Conductor’s Corner
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I have been very pleased with our first two concerts, and felt we had a good response to our soloists. We’re now looking forward to our upcoming concert on February 20, on which I purposely programmed shorter pieces to make for more variety in the type of repertoire offered. We are presently working on repertoire and soloists for next season, our 35th Anniversary Season, and hope to be able to tell you about that soon. Please continue to enjoy our concerts, and I look forward to seeing you.
Letter from our President
It gives us great pleasure to present on our February 20 concert the young soprano Lori Hicks, who is in her second year of teaching at Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC. A native of Detroit, she received her doctorate from the University of Michigan in 2007. Lori has a lot of performing under her belt, including during the last two seasons appearances with the Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh and El Paso Opera singing the role of Bess in Porgy and Bess, from which we will hear her sing two arias on February 20. You won’t want to miss hearing this up-and-coming talent, and to interact with her at the Q&A with Maestro Portnoy following the concert.
We are particularly delighted at our record-breaking attendance for the first two concerts of this season, and thank you for your support. During the winter months we tend to have smaller crowds since many of our patrons are in Florida. To try and encourage more people to come, the repertoire for the February 20 concert is very accessible, consisting of shorter pieces From Mozart to Gershwin. I would ask each one of you to help us get out the crowd by bringing a friend. Chamber Directors have received special invitations to the concert, and if you know any of them please encourage them to come.
The gospel group DIVERGENT is our pre-concert presentation on February 20. Please see below under pre-concert events for details and note, since we are expecting a huge crowd, it will begin at 1:45pm in Scott Concert Hall.
We are in the process of planning our 2011-2012 season, our 35th Anniversary Season, and as I have previously indicated welcome repertoire and guest artist suggestions. Please bear in mind, however, that if you’d like to have Frederica van Stade you’ll need to give us $50,000!!! In any case, I am very happy to be able to report that it looks as though we may be able to implement one of the suggestions already received, and hopefully will be able to share at least part of our schedule with you in the next newsletter.
The Spring Benefit is set for April 10, 2011, featuring Donald Portnoy on violin and Joan Yarbrough on piano. Watch the mail for your invitation, as given the wonderful crowd in October I’m sure the April event will be a sell-out.
Pre-Concert Events
A very exciting addition to our February 20 concert will be the appearance of DIVERGENT, a gospel group directed by Lamar Gordon, whom many of you know is the Program Director for Neighbors in Ministry at the Rise & Shine Freedom School. Lamar will be bringing his gospel group from Asheville which, like its name, plays a variety of gospel styles. There will be some old favorites and some new takes on the old tunes. Because we are expecting a huge crowd DIVERGENT will be performing in Scott Concert Hall. Please note the start time of 1:45pm on February 20.
Tickets
The office at 351 South Caldwell Street, Brevard will be open for ticket sales from 10AM to 1PM on the following dates: February 9, 11, 16, and 18. Tickets are also available at TCArts during regular business hours.
