A cure for fear of the future

Are you terrified of things to come? Use this story the same way you would use eclipse glasses. There are ways to look directly at the near future with reasonable certainty and safety.

Squint past the obvious terrors. You’ll find the arts waiting in the wings, ready to unveil a shimmering corona of humanity at its best.

This week’s ambitious season announcements for 2024-‘25 from MSU’s Wharton Center for the Performing Arts and the Lansing Symphony Orchestra are built on a bedrock of faith that whatever else is going on next year, human beings will continue to do the make great music, sing and dance, crack jokes, tell stories, celebrate and investigate life.

Two major themes emerge from this variety and profusion of offerings. First, for a mid-sized community, greater Lansing punches well above its weight regarding the performing arts. The Wharton Center and the Lansing Symphony have high reputations in their respective words. That’s how the Wharton managed to land major attractions like the London Philharmonic and jazz diva Dee Dee Bridgewater, and the Lansing Symphony snagged a world-class piano sensation, Benjamin Grosvenor, for its May 9 season finale.

The other theme is that both organizations are deeply rooted in the unique strengths of MSU and the greater Lansing community, whether it’s the Wharton Center’s Nov. 14 Isotopes in Motion dance collaboration with the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams or the Lansing Symphony’s monster Dec. 15 holiday concert, with over 100 voices from mighty local gospel choirs.

We sat down with Wharton Center director Eric Olmscheid and Lansing Symphony Orchestra music director Timothy Muffitt for more details about the upcoming seasons and more reasons to look forward to 2024-‘25.