Jeremiah the Bullfrog Needs A New Look

CALLING ALL ARTISTS and creative people...Frank's Union Wine Mart needs your help! Frank is looking for the next face of Jeremiah the bullfrog, Frank's longtime store mascot...(an homage to the Three Dog Night classic, Joy to the World).

Anne Riley of North Star Design has been the creator of each and every Jeremiah.
Now, Frank wants a Jeremiah created by YOU! So here's the deal:
1. Create your own interpretation of Jeremiah
2. Post it on your Facebook wall and SHARE it to the FranksWine.com Facebook page
3. Tell your Facebook friends to LIKE your posted pic

Don't have Facebook? Really? Okay... email Frank the graphic and he'll post it for you!

$100 — The Jeremiah with the most LIKES wins a $100 FranksWine-DiBruno Bros Gift Card!
$50 — If Anne Riley chooses your creation, you win a $50 FranksWine-DiBruno Bros Gift Card!
$25 — If Frank chooses your creation, you win a $25 FranksWine-DiBruno Bros Gift Card!

Not the creative type? Forward this info to all the creative peeps in your address book!

See www.frankswine.com. 

Celebrating Summer Love & Music with The Rainbow Chorale

By Guest Blogger, Christine Facciolo
Christine holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music and continues to apply her voice to all genres of music. An arts lover since childhood, she currently works as a freelance writer.

The winter gear is packed away. The sun is shining. And the beach is just a drive away. Summer is a-comin’ in, and The Rainbow Chorale of Delaware welcomed the season on June 30 at the Arden Gild Hall with a program that swept away any lingering memories of the winter we thought would never end.

There was something for everyone in this concert — and that’s before mentioning the raffle, the food and the goodies for sale. What better way to start the program than with a medley of summer anthems from the Beach Boys. The ensemble had Fun, Fun, Fun with In My Room and California Girls (or Guys, depending).  Delaware Baby Boomers probably recalled the first time they heard those tunes played on the radio station of their youth: 1380 WAMS.

Fans of Disney’s Oscar-winning animated film Frozen got treated to a performance of In Summer, as “Olaf” merrily danced along, eagerly anticipating summer but blissfully ignorant as to what the heat had in store for him.

Denise Conner, Evan M. Malin, Chris Phelan and Barbara Williams extolled the powers of strychnine and cyanide, ably demonstrating the black humor in Tom Lehrer’s Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.

The imagery in the Tepper-Bennett penned Summer Sounds was rendered all the more nostalgic by the a capella quartet of Tony Adubato, Michael A. Bareham, Anthony M. Condoluci and Michael Hovendick. Their voices were smooth and melodic, and blended remarkably well.

The mood got a bit more serious when sopranos Anne Shuman Urban and Cynthia E. Robinson stepped into the spotlight for their solos. Shuman Urban applied her crystalline voice and expansive range to Gershwin’s Summertime, while Robinson delivered a powerful interpretation of Summer Me, Winter Me.

The ‘60s were again represented with selections like Under the Boardwalk, Those Lazy, Hazy Crazy Days of Summer and Dancing in the Street. And what summer concert would be complete without a performance of Alan Sherman’s classic, Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh? This one did not disappoint!

Yanaka Bernal assumed the role of the jilted lover in her rendition of Runaround Sue. Her loyal and faithful friends offered support and backup vocals, until “Sue” in the person of Robinson strutted by taking one as conquest.

The Great American Songbook got its due with a performance of Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies. Spirited performances of Summer Nights from the legendary Grease soundtrack and the B-52's Love Shack rounded out the program. Collaborative pianist Andre Vermeulen capably handled accompanist duties and revealed talents on the accordion as well.

The Chorale’s volunteer coordinator, Josh Yoder, served as “lifeguard/emcee,” sauntering onstage between selections, bantering with the audience and reading with utmost expression water-safety tips from the American Red Cross and The Onion—while never passing up the opportunity to supply a well-placed double entendre or observation.

See www.therainbowchorale.org. 

DVC Celebrates a Legacy

By Guest Blogger, Christine Facciolo
Christine holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music and continues to apply her voice to all genres of music. An arts lover since childhood, she currently works as a freelance writer. 

You don’t have to be an Anglophile to know that the Western choral tradition owes an enormous debt to Britain. From the Renaissance to today, works by British composers have become the mainstay of the world’s choral repertoire.  

The DelawareValley Chorale dipped into the vastness of this centuries-old tradition to close its 2013-14 season on Saturday at The Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew& Matthew in Wilmington with a concert titled “The English Choral Legacy.” The sound was so glorious and the program so well-chosen that one only hopes the group will revisit this literature in the not-too-distant future.

Two works by composer C. Hubert H. Parry bookended the concert. Hear my words, ye people, was composed for the Festival of the Salisbury Diocesan Choral Association and was first performed in the Salisbury Cathedral on May 10, 1894. This extended anthem was meant to be sung by a gathering of parish choirs so the choral parts are within the reach of most choirs. The more technically demanding music is reserved for the soloists and organ. Soprano Lauren Conrad Giza, baritone Bill Gross and organist David Hearn did not disappoint. The final section of the quarter-hour work featured the SsAM Choral Scholars, with the resulting contrast of choral sonorities suggestive of a choral “concerto.”

Blest pair of sirens, Parry’s rip-roaring setting of John Milton’s poem Ode to a Solemn Musick concluded the concert. The highlight of the piece is the “big tune” to the words "O may we soon again renew that song” which spreads from the sopranos to the whole choir, then turns into fugue on "To live with him," which again reverts back to a homophonic texture of the final bars. The performance was one magnificent arch of music, bringing the audience to its feet with calls for an encore.

The other major piece of the first half was Come ye, sons of art, Ode to the birthday of Queen Mary II in 1694, by Henry Purcell, arguably Britain’s greatest composer. Soprano Conrad Giza and baritone Gross were joined by countertenors Augustine Mercante and Daniel Moody, whose superb voices, diction and style were a delight.

The balance of the concert included four madrigals ably executed by the SsAM Choral Scholars. The Chorale returned after the intermission with three songs by Arthur S. Sullivan, perhaps better known for writing a few operettas with a partner named Gilbert. The 20th Century got its due with Jubilate Deo, one of Benjamin Britten’s best known and most often performed short choral works. Hearn provided a rhythmically spirited organ accompaniment to the chorale’s direct vocal phrases and the piece bubbled with the joyous mood of the words.

See www.delawarevalleychorale.org.