The Mat-Su Concert Band program on Sunday will be an all-Sousa affair with one exception. The program will open with an arrangement of Bach's choral prelude, "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" ("Fervent is my longing"). Conductor Gleo Huyck added the piece as a tribute to Sarah May Glaves, who died in an airplane crash near Birchwood Airport that killed three others on board April 20. Glaves played flute in the band.
The feathers of an immature eagle were found with the wreck. It's the first confirmed civil aircraft accident following an impact with a bald eagle that resulted in fatalities in the U.S., according to National Transportation Safety Board investigator Shaun Williams.
The rest of the program is a fascinating review of the varied works of John Philip Sousa. It includes several popular marches, "The Thunderer," "Semper Fidelis," "The Liberty Bell" and, of course, "The Stars and Stripes Forever."
But it also includes lesser-known footlifters like "The Black Horse Troop," dance music like "The Colonial Dames Waltzes," ballads from his musical comedies like "Willow Blossoms," grander multimovement compositions and even a medley of hymns, supposedly inserted into programs when Sousa's band performed Sundays.
The concert takes place at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 8, in the fabulous Glenn Massay Theater on the campus of Mat-Su College.
First Friday takes a jazzy twist
Aurora Fine Art Gallery will get some melodic ambiance as the Rick Zelinsky Trio performs in the shop at 737 W. Fifth Ave. during the First Friday art walk on May 6. In fact, the trio will be featured for eight dates at the gallery throughout the summer. Rick and crew will perform from 6-9 p.m. May 20, June 3 and 17, July 8 and 22 and Aug. 5. It's perhaps no coincidence that Aurora's co-owner Diane Louise sang the leading lady roles in musicals during her pre-gallery years.
Watercolor Society meets
The Alaska Watercolor Society scholarship will be presented during their monthly meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 11, at Denny's Restaurant on Denali Street in Midtown. The keynote speaker will be AKWS member Earl Rider, who'll be sharing some of his paintings, and attendees are invited to bring some of their own artwork or travel journals to share at the Artists' Choice table. The society invites all art lovers to attend the free monthly event, which typically starts with a social hour.
Figure painting classes continue
David Pettibone is conducting painting classes with a live model this month. All skill levels are welcome and Pettibone says he limits the class size to give individual attention to the participants. Sessions take place at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art, 427 D St. They last three hours, starting at 7 p.m., and cost $30. Sessions are currently scheduled for Tuesdays, May 10, 17 and 24, and may continue if there's enough interest. Contact Pettibone at davidpettibone@gmail.com or 480-735-9727 for details.
Annapurna opens in Juneau
The play that opened Perseverance's season in Anchorage last September will wrap things up for the company at its theater in Douglas this month. The two-person "Annapurna" topped the list of theater pieces I saw during the year, which included some extraordinarily powerful and beautifully presented work at Cyrano's ("Good Men Wanted") and UAA ("Stalking the Bogeyman").
The Juneau cast is the same as in Anchorage, Kevin T. Bennett and Rebecca George as a dying poet and his long-estranged wife. Bennett in this role is almost worth the flight to Juneau. Performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays through May 29, with a bonus show at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 25.
Haines refurbishes historic site
Also in Southeast, we were interested to note that volunteers have been taking a masonry repointing workshop held by the National Park Service. "Pointing" refers to the exterior mortar joints between brick or stone. The workshop is intended to "jumpstart" repairs to the barracks buildings at Fort William H. Seward, aka Port Chilkoot, established in 1902 and, according to the late Haines newspaperman Ray Menaker, built on a foundation of marble blocks quarried nearby.
The Alaska Arts Confluence hosts a mini-tour of the barracks ruins as part of the Haines First Friday Art Walk on May 6. Long-term plans are to have a sculpture garden and a place for art installations along with interpretive signs.
Several galleries and restaurants have opened in the vicinity of the old barracks, all open for the First Friday celebration as is the much-acclaimed Port Chilkoot Distillery. The Art Walk itself extends into the main town of Haines and beyond.
A wedding and a play
Congratulations to Julie Anderson, now starring in Anchorage Community Theatre's production of "Deathtrap." Next week she'll be juggling her wedding rehearsal and reception -- and the wedding itself -- with the last weekend of the play. The wedding will take place at Cyrano's at 1 p.m. May 14. "Deathtrap" runs 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday through May 15. Tickets are available at actalaska.org. As soon as the final curtain falls, Anderson will be off on her honeymoon.
Alaska-born composer has LA premiere
Daniel Corral, formerly of Eagle River, will have the premiere of his new work "Space-time" at the Automata Arts center in Los Angeles on Saturday, May 7. Corral's 17-minute piece is written for four sopranos and electronics. He says it uses "a tuning system inspired by La Monte Young's 'Well-Tuned Piano,'" an ever-evolving improvisation that uses so-called "just intonation" as opposed to the familiar equal temperament tuning where notes are tweaked, ostensibly to smooth out chord changes.
"Space-time" was commissioned by Accordant Commons, a chamber group that will present the piece as part of the Microfest series, a festival of microtonal music (a microtone is an interval smaller than a semitone). The program will include premieres by three other composers.
Opera in the summer
The lineup of "encore" presentations in the Met Live in HD series was announced during the big screen broadcast of "Elektra" on Saturday, and I was just a little disappointed. I try to get to as many of the main season shows as I can, but things happen in the winter; there are other concerts to attend, one gets sick or takes a break to some remote beach where they don't enjoy the modern luxury of Met Operas in local theaters.
I'd looked forward to catching up on some of the shows I'd missed, even those that people tell me were well worth missing. ("Lulu," anyone?) Or reruns of personal favorite presentations from past seasons, "Simon Boccanegra" or anything by Wagner. Frankly I would cheerfully have bought tickets for this "Elektra" with riveting Nina Stemme in the title role if that were to be shown all four times over the summer. This week's screening produced two tense hours when it took a force of will to move the popcorn from the tub to my mouth.
But the purpose of show business is to get a paying audience into the seats, and if the Met took my advice I might be the only customer. Instead they're going with repeats of expected audience-pleasers. "Tosca" with Roberto Alagna as Cavaradossi will be shown June 22, and "La Boheme" with Kristine Opolais (who really can look like a 16-year-old) as Mimi on July 13.
June 29 gets marked down as the can't-miss date on my calendar. The offering that day will be "L'elisir d'amore," originally broadcast in 2012. This production features Anna Netrebko as the saucy rich girl Adina and fabulous Ambrogio Maestri in the role of the flim-flamming Doctor Dulcamara. This one is guaranteed to be as brilliant and entertaining as it was the first time.
Director James Levine will take the helm for the July 20 showing of "Cosi fan tutte," a comedy in theory, but a very disturbing one. Beloved by connoisseurs, but not nearly the draw as "Boheme," it will surely benefit from being shown with the English surtitles. Some say "Cosi" is one of the few opera librettos that work as literature without the music.