About Northwoods Music Collaborative
We are based in the forest landscapes of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Northern Vermont. We invite you to join us in the mystery and beauty of musical expression, whether you are physically in these woods or not.
Music has the power to transform lives. The arts build empathy, introduce different perspectives and foster a new understanding of our world. They instill a sense of well-being in which audiences and performers create soul-nourishing community.
We believe that music, in particular, helps us express and process complex emotions; offering a powerful outlet for hardships, longings, and elations. The Northwoods Music Collaborative facilitates this transformative power of the musical arts through our programs and events.
Northwoods offers a space to revitalize, awaken inspiration, and heal through live music.
We develop and present musical experiences that build community, provide a sense of well-being and foster human understanding of our place in the natural world.
Our Story
Since 2015 Northwoods Music Collaborative has advanced its mission with music festivals, school programs and other special community events, by creating programs that are offered to schools and communities at low or no cost. These programs introduce students and public audiences to a diversity of music forms and present premiers of original music arrangements and compositions that have been inspired by the natural environment and the human community. The Collaborative contracts with established artists from the world over as well as local musicians and provides the opportunity to create music in venues that include libraries, schools, community parks and the best regional concert halls. Audiences and private patrons have enthusiastically embraced and supported the offerings. Our income relies totally on donations and grants.
The year 2024 marked the tenth year of the Beethoven and Banjos Festival and its associated programs. The hallmark of the festival has been an integration of classical, new, and traditional music and dance. Diverse traditional genres have included Appalachian, Finnish, Americana, Norwegian and Swedish, Russian, Native American, African American and new twists on traditional music.
By offering concerts that reflect the diverse cultural heritage of the Northwoods we hope to grow our audience and introduce them to new music that celebrates and enriches the region. The Beethoven and Banjos presentations successfully demonstrate the type of innovative programming that the Northwoods Music Collaborative endeavors to bring to northern communities. The new music, traditional music and classical music presented by musicians of diverse cultural and gender identities have an impact on communities as evidenced by the positive feedback we receive from audiences at venues and schools and the desire they express for more of this kind of programming.
In 2025 Northwoods Music Collaborative is expanding its mission and programming to include more collaborations and an increased variety of programming including the healing arts. Using music as our forms of communication Northwoods Music Collaborative will develop and present experiences that aim to build community by providing a sense of well-being and foster human understanding and our place in the natural world.
Our Staff & Board
-
Bette Premo
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
-
Evan Premo
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
-
Betty Walker
BOARD CHAIR
-
David Patrick Eich
BOARD DIRECTOR
-
John Pryor
BOARD DIRECTOR
-
Edie Stetson Yovu
BOARD DIRECTOR
Donation Based, Affordable Events
Additional details about our 501(c)3 are available on our Guidestar Profile.
Accessibility
Our events are supported with grants and donations. Each event will have a sliding scale for donations so that those with more means will support those with less, trusting that we take care of each other as a community. This allows everyone to experience great music no matter what they can afford.
All facilities at which our programs are held are accessible to persons with disabilities in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
“Amazing! There aren’t adjectives to describe how wonderful your music is!!”
– AUDIENCE MEMBER