MARQUETTE, Mich.—San Francisco-based band Rupa & the April Fishes will close out the Northern Michigan University International Performing Arts Series with a concert on Thursday, April 12. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Great Lakes Rooms of the University Center. Ticket prices are: NMU students, free with valid ID; other students 18 and under, $5 in advance/$6 at the door; NMU employees and seniors 60+, $13 advance/$15 door; and general public, $18/$20. They can be purchased at NMU EZ Ticket outlets or online at www.nmu.edu/ticket.   

            The genre-blurring band creates French-chanson, Gypsy-jazz and Indian-raga hooks and scales. It features singer-guitarist Rupa, Safa Shokrai on upright bass, Misha Khalikulov on cello, Mario Silva playing trumpet and Aaron Kierbel on drums.

Rupa is an Indian-American woman who splits her time between leading an emerging act on the world music circuit and practicing as a physician at the University of California-San Francisco. She was born to Punjabi parents and grew up in the Bay Area, India and Aix-en-Provence in southern France. She sings in French, English, Hindi, Romany and Spanish.

Rupa & the April Fishes have performed at venues large and small—from the Montreal Jazz Festival to the Subterranean Art House, from the Power to the Peaceful Festival with Michael Franti to El Lugar del Nopal in Tijuana. The band has toured extensively in the United States, Canada, along the U.S.-Mexico border and throughout Europe.

The concert is co-sponsored by First Aid Productions and funded in part by a grant from the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, the Ramada Inn and the Kaufman Foundation.