Monroe native Ilgenfritz an international musician

MONROE — Recently, I wrote about the origins of the moniker “Floral City,” describing Monroe to the world. I said its origins were influenced and certainly leveraged by growers and landscapers I.E. Ilgenfritz, who founded his nursery operations in Monroe in 1847 and J.C.W. Greening, who started his company in 1850.

A descendant of I.E. Ilgenfritz, James Ilgenfritz, has made a name for himself and for Monroe in international experimental, jazz, contemporary classical and microtonal musical genres. According to a biography by Michael G. Nastos, Ilgenfritz was born in Monroe on Nov. 16, 1978. Early influences by non-musical artists, including beat poets William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg; writers Herman Hesse, Franz Kafka and Thich Nhat Hanh; visual artists Egon Schiele, Andrew Wyeth, Marcel Duchamp; and filmmakers David Lynch, John Waters, Stanley Kubrick led to summer studies as a teen at the Interlochen Center for the Arts from 1992-1996. He also began playing the bass and studied under Toledo’s Norm Damschroder.

Ilgenfritz graduated from St. Mary Catholic Central High School in 1997 and, following a short stint at Eastern Michigan University, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in jazz and contemporary improvisation from the University of Michigan in 2002, where he studied with Steve Rush, Marion Hayden, Diana Gannett and Stuart Sankey. While still living in Michigan he played with several musical ensembles, including Bill Brovold’s “Larval.”