Lawrence remains connected as Mile of Music festival hits 10th year in Appleton

Ten years in and Mile of Music still feels fresh and new.

The 10th edition of the all-original music festival returns to downtown Appleton Aug. 3-6, and once again Lawrence University will be all in—faculty, students, and alumni leading the interactive Music Education sessions, Lawrence hosting performances at four campus venues, the Decoda Chamber Music Festival collaborating with Mile performers, and Lawrence alumni showcased among the 200-plus musical acts performing over four music-filled days.

Look for more than 700 live music sets at 40 venues on or near a one-mile stretch of College Avenue, from the Lawrence campus on the east end to Richmond Street on the west end.

“Lawrence University has always been a pivotal piece of not only the Music Education Team but other showcases we host,” said Kim Willems of the Mile of Music promotions team. “A music festival with a Conservatory of Music in the same vicinity is just a natural fit, and we are grateful for the continued partnership with Lawrence.”

Leila Ramagopal Pertl ’87, a music education instructor in Lawrence’s Conservatory of Music and a performing arts teacher at Edison Elementary School, is the visionary behind incorporating diverse hands-on music-making events into Mile of Music and has been the music education curator for the festival since its debut a decade ago. Working with Music Education Team director of operations Jaclyn Kottman Hittner ’12, artistic director of the Lawrence Community Music School’s Girl Choirs, she is again leading a team of music educators and guest artists to add a signature component to the festival.

“Mile of Music is all about hand-crafted songwriting and uplifting the power and magic of music-making in community,” Ramagopal Pertl said. “What better way to do this than through hands-on music-making events where festivalgoers discover their musical birthright?”

Campus venues

Lawrence venues will include the Lawrence Lawn Main Stage, an outdoor venue on Main Hall Green, as well as Lawrence’s iconic Memorial Chapel and the cozier Harper Hall. In addition, the green space outside of the Music-Drama Center will be home to numerous Music Education workshops.

Beginning at 5:40 p.m. Thursday and continuing through Sunday afternoon, the Lawrence Lawn Main Stage will present 21 performances.

Memorial Chapel will be host to another 26 performances, beginning at 11 a.m. Thursday with a performance by Decoda, featuring Lawrence piano professor Michael Mizrahi, and continuing through a Cory Chisel-led farewell performance at 5 p.m. Sunday. Among the performers taking to the Memorial Chapel stage will be Sprig of That, featuring Lawrence alumni Isabel Dammann ’17  and Ilan Blanck ’17. 

Harper Hall, meanwhile, will see 30 performances over the four days. It provides one of the most intimate and relaxed settings among the Mile of Music venues.

“Festivalgoers could create their own festival adventure right on the Lawrence campus,” Willems said.

Music Education

The Music Education Team features numerous Lawrence faculty, staff, and alumni, as it has every year since the festival’s debut. Over the past nine festivals, the Music Education Team has led more than 350 sessions and has made music with 45,000 community members.

“The music education component of Mile sets it apart from nearly every other festival in the country in that festivalgoers who participate in music education events are an integral part of the Mile of Music soundscape,” Ramagopal Pertl said. “They are, themselves, Mile artists.”

This year’s festival will include more than 30 interactive sessions from Friday through Sunday—drumming and dancing of Ghana, Southeast Asian dance, workshops on ukulele, hip-hop, songwriting, among many others. Just show up and join in. A sampling of Lawrentians taking part: Nani Agbeli with Ghanaian drumming and dancing; I Dewa Ketut Alit Adnyana and Sonja Downing with Balinese gamelan; and Nèstor Dominguez ’14 and rising senior Jando Valdez with mariachi music.

The Music Education workshops will take place on the main stage of the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, at Heid Music, and on the Conservatory lawn. There will be rain sites in the Conservatory and at Heid Music if there is inclement weather.

Music education has been built into the Mile of Music festival from the get-go. The workshops are for all ages and are free, designed to build community and ensure that music-making is accessible to everyone.

Members of the Music Education Team will even take to the Mile of Music Bus at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The bus, which runs throughout the festival with a rotating roster of musicians performing for and with riders, returns to the Mile after a hiatus of a couple of years.

“We are excited to again feature the Music Education Team, which has been a unique piece of the overall festival puzzle since our very first festival in 2013,” Willems said.