Originally scheduled on 1/13/22: all purchased tickets for that night will be honored.

$20 ADVANCE / $30 DAY OF SHOW

6PM DOORS / 8PM SHOWTIME

ALL AGES

Ten composer/performer teams from across the country will be competing for cash prizes. The Sparks & Wiry Cries songSLAM is a unique opportunity for emerging classical music composer/performer teams to premiere new art songs and compete for cash prizes. Teams will present a new song of no more than 5 minutes for voice and piano in any language for the voting audience, who in the poetry slam tradition will then vote on their favorites and award $1,000 in prize money. Teams are encouraged to bring their friends, as all prizes will be awarded by audience vote!

Your host for the evening: Chris Koza, a composer and performer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Both solo and with his band Rogue Valley, he has supported and shared the stage with artists such as Brandi Carlile, Ingrid Michaelson, The Jayhawks, Neko Case, Kathleen Edwards, Dan Wilson, Stephen Kellogg, This is the Kit, and Tift Merrit, among others. His music appears regularly on ABC’s General Hospital and 60 Minutes, and his song Be Wild will be featured as the soundtrack to an upcoming State of Minnesota tourism campaign. His song (Rogue Valley) The Wolves and the Ravens was featured in Ben Stiller’s film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

The music Chris produces is rooted in Americana but heeds its own spirit. Born out of folk, country, storytelling and rock ’n roll, Chris both honors and builds on Americana traditions by incorporating a unique pop-music sensibility, subtle synthesizers, rich harmonies, and imaginative production choices. But despite late-night deep dives in the studio, Chris never strays from the core of the song itself and isn’t afraid to let a raw vocal and woodsy acoustic guitar deliver the story.