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January 24, 2021

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Arts Arts Portal Lead Arts Arts Top Story

Spy Review: Judy Collins at the Avalon

March 10, 2020 by Val Cavalheri Leave a Comment

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Going on tour, for a singer or a band, is a grueling task. There is traveling from city to city, and different countries, perhaps. There are the interviews with the media, the sound checks, the show, the packing up to do it all again at the next venue. It’s exhausting. But don’t tell that to Judy Collins, the prolific folk and rock and roll singer/songwriter icon from the sixties. Collins loves touring and has no intention of stopping. “I think retirement is the key to death,” she said.

Ask anyone who was at her sold-out performances on Friday night March 6th at the Avalon, and they’ll agree that Collins hasn’t lost any of the magic and relevancy that even today, at the age of 80, sells out concerts. Yes, her vocal range isn’t what it used to be, but she is still capable of hitting those incredible high notes and singing a song with as much conviction and accuracy as any singer today.

On this particular tour, the Grammy-winning artist is touting a brand-new album, Winter Stories, which was released last November. The 10-song set was recorded with Norwegian singer Jonas Fjeld and the American bluegrass musical group, Chatham County Line. But, pulling up a setlist (songs played during a concert) from the current tour proved useless. With a repertoire as varied as her discography, she could (and does) change it often. That’s why people keep coming back to see her perform, she says. “They’re never going to hear it the same way twice.”

What the Avalon audience did hear and experience on Friday was a throwback to a different era, a time-machine of sorts, said a NY Times article. Guitar in hand with just a piano player behind her, Collins took to the stage and never let go. The old songs were not only revived, but they were also reshaped and recreated by the artist who had once represented a different generation. The new songs she introduced were infused by the unmistakably Judy Collins’ sound and interpretation.

In between the ballads, Collins entertained the audience with her anecdotes, recollections and some behind the scene conversations and experiences with other song legends: Joni Mitchell, Ari Hest, Leonard Cohen, and Willie Nelson.

The concert started with “Both Sides Now.” Although written by Joni Mitchell, it was first recorded by Collins. She reminisced about how in the sixties, musician and record producer, Al Kooper (also known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears) called Collins, insisting that her voice would be a perfect fit for the new songwriter he had just heard–Joni Mitchell. He was right, and it became one of her top ten hits from the sixties. This was also the start of her putting a stamp on other people’s songs and making them famous.

Other familiar songs included the evocative Joan Baez song about her love affair with Bob Dylan, “Diamonds and Rust,” and “Send in the Clowns” by Stephen Sondheim, which charted for Collins both in 1975 and 1977. From the 2015 release of the album of duets Strangers Again, she sang “When I Go,” a ballad, she ‘couldn’t get out of her mind’ and one she recorded with Willie Nelson.

Highlights from the new album, Winter Stories, included “Northwest Passage,” “Mountain Girl,” “The Blizzard” (from a 1990 album), “River” (another Mitchell cover), and “Highwayman.”

Lest you think she’s lost her social conscience and activist edge, Collins at one point during the show, put down her guitar and sang, a cappella, “Dreamers,” a poem turned to music which she began performing with Stephen Stills last year. It was a delicate, ethereal rendition with a clear message about DACA, a message not lost on the silent crowd which wiped away tears and jumped to their feet, giving her a standing ovation.

For an encore, Collins sang her unmatched rendition of “Amazing Grace,” which, as a side note, was selected to be in the National Recording Registry for preservation by the Library of Congress for its artistic significance.

Friday’s appearance represents Collins’ fifth time at the Avalon and the first since 2015. Suzy Moore, Avalon’s Artistic Director, said, “In my honest opinion, Judy Collins is the epitome of grace and talent. She has a feisty spirit and delivers a great show.” Collins returned the compliment praising the Avalon, comparing it with the Oslo Opera House, a place where she recently played and also sold out.

Before looking into what’s coming up for this inexhaustible artist, it is worth mentioning the act that opened for Collins, folksinger/songwriter Kirsten Maxwell. Maxwell surprised the audience. She was personable, talented as hell, and well-deserving of the approval. Maxwell informed the crowd before leaving the stage that Judy Collins would be producing her next album.

So, besides producing, will we finally see Collins slow up? Not a chance.

She will be performing through the end of March, and then head overseas for a series of concerts in Norway where she has been nominated for a Spellemann Award (often referred to as the Norwegian Grammy), before returning to the U.S. and continuing her tour.

Also upcoming is another new album, Resistance and Beauty, which will be out this year and will feature the haunting song, “Dreamers.”

But that’s not all.

In the summer, she will launch a new tour with Arlo Guthrie.

Collins is also a fertile writer. Although she’s published fiction, most of her books have been memoirs and dealt with food and alcohol addictions, her life in the music industry, her suicide attempt, and even her son’s suicide. Is there another book on the horizon? Perhaps.

In her spare time, Collins continues to be a social activist, representing UNICEF and numerous other causes.

With no retirement in sight, Judy Collins might just prove that eighty is the new thirty.

 

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Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story Tagged With: Avalon Theatre, Easton, local news, The Talbot Spy

Avalon Theater Presents Art Garfunkel

February 11, 2020 by Steve Parks Leave a Comment

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Art Garfunkel makes his Easton debut in the 400-seat Avalon Theater not only on the most significant romantic night of the year—expect him to sing “I Only Have Eyes for You” during his Valentine’s Day gig Friday night—but he also plays the next two nights.

“Art specifically wanted to play smaller rooms for multiple days to reduce the travel grind,” says Al Bond, president of the Avalon Foundation, referring to Garfunkel’s current autumn-through-spring tour. “Otherwise, his brand is too big for the Avalon.” Translation: We couldn’t afford him for one night only.

“We’re thrilled to present Mr. Garfunkel, and we’re so looking forward to next weekend,” says Suzy Moore, Avalon’s artistic director. “The town should be bustling with the three Art shows and the inaugural Fire & Ice Festival.” Fire & Ice brings three days of ice sculptures, outdoor ice-skating, and other winter-themed happenings, along with music and “Stews & Brews” starting on Valentine’s Day, when Garfunkel arrives in town.

So, if you don’t yet have Artie tickets—it’s a sellout—you can celebrate anyway.

Garfunkel also played three nights last weekend at Wolftrap in Vienna, Va. at its indoor venue, The Barns, also with about 400 seats. There was a time, of course, when Simon and Garfunkel, the highest-profile folk-rock duo possibly of all time, could easily sell out the much larger outdoor Wolftrap venue, including overflow lawn seating, or draw an estimated million fans for a free Central Park concert. I once reviewed Simon and Garfunkel for the Baltimore Sun at Laurel Race Course, an outdoor concert with a video projection resembling a drive-in movie screen.

After years of squabbling following their breakup, Garfunkel has long enjoyed concert rights to perform the songs—all written by Simon—that made both of them famous. So, you’re almost homeward bound, excuse the pun, to hear his solo versions of “Sounds of Silence,” “Scarborough Fair,” and “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” Not sure about my personal favorite, “The Boxer.”

There are also a dozen solo albums of cover songs—including Great American standards-plus others written or co-written by Garfunkel, which will expand your expectations about one of the greatest vocal collaborators of 20th-century chart-topping music.

Among some of the songs, you may not recognize may be “Bright Eyes,” a solo hit in Europe that somehow went mostly unnoticed in the States. Also, “Everything Waits to Be Noticed,” Garfunkel’s title song of his 2002 album. More familiar are his “(What a) Wonderful World” and “Someone to Watch Over Me” (George and Ira Gershwin).

Garfunkel also weaves an enigmatic tapestry of stories from the life of a celebrity. Besides being a world-class troubadour, he also once enjoyed a promising acting career in the 1970s, with roles in “Carnal Knowledge” and “Catch 22. I say “enigmatic” based on the title of his 2017 memoir, “Life Is All but Luminous: Notes from an Underground Man.” Inspired by Balzac and a subtitle borrowed from Dostoyevsky, Garfunkel says of Balzac, “He’s a forgotten man. You don’t hear his name at all nowadays. Honoré de Balzac. When you see pictures of him, he was so ruddy and alive. You just know he was a steak eater and a drinker. He’s got such a furious amount of energy.”

Apparently so does Garfunkel, who muses about his walking trips across Europe and America in relatively short hikes at a time.

At a recent concert in Los Angeles, he joked (we presume), “There’s a lot of mortality in this show.”

Of his current tour, which takes him to Florida after Easton and an eight-day performance cruise out of Miami, he told nashvillescene.com: “I don’t look at it as a tour. I just look at it as ‘this is what I do.’ I go out on the road, and I do shows, usually on weekends. Are they tours? They’re mini-tours. This is my life: I sing, I have a booking agent, he finds me stages, and I go all over the world. . . I love it. It’s a great way to get away with singing, warbling [Garfunkel’s way of making fun of his now-less-than-crystalline voice]. Ah, to do that and get away with it, and that’s your living, and you do these famous songs—and they pay you! And you move on to the next town—I love this deal!”

On tour, Garfunkel is accompanied by Ted Laven on guitar, Paul Beard on keyboard and, occasionally, by his son, Arthur Jr., on harmonizing vocals.

ART GARFUNKEL at the Avalon.
Tickets: sold out; call 410-822-7299 for possible cancellations

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

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Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story Tagged With: Avalon Theatre, Chestertown Spy, Easton, music, The Talbot Spy

SSPP Performing Arts Club Presents Macbeth at the Avalon February 21-23

February 6, 2020 by Avalon Foundation Leave a Comment

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Macbeth by William Shakespeare, is a classic tragedy of ambition, greed, and equivocation. A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives an equivocal prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia.

In keeping with SSPP High School Performing Arts Program’s commitment to giving students a broad, well rounded theatre experience over the course of four years, the emphasis of this year’s production will be the elements of a Shakespearean tragedy, gender roles, and character development. What makes a work a tragedy? Is Macbeth a tragic hero? How are gender roles depicted by Shakespeare? Are the witches to blame for the downfall of Macbeth? Is Lady Macbeth to blame? Is Macbeth to blame? All of these questions inform our performance and help guide students to think more critically and analytically about this great tragedy.

In contrast with last year’s Earnestly Earnestine, a contemporary play with two simple interior sets and no special effects or period costumes, this year’s production of Macbeth has three sets: two interior and one exterior. Our production also uses special effects (fog, lighting, sound effect), Victorian costumes, live student musicians, and an elaborate dance routine for the witches. It has a cast of twenty students. Plus, students are being set-creators, make-up artists, back-stage managers, and advertising artists (students created the artwork for our poster, our t-shirts, and our program). In short, this production is aimed to give students a full performing arts experience.

Mr. Mark Ripka, Latin teacher at SSPP, will be directing SSPP High School’s annual play. He is the faculty adviser for the Performing Arts Club, has worked with them for four years–as an actor, producer, and program creator. Ms. Elora Amtower, an English teacher at SSPP, will be the producer. Guest artist, Mrs. Kimberly Dyer, a former professional ballerina, will be choreographing the witches. Mrs. Kate Levey will mentor the production. She has worked in professional, community, and educational theatre settings for over 30 years and was

Program Administrator and Director for the Avalon Theatre’s summer performing arts camps.

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Filed Under: Ed Notes Tagged With: Avalon Theatre, Chestertown Spy, local news

Shore Arts: MSO Selects Winner of Elizabeth Loker Competition

January 13, 2020 by Steve Parks

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The winner of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural Elizabeth Loker Concerto Competition is Joseph McNure, a 22-year-old graduate student in music at the University of Maryland College Park, whose instrument of choice is the alto saxophone.

Joseph McNure

McNure was awarded $2,000 and a three-concert reprise in March of the winning performance of Paul Creston’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone, along with the full orchestra performing Mozart’s Symphony No. 33. The Creston concerto was a bold choice, composed by an Italian-American born to Sicilian immigrant parents in 1905. Creston died in 1985, and although he was a prolific composer whose work was widely performed through the 1950s, he was better known as a teacher in his later years. McNure interpreted the piece in an original classical jazz format, ranging from frantic piercing to quieter riffs that seemed to evoke familiar refrains you think you know but can’t quite place.

McNure, a Virginia Beach native, was the last of six finalists to perform Thursday night, January 9, at the Avalon Theatre in Easton. Six competitors were selected among about 40 applicants who were judged in December based on audio performances submitted to an MSO team. The team led by Terry Ewell, graduate director of music at Towson University, also consisted of Dane Krich, the orchestra’s general manager, and Julian Benichou, its music director. Ewell and Benichou were judges of the final round of the competition, while Krich emceed the evening’s proceedings.

While McNure said he was “thrilled” to win the competition, he’s been a winner before—capturing top honors in the University of Maryland Concerto Competition last fall.

Second-place was won by Joshua Lauretig, 25, who performed the oboe solo of Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Major. Honorable mention went to 12-year-old Sophia Lin of Longfellow Middle School in Virginia, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major. The other contestants were saxophonist Tae Ho Twang playing Alexander Glazunov’s Concerto in E-flat Major and cellists Yejin Hong and Eunghee Cho, both of whom performed, separately, Dvorak’s Cello Concerto.

In the awards presentation, Maestro Benichou noted that music competitions are not to be compared to athletic battles in that each contestant in music is out to play one’s best rather than to defeat fellow musicians. In solo competitions, he said, “We don’t learn music so much as learn about ourselves.”

Benichou also paid tribute to the competition’s namesake, the late Elizabeth Loker, longtime Easton supporter of the orchestra who bequeathed a gift to the MSO in her will.

As the winner of this first annual Elizabeth Loker Concerto Competition, Joseph McNure, will perform his triumphant Paul Creston piece with the orchestra, also performing the Mozart symphony, on March 5 at the Easton Church of God, March 7 at Ocean View Church of Christ, Ocean View, Delaware, and March 8 at the Community Church in Ocean Pines, Maryland. Tickets: $45, 888-846-8600.

Steve Parks is a retired journalist, arts writer and editor now living in Easton

Filed Under: Arts Notes, Arts Top Story, Commerce Notes Tagged With: Avalon Theatre, Easton, local news, Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, music, The Talbot Spy

Shore Arts: MSO Elizabeth Loker Competition for Emerging Artists

January 8, 2020 by Steve Parks

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And now for something brand new in this new year for the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and the rest of us. The inaugural Elizabeth Loker Concerto Competition moves into its final round Thursday night, January 9, at the Avalon Theatre with six solo musicians performing concertos they have selected for their particular instrumental skills. The winner, chosen by a pair of musician jurists, will be announced on stage shortly after the last note of the concertos is played.

“We’ve been looking to reach out and discover new talent,” says Dane Krich, general manager of the MSO as well as one of the orchestra’s percussionists. “We wanted to find the next young person we’d like to showcase.”

The winner takes home a $2,000 check and a trip back to Easton for a March 5 showcase, plus two reprise matinee performances in Ocean View, Delaware, and Ocean Pines, Maryland March 7 and 8. The March concerts also feature the full Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra’s rendition of Mozart’s Symphony No. 33.

“The competition is named for a longtime supporter of the orchestra, Elizabeth Loker, who unfortunately passed away a few years ago,” Krich says. “So, this is in her memory.”

“The competition is the brainchild of our board president,” Terry Ewell says of Jeffrey Parker. “He and Julian Benichou have been wanting to make this happen,” he added, referring to the MSO music director now in his 15th season.

One reason Ewell, graduate director of music at Towson University, and a bassoonist with the MSO, was brought on board for the project was his administrative experience, especially in running competitions such as this one. “You’ve got to know who and where to send letters and applications and how to set up the judging,” he says.

Letters went out at the start of the MSO current season in September. Approximately 40 applicants submitted video performances by way of YouTub for a blind first-round competition. They came from as far as Austin, Texas, Miami, Florida, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, and as nearby as several cities in Maryland. “We sent our jurists only the audio of the recordings, identified by number. Neither of the judges saw any names or any video,” Krich says. “Their decisions were based solely on how each musician played their instrument and how they interpreted the concerto they selected.”

Of these contestants, jurors were given until December 12 to choose six finalists ranging in age from 12 to 25.

The six musicians and the concertos they’re performing Thursday at the Avalon are:

Tae Ho Hwang, 25, saxophone: Alexander Glazunov, Concerto in E-flat Major

Yejin Hong, 22: Dvorak, Cello Concerto

Joseph McNure, saxophone, 22: Paul Creston, Concerto for Alto Saxophone

Joshua Lauretig, 25 oboe: Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto in C Major RV 447

Sophia Lin,12 piano: Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K 453

Eunghee Cho,22 cello: Dvorak, Cello Concerto

ELIZABETH LOKER CONCERTO COMPETITION, final round..
7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St., Easton
Tickets: $10; 410-822-0345

. . . and the winner’s concert performance
7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 5, Easton Church of God, 1009 N. Washington St.; Ocean View Church of Christ, 55 West Ave., Ocean View, Delaware; Community Church, Route 589 and Racetrack Road, Ocean Pines, Maryland
Tickets: $45; 888-846-8600

Steve Parks is a retired journalist, arts writer and editor now living in Easton.

Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Chestertown Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here

Filed Under: Arts Notes, Arts Top Story Tagged With: Avalon Theatre, Easton, local news, Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, music, The Talbot Spy

For All Seasons Hosts Red Devil Moon Performance at Avalon Theatre

December 30, 2019 by For All Seasons, Inc.

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On Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 7 p.m., For All Seasons will host “Red Devil Moon,” a concert version of an original musical at the Avalon Theatre in Easton, MD. The show, with a script by Robert Earl Price and music and lyrics by Pam Oritz, is inspired by the novel, “Cane,” by Jean Toomer, originally published in 1923. Jean Toomer’s “Cane” is widely considered the first major text of the Harlem Renaissance. Price approached Pam Ortiz of Chestertown after hearing her 2012 album of original tunes, with the idea of collaborating on a new piece of musical theatre.

“Red Devil Moon” tells the story of events that unfold on the night of the full moon during the sugarcane harvest in South Georgia through music and narrative. The enveloping scent of boiling cane syrup, the observant creatures of the night, the provocative moon, and conflicted characters conspire to set the backdrop for a love story that is both personal and universal.

Pictured is Karen Somerville with members of the Pam Ortiz Band.

The evening will include songs from the musical narrated by Price, who is a recipient of the American Film Institute’s William Wyler Award for Screenwriting and the author of four books of poetry. He spent 15 years in Los Angeles working in the Black film movement and collaborated with artists associated with the L.A. Rebellion.  Music in the show will be performed by the Gospel trio Sombarkin and the Pam Ortiz Band.  Sombarkin, whose members include Karen Somerville, Lester Barrett Jr., and Jerome McKinney, is well known and admired for their deeply layered and finely wrought sound and vocal arrangements.  The Pam Ortiz Band, whose members include Nevin Dawson (viola, violin, and vocals), Philip Dutton (piano, keyboards and vocals), Ford Schumann (guitar and vocals), Bob Ortiz (percussion and vocals), and Pam Ortiz (guitar and vocals), will be joined by Tom Anthony on bass and Ray Anthony on drums. The troupe performed the concert version of “Red Devil Moon” at the 2016 New York International Fringe Festival.

Ortiz wanted to perform the concert this year on the Shore to benefit For All Seasons where she currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors. Beth Anne Langrell, Chief Executive Officer of For All Seasons, comments, “Pam’s music continues to inspire local residents with themes about social justice. She is such a big supporter of our agency and has remained committed to supporting the work that we do. This benefit concert is another example of her passion for mental health services in our communities.”

Tickets to “Red Devil Moon” at the Avalon Theatre cost $25 for adults and $10 for students. To purchase tickets, visit forallseasonsinc.org or call 410-822- 1018. For information on “Red Devil Moon,” visit reddevilmoon.com.

For All Seasons serves Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne, and Talbot counties. For All Seasons Rape Crisis Center offers certified sexual assault victim advocates; counseling and support groups, free and confidential services in English and Spanish, support in the hospital, police department, and court, and referrals to social and legal services. For All Seasons English Hotline is 1-800-310-RAPE (7273) and Spanish Hotline is 410-829-6143.

Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Chestertown Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here

Filed Under: Arts Notes Tagged With: Avalon Theatre, Chestertown Spy, For All Seasons, local news

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