The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra was one of the very few anywhere to complete an entire season of live performances in 2020-21, albeit with strings only. But the current season opener, Thursday night at Easton High School, marked the first time in 18 months that this fine ensemble of professional musicians had an opportunity to play as a full orchestra. They did not disappoint.

The evening also made news as Jeffrey Parker, president of the board of directors, announced that the MSO—the Delmarva Peninsula’s only professional symphony orchestra, has signed a three-year union contract with its talented cast of musicians. “This gives us stability,” Parker said in a brief interview during intermission. “Our musicians know that they’ll have work, not just now but next spring and two seasons after that.”

The opening night concert began with what felt like warm-up exercises. The first piece: Modest Mussorgsky’s Overture to Khovanshchina (The Khovantsky Affair), a prelude to the opera of the same title, was treated by the music director Julien Benicho like a music lesson as he outlined contours of the classical shorts. Running barely five minutes, the overture opens with a tranquil yet intense melody followed by several variations that hint at succeeding stanzas to be sung by the actors. As with most overtures, it ends abruptly, leaving you wishing for more.

The lesson continued with Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, introduced with a joke repeated by Benichou. “When Gershwin asked if he could study with Ravel,” the French composer asked the American how much money he’d earned lately. (The word “tombeau” denotes a memorial piece, a tomb, while Couperin was a 17th-18th musical family.) The Baroque suite in four movements runs about 20 minutes—perhaps another reason the maestro stretched the first half of the program. Ravel dedicated his tombeau to friends killed in World War I. Popular as a selection for summer outdoor concerts, it’s considered easy classical listening. Far from a requiem, it opens with a light call and response led by reeds answered by strings. Subsequent movements bring to mind the Alfred Hitchcock theme IF his TV series were a comedy, leading into darker tones suggesting melancholy and ending with a rousing, celebratory finish.

But it was Beethoven’s epic Eroica that fulfilled the theme of the season opener, “A Heroic Return,” which “pays tribute to all the unsung heroes of the period we have just gone through,” Benichou said, “while the second movement, the Funeral March, pays homage to the victims of COVID-19.” (MSO management paid heed to COVID medical recommendations by requiring all those attending to show proof of vaccination and wear a mask—musicians included.)

Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, which his 3rd (Eroica) preceded by a few years, includes a four-note opening coda, not unlike that which became the most famous notes in the classical repertoire. The response, by a violin section led by concertmaster Regi Papa, is so vigorous that one could work up a sweat playing or conducting its pell-mell pace. While the concert’s first half displayed the orchestra’s musical dexterity, Eroica showed off its muscularity. Bombastic with room for a woodwind break or two, the glorious sound and fury emanating throughout the spacious auditorium declared indisputably that full orchestral music is back, At least in Easton and the Delmarva Peninsula.

Far more somber, the second movement (the Funeral March) opens with strong cello and bass undertones along with mournful woodwinds and horns rising to the solemn occasion, amplified by a timpani heartbeat; or is it distant artillery? In any case, it’s a requiem for a fallen warrior. Beethoven had Napoleon in mind, though he was at the peak of his powers when Eroica was created. Movement 3 broke classical convention of Beethoven’s time by opening with cellos in the lead rather than violins, launching an explosive burst. A bassoon solo calls myriad instrumental parts together for a symphonic conversation, including a spirited scherzo—comedy in musical language—in stark contrast to the preceding dirge.

The final movement begins with a string-plucking tip-toe beat repeated at many times that volume by resounding strings to a crisp march-like cadence echoing earlier movements.

The performance richly deserved the standing ovation by the modest audience, its numbers still limited, perhaps, by COVID and its surging Delta variant. To hear classical music live again, by the Shore’s own professional orchestra, get vaccinated if you are not already, and encourage others to do the same. And we’ll all become conquerors together.

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

 

MID-ATLANTIC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: “A HEROIC RETURN”

Remaining concerts: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25, Cape Henlopen High School, Lewes, DE; 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 26, Performing Arts Center, Ocean City
Tickets: $45, 888-846-8600, midatlanticsymphony.org All those attending must show proof of vaccination to be admitted.

 

There was a bit of hesitation with volunteer leaders and staff about whether or not to hold the extremely popular Academy Art Museum Craft this year. This summer’s surprise visit of the Delta variant of the coronavirus was an unanticipated bump in the road as AAM trustee Diz Hormel took over this summer as the major fundraiser chair. Diz and AAM staff manager Jennifer Chrzanowski had to think twice before the museum decided to move ahead with plans with what may be one of the most popular crafts shows in the Mid-Atlantic region.

In fact, almost 250,000 people were tracking the craft show last year via social media, and with the help of simple safety measures, including the vaccination of all the artists coming to the Easton museum, and good old common sense, the good news is those folks will not be disappointed. As they say in show business, the show will, indeed, go on.

The Spy sat down with Diz and Jennifer for a short preview of what visitors can expect when the Crafts Show opens its doors during the October 15th weekend. This includes the special preview shopping event for patrons on Friday evening and some innovative ways to keep young children engaged while parents walk through the museum and the Waterfowl Building to find the perfect gifts for loved ones for the upcoming holiday season.

This video is approximately two minutes in length. For more information about the Academy Art Museum’s 2021 Craft Show please go here. 

 The Academy Art Museum is looking for volunteers to help out at the Craft Show. Volunteers get free access to the show all weekend. Click here to sign up: https://bit.ly/CSVolunteer2021

 

2021 Academy Craft Show

Friday, October 15, Preview Shopping Event, 5:30 – 8:30 Pm
Saturday, October 16, 10 Am – 6Pm
Sunday, October 17, 10 Am – 3 Pm

 

Timing is everything in music, especially if you’re the pianist leading a trio bearing your name. But the namesake of the Fred Hughes Trio found that timing is even more crucial when you try to establish a charitable foundation to preserve and promote the art form you love.

Jazz pianist Fred Hughes endeavored to launch Jazz Alive early last year, just in time for COVID to shut down everything from indoor dining to March Madness. So what chance did the debut of a jazz concert series stand? None, the music educator and resident of Royal Oak quickly realized. So, switching nimbly to “lemonade out of lemons” mode, Hughes created an online-only series called Jazz Tales, in which he interviewed and musically collaborated with fellow jazz musicians of note. While the 25 Jazz Tales videos, running an hour and a quarter each, was viewed by a virtual audience from anywhere the Internet is accessible, Hughes made a point of recruiting 130 music students from Easton High and Easton Middle School.

The live concert series had to wait until this year, with the third and final performance on Saturday night, Sept. 18, at the Waterfowl Building in Easton. “We also had plans for an autumn-to-spring series,” Hughes said. “But I’m worried about COVID and the Delta variant. We’ve already had some of our trio concert dates in the fall canceled.” So Hughes will wait and see about more live Jazz Alive.

The novel coronavirus has already put the kibosh, hopefully just temporarily, on Hughes’ goal of forming a peninsula-wide Delmarva Youth Jazz Orchestra. “We wanted to hold auditions last year, but music teachers weren’t even seeing their band students in person. We hope to get auditions started this year if schools can stay open.”

Hughes is eminently qualified for such a mission, having served as a consultant for 25 years to the Maryland All-State High School Jazz Band. “But in all that time, I noticed we had only one kid from the Eastern Shore audition,” he recalled. “With Jazz Alive, we can bring this original form of American music to kids who’ve probably never seen a live jazz concert.”

Although his Jazz Tales video series was aimed, in part, to reach music students who were learning exclusively online, Hughes also reached a broad adult audience. “As we got a lot of comments from jazz fans from all over, I started pitching a weekend in St. Michaels or Easton to people from as far away as upstate New York and southern Virginia. Some of them turned up at our concert series this season.”

The Waterfowl Building was transformed on each of the three nights into a cabaret nightclub with 45 tables seating up to 150 jazz fans. “We’ve drawn about 125,” Hughes says. The series finale featured harmonica virtuoso Hendrik Meurkins, best known for his samba swing style of Brazilian jazz. He was joined by master guitarist Paul Bollenback, described by legendary jazz-blues recording artist George Benson as a “dynamo whose approach to jazz and blues has a uniqueness unto itself.” Completing the trio, Paul Langosch’s all-star credentials include 20 years as bassist for Tony Bennett, performing on 10 of his albums and hundreds of concerts and TV appearances.

Hughes did not perform in his just-concluded concert series. “I want it to be about all the jazz masters I can present,” he says. “It’s not about me.”

Keep up with what’s next on its website, jazz-alive.org

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

“A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Except for the sound and fury part, that line might have come from “Much Ado About Nothing.” But it’s from “Macbeth,” written in 1606 and indeed “full of sound and fury,” six years after the Bard penned “Much Ado.”

Thankfully, the Brown Box Theatre Project chose comedy over tragedy for its 10th annual free Shakespeare in the park tour coming to Cambridge Wednesday evening, Sept. 22. The highly polished and professional Boston-based troupe drew a bring-your-own-lawn chair crowd of 150 or so to St. Michaels’ Muskrat Park just as a rising full moon was adding the perfect accent to the splendid scenic design by Abby Shenker. She took full advantage of the location by placing the two-tier period set immediately in front of the park’s gazebo, lending its cupola to the home and garden of Leonata, governor of Messina on the island of Sicily.

Her ladyship is hosting a formal dinner celebrating the return of soldiers from war, formally outfitted in deep purple uniforms with golden epaulets and brass buttons–costume designs by Chelsea Kerl, whose sheer ladies’ gowns are fitting for a midsummer night’s dream occasion. Here, the occasion is a mixer for eligible young ladies and gentlemen, whose repartee turns quickly among themselves and later in mixed company to romance. Some are pro, others stridently con. Played by Chelsea Titchenell with a sense of decorum in knowing what’s best, Leonata is keen on marrying off her daughter Hero and niece Beatrice.

Hero, charmingly naive as portrayed by Debbie Aboaba, falls quickly for like-minded Claudio (Christopher Ho), who, while exuding confidence, is too easily fooled by those with their own agenda. Meanwhile, Hero’s cousin Beatrice (Margaret Clark) finds that her mismatch in Benedick (Cam Torres) disdains the prospect of marriage with equal measure to hers. Together they trade some of Shakespeare’s fiercest lines regarding or disregarding the opposite sex. With Hero and Claudio already engaged, they conspire with Leonata and Don Pedro (Spencer Palitew), a prince and senior officer, to convince Benedick and Beatrice that they are meant for each other. They set up an eavesdrop on conversations making up effusive praise of Beatrice to Benedick and vice versa. The physical comedy, first with Torres and then Clark scurrying up and down the staircase and behind every garden shrub to hear what’s said about their characters, is as rich as it is implausible in that the plot works.

With an impending double wedding, Don John (Drew Cleveland), the prince’s bastard brother, is feeling left out. He recruits Borachio (Abuzar Farrukh) to help convince Claudio that Hero is unfaithful as he mistakes handmaiden Margaret (Emma McGill) for her lady.

Enter the idiot who began telling this tale, the clown constable of Messina given the name Dogberry by Shakespeare. Dressed in garish striped socks over floral print shorts and jacket, Bree Perry lets us know from the top that it’s comedy tonight, tragedy some other time.

We can thank director and Eastern Shore native Kyler Taustin for bringing Brown Box to the underserved, theatrically speaking, Delmarva Peninsula. This romantic farce with a touch of intrigue is just the free ticket we need these days—two hours of nothing heavy to think about as a professional company entertains us. Meanwhile, Broadway has opened again. Let’s hope we can keep COVID at bay and let the good times roll again.

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

“MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING”
Performed for free by Brown Box Theatre Project on Sept. 22, Loge Wharf Park, Cambridge; Sept. 22, J. Millard Tawes Museum grounds, Crisfield; Sept. 23; Northside Park, Ocean City, Sept. 26. Bring lawn chairs or blankets. Details and online program at brownboxtheatre.org

 

I am in mourning today, though the only black I wear is a Rolling Stones T-shirt that I might well have worn on any day, with its red-tongue logo sticking out to whoever gets in my way. But no one between ages 30 to 80 takes it that way. “Love your shirt,” almost everyone who notices says, reminding me that I’m wearing one of my half-dozen or so Stones T’s that still fit me.

But on this day, I heard from my daughter, who knew I’d break out in tears at the news:

Charlie Watts is dead.

My life as I’ve known it for all but 16 of my 74 years is left without his artistry anchoring the genius of indisputably the world’s most remarkable–certainly longest-surviving–rock and roll band in the history of the world. But his legacy lives on into perpetuity. 

If you don’t know who London native Charles Robert Watts was, my sympathies. But I reserve mine principally for Charlie and his mates, personal and professional, on this sad day when news of Afghanistan evacuations, COVID-19 resurgence, and climate calamities overshadowed acknowledgment of his passing. He is the unsurpassed drummer beloved by generations of Stones fans, of which I am a member of the first generation. 

I got hooked on the Stones with a 1963-64 recording of “Mona (I Need You, Baby)” spun late-night on WCAO 60-AM. What a revelation. Rhythm and blues sung by Brit boys with an accent. But what further distinguished them was the guitar-and-drum syncopation. Brian Jones, who formed the band, didn’t survive its first decade. Now Charlie is the second of this remarkably resilient band to exit permanently.

What I noticed from the beginning is the punctuation of Charlie’s percussion, just a millisecond after guitar riffs that often drowned out the drumbeat of lesser artists. He always seemed to be within an instant of coming in too late on “Satisfaction” and each of their greatest and lesser hits. Especially when played live. Keith Richards, the legendary Stones guitarist, knew to keep his ear or feet attuned to Charlie’s beat. If he could not hear it, he could feel the vibrations from the stage floor rattling his spine. (“Jumpin’ Jack Flash”!)

Charlie Watts, though, was more than a rock-and-roll drumming genius. Married to Shirley since 1964, just after the band covered “Mona,” he was the Stones’ rock–stone, if you will–when other distractions might have dissolved the band led by star-power personalities. Mick Jagger will never be confused with a wallflower, and Keith takes no guff from his songwriting partner. Brian Jones couldn’t handle this dynamic and was found face down in a swimming pool in 1969, the first of serial rock stars who died at age 27. 

But Charlie, along with Bill Wyman, the band’s bassist and archivist, were its elder statesmen. (Wyman retired in 1993, though he still records solo.)

I’m not sure the Stones can survive without Charlie. He absented himself from the current completion of the band’s 2019 tour, which I was thrilled to catch at FedEx Field in Landover, MD. It was–who’s counting?–at least my 25th time seeing them play live. Ironically, that July 3 concert was delayed from Memorial Day due to Jagger’s unspecified heart procedure. The Stones renewed the tour after a year of COVID cancellations. But this time, Charlie announced his absence, likely due to throat cancer that first surfaced in 2004. 

More than a drummer, Charlie Watts, 80 at his death, was an artist who made his mark within and without the Stones. His first love was jazz. Rock was an opportunity. He took advantage of both, producing a catalog of jazz-standards CDs, often with back-up singers from Stones concert tours. And his eye for what might project a Stones concert to a distant stadium- or arena-sized crowd created an accessibility impossible without his visual instincts. 

Charlie was also a collector of vintage cars. He could afford them, of course. But the curiosity is that he didn’t even drive them. Charlie appreciated art and design when he saw it and, undeniably, when he heard its percussive expression.

Though I have never met you in close proximity, Charlie,  I love you. Your former bandmate, Bill, who I have met, sends his love, too, I’m certain. Without you, the Stones would never be who they became and may never be quite the same again now that you’re gone. Your beat will never die. Ever. Rest in peace, anyway, Charlie.

Steve Parks is a retired arts writer and still-active rock fan now living in Easton.

 

As the lights dim in the grandeur of the historic Avalon Theatre in Easton, MD, a hush falls over the audience. Excitement builds as the first images of the 14th annual Chesapeake Film Festival mark the return of a LIVE Festival October 1 and 2.

And what better way to kick off an Eastern Shore Festival than to present the world premiere of the Bay Journal’s latest film, Water’s Way: Thinking Like a Watershed, by local favorites Tom Horton, Dave Harp and CFF’s Vice President for Environmental Programming Sandy Cannon-Brown. As Horton says in the introduction:

“Consider water’s way throughout the vast basin of Chesapeake Bay, some 40 rivers and thousands of creeks feeding the great estuary from across nearly a sixth of the East Coast. This is the watershed. Every drop of rain that falls on 64,000 square miles heads one way, Bayward. And the Chesapeake, which appears so long and broad is, in context, just a smallish and shallow pool of water on the receiving end of everything 18 million people in six states and the District of Columbia do with the land, for good or ill.”

One of the “stars” of Water’s Way is Herbert the Beaver, a representative of a species whose ponds and dams once sponsored a lush mosaic of wetlands throughout the Chesapeake region.

The second film on opening night, The Heat is On: Driving Climate Action for People and Nature, focuses on World Wildlife Fund’s response to climate change. This short documentary was produced by CFF Board Member Irene Magafan and her colleague Kelley Ashford to prod and inspire people to take action against climate change before it’s too late.

The cost of the Friday night screenings and the panel discussion that follows is $25.

But wait! There’s more to Friday evening: A VIP reception at the Avalon honoring our filmmakers, sponsors and major donors precedes the screenings. Individual tickets for the VIP reception and screenings are available for a $125 tax-deductible donation to CFF. The reception brings the community and visitors to our beloved Eastern shore together to celebrate the magic of a LIVE Festival.

The LIVE Festival continues on Saturday evening at the Avalon with two acclaimed features, Minari and Tesla. Tickets are $15 for each film.

Note: For the live events, you will be required to show proof of vaccinations against CoVid.

Minari, about a Korean-American family pursuing the American dream in Arkansas, earned six Oscar nominations, and won Youn Yuh -jung Best Supporting Actress. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and earned six nominations at the 74th British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film Not in the English Language. Youn is the first Korean actor nominated for an Oscar for acting, as well as the first to win.

Tesla is a freewheeling take on visionary inventor Nikola Tesla and his imagined interactions with Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. One of the actors in the film, Maryland native Vincent de Paul, will introduce the film.

While the Chesapeake Film Festival is thrilled to bring back a LIVE Festival, it is also delighted to extend the Festival for another week online. The VIRTUAL Festival, October 3-10, includes more than 50 films to watch at your convenience, along with and several scheduled interviews with filmmakers. The VIRTUAL Festival is FREE, but donations are encouraged to help cover the costs.

“Our 2021 Festival includes work by amazing filmmakers around the world,” said Festival Director Cid Collins Walker, “and we are honored to have several of those filmmakers sitting on our Board of Directors both in the LIVE and VIRTUAL events…”

Films by Chesapeake Film Festival Board Members in the VIRTUAL Festival, October 3-10, include:

Liam White, produced and directed by Harold Jackson, III, follows a novelist who, with a few months to live, faces all the people he stepped on to get to the top.

Othello San, produced and directed by Theodore Adams, III, about the realities a celebrated young African-American actor faces when he enrolls at a prestigious theater school in Japan to play the lead role in Shakespeare’s Othello.

Tyndall Typewriters, with an award-winning script by Theodore Adams, III, features a repairman of antique typewriters who reminds people of the days when communications, social interactions, and relationships were tactile experiences.

Zoo (Volkershau), produced and directed by Monda Raquel Webb, is based on a gut-wrenching. true event at the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, Belgium.

Saving San Domingo, produced and edited by Sandy Cannon-Brown, reveals a 200-year-old African-American community struggling to save its traditions and values.

Other independent film highlights in the virtual festival include: Heroes’ Honeymoon, Honey Bee, The Recess, Type Cast, Ball Side Middle (A Brooklyn Basketball Story), Chicago: America’s Hidden War, Sky So Blue, RUMBLE: The Indians who Rocked the World, The Friendliest Town, The Tower Road Bus and Under the Same Sky.

Now in its 14th year, the mission of the Chesapeake Film Festival is to entertain, empower, educate and inspire diverse audiences of all ages by presenting exceptional independent films and events. We offer outstanding filmmakers, experienced and emerging, a forum to showcase and discuss stories of compelling interest to our local and global community. Because of our location on the Chesapeake Bay and our diverse population, we prioritize films that focus on the environment and social justice issues. The Festival also strives to be an economic engine for the Eastern Shore by enticing visitors to experience exceptional films, world-famous seafood, art, and the beauty of our waterways..

For more information, visit chesapeakefilmfestival.com or contact Nancy Tabor, our Executive Director at 443-955-9144. Tickets will be on sale and trailers will be available on chesapeakefilmfestival.com starting September 1, 2021.

It is pretty clear after talking to Fred Hughes, the founder, and president of Jazz Alive, that he was fed not only a diet of baby food but also side dishes of Jazz and classical music as an infant.

With a father having a successful career as a jazz pianist, Fred grew up in a household where music was a daily part of family life, including joining his dad’s gigs, and quickly picking up both tuba and keyboard as his preferred instruments.

Indeed, Hughes later choose a career in the armed services to not only serve his country but take advantage of the army’s long-standing tradition of supporting musicians among its ranks. With overseas assignments that allowed him to visit and perform in jazz clubs all over the world, Fred continued this passion after his discharge with a full, seven days a week, as a jazz pianist in some of the Mid-Atlantic’s most popular venues, including a long-running gig at the famed Willard Hotel in Washington.

While Fred’s career has come with great satisfaction, it didn’t escape him that his audiences were getting older and greyer every year. And with that observation in mind, he began to worry that Jazz would be destined for extinction without some organized intervention, particularly with young students.

In response to this severe threat, Hughes created the Jazz Alive organization from his studio in Royal Oak in 2019. With a particular emphasis on youth programming, including creating the DelMarVa Youth Jazz Orchestra and an exciting new concert series to help fund those programs, Fred and his board are now in full swing as the Eastern Shore slowly emerges from the dark days of the Covid pandemic.

We talked to Fred earlier this week in the Spy studio about his new mission of keeping Jazz alive for generations to come.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about Jazz Alive, and to make reservations for its concerts at Easton’s Waterfowl Building, please go here.