The Five Tangos, originally conceived as a stage production, was set to debut at the Detroit Institute of Arts Film Theatre in November 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic prompted its transformation into a film, shot at four iconic Detroit locations: the Crystal Gallery at the DIA, the Guardian Building Promenade, Meadowbrook Hall, and the Scarab Club.

Inspired by Astor Piazzolla’s Five Tango Sensations, the project explores emotions like dreaming, loving, anxiety, despair, and fear, paralleling the collective struggles of the pandemic. Public health restrictions, such as mask-wearing and avoiding handholds, shaped the choreography, reflecting the yearning for connection during quarantine.

This screening features a live performance of Piazzolla’s score. The Five Tangos was a semi-finalist at the 2022 Inspired Dance Film Festival in Australia and won Best Experimental Film at the 2022 Dancecentric Film Festival in Florida.

Join us to celebrate the MC5’s upcoming induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with two events (information below) and the release of MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band. Variety hails the book as “definitive,” and Rolling Stone calls it “worthy of the band’s legacy.” Meet the authors Brad Tolinski (Guitar World) and Jaan Uhelszki (Creem) for a book signing and a brief discussion about the band moderated by WDET host Liz Warner. The evening will be capped off with a dynamic set from the Motor City’s legendary garage rock band, The Detroit Cobras.

• MC5 Book Release hosted by Liz Warner: 6:30 p.m. 
• Friday Night Live! featuring The Detroit Cobras: 7 p.m

MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band will be available for purchase during the event at the DIA Shop. 

Event is free with museum admission.

Shara Nova, a classically trained vocalist and self-taught multi-instrumentalist who has recorded dazzling, shapeshifting music as My Brightest Diamond. Over the course of four groundbreaking albums she resisted the conventions of genre, blending elements of rock, art pop, and chamber music into a sound totally her own. 

While fiercely independent, she like everyone else, still desires connectedness. This tension is at the core of her new projects - an album A Million And One, and Under the Snow, an opera for all ages written for puppet theater. Free with museum admission.

Navajo pianist and composer Connor Chee is known for combining his classical piano training with his Native American heritage. With an accessible, sophisticated, and groundbreaking sound, in 2020 Chee was commissioned to write a set of piano pieces for pianist Joel Schoenhals. The result was Soundpainting for Piano, now recorded and performed throughout the United States by Schoenhals. The composition reflects both the visuals of Navajo sandpainting and contains cultural references that Schoenhals will explore with the composer. Free with museum admission.

Rubab player Homayoun Sakhi and tabla player Salar Nader are masters of their generation, and together they will explore the rhythmic pulse that fuses Afghan and Indian percussion and draws out the parallels with Hindustani music.

Presented in connection with the special exhibition The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World, on view from September 22, 2024 through January 5, 2025. Free with museum admission.

Hosted by award-winning singer-songwriter Audra Kubat, this evening will feature some of Detroit’s finest songwriters and be fashioned after the ‘Nashville-style’ writers-in-the-round. This intimate storytelling opportunity will engage in a conversational approach, inviting the audience inside the powerful relationship between the artist, the story, and the song. Songwriters include Audra Kubat, Emily Rose, Isis Damil, Mayaeni, Michelle Held, and Marbrisa!

Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya is arguably the greatest slide guitarist in the world. He is an undisputed master of both Hindustani classical music and modern world fusion. A ‘virtuoso’s virtuoso,’ he has revolutionized a number of techniques on the instrument. He also designed and patented four types of guitar for performing Indain raga music which he named Chaturangui, Ghandharvi, Anandi, and Pushpa Veena. These guitars are played lap style, with a small steel bar and finger picks. Free with museum admission.

Join us to celebrate the MC5’s upcoming induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with two events (information below) and the release of MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band. Variety hails the book as “definitive,” and Rolling Stone calls it “worthy of the band’s legacy.” Meet the authors Brad Tolinski (Guitar World) and Jaan Uhelszki (Creem) for a book signing and a brief discussion about the band moderated by WDET host Liz Warner. The evening will be capped off with a dynamic set from the Motor City’s legendary garage rock band, The Detroit Cobras.

• MC5 Book Release hosted by Liz Warner: 6:30 p.m. 
• Friday Night Live! featuring The Detroit Cobras: 7 p.m

MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band will be available for purchase during the event at the DIA Shop. 

Event is free with museum admission.

Brooklyn based jazz and ambient trio Alaara explores the relationship between their longform improvisations and the visual worlds of renowned Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. The trio will perform a pseudo “live score” alongside immersive, haunting visuals taken from his films. Alaara’s sounds echo the words of Tarkovsky himself: “Give a shot enough time and meaning will be formed of its own accord.” The group features Sonya Belaya on piano and synthesizers, Grey McMurray on guitar and Nicole Patrick on drums. Free with museum admission.

Martin Bresnick is an American composer of opera works, chamber music and film scores that are regularly performed around the world. His delight is in bringing together repeating themes derived from minimalist traditions, with harmonic palettes that encompasses both highly chromatic sounds, and raw power reminiscent of great rock. Bresnick’s works will be performed by the Mammoth Trio, with Lisa Moore (piano), Elly Toyoda (violin) and Ashley Bathgate (cello). 

Free with museum admission.