Ten-time Grammy Award winning singer Bobby McFerrin comes to Wharton Center – for the very first time – for what promises to be an incredibly moving night of song! Part of The Doctors Company Variety Series, Bobby McFerrin will perform on Saturday, February 6, 2016, in the Cobb Great Hall. Tickets to see BOBBY MCFERRIN: BOBBY MEETS MICHIGAN! are available at official ticketing outlets: online at whartoncenter.com, at the Auto-Owners Insurance Ticket Office at Wharton Center, or by calling 1-800-WHARTON.
Bobby McFerrin, possibly best known for his hit classic, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” has defied categorization for decades. He has inspired a generation of a cappella singers, collaborated with artists like Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea and Questlove, conducted the Vienna Philharmonic, led his own improv choir, and been seen by millions in solo events.
In Bobby Meets Michigan!, Bobby McFerrin, in collaboration with Michigan artists, will seek to highlight the process of creativity and music making. What will be seen on stage will be completely improvisational, sharing the joy of what is possible in spontaneously creating art with other talented performers.
The Bobby Meets... series has evolved naturally over decades, as Bobby’s love of surprising new sounds drew him toward onstage meetings with guest artists all over the world. This show will feature Michigan residents Mike Jellick, a jazz and classical piano player and composer from Detroit who has become a mainstay on the Detroit jazz scene; Marion Hayden, a jazz bass player from Detroit on faculty with the Department of Jazz Studies at the University of Michigan; Tia Imani Hanna, a Detroit-born violinist, vocalist and MSU graduate, currently making her home in Lansing, who has been hailed as “a talent overload” by the Lansing State Journal; Igor Houwat, a Lebanese and Brazilian MSU College of Music alum, is an oud player, founder of the Mediterranean fusion band Wissal and a Lansing area resident; Alexander Hlvaty, a dancer and Western Michigan University graduate who currently dances with Eisenhower Dance in metro Detroit; and Carolyn Koebel, an MSU and Western Michigan University graduate and percussionist whose unique passion for rhythm and vibration has led her around the world exploring the rhythmic roots of Latin America, West Africa, and the Middle East. These talented individuals will all join McFerrin on stage for this one-of-a-kind event that is not to be missed.
