Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony April 18 at Rozsa celebrates 25 Years of Rozsa performances

By Michele Bourdieu, with information from the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts 

Joel Neves conducts the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. For the first-ever Upper Peninsula performance of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony on Saturday, April 18, in the Rozsa, the KSO will perform with visiting  musicians from around the UP, downstate Michigan, Wisconsin, and even Kansas -- to total of more than 175 musicians and members of Michigan Tech Choirs, with soloists Lara Neves and Kathryn Summersett. Click on photos for larger versions. (Photo courtesy Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts)

HOUGHTON -- On Saturday, April 18, 2026, at 7:30 p.m., at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, Choirs of Michigan Tech, musicians from the Upper Peninsula and Midwest, and soloists Lara Neves and Kathryn Summersett, combine for the Upper Peninsula’s first-ever performance of Gustav Mahler’s transcendent Resurrection Symphony. In celebration of the Rozsa Center's 25th Anniversary Season, over 175 musicians and choir members will take the stage to perform one of the most ambitious pieces of music ever composed.

Conductor Joel Neves, Professor of Music and Director of Orchestral Activities at Michigan Technological University, has wanted to bring this experience to our local community for a long time.

Conductor Joel Neves addresses members of the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra and visiting musicians during the April 15 dress rehearsal for Mahler's Resurrection Symphony. (Photo © John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

"The Mahler Resurrection Symphony, I think, is the G.O.A.T. of all symphonies, the greatest of all time," says Joel. "In the Resurrection Symphony, Mahler grapples with existential questions of the human soul: Why is life so painful? Why is death so tragic? Why are joyous moments so fleeting? Is there really any hope? Will mankind really live again after death? Mahler answers these questions throughout the five movements."

During the April 15 dress rehearsal, Joel Neves conducts selected parts of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, sometimes working with one section of the orchestra at a time. (Photo © John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now) 

"The symphony begins with a dark funeral march (first movement)," Joel notes, "followed by a dance that nostalgically reflects on happier times when life was filled with joyous possibility (second movement). The third movement is the sardonic, shrieking dance of a 'tortured soul.' The fourth movement is titled Primal Light, in which the mezzo-soprano soloist sings that 'humanity lies in great agony' and how she longs for spiritual union with God and the eternal life he promised.

"Then comes perhaps the greatest finale in all of music (over 30 minutes long!) which invokes the Day of Judgement and the Great Call for the dead to arise from their graves, with the choir proclaiming the miraculous Resurrection of all mankind."

Members of the Michigan Tech Choirs perform in the Rozsa Center during a previous concert. About 80 choir members will perform during Mahler's Resurrection Symphony on April 18. (Photo © Brockit and courtesy Rozsa Center)

Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, 90 minutes long, calls for a massive orchestra, including ten horns, eight trumpets, two harps, two sets of timpani, organ, and off-stage horns and trumpets placed way up in the rafters; and a large chorus with two soloists.

"The symphony is such a behemoth that we had to bring in musicians from the Marquette Symphony Orchestra, Northern Michigan University, Sault-Sainte Marie, Escanaba, Iron Mountain, downstate Michigan, Wisconsin, and even Kansas, to augment our numbers," Joel adds. "This will be the largest choral-orchestral symphony ever performed on the Rozsa stage!"  

Here are some brief clips of Mahler's music from the dress rehearsal held in the Rozsa Center on April 15:  

During the April 15 dress rehearsal for the April 18, 2026, performance of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts in Houghton, MI, Conductor Joel Neves directs members of the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra in a selection from the beginning of the symphony. (Video by John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

During the April 15 dress rehearsal, Conductor Joel Neves directs musicians of the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, who are joined by visiting musicians from various towns in Michigan and from Wisconsin and Kansas. (Video by Keweenaw Now)

"This year has been a celebration -- and a reminder of how important it is to be in this space together as a community," says Kiersten Birondo, Executive Director of the Rozsa Center. "With so much talent from across the Upper Peninsula coming together, this concert represents the kind of collaboration, coordination, trust, and willingness to build something together that makes our surrounding community and the Rozsa Center so special."

This will be the first time Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony has ever been performed in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It includes possibly the greatest number of performers that have ever graced the Rozsa stage.

Steve Jones, Production Manager for the Rozsa Center, commented on the challenges posed by this very large performance.

"We're doing things for this show that we've never done in my ten years working here," Jones told Keweenaw Now. "We've got musicians performing up in the spotlight booth and some of the lighting areas up there. For them to be able to perform up there we had to hook up a video monitor of Joel's conductor cam (normally used for the livestream of the concert)."

Horn musicians prepare to play their off-stage parts in the tiny spotlight booth high above the Rozsa audience. The video monitor for viewing Conductor Joel Neves's direction is visible in the upper left of the photo. (Photo © John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

During the April 15 dress rehearsal, off-stage horn musicians located in a spotlight booth high above the audience play their part in the symphony. In order to see conductor Joel Neves, they must view his directions on a livestream screen. (Video by John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

"There's a ton of behind-the-scenes work that goes into preparing the show," Jones added, "and with the help of my student crew that makes it all possible."

One of the visiting horn musicians playing in the small spotlight booth -- Brian Carter of Alpena, Michigan -- spoke with Keweenaw Now after the April 15 dress rehearsal. Brian has also played French horn with the Marquette Symphony, the Soo Opera, and the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra in Petoskey.

Visiting musician Brian Carter of Alpena, Michigan, speaks about his experience playing French horn in several Michigan orchestras as well as the Keweenaw Symphony. (Video interview by Keweenaw Now)

Joel Neves is Director of Orchestral Activities at Michigan Tech, where he conducts the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra. The KSO was awarded 2nd Place nationally in the American Prize in Orchestral Performance for its recordings of Jupiter and Sinfonia antartica. The orchestra recently premiered Joel’s new tone poem -- Kalaupapa --about his great-grandparents’ imprisonment in Molokai’s leper colony. Joel conducted the Hawaiian premiere of Kalaupapa in Honolulu in December 2024.

Joel is a regular guest conductor of professional, college, and all-state orchestras. He has guest conducted the Hubei Symphony Orchestra in Wuhan, China (2015), the Orquesta Sinfónica de Entre Ríos in Argentina (2015, 2017), and the Filarmonica de Stat Sibiu in Romania (2024). He is currently Artistic Director and Conductor of the Pine Mountain Music Festival, a professional opera and classical music festival in Michigan. Joel has also directed numerous opera, ballet, and music theatre productions.  

"The Resurrection Symphony is a life changer. If you’ve never been to a symphony before, this is the one to go to," Joel suggests. "It will alter you. You will remember it for a long time. It takes you on a beautiful emotional journey that forces you to think about life and what it’s about in all its pain, tragedy, beauty and triumph. You don’t want to miss it."

Also appearing in Saturday's concert are soloists Lara Neves, mezzo-soprano (Joel's wife), and Kathryn Summersett, soprano.

Lara Neves, a graduate of Brigham Young University, performed at BYU in Magic Flute, Der Fledermaus, Tales of Hoffmann and Marriage of Figaro. Since living in Houghton she has soloed with the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah, Berlioz' Les nuits d'été, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, and most recently, Mosaic for Earth. In 2014, she played Amahl’s mother in Michigan Tech’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. Lara has performed with Pine Mountain Music Festival’s operatic productions and was also the mezzo-soprano soloist for the festival's Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. In 2018 she sang the role of Mercedes in PMMF's production of Carmen. (Inset photo of Lara Neves © and courtesy Adam Johnson, Brockit)  

Kathryn Summersett, Doctor of Music and McClosky voice technician, currently works as a vocalist, private instructor, and music teacher in local schools. She earned her Doctor of Music in Historical Performance from Indiana University, her MM from University of North Texas, and her BM from University of Massachusetts. In 2013, she also became a certified McClosky voice technician. Kathryn also enjoys performing a wide variety of genres including, but not limited to, medieval chant, Renaissance lute songs, baroque and classical opera, romantic art songs, early 20th century jazz, and modern pop. (Inset photo of Kathryn Summersett © DS Sanchez and courtesy Rozsa Center)

Jared Anderson, director of choral activities at Michigan Tech, prepared the choir for this Mahler concert. An active choral singer all his life performing in venues and festivals worldwide, Anderson will be singing in the choir during this production. Anderson is Professor of Music and Chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Michigan Tech, where he conducts conScience: Michigan Tech Chamber Singers and the Michigan Tech Concert Choir. He has worked with ensembles of all sizes and voicing, with singers of many different ages and backgrounds, including choirs at Michigan Tech, Northland College, the University of Minnesota, Brigham Young University, and an inmate choir at the Utah State Prison. 

To Purchase Tickets!

If you haven't yet purchased tickets for this important concert, go to https://mtu.universitytickets.com/w/event.aspx?id=7868. Reserved tickets for this event are Pay as You're Able ticketing.This event is Michigan Tech Student Rush eligible. Please contact the Rozsa Box Office with any questions about this event via phone at 906-487-1906, or by email at rozsa@mtu.edu. View current Box Office Hours.

This event will be livestreamed. Should the concert be sold out, CLICK HERE and then click on View Stream.

The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts cultivates a vibrant and connected community through experiences that bring the Keweenaw together. Located on Michigan Technological University's campus in Houghton, Michigan, the 80,000-square-foot Rozsa Center, the largest theater in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, dramatically expands the region’s access to large-scale performing arts events including Broadway tours, ballet, cirque, music, and more.

Concerned residents rally against AI data centers

By Michele Bourdieu

Across from Veterans' Memorial Park in Houghton, participants in the April 10, 2026, Anti Data Center rally, a Michigan statewide event, display a variety of homemade signs about the danger of allowing these centers in local communities. Click on photos for larger versions. (Photo © John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

HOUGHTON -- Displaying their signs to oncoming traffic near Veterans' Memorial Park in Houghton, a lively group of concerned residents rallied in solidarity with the statewide Michigan demonstrations against data centers on Friday, April 10. These events were a protest against Big Tech corporate-owned data centers with AI servers multiplying across the state and expanding even into the Upper Peninsula, where they threaten to invade the sensitive natural environment.

These huge developments threaten water supplies, raise energy demand and electricity bills, extend fossil fuel and nuclear energy use at a time of climate crisis, emit pollutants into the air and create harmful electronic waste, threaten jobs by replacing workers with more AI, and devour sensitive personal data.*

As participants gathered across from Veterans' Memorial Park in Houghton, Rich Canevez, a member of Keweenaw Indivisible's leadership team, accepted an invitation from organizers in Keweenaw Against the Oligarchy (KATO), which is a Hub of Michigan Untied Action and a partner of Up North Advocacy, to open the rally.

Speaking of his own love for the natural beauty of the Keweenaw, Rich Canevez of the Keweenaw Indivisible leadership team, opens the April 10, 2026, rally against data centers in Houghton, MI, in solidarity with the statewide event. (Video by Keweenaw Now)

Canevez spoke briefly of the fact that these huge data centers threaten the water, land, life style and natural beauty of communities. He then introduced two speakers from the recently formed Northern Michigan Alliance for Responsible Development (NMARD) -- Nolan Wright and Emma Goodman.

Nolan Wright, mathematics student at Michigan Tech University and Student Organizer with NMARD, addressed the crowd, citing both environmental and economic costs of data centers -- their effects on  water supplies, air quality, land use, electricity, infrastructure and (reduced) job opportunities.

During the April 10, 2026, Anti Data Center rally in Houghton, Nolan Wright, mathematics student at Michigan Tech University and Student Organizer with Northern Michigan Alliance for Responsible Development, speaks about the high costs associated with data centers. (Video by Keweenaw Now)

Emma Goodman, of Saline, MI, where a huge data center has been proposed for the township, spoke to rally participants about the challenges to towns and townships where residents oppose data center development.

During the April 10, 2026, Houghton, MI, Anti Data Center rally, Emma Goodman speaks to participants about a Michigan community that lost its fight against such a center and another that won. She urges the crowd to organize and resist data centers by communicating their views to local officials, state legislators and the governor. (Video by Keweenaw Now)

The Northern Michigan Alliance for Responsible Development (NMARD), begun this year, has organized and participated in multiple township meetings across the Upper Peninsula, educating townships on local ordinances that could protect them. To date they have provided training to over 250 Yoopers on the risks and impacts of data centers and cryptomines and are currently building up their organizing strength around this issue.

The organizers of the April 10 rally in Houghton -- Lexi Tater, Up North Advocacy (UNA) Community Organizer, and Audrey Gerard, Michigan United Action Northern Regional Manager -- are starting a hub of NMARD in the Keweenaw to draft these ordinances and moratoriums in order to bring them to local level governance.

Organizers Audrey Gerard, left, and Lexi Tater are pictured here with their sign during the rally against data centers on Friday, April 10, in Houghton. (Photo by Keweenaw Now)

"We formed around Big Tech issues in northern Michigan, but in pursuing that we realized there's a larger picture of what is 'responsible development,'" Tater told Keweenaw Now.

Gerard added, "Not only are data centers a hazard to the environment and a nuisance to their neighbors, they are also something the people, by and large, do not want! Yet DTE was able to get a bill passed, giving them major tax breaks to supply energy to data centers. How? It couldn't possibly have to do with the $100 million they gave in political spending. We are collecting signatures for a Michiganders for Money Out of Politics (MMOP) petition that will help clean up this corporate money and put the power back in the voters' hands! Find a circulator near you to sign the petition, or volunteer to circulate at https://mopupmichigan.org!"**

During the rally, Tater spoke to participants about joining the NMARD hub and signing the MMOP petition.***

During the April 10, 2026, Anti Data Center rally in Houghton, MI, Lexi Tater, co-founder of Keweenaw Against the Oligarchy and community organizer for Up North Advocacy, speaks to rally participants on what they can do to help keep data centers out of the Keweenaw. (Video by Keweenaw Now)

While some participants signed the petition, local resident Chaundel, disguised as the Grim Reaper, led some chants as a warm-up for the walk to the Portage Lift Bridge.

As participants in the April 10, 2026, rally against Data Centers prepare to walk to the Portage Lift Bridge in order to display their signs to oncoming traffic, Chaundel, dressed as the Grim Reaper, leads them in chants against data centers. (Video by Keweenaw Now)

When asked to explain his costume at the rally, Alan Salmi of Hancock said he was "just acting as a supporter and guardian for death (the Grim Reaper)." His sign was a reference to "Data" in Star Trek -- the only data that he truly trusted. (Photo © John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

As the rally participants prepared to walk to the Bridge, Keweenaw Now noticed a Democratic candidate for the Michigan First District US Congressional seat, Kyle Blomquist, was present. Valorie Troesch of the Houghton County Dems interviewed Blomquist about his campaign.

During the April 10, 2026, rally against data centers in Houghton, Valorie Troesch of the Houghton County Democratic Party speaks with Kyle Blomquist, a candidate for Michigan's 1st District US Congressional Representative, who will be running in the Democratic primary election in order to contest present US Rep. Jack Bergman's seat in Congress. (Video by Keweenaw Now) 

Participants in the rally, displaying their signs, then walked peacefully to line the Portage Lift Bridge. Many passing drivers honked their horns to show support.

Participants in the April 10, 2026, rally against data centers walk toward the Portage Lift Bridge, where they will display their signs and posters to oncoming traffic. (Video by Keweenaw Now)

Participants in the April 10 rally continue their walk toward the Portage Lift Bridge. (Video by John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

Walkers from the rally line the Portage Lift Bridge, displaying many signs to oncoming traffic. (Photo © John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

Some intrepid kayakers found a spot on the Portage Waterway where ice had melted and joined the rally. (Photo © John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now) 

Some of the signs displayed during the rally and walk were created during a poster-making session held earlier in the week.

Nathan Staley , a member of Keweenaw Against the Oligarchy (KATO) displays two signs used during the April 10 rally. (Photo © John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

This sign expresses concern for the water resources that are being used in great quantities and even polluted by data centers. (Photo © John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

Janis Alatalo, left, and Zacary Mues-Byrd display a sign that also calls for protecting water from data centers. (Photo © John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

Dee Dee Bloom of the AWAVE (Advocates for those Without A Voice Everywhere) group displays a meaningful sign during the rally. (Photo © John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

Moratoriums proposed against data centers

The Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, has said the following about data centers in Michigan:

"Big tech companies are flocking to Michigan with their data center projects for a few key reasons. Our Great Lakes offer an abundance of water and a cooler climate that lowers operating costs, as well as an abundance of land near major infrastructure. Perhaps most enticing to these companies, however, are the generous tax incentives in Michigan that are aimed at attracting large-scale development. As hype for artificial-intelligence technology and cloud-computing drive explosive demand for energy-intensive data centers nationwide, companies are looking beyond saturated coastal markets to Midwest states like Michigan that can accommodate rapid growth. This surge is driven by infrastructure and cost advantages -- not by local demand -- and raises important questions about energy use, utility costs, and long-term public benefit."

The Sierra Club Michigan Chapter has a petition calling for a temporary moratorium on all large-scale data center approvals until Michigan has a comprehensive state plan that ensures these projects will not harm our environment, our communities, or Michigan ratepayers. (Click here to learn more and sign the petition.) 

This sign suggests the reason for taking action to protect your community from data centers. (Photo © John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)

Bernie and AOC propose legislation 

On March 25,  2026, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) announced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act, legislation that would enact a reasonable pause to the development of AI to ensure the safety of humanity. 

The AI Data Center Moratorium Act of 2026 would institute an immediate federal moratorium on AI data centers until strong national safeguards are in place to ensure the following:

• AI is safe and effective -- preventing executives in the AI industry from releasing harmful products into the world that threaten the health and well-being of working families, our privacy and civil rights and the future of humanity.
• The economic gains of AI and robotics will benefit workers, not just the wealthy owners of Big Tech.
• AI does not increase electricity or utility prices, harm communities or destroy the environment.

Additionally, this bill will stop a global race to see which country is the first to eliminate hundreds of millions of jobs, or the first to build an AI that destroys the planet. It accomplishes this by banning U.S. exports of AI computing infrastructure to countries that do not have safeguards in place to guarantee AI is safe and effective, workers are protected and AI does not harm the environment.

Editor's Notes:

* See: "The Top 10 Reasons Data Centers Must be Stopped," in Food and Water Watch.

Tell your members of Congress: No New Data Centers! Pass the AI Data Center Moratorium Act. 

** 356,958 valid signatures within 180 days are needed to get the MMOP proposal on the November 2026 ballot so voters can weigh in. Whether you want to sign the petition or collect signatures, there is room for you in the movement to get money out of politics! CLICK HERE to take action.

*** If you wish to join the local hub of the Northern Michigan Alliance for Responsible Development (NMARD), you can email Lexi Tater at Lexi@upnorthadvocacy.org or Audrey Gerard at Agerard@miunited.org.