Stillwater Gazette - July 29, 2022 “This is some of the happiest music you will ever hear,” says Pat O’Keefe, a member of Choro Borealis. When the five-man band plays its first gig at The Zephyr Theatre Aug. 4, O’Keefe promises, “you cannot help but smile.”
These Twin Cities musicians hope to introduce a new audience to the lively musical genre known as choro, which originated in Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century. With deep African roots, it is related to Dixieland and ragtime from the U.S. and also includes strong harmonies and signature strumming from European traditions.
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Backstage at the Z – Edition 11 – May 4, 2021 Celebrating our third anniversary
Three years ago, on May 2, 2018, at precisely 10:30 a.m., the Minnesota Zephyr Train Depot became The Zephyr Theatre. The purchase was preceded by an inordinate amount of passionate fundraising, hours-long phone calls, late nights with early mornings, tears of both joy and pain.
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Backstage at the Z – Edition 10 – April 1, 2021 Springtime at The Zephyr Theatre – here we grow! Growth has always been the central theme of spring, and it has always been our central focus here at The Zephyr Theatre as well. It happens year after year, Mother Nature raises the curtain on her grandest annual performance – spring! Excitement, expansion, and new beginnings abound.
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Backstage at the Z - Edition 9 - January 12, 2021 The Zephyr Theatre has come up with a very cool way to celebrate winter, and it’s all about ice. Construction on the theatre’s Ice Palace MAZE began Jan. 7. By opening night Jan. 22, this icy delight will include 8-foot-tall exterior walls, a half-mile long interior ice maze, ice thrones, ice sculptures, and ice slides. More than 1,500 blocks, each weighing 260 pounds, will be transformed into this winter playground. A tower of colored lights will be a focal point.
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Backstage at the Z - Edition 8 - December 8, 2020 I'm so happy! Typing this, there is a brass quintet downstairs playing Christmas music to be recorded for our "It's a Wonderful Life" at-home experience. Prior to the recording, they requested to practice for a Christmas concert that will be live-streamed this Thursday at an area church. In between the masked singer, and muffled bells of the brass, the familiar feeling of holiday concerts has returned and filled the air with a merry spirit.
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Backstage at the Z - Edition 5 - September 8, 2020 Here we are in September! Three quarters of the way through a year full of promise that has not kept its promises whatsoever. Through no fault of its own, it was cornered in a box like most of the rest of the world. Passion and creativity love boxes. The boundaries allow artists to play within the restrictions and gleefully color outside the lines. In our case, the colors that were inadvertently splashed across the page are opening up whole new worlds for us that will far outlast the pandemic.
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