Parchment paper, made from vegetable byproducts, gave the city of Parchment in Kalamazoo County its name. In 1885, a physician from Hastings, Michigan, invented a pill-making machine and developed the first readily dissolvable pill. William Erastus Upjohn moved to Kalamazoo to seek his business future and started the Upjohn Pill and Granule Company, now called Pharmacia, a Fortune 500 company and worldwide leader in pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Kalamazoo and Portage. Venues such as the new Epic Center for the Arts, WMU's Miller Auditorium, the historic State Theater, and Wings Stadium offer a complete array of concerts featuring every kind of music and popular entertainment. The city is home to the Kalamazoo Ballet, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, and the prestigious Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival.
Theater is alive and thriving in Kalamazoo.
In addition to performances at WMU and Kalamazoo college, there are several commercial and community theater companies, perhaps most notably the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre one of the oldest, largest, and most-respected community theaters in the United States. Kalamazoo is just 40 minutes from Lake Michigan beaches and only three to four hours from Michigan's ski country, considered the best skiing in the central United States. The Medieval Institute Walwood Hall Western Michigan University 1903 W. Michigan Ave.