The Kalamazoo Valley Museum's 17th Annual Fretboard Festival will be presented virtually on Saturday, March 5. Experience four live-streamed musical performances and three live-streamed workshops, a behind-the-scenes look at a luthier workshop, and more!

Bass is often thought of as just playing the roots of a chord, but as any guitarist who switched to bass will tell you, there is a lot more going on with bass in electric bands than just providing a foundation for a chord. Learn how the bass can change what chord the band is playing, provide melodic counterpoint, vary the feel of the rhythm, and generally control everything you thought others were in charge of. Presented by renowned local blues bassist (and sometimes guitarist) Tim Brouhard, this workshop will be presented live via Zoom, and preregistration is required.

A presentation and demonstration on ways to use alternative tunings on the fretboard of the guitar to perform songs. A brief oral history of the A440 HZ and its relation to guitar tuning standardization will be given prior to the tuning performance. This workshop will be presented live via Zoom, and preregistration is required.

This workshop will cover tools to help pianists further their skills on guitar. Topics covered will be harmony, reading music and piano/fretboard layouts. This workshop will be presented live via Zoom, and preregistration is required.

A delightful, family-friendly animated film that follows the adventures of Anna and Chip-Chip, who use a magical flying piano on a brave mission to find Anna's missing father. Obstacles abound and are bravely overcome; a happy ending is achieved!
Preregistration is encouraged, as seating is limited.

A delightful, family-friendly animated film that follows the adventures of Anna and Chip-Chip who use a magical, flying piano on a brave mission to find Anna’s missing father. Obstacles abound and are bravely overcome; a happy ending is achieved!

Mauro Ffortissimo, an artist and musician, drags an old piano onto the bluffs near his home by the sea. He plays it every evening for the migrating whales passing just offshore. The internet catches on, the news cameras arrive, crowds swell to hundreds of people…and the city orders it to stop. What follows is an epic battle between creative hearts and soulless bureaucracy.

Host Zsolt Bognár is an award-winning pianist, writer, and Ted Talk presenter uniquely suited to interviewing classical musicians. Through candid on-camera conversations that have garnered critical acclaim, he encourages guests to open up about personal and professional experiences. Two episodes will be screened, and Mr. Bognár will be on hand to provide background information and respond to audience members’ questions.

Virtuoso Afro-Cuban-born brothers—violinist Ilmar and pianist Aldo—live on opposite sides of a geopolitical chasm a half-century wide. Tracking their parallel lives in New York and Havana, their poignant reunion, and their momentous first performances together, Los Hermanos/The Brothers offers a nuanced, often startling view of estranged nations through the lens of music and family.

A Christopher Nupen film with Daniil Trifonov — pianist, composer, Russian and a magician at the keyboard. The astonishing musical gifts of Daniil Trifonov have to be seen and heard to be believed. How many have won both the Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky competitions in the same year — at the age of 20 — and then played 110 concerts in the following 12 months? Knowledgeable critics and leading musicians are saying that the world has not seen his like in more than fifty years.