Summer in the Parks Returns to Wilmington

Blog content courtesy of a press release from The Grand Opera House...
The Grand Opera House is pleased to announce the start of Wilmington’s Summer in the Parks 2016! This week launched the first of the 9-week season featuring FREE arts activities in 10 different park sites throughout the City of Wilmington.

The programs run Monday, June 20 through Friday, August 19, with 86 daytime events of FREE music, dance, arts & crafts, theatre and storytelling for kids of all ages. Activities will take place Monday through Friday (except July 4 and August 12) at 9:30-10:30am and 12:00-1:00pm, in combination with the City’s Summer Food Service, which distributes breakfast and lunch for neighborhood children.

Please note that the West Side Neighborhood site has moved to Madison Street Tot-Lot, just across from the entrance to William “Hicks” Anderson Community Center, and we look forward to returning to One Love Park after they completed a beautiful upgrade last summer. Come out and join us!

Weekly ScheduleEvery Weekday Morning @ 9:30-10:30am

• MONDAY | Prices Run (BBW Park at N. Locust & E. 23rd Streets) 
• TUESDAY | Woodlawn Park (4th & Ferris Streets) 
• WEDNESDAY | Tilton Park (N. Franklin – W. 7th & 8th Streets) 
• THURSDAY | Madison Street Tot-Lot (504-506 N. Madison Street) 
• FRIDAY | Holloway/Compton Park (N. Lombard & E. 7th Streets) 

Every Weekday Afternoon, @ 12:00-1:00pm

• MONDAY | One Love Park (N. Tatnall & W. 24th Streets) 
• TUESDAY | Barbara Hicks Park (Bradford & B Streets) 
• WEDNESDAY | Kosciuszko Park (Sycamore & S. Broom Streets) 
• THURSDAY | Judy Johnson Park (N. Dupont & W. 3rd Streets) 
• FRIDAY | Haynes Park (N. Franklin – W. 30th & 32nd Streets) 

So many wonderful artists – many returning and several new this year – provide a safe and creative outlet for neighborhood youth. Artists include: Alfie Moss, Alia Moss-Koonce, Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, Dave Fry, Delaware Art Museum, The Delaware Contemporary, Delaware Shakespeare Festival, Elbert-Palmer Percussion Ensemble, First State Ballet Theatre, Fly Motivation, Gabrielle Kanter, GCJ Uniques, Griots Wa Umoja, Illstyle & Peace, Jill Perry Carpenter – Walt the Street Dog, LaFate Gallery, Leslie Carey Band, Minas, The Music School of Delaware – M&M and Friends, Nature Jams, New Wilmington Art Association with Barrel of Makers, Pegasus Trio, Philly Vibes, Pieces of a Dream, Street Xpressions, TAHIRA, Terrance Vann, Vanity Constance and Wilmington Drama League.

Weekly evening concerts will be hosted at selected park sites for all ages to enjoy – including the premiere performance at The Sugar Bowl Pavilion in Brandywine Park!

• June 29, 6:00-7:30pm, One Love Park | Alfie Moss/Dexter Koonce Project 
• July 6, 6:00-7:30pm, Haynes Park | Suzzette Ortiz Latin Jazz Ensemble 
• July 14, 6:00-7:30pm, Tilton Park | Richard Raw 
• July 21, 6:00-7:30pm, Union Park Gardens | Diamond State Chorus & Simple Gifts 
• July 27, 6:30-7:30pm, Stapler Park | Diamond State Concert Band 
• August 4, 6:00-7:30pm, Judy Johnson Park | Pristine Raeign 
• August 5, 6:00-7:00pm, Stapler Park | Wilmington Ballet Academy of the Dance 
• August 10, 6:00-8:00pm, Sugar Bowl Pavilion | The Souldaires with Elbert-Palmer Percussion Ensemble 

Keep up to date with the Facebook page and website, which will be updated with news, photos and individual park schedules.

The Grand would like to thank the City of Wilmington for its generous support to make this important program possible. A special thanks also to Wilmington Parking Authority, Wilmington State Parks, the Friends of Wilmington Parks, and to ALL of you for your ongoing support and participation. We’ll see you this SUMMER in the PARKS!

For information, visit TheGrandWilmington.org/Parks or call 302.658.7897 x3105.

Richard Raw Ends Inaugural Week of Music & Community with CD Release Party at Queen

By Guest Blogger, Ken Grant
Ken Grant has worked in Delaware media, politics and marketing for 25 years. He and his Lovely Bride enjoy Wilmington's arts and culture scene as much as they can.
Richard Raw makes it clear, hip-hop is still in its formative years – it is still a young art form, and those who are involved need to change the some of the stereotypes associated with it.

The first stereotype is that hip-hop artists are only out for themselves – whether it’s a matter of proudly proclaiming (in song) how great the artist is or denying any outside help or influence in the business.

At the June 11 Richard Raw CD Release Concert for his new album, Word Warrior, at World Café Live at the Queen, Richard and his team of musicians, singers and friends went out of their way to credit those who have gone before and to pave the way for the next generation of artists. In song, word and action, Richard showed the audience that he benefited from parents, mentors and other artists who made sure he was successful both as a musician and as a human being.

Richard also showcased the talents of other singers throughout the evening. Maya Belardo, Ladyy Defined, Aziza Nailah and Ann Letreece each had time at center stage to share their voices with the audience.

The second stereotype Richard Raw is out to change is the misogynist message some in hip-hop have been parroting.

Between inviting his mother to sit in front of the audience while he sang A Song For Mama and inviting all of the men in the audience to come forward and join him in singing Ain’t Nothing Like a Woman to all of the women in the audience and preaching about the importance of showing respect to the women in our lives, Richard made it clear that he expects hip-hop to change for the better.

The entire show was marked with high energy and a sense of purpose – with themes ranging from reclaiming a proud heritage to dealing with oppression in the workplace to advocating for healthy diets and lifestyles.

With the recent passing of Muhammad Ali, there was little doubt about the song Richard would offer as an encore, once again with words of appreciation to a role model.

By the end of the experience, it’s clear that Richard Raw takes the title of Word Warrior seriously – and he’s ready to use every tool at his disposal to fight for his art, for his community, and for the young artists following in his footsteps.

Set List:

Fela Kuti - Lady
Runaway Slave
Rise Up "Part 2"
How We Get So Low/Solo
Lose My Religion

Diamond (by Maya Belardo)
Say Yes (by Ladyy Defined)
On and On (by Aziza)
Shaka Zulu
Watch Your Health
Don't Let Them Take Your Crown
At The BBQ
Let's Groove
Ain't Nothing Like A Woman
I'm Every Woman (by Ann Letreece)
A Song For Mama
Shine Yo Light
Muhammad Ali

See www.richardraw.com. 

In Heaven with Brandywine Baroque

By Christine Facciolo
No other composer in the history of Western music compares to J.S. Bach. He excelled in virtually every genre — except opera — and invented quite a few himself, including the keyboard concerto.

Brandywine Baroque devoted the entire program of this year’s Harpsichord Heaven to a performance of the composer’s complete set of concertos for one, two, three and four harpsichords.

Although the piano has dominated the concerto literature for more than 200 years, the keyboard came late to the ranks of concerto soloists. Baroque composers generally regarded the harpsichord as a “utility” orchestral instrument; one that filled in harmonies as opposed to presenting melody. Even Vivaldi — who composed more than 500 concertos — never wrote one for the harpsichord. (He did, however, manage to compose one for the lute.)

Bach was probably the first to compose concertos for the harpsichord. But even these are re-workings of his compositions for other instruments, usually “melody” instruments like the violin or oboe.

As it does every year, the festival brought together an impressive roster of performers and scholars. In addition to Founding Artistic Director Karen Flint, the event featured harpsichordists Davitt Moroney, Arthur Haas, Luc Beausejour, Janine Johnson, Leon Schelhase and Joyce Chen.

Accompanying them were Martin Davids and Edwin Huizinga (violins), Amy Leonard (viola), John Mark Rozendaal (cello), Heather Miller Lardin (bass), Rainer Beckman and Lewis R. Baratz (recorders). John Phillips provided care and tuning of the harpsichords.

The true stars of the event were the harpsichords, as Moroney stated in his pre-concert remarks. Instruments from the Flint Collection included two by the famous Flemish manufacturer Ioannes Ruckers (Antwerp, 1627 & 1635), one by Nicolas Dumont (Paris, 1707) and a recently acquired representative by father-and-son harpsichord builders Nicolas and Francois-Etienne Blanchet (Paris, 1730). Filling out the quarter was a representative by Joannes Goermans (Paris, 1748) on loan from a private collection. The instruments were chosen because they contain d’’’, the highest note of Bach’s harpsichords, explained Moroney.

Oddly enough, the event opened with a performance of the Concerto in A minor for 4 harpsichords, BWV 1065, a faithful transcript not of a Bach composition but of Vivaldi’s B minor Concerto for Four Violins (Op. 3/10). Bach, however, makes it his by expanding both the counterpoint and harmonies and imbuing the solo parts with greater complexity and clarity. Of particular interest is the middle movement where each soloist — Moroney, Flint, Johnson and Chen — produces a different kind of arpeggio on a central propulsive fragment.

Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056 is believed to have been based on a lost violin concerto in G minor. It is unusual in that it sets the soloist off rhythmically from the orchestra, with the strings playing in strict 2/4 time and the soloist playing almost exclusively in triplets. The lovely second movement provides a lyrical respite before a return, with only a slight pause, to the rhythmic vitality of the final movement, replete with felicitous echoes between soloist Luc Beausejour and the orchestra.

Arthur Haas and Leon Schelhase joined together to perform the Concerto in C minor for two harpsichords, BWV 1062. Bach’s well-known Double Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1043 provided the basis for this transcription. The opening and closing movements feature much contrapuntal weaving of themes. As for the middle movement, the orchestra takes a back seat as the soloists engage in a kind of Baroque vocal duet. This beautiful movement seems both intense and calm at the same time and one could easily see the emotional involvement on the faces of violinists Davids and Huizinga.

The mood brightened as Karen Flint offered the Concerto in A major, BWV 1055. As always, Flint’s playing was flawless. The outer movements of this concerto are lovely but the middle movement is unbelievably beautiful for its extremely long musical lines which weave so deftly when played, as here, at the proper tempo.

The highlight of the evening, though, was the less hummable — but most frequently performed — Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052. In this virtuosic tour-de-force, Janine Johnson and the accompanying strings wholly delivered on the drama and high-speed prowess of the outer movements, while reaping all poignancy of the middle movement.

See www.brandywinebaroque.org. 

Mélomanie Closes 2015-16 Season with "Big Band" Concert & Another Premiere

By Christine Facciolo
There’s something about a season finale that whets the appetite for more.

In a season full of not-to-be-forgotten performances, Mélomanie closed its 2015-16 season on Sunday, May 8, with not one — but two — World Premieres, some neo-Baroque jazz, the usual suspects and an obscure delight.

Mélomanie harpsichordist and Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director Tracy Richardson dubbed the event a “big band concert” for the many special guests participating. Joining the ensemble’s core group were Rainer Beckmann on recorder, flutist Eve Friedman and cellist Naomi Gray. The additions made for a lively program of interesting material and musical combinations.

Ensemble with guest artists (L-R): Donna Fournier, Naomi Gray, Tracy Richardson, 

Christof Richter, Eve Friedman, Kimberly Reighley, Rainer Beckmann.

Photo by Tim Bayard.

The concert opened with a superb interpretation of Johann Christian Schieferdecker’s Musicalisches Concert 1 in A minor. Great fun was had in the galloping rhythms which drove the Overture. The fast dance movements were executed with appropriate gusto while the slower ones were affecting. The suite also contained a fine example of a Chaconne, a Schieferdecker favorite.

The program also contained an appropriate pairing of works by Jean Baptiste Lully, arguably the quintessential French composer and inventor of French opera, and his contemporary Michel-Richard Delalande, who succeeded him at the court of Louis XIV. The former was represented with a spirited performance of the Passacaille from his operatic masterpiece Armide; the latter by the impressive chaconne from the obviously Lullian Les fontains de Versailles.

Mélomanie was also impressive in its rendering of the Piece de Clavecin en Concert 5 in D minor by Jean-Philippe Rameau, one of the most important French composers and theorists of the Baroque. Their playing was agile, warm-blooded and expressive and they listened carefully to what the harpsichord was doing, which is of vital importance.

If ever there was a composition suited for Mélomanie, it would be Matthias Maute’s It’s Summertime: A Trilogy (1998). Maute not only pays tribute to George Gershwin, he demonstrates the recorder’s abilities to play all styles of music. The work is made up of three movements. The first — “Don’t you cry” — is a ballad that quotes Bach’s Sarabande (from Partita in A minor for solo flute). The second — “The livin’ is easy” — is a jazz-oriented ballad that features a type of hidden two-part writing found in Telemann’s fantasies for flute. The third — “It’s Summertime” — is basically an arrangement of Gershwin’s tune of the same name.

The ability to play different types of music demands a mastery of different techniques, and Rainer Beckmann sure has the goods. His intonation was impeccable and his technique, thrilling and infectious. He had the audience fully engaged. He was supported in his playing by Naomi Gray on the modern cello. That combination of the Baroque and the contemporary was absolutely stunning.

The program also included the World Premiere of Liduino Pitombeira’s The Sound of the Sea and a first performance of his Impressoes Quixeres. The latter featured Kimberly Reighley and Eve Friedman dueting on modern flutes. This piece imparts the composer’s view of the city in northern Brazil employing free atonality as well as 12-tone serialism. But in the hands of Reighley and Friedman, you stop thinking about tone rows and respond to the playfulness and ferocity of the music.

The entire ensemble presented the premiere of Pitombeira’s The Sound of the Sea. This three-movement work is inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem of the same name. The titles of the three movements — “First Wave,” “Solitudes of Being” and “Sea-tides” — take their names from moments in the poem. Longfellow’s poem gives the composer much to draw on as it is a poem about sound, about the rhythm of the sea and that rhythm is reflected in the musicality of the lines and the score. Just as the poem, the music was meant to mirror the sound of the sea in all its fury and tranquility, and Mélomanie did the composer’s intentions proud.

See www.melomanie.org. 

'Brilliant' debut of two Shakespearean operas in Delaware

Content of this post comes courtesy of an original review from WHYY Newsworks...

Photo courtesy of OperaDelaware.

Audiences who attended OperaDelaware's inaugural spring festival over the weekend became part of history as they took in the East Coast premiere of Franco Faccio's Hamlet and the Delaware professional premiere of Verdi's Falstaff.

The event marked the company's triumphant return to full-stage productions at Wilmington's Grand Opera House following a three-year absence.

Programming two Shakespearean operas is not only a tribute to the 400th anniversary of the Bard's legacy. It also explores the complex — and sometimes contentious — relationship between two composers, a librettist and their desire to raise Italian opera to a higher art form.

Verdi's last two operas "Otello" (1887) and "Falstaff" (1893) with librettos penned by Arrigo Boito were the closest he came to writing the kind of through-composed opera Wagner pioneered.

READ FULL REVIEW HERE>>>

Amos Lee Brings Soulful Sound to Sold-Out Queen Show

By Guest Blogger, Jess Eisenbrey

Jess Eisenbrey is a former journalist turned public relations pro who regularly quotes Leslie Knope and has a slight obsession with Joe Biden. In her spare time, she can be found squeezing her way to the front row of general admission concerts at the Queen and sipping on the newest local craft beer or wine.

“Delaware! What’s the word, ya’ll?,” wailed Amos Lee as he opened his sold-out show at World Cafe Live at the Queen on May 16. Known for his folksy sound and soulful voice, Amos started the night with a favorite from his 2011 album Mission Bell called Windows Are Rolled Down, setting the tone for what would be a laid-back, intimate show. For more than two hours, he serenaded those in attendance with a mix of older songs and newer yet-to-be-released tracks.

A native of Philadelphia, Amos paid homage to his hometown and its proximity to Wilmington. The crowd cheered at Amos’ shout out to WXPN, the University of Pennsylvania public radio station headquartered at Philly’s World Café Live location, and went nearly silent during Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight as Amos quietly sang the line, “Sometimes we forget what we got, who we are, and who we are not.” 

Sprinkled in with some of his better known hits like Arms of a Woman and Sweet Pea, were newer songs the audience likely had never heard before (unless they happened to catch him in Atlantic City on May 14). The newer music, which Amos said is set to be released in August, is tinged with a bit more jazz and blues than his early albums featuring swoon-worthy love songs.

As the crowd started to thin out throughout the two-hour show, Amos made note of the fact that he was in fact playing “past everyone’s bedtime,” but he and his six-piece band continued. There were covers and mashups, including Juvenile’s Back That Azz Up mixed with his own Southern Girl, and lots of affection for the crowd as Amos chimed, “I’m in love with you all very much.” 

He made sure that the stars of the show were his bandmates, allowing each of them to have solo performances throughout the night. His saxophonist was incredible, and some of the best parts of the concert were the jam sessions between Amos and his band. It was evident that he had immense respect for the “ridiculous musicians” he said keep him in tune, at one point telling the crowd he was “very grateful for all of them” and jokingly renaming them all “Amos Lee and the Damn Good Band.” Amos also had a lot of love for his longtime friend and opening act Mutlu, a soul singer from Philadelphia who typically opens for Amos when he’s in Wilmington or other nearby cities. Monday just so happened to be Mutlu’s birthday, so Amos led the crowd in singing happy birthday to his friend. 

As the hour got later, it seemed Amos and the band were wrapping up their set with his hit Sweet Pea, but almost immediately after leaving the stage, he and the band came back out for an encore performance that included three additional songs. The grand finale of the concert was an audience singalong to Boyz II Men’s End of the Road, a fitting reminder that Amos Lee is a versatile performer who can pull off pretty much anything – even a classic R&B song from the 90s.

See http://queen.worldcafelive.com.