Quite the contrast

Broadway Beauties: two words that hold so many connotations and emotions. If you’re even the slightest musical theatre fan, then you absolutely cannot miss the next Kingston Symphony concert on Friday, January 21 or Saturday, January 22.

You’ve got two chances to see this great line up featuring songs from Wicked, A Chorus Line, Funny Girl, Sweet Charity, Cats… I can’t even list them all.

For this concert I’ll be handing the baton over to guest conductor Michael Reason, the co-creator of the Broadway Beauties show. Michael had a vision: he wanted to create a musical review that not only patched together a collection of songs, but held a plot line that would put songs from all these different stories together, driven by the music and lyrics alone with no dialogue.

He painstakingly reviewed material and helped select the songs to make up the show, making sure the final selections and placements helped the audience understand the underlying plot. Broadway Beauties also features new orchestrations and arrangements written for all of the songs. This show has been performed to stellar reviews in Hamilton, Calgary, and Toronto. Now it’s time for Kingston to get a taste of Broadway.

The three soloists for the evening – June Crowley, Louise St. Cyr, and Amy Wallis – are all great singers and actresses. Coming from three different corners of the musical-theatre world in Canada, these women are sure to blow the audience away with their interpretations of these songs. There’s so much in this program, I can’t even begin to describe it!

So come escape to Broadway for a few hours; experience the drama and wonderful music that spans several decades of the greatest stage in the world.

Our February 6 concert, Food for a Classical Soul, is exactly the opposite of Broadway. It will feature cellist Desmond Hoebig, whom I’ve known for quite a while, and who’s so hard to put into words. To put him in perspective, he has studied at the Julliard School of Music, won first prize at several music competitions worldwide, been a guest soloist with orchestras throughout North America as well as in Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Japan and currently is professor at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, TX. I could go on and on and on.

Desmond will join the Kingston Symphony for Elgar’s Cello Concerto in e minor. This concerto is Elgar’s last notable work. He composed it following the First World War, when his music was considered "out of fashion" with the concert-goers. It wasn’t until almost 50 years later that this piece gained popularity, and is still today a well-known best-seller.

As I mentioned this piece is the complete contradiction of Broadway. It represents the angst, despair, and disillusionment Elgar felt after the end of the War, and is his introspective look at death and mortality – a big change from the optimism Elgar expressed in his previous works.

This poignant and moving piece will be played along-side Mozetich’s Calla Lilies and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in c minor. It’s a fabulously rich program that’s food for any soul, but particularly those who have a thirst for classical music.

Be sure to check out the line-up of concerts in the coming months, which includes a classical variety show with CBC’s Tom Allen, a tribute to Hollywood soundtracks, and a couple others you won’t want to miss.

Happy New Year, Auld Lang Syne, and all the rest!