The second performance of the Alliance Arts Council’s season will be Islands in Paradise by Michael Fitzsimmons from Omaha, NE on Friday, January 26th, 7:00 pm at the Alliance High School Performing Arts Center.

Fitzsimmons is a percussionist and a performance and recording artist with Dancing Man Music.  His program features the unique and intriguing instruments from Switzerland called Hang – reminiscent of the steel drums of Trinidad.  He incorporates the Hang’s beautiful, other worldly sounds with over 30 years experience as a composer and performer.  

This multicultural concert is a showcase for an exciting variety of drums from Cuba, West Africa, Central and South America; flutes from Brazil, China and Native America; pan pipes from Bolivia; and kalimbas from South Africa.  He weaves variety into his performances through improvisational works using a loop station.  These multilayered songs unfold before your eyes and between your ears.  During the performance Michael tells brief stories of his instruments and personal biographical background that educates and entertains.  Let Michael guide you on a “virtual” vacation to a land of no worries, lush vegetation, warm days and starlit nights, as you let your stress melt and your hair down.  It’s all good, mon!   Have fun and embrace all the joy and happiness that life has to offer in the “Islands”.

Mr. Fitzsimmons is also in the schools the entire week of January 22-26 doing a residency with 4th graders.  The residency students will be introduced on stage with him before his Islands in Paradise program to showcase the drums they made and what they have learned about rhythm.  

Tickets for the Friday night show are available at Redman’s Shoes and Carnegie Arts Center in Alliance and The Ledger in Hemingford.  Tickets are $10 Adults, $9 Senior, $5 Student.  Preschool is admitted free.  Tickets will also be sold at the door the night of the performance.  

This program is made possible with the support of the Nebraska Arts Council, the Nebraska Cultural Endowment and local co-presenters Western Nebraska Real Estate, First National Bank, Gregory’s Insurance, Bank of the West and KCOW/Double Q Country Radio.  The residency students drums will be provided by generous grants from The Mission Store, Inc and the Snow Redfern Foundation.