Andrew Rogers was an improviser. Not in a strict jazz sense, but as someone who accompanied silent films without sheet music, much of what he played was composed spontaneously in response to what was happening on screen.

“The thing about doing silent films," he told Pulp in 2023 for an article about theater organs, "I’ve got the outline in my head, and I’ve got the certain themes, but how I knit it together each time I play it could be different. If I played a film for you now and then played it for you tomorrow, it wouldn’t be exactly the same.”

Rogers was the lead organist at the Michigan Theater, where he had performed since 2008 in addition to other vintage movie houses in the state and elsewhere. He died on November 13. Rodgers was 74 years old. You can read his obituary here.

There will be a memorial concert at the Michigan Theater on December 4, according to Rogers' friend Maria Calabrese, though it's not currently listed on the Marquee Arts website.

You can read Marquee Arts' lovely remembrance of Rogers here, and listen to a short remembrance of him on WEMU. (Update: MLive published a long story about Rogers on November 19.)

Below, you can watch Rogers' virtual concert at the Michigan Theater for Memorial Day 2020, and read his bio:

The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week: Disciples of Noise, God Gotti with Prod. P, Blou Reed, Atlas the Kid, Frontier Ruckus, Tymbals, How to Draw Monsters, Darrin James Band, John Beltran, Orka Veer featuring Zakoor, Cloudburst, and Stephen Kemsley.

The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week: Griot Galaxy, Alexis C. Lamb, Moonmill, Fangs & Twangs, Alex Anest Organ Trio, deegeecee, The Boy Detective, Hemmingway Lane, 3Steez, Chris DuPont, Pat2Dope, Idle Ray, Dre Dav, and Splitfuse.

"Write what you know" is a standard prompt for authors, but Barbara Stark-Nemon really does know what she pens. The Michigan writer, who splits time between Ann Arbor and Northport, is a fiber-arts creator. Stark-Nemon's third novel, Isabela’s Way, follows the story of a 14-year-old Jewish girl escaping Portugal's Inquisition in the 17th century, and Isabela uses her embroidery skills to create coded symbols on banners that hang over doorways, offering fellow escapees information about safe houses. The book is part coming-of-age story, part historical fiction, and full of suspense.

Simon and Schuster, which distributes this She Writes Press book, describes Isabela’s Way:

The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week: Kozora Quartet, T. Greens, Otherseas, Kylee Phillips, My Salamander, Manifest Zone, The Night Assembly, Brynn Hilliker, Atlas the Kid, and new music from the Intensity Recordings and AGN7 labels.

Singer and educator Willis Charles Patterson, who spent more than 30 years as a faculty member and associate dean at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD), died on October 22. He was 94.

The Ann Arbor native, born November 27, 1930, was also a graduate of U-M, earning his undergraduate and master's degrees at the university before being hired by SMTD in fall 1968.

Patterson was the first Black faculty member hired by SMTD, and in a 2019 profile of the bass singer, Erin Lichtenstein wrote that the educator "did more to advance the cause of racial equity at SMTD than anyone else in its history, before or since."

The Ann Arbor District Library’s Fifth Avenue Press imprint is launching five new publications by local authors across several genres during a Sunday, November 9, book-release reception at the Downtown location as part of A2 Community Bookfest.

The Fifth Avenue Press reception, which is at 1 pm, will include author readings and meet-and-greets along with opportunities to purchase books and get them signed by the authors.

Started in 2017, Fifth Avenue Press assists local authors with creating print-ready books at no cost and ensures they retain all of their rights.

As part of that partnership, the library distributes ebooks of the authors’ works to patrons without paying royalties. The authors can also sell their books in various formats and keep all of the proceeds.

We recently sent a questionnaire to the authors to learn more about their books and creative processes ahead of the November 9 reception. You can click the book titles below to take you to the author interviews:

The best portrait photographers get to know their subjects and capture not just their images but also their auras.

Joseph Ferraro does that, too, but for bugs.

Closer: A look at the tiny world around us exhibition at Matthaei Botanical Gardens showcases Ferraro's macro photographs of his favorite subjects, highlighting the immense natural beauty of the many small things all around us.

"To me, the little things matter," Ferraro writes in his artist's statement for Closer:

The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week: Janelle Haskell, Mista Midwest, George Mashour, Larkn, KUZbeats, Mei Semones, Shigeto, Disiniblud with Kelly Moran, State, Sex Change, Darrin James Band, and Winged Wheel.

Jaye Schlesinger is the newest member of the artist-owned and operated WSG Gallery, but the Ann Arbor painter has long been a mainstay in the local creative community.

She holds two degrees from the University of Michigan—an MFA in painting (1976) and one in medical illustration (1988)—and has had numerous appearances in group exhibitions as well as 14 solo shows of her work.

Schlesinger's new spotlight show at WSG Gallery, Points of View, continues her trend of identifying a theme and exploring it from numerous angles—for instance, Possession, her 2017 exhibit at U-M's Institute for the Humanities gallery, focused on paintings of household objects.

Windows are the primary theme for the gouache paintings in Points of View, which Schlesinger explains in her artist statement: