rural church, and in the Hoosier forest.

Susanne Schwibs is the producer/director of the program.

Production support was provided by The Moveable Feast of the Arts, a program funded by the Lilly Endowment and designed to showcase Indiana University’s cultural resources to communities across the state and the nation.

Conductor Paul Biss characterized it as “truly a celebration of the violin” when distinguished former students of violinist Josef Gingold celebrated the master’s 75th birthday by joining the Indiana University student orchestra in a performance of Gingold’s favorite music.

Staged at the Musical Arts Center, the concert featured soloists Miriam Fried and Yuval Yaron, as well as performances by former students who are concertmasters at leading North American orchestras including: Andres Cardenes, Utah Symphony; Herbert Greenberg, Baltimore Symphony; Jacques Israelievitch; Raymond Kobler, San Francisco Symphony; Richard Roberts, Montreal Symphony; and William Preucil, Atlanta Symphony.

WTIU videotaped the performance and added commentary by Professor Gingold, Paul Biss and some of the featured musicians to create this engaging Tribute to a Master.

The featured musical selections include:

* Concerto in D Minor for String Orchestra, Op. 3 No. 11 by Antonio Vivaldi
* Concerto in E Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 64 by Felix Mendelssohn
* Concerto in B Minor for Four Violins and Orchestra, Op. 3 No. 10 by Antonio Vivaldi
* Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins and Orchestra, S. 1043 by Johann Sebastian Bach
* Concerto No. 8 in A Minor, Op.47 by Louis Spohr

Each holiday season, Tchaikovsky's magical The Nutcracker is brought to life in a colorful production by the Ballet Theater of Indiana University's School of Music. Sugarplum Dreams: Staging The Nutcracker Ballet goes behind the scenes of the 43rd annual presentation of this classic, showing the preparation, talent, and sheer effort exerted to bring this production to the stage.

Produced in documentary style, the television program begins with the auditions of children from the pre-college ballet program. It then follows several of them and Indiana University ballet students through dance practice, costume fittings, and musical rehearsal. The program introduces the principal characters of The Nutcracker story and shows work on 300 plus costumes used in the ballet.

As the dancers master their steps and the musicians hone their performances, the costume makers, set designers and builders all work toward meeting their deadlines. The viewer shares a hectic day-in-the-life of dancers and instructors as the performance approaches, while the camera captures the excitement and anticipation as all of the elements come together during dress rehearsal. The program ends backstage in the highly charged atmosphere of The Nutcracker performance.

In 2002, Sugarplum Dreams received a regional Emmy award in the category of Cultural Affairs.

Online Video:

• Sugarplum Dreams: An Introduction
• First Rehearsals
• Practice Makes Perfect
• Orchestra Rehearsal
• Who is the Sugarplum Fairy?

Behind-the-Scenes Photos:

• Filming rehearsals, 1
• Instructor with students
• Filming rehearsals, 2
• Costume shop, girl being fitted
• Costume shop, seamstress
• Costume shop, dancer being fitted