Dueling Divas to perform in Brooklyn!

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My concert series, A Potpourri of Song℠, has a new production in Brooklyn in March:   Dueling Divas, Two Women in Conflict and Cooperation.  St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, at Classon and Willoughby Avenues in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, hosts this concert on Sunday, March 10 at 5:00 p.m.  Mezzo-soprano Esther Hickman, soprano Cynthia Simeone, myself as pianist, composer Douglas Anderson, and librettist Andrew Joffe collaborate to present this program.  The concert features the world premiere of Cassandra Songs, by Dr. Anderson and Mr. Joffe, three duets from operas and shows by Mozart, Delibes and Bernstein, and a comic duet by Rossini — for two cats!

A reception, full of food and drink, will follow so that all can greet the artists and each other.  Tickets are available in advance or at the door for a donation of $15.  For more information and tickets, call the church at (718) 638–2090, call me at (917) 502–5761, or send an email to office.stmarysclintonhill@verizon.net . 

This is a special production for me and my colleagues, especially since it includes the first performance of Cassandra Songs.  Also, the five of us have a rich history of working together — composing, acting, performing, accompanying, singing — in many productions at a long list of venues.  We continue to cooperate and collaborate together throughout the New York Metropolitan area, and it is a great joy for me to have organized this concert with these, my friends and dear colleagues.

St. Mary's was fortunate to have received a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council for two other performances this calendar year — An Inauguration Community Celebration, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January, and June Jazz to occur the first Friday of... well... June!  St. Mary's is positioning itself to serve as a center for performing arts in the future, and A Potpourri of Song℠ is part of the mix.

I sincerely hope that you and your friends may attend this performance.  Many thanks for your consideration and for spreading the word.  Hope to see you there!

I am proud to help present what I believe is a unique event celebrating civil rights.  A Community Inauguration Celebration:  Martin Luther King Jr. Day, will take place at St. Mary’s Church, located in Brooklyn on the corner of Willoughby and Classon Avenues, on January 21 at 4:00 p.m.  Talented singers and readers from Brooklyn and Greater New York will celebrate President Barack Obama’s second inauguration by remembering the history and the current state of the civil rights movement in the United States.  There is a donation of $15, $10 for seniors, the disabled, and students, received by advance ticket sales or at the door.  For directions to St. Mary’s Church, and more information, call the church office at (718) 638–2090, Fr. Jerry Keucher at (347) 713–2218, or send an email request to office.stmarysclintonhill@verizon.net.

I sincerely hope you will be able to join us for this celebration.  This event will be a little over an hour long, and a reception with food and drink will follow so that you can meet and greet the performers and each other.

Have a wonderful, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

I'm happy to present another A Potpourri of Song℠ concert in November in Brooklyn. Different Hats, showcasing the different talents of four musicians, a composer, and a librettist, will be presented at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Clinton Hill, on Sunday, November 11 at 5:00 p.m. Featured will be the premiere of a new composition, Directions, written by A Potpourri of Song℠ Composer in Residence, Douglas Anderson on a new text by the award-winning librettist, Andrew Joffe.

The requested donation is $20. A tithe of the gate receipts will be given to a local charitable organization. For directions to the church and advance tickets, call the church office at (718) 638-2090, visit our website, www.stmarysbrooklyn.org or send an email request to office.stmarysclintonhill@verizon.net.

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Looking forward to seeing you there!

I promised that I would post A Potpourri of Song℠ programs on this blog after the concert had taken place.

To the right is a screen shot of a slightly edited version of the first program, presented on Sunday, September 23, 2012 at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

It was, if I may say so myself, well-received!

We are slowly building an audience;  attendance at this concert was over 30 people.  Many more persons purchased tickets in advance, so we more than covered our expenses and were able to give St. Mary's a decent surplus.

We will also be able to tithe almost $100 to Several Sources Shelters, which serves the New York Metro area by providing shelter and assistance to women — especially single, pregnant women.

Thank you to all who attended or supported this first of many special events and concerts to be presented at St. Mary's!

A Potpourri of Song℠ — First Concert of the Season

I'm looking forward to beginning the Potpourri of Song℠ season!  The first concert will occur at historic St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in the Clinton Hill/Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn on the fourth Sunday of this month (September).

Robin Anne Casalta, Mezzo Soprano, and myself as accompanist, organist, and pianist will present Un Peu de Tout, Deux (“A Bit of Everything, II”) on Sunday September 23 at 5:00 p.m.

This program of music by French composers features songs and organ works by, among others, Poulenc, Berlioz, and Franck.

The donation is $20, and tickets are available in advance if desired.  A tithe of the gate receipts will be given to charity.

After the concert, stay for a reception where you can meet and greet the artists and each other and enjoy the works of two local artists, Stacy Cushman and Costain.

Visit www.stmarysbrooklyn.org, email us at office.stmarysclintonhill@verizon.net, or call the church at (718) 638-2090 for more information.

Un Peu de Tout, II is the first of a series of four concerts at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church to be presented by A Potpourri of Song℠ in the coming year.  See my previous post for the entire lineup of concerts.

I hope you can come and enjoy an evening of wonderful music!

  

A Potpourri of Song℠, 2012-2013 Season

I'm happy to announce the 2012-2013 season of A Potpourri of Song℠  at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Four concerts will be presented — Un Peu de Tout, Deux on September 23, Different Hats on November 11, Dueling Divas in the New Year on March 10, and Broadway on Willoughby! on May 5.

A few more concerts may be presented at other  locations during the year.  Please check this blog for more announcements.

For more information, please feel free to contact me by email at Potpourri of Song. 

Come and enjoy the variety of music offered at these concerts.  We look forward to seeing you there!

 

Tips from Mark Victor — Cleaning eyeglasses

I wear reading glasses.  For some reason, they seem to get dirty rather often.   Oily smudges gather on the surface and are not easily cleaned by wiping with a cloth, paper towel, or tissue.  I also have an eye condition that already clouds my vision a bit;   adding dirty glasses over my eyes just makes it worse.

So, I go to the kitchen sink and wash them.

Here's what to do to remove those pesky, oily smudges:

• Run warm water and wet the glasses and your hands.
• Put a drop of dishwashing detergent on the fingers of one hand.
• Apply your wet hand with the detergent on them to the glasses and rub.  While doing this, pass the glasses and your hands under the water stream a couple of times.  (Dishwashing detergent works best with lots of water.)
•  Rinse the glasses and your hands.
•  Dry your hands first.
•  Then dry your glasses with a paper towel.  (If you use cloth make sure it's absolutely clean;  paper towel works best because it doesn't contain soap residue from the clothes washer.)
•  Put your glasses on.

 Enjoy the crystal clear vision afforded by dishwasher-detergent cleaned glasses!

June Jazz in Clinton Hill

This coming month, I'm producing a different type of concert than what you've usually seen with my usual A Potpourri of Song℠ offerings.

June Jazz  and "A Taste of Barbados" will offer fine jazz by The Danny Mixon Jazz Ensemble with food and drink that will include some savory dishes with a Barbadian flavor.

Come join us on June 8 at 7:00 p.m. at St. Mary's Episcopal Church's historic ballroom-style Johnson Hall.  Two sets of music will be performed by the band at approximately 8pm and 9:30 pm with food served before and between sets.

Many thanks to Jim Morehand of ParlorJazz for suggesting and booking Mr. Mixon for this concert and for helping publicize this event.

Come on out for a wonderful evening of jazz and food!  After our event, hang out at one of the fine restaurants or other night spots in this neighborhood near the venerable Pratt Institute in the increasingly vibrant Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn.



Contact me by email here for more information and to find out how to purchase tickets in advance  (you may also pay at the door).  Also, you can right-click on the flyer to save it and print it out or to send it to your friends.

I don' think any politician has explained "We the People" more concisely.

It seems as if libertarians and Tea Party folks want to go back to a society of very limited human relationship where small tribes constantly bickered with each other ... or where you have to labor all day just to keep a roof over your head and your family fed ... or where you are susceptible to every disease know to the human race ... or where natural dangers and human-created threats lurk around every corner.

If these “movements” succeed in getting their way, then humanity is doomed.

"We the People" is about our relationship with each other. Independence is a fallacy. We became an independent society because a group of enlightened wise men had a vision of a country where our relationship was not one of oppressive top-down rule nor one of each-for-himself anarchy. They codified that vision into a framework — our constitution — within which a positive, constructive relationship with each other is absolutely necessary.

We are a society of people who have become too superficial in our relationship with each other. Unless we wish to destroy the hope of our forebearers' vision of over 200 years ago, we need to reconstitute a more perfect union — a union that cares for one another while respecting individual initiative and contributions to the whole.

Concerning the individual, Ayn Rand has been used to justify libertarianism and rampant "individualism." My take on her philosophy is that the creative power of the individual is to be respected, encouraged, and welcomed — a good thing. For sure, the individual needs to receive just recompense for their contribution to the whole (didn't another wise teacher named Jesus say the same thing?). But this does not preclude constructing social institutions that take a portion of that recompense beyond what is just to benefit the whole of society. Ayn Rand's argument was, in part, one of what "just" means, whether for the individual or in a social “contract”.

Unfortunately, some in society insist on twisting Rand's philosophy as I see it, and in a very superficial way use it to stress individual "freedom" over all else. Unfortunately, their "philosophy" is resulting in greater inequality of opportunity and as a result less freedom for all U.S. citizens — even the very rich. Unfortunately, this demagoguery screams with all it's might, "It's just to keep it all for myself; ain't no one gonna take it away from me!" (Apologies to the late blues singer, Ruth Brown.)

Our relationship with each other as fellow citizens of a society crafted in wisdom is severely damaged. Stop yelling. Listen to each other. Debate with respect. Strive for the perfect.

And don't forget that we are created in One's image; we are a part of that whole, too. That is the “under God" part. Our relationship with The Eternal — however you define it — informs our relationship with each other.

"We the People": not guided — top-down — by a ruler, but strengthened by our striving for the Best Within Us, in relationship — in Love.