After Months of Covid Darkness, Performers are Expressing Themselves Once Again

 

For many folks, the Covid pandemic lockdown did not make a big difference to their daily work life. Given the technology now available, working on computers in the family room allowed them to do most of the tasks required of them back in their offices. Some even preferred the “new normal” of going to work, dressed in jammies with a dog at their feet.

But that’s not the case for performing musicians. Working remotely is not an option for a concert soloist. 

The pandemic denied these artists more than not being able to do their job. It limited the very essence of how they communicate emotions and feelings to others.

VAIL! Mountains and Music: Perfect

 

When I was planning a trip to the mountains of Colorado with my son, my one request was that we choose a place that had live music available to us in the evening.  I was aware that Aspen has a famous music and arts school with many concerts but I didn’t know about Vail. 

To my surprise this ski resort, an hour southwest of Denver, is the home of Bravo!Vail a full throated music festival with a full array of concerts, and events. During the month of July, the festival played host to four major orchestras, one week for each ensemble. The lineup was Academy of St. Martin in Fields with Joshua Bell, the Dallas Symphony, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.

I was there for the NY Phil’s week which made me feel I had hit the mother lode.  I found the experience to be nearly perfect: hiking through the stunning 8-10,000 ft. mountains during the day (no humidity, no mosquitoes), and listening to a world class orchestra in the evening.

COVID - TV

 

It’s been a strange year. The semi-quarantine we are living in began almost like a game.  Sometimes, it reminded me of camping.

People stayed at home.  They played board games, ate ALL meals together and watched a lot of TV.  It was a new adventure and almost fun.  Families brought out favorite recipes they had forgotten. Zoom, which was mostly unknown by most Americans, suddenly became ubiquitious.  Every one was Zooming for family gatherings, playing bidge, religious servies and business.

And everyone was walking.  Dogs have never been happier as their masters took them outside 3-4 times a day. And they were with them all day long, as well.  Heaven! Also, stores were running out of flowers and topsoil as folks spent hours laboring in their gardens. 

But soon the fun of it all began to fade.  Cooking became a chore again. Lovely quiet evenings at home reading, soon lost its charm.

Lansing Symphony: Up-Close, Personal and Online

 

How can a symphony orchestra survive if there are no audiences to listen to their concerts?

Lansing Symphony Orchestra conductor and music director Timothy Muffitt has given much thought to pondering an answer to that difficult question.

The most obvious answer is digital video.  A quick scan of You Tube and you will find hundreds of orchestras trying various ways of keeping classical performances alive and their subscribers happy.

Muffitt says, “I’ve spent a lot of time viewing videos of orchestras giving performances with empty concert halls.  That didn’t seem right to me. I kept on thinking; how can we turn liabilities into assets?”

Lansing's Queen of Theater, Dead

 

On January 30^th, Lansing lost its queen of local theater. Carmen Decker died at age 97 after years of lingering bad health.

She was only 5 foot tall, painfully shy and had a high raspy voice, but when the petite blonde stepped on the stage she became a powerhouse of the theater.

Carmen Decker was hailed by both her peers and her fans as the first lady of Lansing theater.

Whether she played in a classic drama like “The Lion in Winter”, an emotional human story like “The Gin Game” or a raucous comedy like “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All For You”, Decker won over the audience with applause and awards.

All of us who have loved Lansing theater over the decades have reveled in Carmen’s heartfelt and brilliant performances.  Beginning with the Lansing Civic Players in the 1950s, she later became a key member of the Boarshead Theater and delighted audiences with dozens of plays that paired her with John Peakes, the theater’s founder. 

The chemistry they displayed on stage was a rare and beautiful thing to behold. 

 

MEHRETU: East Lansing Artist Becomes International Sensation

 

This article will soon appear in the Lansing Sate Jounrnal.  You get a sneak preview

One sure way of rating the health and success of a city, is to see what its children, now adults, have accomplished who were raised there. 

Well, in the case of the greater Lansing area, the kids have done very well, thank you.  Here’s a small sampling of some of the standouts who have achieved national and international recognition, along with where they graduated from high school. It’s quite an impressive list.

·      Larry Page, co-creator of Google, East Lansing High School

·      Magic Johnson, basketball superstar and business leader, Everett High school.

·      Lisa Kron, Tony-award winning Broadway writer and performer, Everett High School.

·      Nate Silver, pollster and statistician guru who is constantly quoted by media throughout the US. East Lansing High School.

·      Julie Mehretu, world renown visual artist who was listed in TIME magazine’s most influential 100. East Lansing High School  

Is there something about the environment and culture of mid-Michigan that nurtures world class success in our children? We will attempt to find out.

Let’s begin with Julie Mehretu

Julie Mehretu

As my Zoom screen flickered to life, Julie Mehretu’s image appeared.  A fresh, lively face, a full crop of curly – almost unruly- hair, with a big easy smile.  Nearing 50, Julie is vibrant, full of energy and shows no pretentions despite her dazzling career.

Cable News Crisis?

 I would love to be a fly on the wall in the morning meetings at CNN and MSNBC.  The future may not be bright for them.

If Trump happens to lose the presidential election in two weeks, they may have to go back to presenting the news again.

For the past six years, Mr. Trump has succeeded in hijacking the major cable news networks.  Having achieved fame for his Apprentice TV show, Trump knows a thing or two about what drives the media and he has taken full advantage of that expertise.

Cable news has been transformed into Trump cable news. Instead of showing a full display of national and international news and issues, we are inundated with a reality show of wall-to-wall Trump, Trump, Trump.

The Democrat Convention: A Creative Challenge

 

Convention Director, Glenn Weiss - Photo credit: Janis Friedlander Svendsen/Facebook

The creative process has always fascinated me.  The process of growing a work of art from an idea to its ultimate presentation is a journey filled wrong-ways, bumps, dead-ends, and potholes. But every now and then a great idea appears from the sky somewhere and things come together.  It seems like a miracle.

I thought a lot about the creative process when watching the Democratic National Convention last week.  The format for a national political convention has remained constant for the last 60 years or so.

 But now, during the Covid-19 epidemic, the organizers were tasked to transform the entire shebang to somehow fit into a TV show with no audiences. Impossible!

 It is difficult to even consider that level of challenge. Glenn Weiss, the “show’s” director, has previously been successful at steering  the Tony Awards, The Kennedy Center Honors and other shows, but what we saw last week was a monstrous eight hours of content over a four day period.  Dozens of cameras, live and taped, worldwide locations, kids and adults.   

 Talk about a daunting challenge!

 

"Hamilton" - A Triumphant Second Wave

Disney’s streaming release of the mega hit musical “Hamilton” has solved one of the great cinematic conundrums of the past 60 years. How do you take a beloved and successful Broadway musical and repackage it into a movie that is faithful to the original material?

Here are the biggest potholes that block the success of almost every stage-to-screen attempt.

Lip-syncing: All movie musicals (except for “Les Miz”) have the actors lip sync the lyrics that they (or someone else) recorded in studios months before.  It never sounds believable.

Wrong actors: Since Hollywood craves that big, big hit, producers often hire famous movie stars to play the leads. Often these stars don’t sing well or dance. One reason musicals are so electrifying is that the skills these Broadway actors/singers/dancers display live on the stage is nothing less than jaw dropping. Movie stars can’t come close.

Sondheim in the age of Zoom

For died-in the wool Broadway show lovers, Stephen Sondheim is more than legendary – the word “iconic” better describes his standing with his fans.

True enough, some folks prefer more traditional fare like Oklahoma, Hello Dolly, Guys and Dolls and such. Sondheim’s shows demand a slightly different taste. They’re more philosophical, intricate, and serious, but never have singing choruses or dancing. Musicians regard his music and lyrics as challenging and demanding.

At age 90, Sondheim is old enough to have witnessed many theatrical tributes to his music. 

But I must say, I have never seen a celebration of his work quite like the one that is currently available on You Tube called Take Me To The World    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A92wZIvEUAw .  For anyone who enjoys great voices singing some of the most sophisticated songs ever written, this is a true treasure.

Social Distancing - Nothing New

The coronavirus is forcing us to experience social distancing to the extreme, but actually we have been flirting with separating ourselves from others for quite a while. And we’ve been doing it by choice.

Several years ago I remember being shocked at seeing three young women friends together in a restaurant.  They were sitting very close to one another but were not paying attention to each other at all.  Instead, they were all talking or texting on their phones while their friends were right in front of them face to face. So instead of communicating with each other, they were interacting with their phones. Today, that has become a very common occurrence.

The social distancing that society has experienced over the last ten years or so has happened so gradually, that we have scarcely noticed it.  

Little by little we left the global community and chose to live within ourselves.