Spring 2020 Serendipity Music Series Announced
Mae Simpson, whose band was picked the Twin Cities best new band for 2019, and Minnesota Blues Hall of Famer Scottie Miller will be among the Spring 2020 lineup for the CSU Serendipity Music Series.
The CSU Serendipity Music offers mid-week, mid-day “street-corner serenades” by some of Minnesota’s top musicians. The free performances are offered from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the CSU.
Minnesota music reaching from blues to beatbox fills the Spring roster.
‘We kickoff Jan. 23 with a Spring 2020 series offers seven free daytime performances. Along the way, we’ll be celebrating Black History Month, Mardi Gras, and Women’s History Month. Our series will conclude with the annual CSU Mall Fest with an outdoor beatbox performance on April 29.’
LENNY KOUPAL, CSU Serendipity Music Series Coordinator
The full Spring 2020 lineup for the CSU Serendipity Music Series includes:
- Pat Forsyth (of Useful Jenkins) & Bobby Patrick (of The Bob Pat Band): Thursday, Jan 23, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the CSU Lincoln Lounge
- SYM1 (EDM artist formerly known as Symone Smash It): Black History Month performance on Wednesday, Feb. 5, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the CSU Hearth Lounge.,
- Scottie Miller (Minnesota Blues Hall of Fame leader of Scottie Miller Band): Mardi Gras Tuesday, Feb. 25, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the CSU Hearth Lounge
- Annie Frazier – Wednesday, March 4, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. in the CSU Lincoln Lounge.
- Mae Simpson (City Pages 2019 Readers’ Choice for Best New Band):and her guitarist Jogi Wadkins provide this “unplugged” edition that spotlights Mae’s soulful powerhouse vocals. The Women’s History Month performance on Friday, March 27, is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the CSU Hearth Lounge. Sponsored in collaboration with the University’s Women’s Center, the performance will be followed by a Q&A session with Simpson. Snacks and refreshments will be served.
- Scarpellino, Graham and Barron (Joe Scarpellino of Smokin’ Joe, Max Graham of Kind Country, and Joe Barron with Space Monkey Mafia and Druzy Rose) – Wednesday, April 15, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., CSU Lincoln Lounge
- Heatbox (beatboxer Aaron Heaton): Wednesday, April 29, on the Campus Mall as part of the annual CSU Mall Fest (alternate rain site: Hearth Lounge).
“We kickoff Jan. 23 with a Spring 2020 series offering seven free daytime performances. Along the way, we’ll be celebrating Black History Month, Mardi Gras, and Women’s History Month,” said Lenny Koupal, who coordinates the CSU Serendipity Music Series. “Our series will conclude with the annual CSU Mall Fest with an outdoor beatbox performance on April 29.”
Working with two promoters, Koupal said he excited to bring this spring’s list of artists that include two performers that have been on his radar.
“For some time now my bucket list for the series has included the Mae Simpson Band and Scottie Miller,” Koupal added. “Joe Scarpellino worked to get Mae Simpson here. John Wright lined me up with Scottie Miller.”
Scarpellino, who is also on the spring slate of performers, organizes the annual summer Galactic Get-Down Music Festival featuring mostly Minnesota musicians at an outdoor music event at the Outback Ranch near Houston, Minn. Wright plays with and promotes a number of music groups in and around the Twin Cities.
“Both of these guys are so connected with the Minnesota music scene,” Koupal said. “They have helped turbo-charge our list of performers.”
Simpson, a native of South Carolina, delivers powerhouse vocals described as a mix of Janis Joplin and Ella Fitzgerald tied together with a rasp of Joan Jett. She heads the seven-piece Mae Simpson Band. The group offering an eclectic mix of soul, blues, country, calypso, jazz, rock and hip hop was picked City Pages 2019 Reader’s Choice for the Best New Band.
Planned as part of Women’s History Month in collaboration with the Women’s Center, Simpson’s performance will be followed by a question and answer session with Simpson focusing on the positives and pitfalls for women in the music and entertainment industry.
Other performances include rising star SYM1, and musicians from such established Minnesota bands as Kind Country, Useful Jenkins, The Bob Pat Band, and Space Monkey Mafia,
These smaller, acoustic performances are a good sampling of some of the wide range of music that comes out of Minnesota,” Koupal said.
SYM1, an EDM artist, will be part of Black History Month observance in the CSU. Miller will perform on Fat Tuesday as part of the day’s Mardi Gras theme. Mae Simpson helps celebrate Women’s History Month during March.
Rounding out the season will be Heatbox, a beatboxer who describes his music as sounding like “a funky a cappella group from outer space.” Touring internationally, Heatbox has been the opening act for such performers as Cee-Lo Green, Boys II Men, and George Clinton.
“The first time I heard him was a TED Talk that was just him beatboxing,” Koupal said. “I think seeing his performance at our annual CSU Mall Fest in April will be a unique and entertaining experience.”
