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May 29, 2022

The Chestertown Spy

An Educational News Source for Chestertown Maryland

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Arts Arts Top Story

Spy Diary: The Arts at Home and Away by Steve Parks

May 28, 2022 by Steve Parks Leave a Comment

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From skydiving waterfalls to marshy tidewater reflections and a canopied wetlands forest, the focus is on the environmental juxtaposition of land and water as captured in paintings, plant-based sculptures and poetry. A pair of such expressions take shape in an ink-based art show and a site-specific forest installation, both accompanied by short poems at the Adkins Arboretum in Ridgely. Meanwhile, the Troika Gallery in the Easton arts district goes into the final week of its ShoreRivers show and sale for a cause.

“Tidelands” by Sara Linda Poly at the Troika Gallery

Troika collaborated with ShoreRivers, which calls itself the “clean water voice of Maryland’s Eastern Shore,” in recruiting artists to create tidewater scenes celebrating the region’s waterways while benefiting one of its chief advocates as well as the artists and hosting gallery. Ten percent of the sale of art goes to ShoreRivers’ efforts to promote legislative protection, to do the hard work of clean up and to educate young and old alike about the importance of conserving and preserving water resources. Among the 52 artworks up for sale, Laura Era’s “Blackwater Reflections” oil painting fetched $2,900. Those still available include Sara Linda Poly’s “Tidelands,” prominently visible from Troika’s front window, depicting a marshy waterscape with a heron opposite a tree in the foreground. Standing next to the painting is David Turner’s “Great Blue Heron” bronze sculpture. William Storek has several paintings in the show, chief among them “The Pride of Baltimore II” of the clipper ship under sail. Its asking price: $22,500.

While ShoreRivers was defending our tidal waters, Howard McCoy was cultivating a new sculptural medium by de-vining parts of the forest at Adkins Arboretum. In cutting down vines that slowly strangle trees, McCoy found he could arrange them into shapes not unlike lines on a page for a sculptural study. The result is a dozen natural “sculptures” created in collaboration A site-specific sculpture by Howard and Mary McCoy with his wife Mary under the umbrella title of “Re-Vision,” dotting a mile-long wooded trail that starts just outside the visitor’s center with Mary’s poetic narration, including this verse from “Entrust”: “Let the leaf-fed earth hold your footsteps/Feel the forest’s strong and spongy soil/under each of your longing soles.”

“Re-Vision” A site-specific sculpture by Howard and Mary McCoy

The first sculpture, called “Rebirth,” is glimpsed from a bridge over a stream emptying into the Tuckahoe River (Tuckahoe State Park is Adkins’ next-door neighbor). “Rebirth” might have been called “Rehatched” instead, as it resembles an egg-shaped cocoon. Further down the trail, a series of skinny vines dubbed “Picker Rings” are molded into thicket-brown wreaths. A vine twisted into the letter Q (for question?), suggests a bit of wry humor about this woodland puzzle. You can meet Kit-Keung Kan at a reception June 4 and get a guided tour of the “Re-Vision” trail by co-creators Howard and Mary McCoy.

While Troika’s “ShoreRivers” show ends June 2, many of the paintings will remain on view. Meanwhile, an exhibit honoring Raoul Middleman, represented by Troika for decades, opens on June 3. Middleman, longtime member of the Maryland Institute College of Art painting faculty, was regarded as one of Baltimore’s most important contemporary artists at his death last fall. The Raoul Middleman Studio Museum in his actual working space opened last month with a “Life in the Studio” exhibition.

Adkins Arboretum, 12610 Eveland Rd., Ridgely; visitor’s center open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon-4 p.m. Sundays, grounds open sunrise to sunset; adkinsarboretum.org. Troika Gallery, 9 S. Washington St., Easton, open Mondays and Thursdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., or by appointment. Raoul Middleman Studio Museum, 934 N. Calvert St., Baltimore. Hours: 1-4 p.m. Saturdays or by appointment, raoulmiddleman.org, or 443-990-1290.

 ***

The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra – or at least a portion of it – extends its season with a pair of jazz pops concerts Thursday evening in Easton and next Friday in Rehoboth Beach. Award-winning conductor, composer and pianist Adam Glaser leads an ensemble of MSO musicians in a program of jazz classics as well as contemporary and crossover tunes. “Audience reaction to our regular season concerts was so overwhelmingly positive,” says MSO board president Jeffrey Parker, “that we decided to showcase some of our talented musicians. . . . It’s clear that, after two years of pandemic restrictions, music lovers are eager to return to live performances.”

Along with Glaser, director of orchestras at Hofstra University and Juilliard’s pre-college division, the pops ensemble features MSO musicians Dave Rybczynzski and Yevgeny Dokshansky on woodwinds; Dave Ballou, trumpet; Nicholas Mazziott, trombone; Christopher Chlumsky, bass and Dane Krich, drums.

Concerts are at 7 p.m. June 2, Avalon Theatre, Easton and June 3, Epworth United Methodist Church, Rehoboth Beach, followed by a post-performance fundraiser at Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant ($125 including the $35 concert admission, proof of COVID vaccination required; midatlanticsymphony.org or 888-846-8600).

 ***

A Broadway touring favorite and one from Off-Broadway will play back-to-back at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre. “Golden Girls Live,” a drag parody of the TV sitcom oldie that starred the late Betty White (as Rose), Bea Arthur (Dorothy), Rue McClanahan (Blanche) and Estelle Getty (Sophia), runs for three nights and one matinee June 9-11 at 7:30 and June 12 at 2 p.m. It’s followed by the musical “Hairspray,” inspired by the film of the same title by Baltimore’s legendary director John Waters, who once called the Broadway hit “the most subversive” credit of his career.

“People who don’t know my other work but saw the Broadway show will see a midnight John Waters movie on cable, like ‘Pink Flamingos,’ and say, ‘Oh, that must be cute!’ ” With its uplifting message of inclusion and an ode to the old “Buddy Deane Show” on Baltimore weekday TV, “Hairspray” plays at 8 p.m. June 14-18, and June 19 at 1 and 6:30 p.m. (“Golden Girls: $37.45-$91.25. “Hairspray”: $48-$207, baltimore.broadway.com/shows, 800-343-3103, Hippodrome Theatre, 12 N. Eutaw St.)

Steve Parks is a retired New York critic and arts writer now living in Easton.

Filed Under: Arts Top Story

Spy Report: Chestertown Artists at the American Craft Council Show

May 24, 2022 by The Spy Leave a Comment

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Last weekend the Spy went across to bridge to visit the American Craft Council Show in Baltimore to find five Chestertown artists who were attending the weekend event.

Now in its 45th year, this ACC event, formerly known as the Baltimore American Craft Show, was a welcome return for artists after two pandemic closures.

The Baltimore Convention Center was awash with crafts from all over the country, from giant steel fabricated rabbits to sheer silk scarves and miniature gold-leaf fantasy creations, glazed pottery and glass bowls that looked like candy and cases upon cases of jewelry.

Even among the cavalcade of visitors that would eventually account for 20,000 shoppers, we found our Chestertown artists, and even though they had little time for conversation we captured a few images as they talked with customers. It was inspiring to see them among presenters in this prestigious council flagship show.

Seasoned veterans of the national craft and art show circuit, glass artists Patti and Dave Hegland, potter and sculptor Marilee Schumann, silk textile artist Yuh Okano, and floorcloth designer Faith Wilson displayed their new creations.

“After so many pandemic shutdowns, it was great to see old friends and see what they’re up to. We all had masks on, so sometimes it took a few seconds to recognize each other,” Wilson quips.

And it was a tough weekend to have a show in Baltimore. The Preakness was running, the Orioles were playing, universities and colleges were having graduations and Saturday was sweltering. Nevertheless, craft and art shoppers were happy to get out to discover what their favorite artists have been creating.

And besides, who can pass a seven-foot steel rabbit or prowling bear without having it sent directly to home? We know who did.

To see more of these gifted Chestertown artists go to:

Marilee Schumann here.

Hegland Glass here.

Yuh Okano here.

Faith Wilson here

This whirlwind video is approximately four minutes in length.

 

 

Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story

And the 2022 Award Would have Gone to … The Academy Art Museum Scrapbook Video

May 20, 2022 by The Spy Leave a Comment

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If, and perhaps when, the Spy offers an award to a Mid-Shore nonprofit organization for innovative use of a video to document its relevance and history; it certainly would have gone to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum last year.

The Long Shore, the privately funded mini-documentary of the CBMM’s remarkable role in maritime history, broke entirely new ground in telling an institution’s powerful story in a way that is both spellbinding visually and dramatic in content. The YO Production is still gaining attention at film festivals and online as a new gold standard for peer museums to study and replicate.

And this year, that fictional award would go to the Academy Art Museum’s ten-minute feature that uses the AAM’s well-maintained scrapbook since it first opened to tell the unique story of the museum’s founding.

Produced and directed by AAM volunteer and professional video editor Matt Kresling, the ten minute video is a minor masterpiece in using the simple pages of an institution’s journal to reunite former leaders and staff in telling the remarkable tale of the Academy Art Museum’s humble beginnings to the its present position as one of the best regional arts centers in the Mid-Atlantic.

This video is approximately ten minutes in length. For more information about Academy Art Museum please go here.

 

Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story

40 Years of the Oxford Community Center and its Fine Arts Festival: A Chat with Liza Ledford

May 17, 2022 by The Spy Leave a Comment

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How times fly. It seems like it was only the other day when the Oxford Community Center opened its doors after a total renovation. That was ten years ago! And now, the Spy has discovered that one of the best community arts and culture centers in Maryland will be celebrating its 40th anniversary of existence this year and 38 of those years hosting its Oxford Fine Arts Festival. Lordy.

We asked the OCC’s executive director to come by the Spy studio the other day to hear more about its year of celebrations, get a sneak preview of some of the art that will be part of the Fine Arts Festival weekend coming up, and how the Community Center has deservingly earned the hearts of so many on the Mid-Shore as they begin their fifth decade of service.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about the Oxford Fine Arts Festival please go here. For the Oxford Community Center please go here.

 

Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story

The Avalon Takes Art Teacher Anna Madachik to the Met with CEO Daniel Weiss as Host

May 13, 2022 by The Spy Leave a Comment

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While there are countless examples of community members pitching in to help education programs and teachers on the Mid-Shore, it’s hard to beat the recent story of the Avalon Foundation working with Daniel Weiss, the CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, to offer a personal tour of that world-famous institution for Easton Elementary School art teacher Anna Madachik.

After three years of working with Easton Elementary School on both afterschool art classes and programming related to the Avalon’s annual Plein Air Easton festival, the Foundation’s Jessica Bellis, and Anna were brainstorming about what else could be done with this collaboration when the idea came up of connecting Anna with another one of the Avalon’s special friends, Daniel Weiss. And Dan just happens to call Oxford, Maryland home during his weekend breaks from running one of the largest museums in the world.

Dan had recently helped the Avalon by becoming the competition judge for Plein Aire in 2021. And He didn’t hesitate to set aside time for Anna and a crew from the Avalon’s community television station to visit the Met after closing hours and discuss and videotape her conservation on seven of Anna’s handpicked art objects that she could later share with her students for many years to come.

The Spy down with Anna last weekend to talk about this remarkable adventure, the generosity of Dan Weiss, and the impact this unique kind of art education has on young children.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about the Avalon Foundation please go here. For information about the Metropolitan Museum of Art please go here.

 

Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story

Mid-Shore Art: The Women’s Mural Comes to Cambridge

May 12, 2022 by Val Cavalheri Leave a Comment

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Cambridge is about to be put on the map again. Coming in the next few weeks will be the installation of a remarkable public art project, The Dorchester Women’s Mural, featuring 12 past and current Dorchester-based women who have made a significant contribution in their field that extends far beyond their community. 


The original project’s scope was to enhance the sidewall of the Main Street Gallery on 518 Poplar with a colorful mural. To help pay for the image and bring similar art projects into the community,
a group of artists from the Main Street Gallery co-op formed the nonprofit Cambridge Community Arts Foundation, Inc. (CCAF) in 2021. Local individuals and community organizations helped launch a grassroots effort to make the mural a reality, and CCAF secured a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council’s Public Art Across Maryland program.

Next, CCAF formed a Mural Selection committee which put out an RFP (request for proposals) for applicants to submit their plans. Of the 17 entries received, three were asked to present a final rendition of their ideas. The winning muralist was Bridget Cimino from Baltimore. She was chosen, said CCAF President Theresa Knight McFadden because her work was “bold and colorful.”  Her presentation also separated her from the competition. “Some of the entrants,” said McFadden, “photoshopped pieces. Bridget actually drew and painted her submission. That gave us a really clear picture of what she would do.”

As identified by the committee, seven women would be recognized and appear on the Dorchester Women’s Mural. These were: Yogananda Pittman, former Acting Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police; Civil Rights activist Gloria Richardson; Admiral Sara A. Joyner, the first female carrier strike fighter squadron leader; Anna Ella Carroll, advisor to President Lincoln; Bea Arthur, actress of stage, screen and television; champion sharpshooter Annie Oakley, and social activist Harriet Tubman. 

It was muralist Cimino who recommended extending the mural onto the adjacent wall of 516 Poplar Street and include other locally significant women. Building owner William E. Harrington agreed.


With input from the community, five additional women were chosen to be added to the extension: Mayor Victoria Jackson-Stanley, the first woman and first African American mayor of
Cambridge (three terms); Dr. Lida Orem Meredith, the first woman doctor in Dorchester County, especially noted for her service to the underprivileged; Fronnie Jones, the matriarch of a legendary 60-year, multi-generational crab picking family at J.M. Clayton’s; Donna Wolf Mother Abbott, the first woman Chief of the Nause Waiwash tribe, and Dakota Abbott Flowers, six-time champion muskrat skinner, and former Miss Outdoors.

McFadden is looking forward to this commemorative piece being an attraction to tourists and part of the mural tour in Cambridge. There will be a legend on the wall identifying the women, and rack cards with additional information will be available at businesses. An educational component is being developed to make these women’s stories a teaching resource for the 4th and 8th grade social studies classes in Dorchester County Schools. 

“There are 12 strong women up there,” said McFadden. “Usually, in projects like this, there are a lot of men who are recognized as having left an imprint on our community, and maybe a couple of women. But here are all women who’ve done really wonderful things. And they’re all from the area. When I first saw it, I thought how inspiring this is and how cool for girls and boys to see local women who went on and did some really good things. We are so very proud of their accomplishments. We hope that their stories will prompt other young women to pursue paths that excite their passions.”

 A “Community Artist Day” is planned for one Sunday late in May or early June that will allow people to sign up and, under the tutelage of Cimino, help paint and bring it to life. Anyone interested in participating is encouraged to register by emailing ccartsfoundation@gmail.com. 

As for the foundation’s future, McFadden is not yet sure, but community engagement is high on her priority. One project they have remained committed to is their Little Free Art Gallery. Like the Little Free Library, and with the motto, ‘bring a piece, take a piece,’ the wooden box outside the Main Street Gallery contains fun-sized works of art that have become a source of community curiosity and generosity. Visitors are encouraged to donate, look at or take and enjoy the available artist’s contributions.

More information about the mural (which will be located on the sidewalls of 516 and 518 Poplar Street in Cambridge) and the Little Free Art Gallery can be found on their Facebook page.

Val Cavalheri is a recent transplant to the Eastern Shore, having lived in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. She’s been a writer, editor and professional photographer for various publications, including the Washington Post.

Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story

Spy Review: The David Mayfield Parade Marches Through Stoltz Listening Room

May 8, 2022 by Mark Pelavin Leave a Comment

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How often have you thought, “I’m in the mood for some great bluegrass, but I also want a side serving of cringe worthy dad jokes?”  Next time you have that specific craving, you should definitely hope that The David Mayfield Parade is in town.  They brought their unique show to the Avalon Theater’s Stoltz Listening Room this past Friday and left a sellout crowd thoroughly entertained.

Mayfield led his impressive band – including standout Steven Moore on 5-string banjo – through a fast-paced 90-minute show, evoking every emotion from joy to despair, sometimes in the same song.

The songs were based in bluegrass, and occasionally ventured out to more straightforward folk or even rock(ish) territory.  I have, for example, absolutely no idea how to classify their set closer, Trapped Under the Ice, which featured a call-and-response section of nonsense syllables and a catchy sing-along chorus (“I am a monkey in a cage”). But it rocked, and it absolutely worked.

In addition to top-notch musical chops, the band showcased impressive vocal harmonies on almost every song.  Watching Mayfield, Moore and multi-instrumentalist Mat Dunkelberger huddle around their one distinctive retro-styled Ear Trumpet microphone was one of the real pleasures of the show.  The three voices, undergirded by Gram Bell’s elegant upright bass, delivered on song after song.

Mayfield and the band were clearly excited to be back playing before a live audience after a two-year hiatus for, as he put it, “no particular reason.”   Although he looks more like a Brooklyn hipster than the son of Ohio based bluegrass musicians (as he is), Mayfield’s stage presence was at once goofy, sincere, and self-effacing.  He was, at every moment, totally committed to entertaining the audience (and, always, himself).

What made the mixture of comedy and music successful is that the musicianship was so good that even the worst jokes – told with knowing wink – could not distract from it.  Mayfield’s mugging worked because his playing – on both the acoustic guitar and the mandolin – and his singing were so powerful.  In less talented hands, it would crossed over into being annoying.

This was my first time in the Stoltz Listening Room.  It’s hard to imagine a better place to listen to music.  Small rooms – Stoltz holds a little under 70 – often get described as “intimate,” and I guess that’s accurate here.  But its more than that too – it is comfortable, even spacious, the staff are welcoming, and the sound is phenomenal.  When Mayfield sang his first encore from the middle of room, with just his guitar and without any amplification, every note and every cord was loud and clear.  I am already scouring the Stolz calendar looking for an excuse to go back.

Mark Pelavin, the founder of Hambleton Cove Consulting, is a writer, consultant and music lover living, very happily, in St. Michaels.

Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story

The Tred Avon Players Count Down to ‘And Then There Were None’

April 27, 2022 by Steve Parks Leave a Comment

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Cecile Storm, Casey Rauch, & Dave Cherry

The Tred Avon Players bring Agatha Christie’s classic mystery back to homicidal life in this tale of a serial killer who accomplishes nine murders–or is it 10? –on a foreshortened weekend.

Dame Agatha considered “And Then There Were None”–scandalously known by other titles–her most challenging novel to write. Published in 1939, it was followed by a 1943 stage adaptation, also by Christie, and a 1945 movie. The book was also one of her greatest successes–more than 100 million copies sold, making it to this day among the all-time best-sellers.

The book and play were long known as “Ten Little Indians,” and before that, “Ten Little . . .” (Africans)–except that’s not what they were called in the original title, both derived from a children’s counting rhyme and minstrel song. The rhyme, which plays a prominent role in more recent play productions–including this one–has morphed into “ten little soldiers.” The more intriguing, certainly more appropriate, current title comes from the rhyme’s final line.

Aside from the one-by-one murders, the plot revolves around invitations to eight strangers and a married servant couple by an absentee host identified as U.N. Owen. (Mr. Unknown?) An ominous recording accuses each guest, and the help, of dastardly crimes for which none have done penance.

The Spy asked each Tred Avon Player, aptly cast by director Tim Weigand, to cite their character’s choicest line. Here’s what they offered and what those lines and their interpretation may suggest.

William Blore (played by David Cherry): “They done a murder and got away with it.”

Cherry acts the part of a suspicious character because, to everyone else who arrives at the “Unknown Estate,” he’s Suspect No. 1 after the first murder. For one thing, he alone introduces himself using an alias. For another, he’s a cop, very possibly rogue.

Anthony Marsden (played alternately by Alex Greenlee): “Tricky, what?” (and by Nick Richards): “I need another drink.”

It may have been drunk driving that got this devil-may-care young man invited to this soiree in which no one, except perhaps the perp, gets out alive. A tricky what’s-what, eh, Tony?

Sir Laurence Wargrave (Steve Ford): “I cooked Seton’s goose.”

Edward Seton was a hirsute young man sentenced to hang by Judge Wargrave for the murder of an elderly woman. Ford, who besides the judicial wig he wears as part of his character’s official duties, is as bald as he is inquisitive, fittingly so for an esteemed lord.

Rogers, the butler (Michael Sosler): “And there’s plenty of beer in the house.”

Appropriately obsequious as a hired servant, Sosler projects his own taste in beverage preference over that of his guests, who tend more toward whiskey, brandy, and fine wine.

Mrs. Rogers, the cook (Mary Ann Emerson): “Rich folks is queer.”

Remember, the Christie novel was written just before World War II. So translate “queer” as “odd.” You can bet that sexual orientation would not occur to Mrs. Rogers, played by Emerson as a woman not often seen outside the kitchen, possibly not even by her husband.

Emily Brent (Lynn Sanchez): “I would have thought you might be a bit uncomfortable in that dress.”

The lack of “comfort” Miss Brent ascribes to a fellow guest is all her own. To her, Vera’s tattoos are wicked stains on her soul. Revealingly, Sanchez excuses her spinster character’s own wickedness in hounding an unmarried teenage mother to literal death as God’s judgment on the girl.

Vera Claythorne (Cecile Davis Storm): “Such restraint in the face of danger is truly heroic.”

Vera claims to be a secretary mysteriously hired for this occasion. Her attire, and the tattoos it reveals, draw spinster Emily’s condemning attention. But, as played by Storm, Vera is more receptive to carrots than sticks. She flirts back with the handsome Capt. Lombard as they dance around the whodunit conundrum.

Philip Lombard (Casey Rauch): “What a law-abiding lot we seem to be.”

A debonair womanizer as portrayed by Rauch, Lombard picks up on “heroic” as his cover for the deaths of 21 African tribesmen under his command, calling his abandonment of them in seeking their rescue as “the only truly heroic thing” he’s ever done. Still, he looks good, formally dressed for dinner that never comes, caressing a glass of whiskey.

General Mackenzie (Rob Sanchez): “Fellow’s a madman.”

We won’t say to whom the general is referring. In any case, as played by Sanchez, Mackenzie may have no clue. He teases us with threads of insight here and there but mostly imagines being in the presence of a deceased loved one. Maybe his comments are self-referential.

Dr. Armstrong (Cavin Alexandra Moore) “Many homicidal maniacs are very quiet, unassuming people.”

Truer words, it can be said, or in this case, spoken. But take care in taking this as a spoiler. Or is it just a ploy by Christie to throw you off? Whatever, Moore’s performance only adds, as it should, to the riddle on the fireplace mantle – counting down the stick-figure soldiers.

Two production observations: First, the set design by Cece Davis Storm (aka Vera) captures the elegant taste and wherewithal of the mystery host. The architecturally framed sightlines invite us to imagine an English Channel view glimpsed from within this remote island estate.

Secondly, if you have a choice of performances to see, skip the matinee. Daylight makes it impossible to produce a blackout in Oxford Community Center’s theater space. Director Weigand suggests individual or communal blackouts: Closing your eyes on cue in Act II. (Lest you accidentally catch a visual spoiler.) In any case, closing your eyes is no dramatic equivalent of an actual blackout. Who isn’t afraid of the dark in the presence of mass murder?

Also, be prepared for a two-and-a-half-hour show. I put that one on Dame Agatha falling in love with her own talky script.

Steve Parks is a retired New York arts critic now living in Easton.

“AND THEN THERE WERE NONE”

Agatha Christie’s classic play performed by the Tred Avon Players, Oxford Community Center, Thursday, April 28 through Sunday, May 1. tredavonplayers.org

 

Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story

Spy Review: MSO’s ‘Gloriously Radiant Finale’ by Steve Parks

April 23, 2022 by Steve Parks Leave a Comment

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The finale of the 24th season of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra began inauspiciously when board president Jeffrey Parker’s handheld microphone failed as he tried to make his opening remarks in the 1,000-plus seat Easton High School auditorium. Before the mic’s batteries gave out, Parker informed the audience of several hundred that concertmaster William Wang was on his way from Chesapeake College where the concert was originally scheduled.

After music director Julien Benichou took his opening bow, he led the orchestra in a sunny performance of Carl Maria von Weber’s nine-minute Overture to Euryanthe. Leaving the stage, Benichou returned with the guest soloist for the evening and fresh microphone batteries. He introduced YaoGuang Zhai, the gifted principal clarinetist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra who was about to perform in the daunting Concerto in A for Clarinet and Orchestra, which the maestro described as “a shining light at the end of Mozart’s career.” Completed in October 1791, it was to be his last orchestral work as Mozart died two months later in Vienna.

YaoGuang Zhai, clarinet soloist

The clarinet was a new instrument at the time and, in 230 years since its first performance, the challenges of the piece are such that it’s often used in auditions for clarinetists seeking, for instance, a distinguished position like the one Yao now holds after being appointed by maestro Marin Alsop. In orchestral works, seldom are the demands of a soloist, other than a pianist, as extensive as that presented by the Mozart concerto. There is barely any conflict between orchestra and the clarinetist as each carries the bright and festive melody, for the most part, independently. Brief orchestral interludes led by the violins gave Yao a few small measures in which to catch his breath after his lyrical expositions. The solo expression throughout is almost vocalese as Yao makes the instrument sing colorfully up and down the reed palette.

The concerto, while parts of it have been featured in such movies as “The King’s Speech,” 2011 best picture Oscar winner, does not often appear in symphony subscription seasons – perhaps, in part, because it’s such a difficult solo role to fill. MSO subscribers are, indeed, fortunate to be rewarded by this stellar performance.

Not to be overlooked in its brevity, the Weber overture of a mostly forgotten Viennese opera celebrated what this season has been about for the Delmarva Peninsula’s only fully professional symphony orchestra. Forty-two musicians, including associate concertmaster Melanie Kuperstein in the first chair – 43 after Wang arrived in time for the Mozart concerto – filled the stage physically as well as filling the auditorium with resonance of the overture’s festive leitmotifs that were an orchestral novelty before being popularized by Wagner.

In the previous COVID-restricted season, the Mid-Atlantic Symphony limited its repertoire to strings only. Following intermission, every section of the orchestra had its moments to shine in Brahms’ three-quarter hour Symphony No. 2. A deceptively quiet opening led by the lower strings is quickly overtaken by horns before the phrasing is repeated by violins, trombones and timpani. The second part of this allegro features woodwinds in a folk music diversion before a second melodious theme is introduced by the cellos. A nostalgic fugue led by French horns and a repeat of the woodwind folk segment brought the long first movement to a satisfying conclusion.

The slower second movement offers a showcase of familiar classical techniques with starring roles, again, for French horns and trombones, paired with the bassoons – all confidently rendered in assertive and intense harmony. The third movement stands in sharp contrast with its lighter minuet form, giving receptive ears a rest with delightful dance melodies that set the stage for the dramatic final movement’s frenzied jailbreak in energy and volume after a tentative opening. Led by an especially demonstrative Benichou, the orchestra galloped to a stirring finish of a glorious symphonic season of COVID musical recovery.

Steve Parks is a retired New York arts critic now living in Easton.

“A Gloriously Radiant Finale”

Final concert series of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony’s 24th season Friday, April 22, at Easton High School. Performances also 7 p.m. Saturday, April 23, Cape Henlopen High School, Lewes, Delaware, and Sunday, April 24, Ocean City Performing Arts Center; midatlanticsymphony.org (Masks are not required, but proof of COVID vaccination is required in order to attend.)

Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story

Spy Review: National Photography Juried Show at the Academy by Steve Parks

April 20, 2022 by Steve Parks Leave a Comment

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If you think the third National Juried Photography Exhibition opening the Academy Art Museum’s spring-summer season is more of the same, think again.

For starters, the summer of 2020 edition was seen on-online-only by many who viewed it at all due to COVID-19 restrictions. But what truly distinguishes this national juried show from its two predecessors is the serially thematic nature of each presentation, selected blind (no names attached to prospective entries) by artist Kris Graves.

In the historic Lederer Gallery, the original circa 1800 museum structure, “New Photography III,” begins on the left with Kristen Joy Emack’s intimate 2021 black-and-white series of her daughter and her daughter’s cousin wading in their undies and, later, focusing on one of the girl’s faces framed by a canopy of ferns and the two of them in a tangle of twisted tree branches. In a final image, one girl lies on the pavement with a mask atop her head as the other’s hand draws a chalk tiara to complete their play portrait.

The contrast with the next series could hardly be sharper. Michael Iacovone deploys geometric curves to connect earth-scapes with solar objects in studies bearing such titles as “A System to Measure Myself Against the Arch of the Sunset,” in which “myself” is represented by an ant-scale figure on a desert landscape. Meanwhile, Gregg Evans concentrates on everyday life in his relatable series, from “Reptile,” a turtle traversing a gravel path, to “Sunset, May,” a satellite dish upstaging a blush-red sky.

“Portrait of a Chicago Schoolgirl” by Melissa Ann Pinney

Returning to human engagement, Melissa Ann Pinney brings a youthful arena of diversity into individual interpretation with her 2020 Chicago public schools project. These are not your mother or father’s school photos but rather a series of look-at-me personal statements: a girl wearing cartoon-figure tights accented by a colorful stack of bead bracelets and a pastel necktie; another young lady poised as if for flight in her turquoise jacket with arms spread like butterfly wings, and a COVID-masked black man wearing a gold Christian cross necklace.

Portraits of a more abstract nature mark Aline Smithson’s Fugue series exploring the finite lifespan of seemingly immortal digital files. Some of her “Fugue States” involve otherworldly negative imagery while others evoke right- or left-facing striped profiles, some with peek-a-boo conventional photos glimpsed like trapped personas within.

Lenard Smith introduces an architectural theme with tall cylindrical shapes beneath a roof, cones and triangular shapes supporting a bridge, and other geometric forms imitating a statue with arms. That sets the stage for an architectural shelter from what might be considered R-rated themes in the last two displays in the Lederer Gallery. Michael Young’s “Hidden Glances” series is partially hidden from wider gallery view behind a three-sided alcove which encompasses photos of a topless man inside a featureless male torso and a “Leather on Leather” composite of a partially nude male interspersed with S&M play clothes and toys. Margaret Murphy offers a feminine glance into social media “self-televication,” including such selfies as “Rosy Cheeks” (freckled) and “Adoration,” a girl apparently admiring her skimpily clad body.

In the Healy Gallery across the hall, “New Photography III” continues with a series of images by Korean-American Jeong Hur that, ironically, endeavors to “disprove the notion that photos depict the world truthfully.” Among these are digitally manipulated shots of a cloud-shaped human figure and a hand-of-God tableau inspired by Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel fresco. Noel Spirandelli further explores the sleight-of-eye theme with his “oddities of modern life,” among them reverse white tattoos on a black man’s face and color-matching prints on the clothes of “Mike” and the entire Fremont Hotel room he occupies.

“Wish” by Jeong Hur

Rashod Taylor endeavors to capture a slice of domestic African-American life with photos of himself and his son LJ, from “Bathtime” to “It’s Complicated” – a shot of his son holding a small American flag with his dad’s image reflected in the glass door behind him. Jon Feinstein addresses a tragic family theme indirectly with his typology study comparing the deterioration of evergreens in the Northwest with the progression of his mother’s Alzheimer’s disease.

Ahmed Ozsever’s series of rural and industrial landscapes takes an aerial view of scenes tinted in what reminds me, as unlikely as it sounds, of fine blue-on-white Delft chinaware, scarred in one image with gray gravel. Thomas Stoffregen’s panoramic study focuses on severely neglected urban architecture in an undisclosed Midwestern city. It’s a Rust Belt photo album sadly familiar in American cities on either coast or in-between flyovers – boarded-up commercial properties on either corner and a ballfield no one plays on anymore.

Edward Bateman’s series indirectly reflects the pandemic years from which we are now, hopefully, emerging. Confined indoors in his Utah home, Bateman recreated famous Western landscapes on his kitchen tables to photograph instead of the real thing – from “Yosemite in Winter” to “Bryce No. 26” in a virtual national parks tour. All without leaving the gallery.

***

“The World” by Adrienne Elise Tarver

Just down the hall, be sure not to miss “Manifesting Paradise.” Adrienne Elise Tarver creates a mini-Garden of Eden in her caulking and acrylic wire mesh mimicking botanical fronds and ferns amid other products of her artistic skillset. This includes the “Mirage” series of small watercolors inspired by a deck of Tarot cards; “The World,” a three-eyed tapestry displayed above the fireplace in the first of the two-room gallery; and “Namesake,” a painting of a plantation house near the lost town of Tarverville engulfed in flames, symbolizing slavery’s end.

Steve Parks is a retired arts critic and editor now living in Easton.

“NEW PHOTOGRAPHY III” through July 10, Academy Art Museum, 106 South St., Easton. Also, ADRIENNE ELISE TARVER” MANIFESTING PARADISE” through July 24, artist talk on July 13. 410-822-2787, academyartmuseum.org

 

Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story

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