Mission
North Country Opera Productions supports Michigan-based conservation, performing arts, and humanitarian causes with funds raised through the production and distribution of the works of artist Jay Stielstra.
North Country Opera Productions is a grassroots, volunteer-run organization, whose flagship project is the distribution of North Country Opera: Live at the Ark, a theater-quality film of Jay's most popular folk musical, recorded during the 2022 Michigan tour of the play. In its first two years following its release, the recording generated more than $6500 to distribute to charitable organizations.
North Country Opera Productions, with the permission of Jay's estate, also raises funds through the sales of Jay's other artistic works including CDs, books, and future theater or music productions.
“A Lifetime of Artistic Brilliance”
Jay Stielstra wrote songs, plays, and poems that capture the natural beauty of Michigan for nearly 50 years. Among many accolades, Jay was awarded a Legislative Tribute from the State of Michigan in 2017 recognizing his lifetime of “artistic brilliance and unwavering dedication to protecting Michigan’s unique environment and natural resources for generations to come.”
In 2024, he received a posthumous Gubernatorial Tribute from the state to honor his memory.
Premier Screening at the Historic Michigan Theater
Attendees are encouraged to wear plaid to screenings of the movie, North Country Opera: Live at The Ark. The screenings have raised money to benefit organizations like Friends of Watkins Lake State Park, Beaver Island Music Festival, Pilar’s Foundation, Huron Waterloo Pathways Initiative: Border to Border Trail, and others.
Old Man in Love
Jay’s work frequently focused on topics that were important to him: love and kindness, the passage of time, social justice, and the beauty of the northland. In Old Man in Love, a one-man show Jay performed eight times, he touches on all of them. He described the play as “autobiographical – to a degree.”
Tributes to Northern Michigan
Like North Country Opera, and many of Jay’s works, his novel Meet Me At The River includes vivid descriptions of northern Michigan's natural beauty, time spent fly-fishing, sitting in the town tavern, and falling in love. Though it is set in a fictional town, yoopers who have read the novel swear they know it.
Reviews
“When someone wants to know how to write a song, I tell them to listen to Jay Stielstra. You can learn a lot just from analyzing his structures just from a technical point… I think he’s the cream of the crop, right there at the top.”
- David Siglin, Founder of The Ark, Ann Arbor’s premier listening room
“No doubt about it – Jay Stielstra can write some mean tunes. There are 13 of them in his musical, The Prodigals, and perhaps half are unadulterated gems of wit and wisdom.”
- Christopher Potter, Ann Arbor News
“His patter reminds us of the clever ditties in Fiorello. There are echos of Kinky Friedman in his ‘Judo for Jesus’ and ‘The Same Folks We Hated in High School.’ And his love songs, like ‘One I’ll Remember ‘til I Die,’ are hauntingly sweet and beg to be recorded.”
- Edward Hayman, Detroit News
“There is something downright Shakespearean about Jay Stielstra’s Tittabawassee Jane, and his North Country Opera is as pedigreed, 24-carat and 21-jewel as anything in modern theater.”
- Harmen Mitchell, Ann Arbor News
“A set of songs composed and sung by Stielstra included his legendary ‘Two Rivers,’ a song that will be sung in a hundred years.”
- Gerald Brennan, Ann Arbor News