So in the South Bend area, we are very spoiled with a lot of great performers and a lot of great shows that come through our area, and one is coming up in the next couple of weeks.

That is the music of Queen.

I'm joined now by three different people that we're going to talk about, including a conductor, the the performer behind it, and then the creator of the show as well.

So we're very excited for that.

I'm here with Rob, MiG and Brant and Rob.

Tell me a little bit about the show, the music of Queen that is coming here.

How did it end up being in South Bend, and what's your role in it?

Sure.

Well, thanks for having me here.

A lot of people in the community probably know me as Doctor Robert Boardman, but in this case, I'm the doctor of rock for this concert.

So, I've been music director for 14 years in South Bend, and, we've done a lot of crazy cool things.

We've done the Lord of the Rings Symphony four times with almost 300 performers on stage.

We've done star Wars concerts, we've commissioned composers and brought in famous soloists.

And, you know, for our summer camp, I really wanted to, do something completely different and exciting for the community.

And so, a lot of people don't know this about me, but I played in half a dozen rock bands when I was in high school and college, and, and then I went on to get a doctorate in orchestra conducting, and I wanted to find a way to bring those two worlds together.

And last, you know, Summer, I heard about this music of Queen show that Brant Havens had created and, that MiG was going to be singing.

And I had the incredible opportunity to go down to the Detroit Symphony and see them in concert.

And, they totally blew my socks off.

And I watched the audience go wild.

And it's an incredible rock concert.

And so I just.

This is perfect.

This is exactly what we need to bring to South Bend.

And like, I know that the community will be excited about this.

This is not just going to be a kids concert.

This is going to be for the community.

This is a professional rock concert.

So when people hear youth Symphony, what they immediately think like less or something like that.

But can you just share some of the talent of of these young people that are performing in this?

Well, sure.

I mean, it's an all star, youth symphony.

We have, students from across the ten county region who, you know, drive week in, week out to get coached by the, you know, the most professional orchestra musicians in the region every week on their instruments and only professional level repertoire.

And so, so to bring it students to be able to have that opportunity, it's a little bit like going to college and having your professor teach the course instead of having to TA teach the course.

And so they get a lot of like face time with some of the, you know, some of the brightest and best in Louisiana region.

And so, I feel like I dodged your question, though.

What was your original your original question?

That's okay.

Yeah.

No, it's just about the level of talent, so.

Oh, sure.

It's really you guys.

Well, we're lucky enough to be.

We're lucky enough to be, joined by 13 of our alumni.

So we have a number of students who graduated from the Youth Symphony, went off to college, have music degrees, have come back.

They're going to be coaching the students all week during, the camp, and they're going to be playing in the orchestra.

And then we'll have a few other members of the community who pile on.

So there's going to be like almost 85 people in the orchestra, plus the rock band, plus MiG who's going to be our front man, who's like an increase incredible at working in the audience.

So everybody's going to want to see this now.

Brant, you're the creator behind WindBornes, and can you tell me exactly what that is and why that's different and what exactly that is?

When you're bringing the music of Queen to South Bend?

Yeah.

Well, it's a, it's basically taking a full orchestra and you take a rock band, and then you mix them all together.

So it's, And I try to.

I try to explain even to my musicians when, when I hire the the band for these shows.

Look, you guys are part of the orchestra and part, and the orchestra is part of the band.

So, like, you have the brass and you have the strings, and then you have the band.

So there's it's it's just a section of the orchestra.

So it's, it's a mash together and it's not really a mash.

It's just a wonderful combination of the two to of the two items, you know, a rock band, electric guitar, bass, bass guitar, a keyboard player, a drummer and then a MiG out front.

And then you've got the orchestra surrounding it and, you know, it's all written together.

It's not like, okay, here's the band over here, and here's the orchestra over here.

It's one big, wonderful piece of, of music that that really works well together, especially with the Queen music.

I was just going to say Queen's music really lends itself to that full, arrangement.

Absolutely.

I mean, so much so that, I it it ended up being relatively easy for me to put that together.

I've done some of some groups, that were a little more difficult to mesh and to make work.

But Queen, I mean, it just flew.

It flew out of, you know, off my pen, basically.

But I think you're also selling yourself a little bit short Brent because these arrangements are absolutely beautiful.

And you'll hear when we actually work with, with, the orchestra, you hear these arrangements that are very special.

You won't hear Queen being performed like this.

So it's a lot of credit to Brent as well.

He really brings it to life.

And he could hear the potential of the, of the orchestra, of, of the drama within the music.

And then he brings it out beautifully.

Thank you MiG That's very kind.

Yeah, he is my boss as well.

I got a little lecture in your paycheck next week.

Thanks Boss.

So, MiG, you were born in the Philippines, then moved to Australia and then in 2001 moved to London.

And then you moved to the US and you're you're a Wikipedia page.

Makes me think I've achieved nothing in life.

You've done quite a lot and how did you end up in this show?

Well, first of all, I can't believe everything you read on the internet.

Secondly, Yeah, I've been I've been around for quite a while.

I think it's one of those things where when you come from Australia, it's always kind of like a rite of passage to leave and do things and, you know, explore the rest of the world.

Eventually come back to Australia because it is such a beautiful place and probably the place that I will end up.

But yeah, having this experience of, of of traveling the world, going to London and being in New York and LA and doing the TV film, it's it's all part of just I think finding yourself, I think and find myself here, after all that with Brent and, Windborne music and doing this amazing, amazing music.

And, what was the question?

I'm so sorry, I feel.

How did how did you get involved with this?

Yeah.

Oh.

All right.

Yeah.

This is.

I'm not needed friends here to keep you in check.

He's in charge.

That's why he's the boss.

Yeah, actually, he does it on a stage occasionally with me, too.

Says MiG.

Let's get to the song.

Stop talking.

All right.

So how how we get involved?

Well, this is a weird thing because, the trajectory of my career, I ended up doing a show on Broadway called Rock of ages.

And I played Stacy Jackson.

That.

That's why I was doing the first national tour.

And, we worked as the Broadway Rock of ages band.

We do some corporate gigs after that, after Broadway is closed, but we do as a band, which I was unit, but I'm doing the the original members of the Rock of ages band, and we did one concert with With Brent, where Brent orchestrated the whole show of what we do, all these songs from the 80s, and we did this, a massive, production in, Saint Louis and Louis, Missouri.

And, we only had one concert.

I'm afraid.

But, I think it was several months later.

Brant was needed someone to take over the Queen show because the original, the, the usual singer couldn't make one concert, and he remembered that I did this show with him in Rock of Ages and called me and said, hey, MiG, are you available?

Would you like to do it?

Do you want to work with me?

And of course, I jumped at the opportunity.

And here we are.

I feel like I'm out of all the diets I've tried.

Maybe I just need to be cast as, Freddie Mercury in order to really get me to stay in shape.

That must be the ultimate tenor.

What?

Everyone worries about hitting his vocals.

I'm just thinking about hitting the suits that he wore.

So well, especially especially the early years when you wear those onesies, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, the thing is, the good thing is, one thing I have to say, if you come to see the show and expect me to be in that onesie, you'll be very disappointed because I don't wear the onesie.

I don't have a mustache.

I can't really grow because I'm part Filipino and I don't really have much facial hair.

The thing is, I don't pretend to be Freddie Mercury.

We are celebrating the music of Queen.

And so.

Yeah, I don't want him.

I don't want him to be Freddie.

I don't want him to act like Freddie, necessarily.

I want him act like MiG.

That's why I hired him.

I he's he is MiG and he's phenomenal at it.

But the idea here is celebrating, like you said, celebrating the music, not celebrating Freddie Mercury per se, or trying to be an impersonator of of, of Freddie.

It's really celebrating that wonderful music in a different way.

And he handles it just incredibly well, just incredibly well.

I probably tapped into an ignorance that was good there, because a lot of people will assume that it is somewhat of a tribute show, but then hearing that, it's really not I mean, it's a tribute to their music, but it's not.

Yes, and that's good.

And again, my ignorance on that probably helped a lot of people that will watch this.

No, that that's not what it is, which I think actually makes it more attractive.

And in my opinion.

So yeah.

Yeah.

And MiG actually says that right from the get go, he comes out, he sings, refers to anything.

He goes, I guess you're expecting to see somebody and you know, that looks different with the mustache and not happening.

I am not Freddie.

Yeah.

There is no because I can only be one Freddie Mercury and that's the that's the whole point.

But what we are do celebrating is the music, the catalog that they have.

I mean, all four members of Queen were incredible songwriters and individually wrote worldwide number one hits.

You know, John Deacon, Roger Taylor, Brian May, Freddie Mercury.

So it's about their, you know, collaborations and their catalog, which is really their, their legacy.

I love it.

Well, Rob, can you tell us the details for people watching that actually want to go along now and and see this show?

When's that happening?

And what are the details there?

The concert is happening Friday, June 20th at 7 p.m..

It's at Saint Mary's College in the O'Laughlin auditorium in the Monroe Center for the Arts, and those tickets are available online.

I don't have the website on hand, but, I mean, I think if you go to SBYSO dot org and they click around our events, it'll take us take you eventually to the ticketing page.

But yeah, it's all right.

We've got producers.

It's probably on the screen right now as we speak.

Okay, okay, okay.

Not it'll be linked to the story.

So we'll find it all there.

But, it sounds like it's going to be a wonderful night.

MiG, I'm so glad that, you know, your career is taking you to this moment because, you know, people will really love this, and they'll really love what you're doing.

And the same will bring to your vision to bring this alive.

And bring it to a live audience in South Bend.

And then Rob also bringing in the youth orchestra with some alumni and professional musicians.

It just sounds like an all around night that's going to be such a feel good night and such a celebration of music.

So I love that we're we're excited to be there to working with the South Bend Youth Orchestra.

It's going to be something have been working with these young musicians.

They're hungry.

They're excited.

You know, and that's the that's what we want in a band and, and and a great experience for them moving forward in their careers.

If they decide to choose music as, as their career, this is something they can say, oh, I've done this.

This is a wonderful thing for me.

So well and a great opportunity to that you might get to see some standout talent that you can, you know, the same way that.

So yeah, it's it's wonderful.

I'm glad it's coming to town.

I'm glad you put it all together and all the hard work.

I know that the performance is the grand finale.

I know there's a lot that goes into it beforehand, so thank you so much.

And I just hope it's a sell out night for you guys.

So thank you, thank you, thank you so much.

Thank you so much Dave.

Thanks.

Take care.