The Swellesley Report » Music

Wellesley Choral Society readies for A Folk Song Feast

bbrown — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:04:35 +0000

The Wellesley Choral Society presents its second concert of the season on Saturday, Jan 28 at 7pm. This mid-winter concert is in the style of a pops/cabaret performance meant to entertain and amuse. This year’s motto is A Folk Song Feast featuring songs from around the world. They will be presented either in their original, mostly unadorned style, the way they were and are sung by the people of a given country or they are performed as arrangements of folk tunes by famous composers such as Aaron Copland, Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók, Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten. Countries represented in the concert are the US, Mexico, Israel, South Africa, Germany, Hungary, Russia, China, the British Isles and others.

This concert will be led by Ted Whalen, Music Director of the Wellesley Choral Society, and piano accompaniment is by Hisako Hiratsuka. In keeping with the spirit of a pops/cabaret performance this is a casual, relaxed event. The audience is seated at tables and complimentary refreshments will be provided. A raffle and sing along add to the evening’s entertainment.

The Choral Society will donate a limited number of free tickets to the Wellesley Council on Aging. A few days before the concert, Wellesley senior citizens may pick them up at 219 Washington Street. Call 781-235-3961 first to make sure tickets are still available.

The concert takes place at Wellesley Hills Congregational Church, 207 Washington Street (near the intersection of routes 9 and 16). Directions to the church can be found on the WCS website, www.wellesleychoralsociety.org. The church is handicapped accessible and there is ample free parking. Tickets are sold at the door: $15 regular admission, $12 seniors, $5 students.

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Sing for your ice cream or coffee in Wellesley Square

bbrown — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:15:27 +0000

J.P. Licks in Wellesley Square has gotten the go-ahead from town officials to host its first Acoustic Open Mic Night on Tuesday, Feb. 7 from 7:30PM to 9:30PM.

The details:

•Acoustic instruments only (no electric guitars)
•All ages
•Keyboards are okay
•Max of 2 to 3 musicians (3 is even tight)
•Only hand percussion instruments allowed (no drum kits)
•P.A. will be provided
•Each musician will be allowed two to three songs, depending on how many other acts are present
•Each performer will be given a celebratory free ice cream or coffee following their performance

If you are interested in performing or have any questions, please email jplicksopenmic@gmail.com.

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Free piano concert at Dana Hall on Sunday

bbrown — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:17:59 +0000

From Dana Hall School of Music:

-First Sunday Music Series – Ian Lindsey, Piano

-Sunday, January 8, 3pm

-Beveridge Hall on the campus of the Dana Hall School

Dana Hall School of Music continues its First Sunday Music Series with a concert featuring Ian Lindsey, piano. Lindsey will be performing an all-Liszt program in commemoration of the recent 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 2011. Last April, Lindsey performed Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, Nos. 1-9, and this recital will continue with the Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos. 10-19. Ian Lindsey has been on the faculty of the Dana Hall School of Music since 2000. After graduating from the Walnut Hill School of the Performing Arts, Ian Lindsey continued his studies with Randall Hodgkinson at The New England Conservatory where he received both his undergraduate and Master degrees. He has performed regularly throughout New England and the northeast, with virtuoso repertoire such as the complete sets of etudes by Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninov; Goyescas by Granados, and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, which is he currently recording. Lindsey has won the Arlington Symphony Orchestra competition and was a recipient of the St. Botolph award for promising musicians.

The First Sunday Music Series is a new performance series hosted by Dana Hall School of Music. Each month features different members of the music faculty as well as guest artists. ”We created the series to honor the incredible performing talent of our many music instructors” said Jennifer Gaul, Director. ”We are extremely fortunate to have access to these high calibre musicians and we wanted to make sure our community had an opportunity to experience their talent. And Beveridge Hall is a beautiful setting for our concerts with wonderful acoustics.”

The next concert in the series will be on Sunday, Feb. 5, and will feature a variety of faculty members performing both solos and duets on flute, piano, guitar, and voice.

The First Sunday Music Series is free and open to the community.

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Wellesley High students, alumni sparkle at Performing Arts Showcase

bbrown — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:20:28 +0000

Wellesley High School students and alumni put on a great show Saturday night before a packed house at the soon-to-be shuttered school’s auditorium. While 1968 grad Billy Squier generated the most pre-show buzz — and delivered during the show (see video) — it was the wide variety of skills on display from students and alumni that made the show a success from start to finish. Show organizers did an excellent job of commemorating the old school and old friends without getting too sappy.

The event opened with a jazz combo performance from WHS seniors Matt DiBiase and Harvey Xia, along with 2011 grad Tyler Lash. From there, trumpet virtuoso Stephen Burns took over, with one of several performances during the night that recalled former classmates who have died.

Adam Harrington (left, below; an actor who has appeared on “Scrubs,” etc) and Tim Dowling (movie/TV writer, actor, producer) then began their excellent emceeing of the event, which included special thanks to retired Wellesley High teacher Jeanie Goddard, the event’s visionary (below, red outfit). Among the emcees’ stunts: Dowling showed up in a cowardly lion costume, and joined Harrington in a medley of songs from plays they took part in while at the school during the late 1980s and 1990s. Dowling also recounted an ill-advised performance of Batman, which got complicated when he belatedly realized it took a long time for an actor to switch from a rubber Batman suit into a Bruce Wayne suit. They related one story about Harrington’s brother Jay, also an actor, who once accidently mooned the audience during a play on the WHS stage, and later flashed to a clip from one of his TV shows during which he dropped his drawers. They also drew laughs from the crowd for a re-enactment of the old “turf wars” between the gangs of Wellesley Hills and Wellesley (“preps vs the preps”) back before the 1938 Wellesley High School building united the separate parts of town vs. Needham.

The slew of talented performers during the first half of the show included: Olivia Buckley, who sang a song from “A Chorus Line”; poet Nazaleem Cecile Smith, who got the audience involved in reading one of her poems; wife and husband Susan and Rich Bailey who led the singing of a folk tune; and opera singer Eileen (McLoughlin) Christiansen. Current students also performed a number, and a video montage highlighted works of alumni in TV and movies, including from such shows as The Simpsons (the emcees stressed that Bart did not go to WHS).

Olivia Buckley

Nazaleem Cecile Smith

Eileen Christiansen

After intermission, contemporary singers Sarah Blacker and Kayla Ringelheim (and Yancil Cooper) performed separately, with Blacker dedicating her song to her old Wellesley home that got torn down and replaced by a McMansion. Violinist Kelsey Woerner and musical theatre alumni showed off their talents, and set the stage for Squier, who cranked up the noise level in belting out two old hits, “In the Dark” and “Everybody Wants You.”

Show producer/singer Beth Carrillo Thomas and the Rock Ensemble wrapped up the night, joining the crowd on a heartfelt version of John Lennon and Paul McCarthy’s “In My Life. The rest of the performers as well as Goddard also took the stage, holding aloft LED candles that were also distributed to the audience. Goddard commanded everyone to “Turn Out The Lights” at the end of the song, which created a fitting finale.

Although things weren’t quite finished… Friend of The Swellesley Report Artie Doran and the Rock Ensemble sent the crowd off with a set of school-themed songs, including “School’s Out For The Summer.”

All throughout the show, pianist Chad Weirick and a crew of student volunteers kept the night flowing smoothly. Even when a technical difficulty or two did surface, the performers and emcees handled the situations with ease and good humor. Dowling chimed in at one point, when an instrument wouldn’t power up, that it was times like these when you wish Wellesley wasn’t a dry town.

(For those of you who didn’t attend or want to see the performance again, keep an eye on Wellesley cable listings, as Wellesley Media was on the scene)

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Rocker Billy Squier helps Wellesley High turn out the lights

bbrown — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:51:48 +0000

Rock singer and guitarist Billy Squier, a 1968 graduate of Wellesley High School, helped the school turn out the lights Saturday night, playing old hits “In the Dark” and “Everybody Wants You” before a full house at WHS auditorium. Tickets to the event sold out quickly after we noted on Nov. 4 that Squier would be appearing and local press tripped over each other in recent weeks to interview the singer. Squier appeared by himself on stage, first sharing a few stories about his days in Wellesley, including a run in with the law(“an off campus incident”) that nearly put the kibosh on a school play he was starring in.

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Wellesley High School jazz musicians to play TCAN

bbrown — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 13:42:11 +0000

The Wellesley High School Rice Street Singers, along with the 1:00 and 2:00 Jazz Bands, will be performing with jazz vocalist Alyssa Jones at The Center for Arts in Natick on Monday, Nov. 21 at 7pm. All three of these high school groups have won gold medals in state competitions and have all performed at the Hatch Shell. This special performance will include award-winning vocalist and songwriter Allyssa Jones performing with the jazz choir and jazz bands.

Admission: member $5 non-member $5

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Wellesley choirs to perform this coming weekend

bbrown — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:42:36 +0000

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Billy Squier to rock Wellesley this month

bbrown — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:40:45 +0000

Classic rocker Billy Squier, who grew up in Wellesley and graduated from Wellesley High in 1968, has signed on for the Performing Arts Showcase taking place at Wellesley High on Nov. 26 as part of the town’s Turn Out the Lights celebration. Tickets have been selling fast for the event, which will showcase a host of talented WHS grads and students.

Squier is best known for 1980s hits such as “The Stroke” and “Lonely is the Night,” though he continues to perform and write new music.

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Wellesley College Fall Frenzy concert: Ellie Goulding

bbrown — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:35:54 +0000

Ellie Goulding, a rising singer/songwriter out of the UK, will be belting out tunes at a Fall Frenzy concert at Wellesley College on Nov. 14. The concert is free for Wellesley College students and will cost $10 for off-campus guests (ticket info to come). Goulding has made a name for herself of late for her singing and running.

Goulding has recently been tapped to join Katy Perry on her North American tour.

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Tickets on sale for Wellesley Performing Arts Showcase

bbrown — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:13:49 +0000

Tickets have gone on sale for the Performing Arts Showcase taking place the Saturday after Thanksgiving at Wellesley High School as part of the Turn Out the Lights festivities celebrating the end of the old school.

A star-studded line-up of Wellesley High graduates has been assembled, with new performers being added seemingly daily. It will be hosted by Hollywood film writer Tim Dowling (WHS ’92) and actor Adam Harrington (WHS ’96), and performers will include opera singer Joanna Mongiardo, poet Nazaleem Cecile Smith (WHS ’70), singer Sarah Blacker (WHS ’2001), hip hop artist Cam Meekins (WHS ’11) and more.

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