BEAR COUNTRY The familiar folk rock mainstays of harmonica, bass, and keyboards give way to layers of happy beat overtones and lyrical diversity to form the distinctive sound of Bear Country. Inspired by an eclectic array of musical genres, Bear Country is the sing-it-out-loud answer to all of your questions about broken hearts and swimming in the sea.
JOHN HENRY BLATTER The idea of art as experience is a large part of John Henry Blatter’s work. He uses various forms of video and sound to create pieces as intimate as family photos and as public as virtual gardens to invite viewer participation. He explores topics ranging from the struggle to define and understand self-identity to anxieties and fears of how others perceive us. The artist earned his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BFA from the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. Blatter’s awards and honors include two Scope Emerging Artist Grants from the Scope Art Foundation and a Jacob Javits Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education.
CAPGUN COUP The sonic schizophrenia of Capgun Couphas evolved from an earlier homage to avant-noise into a full-blown explosion of indie-house-party-punk-pop. The ragged clashes with the refined in the nerd rap world of Sam Martin, Greg Elsasser, Eric Ohlsson and Andy Matz. Their debut work is Nebraskafish on the Team Love label.
COLUMBIA VS. CHALLENGER From frenetically fast-paced to soulful and grooving, the synth-pop sound ofColumbia vs. Challenger is Josh Miller (keyboards, vocals and saxophone), Theo Wiesehan (bass and guitar) and Evan Todd (percussion). Inspired by the likes of Devo and the Talking Heads, the trio’s music is a dancey mix that plays off of 80's super-pop melodies that are a simple, straightforward, solid and always quirky.
EUPHORIA Euphoria is Jordan Elsberry, a member of the band Shiver Shiver, who also performs during Bemis08. The Fremont native is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he was awarded a scholarship from the Earl Family Fund for Excellence in Jazz Studies along with a Regents Scholarship. Elsberry has also performed as part of Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead, a program sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts through their “Jazz Stars of Tomorrow” series.
HEARTLAND COMMUNITY FLUTE CHOIR Founded in 2003 by University of Nebraska at Omaha music professor Christine Beard, the Heartland Community Flute Choir is a non-auditioned ensemble of over thirty members who play on C flutes, piccolos, alto and bass flutes. With a repertoire that spans a diverse range of works from classical masterpieces to popular tunes, the organization is co-sponsored by the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the Nebraska Flute Club and Gemeinhardt/Gemstone Musical Instruments. The Choir will perform a program of original works at Bemis08: Creativity Festival.
LOOM Brent Crampton, hailed by The Reader as a “Deep House Pioneer,” recently celebrated his second year of loom - Weaving the Social Fabric Through Dance. Loom is the call-out-the-fire-marshal soirees that have garnered him back-to-back Omaha Arts and Entertainment Awards as best DJ for the series that helped turn an erstwhile sleepy and sedate Benson neighborhood into the dance capital of Nebraska. Hosted by Jay Kline, the loom crew includes ill-loom-inating body painting by Justin Queal and family along with percussionists Shif-D and Jason Horacek (djembe, bongos, congas, dijeridu and other things that go thump in the night). Also joining the loom team is GroovefellaZ, the internationally renowned urban dance group. The eclectic fusion of jazz, African and Latin rhythms will merge with funk and soul as the trademark sights and sounds of loom echo through the Bemis Center galleries in a dance party to end all dance parties as Bemis08: Creativity Festival works up a good sweat to close the second night of the event.
SHIVER SHIVER With a signature style and a sizzling stage presence, Shiver Shiver is rooted in the grandest of glam traditions. Chase Thornburg drums and sings while Jordan Elsberry sings and plays both keyboards and laptop to deliver original pop that is fresh, catchy and complex.
UNO’S ARTIFICIAL MUSIC INITIATIVE AMI is the music technologyensemble of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, whose participation in Bemis08: Creativity Festival is being organized by Kenton Bales, the Robert M. Spire professor of music composition, technology and theory at UNO. Bales will be joined by AnDrue Humphrey and Charles Lime in an extended ambient music program that will act as an often discordant backdrop to all of the equally discordant goings-on during the festival. Bales has twice been named the Nebraska Composer of the Year by the Nebraska Music Teachers Association and his varied works have been performed by artists across the United States as well as in Europe. A member of the Analog Arts Ensemble, Bales also serves as an organizer of ARTSaha!, Omaha’s new music festival.
UNO PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE Directed by professor Tomm Roland, the UNO Percussion Ensemble is a student organization known for its varied programs that incorporate a wide range of percussion styles. Mixing classical works, contemporary masterpieces, world drumming and rock influenced pieces with occasional explosions of guttural yelling and screaming, this group will present a special high-energy performance peppered with all manner of thumps, clangs and rat-a-tat-tats for Bemis08: Creativity Festival.
