River Concert: Mass in Blue July 8, 2016

Larry Vote was guest conductor for the yearly choral concert at St.Mary's College of Maryland on the green.  The concert featured Lena Siekely, mezzo-soprano and the RCS chorus of mostly students and alumni.  A current student, Joey Haavik sang a duet with Ms. Siekely.

The crowd patiently endured several rain showers before and during the concert, and the sun even set beautifully.  

    

   Larry Vote, guest conductor and Lena Seikaly

     Rain go away

     Lena Seikely, mezzo soprano

     RCS Choir

     RCS choir

     Cool vendor

     Cool clouds

     Tod Simon, Pianist

     Victor Dvoskin, Bass

      Kathy Birch, Cellist

      Katherine Lawhead, Violist

     Joey Haavik, Lena Seikaly, Larry Vote

     Lena Seikaly, Jose Cueto, Larry Vote

Larry Vote conducted Works of Handel at Last Friday's River Concert

Guest conductor, Larry Vote, provided a  choral and instrumental production for the River Concert series on the evening of July 11th at St. Mary's College of Maryland.  The RCS Choir and Chesapeake Orchestra were featured.  His conducting is very artistic, graceful at times and powerful at others.  

Major solo performers included Tenor Jeffrey Springer, Trumpeter Jeffrey Silberschlag, 1st Violinist, Regino Madrid, 2nd Violinist, Nicholas Currie and Cellist, Todd Thiel.  Some of Handel's musical works performed included the Concerto for Trumpet in D, Zadoc the Priest, The King Shall Rejoice, and "Sound an Alarm" from Judas Machabeus.

The concert ended with joy, featuring Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" from Messiah, (which I can't resist singing, since I have sung it with the St. Mary's College of MD choir (led by Larry) multiple times).

      Larry Vote, conductor

     Jeffrey Springer

     Jeffrey Silberschlag

      Regino Madrid

      Todd Thiel

     RCS Choir

     Chesapeake Orchestra

The River Concert on July 11th was a Great Night for Song

Highlights of last Friday’s concert, conducted by Larry Vote, included music from Puccini’ s “Madama Butterfly”, Verdi’s “La Traviata” and the Bridal Chorus from “Lohengrin” by Wagner.  The “Bridal Chorus” often thought of as “Here Comes the Bride”, was sung in German.  I kind of knew it had origins other than that well known piece used as the processional for weddings, but many of us haven’t heard it with the words.  Interesting.  The concert was held on the green at St. Mary’s College of Maryland at 7:00pm as usual and included popular Arias, choruses and overtures from operas.  Larry described the evening as a box of chocolates with a variety of flavors.

Guest star Danielle Talamantes had a spectacular soprano voice, with wonderful voice control, power and lots of expression.  She was dressed in an eye catching full length purple gown which added color to the “Italian patriotic” tent spotlights of green, yellow, and red.  The Chesapeake Orchestra and the River Concert Series Chorus shared the stage throughout the concert. All of the participants took turns as the predominant musical focus.  I thought the chorus sounded wonderful even though they only had 3 practices!  (I would have loved to join them if I hadn’t been the photographer)

Here are a few photos…

 

 

River concert tonight 7pm

St. May's College of MD green

Conductor Larry Vote

Everybody was Singing at the River Concert last Friday Night

We attended the River Concert on Friday July 12th, guest conducted by my friend and former choir director, Larry Vote.  The evening at St. Mary's College of Maryland featured the music of Aaron Copeland, one of my favorite orchestral composers.

The RCS choir was huge, filling the whole back of the stage.  I wanted to be sure to get some pictures of them since they are hard to see behind the Chesapeake Orchestra.

I especially enjoyed "I Got Me a Cat" with humorous words and silly animal sounds (sung by Bob McDonald) and "Ching a Ring Cha".   To read more about the concert and see a couple dozen photos, see my Bay Net story at http://www.thebaynet.com/news/index.cfm/fa/viewstory/story_ID/32900

Here's a few photos to whet your appetite.

 Bob McDonald

 

 The RCS Choir

 

 The Chesapeake Orchestra

 

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