Earth Keepers

Lake Superior Day benefit concert in northern Michigan debuts Boreal Chamber Symphony; organizers hope similar concerts will be formed in U.S., Canadian cities that surround Lake SuperiorProtecting Lake Superior: Free Michigan concert with classical musicians, dancer will benefit Lake Superior Defense Fund on July 15(Marquette, Michigan) - The Boreal Chamber Symphony will make its debut on Lake Superior Day in northern Michigan in a dramatic benefit concert to protect America's largest freshwater lake, organizers announced today (Monday June 25, 2007) during a lakeshore press conference.Haunting French horn calls, the soothing sounds of water, a thundering storm, and flowing interpretive dance using rocks, sand, and other items found along the Lake Superior shoreline are all part of the "Concert for Lake Superior: People, Place, Purpose."During the press conference, two percussionists demonstrated their skills using Lake Superior water and rocks to make chilling and rhythmic music that mixed with the sound of small waves rolling ashore.An interpretive dancer gracefully performed on the edge of Lake Superior with the wind rushing through her flowing costume and seed pods on her ankles adding to the soothing natural music.With a view of Lake Superior, the Marquette, Michigan concert will have a water and environment theme. The audience will be surrounded by Lake Superior-related artworkThe event is sponsored by the Superior Watershed Partnership and Cedar Tree Institute, Marquette-based non-profits that founded the Earth Keeper Initiative in 2004.The Marquette Community Foundation awarded a $1,500 grant for the concert."We wanted to help the numerous groups who are protecting Lake Superior and keeping it as beautiful as it is," Martha Conley, Marquette Community Foundation board member and chair of the foundation's grants committee. "We are a true believer in the community and Lake Superior."Organizers hope the event will inspire future Lake Superior Day concerts in other cities encircling the lake like the Baltic Sea Festival.Musicians and environment groups in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Canada are being encouraged to create similar benefits around Lake Superior creating a ring of protection.Organizers are offering a "limited number of travel stipends" to qualified Canadian group that want to attend the Michigan concert to get ideas and inspiration. A group in Thunder Bay, Ontario has expressed interest in creating their own annual concert.The concert is free, but donations are encouraged with all proceeds used for environment projects involving the immense Lake Superior watershed."By offering this free concert we also hope that people will contribute to the Lake Superior Fund so we can continue and expand our successful Great Lakes protection programs," said Carl Lindquist, executive director of the Superior Watershed Partnership.All donations are tax deductible and go to the Lake Superior Defense Fund.The concert will begin at 7 p.m. on July 15, 2007 at UpFront & Company, a Marquette restaurant with a large banquet room that overlooks the city’s lower harbor on Lake Superior. The event is preceded by a 6 p.m. social hour."The concert is also a way to show that we all have an important role in protecting Lake Superior," Lindquist said.In 2004, the Lake Superior Binational Forum designated the third Sunday in July as Lake Superior Day in the US and Canada.The binational forum is comprised of U.S. and Canadian volunteers including representatives from industry, civic organizations, environment groups and faith communities, and works with governments in both countries to protect Lake Superior.The Lake Superior watershed "is pretty much half of the watershed for the entire Upper Peninsula" and one of three watersheds in northern Michigan, said Natasha Koss, development coordinator for the Superior Watershed Partnership.Koss said the watershed partnership cares about "the big picture, what we can do as an organization and people can do as citizens to protect our beautiful lake.""We all live in it (the Lake Superior watershed), we all drink from its waters, we all swim in its water, we paddle along the shore, we fish in its rivers that drain into Lake Superior," Koss said "So it's all connected and everything we do on the land effects the water of Lake Superior."Master of ceremonies for the concert is Marquette television personality and meteorologist Karl Bohnak (WLUC-TV). The orchestra is comprised of 19 professional musicians from around the country with ties to the Lake Superior region, and one is from Washington D.C."This concert will be a chance to lift up a vision of a good place and a clean lake - a symbol to the world of water and life," said Rev. Jon Magnuson, executive director of the Cedar Tree Institute and co-founder of the Earth Keeper Initiative."This evening will be about a beacon of hope - a shout of thanksgiving and invitation to continue a struggle to protect and defend one of the world's greatest natural resources," Rev. Magnuson said.Lake Superior is the deepest (1,333 feet) and coldest of the Great Lakes, its shoreline stretches 2,726 miles (including islands) and is fed by over 200 rivers.The orchestra was named Boreal because the word means "pertaining to, or located in, northern regions" as in "aurora borealis" - and Boreas is the Greek god of the north wind.The concept was inspired by the Baltic Sea Festival which partners classical musicians with environmental causes.Conductor Craig Randal Johnson of Minneapolis, Minnesota and members of the orchestra want to bring awareness to ecological issues.Johnson remembers the exact minute the Lake Superior concert idea was born: at 1:27 p.m. on September 14, 2006."It was one of those moments when you realize things are suddenly different, said Johnson, who has onducted concerts in Italy, was staff conductor with the Florida Symphony and worked in three German opera houses.Johnson described that instant as a "seed change" and a real "switch over in my thinking."At a Marquette caf