Sunday, February 25, 2018

DSO's Third Chamber Concert Celebrates Black History Month

By Christine Facciolo

The Delaware Symphony Orchestra used the occasion of its third chamber series concert of the season to commemorate both Black History Month and the 50th anniversary of the passing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The February 20 program, titled “Triumph over Adversity," featured an eclectic mix of solo piano pieces, chamber music, German Lieder and African-American spirituals performed by symphony members David Southorn (concertmaster), Philo Lee (principal cello), Lura Johnson (principal piano) and guest artist bass-baritone Kevin Deas.

Johnson opened the concert with a performance of Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso in E major. This is a work that contains the meaty technical challenges that showcase Johnson’s virtuosity, something DSO audiences rarely get to hear. She delivered the Andante section with suitable solemnity then launched into the Presto without hesitation.

Johnson was then joined by Southorn and Lee in a performance of the composer’s Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor. One could not help but be impressed by the unflagging passion and athleticism of the musicians. They gave it their considerable all. From the darkly etched and fiery opening movement, to the emotional slower passages and the skittering scherzo, they generated a palpable energy that culminated in a rousing and brilliant finale.

After intermission, bass-baritone Kevin Deas processed into the Gold Ballroom singing Wayfairing Stranger, an entrĂ©e to the segment of the program devoted to the spiritual. If Paul Robeson is considered to be the gold standard of this vocal fach, then Deas is not far behind. Deas’ voice was nothing short of breathtaking, as he applied it to some of the repertoire’s best-loved spirituals, including Wade in the Water and City Called Heaven.

Deas proved to be a most gracious artist as well, taking to the microphone to inform the audience about the function of the Negro spiritual as well as the unlikely collaboration between Czech composer Antonin Dvorak and the African-American classical composer Henry Burleigh, who made the arrangements of the spirituals heard this concert.

Deas also offered some personal insights into his selections, as in how his mother hated to hear him sing Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, until he explained that the song wasn’t a personal commentary on their relationship but rather an expression of despair and hopelessness.

Deas then offered several selections of Schubert Lieder that were in keeping with the concerts overall theme of life’s long journey, including Der Wegweiser (from “Die Winterreise”), Wohin (from “Die Schone Mullerin”), Im Abendrot and Dem Unendlichen. Johnson prefaced this section with an expressive yet unsentimental rendering of the composer’s lyrical Impromptu in G-flat major.

Deas also performed I Heard the Cry of Wild Geese, an expression of longing for home and loved ones, from Four Songs on Chinese Poetry by Pavel Haas, the Czech composer who perished in the Holocaust.

Johnson also performed Liszt’s transcription of Widmung (“Dedication”), a song that Robert Schumann had originally in 1856 for Clara Wieck, whom he married that year. Although her technical mastery would allow her to grandstand the more virtuosic passages, Johnson downplayed this aspect of the piece in favor of the fervor of Schumann’s music. She prefaced her performance with a reading of the German text and its accompanying English translation.

Deas concluded the concert with Deep River, a selection he called probably the best-known and best-loved spiritual.

See www.delawaresymphony.org.

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Call for Applications: Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency

Content of this post comes courtesy of a press release from the City of Wilmington...

Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki is pleased to share the following news release from the Light Up The Queen Foundation, which is looking for young composers and performers to become part of a local jazz residency program named after jazz great Boysie Lowery. Wilmington’s Acting Cultural Affairs Director, Tina Betz, is heading up the search for talented young people who would like to participate in this year’s residency program based in Wilmington.

The Light Up The Queen Foundation today announced the official open call for applications from composers/performers, ages 17 to 25, who would like to be participants in the 2018 Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency Program. This year’s program will be held in Wilmington, Delaware, June 10-24, 2018. The Residency is fully subsidized, including meals and housing. Johnathan Whitney serves as the Program Director.

Applications will be accepted until 5:00pm on March 31, 2018. Applicants may submit their information or learn more about the program by visiting www.boysieloweryjazzresidency.com.

Between 12 and 15 young people will be selected for a two-week residency in performing, composing, arranging and improvisation. The Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency is designed to give participants an intense learning experience that will help them begin to find their sound, mature as a player, mature as a musician, and make lasting connections with like-minded peers. Participants will be introduced to a variety of harmonic, melodic, sonic, and textural possibilities, and then be asked to apply them to new compositions.

The residency program will include numerous semi-public performance opportunities, culminating with a final concert to be performed on June 24 at the historic Queen Theater in downtown Wilmington. The 2018 residency is being presented in collaboration with the City of Wilmington’s 30th Anniversary DuPont Clifford Brown Jazz Festival.

About Robert “Boysie” LoweryThe Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency is named after and inspired by the late Robert “Boysie” Lowery. After moving to Wilmington, Delaware in the 1940’s, Lowery began his extraordinary career as a jazz educator. For over 50 years, he taught hundreds of aspiring musicians. His most noted pupil was the late Clifford Brown, considered by many to be the finest trumpeter of the time. Clifford began his study with Lowery at the age of 12 while a student in Wilmington’s public schools. Lowery’s list of pupils also includes some of the finest jazz musicians to come out of the Delaware Valley, including Lem Winchester, Ernie Watts, Abdu-Rashid Yahya, Marcus Belgrave, and Gerald Chavis. In addition, Lowery had been sought out by musicians as far away as Russia (Valery Ponomarev) and Africa (Hugh Masekela). Prior to his death in 1996, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation awarded Lowery with its 1995 Living Legacy Award.

About the Light Up The Queen FoundationThe Light Up The Queen Foundation, a Delaware 501c3 non-profit corporation, is dedicated to the revival of the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware, and to assuring that The Queen becomes a catalyst for building community through music, the arts and community engagement programs.

Friday, February 23, 2018

Good Musical Vibes from Music School Faculty & Friends

Chris Dahlke, viola. Photo courtesy of The Music School of Delaware.

By Christine Facciolo
It’s a pretty safe bet that TheMusic School of Delaware didn’t anticipate 75-degree temps at concert time when it titled Wednesday night’s program “Good Vibes and Winter Winds.” But weather notwithstanding, this was a most interesting — and entertaining — program to come out for, no matter what Mother Nature was up to.

Indeed, it’s a rare event that gives an audience the opportunity to hear works by Stravinsky, Lennon & McCartney and Haydn performed by the School’s talented faculty plus one “rising star” student.

Trumpets heralded the opening of the program as Malcolm McDuffee and Jay Snyder performed Stravinsky’s Fanfare for a New Theatre, composed in 1964 to celebrate the opening of the New York State Theatre as part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Flutist Paula Nelson and Augustine "Gus" Mercante — this time using his voice to narrate — offered Alan Ridout’s The Emperor and the Bird of Paradise, a delightful tale of imprisonment, freedom and happiness.

McDuffee returned with pianist Donna Beech to perform Barat’s Andante & Scherzo with sensitivity and note-perfect accuracy. Beech, flutist Melinda Bowman and cellist Matthew Genders offered a colorful and incisive reading of Martinu’s charming Flute-Cello-Piano Trio. From the care-free Allegretto with its bird-like trills for the flute and attractive melodies, to the calm and restful Adagio and jaunty finale, the musicians gave a fresh and breezy interpretation of this joyful work.

McDuffee and Snyder once again inaugurated the opening of the second half of the program with a performance of Plog’s Fanfare for Two Trumpets.

Paula Nelson (flute), Jacob Colby (violin) and Rowena Gutana (cello) joined together to show why Haydn’s London Trios have endured despite falling out of vogue in the 19th Century. Their performance of the delightful Trio No. 1 in C major was full of zest and vitality, as they explored the composer’s wit and originality as well as his serious side, evidenced by the terse rigor of the development section of the sonata-form first movement.

Chris Dahlke then took the spotlight with accompanist Richard Gangwisch in a performance of the second movement of Walton’s Viola Concerto. Dahlke’s Vivo was energetic and incisive, bristling with jazzy syncopations reminiscent of Prokofiev, whom Walton admired. Dahlke also exhibited a mature and self-assured stage presence that belied his youth. This young man — a mere 16 years of age — has garnered a slew of awards for his playing and no doubt can look forward to a stunning future on the concert stage.

Vibraphonist Wesley Morton reached into the Lennon/McCartney songbook for his contributions. Morton gave sublime and understated renderings of the pop classic Michelle 
— dedicated to his wife to thank her for her patience in living with a musician — and Blackbird, which Lennon and McCartney composed to show the Beatles’ support for the American civil rights movement.

The Pegasus Trio, consisting of Melinda Bowman (flute), Christopher Braddock (guitar) and Jeanmarie Braddock (violin) capped off the evening with performances of two whimsical works by guitarist/composer Braddock. First, they captured the long history of tradition and variety that characterizes Scottish folk music in Braddock’s four movement composition The Hill Trow Prologues. This work tells the story of the Scottish Hill Trow, land-dwelling troll-like fairy creatures with a fondness for music and a reputation for kidnapping musicians or luring them to their Howes.

The Trio then generated a bit of audience participation with their final offering, Make a Hawk a Dove – a TV Heroine Retrospective, a medley of TV themes celebrating several small screen heroines of the '60s and '70s. Particularly touching was the hat toss the women gave in tribute to the late Mary Tyler Moore.

See www.musicschoolofdelaware.org.

Monday, February 19, 2018

DSO Celebrates First Sellout in Five Years

Guest soloist, Elena Urioste (violin). 
By Christine Facciolo
Concertgoers were treated to an evening of the savage and the sublime as the Delaware Symphony Orchestra opened the second half of its 2017-18 season Friday, January 26, at The Grand Opera House in Wilmington.

The program consisted of just two works: Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major with the critically acclaimed Elena Urioste making a return appearance as guest soloist.

The event also marked a milestone: it was the first sold-out concert in five years.

DSO Music Director David Amado chose to open the concert with the Stravinsky work — something that’s seldom done — saying it would be particularly effective for audience members rushing to their seats to hear the opening bassoon solo, which was gracefully delivered by DSO Principal Bassoonist Erik Holtje.

The 81 members of the DSO were supplemented by an additional 22 musicians to perform the work in its original version.

Anyone who thought The Rite of Spring had lost its edge over time would have left Copeland Hall thinking otherwise. Stravinsky’s score throbbed with primitive eroticism until the very last chord was struck. The performance was as thrilling as anyone could have wanted: a powerful mixture of alien harmonies and jagged rhythms, virtuosity and controlled savagery.

You could feel the sacrifice happening around you. The bass drum and timpani add a fierceness to the “Ritual of Abduction,” the double basses an earthiness to the “Spring Rounds.” The bass clarinet added heft to the winds while brazen brass howled at the height of the ritual.

The Stravinsky/Beethoven pairing made perfect sense when one considers that The Rite of Spring redefined 20th Century music much as Beethoven’s Eroica had transformed music a century earlier.

Friday’s performance marked the return of violinist Elena Urioste. Urioste last appeared with the DSO in 2010 when she soloed in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. The 32-year-old has enjoyed many career milestones since then, most notably being selected a BBC 3 New Generation Artist in 2012.

Urioste is a triple threat, with copious amounts of beauty, brains and talent. She was genuinely thrilled to be playing again with the DSO and it showed. Clad in a floor-length black gown, she took an expansive view of this long and repetitive work that is considered one of the most difficult in the genre.

Right from the opening tutti, which Urioste played along with the orchestra, her performance was joyful and congenial. She was profound without being pretentious in the first movement; lyrical without sentimentality in the larghetto; and playful without being frivolous in the final rondo. Her intonation was spot-on, letting the extremely high notes ring with an impressive resonance. Her impeccable technique allowed her to toss off the bravura passages with crispness and clarity, the softer passages with sublime sensitivity.

The audience showed its appreciation immediately after the first movement, when it broke concert protocol to applaud amidst gasps of “Wow!” Those lucky enough to have gotten tickets for this performance summoned Urioste back with three curtain calls, hoping that they wouldn’t have to wait another eight years for her return.


Thursday, February 15, 2018

DDOA to Host Annual Poetry Out Loud State Final Competition


This post content courtesy of a press release from the Delaware Division of the Arts...

From a competitive field of 20 Delaware high school students, 12 remain to compete at the statewide recitation competition that will be held at Dover High School on Tuesday, February 27, at 7:00pm.

The finalists will compete for the opportunity to represent Delaware and advance to the National Finals in Washington on April 24 & 25, where $50,000 in awards and school stipends will be distributed.

2018 Delaware State Finalists
  • Chelsea Anokye-Agyei - Hodgson Vo-Tech High School
  • Matthew Byer - Wilmington Friends School
  • Avery Chambers - Caravel Academy
  • Julian Clark - Middletown High School
  • Andrew Dingwall - Wilmington Christian School
  • Whitney Grinnage-Cassidy - Ursuline Academy
  • Melina Hudson - Milford Senior High School
  • Tyler Keeler - Laurel High School
  • Giovani Malcolm - Concord High School
  • Richard Matthews - Dover High School
  • Samuel McGarvey - Tall Oaks Classical School
  • Dounya Ramadan - Newark Charter Jr./Sr. High School
The competition encourages high school students to learn about poetry through memorization, performance and competition. Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest is sponsored by the Delaware Division of the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

The Delaware Division of the Arts sponsors the Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest program in Delaware schools and the state finals. Competition begins at the classroom level in the fall and culminates with the state finals each spring. Over twenty schools and more than 2,000 Delaware students participated in the Poetry Out Loud program in the current academic year. The Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest competition is presented in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. 

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

New Partnership Enriches Curricula, Arts District

This post content courtesy of a press release from the Delaware College of Art & Design...

A recently launched collaboration between the Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD) and NextFab makerspaces aims to enhance DCAD’s programs of study, increase NextFab’s footprint on Wilmington’s Creative District and further the redevelopment of the city's downtown.

DCAD, the Mid-Atlantic Region’s only two-year professional art and design college, offers the associate of fine arts degree in animation, fine arts, graphic design, illustration and photography and has served as an anchor institution in the revitalization of Wilmington since its founding in 1997. NextFab, which has three locations in the Mid-Atlantic, provides access to tools, technology, training, events, consulting and capital for creatives of any skill level.

The first phase of the partnership, already under way, provides NextFab memberships to all DCAD faculty to help them develop ways of integrating the latest in traditional and digital technology and artistic innovation into DCAD’s curricula while furthering their own development as artists. Subsequent phases will include field trips to NextFab for students to use the stateoftheart equipment, software and instruction for class assignments and provision of NextFab memberships to all degree-program students for use in completing coursework and for creating extracurricular art and design projects.

DCAD President John Hawkins noted that today’s creatives are highly multi-disciplinary – experts in one or two mediums yet familiar with and possessing a facility with many others. The NextFab collaboration increases DCAD’s ability to further student development in this direction while also giving students the chance to work in an environment characteristic of a contemporary art and design practice; gain exposure to new and evolving mediums and technologies; and connect with a wider network of professional artists and designers.

According to NextFab sales and marketing director Eric Kaplan, the makerspace is eager to play this role.

“Our Wilmington location has been open over six months now, and we’ve been steadily reaching more local creatives,” Kaplan said. “We are incredibly excited to have an official partnership with DCAD that will benefit both students and faculty, and we’re hopeful we can continue to explore ways of integrating technology and innovation into DCAD’s creative curriculum in the future.”

Mayor Michael Purzycki and managing director Carrie W. Gray of the Wilmington Renaissance Corp./Creative District Wilmington recently joined DCAD and NextFab representatives to officially celebrate the launch of the partnership. The event held at NextFab’s Wilmington headquarters including tours of the site and souvenir picture frames designed and crafted by NextFab and filled with artwork created by DCAD students.

“We have the richness of the arts with the richness of technology and the creativity of what is demonstrated right here,” Purzycki said. “I can’t imagine anything better for our city.”

Gray agreed. “WRC helped drive the founding of DCAD, and we led the recruitment of NextFab to Wilmington,” she said. “So now to have a partnership between these organizations is helping to realize the vision for a robust creative community and economy in Wilmington.”

See www.dcad.edu

Monday, February 12, 2018

Two Delaware Organizations Receive NEA Grant Awards

This post content courtesy of a press release from Delaware Division of the Arts...

Each year, more than 4,500 communities large and small throughout the United States benefit from National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants to nonprofits. 


For the NEA’s first of two major grant announcements of fiscal year 2018, more than $25 million in grants across all artistic disciplines will be awarded to nonprofit organizations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. These grants are for specific projects and range from performances and exhibitions, to healing arts and arts education programs, to festivals and artist residencies. 

Congratulations are in order to two distinctive Delaware organizations, both of whom will benefit from this round of NEA grants — OperaDelaware and Wilmington Renaissance Corporation.

OperaDelaware will receive an Art Works grant of $10,000 to support new productions of Puccini’s Il Trittico (The Triptych) and composer Michael Ching’s Buoso’s Ghost.

"We're delighted that the NEA has chosen to support our work for the third season in a row,” said OperaDelaware General Director, Brendan Cooke. “This grant will allow us to return to Wilmington’s Grand Opera House (which received a 2017 NEA Art Works grant) for the 2018 Spring Opera Festival which will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the premiere of Puccini’s Il Trittico (The Triptych) and feature seven one-act operas over two weekends.”

The Wilmington Renaissance Corporation will receive a Challenge America grant of $10,000 to support the artist-led creation of a community public artwork.

“To receive this recognition and award from the NEA is an honor,” said Dr. Carrie W. Gray, managing director of Wilmington Renaissance Corporation. “We truly believe that the arts are an engine for community and neighborhood development. This is at the core of our Creative District initiative. Thanks to the NEA’s help, we will be able to continue to provide access to arts and culture programming to neighborhoods that will benefit from it. We look forward to sharing the details of our project with everyone soon.”