Proportioned Orchestra began as an ensemble in June 2016. Initially, the group was comprised of drums, vocals, and double bass. Dr. Professor Leonard King — drummer, vocalist, arranger, and founder of the ensemble — gradually expanded the lineup to include four double bassists, guitar, drums, and vocals. 

This distinctive instrumentation allows the group to perform a wide range of material, including Dr. King’s original compositions as well as works by Astor Piazzolla, Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Parker, Gunther Schuller, George Duke, Buddy Ace, Jaco Pastorius, Thelonious Monk, and others. The group has performed at venues throughout Detroit and has recordings available worldwide.

Hailing from Flint, Tunde Olaniran is a creative force whose work spans music, dance, film, literature, and performance art. Filled with vibrant costumes and catchy lyrics, their performances are surrealist spectacle, blending genres like pop, dance, folk, hip-hop and R&B. Expect intricate dances, soaring vocals, throbbing basslines, and sweat-soaked sequins on the stage.

Olaniran's albums have earned critical acclaim from outlets including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and NPR. Their most recent album, Chaotic Good, features a collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma, the first original composition by the world-renowned cellist. Tunde has created impactful collaborations with artists such as Mona Haydar, adrienne maree brown, Nick Cave, and Esperanza Spalding. A 2017 Art Matters Fellow, 2019 United States Artist Fellow, and 2020 University of Michigan Artist-in-Residence, Olaniran’s work for PBS earned a Regional Emmy in 2021. In 2022, they premiered Made A Universe, an experimental short film and exhibition commissioned by Cranbrook Art Museum.

This Friday Night Live! performance is proudly presented as part of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ Pride Month offerings.

Pride Themed docent-led guided gallery tours will be offered one hour prior to event start time, meeting at the DIA Woodward lobby entrance. The tours will be approximately 45-minutes in length.

On any given night in Detroit in the early Eighties, chances were good that Don Tapert and Tim Sparling could be heard in several Cass Corridor night spots — from the Song Shop and Café Detroit to the New Miami, Alvin’s, or downtown at The Soup Kitchen Saloon and Café Harmonie. First performing as a soulful guitar-and-piano vocal duo, and later as the rocking four-piece Tapert Sparling Band, they captivated audiences with Tapert’s original songs. Inspired by the Cass Corridor’s community of artists, writers, musicians, and actors, their unique arrangements combined acoustic guitar and piano, anchored by electric bass and drums.

The release of Cass Corridor Sunset, a 12” vinyl LP featuring eight songs recorded in the 1980s, celebrates the vibrant Wayne State music scene. Created in partnership with Cass Corridor artist Robert Sestok and Third Man Records, the project has brought Tapert and Sparling back together with the original band members: Don Tapert (guitar/vocals), Tim Sparling (piano/vocals), Mike Marshall (bass guitar), Greg Calder (drums), and Ray Goodman (electric guitar).

Blues and boogie-woogie pianist Mark Lincoln Braun has become one of the premier purveyors of a vanishing art form. Having learned his craft firsthand from the early masters, he is a rare living link to the first generation of blues and boogie pianists. Steeped in the rich legacy of this exhilarating music, Mr. B studied directly with legends like Little Brother Montgomery, Boogie Woogie Red, and Blind John Davis.

Combo Daguerre, based in Brooklyn, performs original psychedelic chanson with a predominantly Latin crew and a hybrid style influenced by boleros, cumbia, 60s rock, French chanson, and 1930s surrealism. Their music is a blend of joy and darkness, deep grooves and dirges, nostalgia and futurism.

Combo Daguerre features:

• Olivier Conan (Chicha Libre) on cuatro and vocals
• Adele Fournet on keyboards
• Felipe Wurst (Banda Chuska/Tipa Tipo) on guitar
• Andres Fonseca on drums
• Neil Ochoa (Los Crema Paraiso, Chicha Libre) on percussion
• Dan Martinez on bass

The theme for the 32nd season of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival is “Blueprints in Sound,” featuring a captivating mix of artists and repertoire that transcend the boundaries of traditional chamber music. 

Blueprints in Sound bridges the gap between sound and structure, all set in the breathtaking venue of the DFT Auditorium.

Program:

• Robyn Bollinger: CIACCONA: The Bass of Time

Ways of Seeing: Canto Ostinato invites audiences to explore new ways of ‘seeing’ through deep listening and spatial experience. Highly emotive and intuitive, this work is described by composer Simeon ten Holt as more ritual than concert. 

Over the course of its nearly 90-minute, trance-like duration, time turns into space and the music begins to hover, offering listeners the chance to enter their own transcendental space. Originally scored for four pianos, this performance reimagines the piece as a solo piano journey, weaving together all four parts into a singular, immersive experience.

Tammy Lakkis is a producer, DJ, and songwriter based in Hamtramck, Michigan, known for her genre-defying and transnational approach to electronic music. She gained recognition for her all-hardware live sets, which oscillate between dreamy vocal house and dance floor heaters. 

Her 2021 EP Notice, released on Shigeto’s Portage Garage Sounds, put her on the map as an unconventional, one-stop-shop weaver of sound—its title track was featured on NPR Music’s 100 Best Songs of 2021. Her knack for storytelling shines through in her bold and dynamic DJ sets, which fluctuate between extremes in genre and tone, often nodding to her ancestral nostalgia for Arabic percussion and melodies.

Join DJ Problematic Black Hottie from 6:30PM-8:30PM for dancing in Rivera Court and a cash bar in Great Hall as part of our DJ series for Tiff Massey's exhibition 7 Mile + Livernois.

7 Mile + Livernois is Tiff Massey’s gallery installation, featuring sculptures commissioned by the DIA in conversation with works by other artists from the museum’s collection. Massey’s work reimagines art’s role in the community, offering a vibrant, inclusive view of Detroit. Her art invites us to celebrate collective identity, ancestral flyness, and beauty.

Problematic Black Hottie is a DJ, taste maker, personality and an advocate for centering femininity and blackness. Based in Detroit, Michigan and raised all over the African Diaspora, she combines eclectic global and local influences with a focus on feminine music too curate a contagious vibe and introduce her crowd to a platter of delectable sounds. For PBH, her outstanding selecting skills and ability to curate a feminine-centered vibe make her unique. With a consistent trademark sound, look, and style, Problematic Black Hottie has become a Detroit staple and household name.

DJ Problematic Black Hottie’s set will not be a seated performance.

Founded in 2016 in Lviv amid the challenges of the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine, Yagody is a Ukrainian group dedicated to performing both traditional and contemporary folk music from the East. Their debut album, released in 2020, features the song Kalyna-Malyna with an accompanying music video. 

The ensemble is composed of three vocalists, an accordionist, a bass guitarist, a drummer, and a cymbalist, blending rich folk traditions with modern sounds. Their performances bring to life the cultural heritage and resilience of Ukraine through music.