10th Annual
October 22, 2022
MacArthur Recital Hall
Flint Institute of Music
Email ashleymusser@flintfed.org to register.
Made possible by a generous grant from the Nartel Family Foundation, Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs, Dr. Stuart and Kathy Weiner
Dr. Stuart and Kathy Weiner
Eddie “Blues” Barney
Eddie “Blues Barney Is a native of Vicksburg, Mississippi and has always loved the blues”. He says, “One day I started playing Blues and I couldn’t stop. I play Guitar and Harp just because I love it”.
He came to Flint and went to work at General Motors as both an hourly employee and in Accounting/Payroll but the blues kept calling.
He learned how to play the harmonica during downtime on the line and from there he just kept on growing. He says, “All I’ve ever wanted was to share my style of Blues. I hope I can accomplish that.”
And he is accomplishing that through his Red Grey Matter Club!
He has played with and collaborated with many famous and some relatively unknown blues & Rock artists. He helps them reach new audiences through his Red Grey Matter YouTube channel, one of the most popular places for fans of blues & Rock on the web.
Eddie “Blues” Barney joins us to spread more of his blues style and celebrate Humanity in Harmony.
Hadar Orshalimy
Hadar was an Israeli Idol contestant and is an amazing talent on her own, she can write, and perform classics.
She is a Jazz artist whose jazz debut album “It Never Was You” highlighted the contributions made by Jewish composers to the American invention of jazz and the Great American Songbook. Spanning the works of Gershwin to Hammerstein, Kern to Rodgers, and many more.
As pop artists, she and Sheldon perform over 100 dates each year. One reviewer said Hadar’s, “soulful vocals, heartfelt delivery, and contemporary arrangements offer a new interpretation of beloved jazz standards.
In addition to their Jewish folk-pop crossover project “Hadar and Sheldon” they also tour and record as the secular pop-folk duo “We Are The Northern Lights.”
Sheldon and Hadar reside in New York City with their new baby, making them now a trio.
Please welcome Sheldon and Hadar back to Flint and the Humanity in Harmony Music Festival.
Dan Hall
A true Flint kid, Dan grew up during the sixties and seventies watching the world change. His first musical memories came from listening to the hits on Flint radio stations. The musical revolution that was the sixties and seventies continues to influence the shapes and topics of his songs today. “Music is my joy and passion”, he says. “I love writing songs and I love singing them.”
Dan Hall has opened or shared the stage with Tom Paxton, John McCutcheon, Christine Lavin, and many others while writing and recording hundreds of songs with tens of thousands of elementary students around the country, as part of his “Story Song Creations”. Plus, he has written dozens of songs about Flint, its people, institutions, and history.
This year Dan took our theme, Humanity in Harmony, and, during a week-long residency, sponsored by the Flint Jewish Federation, at a local elementary school, he and the students, turned it into a song. Our theme is about how music is the universal language, we all, no matter where we live or what we look like, harmonize we just harmonize in different ways.
Tonight, Dan’s performance will include the students performing the song he wrote with them.
Dan Hall and the kids create a song for Harmony
The 10th Humanity in Harmony music Festival will add a special project and some kids. Kids who write songs and a singer-songwriter who pulls it all together. Dan Hall’s songs about Flint and Michigan and fun stuff have entertained children of all ages for over 30 years. This year The Humanity in Harmony Music Festival asked Dan to make some music specifically for us!
He will take our theme, Humanity in Harmony, and, during a week-long residency at a local elementary school, turned it into a song. Our theme is about how music is the universal language, we all, no matter where we live or what we look like, harmonize we just harmonize in different ways. We all use the same instruments, like violins, banjos, mandolins, and guitars, but we sometimes call them different names and play them in different ways. People from different places grab these instruments and make their music; it’s what people do!
The Dan Hall residency/workshop, sponsored by the Flint Jewish Federation, lets kids unleash their creativity and energy and turn what they have learned into songs. Working together children, and Dan, learn about words and people. Everybody in the class takes part and works together through listening and rhyme and especially harmony.
Tonight, we will hear the fruits of their labor.
Dort Honors String Quartet
It has become a tradition for the Dort Honors String Trio, from the Flint School of the Performing Arts, to open our program. The Flint School of Performing Arts has more than 3,500 students and is the largest community school of the arts in Michigan, one of the largest in the country.
High School musicians from all over mid-Michigan audition every October to be a member of this most prestigious group. The Dort Trio, under the direction of Ching-Wen Tseng, gives several high-profile performances each year plus a spring recital and their appearance at the Humanity in Harmony Concert/Daniel Pearl World Music Day.
Since they just auditioned and became members, tonight is one of their first performances of the year.
Sheldon and Hadar
Sheldon Low is back with us along with his wife and partner, Hadar for more Humanity in Harmony.
Sheldon is one of the brightest stars in Jewish pop music today, performing over 100 concerts, ‘Light Up Shabbat’ services, seminars, and Artist-in-Residency weekends in Jewish communities throughout North America. You don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate this charismatic young entertainer.
A Jewish educator, Sheldon, and his recordings have been featured in numerous compilation albums. Both of his children’s albums, “It’s All Challah To Me” and “Look At Me”, have been distributed to tens of thousands of households around the globe. Throughout his career, Sheldon has been featured on the cover of L’chaim Magazine, Shalom TV, and radio stations across North America.
Sheldon was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and is the son of Flint Jewish Federation Director Steven and his wife Susan Low.
Michael J Thorp
Producer / host
Dan Hall and kids create a song for Harmony
The 10th Humanity in Harmony music Festival will add some kids! Kids who write songs and a singer songwriter who pulls them all together. Dan Hall is a Flint kid through and through, his songs about Flint and Michigan and fun stuff have entertained children of all ages for over 30 years. This year The Humanity in Harmony Music Festival, part of Daniel Pearl World Music Days, has asked Dan to join us to make some music!
In 1989 Dan created a project called Story Song Creations. Since then, he has conducted hundreds of residencies in schools, community centers, museums and churches in cities throughout the Midwest. He has composed, performed and recorded songs in collaboration with tens of thousands of “Story Songsters” of all ages across the country.
This year Dan will take our theme, Humanity in Harmony and, during a week-long residency at a local elementary school, turn it into a song. Our theme is about how music is the universal language, we all, no matter where we live or what we look like, harmonize we just harmonize in different ways.
We all use the same instruments, like violins, banjos, mandolins and guitars, but we sometimes call them different names and play them in different ways. Fiddles and guitars are small and easy to carry no matter where you are. Hauling them across the deserts of Africa, in a Conestoga wagon crossing the Great Plains, in the jungles of South America, in Eastern Europe, or the mountains of Appalachia. People from different places grab these instruments and make their own music; it’s what people do!
It’s educational and fun for kids, and something they will never forget. The Dan Hall residency/workshop helps kids unleash their creativity and harnesses the raw talents and the energy of young writers as they turn what they have learned into songs. , Working together children, and Dan, learn about words and people. Everybody in the class takes part, and works together through listening and rhyme and especially harmony.
Dan Hall has opened or shared the stage with Tom Paxton, John McCutcheon, Christine Lavin, Josh film co-starring Ernest Borgnine; several documentaries, commercial jingles and a theme song for a PBS television series. Through his Story Song Creations, Dan has written and recorded hundreds of songs with tens of thousands of elementary students around the country.