Art Hounds: Dan Israel and Minhua Chorus

Dan Israel
Dan Israel.
Courtesy of Dan Israel

This week on Art Hounds we're treated to choral music from southern China, Dan Israel's latest CD, and a live-action adventure game in Duluth.

Dancer and teacher Zhang Yan is going to see Minhua Chorus perform "The Chinese Knot" this Saturday at O'Shaughnessy Auditorium in St. Paul. The concert focuses on the music of three different ethnic groups: the Tibetan culture in the Shangri-La area, the Bai culture in Yunnan province, and the Mosuo (the "Kingdom of Women") culture in the Lugu Lake area of southwestern China. Through music the chorus hopes to convey the natural beauty of the Shangri-La area, the hospitality of the Bai culture, and the rites of passage of the Mosuo women.

Thirteen must be a lucky number for Dan Israel because Twin Cities music aficionado Chad Ness says Israel's latest album "Dan" is not only his 13th album — it's his best. Ness describes it as an upbeat break-up album, in which Israel sounds ready to move on with his life. Dan Israel's CD release party is Friday at the 331 Club in Minneapolis. The music starts at 10 p.m.

Writer Lucie Amundsen just had a great time with some of her friends at "Silent Night" a live-action escape room adventure in which you work together to save Duluth from an evil mastermind. Amundsen says the people who put on the event are theater professionals, so the room — the lair of Mycroft the madman — is really well done. Each group of six to eight people have an hour to look for clues and solve puzzles to save the city. Amundsen says she loved how much more engaged she was than at a typical play or movie, and how satisfied and clever she felt by the time it was all over. "Silent Night" runs Friday, Saturdays and Sundays through January 10.

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