Writes Michigan boogie master Mark Braun, better known as Mr. B: "Mr. B’s Joybox Express ... is the realization of an ambition I have had my whole adult life—combining two passions of musical expression and athletic endeavor. My life’s work has been as a pianist, performing throughout the world as a soloist, with big bands, and occasionally with some of the giants of the blues/jazz piano world. I have spent much of my free time in an array of sports from baseball leagues to extreme winter camping, and long-distance open water swimming, among others. Recognizing that uniting these seemingly divergent interests required a unique platform, I dreamed of putting a real piano on a bicycle and riding it across the USA. As I approached 50, the dream reemerged, with a twist: Could that whimsical notion be a tool to help others in a tangible way?" Thus was born Mr. B's Joybox Express, a fundraising marvel of a piano-hauling tricycle with three cyclists, hydraulic disc brakes, and a rear differential. This year, Mr. B and his crew are riding the entire length of the Mississippi River, raising funds for arts and athletics, and at today's concert you can help put them on the road! You'll hear an array of Michigan jazz and blues giants, including Mr. B himself, Madcat, George Bedard, Paul Keller, San Slomovitz, Ellen Rowe, Pete Siers, and more surprise guests. Mr. B's Joybox Express is a 501(c)(3) that raises funds for organizations that provide arts and athletics programming for kids.

This concert is presented as part of the Furlong Scholarship and is sponsored by Chuck and Ann Hutchins. PROGRAM: Barber - Nuvoletta, op. 25; Four Songs, op. 13; Hermit Songs, op. 29; Mozart - Violin Sonata no. 21; Poulenc - Sonata for Violin and Piano.

Cold Satellite is a six-piece rock band centered on the collaboration between critically acclaimed songwriter Jeffrey Foucault and award-winning poet Lisa Olstein. After a very well received debut in 2010, they've recently recorded "Cavalcade," a sophomore album that both refines and concentrates the band's signature amalgam of rock, blues, and country. Described by legendary music critic Greil Marcus as having "a country feel that puts the people who live in the Nashville charts to shame. Cold Satellite pairs Lisa Olstein's visceral and imagistic language with Jeffrey Foucault's lyrical sensibility and the rawboned authority of a rock band to create a stripped-down ethos that hearkens back to records by Crazy Horse, the Faces, Led Zeppelin, and CCR. Says Marcus: "A deep ditch electric guitar takes a country song into the blues, and lets it go back where it came from." This project marks an exciting new direction for Ark favorite Jeffrey Foucault, and a treat for lovers of roots music everywhere.