HANCOCK — This past Friday, the former Quincy Mining Company’s 1918 hoist house, home to the famous Nordberg cross-condensing, steam-powered hoist, became a concert hall for a sold-out performance of a Michigan Tech Concert Series performance of Music in the Mine. 

Libby Meyer, director of the concert series, said Friday’s performance was the fourth year for the Music in the Mine concert.  

“This is New Music in the Mine,” she said. “It is all music that has been written recently,” she said, “and we do it in the mine, because it has amazing acoustic space, and we love the space.”  

Meyer, a professor at Michigan Tech, teaching composition and music theory, is a composer whose work reflects the natural rhythms and patterns of the world around her. Her music including chamber, orchestral, choral, wind symphony, film, dance, and theater has been commissioned and performed throughout the United States. Libby holds a DMA in Music Composition from Northwestern. 

When the concept for the concert was first implemented five years ago, it was performed inside the Delaware Mine, in Keweenaw County, Meyer said, but for various reasons it was relocated to the Quincy, of which Tom Wright is the director. 

“I approached Tom and asked him if we could do a concert in the mine,” said Meyer. “He said no, we should probably do it in the hoist house.” 

The concert was performed in the hoist house that was constructed in 1918 to house the famous Nordberg steam hoist.  

Meyer said the piece performed Friday was written for cello and electronics, so along with a solo cello, there was electronic music and some improvised pieces, along with a French horn performance by a musician from Boston, MA.  

Steve Rush, from the University of Michigan, whom Meyer said plays everything, performed, as did Michigan Tech’s Mike Christianson. While Christianson is known for his trombone playing, at the Music in the Mine, he played a didgeridoo. Also spelled didjeridu or didjeridoo, The didgeridoo, also known as a dronepipe is a sacred Aboriginal Australian instrument that dates back more than 40,000 years. The instrument is made from a hollow tree branch, traditionally eucalyptus wood or ironwood, and is about five feet long.  

“It’s a very strange concert – in a wonderful way,” said Meyer.  

Rush said the idea originated with Bill Rose, a geology professor from Michigan Tech. Rose presented the idea to Rush at a Michigan Tech gathering.  

Rush said he took a “bunch” of students from U of M to the Delaware Mine to perform, but the acoustics were terrible for music, and Rose suggested presenting the concert idea to Wright.  

Wright said the concert has been at Quincy for four years now. 

“The first year was live,” he said, “then, we had COVID. Last year was live again, and now this year is live.” 

Wright said at the first concert he commented to Rush that it seemed as though the musical piece, a choir performance, was written for the space, which is beneath the 30-foot center-diameter of the Nordberg hoist. Rush confirmed that it was. 

“This choir piece that I wrote,” he said, “we sang with masks on, and it looked so weird. They’re singing in English stuff from the Hindu Upanishad, and the style is kind of Elizabethan…and it just fit the space.”