(Art) Looping it Up in Wilmo with the Good Girls

By Guest Bloggers the Good Girls — Brenda Joy and Brynn Lee
Brenda is the Executive Director of Friends of Wilmington Parks and enjoys all things outdoors, too much food and Wilmington's diverse and plentiful arts offerings. Brynn is a 3rd Grader in a Spanish-English immersion program and enjoys arts, crafts and cereal.

Artist Kevin Niemi at the Baby Grand Gallery

The Grand Opera House was our starting point, where we viewed Half & Half, a collection of vintage fashion photography and infrared landscapes by Beth Trepper.  Down the hall in the Baby Grand Gallery, we met Kevin Niemi and took in his serene abstracts (photo at right).

Jerry’s Artarama had a mosaic art showing from members of Creative Vision Factory and other contributors.  We spied a flyer pointing us to a tile carving activity at Creative Vision Factory so we headed over and Michael Kalmbach gave us some simple instructions and set us loose to create our own unique art pieces!  The tiles we carved will be fired and installed in a quilt-like mural at Stubbs Elementary School.

Nicholas Irving's
Tree of Decision

Christina Cultural Arts Center did not disappoint with its powerful display of Nicholas Irving’s tree women (photo at left), which we enjoyed to the music and dance taking place in the adjacent, visible (and audible) studio.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, Chris White Gallery offered a two-floor exhibit A Young Woman’s Exploration in Art, the photographic works of the young women of Serviam Girls Academy. LOMA Coffee had live music and showcased the renderings of Jessica Foraker of Open Spaces Artworks, including a piece painted using a credit card.

Brynn getting a "cat-icature" from
artist Malaki Rhoades

LaFate Gallery had a diverse Women’s History Month art show comprised of the works of five women, and 8-year-old Brynn enjoyed having a car — errr — cat-icature personally created for her on the spot by young artist Malaki Rhoades! (photo at right).

2^nd & LOMA, always a buzzing space, featured Denise’s bright acrylic paintings.  

NextFab's 3D print creations

ArtzScape spotlighted the Face to Face exhibit by Zathray Burton.  We ended the evening at The Delaware Contemporary, where we saw the Wilmington IN the Best Light photo contest-winning photography of Brendan Mulrooney. Some 'Loopers tried their hands in a participatory knitting activity and we were mesmerized by NEXTFAB’s 3-D printer working away on a vase while we fancied finished creations (photo at left). The evening highlighted opening receptions for Marilyn Holsing and Laure Drogoul in the Delaware Contemporary's galleries, and it’s always a treat to be able to visit the open artists' studios upstairs!

The chilly winds couldn’t keep us away — we’ve enjoyed countless art loops in all seasons since Brynn was a toddler and are looking forward to Wilmington's next Art on The Town on Friday, April 7!

Beethoven, Brahms and Clyne & Pianist Alon Goldstein at DSO

By Christine Facciolo

Works by Beethoven, Brahms and Clyne kicked off the second half of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra’s 2016-17 season at Wilmington’s Grand Opera House Friday, February 24, 2017.

DSO Music Director David Amado characterized the program as containing two sunny works by two of music’s more morose composers (Beethoven and Brahms) and a mournful one by a more sanguine one (Anna Clyne).

The primary work of the night was the Symphony No. 2 in D Major by Johannes Brahms. After waiting many years to complete his inaugural symphony, Brahms produced the second one in nearly a fortnight during the summer of 1877 while visiting the Austrian town of Portschach am Worthersee. Its bucolic character has invited comparisons with Beethoven’s Sixth.

The composer’s Alpine setting is felt from the opening notes, before the violas and cellos develop a variation of his famous lullaby melody for most of the first movement. Amado was masterful in bringing out the rich textures and contrasts between drama and reverie that characterize the movement, the longest in any of Brahms’ symphonies.

The inner movements were equally strong. The cellos played to the enigmatic Adagio, while the strings and winds danced playfully in the delicate Allegretto grazioso.

The energy of the final movement presented Amado with another opportunity to play up the shifting dynamics of the work. The return of the Alpine elements signaled that we had come full circle and the symphony wrapped with a glorious burst from the trombones bringing the audience to its feet.

Israeli pianist Alon Goldstein was the featured artist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in C Major. The concerto, dedicated by Beethoven to his pupil, the Countess of Bratislava, has been described as Mozartean in character. However, the Beethoven concerto is much more Romantic than Classic in style, as evidenced by its expanded orchestration, virtuosity and abrupt harmonic shifts.

Goldstein gave a fiery rendering of the concerto, performing the fast outer movements at brisk tempos with sparkling fingerwork. Likewise, he tossed off the torrent of notes in the first-movement cadenza with effortless virtuosity.

But Goldstein showed he was no mere musical acrobat. His playing was full of lyrical warmth and rhythmic flexibility, especially in the contemplative slow movement cast in the dark, distant key of A-flat Major.

Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto is a tough one to top in an encore, but Goldstein pulled it off with another fiery performance of the first of Alberto Ginastera’s three Argentinian Dances.

The concert opened with a sensitive performance of Within Her Arms, by young British composer Anna Clyne. This short (15-minute) work for string orchestra is an earnest, yet not overwrought, memorial to her mother who died in 2009. Based on a touching poem of comfort by Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, the work begins with a stately processional, builds to an urgent climax and then returns to its opening serenity.

Amado led the 15 string players drawn from the ranks of the DSO through a moving performance of the sorrowful work. The ensemble brought a sensitivity to the music as well as to each other, blending the wispy counterpoint with bold, bass-anchored lines to produce chamber music at its finest.

See www.delawaresymphony.org. 

Delaware Student to Compete in National 2017 Poetry Out Loud Finals

2017 Poetry Out Loud State Champion
Cecilia Ergueta.

Information in this post courtesy of a release from the Delaware Division of the Arts...
From a competitive field of 13 Delaware high school students, Cecilia Ergueta, a junior from Wilmington Friends School, earned the title of 2017 Poetry Out Loud Delaware State Champion at the state finals held in Smyrna, Del. on Feb. 28. The first runner-up was Shalyn Littlejohn from Hodgson Vo-Tech High School and the second runner-up was Sam McGarvey from Tall Oaks Classical High School.

Ergueta’s final recitation, The True-Blue American by Delmore Schwartz, earned her high marks with the judges. The full poem can be found on the Poetry Foundation’s website.

For her winning presentation, Ergueta will receive $200 and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington with a chaperone to compete at the national championship on April 25 & 26. Wilmington Friends School will receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry materials. Shalyn Littlejohn, the first runner-up will receive $100, and Hodgson Vo-Tech High School will receive $200 for its school library.

The Poetry Out Loud state competition, sponsored by the Delaware Division of the Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, is part of a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance, and competition. Delaware's statewide competitors included students Andrew Dingwall, Cecilia Ergueta, Jane Krukiel, Tania Laurent, Glynnis Leach, Carly Lepore, Shalyn Littlejohn, Sam McGarvey, Shannon Murray, Natalie Nwanekwu, Mollie Russell, Nick Thompson and Ryan Washington.

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. Twenty schools and over 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. 

Delaware Arts Info sends Cecilia all good wishes for a great performance in the national spotlight! GO DELAWARE!