Masayo Ishigure is a New York-based koto and shamisen player from Japan. She began her music studies at age five and later became a special research student at the Sawai Koto Academy. Known for blending traditional Japanese music with diverse genres, Masayo has performed at venues like Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. She has collaborated with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Yitzhak Perlman and contributed to the Grammy-winning Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack.

In honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, the DIA will present a performance by Detroit pianist rocket(!!!)man, a record producer in the bloodline of the Ancient Storyteller, also known as a Groove Monitor. 

He uses The Groove as an ancient ancestral technology to help people better remember who they are, where they come from, and what they are truly capable of through exercises in healing and empowerment. 

Presented in Kresge Court, free with museum admission. (60 min.)

Don't miss The Improv Project Student Showcase, a must-see event for comedy lovers and anyone curious about the world of improvised theater. Enjoy a fun-filled afternoon as Detroit's newest improvisers join seasoned professionals from The Second City, Planet Ant, and Go Comedy! Improv Theater. Whether you're a long-time fan of improv or just discovering it, this showcase promises plenty of laughs for everyone.

For families with children ages 7 and up. Live ASL interpretation will be provided.

This program is free with museum admission. Seating is limited, so be sure to arrive early—seating begins 30 minutes before the performance starts.

Weekend Family Programs at the DIA are generously presented by the MSUFCU Desk Drawer Foundation.

Join in a celebration of Taiwanese-American culture at this exciting event that blends tradition with fun! Experience a traditional tea-picking dance, learn your Chinese zodiac sign, and receive personalized calligraphy. Be sure not to miss two thrilling lion dance performances, filled with energy and blessings for health, joy, and prosperity.

Event Schedule:

• 1:00 p.m. & 3:00 p.m.: Lion Dance Performance (10 min)
• 2:00 p.m.: Dance of the Tea Harvest (10 min)
• 2-Hour Interactive Activities: Chinese Zodiac & Name Booth, Personalized Calligraphy

Presented by the Michigan Lion Dance Team, this event offers a chance to celebrate culture, foster community, and enjoy a memorable experience.

Perfect for families with children of all ages, in the DIA’s Great Hall.

Weekend Family Programs at the DIA are generously presented by the MSUFCU Desk Drawer Foundation.

Tour the DIA’s new contemporary exhibit, 7 Mile + Livernois, by artist Tiff Massey. Then, at 7:30 PM, join DJ Nick Speed for dancing and a cash bar in Rivera Court and the Great Hall.

7 Mile + Livernois is Tiff Massey’s new 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. 

• Gallery experience: 7 – 9 p.m.
• DJ experience: 7:30 – 9 p.m.

Rev. Robert Jones, Sr. is a true renaissance man. He has been a professional musician for over forty years. More than 35 years ago, the legendary bluesman Willie Dixon encouraged him to bring his music into schools. In recognition of his efforts, The National Blues Foundation named him a leading blues educator in 2007.

In addition to his music career, Rev. Jones has served as a pastor for over 20 years and has been a nationally recognized storyteller for more than fifteen years. These experiences have allowed him to work in diverse ways, using his speaking and musical talents to educate, entertain, and inspire. At the heart of his message is the belief that our cultural diversity tells a story that should be celebrated.

The Michigan Philharmonic’s Miniature Masterpieces is an annual collaboration with the Detroit Institute of Arts. This year’s program highlights the expressive beauty of the viola with guest composer and performer Stuart Ross Carlson. The concert also features enchanting works by Claude Debussy and Sergei Prokofiev, as well as a Romantic-era gem by Emilie Mayer, arranged by conductor Nan Washburn.

Twenty-five-year-old Isaiah Collier is a musical virtuoso in the truest sense of the phrase. He began playing the saxophone at age 11, and his intuitive proficiency earned him attention early on. Since then, his band, Isaiah Collier and The Chosen Few, has been turning heads. The New York Times featured him in their Fall Arts Preview in September 2024, and he was also included in DownBeat Magazine’s "25 for the Future" in their 90th Anniversary issue in July 2024. He is the winner of the Rising Star Award in DownBeat Magazine’s critics poll for Tenor Saxophone (2023) and Soprano Saxophone (2024).

As far as he where he plans to take his music, Collier says, “I reach backwards, and forwards simultaneously when creating art and what is ahead of me is the past.”

This tribute performance honors Detroit jazz legend and drummer Roy Brooks (1938–2004), a key figure in the vibrant Detroit jazz scene. Throughout his career, Brooks performed and recorded with jazz luminaries such as Horace Silver, Yusef Lateef, Max Roach, M’Boom, Charles Mingus, and Woody Shaw. He was known for his innovative use of unusual instruments in his performances, including a musical saw and the "breath-a-tone," a drum with vacuum tubes attached to regulate pitch.

In 1972, he formed the Artistic Truth, which featured artists like Sonny Fortune, Eddie Jefferson, and Hamite Blunt. He also created the Aboriginal Percussion Choir, an ensemble focused on combining non-Western percussion instruments with more conventional ones. This performance will feature the music of Roy Brooks, played by musicians who worked with him, as well as a blend of younger-generation musicians who were influenced by his groundbreaking work.

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.