Sunday, December 9, 2018

Rainbow Chorale Shines and Shares the Holiday Light

By Christine Facciolo

The weather outside was frightful...but the voices of The Rainbow Chorale of Delaware were oh so delightful at St. David’s Episcopal Church in North Wilmington on Friday evening, November 30.

The Rainbow Chorale
Delaware’s first LGBTQ vocal ensemble offered its holiday concert — Share the Light — under the very capable direction of Anthony M. Condoluci-Smith, the group’s interim artistic director.

The success of any choral concert naturally lies in the quality of the singing and this was an evening of some mighty fine singing.

Condoluci-Smith assembled a program that showed off the voice to best advantage as it underscored the ensemble’s mission of inclusion and acceptance.

The program opened with a welcoming gesture to the audience as it sang the playful You’re Home for the Holidays and the concert’s namesake Share the Light, which emphasized the urgent need for people of diverse backgrounds to come together in love and acceptance. The theme continued with Where There is Light in the Soul, a setting of a Chinese proverb and True Light, featuring the solo voice of Jay Simmons.

The ensemble celebrated the holiday traditions of other cultures and ethnic groups with performances of Ocho Kandelikas (Eight Candles) featuring the soaring soprano of soloist Anne E. Shuman, An African Celebration, Ding Dong Merrily on High (the beloved French carol) and from Estonia Ule Lume Lagedale (Over Snowy Winter Roads).

The program recognized that the holidays are not always a happy time for some (Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind) but gave hope that there is still peace (There Will Be Rest) to be found if we look to the light of the stars and listen to the music of the stillness.

Of course, there is plenty of joy in the holidays and that was reflected in a jazzy rendition of the traditional We Three Kings (think Dave Brubeck’s Take Five) Deck the Halls (in 7/8 time no less) and Irving Berlin’s Snow, which recalls a child’s playful romp in the white stuff.

PRISM, the chorale’s ensemble of select voices, offered two selections 
 Northern Lights and Sure on this Shining Night — that described the mystery and emotion of starlight as it guides us through life as well as O Magnum Mysterium, which told of the mystery of the miraculous birth.

The ensemble would return in the second half of the program with a rollicking rendition of Jingle Bells and Dashing Through the Snow.

The concert concluded with members of the chorale surrounding the audience to sing The Work of Christmas, reminding everyone that the good will of the season does not end with the holidays.

See therainbowchorale.org

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Music School Piano Faculty Shine in Performance

By Christine Facciolo


Four members of The Music School of Delaware’s esteemed piano faculty displayed their performing and compositional talents in a program entitled “Piano Majesty” Wednesday, November 14, 2018 at the school's Wilmington Branch.

No piano concert would be complete without at least one work by Frederic Chopin, and this program featured two, both brilliantly rendered by David Brown. Brown is a pianist of unwavering mastery and musicianship with a towering but sublime strength and nuance that is both personal and telling. He was especially glittering in Chopin’s melodic Fantasy Impromptu, Op. 66 and the happy, cantabile character of the Barcarolle, Op.60, one of the composer’s finest works.

Pianist and composer Jennifer Nicole Campbell performs
in the Music Masters program, Piano Majesty.
The program also featured a generous helping of original compositions. Jennifer Nicole Campbell applied her usual charm and impeccable technique to a rendering of Brown’s ethereal In the High Meadow. She also offered two of her own compositions, Prayer for the Right Hand, a left-hand piece she wrote to compensate for an injury she suffered to her right hand, and the lively Variations on Loch Lomond, which featured musical motifs from the pop and classical repertoire. The audience had great fun identifying the themes. She rounded out her set with a performance of Leschetizky’s Ballade Venitienne, Op. 39, No. 1 (Barcarolle).

Brown offered a more solemn set of variations on the Baroque aria Bist du bei mir. Brown wrote the variations in 1993 and revised the work this year. In some pre-performance remarks, he noted that he was responding to the loss of loved ones by several of his friends over the past year.

Liliya Maslov and Oleg Maslov delivered an edge-of-your seat rendering of Lutoslawski’s piano-slam Paganini Variations. The audience was transported to a cliff-edge zany and dissonance-allowed zone with superb playing from the duo in an intrepid choice of repertoire.

The duo of Brown and Campbell opened the program with a performance of two selections by Schubert: the Allegro moderato and Andante (D. 968) and the March in D major, D. 733.
  
See www.musicschoolofdelaware.org

Friday, November 16, 2018

Light Action to Build World Class Music, TV & Film Facility on 7th Street Peninsula

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

Out and About broke the story this morning about the facility and all it can mean for Wilmington

Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki today congratulated and thanked Scott Humphrey, President of Light Action Productions based in New Castle, for his decision to build a new multi-million dollar sound stage on Wilmington’s 7th Street Peninsula. The Mayor said he had encouraged Humphrey to move forward with his unique idea for some time and is very pleased that this project is finally moving forward. The Mayor and Humphrey said a groundbreaking will be held within the next month.

Rendering of Light Action Productions' future sound stage,
The Pine Box. Photo courtesy of Light Action.
Light Action will build 150,000-square-foot facility on 10 acres of land 
along the 7th Street Peninsula. Photo courtesy of Light Action. 
In an exclusive interview with Out & About, Humphrey said his company is building a 150,000-square-foot facility on 10 acres of land along the 7th Street Peninsula. The $8 million project will feature a 25,000-square-foot, 95-foot-tall sound stage called the Pine Box, which Humphrey says will be lit up and visible from Interstate 495.

“This sound stage will be for crews and companies that are either doing pre-production on a Broadway musical, or for a touring band that’s about to go out on the road, or for film or TV crews,” said Humphrey. “We’ve looked at moving to the city for a while, and I think this space will bring a sort of organic energy and lots of opportunity to the area.”

Mayor Purzycki said the City of Wilmington has been eager to facilitate the sale of the 20 acres of land that Humphrey’s company purchased on the peninsula. The Mayor said the location and availability of the 7th Street Peninsula property, while somewhat neglected, makes perfect sense for Light Action.

“There aren’t that many places in the city where you can find a piece of property that large, especially for a company of Scott’s size, with the need for external parking, all his big rigs, storage, and equipment,” says Purzycki. “We wanted to do everything we could to make the site attractive, but there was no particular assistance from us other than the commitment that we will improve road access at the site.”
The Out & About article quotes Humphrey as saying that once the facility is built, Light Action Productions’ warehouse – which will be filled with live entertainment production elements – will occupy 90,000 square feet, along with 30,000 square feet of space designated to design, video and lighting studios and conference rooms. Another 5,000 square feet will be reserved for office space, and the final 25,000 square feet for the Pine Box.

Humphrey says he’s already spoken to industrial and manufacturing neighbors in the 7th Street vicinity about future plans for the area such as a restaurant, bar or possible hotel accommodations, although no plans have been confirmed. Humphrey said a grand opening celebration is tentatively scheduled for late 2019.