For the City Times

STEVENS POINT — The Stevens Point Area Music Teachers Association will host a free teacher workshop, “A Circle of Drums…the Rhythms of Life” featuring Bill Kehl of Planetary Productions, on Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 10:30 a.m. at Heid Music, 3201 Main St.   The workshop is free and open to the public.

Rural Waushara County resident and local musician Bill Kehl, is celebrating over 30 years of making music in Wisconsin and the Midwest.  Since moving to Wisconsin in 1980, Bill continues to offer unique, educational and interactive musical enrichment presentations to audiences of all ages everywhere.

Many may remember Bill’s performances with Princeton, Wisconsin-based “Northern Light” from 1980 until the group disbanded in 1993.  He was one of the driving forces behind the creation of their distinct blend of “ethnic-cosmic-folksy-funky-jazz”, as the group was fond of calling their style of new acoustic music.  He also wrote several of the very popular songs included on the three successful recordings that the group released in the 1980’s, titled “Along the Way”, “Colors of the Rainbow”, and “Getting ’Better with Age”.   A live recording of Northern Light performing Bill Kehl’s “River Song” (about the local Fox River) was included on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Simply Folk 10 year anniversary recording released in 1988.

Bill founded Planetary Productions, Ltd. in 1993, a small company dedicated to increasing environmental awareness among young people.  Shortly thereafter, he began to use the phrase edutainment to describe his program “Earth, Music… Magic!”, which he still regularly offers to schools, libraries, nature centers, camps and other groups throughout the state.  This program includes a dynamic demonstration and interactive performance with a large share of his primitive musical instrument collection from all over the world, and is an animated and innovative perspective on the discovery and development of musical instruments.

In the late 1990’s Bill Kehl embarked on a journey that led him to research and study the tradition of drums and drumming, or “rhythmaculture”, as experienced by various cultures of the world. This led him to begin facilitating a group rhythmic performance experience entitled “A Circle of Drums… The Rhythms of Life”, which he presents to audiences on a national basis to this day.  This energizing, group-enhancing program has delighted participants at festivals, retreats, conferences, workshops, seminars and corporate team-building sessions since 1997.  He continues to study different styles of world drumming and continues to collect drums of all types.

The Stevens  Point Area Music Teachers Association was created in 1983 by music educators in the area who saw a great need for developing educational and performance opportunities for not only students of private teachers, but also for the teachers themselves.  SPAMTA is a 501c3 non-profit organization and is affiliated with the state organization, Wisconsin Music Teachers Association and with the Music Teachers National Association (founded in 1876).

MTNA, whose headquarters are in Cincinnati, Ohio, is the oldest professional organization in the United States that was set up by, and remains specifically for, music teachers.  By sharing professional standards and ethics, members of SPAMTA are thus able to offer a high quality of music education.  Additional information on SPAMTA sponsored programs, events and membership, please visit our website at www.spamta.webs.com  or contact current SPAMTA President, Gail Heywood at 715-459-8180.